Starbucks

Me and mornings just do not mix. My husband has learned that if he can give me at least thirty minutes before talking to me then I will at least be somewhat civil. I remember when I was a kid and every morning in the summertime my dad would take me over to Sholam pool for early morning practice. I would sit in complete silence mad at the world the whole way across town. I am sure most of the time I would grunt when getting out of the car and shut the door just a little bit harder then needed.

Anyway yesterday morning was no exception. I did not want to get up! In fact I did not get up until 7:47 and quickly brushed my teeth and three some clothes on while moving at a snails pace out the door. On my 3 minute trek to work I decided that Starbucks was a absolute must otherwise everyone in the office would pay. I ordered my usual tall hot chocolate and lemon loaf. 

After pulling out of Starbucks I started to ponder how many calories I was consuming with my  early morning treat. 

**Disclaimer: If you like Starbucks Hot Chocolate & Lemon Loaf the below information is true but terrifying and you may want to stop reading here.**

Tall Hot Chocolate w/ whip cream : 310 Calories

(1) Lemon Loaf: 490 Calories

I mean seriously 800 calories for 30 minutes of pleasure. I had absolutely no idea that I was consuming more than 1/3 of my calories for the day and it did not even make me feel full till lunchtime. I thought I would give you a snapshot of some other drive through breakfast items some good and some not so good. 

Restaurant	Item	Calories
McDonald’s	Fruit & Nut Oatmeal	290
Starbuck’s	Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal	140
McDonald’s	Yogurt Partfet	170
Subway’s	Flat Bread Egg White & Cheese	170
Dunkin Donuts	Multigrain Bagel	390
Dunkin Donuts	Bacon Egg & Cheese Bagel	530
Panera	Apple Crunch Muffin	450
Panera	French Toast Bagel w/ Sausage, Egg & Cheese	670

Weekend Visit w/ The Sutton's

On Friday we headed up north to Waukesha WI to see my sister and brother-in-law. They moved up there on May 30th so that Erica could attend the 1st ever P.A. program at Carroll College. They have been super blessed in the last few months because they were able to purchase a incredible condo that was a foreclosure that really was in n op way in the shape of a foreclosure. My brother-in-law Zak is teaching at a summer program called La Casa. He also just accepted a position teaching high school Spanish at Homestead High School.

It takes approximately 4 hours to get up to Waukesha so we loaded up the truck and strapped down the scooter. At one point right after we entered Chicago we had to pull over. The seat to the scooter had come loose and had flung straight up into the wind. No worries though we made it the  rest of the way with no problems. We pulled into town around 8:15pm and  headed straight on over to this little Mexican restaurant across the street from their condo.  After destroying approximately 8 baskets of chips we headed on over to the downtown water walkway. There has been so much rain in the last few days that the river way was up about two feet.

Saturday we went to the farmers market downtown, enjoyed some water-ski shows and went to the Hispanic Festival put on by La Casa. We had a wonderful visit and really enjoyed the beautiful downtown of Waukesha. I know that if you are in the area Erica & Zak would love to see you. J

Top Five

Here are my Top Five Favorite Things

Old Navy Socks

A sock is not a sock unless it is a Old Navy Sock!

Dove Soft & Smooth

This is the only way I can brush my hair after a shower

I PHONE: Do you have one of these? If not seriously you need one. 

      

        Caldrea Counter top Cleaner: 

No words to describe this natural product:) 

              Glad Press & Seal 

 I mean seriously why would use use saran wrap?

