Brass is Back

About a month ago we did a face lift on our kitchen. When I say we, I mean that we started to try to do it ourselves and then realized that we had no idea what we were doing and called our go to handyman to finish the job. It was a much larger project than we anticipated. I have no idea how I thought I would be able to access my oven and refrigerator for the week they worked. Our kitchen was taped off and we couldn't even get in there without going outside and walking through the sun room to check out the progress. So basically, we lived on take out while the work was being done. There could be worse things than eating Chick-Fil-A three times in one week. 

Our kitchen is what is called a galley kitchen, so it is long and closed in on both sides. At the end is a large built in which holds a lot of my serving dishes and our pantry and trash can. Our goal with our kitchen was to not spend a ton but change the look of the country kitchen. We also had a door that lead from the breakfast area to our master room and after too many times of Charlotte running through the door when people were in town we decided it was time to close it up. We had the wallpaper removed and changed out the light fixtures. Molding was added on the top of the cabinets and new crown molding was put up. 

Before I get to the before and after pictures I have a public service announcement: brass is coming back in style. I know what you are thinking...that is so 80's. That is why in our prior home I switched out the brass light fixtures as fast as I could. In this kitchen when I picked the charcoal gray color for the cabinets, the brass hardware just popped against the dark gray. And gasp...we even changed the light fixture and faucet to brass. We went all out. I had the light above the sink switched to stainless steel to tie in our stainless oven and eventually I would like to change out the dishwasher and refrigerator to a stainless finish. Right now we can't justify changing them out because they work great.

Enjoy a tour of our newish kitchen :)

Pantry/Hutch area BEFORE

AFTER

Breakfast Area BEFORE--I'm not sure why I didn't turn on lights for the before pictures

Breakfast Area AFTER

BEFORE

Random door (and cute baby) to our master bedroom

Door replaced by chalkboard

So to the Lowe's lady who on the phone told me that I would not be able to find a brass faucet because no one buys brass anymore...look at magazines and design blogs! Brass is back!

A 16 month Charlotte Update

 

It's been a while since I've done an update on our little lady. After her big birthday bash I have slacked in the blog posts. We have been keeping busy here! At the beginning of the year we decided to try to slow down and try not to fill our weekends with running around and spend more time at home. Charlotte is growing and changing so much that I want to soak up every second with her. She became a full on walker around 13 1/2 months and is now running and dancing all day long. Her dancing consists of swaying back and forth and occasionally she will put her hands on her knees and shake her booty. I'm not sure where she learned that move!   

Right after her birthday we took away the bottles and went cold turkey. I was kind of nervous about it but she did fine! She eats everything but is still a lover of all fruit and yogurt. She is doing really well at eating with a fork and spoon and I have found that if I give her a fork I can get her to eat anything. I lost count at how many teeth Charlotte has because last time I tried to look she almost took my finger off. From the looks of it she has almost all of them. I'm thinking that the back molars are coming in right now....I'm ready for that to be over with!

 We are spending as much time outside as we can right now before the inferno enters. Charlotte will hang on our front door until we take her outside. Saturday we were outside working on the yard all day and Charlotte managed to eat a handful of dirt, rocks and I caught her chewing on a stick. I promise I hardly took my eyes off of her!

We are very excited that month 16 brought on longer hair so the piggies could make their debut! Is she not the cutest?!

 If you remember, girlfriend was bald for what felt like forever.

The past few months we have had lots of play dates. It is so fun to watch Charlotte play and interact with her friends.

And even some shared baths...she can kill me for taking pictures of this later on in life :)

Easter was so fun. Charlotte didn't quite get the hunting eggs part but she had fun pick up one and opening it over and over. Her school did an Easter egg hunt that Dan and I got to watch. Easter Sunday we had our family over for dinner.

Time is flying and Charlotte is not a baby anymore. This is such a fun age and I love seeing how independent she is becoming. She chatters and sings all day long. We might not know what she is saying, but she is Miss Chatterbox. She loves to read and when we are sitting on the floor she will hand me a book and walk forward and then back all the way up until she lands in my lap. I love the snuggles even though they last about 30 seconds. She puts the biggest smiles on our faces every day and we love listening to her little voice. Parenthood is hard but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'll try to get better with the updates so the next post isn't so l-o-n-g.

Am I a runner now?

#instacharlotte

First Ponytail!

If you follow me on Instagram you are probably really tired of seeing my running pictures...hopefully not the ones of my sweet Charlotte. Anyway, this past weekend the day finally came and went all too quickly. Remember how I put it out there that I was going to run a half marathon in December? Then remember how I got the stupid flu the week before and had to bail out? Yeah, that sucked pretty bad but I got over it and told myself that I would just have to sign up for another one and continue training. 

Last Sunday I ran Rock & Roll Dallas and it was SO much fun. I ran faster than I have in the past and finally running this race made all the training worth it. I found an awesome trainer in Flower Mound and she and her group helped me meet my goal.  I highly recommend Jennifer if you have plans to run a race anytime soon. She created a training plan for me that fit my schedule and was very attainable. My training schedule was running 4 days a week. Monday's on my own 3 miles, Tuesday/Thursday with my group 5 miles each run and Saturday's we would meet again and add a mile every week. When I saw that I would be getting up to 12 miles on the long run, I had no idea how I would do that. In September when I started running I couldn't even run 2 minutes. How in the world could I run 12 miles and then 13.1 on race day? The mileage seemed daunting, but I did it and fell in love with it. I saw a shirt the other day that said "Running is cheaper than therapy" and it is so true. It is something you can do for free and clear your head or run with someone and talk the entire time. It's pretty awesome.

My biggest supporter!

