EW EW EW!!!!

I was practically attacked by the nastiest bug I have ever seen! I was home for lunch and saw the nasty culprit in my kitchen sink! I screamed in terror and then doused it in really hot water for like 5 minutes and thought I killed it. Apparently it was still alive when Jon got home, so he killed it. After some googling, which deeply disturbed my already very strong fear of bugs, I determined that we have house centipedes. I won't scar you with a picture (mainly b/c I'm scared to look it up again), but if you google house centipede, you will find them. They look like a cross between a spider, a worm, and the devil and are apparently very difficult to kill. *SHUDDER* I'm afraid to go to bed! This weekend we are not only bug bombing the house, but we will be spraying bug stuff on the outside and setting sticky traps. Blargh! I will kill these bugs if it kills me!

House Stuff I Want to Do

Just a few little touches I think will brighten the place up with little cash flowing out of the wallet!

1. chalkboard wall

2. move in the old record player behind the couch

3. switch the old hutch for the new one

4. paint the little bathroom

5. move the book shelves to our bedroom

6. clean out the office/clutter catcher room

7. hang chandelier in entry way

8. go shopping at Target/goodwill/flea market for new cheapy pieces to freshen the place up

9. new trim throughout house

10. remove wallpaper and paint kitchen

11. new slip covers for living room furniture

12. make a dream catcher

I'm in a decorating mood. Decorating can be cheap if you let it be. If I had the money, I'd do the following:

1. new floors and cabinets in kitchen

2. new interior doors

3. new sink and mirror in little bathroom

4. new floors in the bedrooms

5. new coffee table

6. new kitchen table

7. new living room furniture

8. buy a piano ( i really miss playing)

9. do I really need to go on?

*groan*

I am stuffed to the gills! (diet starts tomorrow) Went to my work dinner tonight and it was a lot of fun. Food was good, company was good, wine was good, service was good. Sad but true, I don't remember the name of the restaurant. It was fancy and on 4th street in Columbus. More rain and bad weather is coming in, but at least our internet is back in working order. Jon beat Mortal Kombat and washed towels. Cat is still freaking out at nothing. Sun came out today and this post is full of bad grammar. Love my life.

Easter Sunday

Success! I started cooking last night and finished at 12:30 when the family got here! My first hosting of a holiday, and I was a success! Everyone said the food was great and left full and happy! One crazy/funny thing is that Topeka was totally freaked out by the Easter bunnies gifts to Josh! I hissed at the and ran away several times, and wouldn't go near that corner of the living room until hours after they were gone! I have no idea why they freaked him out so much, but it was hilarious watching him repeatedly stalk the gifts, then run away! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Coloring Easter Eggs in Reverse

Grandma's Potato Salad

Psych! I don't give up family secrets!

Green Bean Casserole

A classic, so you probably already have the recipe, but here it is anyway.

4 cans green beans

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup milk

pepper to taste

big can French's onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all but 1/2 cup onions together. Bake for 1 hour. Sprinkle remaining onions on top and bake 10 minutes. Tip: Try adding fresh mushrooms for extra yum!

Cheesy Carrot Casserole

4 cans carrots

1/2 lb Velveeta

1 stick plus 2 tbsp butter

15 crushed Ritz crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain carrots and pour in 8x8 pan. Melt velveeta and stick of butter and stir until mixed. Pour over carrots and mix. Crush crackers and add 2 tbsp metled butter. Sprinkle over carrots. Bake 25 minutes.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! We are preparing for our very own Easter extravaganza here at the Rhoades Residence! Updates to come! Oh but I have to tell you that Topeka (cat) is totally freaked out by the Easter bunnies gifts to Josh! I am cracking up in here b/c for some reason he won't go within 2 feet of them! He actually hissed at them! I don't know why b/c he never freaked out at the Christmas presents from Santa. For little guy is scared of his own shadow this morning. But I did give him his Easter feast (wet cat food) and that seems to have made him feel better! Now we are waiting for Josh to wake up. He is the only kid I know that sleeps in on holiday mornings!

