Missouri Bound

We're headed to Missouri today for Trent's family reunion. We're staying all weekend. And since it's Labor Day on Monday, we have a three-day weekend which means more time to spend exploring down there! We'll be staying in the little town of Brookfield. There's lots of little towns and wilderness down there. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. We went last year, too, and it was lots of fun, since I had never been to that area before.

Last year we checked out the Great Pershing Balloon Derby....

The Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline....

 And I even went fishing for the first time ever.

Let's hope this year brings lots more fun and adventure!!

My Weekend

My weekend was wonderful. I stayed home almost the entire time. I finally got to sleep in, hang around the house, and get tons of cleaning and laundry done! Trent worked...and worked some more.  Which meant I had the house to myself the majority of the time!

Saturday morning before he left for work, we went out to the vegetable garden and picked some veggies for lunch. Here was our harvest for the day:



We had tons of lettuce growing, which is awesome for sandwiches.

And here is one of the watermelons we grew. I'm not sure of the variety that this one is, but I think it's a sweet red one, or something like that. We haven't cut into it yet, but I can't wait to see what it tastes like!

Trent made salsa using the tomatoes and some of the other veggies we picked. He also cooked up some veggies in pickle juice that was leftover from a jar of half-pickles I had. There were also carrots and other veggies left in the jar, so he mixed them all up for some pickled veggie goodness.

Here's our yummy finished salsa:

We ate it with tortilla chips, and I also made myself a sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce from the garden. I'm loving the yummy veggies!

After Trent went off to work I spent the day doing dishes, doing a few loads of laundry, and cleaning the house.

Saleen spent the day curled up by the air conditioning in the living room:

So glad I had time to clean, because it's so nice having a clean living room and kitchen!

I actually ate breakfast at the kitchen table yesterday, which rarely happens. Usually there's too much stuff on it. It's Trent's dumping ground when he comes home from work. Haha.

Last night Trent and I went grocery shopping after he got home. All in all, a productive weekend! Now...to find time to finish the landscaping!

Striped Wall Inspiration

For a while now, I've been thinking it would be so fun to do a patterned wall in our house. I thought about the bedroom wall that we have our frames on, and also - the hallway. Since the hallway isn't finished yet, I definitely think we need to try a striped wall, at least on one side first, and if it doesn't work out, we can always paint over it, right? Anyway, until that point comes when we can finally paint it, I've been gathering inspiration on my dear friend, Pinterest.

So, here is a gathering of a few of my favorite striped walls from the web:

I love the look of gray and white stripes together. This room is so charming.

(from here)

A nice neutral greige color with white makes for a quaint, rustic little guest bedroom.

  (from here)

A more modern, fun take on stripes. Closer together and a bolder color creates a more graphic, youthful look. I think this would be great in an apartment entryway or a kids' playroom.

(from here)

More neutral stripes...probably my favorite combination is the white with gray or greige look.

(from here and here)

So dreamy as an accent wall in a master bedroom.

 (from here)

Striped walls can also be SO adorable in a nursery.

(from here and here)

(from here)

I feel like with the right decor, what may seem like a "loud" pattern can actually be really calming and soothing, especially if you use two really soft, neutral tones. Love me some wall stripes!

A Saturday at Home (And Some Photos)

It's a little after 8:30 on a Saturday morning. What is wrong with this picture? ;) I got up at 7 today because I couldn't sleep. I finally had a day to sleep in and I didn't do so well! Oh well. Trent has been working nonstop over the past week or so, so we haven't had any time to finish the landscaping. I was hoping to get it done by the end of the month. It's still possible, though! I'm hoping our schedule will allow us to finish it next week before we head to Missouri for Trent's family reunion Labor Day weekend!

In the meantime, I am so very excited to stay home today!! Trent has to go into work again at 2:00 (He just got home at 6:00 am this morning and is now sleeping). My plan is to clean the living room and the kitchen, do my laundry, and wash the dishes. Exciting, right? I'm trying to stay quiet for now since Trent's asleep, so I'm blogging since I haven't written a post since Monday (I'm slipping I know), but I haven't had much to write about, since our lives have been all about work lately.

I'll leave you with a few photos I took about a month ago but don't think I ever posted. The sky was really pretty the night we were on our way to the drive-in.

Doesn't the sky look like a painting?

It's really out in the country around here. Cornfields and bean fields for miles.

Welp, I am off to clean! :)

Our Annual Wrigley Trip: Or the Trip That Started Out Good.

Hola! So we haven't had much time to work on house projects lately due to being really busy with work, and doing things like, oh I don't know, going to Cubs games! Yep, we had quite the busy weekend. We had our annual bus trip to Wrigley Field for the Cardinals/Cubs game on Saturday.

It's always a good time, but always a long and tiring day! I've been going with my dad on this bus trip since 2007. Haley and Trent usually go, too. We always start out early in the morning, stop somewhere for breakfast or lunch (this time we ate lunch at Portillo's), and don't get home until late at night. This year was by far the most interesting of them yet. But NOT in a good way.

The trip started out ok. We ate lunch and made it to Chicago - although there were a few scary moments when it seemed like the driver was losing control and had trouble turning in spots. We even talked about how the bus seemed really old and the driver said it was about 17 years old. It made us a little nervous, but we were mainly just excited for the game.

Since we arrived at Wrigley a couple of hours early, Trent and I headed down the street not too far to Goose Island Brewpub, a bar/restaurant that serves Goose Island local brews on tap. Trent and I both started out with Matildas - one of Trent's favorites but a bit too strong for my liking!

That didn't matter though, because I drank it all, like a champ! Ok, it took me a little long...but by the time Trent was done with his second, I had finally finished mine. Note for next time: Get the Sofie or the Cubby Blueberry! Both sounded good, but I was stuck with my way-too-heavy-and-strong-Matilda.

After we finished our beers, we checked out a shop that sold Cubs gear, then headed to the stadium for the game. I had so many snacks at the game! It was the only way I could enjoy my time, because watching the Cubs lose wasn't the best thing in the world. While waiting for the Cubs to get a hit, I had some peanuts, a large chocolate chip cookie, and Trent and I split some cheese and jalepeno-loaded nachos. No big deal. I also had a Bud Light, which was very refreshing after that God-awful Matilda Trent made me drink!



This was our view behind home plate. We were quite a ways up, but the view wasn't bad at all. I would really like to sit up in the rooftops sometime! We don't get to choose our seats for this trip though, since we have a huge group. Maybe sometime next year when we're by ourselves!

 

We had some fun at the game and all, but it was there that things took a turn for the worst! Not only did the Cubs get very few hits and end up losing 0-4, but we found out around the 7th inning or so that the power steering went out in our bus and they were bringing a new one. But we didn't know that we would be standing around for over two hours after the game waiting for it to arrive. They had to transfer all of our stuff - coats, snacks, etc. that we left on the other bus, to the new bus seat by seat. And drive all the way back to Wrigley to pick us up. We stood outside of the stadium until it was dark, watching some nearby locals play baseball in the fairly busy street in front of us. I have to say, that was the only real entertainment we had, and it was pretty entertaining. They were grown adults hitting plastic baseballs and sometimes hitting parked cars and pitching the ball OVER cars that drove by! While crossing guards walked by frequently minding their own business. Only in Chicago! Needless to say though, it was a LONG day, and we were extremely tired by the end of it. We thought we would get back home at 10:30, but it ended up being past midnight. None of us had the energy to stop anywhere on the way back either. Trent and I tried to sleep, but the bus seats weren't too comfy.

So anyway, that was our LONG and interesting Wrigley Trip of 2013. Here's hoping next year's is better!