The painting is DONE!!!!

Jon has worked SO HARD and finally - the painting is DONE!!! We are so happy with how everything has turned out. We still have the hallway to paint eventually, but we've crossed it off our list of things to do by Christmas. The things he has done all look great.

One of our walls in the kitchen, looking through the arch to our niche - Jon picked out the statue!

Dining Room - dark brown on the bottom and a light beige on top.

Living room - Jon hanging up our sconces.

We've also put up the Christmas tree and decorations. It's been a bit of a struggle to not want to go out and buy a boatload of new decorations to fill up this house we now have. But so far I've resisted and I think I'll do okay until things are on clearance after the holiday. We did finally get to put up our tree that we haven't seen since we bought it half-price the day after Christmas last year.






Jon put the Christmas lights on the house today and they look FABULOUS!!!! I need to take a picture of them -- coming soon.

Oh, and we've both had our first door-busting Black Friday shopping experience. We jumped out of bed at 3 and were out the door by 3:30 all ready to go. Kohl's was absolutely INSANE and we failed by not having a real plan for our day. But we made it through that madness with a few treasures and headed over to JC Penney for a few more things. Overall it was a good experience, and I'm ready to do it again next year! However, Jon is anxious to stay home with the baby. Here's a picture of us before we left the house.

Wow - Time to play catch up!

There are so many things I've wanted to blog about in the last month and a half. I've been keeping a mental list of them, but if you've ever been pregnant, or married to someone who's pregnant, you know how the brain is the first thing to go. I do know that my list consisted of discussing the Big State Fair of Texas, Texas/OU weekend, my birthday, painting....

But now it's Daylight Savings day, and I'm waaaay too tired to discuss any of this. Except maybe painting which we're in the middle of. Jon has completely finished the baby's room, with the exception of the pink or blue stripes that will be painted on, and possibly the wainscotting that might or might not be installed. He's also finished the bedroom which looks FANTASTIC! Two shades of green, chosen completely by him. He did great. Now we're in the middle of painting the kitchen and dining room. I'm not so sure about the colors this time, but we're going to give it another couple days and finish a few more sections before we completely decide.

We've got to have the builders out to inspect the floor this week. We've developed some serious grout cracks and cracked tiles in our kitchen and master bath. And this afternoon I also noticed a crack in the ceiling on the same line. Ahhh... the joys of homeownership!!!

We did manage to get the office a little more put together with all of our books now put away and our new filing cabinet being used in full force. I still have to clean out the junk from the guest bedroom that was transferred there when we started painting the baby's room.

Of course, I will be updating the baby blog. Click here for updated info!!!

New blog!

I've started a new blog for the baby. See it here.

Painting!

We spent all day Saturday painting. The nursery and the living room are almost done - just need to cut-in at the ceiling line. And Jon's TV has remained paint-free through it all! Woohoo!!! I knew I would be unable to lift it again in my present condition, so we wrapped the heck out of it with plastic. And it has survived beautifully.

Thank goodness!

I've posted a few pics and will post more once they're done. Hopefully this week after Jon's work week when he's able to finish painting. I'm not allowed on the ladder, which I'm fine with. I get freaked out on the second rung.

We LOVE the colors. Can't wait til it's done! Here's the living room.

Milk Chocolate

The red room is no more!! It took two coats of primer and a very patient Jon, but it is all gone. And the color about to go on?? Milk Chocolate! Seems as though we're getting the unborn baby off to a good start in this family of chocaholics.




Here is Jon starting the monstrous project.
And he's done!!!! At last!!!

Coming May 2008

This about says it all....

Mom, Crocs, and Cows

Mom visited!!!!!! We had such a fun time with her, and it was so great just to hang out. The overall purpose of her visit was to get her expert opinion on paint color and a few design things. But that became kind of secondary, of course, once she got here. We managed to run her pretty ragged since I wanted to make sure to we didn't forget to do something!

She did exert her influence in one major area - we are now Croc people!!!! She bought us each a pair and she left us an extra pair that didn't fit her very well. I need to take a picture of our new footwear. I will post soon!

One of the things we almost forgot to do while she was here was go to Southlake Town Center. I knew she would love it there because there are several painted cows scattered about. We hit Nestle Tollhouse (dessert first!!!), then Barnes and Noble, then Cheesecake Factory. On our way out, we found a parking spot and walked around to the various cows and took some fun pics.

I can't express how great it was to have her here, especially during such a memorable time that's going on for Jon and I. I truly can't wait for her to come back for another visit!!! And all the rest of ya'll too!!!! Get on down here!!!!

