We Didn't Start the Fire

I promise we didn't. But we would have... Who just started singing the song when you read the title? Holla 1980's!

So here's the deal. When we moved into 313, there were a few things that I briefly looked over during inspection and didn't notice that things were amiss until after we'd moved in. For example, the dishwasher tilts out if you have either drawer all the way out. Doesn't matter if it's empty.  It scared the bejeebies out of me the first time it happened! One thing that I didn't pay attention to - but wasn't really a landlord's concern - was the lack of drip pan in the oven. Dun dun dun... I was so used to my beloved drip pan at 1007 that I didn't even think to look before I prepared our yummy mini meatloaves (made in a cupcake pan) this week for dinner. Let me repeat: I love a drip pan. When they get messy, you just replace it. End of happy story.

Anyway, here's what happened this week. Saturday night meatloaf. Cue the big greasy mess I didn't know about. Monday we used the oven for a baked Mac & Cheese. I noticed a little smoke and told Chase that something must have dripped. Tuesday we had roast so no oven necessary. Today we had lasagna. I made it the night before so the hubs only had to put it in the oven to heat it up this afternoon. That's when everything got smoky. For real. All of a sudden we had nasty smoke billowing from the oven and the smoke detectors were screaming. SCREAMING. The dogs freaked out. The hubby started fanning the smoke detector with a pan. I opened doors. Mess. We ended up heating our lasagna in small pieces in the microwave which worked ok.

After we got back from our class at church, I assessed the situation and went to the only reliable source in a crisis like this...google. I read several things, but the most convincing was about homemade cleaning solutions. They suggested dampening the area and then covering it with baking soda. Let that soak for 20 minutes and then just wipe it up. Yeah. Ok. I can only tell you the rest in pictures...

Here's the before shot. Look at that mess. Yuck.

Baking soda. This is when my hopes were up.

After 20 minutes, I started to "just wipe it away" as instructed and

this is what I got. This nasty brown paste. Gag.

Then I decided to pull out the big guns and switch from the rag and hot water

(seen at the bottom of the picture) to the good ole scratchy sponge.

I wiped away the rest of the powder and then rinsed out the bowl. I noticed that the

paste wasn't coming out of the bowl so easy, so I hit it with some dawn. And wouldn't

ya know, it cleaned it up immediately. So Dawn to the rescue! Hey, if it's good for

the penguins, it's good for the oven.

Thanks to a lot of scrubbing with my booty in the air and a little help from the hubs...

We have this! All is right with the world.

If I wanted to be nit picky, I'd keep scrubbing that right side until all those little spots went away, but I can leave that for another day. It's clean enough that we shouldn't have a smoking gun oven anymore.

Hall-le-lu-yer.

Has anyone else made a huge cleaning mistake like this? That 'paste' was enough to make me gag. Have you noticed that I love the dot dot dot? ... I use it a lot...

Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

Guess who's in the mood to be crafty! Wait for it...wait for it... THIS GIRL! My crafty mojo seems to come and go these days based on how crazybusy my life is. I've had this little project in mind since we went to the beach last month. I got my inspiration from YHL (which by the way happens to be my # 1 obsession blog right now). They did this cute shadow box with keys from their past apartments and houses. (Follow the link to see their post about the keys. And go ahead and do yourself a favor and add them to your must read list. You don't have to thank me later.)

I thought it was such a cute idea but didn't know if it would be just right for us.

Yes, we've moved a lot (3 times in 2 years of marriage), but somehow in all the chaos we didn't end up with any spare keys. My problem-solver husband quickly said 'Ashley you can just get any key. Nobody will know that it's not really the key to that house.' To which I promptly responded 'But I'll know and my OCD will not let me forget it!' So it was a no-go on the keys for us.

BUT, cue the happy music... While we were at the beach last month, I picked up a cute little off-white sea shell and a project was born.

