Boring to Bold . . .

We have an accent wall! We've talked about it for a while, but just now got around to actually doing it. Several months ago (more like a year really), I painted the back of the book case across from this wall the same color red, but didn't paint anything else at the time. I was waiting on the right inspiration (and Anthony's aproval) to paint an accent wall. Since I'm headed back to med school and clinics Monday, I feel this need to get everything done this week, so it's been a week of projects. This week we had the carpet and furniture steam cleaned, pest control out, planted the trees in the backyard, and painted this wall! Wow! I call that a successful week :).
Our plan for the backyard is going to be really great. I haven't taken a picture yet of what we've done to this point, but we planted (and re-planted after Gabby and Porter decided to taste and play tug-of-war with) Leyland Cypress trees along the back fence. These are apparently really hardy, drought resistant, and fast growing plants - which is perfect for our back yard and also means that we won't have to look out at our neighbor all of the time. Hopefully later this year we will build a deck/pergola and hang a swing out there. We love to be outside, but our patio is really small and there isn't a place for chairs or anything like that out back. We're also planning to put in a stone pathway from the gate to the pergola - part of the reason for this is because we will actually need a path, but perhaps the more important reason is becasue the dogs have worn out the grass there anyway. I'll post pics of that project as it goes and as we get a bit further along. I do like projects around the house, but think that they're going to dwindle at least for third year, then perhaps we will have other projects in store for my fourth year! The other project that I did this week was make a wine cork cork board - well, mostly, it's about 2/3 done - but it's kind of fun collecting corks from wine that we've had and enjoyed with friends and champagne that we've celebrated with over the past few years. I'll take a picture of that some time. Yeah for home renovations and time to do them...

Hood Family

Anthony's sister and her Family (husband Dave, son Justin - 5, and daughter Hannah 2). We went to Houston to see them in May of this year and they came her this weekend for a quick trip to see the Grandmas. Enjoy the slideshow - we'll see how much i know about technology!

Projects at home

I have all of these great ideas, but just can't seem to get them finished... or even started at this rate either. The next three things that are on my list:
1. Recover pillows for the couch. The covers I made and currently still have on them are really pretty, but they have too much blue. and now that the background of the cabinet is red, i want pillows that have more red in them. The sad part is that I've had the material for at least a month now, and still haven't gotten around to covering them. Hopefully this weekend, but we'll see.
2. Bookcase: I've got an old chest of drawers that is not being used any more, but is still in ok shape. It currently has four drawers. My thought is to take the drawers out. take out two of the drawer casings, and then put a botton in the remaining two places. so that it makes a two shelf stand. I could use it in my office/extra bedroom. I'll post pictures if i ever get around to doing this. maybe now that the weather is nice.
3. Rediculous weeds in the front yard. Like the rest of our neighbors, our grass is a nice shade of brown - really the whole front yard, EXCEPT for this large green tuft of clover-like stuff that decided to grow right in the middle of the front yard. First plan is to actually go out and cut it down or mow the yard. 2nd plan of action is to find some weed and feed stuff. The rest of the flowerbeds are ok. I'm expecting to see the tips of my bulbs in a few weeks - this will be the 2nd spring we've been in the house, so they should come up fuller this year (cross your fingers).
The problem with school ... and school ... and well... there isn't a lot of time for anything else, but no complaints. 3 years and ~4 months to go :)

It's a "good year"

We have much to be thankful for that we all too often forget. Current praises include:

• Anthony was just offered and accepted a two year fellowship in Endocrinology at UMC to begin Summer 2009. This will work out nicely because he will finish residency when I finish PhD work, and he will complete this fellowship as I complete medical school. So...we'll finally be sort of done with school.


• I just got a paper accepted to the American Journal of Physiology - Heart. I'll post the link as soon as it's up on Pubmed. This is very much a praise because to recieve one's PhD from the Physiology department, it is necessary to have at least one first authored paper in a peer reviewed journal. So now I just have to finish up my research, write a dissertation and defend.
  
• We finally found a collar that our dog can't chew through. It's metal :)

Current issues include:

• a potential rodent in our attic. I'll keep you posted on this one. I've never dealt with rats/mice/squirrels/or any other potentially rabid creature in close quarters in which it could die, begin to decompose and start to reek without our knowing exactly where it is. This could be really interesting. Today's quest is to get some of that sticky paper before I call the exterminator - because we're cheap - i mean thrifty!