WEBMD

I have two really big faults:

1.        I am truly a hypochondriac. I am not sure how I became this way but I know it probably started out when I was little. I was the kid that hated shots so much that my mom had to hold me down when I was little so that the nurse could quickly give me whatever vaccine I was scheduled for. I absolutely hate being sick!! I mean to me there is no worse torture then to have the stomach flu and throw up. I do everything in my power to avoid sticking my head in a toilet bowl. I get really bad headaches and I would like to think I have learned how to function despite how awful I fell but I know I am a huge baby. I honestly think my problem is that I watch way to many medical shows and I think that something is wrong with me all the time.
2.  I am a WEB MD addict. Have you ever used WEB MD? Basically you can select all of your symptoms and it will spit out 150 different illnesses, conditions or disease that you may but probably more than likely do not have. Anyhow this website is really bad for me, really the internet is just bad because whatever condition I have I will research it to a fault. Now some of you may always assume the best case scenario but not me. 

 I thought I would give you a couple different examples of times in my life where I thought something was extremely wrong. To do this accurately I created the below chart to illustrate the points above.

Symptom	WEB MD/Stephanie’s Diagnosis	Actual Diagnosis	Treatment
Sharp Chest Pains	Heart Attack/Lung Failure	Pleurisy	NOTHING L
Nausea, Blurry Vision, Extreme Head Pounding	Aneurism, Brain Tumor	Migraine	MRI(negative result) Demerol  Shot in the Rear
Sore RT ARM, Swollen Pressure Large Bump	Debilitating Tumor or Clogged Sweat Glands	Fatty Cyst	TIME
Cramps, Sharp Side Pain	Burst Appendix	Indigestion	TUMS
Sharp Pain, Dizziness, Immobile Neck	Paralyzed, Nerve Damage, Slipped Disk	Pinched Nerve	Toradol Shot, Ibuprofen & REST

Porch Remodel - Time Warp

 Some of you may not remember what our house used to look like so I thought I would post a few pictures of what we were working with when we bought the house. This pictures is the backyard view. And let me tell you it did not look any better when the plants were alive in the summer time. 

Step on into the porch with me. This enclosed porch had all of this very dark old paneling and was the hangout spot  for Tiger 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. Sometimes I wonder if the dogs knew that right outside these windows they would one day lie. Seriously if I was one of their dog's I would be terrified. You think they would help a dog out and leave some kind of warning for their predecessors to flee while they could.

The best part about this porch and one of the few things that was kept are the windows. They are older Anderson crank windows that for the most part are in pretty good shape. Granted I have had to do a lot of scrubbing to get the layers and layers of lacquer Mr. Amundsen would coat them with. I have also had to replace the window crank that were busted. 

This brick wall after taking two gallons of primer still required 6 gallons of paint and to be honest could still use some more. However I am going for the rustic look so we shall see what happens. :)

We are almost finished with our porch. So here is to hoping we can make our July 1st deadline.

Poof Be Gone

I lucked out yesterday big time. My parents had a Certified Arborist come and trim a few of their trees in the front yard. When I got home from work yesterday I went over and we asked then how much it would cost to remove the dead tree in my back yard. They quoted my $195.00 which was $150 cheaper then the last estimate so it was a steal of a deal . I took one last picture of the lonely tree before they swooped in and chopped her down.  

Honestly Luke and I have been amazed that the tree has lasted this long. With all of the storms we have had every morning I would peek out the window to see if it was still standing and pray that it had not landed on our porch ceiling.  I took a picture of the guy examining the tree before the chainsaw came out. Me and my mom were inside peering out the window and that is why the picture is not very good. 

 After the tree went down in one swoop they hauled it over to this contraption and it demolished the tree in about 10 minutes.  

 I took a picture of  the stump that is left. It makes my whole yard look so much bigger. Now if only I did not have those dog graves in my flower bed. :) If you are looking for someone to come chop a tree down or trim your tree's please call :

      Tree Service Petmecky  

707 Embassy Row, 

Rantoul, IL 61866-3611 

(217) 892-3463

‎

 They did a fabulous job with my dead ol tree and they are actually coming back to tackle this beast!

Porch Remodel Part 1

Below is a picture storyboard of our never ending porch remodel. 

We ended up ripping up the peel and stick tile we had laied last year  because over the winter it started to come up due to the moisture in the room. 