Good Times Indeed

Last night we picked Josh up from school and headed up to Mom and Dad's. I miss them all the time, so seeing the was really nice. We ate Mom's casserole for dinner and then talked and played games until bedtime. This morning, we went and visited my Grandma and Grandpa George. We stayed for a while and just talked. Then we headed home and Dad took us mushroom hunting. We found 4! Jon climbed a tree stand because it was there. Then we had Dad's chili for lunch. Yum! No one makes chili like my Dad. After a long drive home, we are settling in at home. I am starting food for tomorrow and Zach is visiting. I love my families. Each and every one of them! It's days like this that I feel so full of love and so blessed that I can't imagine anyone having as full and loving a life as I do.

New Favorite Blog...

http://www.blog.easilydunn.com/

Check it out. I so want to be this girl's friend!

Sad but true

I have never seen the ocean and I cannot remember the last time I was on a beach of some sort. I think this needs to be rectified. Suddenly I'm craving hot sand under my feet, up my knickers, and coming out of my beach bag weeks after I've set foot on sand.

aaaaaahhhhhhhhh

I am so excited b/c I am off until Monday! 4 days of bliss Squee! Tomorrow I have a dentist and eye doctor appointment. I'm going to get new glasses and I can't wait to pick them out! Work has been super crazy/weird this week and we've had crazy bad storms the past two nights. So between those two things, I have been so tired and in a funk that I've spent most of my free time in the bedroom watching Friends and dozing off. I love that show! But I think this 4 day weekend will sring my spirits right up! Oh and did anyone else see that Lauren Conrad has launched a beauty site? http://thebeautydepartment.com/ I think I like it, but I'm going to give it some time to develop before making my final opinion. Oh and if you aren't playing the new Mortal Combat game, you should be! I cannot play most video games, but this one I just mash the buttons and I do cool stuff! Jon has memorized a bunch of the moves and looks up moves and I still beat him! Of course, my thumbs are totally sore by the end of it, but oh well! Super fun game! Man this post is super random! Well I just wanted to give you guys an update, so there it was!

Great Day

What a great day! Went and saw Scream 4 and ohmigod it was so good! I loved it! SO. GOOD! Afterwards we came home and I planted my flower bulbs then we took a nap. Ah. Tonight was dinner at David and Kate's and we just chilled out. Good times. Anyway I'm bushed so to bed
I go!

Scream 4

So good.

Easter Menu

Oh by the by I'm hosting a little Easter lunch at my house. We have to have Josh back to his mom by 4pm, so going to my parents is out (we are going up Friday instead to see them) and Jon's mom and phil are going to be out of town, so I figured I'd see what my brothers and doing and they said sure! Jon's g-ma and g-pa are now coming too and we need to see if his dad and michelle want to come. Anywho, I'm super excited b/c I've never hosted a holiday before! Here is the menu. I'm cooking for 7-9 people. Thoughts?

ham

potato salad

cheesy carrot casserole

green bean casserole

salad

rolls

cheesecake

deviled eggs - jon's g-ma

apple pie - jon's g-ma

weekend ramblings

Man oh man what is up?! I love the weekend. So lovely. Anywho, yesterday Jon and I did pretty much nothing and it was awesome! I did manage to go to walmart to do our grocery shopping and did do a little laundry. Other than that, there was sleeping super late, coffee drinking, napping, watching the tele, and lazing about in general. So lovely. You have to have days like that every once in a while. Sure we have a sink full of dishes that need washed and the house really needs picked up, but oh well. Today we are going to meet up with Kate to see Scream 4! I am a big fan of the first 3, so I really hope this lives up to them. I have a suspicion it won't, but I'm not going to judge until I see it! Oh and while I was at the wally world, I picked up a few flower bulbs to plant. We are going to plant some peonies, dahlias, and lilies in our flower bed. I think I'm going to fill in the empty spots with some annuals and then this fall I plan on planting some tulips. I am so freakin' happy that spring is here! Yea! Anyway, I'm off to live my life so that I can blog about it later!

