The Hike that Made Me Feel Like I had Emphysema

Troy and I have decided that we need to spend more time outside. It is important that Avery see Troy and I making smart and healthy life choices. That means watching 4 seasons of Dexter in 1 week is no longer allowed. I wish I were joking, but we totally did that. Our couch had permanent imprints of our bums in it the week after Christmas. AH Dexter. You are awesome.

Anyway, this post is about our hike. THE GREAT OUTDOORS! BUGS! SWAMP ASS! SWEAT! DIRT! Those are things that I associate with hiking. Not my favorites. I'm not an "outdoorsy girl." I like air conditioning, running water, and a comfy place to rest my head.

So when Troy and I decided to make this a goal for our lifestyle and with our kids, like true intellectuals, we bought a book. It has about 50 hikes in it around the Las Vegas area. It's like "Hiking for Dummies" but better. Troy ended up picking the 1st hike in the book for us to do. It was rated moderate for the quick incline in elevation. It was 3.6 miles and rated well for kids and pets. Sweet. Yes.

NO! My body is NOT USED to the elevation. I wasn't tired or sweaty, I just could not catch my breath. I felt like my intake was soooo short. I had to keep stopping to get some air.

This was my view from looking up from my head between my knees. Sometimes he would wait.

But most of the time he was like, "Are you serious?? You need to work out more. This hike was rated well for KIDS! You gotta pull it together."

And I was all, "Troy if you want to make this an every weekend thing, you better make it enjoyable for me, or I won't go anymore. Hobby over."

And then pregnant woman about to give birth would pass us carrying a 3 year old on her back. I wish I were kidding.

This is where we were going. It's called Fletcher Canyon. It was pretty.

That's Troy pointing and saying, "We made it to the end."

And me thinking, "Oh thank God, I need a sandwich."

I wore Avery on the way down. We made EXCELLENT time on the way down. The way up, not so much. But we FLEW down. Don't judge. This picture is awful. I look fat and exhausted. But I did it. 3.6 miles. I was pretty proud.

Overall, pretty good experience. If Troy hadn't been such a negative Nancy, I think I wouldn't have tried to chuck the dog leash at his head. We're planning another trip. I am thinking it will go better that time.

A Thrift Lamp from Alamogordo Crosses an Entry Table from Craigslist

I bought some things while we were in Alamogordo. And Troy was mad every time I came home from thrifting with something that we had to "figure out how we were getting it to Las Vegas." We were SO out of room.

And then I bought a lamp for $5. The shade was free. WIN!

Troy: "But um, that stuff is breakable and the shade takes up a lot of room. How do you intend to pack that? Miss Overpacker??"

Oops. We were still mid-move (with 2 months to go in the TLF) at this point and moving everything we had brought from Texas in February. 6 months living out suitcases is rough y'all. Let me tell you. A piece of advice from me to you? Pack WAY less than you think you'll need. You'll buy stuff anyway. You'll buy it if you absolutely can't live without it. And everyone shops and accumulates a few things over the course of 6 months. It's not possible to buy nothing. So...you're packing the car and all of a sudden you're like "oooo look at that teeny little bit of space right there!! I need to bring more baby toys!!" Yeah not so much. RESIST!! Don't do it! They would rather play with a spoon and a magazine that they can shred. Lesson learned. Pack way less than you need. So when you find a $5 dollar-make-you-holla-lamp, your husband doesn't try to knock you out with it Clue candlestick style.

So here is my beauty of a 5 dollar lamp. It's pretty blah here. It's like cream with beige paint splats all over it. But isn't the shape GREAT??

Here she is all taped up with bags to protect the cords and the top...aka give it some "I've-never-spray-painted-anything-in-my-life" protection.

I saved a box from some deliveries that we had gotten just for painting. Then Troy was all, "for real, you're gonna do that next to our brand new house?? Spray paint? Really??"

And I was all "I love you I miss you I want to be close to you. That's all...and I want to stay out of the wind...I gotta be close to the house to block the wind or there will be spray paint everywhere."

I got this face:

And then "MOVE!"

So I moved. And then he was all "for real, you're going to do that right next to the air conditioner intake so we wind up with paint all in our house and duct work??"

He was planning our hike for the next day...he has our Vegas hiking trail book in his lap, discussing pros and cons of different trails, distances, dog friendliness, elevations, etc. Blah blah blah. Pick something easy, okay? That's all I ask!

Well, I guess my brain was turned off? I moved again.

I used this primer.

And this color, to match our new color theme to go with this.

Here she is with 3 coats of primer. Pretty, eh? Troy was like, "oooo leave it white, it's looks great!!" Um, no baby. RED! You picked the color palate. Gotta push forward! I'm all about progress.

Here she is with 2 coats of red! Sexy Lady in Red! I did 3 thin and even coats.

Here she is (moved inside) on the entry table by the wall out to the garage that I picked up on Craigslist. God I love that man and his list. Best thing ever! I nabbed it from a lady selling it because she was getting married and they were combining households and getting rid of stuff. It was less than a year old! YAY! And way more proportional for the space than the buffet I had picked up the day before.

So the shade was free. I'm still deciding what to do with it. Because it's not quite right. Stencil it? Cover it with fabric? Or buy a new one? Any votes? I'm trying to decide. In it's current state, it looks a little sad on the vibrant colored lamp and next to my whimsy pig.

Sidenote: You may have noticed that I have a thing for piggy banks that are weird and cool. I love them. I have one that my grandma straight up stole from a restaurant that used them as table centerpieces. I'll tell you about that later. Some one remind me about it and I'll type up a blog post about it. Imagine my grandma hopping into a car in pouring rain with the door being held open by the restaurant host and two pennies bouncing around inside. I almost died. Hilarious.