After ripping out all the paneling we found the installation and 2x4's to be destroyed those have now been removed and replaced.

Luke cutting the new bead board paneling for the walls

This picture was taken before we found the Tiger graves. We had the siding replaced and new sheathing installed to prevent water from coming into the porch.

After much discussion we opted to tile the floor and I am so glad we did.

In progress.........

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Helping us with our 2nd kitchen remodel.

Right before he walked me down the aisle.

Mom & Dad

Hutch Redo

I found this hutch at the Habitat for Humanity Restore a couple of months ago and the moment I saw it I had to have it. After cleaning out 3 earrings, 2 pennies, an old lipstick tube and one sock I removed the all of the doors and the beat up back.

I decided not to sand this down first and used a very thick oil based primer first. The only issue I had was that when  this primer gets on your hands it will not come off. 

Because I do not pay very much attention to detail I have not painted the  inside cabinet of the hutch maybe one day I will but knowing myself I would have to be super bored.

I bought a new piece of particle board for the back and cut it to size. I then covered it in shelve paper and reattached the back. I looked into other options such as wall paper however due to the fact that wall paper is not super popular it is pretty hard to find around town. There was many options online but me being the impatient type I really did not want to wait. I also thought about fabric but when I found this shelve paper it worked so well. The fun thing is the back is a very easy thong to change and takes about 5 minutes so who knows maybe in the fall it will be different:)

The finished project.


This was such a fun project and for $150.00 I was able to buy the hutch, primer, paint new particle board  and shelve paper to redo this hutch and have enough paint left over to use on something else:.

Broken Visor Anyone?

In the fall my right passenger seat visor broke in my car. I was pulling it down one day while Luke and I were on our way to church to put on some mascara. As I was pulling the visor down I heard this cracking noise it sounded like mini firecrackers. I must have stripped the visor because it would not hold it self up or down. Feeling super frustrated over the next few days I bought every kind of Velcro contraption possible to keep the visor up.

Fast forward plus or minus 7 months and I am driving down  the street today to meet my cousin for dinner and I pull down the driver seat visor and snap crackle pop this visor breaks. Feeling pretty defeated I let the visor hang in my face and  slouched in the seat the rest of the way to the restaurant. Forgetting about my visor during dinner I hopped back in the car. After about ten seconds I realized that I really did not need the visor down since it was dark so I was either going to have to hold it up or let in hang in my face. I opted for the hanging in my face and proceeded on my way home. I pull up to a stop light and a kid that I used to go to high school with pulls up next to me. Feeling super subconscious I push up my visor and wave. I know he had to laugh because the visor would just fall right back down and in the course of the light I probably tried to put it up 15 times. I am sure he thought I had turned OCD and was just doing some ritual like the ones that MTV shows some people do.

I am now in the pursuit of not one new visor but two for my 2006 Hyundai Sonata. If you know where I need to get this and better yet how to replace my visor let me know. For now I may just type up a disclaimer and tape it on my car that reads "I am not OCD I promise I am just wrestling with my Visor".

Rule of Three

Back in October I started the hunt for the perfect table for my dining room. I literally spent months searching the Internet trying to find the exact table that I wanted. I have always been the one that would make super quick decisions when it comes to house purchases. If I see something I like I would take the plunge and just dive right in. Since I have been married to my husband I have tried to respect the “Rule of Three” (1).  

In December for Christmas I had gotten a couple gift cards to my absolute favorite place (2). I also conveniently had found a table from Pottery Barn that I just had to have and I had followed the rule so I was good to go. So the first chance I get once all the activities from Christmas was over I hopped online to order my table and to my dismay the table I had set my heart on was SOLD OUT, OUT OF STOCK, DISCONTINUED, NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!!! I was bummed and from that moment on I decided that the biggest problem with the “Rule of Three” is that if you wait too long the cows may just go on home for dinner.

