wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

oh yeah… our marriage turned two yesterday, also. : )

you’re two years old today! we love you.

happy memorial day everyone.

this weekend has been unexpectedly pleasant…i hope yours has been nice as well. with the surprise that i didn’t have to go to work today, i have relished the three day weekend, and actually have been doing things besides my normal weekend routine of laundry and cleaning the house!

saturday, cassie and i went to the nashville flea market and the farmers market. the flea market was huge (it’s once a month i think)…at the fairgrounds inside and outside of about 6 buildings. it was very entertaining to see just what trinkety junk people try to sell, as well as lots of cool old antiquey stuff that you know has potential for greatness. we stepped away not buying a thing…we were proud since we shouldn’t have been spending money anyways. the farmers market on the other hand (in downtown) was very neat and i do hope to make that a fairly regular thing (it’s open all the time). farmers markets have become one of my favorite things in this world, so i was happy to finally go to ours…got some veggies and a rosemary plant. i was hoping for more berries besides strawberries, but i guess they’re not in season yet here locally. but i am excited that i found good size trees for really cheap though, as our neighbors tore down their bush that previously gave us privacy between our yard and their screened porch. : (

when i got back from the market, i was happy to see wil at home…and after doing a lot of walking all day, the first thing i wanted to do was sit. so we watched a whole disc of scrubs episodes all evening. : )

sunday did not disappoint either…i decided that i wanted to do a project, so we took some gift money and headed to our new favorite store: home depot, for some lumber. but an unexpected invite to the pool quickly trumped my project, and we had a great afternoon laying by a pool, taking a few dips and burning into little crisps. wil and i are so excited to have discovered our friends who live practically across the street (well, once you’re out of our neighborhood, they’re across old hickory) have a pool at their apartment. we had such a good time we thought we might have to make it a sunday tradition. i am also secretly happy about the fact that even though i work all day during the week, i won’t be pasty white as if i didn’t do anything but work indoors 24/7.

coming back home, i worked on my project, but it got put on hold again, since we had the same friends (nick and ‘nic’-ole) over for grilling out. what’s memorial day weekend without bbq?…we’ve put our new bbq to great use already, and it gave us another yummy dinner. we had great conversation about building homes, the dogs (they have a little lab mix), and the like, and after a couple rounds of the last word, we said goodbye, and i got back to the garage for my project. i finished it up, and moved it to it’s new home…

so look what i made!

i drew up plans, bought the wood and did it all myself! well, wil actually ended up cutting a lot of the boards, and he drove with me to home depot…i was planning on cutting them myself, but i think he just wanted an excuse to use his little hand power saw thingy. i was very appreciative because he made most all of the cuts in about 5 minutes!i really wanted a potting bench for a few reasons…1: the dogs like to eat my plants, so our herbs had to be up out of their reach, and 2: i was using this funky old wire shelf thing that i think was meant for sports equipment (it was in the garage when we moved) so it always looked junky and bothered me. now our herbs have a true home…hopefully they’ll flourish and grow big!

one more day left in my weekend now…hopefully we’ll make it to the bark park or do something with the dogs outside today when wil gets home. it’s hot and sunny and summery!

we added a new room to our house! well, it might be outdoors, and might not have walls, or a roof, but it is a new space for us for us to enjoy this spring and summer.

we attempted last weekend to lay the patio we’ve talked about for a couple months, and it was just not a good day for me and wil…hard, labor intensive shoveling with no light at the end of the tunnel is not good for a marriage. but, with a more positive outlook this weekend (also motivated by the fact that the left side was even more of a mudpit with so much recent rain), we picked up the project again …and knocked it out yesterday.

i think we were both surprised at how well everything worked, without any hitches at all. and to top the evening off, we went back to home depot to get wil the grill he’s always been dreaming about.

the dogs, while they couldn’t hang outside with us while we worked, loved every moment we’d let them out for the bathroom…they were dying at the prospect of getting to experience the new lawn, even when we only had a little sliver of it open to them. the grass was truly greener on the other side for them the last two months. they are overjoyed, to say the least. wil almost shed a tear when he saw them go to the bathroom on it the first time…i’d don’t think we’ll ever have a pristine lawn. : (
anyways- here’s lots of pictures (descriptions when you hover the mouse over the pic, fyi)! (notice the change of seasons in the first three pictures!)

the whole set with more pictures is here.

i got stuck in the garage today trying to leave for work. the door decided to crap out on me and not open. and then deep down in it’s metal core, it thought it would be even more enjoyable to watch me realize that the mechanism was twisted and that i wouldn’t be able to manually open it either.

today’s not been such a good day. i hate you, mr. garage.

upon seeing mom in california, she handed me a few goodies…some little trinkets from ikea, a “mothers” day card (my dogs=children? i’m pathetic, i know), and a letter summoning me to jury duty.

jury duty has always been one of the things i wondered if i’d ever be called to do in my whole life. never would i have imagined it to happen to soon! and it’s one of those things that’s probably a HUGE thorn in your side, turning your entire life upside down for a few weeks or however long. but, at the same time, it’s probably a completely unique and interesting experience that could never be equivalent to anything else. even with that said, i was still happy to find out that i don’t actually qualify for this particular jury, since, you kind of have to live in the state that is summoning you.

*psst…oregon….i don’t live in your state anymore*

so, after writing my response email to the jury coordinator explaining that i don’t believe i can do it, i took a pause to think about jury duty itself. how interesting to play the role in some stranger’s life…having ‘control’, persay, of their near (or extended) future. what weird power. but, i am relieved. i know they probably want as random of demographics as possible, but i just don’t feel like i’ve lived enough life, gathered enough information, or established any strong enough opinions about the world to be able to make the decision about one man/woman’s wrongs (or innocence)…

let’s hope i read the fine print correctly and the coordinator doesn’t reply saying i have to do it.

i also had another tidbit of my life to write about when i initially sat down here, but after the heaviness of thoughts about the judicial system, people’s sins, and other people dealing with them, i feel very trivial and materialistic with what i was about to say. but since i’ve built it up, i have to follow through, i guess.

well, i’ll make it snappy to decrease my shallowness.

what not to wear =  one of my favorite tv shows

the outfits on their ‘lesson’ mannequins = almost always stupendously cute

shopping at anthropologie (still working through my gift card leila!) + actually recognizing a shirt that i just saw on one of the wntw mannequins in a recent episode + trying it on + it looks cute! = a personal high for my fashion life

i bought it, of course.