Thursday, February 25, 2010

mad painting skills

last october, after matt and i got our store, we decided the place needed a giant make-over. the place looked old and worn down instead of fun and lively like a pottery store should look.



so one of the very first weekends we had the store we decided to paint the entire place.



with the help of my amazing dad we painted the entire store with its million feet high ceilings in only TWO DAYS! that's right! oh and everything had to have two coats too!


it was quite an accomplishment!
we ran into problems with moldy shelves that had to be scraped clean at 1am
and then thrown out.


and my family had to come back to help us with finishing touches

(sari thought her handprints in the street counted as a finishing touch.)

we also added some extra things during the year to make it even cooler.

our frame on the wall to hold all of our best pieces.


the handprint bathroom which was the most fun to make!

and we also made a splat on the party room wall with whiteboard paint so when we had birthday parties we could write
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SO-AND-SO!!
but i can't find a picture of it. bummer.

after everything was all said and done the store looked pretty amazing!
if i do say so myself.



when we decided to close the store the number one thing i did not want to do was repaint the walls.
i told matt that i wasn't going to ask the landlord about it because i didn't want him to tell us we had to.
but...2 weeks before we closed the landlord decided to be a big meanie face (just kidding he was an awesome landlord) and told us we had to repaint the entire store with a primer.
sad face.
but this time, we called for back up.
we had our employee and good friend nate helping us out and his parents even drove two hours from where they live to help us too!
and then of course my dad came because he's awesome so between the six of us we had an army painting that store and we had that place almost entirely done in one day!
we got mad skills!

bye bye green wall and cool frame. we will miss you.


nate's dad was a freaking animal with a roller! there's no way we could've done this without him!


poor matt was stuck high up on the ladder most of the day.

and i spent a good chunk of my time up high too!

by the time we took a lunch break most of the walls had their first coat if not the start of their second.
yup, we had to do two coats on everything just like the first time.

i put on a brave face as i made the first move to cover up our lovely handprints.

nate had no problem finishing it off for me!

and graffiti-ing it!

the store looked scary in all white!
but its done now, thats what counts!
matt, nate and i went in for a couple hours the next day to finish off doors, edges and other little things but basically we painted a 1700 square foot building (two coats) in about eight hours!

like i said...we got mad skills!




Tuesday, February 16, 2010

sanuks make my feet happy!

so since we are closing the store and have zero pottery i am forced to sit in this big empty store and wait for people to come in and buy furniture from my pottery store.
weird.

anyway, i found myself getting sick of cleaning and taking things off the wall and i started thinking about my favorite little shoes that are making my feet itchy.
i cannot bring myself to throw away these shoes so i wash them and continue wearing them even though i find myself wiggling my toes to stop the itch sometimes.
i know, its weird but i love love love these shoes! 
they are sanuks which are the most comfortable things you could ever have on your feet!
if i really am forced to get rid of them i MUST replace them with one of their cousins and i think i found the ones!


are they perfect or what?! 
i WANT them! i NEED them! i WILL have them!
as soon as i save up the millions of dollars that they cost.
why do perfect shoes have to cost so dang much??
its so not fair!

i also found these on the sanuk website and they made me laugh for about 5 minutes straight.


i have no idea why you would want to pay $30 for these things when you could just as easily fashion them out of $5 old navy flip flops and tube socks but here they are and apparently people buy them.
one review even says that she has every color of them!
i need to get into the "making stupid things that people will buy anyway" business!
like snuggies and blank inside greeting cards!

Valentines Day is Awesome!

one thing i need to remember for future years is that going on facebook on valentines day is a big no no! people are such downers! and i'm not just talking about the people who are single, this is even people who are married, engaged, have boyfriends and girlfriends, EVERYONE! its crazy!

i even saw some girls who said that their significant others bought them flowers and they were mad because they shouldn't need a day for their boyfriends to buy them flowers. what the heck is that??

and i really really loathe entirely (said in the grinch voice) when people use the term "single awareness day". can you say lame? i heard/saw that so much this past weekend it made me want to puke! too many people use valentines day as a way to make everyone feel sorry for them. honestly, if you're single on valentines you should get a big group of all of your equally single friends together and have a party! make the day fun, not sad!



now that that's off my chest i just gotta say...