So, as you can see, it's Troy's new drop spot. There is a metal shell that he puts his keys and wallet into. The drawer contains his wide array of sunglasses and his running watch. One pair for running, one for in the car, and one pair that are crappy for when he can't find the other pairs. His fall-back pair.

Avery's diaper bag drop spot is underneath, with her little shoes. There is also a grey and cream woven basket with rope handles from HomeGoods for Avery's toys. I hate when it looks like ToysRUs exploded in my house. Or PetsMart with dog toys all over the place. I have baskets EVERYWHERE. To hide stuff. Clutter makes me nutso. So instead of pairing down and organizing, I pile it up in something pretty and pretend it's not there. Denial is pretty powerful tool in this house. It's really easy to toss all her toys in there at the end of the day. We have 3 baskets of toys throughout the house that we rotate through with books and toys. Very easy. Optimus has one too. And he has a whole cupboard in our kitchen. I wish I were joking.

Then I have the pretty decor on the right side. It is 2 books that I removed the jackets from, because they match the color scheme. And THE book. Mr. Bible himself. With a pretty vase from HomeGoods and then the Willow Tree statue on top. I got that from a friend when I was having all kinds of trouble getting pregnant with Avery. It's the Angel of Hope :) It's good luck. And pretty. I love it.

Who Loves Craigslist??? ME!!!!

I have been shopping around for an antique buffet table on craigslist for a long time. Like 6 months. And my dear dear readers, I have found it. I started looking for one while living with my inlaws, KNOWING that I couldn't have it because there would be no way to transport it. So a perfect one would come up for sale in Vegas and I would cry because I wasn't there to pick it up.

And then, THIS happened on thursday night:

THIS IS AWESOME!

ANOTHER ONE?!?!?!

NOOOOO WAY!! THEY'RE SELLING 3?????

Like I said, I have been pricing these for about 6 months. 200 dollars a piece was a STEAL! WHAT! I thrust my computer in Troy's face and said something like "Igottahaveoneofthesewhichonedoyoulike???"

I was already on the phone with the lady before he could respond. ALL THREE where still there!! She wanted me to come that night, but Troy was going to play poker with some of the boys at work and Avery was already in bed, so there was no way that was going to happen. Friday I had 2 job interviews and offered to come pick up whatever was left in between them. Troy was in serious eye roll mode. I was salivating into the phone. And sweet talking the lady a little bit :) By the end of the phone call, she had agreed to $180.

I go to her house and all 3 are still there. I get my pick of the litter. To be honest, I would have been happy with any of them. She told me that they were used in a restaurant downtown for storage and the restaurant was recently demo'd. She rescued them for her daughter, who refinishes furniture and resells them. Her daughter lives in Iowa. I guess after talking it over with her, they realized that it wasn't cost efficient to transport them all over the place to resell them. So she's selling them here. LUCKY ME :)

My favorite one (look wise) was the 3rd one. I love the long spindly legs. They're so pretty. So much detail. But ugh. With all those crossbars and support rails underneath, I would have to move that monster every time I swept or vacuumed around it. No thank you.

Number 1 had some splintering and split wood going on on the doors and the sides. Sorry buddy, but that just will not do.

Lucky number 2 came home with me. I was worried that it wouldn't fit in the back of my Ford Edge, but she slid in nicely.

We set her up on the wall in the family room coming in from the garage.

Here is it bare. It's that wall right there on the right:

And here it is, occupying said space:

I didn't get a picture of it, but it was the MOST gorgeous piece of furniture in the room. And tallest. Taller than our media stand that our TV sits on. I couldn't stop staring at it. Troy loved it too. We found this on the inside of the top drawer and he immediately starting researching it.

We cleaned it out and found straws, receipts, and credit card carbon copy papers dated to 1994. We found a newspaper from 1999. And someone spilled SOMETHING that was making me gag in the left door. I kept wiping and wiping and it was sliding all over the place. I rinsed out my rag and it was making more and more bubbles. Then I realized....oh thank God, it's just orange dish soap. And I was able to stop gagging.

How cool is this drawer? All the separations are awesome for organizing. It makes my OCD heart so happy!

After staring at it for about 3 hours, I was like, it can't stay here. Troy almost started crying. He was like, "but where am I going to put my keys, and wallet, and sunglasses, and my watch, and my spare change??" This was going to be his "drop spot" when he comes home from work. He is currently keeping everything on the island in the kitchen and it is making me CRAZY! So he was looking forward to a home for his stuff.

I was like "eh, I'll figure it out." So we hauled the buffet into the foyer and put it on the wall right to the right when you walk in the front door. It looks MUCH better because of proportions. The room is bigger, the ceilings are higher. It isn't competing for attention with the rest of the room. I am OBSESSED. So I dressed it up a little bit.

Isn't she pretty?

I took the covers off some books and stacked them up. And put my prized favorite pig on top.

There are some pictures of me and my Mom (love this picture) and then Troy and I at the annual awards ceremony in Dover, when I was preggo with Avery.

This is an old tray that I bought at a thrift store in Alamogordo with some other little things for decoration :)

So what are we doing with that empty wall now that the buffet was just too big? Well let me tell you...I hit up Craigslist again and picked something up on saturday between nanny interviews. And it's perfect. Shorter than the TV stand, narrower than the buffet, and not such a domineering piece of furniture...be back later this week with that :)

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day!