Trying to be Domestic

I love reading blogs. One I enjoy following is kevinandamanda.com. A few weeks back she mentioned a few under cabinet organizers she found at wal-mart and I just had to have some. I think Brent enjoys when I attempt to organize our "junk". Here's a before and after...

before

after

after (again)

I know I'm a huge dork for blogging this but it made my day and has been a big help when I try to get my pans out from under the cabinets. You'll see it's just a generic standup rack (that you can also turn on it's side and use for cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc.) I actually bought two and used one for each purpose. Hope this helps make someone's cabinet life a little better!

Interesting Friday Night

Friday after work I drove up to spend the night with my grandparents. We went to their favorite restaurant (a steakhouse in a super small city about 15 miles from their house) and on the way blew out a tire on my grandmother's avalanche. Lucky for us my Papaw was riding with us. My grandmother's been meaning to renew her OnStar service but just hasn't gotten around to it yet. I *always* have my iphone with me but didn't take it with me that night for some random reason. This led to us asking the restaurant for a phone book and my Papaw and I calling random numbers to see if anyone had a 24 hour roadside assistance crew they could send out. (We'd already called their insurance to confirm that this would be covered) Well small town had ZERO help in that department. My Papaw refused to call anyone from a different city insisting that he'd do it himself. And that's just what we did after dinner. Me in the dress I wore to work got down on my hands and knees and helped him. Granted he did all the heavy lifting and mechanical things but I was his eyes under the truck. Interesting!

Once we made it home safely my Memaw decided we should walk to her neighbors so I could see her new kitchen countertops. She recently installed granite that looks a lot like what we are installing. After peeking through her garage window (which my Memaw said was perfectly fine- apparently they have an "if the garage door is open come on over" understanding) we went to leave and I saw a baby snake squiggling around the concrete. I freaked out. I HATE snakes and baby snake meant momma snake was nearby. My Memaw grabbed the first thing she could find in her neighbors garage (a broom) and proceeded to beat the snot out of baby snake with the broom handle. I wish I had it on video and could share with you guys. We went ahead and walked back home (in the middle of the road rather than thru the yard) to avoid momma snake.

Who knew a night at home with the grandparents in Hartselle could be so entertaining?

Is it Fall Yet?

I am over this heat. That's hard to say seeing that I work in an office all day but when you walk outside and have your sunglasses fog up as soon as you put them on you know it's just too humid.

We've been so lazy this week. I restarted couch to 5k since the 5k I'm doing with my family is in September. Hopefully I'll stick to it this time. I got to week 6 or so last time and got a bad sinus infection and just quit the program. Whoops!

All we've been doing is watching the Braves each night. I'm hoping they stay hot (and leave this funk they've been in lately behind) so Brent will stay happy. He's a grump when they lose.

We broke down and watched Kenny Chesney's "Boy's of Fall" video on youtube tonight. It's so good. I think the songs a bit corny for the radio but it's a good story and I love all the football clips he put in the video. It's even got Nick Saban throwing his head set. (the best move he has in my book)

Youtube also sucked me into watching videos of tv shows I like. I am forced to wear stupid earbuds when I do this because Brent can't stand to hear noise coming from the laptop. He's such a weirdo. I hate the earbuds because they give me a headache... it's a lose/lose situation.

I did decide that I'm going to watch "The Middle" more next season. We'd catch bits and pieces last season but never devoted ourselves to being weekly watchers. I thought I'd leave you all with this little clip.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Shopping Bargain

I found this dress at Forever 21 last weekend. They told me I bought the last one and they'd only had it in store for 2 days. I was searching their website and saw it's available in all sizes online. Just thought I'd pass my fabulous find along to the blogging world. (It's super comfortable by the way)

$29.80 at Forever 21

Frustrated

I am so frustrated with Belk's stupid credit card service. I'm having issues with their online bill pay and all the reviews I've read throw their call center under the bus. I'll take them on tomorrow with my husband's best line "YOU waive this bogus fee or I'll pay this bad boy off right now and cancel the card." I shouldn't be this frustrated but ever since I saw the fee tonight (around 6pm) I've been on edge. I just hate having unresolved issues. You should have seen the crazy I turned in to when our old apartment threatened to sue us (right Jess...) I was a walking lunatic.

Something to make me smile... the fabulous dress my memaw bought me for the Formal Captain's Dinner night on our cruise. Have I mentioned I can't wait to cruise?

sorry for the blurry photo...Dillard's didn't give me much to work with.

Funny News

You know how husbands never listen...well I had told Brent that one beach on our cruise itinerary had a nudist resort on it. I don't think he believed me until our travel agent informed him not to walk too far to the right (topless) or to far to the left (nothingness). The priceless moment was when he got home and googled it just to make sure she was telling the truth. Hilarious! Regardless, I can't wait to spend some time on Orient Beach. Just look how pretty the pictures are (but make sure you're looking at those who are hanging out in the bathing suit wearing section).

 

photo credits here & here

Exciting Saturday

You can't beat a Saturday when it's spent shopping. That's exactly what I did today. I met my sister-in-law (Jennifer) at the galleria and we hit up Belk's 1 Day Sale. Lucky for my husband there wasn't too much that I couldn't live without. I did buy a dress that was originally $200 (I have NO IDEA why it was so expensive) for $42. That's a good deal, right? Jennifer did good too but she's preparing for her honeymoon to Hawaii so she needed a bit more things than I did.

Brent even joined in on the shopping (granted a few hours later). We went to Lowe's and ordered our new countertops! I'm so excited. I tried to post a picture of the color but I've already forgotten exactly what it looks like. All the colors blend together. It's a pretty basic color of granite though. I had the mind set that if this was the house we were going to live in long term I'd be more selective. However, I hope to branch out and leave the townhouse behind one day when we have a larger family and for resale we didn't want to pick anything that would limit the future owners.

We even squeezed in date night tonight. Pablos & Inception.

The cherry on top is that Charlie got a bath!! He's laying on the foot of the bed as I type this. He smells like apples and is so cuddly :)

Blog Name Change

I decided to change the name of our blog. I needed something a little more creative. If you read this post earlier then you know I was trying to avoid stalkerish situations that could arise from having our whole name on the blog. Well blogs seem to be as complicated and passports and other documents when it comes to changing them! I changed the url and all of the sudden all the blogs that followed us got the screen of death message telling them that our little blog no longer exists! I've changed the url back to the old link but have decided I like the new Title.

Meaning behind the title: If you know my husband then you know everyone (except his side of the family) refer to him as "BR". Prior to becoming "BR's wife" I was known as "AJ" and most friends (his and mine) still use that rather than "Ashley" when addressing me.

Hopefully this gives the blog a bit more character and a little less personalization. Stalkers are not wanted... we all encounter enough crazies in the real world each day--no need for online crazies as well!

Random Creativity

Lately I've been thinking about photo books. I LOVE taking photos but do not love having them printed. I decided to look around and found a 25% off coupon (I also LOVE coupons) for a site called picaboo. I decided to make a book of photos from our Honeymoon. I chose the "Classic Leather" design in the Charred Wood color. I can't wait to see it. If it turns out nice I'm going to use this site to create a book with photos from our 1st year of marriage. Their "Classic" design starts at $9.99. If you make a book before July 31st you can use the coupon to! Happy Photo-booking :)

Sad Puppy

Charlie is pathetic. He is moping around like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. He misses Hartselle terribly. Maybe it's the Memaw biscuits or sleeping all day with company but this pup is pathetic. His little tails been dragging the floor since we got home around 6pm. Here's to hoping he cheers up soon.

this photo was taken 5 minutes before this post...

see the resemblance?

photo info: here