Music is good for the soul

Here are just a few artists I have been listening to a lot lately. Some are very familiar, some maybe not so much. Check them out. You never know who you might really like!

George Winston

The Civil Wars

Christina Perri

Britney Spears

Coconut Records

Dave Matthews Band

A Fine Frenzy

The Beatles

Happy End

Iron and Wine

Jonny Lang

Pretties from my camera

I have been loving my Easter lilies lately, so I took some photos. I think they turned out pretty good!

Grumble

So we found out why our internet has been so fickle. The cable is totally exposed and has been for some time now. They must not have buried it very deep when they hooked up our house. It is exposed in 2 separate places, and one of them has no rubbery stuff around the extra cable. Just bare cable laying in our yard! So ridiculous. Anywho, we're still trying to get them to come out and fix it. Grrr.

In extremely sad news, Jon's dad had to have his dog put down. That is the 4th animal of people I know that has had to be put down in 1 1/2 months! What is the deal! Anyway, it's very sad. Sampson (the dog) was 10 I think and Jon's dad had had him since he was a bitty pup. Sad.

In better news, the weather was gorgeous today. Bad news is that it's supposed to suck for the foreseeable future. So tonight called for a visit from my lil' bro Zach, Chinese for dinner, and then a bubble bath. Perfect combo for a better mood! All I've been up to lately has been work, chores, planning my flower bed, hanging with the fam, dreaming of seeing my new nephew soon, and trying to keep my allergies under control. I took some pretty pictures of a tree in our yard, so I'll try to post those if the internet lasts long enough. Toodles!

Edit: Internet is still hanging in there, so here are some pic's.

Zach

The hubs
A pretty tree in our back yard

Urban Decay and Lush Hauls

I had ordered some stuff, prior to my spending freeze and they came in! Please excuse the crappy pictures, I took them at night and the lighting was terrible!

First up, Urban Decay! I ordered the Sustainable Palette...

and the Summer of Love palette...

Love them! I have really fallen in love with Urban Decay eye shadows!

Up next is my Lush haul! I got the following:

Godiva Shampoo Bar

Creamy Candy Bubble Bar

Melting Marshmallow Moment Bath Melt

The Comforter Bubble Bar

Twilight Bath Bomb

Blackberry Bath Bomb

Sex Bomb Bath Bomb

Dorothy Bubble Bar

Honey I Washed the Kids Soap

Rock Star Soap

My two samples were Red Rooster Soap and The Blonde Shampoo Solid Shampoo. Jon is kinda blonde, so I'll let him use The Blonde. Everything we got smells so good! I cannot wait to start using them!

My new nephew

Sorry for my absence, our internet has been totally wacked out and it's working for the moment, so here is the most important thing we've bee up to....meeting my new nephew!

Grayson or Greyson Matthew!

8lbs 10 oz 21 inches long

Arrived 4/10/2011 at 4am

My sis and bro-in-law aren't sure how they are going to spell his name yet. also, I really hope I got his length right! He is super adorable! I can't wait to get to cuddle with him some more!

Sidenote: Hopefully our internet problem will get fixed and I'll be back to blogging soon!

bird poop sucks

Man I am loving this weather! It has been so nice all week and it is supposed to continue to be in the 60's and 70's all through next week! Woop! I think we may just get our lawn furniture tomorrow! Hopefully we find something we like. I want to eat dinner outside! Oh yeah, and about that title? We have a lot of trees in our yard, and while I was sitting outside reading this evening, a bird dropped a lovely little treat on my shoulder! So gross! Yeah. Oh and my peonies are starting to come up, and my lilacs are getting buds, and I think a lily I planted last year is coming up, AND (that's a lot of ands!) I bought an easter lily at the store and after they bloom, I may try to transplant it into the ground. Does that work? I don't know. I try though! I pink puffy heart spring! Anywho, I hope you are all out enjoying this weather...er...if it's nice where you are!

gobbledegook

What a week! I am so glad tomorrow is Friday! Last night we had Pat's (a friend of Jon's mom) birthday party at Bubba's. We had dinner there and take some advice. GET THE FRIED MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!! These things were awesome! Oh yum. NOM! Ok anywho, then tonight we had Thirsty Thursday at Jon's mom's. Phil made ribs and they were yummy! Oh and man my sinuses and allergies are going nuts! I am so feeling icky! I hate allergy season! Jon and I are taking turns sleeping on the couch b/c my snoring is so bad! Sigh. And that's what we've been up to!

