Superbowl Sunday

Have I ever told you that I have the greatest husband ever!!! Just let me tell you what we did on Superbowl Sunday....we.went.grocery.shopping.....

That's right, on the one day of the year when a lot of guys just want to veg out on the couch and watch the big game, my sweetie pie went to not only one, but two grocery stores with me! I love that sweet guy more than words could tell you.

We were planning to pop in Wal Mart and get the essentials, then dash over to Sam's Club to stock up on some bigger items. I was somehow under the impression that the grocery stores would be deserted because of all the people watching football, but I was sadly mistaken.

Apparently hundreds of thousands of people waited until the last minute to pick up their snacks and food for the big game. The store was overrun by mad men dashing up and down the aisles, frantically grabbing chips and dips, cheeses and meats. Food was flying through the air like a frenzied hurricane with absolutely no regard for proper shopping cart etiquette *laughs*

We somehow managed to dart up and down the aisles and gather up the bare essentials and then head for the check out.....oh the check out lines.....it's all a blur now, but we somehow survived.

Luckily Sam's club was a little more laid back. No maniacs screeching around the corners with their shopping carts hopped up on two wheels, children hanging on for dear life. We breathed a sigh of relief and finished our shopping.

We made it home about fifteen minutes into the game. I think Kenny deserves the Vince Lombardi trophy for putting up with all that! *laughs*

We watched the remainder of the first half and then I felt the urge to do some great snack cooking. I made my favorite, chewy chocolate chip cookies... Next I whipped up a gigantic heap of chex mix. Kenny's Grandma always makes a yummy batch for Christmas eve and Kenny loves it!
And last but not least I was dying to try out this new recipe for Jalapeno popper dip. The recipe was posted on one of my favorite blogs, ourbestbites. If you're ever looking for a fun new recipe you should check them out!! They have the best recipes!
This dip was heaven on a plate, creamy jalapeno goodness. Oh, I'm drooling just thinking about it.Here's the recipe in case any one wants to share in my joy *grins*

Jalapeno Popper Dip
Recipe from Our Best Bites
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese (light works great)
1 c. mayonnaise (light also works here, but DON'T use Miracle Whip!)
1 c. Parmesan cheese
1 4-oz. can fire roasted green chilies
1/2 4-oz. can diced jalapeno peppers, drained
1-2 sourdough baguettes, sliced, and/or crackers

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine the ingredients and spread into a 9" pie plate or a small baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until dip is bubbly and golden brown.

I actually halved this recipe, since it was just me and Kenny and it worked out great. Try it, if you like cheesy spicy goodness you won't be sorry!

The whole while I was cooking away in the kitchen Kenny was calling out the play by play to me *laughs* I was finished up in time to watch the last quarter and we enjoyed watching Drew Brees celebrate the Saints victory with his little son. So sweet...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Wow! I think this has been the snowiest winter of my adult life and I'm loving every moment *grins* Ever since Christmas we've had snow just about every other week. It just makes our home feel so snug and warm when you look outside and see those enormous flakes falling down onto a deep field of white.
This is outside on our back patio looking over towards the pool.
And our sweet little vegetable garden covered in snow. Poor things, I'm amazed those basil plants come back strong every year!

We really had a great time during the snow storm. Kenny's school was closed for FOUR days and I got to stay home from work Thursday afternoon and all day Friday making for a nice looong weekend. *smiles*

We decided to spend a couple nights camping in the living room. It's such a treat. Kenny gets a huge fire roaring in the fire place and we bring our mattress out into the living room and spend the evening snacking and watching a movie or playing a board game. Such fun! It feels like we're on vacation in a snowy cabin in Colorado, waking up to the crackling fire keeping us warm.

One night we decided to bundle up and go for a snowy walk around our neighborhood. It was so quiet and peacefully still. No cars on the streets and all the people tucked safe and warm in their beds.
We had a specific mission in mind for our walk.... Every year when a winter storm comes blowing through, as I drive up our street in the twilight after work, I notice an enchanted tree. There is a street light behind it that casts a beautiful glow through the icy cold fog and the branches dance in the light like elegant crystalline fingers.
We just had to go and take a picture to share with you guys!

