PSA for Lazy People

The craze right now in exercise is Zumba. Well, I have found something better than Zumba, the Roomba! Yes that's right. Instead of getting in some "light" exercise while cleaning, now all I have to do is lay on the couch and watch my little robotic friend clean for me.

image from www.irobot.com

I haven't named my little friend yet, but I'm thinking about it! It has to be a name that is super awesome for a super awesome vacuum. I scheduled Mr. Roomba to clean this morning at 7 AM and he didn't sleep late. We heard him turn on and get to cleaning. He had our entire house cleaned in about 1.5 hours. And when he was done he happily took his cute patootie back to his docking station to recharge his precious little batteries. I know that Mr. Roomba will help me keep all the dust and grit to a minimum here in the Dapper Castle. I could sweep my floors twice a day and it would still need it the next morning. Now that we have nothing but wood floors this is really going to help out. I even sent my old vacuum a-packing to the prison that is our storage unit. I'm envisioning it hooking up with some random thing in there a-la the mop or broom in the Swiffer commercials.

iRobot has not paid me for this little commercial for this little man. But I love it so much I had to share. We have it scheduled to clean every other day while we are at work, so when we get home, everything is nice and clean. The only bad thing is that the dogs don't really care for it. They usually ignore it until it starts coming their way and they think it is chasing them. It is pretty funny actually. So if you are a busy gal like me, I would suggest you look into this product. It will really cut down your cleaning time, so you only have to do a deep cleaning of the floors like every two weeks or so. He vacuums hardwood, tile, carpet, rugs, you name it! So if you want to join me on the lazy train, here's your chance!! Jump on board!

Wait!?!?!? Is that water?

Yeah, you see this guy. He is a bad, bad boy. He decided that he wanted to flood my house. And do a lot of damage. And cause me to have to rip up my floors. And cause strange men to frolic through my house at all hours of the day. And to cause blowers and dryers to put out 110+ degree heat when it is already 110+ degrees outside. That's right folks, my washing machine decided to flood my house one day. Apparently there was some kind of crack in the wash basin and therefore leaked a whole loads worth of water into my house. This is what I had to deal with!!

Here are the pups surveying the damage and those really loud, hot things that magically appeared in our home! We ended up having to pull up the wood floors in the living room and the hallway due to water damage. Not the best thing to happen after being on vacation for over a week and having mountains worth of clothes to wash! It took about two weeks by the time the floors dried out enough to put down new ones and for the new floors to get put down. Not fun at all! Not to mention the fact that the whole time my house was turned upside down. For a while there, I thought TLC would have to come in and film an episode of Hoarders by the way my kitchen looked! Epic fail on the having to shimmy sideways to get anywhere in there!!

Yes. Super gross. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise I guess. Got new floors and we expanded the wood floors to go into the bedrooms as well. We did this because we will probably never get this place sold, so we will have to rent it out I'm sure. So we thought that wood floors would be way better for renters than carpeting! We decided to go with a wider board this time. And hand scraped to hide any imperfections!! Here is the before and afters!

Sorry about the first picture, but that's the only one I could find that I had on this computer!! So that is the saga that is our floors/washing machine fiasco. Don't you just love unexpected home repairs?

On a positive note. I get something even better than new floors. I get this:

The ROOMBA!! It is a robotic floor vacuum that you can program to clean your floors for you. Otherwise, I would be doing nothing but sweeping all the time. I will let you know once it arrives how well it does. I think I am gonna like this bad boy!!

I Will Hope in Him!

After much thought, I have decided to put this post back up. As a lot of you know, I suffered a miscarriage back in April. It was due to an ectopic pregnancy. Needless to say, Joseph and I were devastated. We weren't planning on having a baby, so it was the shock of our lives. It was an even greater shock when we lost our precious child. However, by the grace of God, we learned to accept His decision. We know that we are in His hands and He takes care of his own. He grants comfort when it is needed. There is one verse that has given me much comfort throughout this whole ordeal.

I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him! ~Lamentations 3:20-24

I have debated on whether or not I would share my journey on here, but I decided it would be very therapeutic for me to share my story. I know that it is a great comfort for me to read stories of others who struggle through the same thing and I hope that my struggle will help somebody else. Joseph and I are about to begin the long journey of IVF. We went yesterday for our first consultation. We are having to go this route because I had an ovary removed about 8 years ago, due to an ovarian cyst. Then with our miscarriage, my remaining tube had to be removed as well. So needless to say, the plumbing isn't all connected correctly! So bring on the shots and pills and needles! We aren't completely in the stage of our lives where we are ready for children 100%, but due to my proneness to cysts and scar tissue/damage to my remaining ovary, we don't really have an option as to picking the absolute perfect timing. And that is fine because I have put my faith in the Lord and know that He will not fail us.