MATT AND I HAD A GREAT VALENTINES DAY!

i woke matt up to ask him what he wanted for breakfast and he told me an egg and bacon breakfast burrito so i let him sleep a little longer and i made him just what he wanted! i even added some hash browns with onions and peppers to make it extra tasty! he loved it!

then we had a lazy and relaxing day together! we never get to do that so it was AWESOME! we watched some old lost episodes and a movie and then when it came around dinner time we made a big amazing dinner!

matt's grandpa gave us his old grill so we bought some steaks wrapped with bacon for our special valentines dinner! matt pretended to be a little bbq expert while i whipped up the mashed potatoes, veggies and salads. we also got some delicious bread from sprouts to compliment our meal! we even set up the table all pretty with candles to be funny and took a picture to prove we don't always eat on the couch!



and one to prove that we love each other on valentines day!

precious.

and even though this is not what valentines is about...
MATT GOT ME THE BEST PRESENT EVER!

we have a hard time surprising each other with presents because we get too excited about them so we both already knew what we were getting but it was so much better to see it for reals!

i got matt a special computer mouse that he wanted because he's a major nerd!


and a t-shirt that is amazing and it took all of my energy not to get one for myself.

he loved it! i got him another funny gift but it didn't get here in time and i'm still waiting for it! amazon totally screwed up on that one.

but my gifts were no where near as cool as matt's present for me.

he got me an ipod!!


this picture definitely doesn't do it justice. its so pretty and shiny and awesome!
matt stole my ipod months ago since he went and got his stolen out of his car but he totally made up for it with this!
its even engraved on the back which matt left as a surprise for me! it says
"WE'RE TOTALLY B.F.F. 11:11(i win)"
i'm sure nobody has any clue what that means but i do and its the sweetest thing in the whole world!
he got a big sloppy kiss for this! and now i am sitting here typing while listening to my pretty new ipod playing bryan adams!

VALENTINES DAY IS AWESOME!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

one man's trash...

man was today a giant pain in the butt!
i spent the entire day cleaning and throwing away so much stuff at our store.
i can't believe we even had some of these things!
i mean, i had never even seen half the stuff i threw away today.
where did it come from???
i sorted, combined, stacked, and threw away for about 4 hours straight.
then there was a little bit of comic relief added to my day when i walked outside to throw yet another thing in the dumpster and found the owner of a nearby business rooting through the trash to pick up some of the things i tossed in there!
i even watched him walk back into his store to get a broom so he could reach this trash i dumped!!
what on earth is he going to do with a bunch of broken pottery, dried paints, random papers and an old basket?
i honestly have no idea.
hopefully he'll do it again tomorrow because it really makes me laugh!

we still have so much to do to get the store all cleaned up and we only have 2 more weeks to do it!
I'm starting to feel pretty overwhelmed at this point.
if i thought packing and moving into a new house was hard, this is about 10 times as hard as doing that!

i made matt promise me that we would get to do something really fun as a celebration after we closed the store.
I'm hoping he'll take me to that new wildlife zoo and aquarium on the other side of phoenix!
i know...i'm a nerd but i heard its really cool and no one loves aquariums more than i do!!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

i wuv you

i have the best husband is the whole wide world!

since matt and i have been married we have had a lot of problems come our way.
problems have included...
matt losing his job
me having to work 3 jobs at once
we needed to move in with his parents
we almost lost our house
i had to go to the hospital with no insurance
we always have zero money...always
and the list goes on and on.

people always told me that the first few years of marriage are the hardest and apparently they weren't lying. i thought they were talking more about the relationship side of things though and honestly, through all of these horrible things that have happened to us during the past 3 years i have never doubted my relationship with matt for one second. we are meant to be together and that's that!

right at this moment we are dealing with another one of life's wonderful problems.
i'm working like crazy trying to close down our store by myself and i already started my new job so i have no time! i've been getting no sleep and basically just been stressing a lot. i'm good at that.

when matt and i are both home late at night all i want to do is snuggle up on the couch with him and watch a tv show but we don't even have time for that.
i started feeling bad about our situation and being grumpy about it. but today, i had to step back and realize that it won't be like this forever so i need to have a better attitude, starting right now.

someday all of this will be worth it.

i hope matt knows how proud i am of him.
he goes to school full time to get a degree in something he loves to do so that one day our family can be taken care of. and while he's doing that, he's also working full time to take care of us now.
the boy never sleeps!
he wakes up before the sun even comes up and is either at work, school or doing his homework, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning.
he is the most unselfish and caring boy i've ever met.
i hope when i start working full time at my new job matt will be able to take a day or two off work every week so he can relax once in a while. he completely and totally deserves it.
i wouldn't be where i am today without him.


i love you matt!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

LOST

tonight is the night!

oooooooooooh man!