The next morning we were amazed to see how deep the snow was, even on the street!
This is looking East down the road right in front of our house. I love the way the snow collects on top of the tree branches giving them a pretty dusting of bright white.
Here is a photo of our house. I'm so thankful we've got a warm comfortable place to enjoy during the blizzard. Hope you guys all had as much fun as we did!

Guest bedroom remodel!

Kenny and I have one more fun remodel project to share with you! I'm embarrassed that they are so few and far apart, but we seem to get tied up doing other things and having fun....oh well, everyone goes at their own pace I suppose. And this one has really got us motivated to press on and get more work done!

Here is our before picture of the guest bedroom when we purchased the house...

Woo Hoo, that's a pink room *grins* Pink and silver metallic wall paper, and navy blue shag carpet...so, some of our first few steps involved wall paper removal, texturing the walls and repairing any flaws or nail holes, and ripping up that blue carpet.

Next we picked out a beautiful green (my favorite) paint color and replaced the old light fixture and fan with a brand new flush mount modern fixture.
Here I am doing some of the wiring for the new fixture, yay!

You can also see we hadn't painted the edges of the room yet *laughs* It was really fun to see what a difference the paint alone made. A big improvement in our eyes.

Then after the paint and fixtures were all updated, the next big decision was what to do on the floors. Carpet, tile, laminate, hardwoods...?.... We have both always loved the gorgeous rich luxurious look of hardwood floors so we decided to do some price checking around town. We were pleasantly surprised that hardwood floors weren't extravagantly more expensive than carpet, in fact, when you consider the price for installation of a nice carpet (something we weren't sure we could do ourselves) it actually turns out about the same as the hard wood!

So, we went exploring several times to our local Home Depot, Lumber Liquidators and some other hard wood flooring stores. We brought home a few samples and compared them to the existing wood trim we have in our house. Unfortunately we weren't really wowed by any of them. So, we kept looking online and discovered a beautiful maple wood that we were absolutely in love with.

I immediately ordered a sample and when it came in the mail and I opened the package my heart palpitated with glee! It was perfection!! AND within our price range! We ordered the wood and the underlayment and just waited with anticipation. About a week later Kenny picked up our boxes of wood and once we got them home we opened them right up to acclimate to the environment, but more so that we could see them and just drool *grins*

Next came some very important prep work. We cleaned off the concrete where the carpet and carpet pad had been, removed the carpet tack strips and Kenny, with a very special set of skills, gently removed all the base boards.
We also removed the closet doors and took the main door off it's hinges, just to give us plenty of room to work. Next we needed to under cut all of the door frames so that the wood flooring would have plenty of room to slide underneath, leaving a nice beautiful finish.
We used the underlayment and the sample piece of the wood (turned upside down to protect the finish) to determine the thickness and Kenny used an under cut saw to make all the cuts.
He's so good! We truly enjoy spending time together doing anything and have so much fun working on projects together. I don't know what I'd do without him.

then after one more good sweeping and vacuuming to get all those tiny pieces of sawdust up we were ready to lay the underlayment. This was probably the hardest part of the whole project *laughs*
We wanted to make sure it was super flat and completely smooth. We used small weights to hold down each end and even resorted to using 185 lbs of Kenny at one point *laughs*
He kept the sides from rolling down while I used a small razor blade knife to cut out around the closet and doorway.

We duct taped the seams of the underlayment, as per the package directions and were ready to go!

The first few rows went down without a hitch. We had borrowed two power saws from my Dad (thank goodness for Dad's, they are life savers!) and boy were we excited for the inaugural use of the compound miter saw. At the end of the row I measured the exact length of board we'd need to finish off the row and we proceeded out side for cut number one!
We always make a point to wear safety equipment, ear protectors and safety glasses and the such. I'm so glad that Kenny is safety conscious and protects that one set of ears and one set of eyes that he's got.
Before we plugged it in I excitedly grabbed the handle of the miter saw to demonstrate it's smooth as silk sliding and movement but was jerked to a halt....pulling with the strength of Hercules, "grrr, this thing is stuck, what's wrong" I mumbled under my breath.... "it needs WD40, go get me some WD40 Kenny" I said with authority. He of course lovingly complied and brought me a nice can of lubricant spray. But, before I went crazy hosing down Dad's saw with oil Kenny reached underneath and quickly loosened the lock allowing the saw to slide smoothly and easily on it's track. (yes, my face turned three shades of red) "I'll just keep this WD40 handy in case" I laughed.