Taxes, headaches, and camels - oh my!

Okay, so Texas has a tax-free weekend every year. It's meant to give parents a break on back-to-school shopping for their kids, so all clothes, shoes and school supplies you buy from Friday thru Sunday are tax-free. I had never heard of this before, but apparently the idea is catching on around the country. We took advantage and hit Target - our favorite - and got Jon a few new shirts and me a new pair of jeans. Gotta love Target!

We had a slight change in the weather. The tropical storm Erin brought in some rain and wind and it's set off my sinuses. I had a huge headache all day yesterday and woke up with it still this morning. Jon was stuffy as well, so we weren't very exciting. But we did manage to squeeze in a game of "I Love the 80's" before he went to work. He beat me - but I think he'll readily admit that I gave him a few answers out of pity because I was kicking his butt for most of the game. Note to self: Never feel sorry for your competitors when playing I Love the 80's. I'm ready for a rematch.

And finally - I am so excited for my mom to come visit. Just a little over 2 weeks until she'll be here! I'm really looking forward to someone else seeing where we live. Not just the house, but the neighborhood, and the different roads leading to it. For instance, off the main highway on the road we take to our house, there is a taxidermist and a wild game processing place (the butcher you take the deer you just shot to so he can slice it up for you). So random! Also, on another highway we both take each day, we pass a big farm with rolling green hills, streams, bison, cows and sheep. The other day I was driving home and I saw a CAMEL on the farm!!! an actual camel. Probably one of the things I would least expect to see on a farm, especially on a farm in Texas!!!

Weird.

We did it!

One goal of mine in this house has been to get both cars parked in the garage. Yesterday we put a few boxes of Christmas decorations (and a few more of my boxes) up in the attic and I got to work rearranging what was left while Jon mowed the lawn. Soon it was done!!! I was so happy to have accomplished that little feat - and in 100+ degree weather! Of course it required moving a few of the random objects I had no idea what to do with into the house - still with no idea where to put them. But I guess I'll figure that out with time.








I did tell Jon something I will probably come to regret in the future. I drive through my neighborhood and see the garages that are open and either half-full or completely full of stuff with no room to park both cars. I said that if we ever have too much stuff where we can't fit both cars in the garage, then we have too much crap. We'll see how that goes...



Also, an update on the house. Jon did install the handle on the back door and the ceiling fan in the living room. He also replaced the lightbulbs in the lights that were out in the backyard. He's been doing great with keeping up with the yard work and all of the other joys that homeownership brings with it. We managed to get his computer set up in the office yesterday. We find ourselves having some extra furniture we don't need, and missing a few pieces we really need. So it's been challenging trying to make our current things work for now until we find the things we like. We did come up with one quick fix - we have an end table that doesn't fit in our living room right now, so it made its way to the office. We don't have a coffee table in there, so yesterday I was looking at it and Jon and I flipped it over and screwed off the bottom feet and shelf. And VOILA!!! A perfect-height coffee table is born!!! ahhhh - gotta love it!



The office is on its way to becoming the "Man Cave". Jon's designated room for all of his toys and pictures that I don't care for. And the thing he's most excited about - his deer antlers. And me, being a good wife, hung those the very first thing yesterday. There's a lot of work to be done, but at least the Man Cave is off to a good start.

Cake!!!

Tuesday night we finally remembered to eat our cake. Here is the progression of how it went. I've documented it because it was as amazing as it was on our Wedding Day.

Held up pretty good considering it's been in 4 different freezers and 3 states in one year!


I snuck a swipe of frostin! I'm not a frosting person normally - but this was AMAZING!

Master Cake Cutter!

All dished up and ready to go!

That's the face of a happy Newlywed!

I actually thanked Jon for marrying me so that I could have this cake a year later. I was hoping more chocolate would be in my teeth for this picture.

Two clean plates!! Yes, we had a second piece right afterwards.

One year! We made it!

Well, we made it to a year! We celebrated Saturday night and tried to "surprise" each other. Jon wouldn't tell me where he was taking me to dinner, but I figured it out. Melting Pot!! He did try to confuse me by driving all around Grapevine in order to throw me off - and to kill time. Turns out we were early for our reservations. We had a fabulous meal and a really great time enjoying the chocolate - you can never go wrong with the Melting Pot dessert.