This is Heidi. Her and I have trained together for the past 6 months. One of the nicest most genuine women I know.

Here is what I look like at 13.1 miles in the cold wind. I'm so happy!

I am hooked on running now and I can't wait to run another race. I would love to do more half marathon's and work on my pace. Overall, I'm so happy I set a goal and achieved it! Who wants to run the next one with me?

The biggest surprise of my life

I thought that in honor of Valentine's Day this week I would actually take the time to write down our engagement story. When Dan proposed in 2007 it was before we all did a ton with Facebook and blogs and I want to get this story written down before too much time passes and I forget all the details. Even though so much has happened since then I still remember the excitement waiting for my man to propose.  

Dan and I started dated when I was 19 and a sophomore in college. He was a 5th year senior at a different school and we were set up on a blind date. I remember my friend's boyfriend telling me that Dan was a basketball player and I said, "Basketball?? How tall is he??" For those of you that know me, you know I'm not that into sports. Honestly, I could care less but I do enjoy a good Aggie win every once and a while. Whoop! Anyway, when I first met Dan I immediately noticed how freaking tall he was. I'm 5' 3-1/2". (You can't forget that half inch) Dan is 6'8" which makes him a whopping foot and a half taller than me. Besides his height, he also had a witty personality and was quite the gentleman. Our first date was Taco Cabana and Scary Movie 3. Such a romantic that Dan Tumis :) He swept me off my feet with queso and tortillas.

Our first picture- November 2003

Let's fast forward 3 years with both of us graduated from college with full time jobs. I was sure that Dan would propose any day. We knew that we wanted to be married, we both had jobs, he just had to propose. I was soooo old by then at a whopping age of 23 waiting for the man of my dreams to ask me to marry him. Dan's birthday passed, Christmas passed, my birthday passed, Valentine's Day came and went and no proposal.

One Monday morning my phone rang at 5 am and it was Dan.  He said "I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, the bad news is that you are going to have to work for it. I'm leaving today and you are going to meet me in another country on Wednesday." 

It would be an understatement to say that I was shocked. I knew that Dan would propose eventually, but I had no idea he was planning something like this. The only person that knew was my boss because Dan had asked him if I could take a few days off 6 months prior. 

Dan heads to leave on a plane somewhere and I head to his apartment to see what he has planned. At his apartment he had left me a Power Point presentation where he had gone to all the places that were important to us and taken pictures. The first place we met and the A&M football field were two of the places on the show. He also left a stack of wedding magazines, and a ring box. I opened the box and it said "see you in Venice." I really wish I had pictures of all of that.

I don't remember this, but Dan says that years prior he asked me if I could go anywhere in the world where would it be and my answer was Venice.  So when I was sweating it out waiting for a proposal Dan was planning the trip overseas in secret. Truly, the biggest surprise of my life. 

Engaged! February 2007

I met Dan in Venice, Italy and he proposed that first night. That was our first trip to Italy and since then we have been back three more times. Italy has such wonderful memories for us and now you know why.

February 2007-Venice

April 2009- Rome, Sienna and Florence

April 2011- Rome and Sorrento

August 2012- Rome and Sorrento with ADP

My husband has always been so thoughtful and such a romantic. I feel as though we have grown up together. I look at 23 year olds now and they seem so young and I can't believe that we got married so young, but we have been able to do so together much the past 10 years. I would do it all again in a heart beat and hopefully he would say the same!

We don't celebrate Valentine's Day typically because it's kind of a cheesy holiday (in my opinion) but let's face it, this blog post is oozing with cheese right now.

Happy heart day to my Love, and the most wonderful Daddy I know. I want Charlotte to find a partner just like him one day.

A perfect day.

Last Friday I turned 29...(insert big gulp). As I enter the last year of my 20's I have thought about all that has happened the past 9 years. SO MUCH.    I'm not sure how you can cram any more life changes into a decade as I assume most do in their 20's. I graduated college, married my love (we met when I was 19), we have purchased two homes, traveled all over, changed jobs twice, and oh yeah...had a child. Everything that has happened over the past 10 years has flown by in the blink of an eye. I wonder how my 30's can even top my 20's. Hopefully my 30's will bring more children, more travel, and more time with my sweetie. I hope to further my career and still strive to have a healthy work/life balance. Who knows what life will bring, but right now I have no complaints. Anyway, I'm not 30 quite yet, so I'll make the most of year 29.   My actual birthday was made so special by Dan and Charlotte. Dan loves making a big deal out of my birthday and each year he still manages to surprise me. The day started with Dan and I taking off work to spend the day together, just him and I. It's rare that we are both home during the day just the two of us. We had breakfast as a family and then took Charlotte to school for part of the day. He told me that we could do anything I want, so what did we do? Cleaned out the garage. Super crazy, I know. It didn't take long and we have a clean and organized garage now. I should have taken before and after pictures, but I didn't so I will leave that to your imagination. Next we went to lunch and did a little shopping before picking up Charlotte. It was such a fun day and I felt like the Queen Bee.

Dan (and Charlotte of course) surprised me with a gorgeous necklace and bracelet and a beautiful jewelry box. This box is so special because when we were in Italy last August I had spotted the jewelry box and fell in love with it but didn't purchase it. Dan knew how much I loved it and tracked down the shop in Italy and ordered it for me. I was shocked and so touched at all the effort he went through. I loved the gifts of course but I really loved a day with my family.  

 

The weekend was relaxing and involved a lot of sleeping for both Dan and Charlotte. I guess they were both catching up. The weekend also included us staying in our pajamas for a lot of the day and me not wearing makeup. Talk about a peaceful weekend!

 I tried to get a birthday picture with Charlotte but she won't sit still these days so this was the best one we got. She was happy, I promise.