The Plan:

=> Get a shadow box on the cheap. They are included in the 50% off frame sale at Hobby Lobby so I know they'll be on sale soon.

=> For the background, I scored an awesome deal on a book of scrapbook paper in different shades of metallic blue from Marshall's while we were on our way back from the beach. It was around $4.00.

=> Figure out a way to hang the shell in the box. I've thought about a thumbtack since it's not so long, but I'm worried about hanging the shell. Since I know I can change out the color of the paper over the years, I may just hot blue it in place???

=> Find the perfect spot in the house to hang said Sea Shell Shadow Box. (Say that 5 times fast) saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox. Yes I did just do that. But I know you read it, so HA.

=> Regain focus on this post

=> Write Folly 2011 on Mr. Shell. This part is done. Here's how that went down...

It appears that writing on a sea shell isn't exactly elementary my dear Watson. It's actually pretty intense. I thought I could just scribble it out with my handy dandy sharpie and call it a day, but no dice. Luckily, I started with a pencil to trace out where I wanted everything, so I was able to adjust when I ran into the sharpie snag.

  

I ended up using the sharpie on the whole phrase, but then I went back with the pencil and filled in all the little cracks to make it as solid as possible. I'm probably going to go over it again with a really thin sharpie just to make it more bold and solid.

My vision for this is that in 12 years we'll have a cute little shadow box with 12 cute little shells that spell out the beach we visited and the year. It's fun, it's simple, and it's really personal. Love it.

To be continued...

Do What When?

If I could have a sub-title for this post it would be: 'Over-sharing At Its Finest'
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind for me. Is anybody out there with me? It seems like the second I get one issue resolved, something else pops its ugly little head up. Thankfully, I have a hubby who acts as the duct tape that holds me together.

We started off the month by going to the Lady Doctor (as I lovingly call her) to discuss the next step in our quest for parenthood. She told me some things she'd like for me to do first, I told her what I would and wouldn't do in the process, and then we landed on Clomid. (Click the link to learn more about it.) She basically said that we could give it a try and see how it works for us. It's only wise to take 6 rounds (and by rounds I mean taken in conjunction with 6 cycles), so the heat is on. Well, at least I thought it would be. The closer I get to the actual date that I start taking it, I am finding myself very calm and collected about the whole thing. Yes, it could work and we'll have a baby (or 2!) or it could not work and we'll be heading the adoption route. Either way, for us the end result is adding a Todd-ler or two to our crazy little family.

So back to the title of this post... It was actually pretty funny sitting in the room with Chase who had never been in a torture chamber gyno's office before and was being a total middle-schooler every time she said sex. He sat in his corner and giggled... It was hard to be nervous with all that going on behind her. She was rambling off all these numbers and days and when we needed to take what. I finally just said "Are you going to write this down? I mean, is there a quiz at the end?" Luckily, the good doc has a sense of humor and assured me that she'd have her nurse write it down for me. I'm going to share it with you guys so you can be just as confused as I am...thank goodness I've had to repeat it so many times that I actually have my head wrapped around it...

Day 35 of cycle, if I haven't started, take Provera for 10 days
Day 45 of cycle, you should start new cycle
Day 5 of new cycle, take dose 1 of Clomid
Day 9 of cycle, take dose 5 of Clomid
Day 12 of cycle, have fun
Day 14 of cycle, have fun
Day 16 of cycle, have fun
Day 18 of cycle, have fun
Day 21 of cycle, come back for blood work

She made Chase blush by specifically telling him not to even try on the odd days even though she knows he's a man and he'll want to. I thought that was hilarious! We are not too far in to the process and with everything hinging on my PCOS and my cycle working with me and not against me, I could be in a holding pattern for a little while. Hopefully I'll be moving forward soon!

That's all I've got for now.

Come and Knock on Our Door

I think it's high time that I write the post about what 313 looks like. (Side Note: These pics were taken with my cell phone so some of them are blurry...sorry.)