I go back to the doctor tomorrow to really begin the process. I have no real idea of what to expect, so it is a little scary. But I will try to post everything as it happens, so others who are about to go down this path for the first time can see what it is all about first hand. To begin with, they will monitor my cycle for a few months, and run some tests on Joseph and me just to make sure everything is a-ok. If all goes as planned, we should be ready for egg retrieval and implantation at the end of November. I knew that the Lord was guiding us in our decision when the doctor told us when we should expect a positive pregnancy test. When she told us that we could take a test around Christmas I just lost it because that would have been the due date of our child. So instead of Christmas being a somewhat sad day for me, it should *hopefully* be a day of joy and celebration. So I should have an entry tomorrow with all the gory details of my first visit!! So pray for us as we begin this long process. We are gonna need it!

Happy Birthday Alex!!

We had the honor of celebrating our sweet nephew's first birthday with him. It's amazing how time flies! It seems not too long ago we were just there visiting him after his birth. His mom and dad did a great job with his UGA themed birthday. Joseph was absolutely in love with his birthday cake!

"Wait, can I play with this?"

"I touched it and nobody stopped me. Mom, you do know I have icing on my hand right?"

 

"I'm going in!"

"Man, this is yummy! Happy Birthday to me!"

"Okay, I am exhausted now!"

We had an awesome time with our family and Joseph really loves getting to see all his siblings at the same time!

Joseph, Jeff, Mary Kathryn, MK's belly button, Patricia

We love you Alex, and look forward to many, many more wonderful birthdays!!

xoxo- Uncle Joseph and Aunt Ashley

MIA

Sorry that I have been MIA for a long while now. It's just that I really don't have that much to talk about for the moment. Hopefully stuff will pick up and I will have more to blog on at a later date. Sorry peeps! On a good note, we do leave for vacation in a week. Hurray! Super excited!!!!

Hot Dog, It's Hot!

We have been panting up a storm over here in this heat.

Even when I let the pups out to go outside to the bathroom, they go do their thing and are back at the door wanting in within no time, it is so hot. But with the heat, also comes as summer fun. And for the doggies that is running around the yard chasing golf balls. They absolutely love, love, love this.

Of course it helps when you have the future Tiger Woods [minus all the women ;) ] hitting balls to you. Only thing is I doubt that the real Tiger melts down whenever the dogs don't give back the golf balls. But in this heat, it isn't very soon before even Brutus, the fearless, never resting dog has to sit down and cool off.

At that point, you know it is really time to cool off! Time for Oscar's favorite thing! Swimming!!

Oscar adores swimming. He will stay in the water all day if you let him. Just have a few balls that you can throw in the water to let him chase and he is happy as a clam. This year was the babies first time in the water. I was a little nervous at first if they would like it, but it turns out that they LOVE it as well!

JR didn't want Oscar too far from him and for a while Brutus was just content to watch from the shore.

But he finally decided to give it a go and jumped in and decided that he could get used to this swimming thing.

There you have it, how these Dapper Dachshunds stay cool all summer long!

I Heart the Summer

I love the summer not because the sun is shining and it is the time of the year for beachin it up and spending time out on the water. I am loving it because I have so many excuses to stay inside. The heat is number one and number two is that many of my favorite shows are back! And two of my movie favorites are also coming out soon. Yes, I do realize that I have no life!

Season Three of True Blood started a couple of weeks ago. I have waited and waited for this to come back!! Love it! Joseph always complains when I am watching it. He calls it that "vampire mess." But who doesn't love Sookie and Tara and Lafayette? And not to mention the hotness that is Eric. Yum.

If you get HBO, I recommend you watch it. It is a little graphic and definately rated r (sorry kiddos) but it is WAAAAAY better than Twilight. Hands down.

Ahhh, Mad Men. This show is awesome. It just makes me so mad that it takes FOREVER between seasons. It seems like ages ago that the last season ended. This comes on AMC, so check it out. I think the new season starts in July. Yay!!

Nothing like a much of ad men running around in the 1960s. Joseph loves this show, so I get no complaints from him when I watch it.

Thirdly, I have become hooked on this season of the Bachelorette. I know, I know. But I can't help myself.

Ali is so cute and she has had the craziest men this season. From The Weatherman to Crazy Kasey. Not to mention that guy Craig that looks like Lord Farquaad from Shrek. 

And of course, what summer would be complete without blockbuster movies? Have you heard that Twilight is coming out? Because I haven't. It's not like some crazy mania going on around that movie! Ha ha!

Are you team Edward or team Jacob?

And last but not least, the tried and true, Harry Potter.

I really heart these movies (the books even more). So those are my guilty pleasures for the summer. What are yours? Any bad tv that you love to hate? Movies that you can't wait to come out? I would love to hear that I am not alone in loserville.