So, from there on out Kenny was the saw expert. I measured and marked and he made every cut with ease *grins*
We worked basically all day, only stopping to glance at the Vikings vs. Saints championship football game between saw cuts and to grab a bit to eat. Yes, we caved on our no eating out for the month of January and ate McDonald's. It's okay, we needed a quick easy supper and we're back on track now. *smiles*

We worked and worked adding row after row. The closet and doorway required a skillful hand and lots of measuring. This time Kenny got to use my Dad's table saw to plane the boards down to the proper width.
This table saw was a really nice one that folds down to about two feet high for storage. Well, it took a few tries to figure out how to "unfold" the table saw so that it would stand up to regular table height. At one point Kenny suggested "let's just leave it low and pretend that we're midgets" *grins* well, I finally figured this one out and we had an adult sized, fabulous table saw *winks*
We also made use of Kenny's beautiful work bench that Dad made him for Christmas! It was the perfect height and came in so handy! Thanks Dad!!

Finally, our hard work was finished and we just stopped, stood back and admired the most gorgeous dark maple hardwood floors we'd ever seen.

We still need to refinish and re-attach the baseboards, and of course move some furniture and accessories in, but we felt quite a sense of accomplishment and can't wait to add more wood floors to our home!

Thanks for joining in the adventure! *grins*

New Years & general update

Wowiee! We have had a fun and busy new year. I can't believe I've gotten so behind on my blogging. The first of the month is always a busy time at work, we manage about sixty rental properties and I handle all of the book keeping involved.... so when the first of the month rolls around the rent checks start pouring in and I get super busy. Then, on top of that, the first of the year is especially busy because I'm trying to get all the 1099's and tax stuff finalized and prepared for our accountant. Needless to say I'm a busy little bee. So, please accept my apologies and I'll try to get back on track now *grins*

And what better to get us all updated than a fabulous list! (I love lists!)

1. We celebrated New Years eve with a bang. We enjoyed the evening spending time with my Mom and Dad, Julie and Neil who were luckily in town, and my sweet youngest sister Lori. We snacked and talked and laughed a lot, played Mario Cart wii and stayed up waaaaaay past midnight! Here we are blowing our neat-o noise makers *winks*

2. Kenny and I don't have any "official" New Year's resolutions, but if you asked us to write some down I'm sure they'd include eating healthier and working out more routinely. We've made a pledge to not have fast food or eat out even once for the entire month of January. So far so good. I get a little brain dead trying to think up new and fun things to eat for dinner, but we're enjoying it so far.

We've also done pretty good following a work out routine. Kenny bought me a Wii fit board and Wii fit plus for Christmas (woo hoo!!) and we are having a blast working out on this fun toy! Usually I'll start out on the elliptical for thirty minutes while Kenny uses the wii fit then we'll switch and workout for thirty more minutes. It's really fun and seems to actually burn some calories *grins* Every Monday we do a body fitness test and "weigh-in". It's neat to actually see some physical results up there on the screen!

Another fun gift that I got Kenny for Christmas is a Sauna! Kenny had mentioned in passing how neat it would be to have a sauna, not thinking at all that it could become a reality. Well, I found a great deal on one on Craigslist and just pounced on it! My parents set it up for me on our back patio while we were gone to Kansas for Christmas and when we got back home and opened up our gifts I walked him outside into the back yard for his last present....let me tell you what, he was SO SURPRISED!!

This is a picture I found online

We have really been enjoying it. It is such a relaxing treat after a hard workout! We sit in it for about thirty minutes almost every night and just read or listen to music (it has a fun sound system inside) *grins*

3. This kind of goes along with "working out", but we have become more dedicated with our running as well. If you'll remember, we signed up to run the OKC Memorial half marathon at the end of April. Well, that date is creeping closer everyday, so we've got a running schedule planned out and have been following it pretty faithfully since the middle of January. My longest run so far has only been about four miles, but I'm building leg strength every day and hoping and praying that I'll continue to get stronger and run farther and be ready for that 13.1 miles in April, whew!