i know there are a lot of people out there who are lovers and haters and there are also those people who do not understand lost one bit so they can't even pick a side but i am definitely a lover!
i can't get enough lost!
all the questions and the mystery and more questions and mystery! its addicting!
i'm wondering if they are actually going to answer any questions in this season or just leave us to ponder on the island for all eternity.

i just found something amazing today
lostpedia
if you haven't seen the show and want to know what its all about or you have the seen the show and still don't know what its all about go to that site!
you can learn about every character, see blogs, episodes and a bunch more!
its great!

i'm sure lots of people are hoping charlie comes back to life at some point during this season because he is so obviously everyone's favorite character.
i would like to see charlie come back because i want to hear "you all everybody" again!
gotta love that drive shaft!
however, he is not my favorite character.
i'm more of a sawyer kind of girl.
he's got the whole bad boy thing working for him but you know deep down he really cares about people. its precious.
plus, he comes up with the funniest nicknames and jokes!

now who is my least favorite character you ask?
well let me tell you...its a tie between kate and juliet.
i hate those 2 with a passion!
its like the writers thought to themselves "one whiny, stupid, slutty, thinks-she-knows-everything girl isn't enough for this show, lets have 2!"
yuck!

i wish i could say that i watched all of the other seasons in preparation for tonight but sadly i did not. but my lack of watching all the previous seasons should not be taken as a sign that i am not a true lost fan.

would a true lost fan paint their very own plate to show their dedication?
yes, i believe they would.
and anyone who hasn't painted their very own lost plate just isn't a fan at all.
BOOYAH!

Monday, February 1, 2010

hocus pocus hypnosis

matt is trying to hypnotize me. no joke.
i have horrible insomnia and matt has decided he is going to fix me and he is going to use hypnosis to do it.
last night he made me listen to a creepy tape he found that is supposed to put me in a trance of relaxation.
now i totally believe that people can be hypnotized but i don't believe that I can. i think about it too much and can't seem to just let my mind go. matt made me promise i would actually try with this tape though, so i did.
we started listening to it and i did feel more relaxed but then the guy's voice got creepier and creepier and eventually i was so creeped out that i started wondering if i was ever going to wake up if this psycho really did put me in a trance! so i purposefully kept myself awake the rest of the time.
i'm so sorry matt.
i am going to try this tape again, for matt. he got it for me and it probably will help me if i let it but he has to stay awake the next time i listen to it so he can promise to wake me up when the creepy voice man makes me fall asleep forever.

maybe after this tape fixes me i'll be able to sleep like our little puppy!
she obviously knows how to be comfortable!

tires are evil but i totally rock

for months now, one of my tires has had a slow leak in it that has forced me to fill it up with lovely qt's free air once a week. i never bothered to worry about changing the tire since i could just fill it back up and be on my merry way but for the past couple weeks i've had to fill up more often. about every 4 days i would look at my tire and it would be almost completely flat and i would pray that i would make it to qt before it blew.
it started making driving very scary for me so matt and i decided to take it to a tire place to check it out. we thought maybe they could figure out where the leak was and just patch it up instead of making us buy a whole new tire.
so on saturday, matt and i went to the tire shop.
we told the nice tire man what was going on and he went out to my car to take a look at it.
he immediately seemed worried that i had been driving on this tire for so long.
he said even if they did find a way to patch the tire i would probably just be back in their shop within the month because it had started leaking again or worse, i would have a blow out.
we had no choice but to buy a whole new tire.
we asked the nice tire man what tire he suggested and he said if we want all the tires to match, which i guess is the best thing for the car, then we would need a $140 tire.
um no thank you.
his next suggestion was a slightly older model of all the other tires on my car which was $120.
yikes!
we eventually asked him what the cheapest tire was that we could get and he said there was nothing cheaper than $100 for my car.
that gets me thinking, i'm standing in a display room full of tires with signs like
"SALE $30 per tire!"
"SALE $40 per tire!"
and i'm wondering "what kind of car do you have to have to get those cheap tires??"
and i have come to the conclusion that tire companies are evil.
they make you think that they are having great sales and you can spend practically no money for the exact tire that you need but in reality those tires do not fit any car that people actually drive.
its ridiculous!
in the end matt bought me the $120 tire because he doesn't want me to feel like i'm going to die every time i'm driving on the freeway.
he kinda likes me!

and now my tire is so sleek looking! no more cracking!


IN OTHER NEWS...


i totally rock at my new job!
i got my first real assignment over the weekend and had to go in for a check on it this morning.
the lady only corrected 2 things! HA!
i got a grade in the 90 percents and she said she knows i'm going to kick butt at this job!
well...she didn't say kick butt but she told me i was going to be a perfect fit for them!
YAY YAY YAY!