Good news is that 5 months later on May 9^th (3) Luke and I were strolling through Prairie Gardens and stumbled upon the perfect scratch and dent table that we ended up paying a whopping $69.01. Now on to the chair hunt!

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(1.) The “Rule of Three” is pretty simple. Step #1: Find three different choice’s of the item you wish to purchase within your budget and compare them. Sounds not so bad right? HAHA Step #2: Sit on this decision for three months. Step #3: Come up with three reasons why you need this item vs. wanting it. (2.) Pottery Barn. For those of you who have never visited a store, spent hours scouring over their magazine or goggled their website take a quick break from whatever you are doing and click here www.potterybarn.com .  (3) May 9^th 2009 just happens to be our anniversary. J

$69.01 Table from Prairie Gardens

Orange String

This picture was taken mid renovation. I was mixing up a batch of grout for the kitchen tile. Funny thing is if you were to walk into my house right now there would be an item in this picture that is still there but slightly hidden. Any guesses????

It is the bright neon string hanging from the fan.

You may not notice the bright orange string today but it is currently tucked up into the fan's  new light fixture out of sight. The fans were the one thing we left in the house they were actually in pretty good shape they just needed new light kits. After replacing the light kits we realized the the fan pull was missing and that is why the orange string was attached . For the quick fix I attached the orange string once more and to this day it still remains. Just another little memory of the sweet old couple who use to live at 406.

TIGER

Most of you know that the house we bought last year was in quite disarray. After spending almost six months practically gutting the house and making it livable we moved into our second house three weeks after our 1st anniversary. 

After spending a year doing misc. things to the inside of our house I have slowly started to dream about the outside of our house. Along with gutting everything on the inside we removed two dump trucks of concrete, dead bushes, old plastic Santa,  a chain link fence, and a very tall windmill in the backyard. Last night I had decided that I was going to plant three little flowering bushes in our flower garden(1) behind the porch(2). I laid out my bushes and once I had decided on where to put them I set our to get my garden gloves and spade. No more than two shovels of dirt approx 8 inches below the ground my shovel hit something hard a metal. I thought that was a little odd so I moved over a couple of feet and started digging again. Two shovels in and 8" deep I hit something else that was metal. Trying not to panic I gave it one more try and moved over two more feet. At this point I had the ritual down two scoops and boom metal. I slowly backed away too scared to dig any further because I was 99.9% positive that I had just found Tiger.(3) Once Luke got home I explained the situation and told him I really felt like we needed to identify what was buried beneath this flower bed. Long story short my papa and nanny had decided to stop by so I roped papa into doing a little investigating. After a little work we discovered the grave of Tiger. It consisted of a 3ft x 2ft x 2ft  wooden crate with two metal plates that were ducted taped shut that housed a box with  carefully wrapped bones in some sort of burlap sack. So we removed that metal top, took a picture of papa the grave digger and filled the three holes back in. 

I would love to be able to remove all three graves but my fear is that once we start digging we may find more. My plan from here is to go ahead and plant right over Tiger 1, 2 and 3 and vow that I will not bury anymore dogs in the flower bed out back for the owners to come. :)


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1. This flower garden was the only spot in the yard that we left. In the spring time Lilly and crocus will be in full bloom. Last spring before we had moved in I was working out in the flower bed trying to remove the 68 concrete paves he had strewn throughout the bed and I had come  across a stake with a little black & white stripped medallion with the letter T on it.  2. Our enclosed porch was terrible it was a concrete slab that had one small overhead light and approx 10 different switches and outlets rigged to the side of each wall that was used to control all of the different lawn ornaments and Christmas lights that used to be displayed by sweet old Mr. Admundson. 3. Tiger was the Admundson's  dalmatian's. Yes I said Dalmatian's. Due to the fact that this breed of dog does not live very long, our quirky old neighbors had a total of four Dalmatian dogs that we know of  all named Tiger.