Chili Dog Chili

Last night I made chili dogs and tried my hand at homemade sauce. I didn't measure anything, so these are all estimates.

1 lb ground beef

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/8 cup bbq sauce

1/2 tbsp mustard

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

cracked pepper and sea salt to taste

Brown ground beef. Add all other ingredients and mix, heating through. Serve on top of hot dogs!

i got mah hur did!

So today Jon and I decided to get our hair cut! Jon needed his cut pretty bad and I wanted a trim and some layers so we headed to Fantastic Sams. I haven't had a haircut I liked since....well ever. I think it's becuase I always go in with a very specific look in mind and it never turns out the way I want it. Today I just let the girl do her thing with my hair and I love the way it turned out!

After that we did our grocery shopping, then had some lunch at home. Then we spent the day with David and Kate! We just ran around various places looking through stores. After we got back home, we called Dustin and Amber and went over to their house. We spent the rest of the night there then headed home for good around 11:30pm. Such a busy day, but such a good day! I love days where I get to see my favorite people and just have fun hanging out! Oh plus the sun was out and that was an added bonus to a perfect day!

Best Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

My mom-in-law called and today and asked me if I wanted some strawberry's. Sure! So what is a girl to do with strawberry's? Make strawberry shortcake! I did a little experimenting and came out with the best strawberry shortcake evah! This is in a big individual serving or two small servings.

2 cups chopped strawberry's

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp white sugar

dash vanilla

1 can of 5 refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

Mix the strawberry's, 1 tbsp each sugar and a dash vanilla extract. Let sit. Mix 1/2 cup each sugar on plate. Roll biscuits in sugar mix and bake according to directions. Serve strawberry's over cooked biscuits.

Happy April Fools!

Howdy! Happy April Fools Day! No practical jokes came my way today, but I don't mind! Anywho, there isn't much going on here. Just a little announcement to make. Oh and no this isn't an April Fools. It's time for a spending freeze. I've been spending too much lately, so I'm officially putting myself on time out! I am not allowed to spend money for nonessentials until the end of April. 1 month to go. You will see a couple hauls, but those were orders put in before today, April 1st. Sigh. I just love shopping so much! Oh well, it must be one! One thing I won't be waiting to buy is lawn furniture! I can't wait! As soon as we get our tax return, we are going to get a set for the back patio! Woop!

Lush Haul

So hello there! This week was long and crazy. I am so very glad it's Friday! Ahhhhh. Ok just have to start with this cuteness!

Topeka doesn't like when I take pictures of him. Oh well. ;) Anyway, I'll start by saying that Lush is ahmahzing! Seriously! Here is what I got!

A Fizzbanger bath bomb. I already used it *insert sheepish face here* I did take a couple pictures of it in action though! It smelled like lemon candy and went from yellow to blue. The water turned a lovely shade of green! Also, once the blue part started fizzing, it sound like there were PopRocks in my bath! I didn't even have to use lotion after my bath! This bomb made my skin so soft!

A Dream Time bath melt. I have to admit I really don't care for the smell of this. I think I'll use it when I have a cold, b/c it really cleans out the sinuses!

A Ma Bar bubble bar. Smells so good! I can't wait to use this!

A Too Drunk Emotibomb. He's just cute! I can't place the scent, but I think it would also be good for use when I have a cold!

My personal favorite, the Dorothy bubble bar. OMG! It smells so flarking good! Like lilacs! I really really can't wait to use this one!

I got samples of the Fig and Leaves and Ice blue soaps. They both smell nice, but I have to say the Fig and Leaves smells so good! The Ice Blue is a little strong. Smells kinda like Icy Hot and a men's cologne.

So that's my Lush haul! I already put in another order to try some more things, so look for that coming up!