This is the schedule that I'm trying to follow. Kenny's mom told me about it and said it was a good training schedule for a beginner.

4. It's not all hard work and working out here at the Schell house, we've had fun watching soccer, football and college basketball games! I've got to admit, Kenny has completely converted me to a Kansas basketball fan. I was screaming my heart out watching the K-State Wildcats play against Texas *laughs*

We've also been rooting for Brett Favre and the Vikings to make it to the super bowl, so I was pretty sad last night when some unfortunate turn overs left them empty handed. *sniff, sniff*
Oh well, there's always next year.... right Brett Favre?!?

5. And last but certainly not least we celebrated my beautiful Mom's birthday by having a yummy pot luck lunch last Sunday afternoon. Mom got up at four o'clock in the morning to put in a yummy pot roast and get the Rhoades rolls rising. Good gracious! You shouldn't have to wake up early on your birthday!? We are sure lucky you are our Mom!
Kenny and I brought potato casserole and some yummy broccoli and Lisa treated us all with a scrumptious Hawaiian wedding cake!

We had a great time just hanging out with the family. We sure love you Mom and hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration!!

Christmas!

Do you know what one of my very favorite things about Christmas is...? Spending time with family. I'm glad that we get to spend time with Kenny's family and so very thankful that my sweet family can postpone our Christmas celebration and still celebrate Christmas together on New Years Day!

Look at these beautiful sisters I get to share my Christmas with!!

We all gathered together at my Mom and Dad's and had a lovely house full. For the past few years we've made it a tradition to wear our pajamas all day long as we open presents, eat and play games. It's super comfortable and makes it feel like the good old days of jumping out of bed the second you wake up and running down the hall to open gifts on Christmas morning.
Look at Bryce and Griffin's cutsey matching jammies! They had sweet little monkeys all over them *grins*
Here are my Dad and Mom in front of the Christmas tree. They got a good deal on a real tree this year, that was a yummy smelling treat!
Kenny and I wore some fun and Christmasy Charlie Brown PJ's *laughs*
We're always glad when Neil and Julie get to come visit from Missouri, another added bonus to our New Years Christmas celebration.
And this is my youngest sister Lori and Matt, her sweet boyfriend.
Oh we had a grand time opening presents. We always take turns, youngest to oldest, opening one gift at a time, oohing and aahing and enjoying each and every gift. It it so special to see the facial expressions and know that the recipient just loves what you got them!

Here's Dad opening a gift, I betcha it was a sweet treat like some Reisen candies, those always make him grin *winks*Mom's got her hands full with her favorite gift! Aren't they both so cute. I can remember last Christmas when Bart and Lisa announced that Bryce would have a baby brother....and here he is! I can't imagine life without sweet Griffin *grins*
Kenny and I got Bart a fun gift. Kenny found and bought some autographed and game used Jason White (Former quarterback for OU) football cards and we framed them for him. He's a huge OU fan as well as an alumni! Julie got a great rolling pin and wonderful nut chopper. I bet she'll be making some yummy treats with both of those! Here's beautiful Lori, smiling away...

You can't beat this expression on Bryce's face! Pure joy! He got a dancing talking dump truck from Grandma and Ha-ah (Grandpa)Griffin even got in on the present opening....can you see his sweet little hand pulling that paper off!

One of the Son-in-law's highlights of the evening was when my Dad took them out in his garage to give them one of their gifts...
These amazing hand made work benches! They are such a treasure. My Dad made them for each of his son-in-laws and the bench tops are extra special. They are the actual work bench tops from where he began his career at Western Electric when he was a young man and worked there all the way to becoming a Senior Engineer to retirement! Wow! Talk about a keepsake. I think it is too beautiful for the garage. We'll have to put it in our kitchen or dining room! *winks*

We finished off the evening with a ton of delicious food and just had a wonderful holiday celebration! I am so thankful for my precious family.