Our dining 'room'. Which we consider to be the heart of our home. What can I say? We love our friends and family through food.

Our tiny little kitchen. So far it gets the job done. The space we traded from the kitchen in 1007, we gained in the amazing serving space below.

I love this beast of an 'island'. It's got massive cabinets underneath. We can store all of our serving dishes and more in there. While I was unpacking, Artie walked around under there...it was like his own little playhouse. :-)

 A wide view of the living room. It seems kind of small in this picture, but it's actually quite large in person. We love the french doors that lead out to our little patio. The coolest perk of this particular home is that we get to watch the sun set every night. It's beautiful! We just sit and giggle about how awesome it is every night.

The TV wall in the living room. That's so not even the TV that goes in this room...not sure what we were thinking plopping that dinosaur down in that room. 

The couch wall in the living room. We've done some really fun things here and I can't wait to share! :-)

The master bedroom. Our bed will go on this wall. Keep walkin' folks, not much to see here. Well, not at this point anyway. This is where the magic happens. Your'e welcome Chase.

This is the wall opposite the bed.  Our dresser and TV live here.

The master bath. Pretty straightforward and plain.

Ignore the mess. I only show you this to show that I have a cute little nook to sit down and put on my makeup in the morning. :-) It makes me so happy!!!

This space just happens to be one of the best kept secrets in the house. Our closet/laundry room.

 I know the builders did this to save on space, but I am in LOVE with the idea of the laundry room in the master closet. It may not work for our future house, but I'm rockin' it right now. (Coincidentally, this picture marks the last time we actually saw the whole floor. We're not so good with keeping shoes/clothes/towels/randomness off the floor.)

The laundry side of the room. It's got tons of space for our clothes and for the appliances.

The guest bedroom. Blah. But not for long!

The guest closet. It's kind of small, but good for our storage needs. It's home to the extra linens, the vacuum, and anything else that doesn't have a designated home. And no, we didn't put those two random rows of hooks on that wall. The first time we saw them, we made up stories about what the previous tenants used them for. Good ole Todd fun. :-)

The guest room looking out into the kitchen. It also has a door into the hall bath. Perfect for my friends *eh hem*Julie* who like to go streaking out of the bathtub and into their bedroom when they spend the night. :-)

Well, that's the whole tour. It's a whole lot of tan blahness right now but I know it'll start looking a whole lot better once we give it the Todd-touch.

I'm going to challenge my blog sistas to give me a tour of their homes too. Two of my best buds - Sheyna and Courtney have moved to new homes and I've yet to see them. Come on girls! Since I can't come to you right now, bring your house to me! :-)

Somebody call Scooby and the gang!

There's a new monster in town. And her name is Ashley on Pinterest!!! I can feel a Pinterest Anonymous club being created soon...*maybe I should search for it and pin it*no wait that's exactly what I'm talking about*  Anyway...

Life here has been good in the 313. She's a much more airy, sunny place than our previous 1007. I'd like to think that he was a boy because he was more dungeon-like and cold and was really messy crammed most of the time. I've yet to post about our new place and I plan to do that as soon as I take a picture of the dang house number. That's been on my to-do list for the past month and I've yet to step outside and snap the picture! Pitiful, I know!!!

We are in another season of money being tight, but we're making it. If there's anything we've learned from the past two years of marriage - and yes, I said TWO years! - it's that we have to cling to each other and continually go to God about supplying our needs. We have YET to be let down by our Provider.

On a similar note, Chase's business is going well. He's obsessed with these photography 'webinars' that he found for FREE online. I can tell he's learning a lot because each time he watches one, he spends the next few days with his other woman on his macbook and scribbling in a notebook. We're hoping for a very busy fall season with Santa pictures and a lot of family sessions. Say a prayer for us!

This is going to be short and sweet because I'm too ADD today (thanks to Pinterest) to focus on one thing for more than a few minutes.

Stay sassy!