First anniversary is traditionally paper. So of course Jon got me a keyless remote entry system for my car!!!! Makes perfect sense to me! I actually loved it and he was just so happy to get me something completely unexpected. I love that for our first anniversary he got me something completely practical - totally me!!!






There is also a modern take on anniversaries, and the gift for "modern" first anniversaries is a clock. I didn't even know this when I bought Jon his gift - more than 2 1/2 months ago!!! It's a watch he's been wanting for the longest time. I actually wanted to give it to him as a wedding gift, but was too broke. First anniversary ain't too bad! He figured out what his gift was ahead of time, but didn't tell me. I'm just glad he never saw it - hard to hide something for that long in the close quarters we had been living in! And yes - he made me take this series of pictures below...

This is a terrible picture, but we had to take it anyway for posterity's sake. Darn flash!

Here's a picture we took on our actual anniversary. We needed one for the anniversary book Lucille gave us as a wedding gift! Jon brought me these flowers on Friday, and had a card for me every morning for 4 days. I love his cards. The bouquet had lilies and roses just like my bouquet!!! We also re-enacted the "kissy-face" picture from the wedding, but they didn't turn out so well. Maybe I'll get brave and post them.

What a year it's been. I'm not sure we can top it - or that we'd want to!! Such a blessed feeling knowing we were celebrating moving into our first house just as we were celebrating our first year of wedded bliss. So surreal - and we thank God for every second of it.

Although we DID forget to eat the cake.... I can't believe we forgot the cake!!! I made it such a huge priority to have Jon get a cooler and dry ice so we could transport it from Vegas. His parents made plenty of room in their freezer for the thing, and it had even already made its way to our new house! And we forgot it!!! Oh well... we're just prolonging the celebration. :)

Moving right along!!

It's been a busy week!! We closed one week ago today - and time has flown! With the exception of Jon's bike and golf clubs, which are still at Don & Jane's house, everything has been moved! Things are slowly finding their places as I unpack. Jon has been working overtime so has not had much time to do things. But he's made a really good dent in projects. I'm posting pictures of all the things we've done and continue to work on...

Jon hung a new storm door in the back. It still needs a handle, though. And best of all... it's got a doggy door! The dogs took a while to get used to using it, but now they're pros.

Don and Jane graciously hired a company to install a garage door opener for us as an anniversary/welcome home gift. After watching them install it, I'm SO GLAD Jon did not attempt to do this himself.

Jon removed the chandelier from the office and installed this ceiling fan.

And moved the chandelier to the entryway!! It looks fabulous!

We've even started organizing the garage!

Though it's still a work in progress....

Jon's work bench.

And my first order of business.....

BUT I had to be fair....

We did it!!!

We signed the papers and now own the house!!!

So silly, but we can't wait to get the dogs over there to have them run around the backyard. As I said before, it's the little things.

I can't sleep - I've got 2 hours until my alarm is set to go off this morning. I guess I'm a little bit excited, huh? The movers are scheduled to show up this morning, then Jon and I are heading over to hopefully find new bedroom furniture. Then we'll swing back by Don & Jane's, pack up the rest of our stuff, load up the pups and head back home! (I'm sure we'll manage to squeeze in another trip to Lowe's along the way.)

Here's a link to the album. I'll make sure to upload another one when we've gotten our furniture set up and a picture or two hung up. http://picasaweb.google.com/hollyhanes/OldMacGregor

We have a fridge!

ohhh, it's the small things, isn't it? We have a Sears Outlet where all of the damaged/returned merchandise gets sent to. The fridge we found actually was in near-perfect condition. It only had a few minor scratches/dents on the sides where it will be hidden anyway. But it had EVERYTHING we wanted: Sateen finish (yay! no fingerprints!), water in-door, ice maker in-door, perfect height, everything.

Everything's moving right along. There's SO MUCH to do, but I think I've done everything I can do at this point. Got all utilities ready to be hooked up. Movers have confirmed they'll be at the house Friday morning. We have our walk-through at noon tomorrow and closing appointment at 1:00pm. From what we hear, the sellers were able to get the builders to fix every single thing on our list from the inspection - we had only asked for 2 things. And they've also apparently had all the wood blinds professionally cleaned and have patched up and painted over all the nail holes.

We feel so blessed!!! I'm glad I don't have to go back to work until Thursday - although I know I will be wanting a REAL vacation after all this. We know it's worth it.

Now we just have to figure out when to squeeze in a BIG trip to Lowe's. Oh yeah, and did I mention that Jon doesn't have any time off at all? So we've still got to manage to let him sleep all during the days while I'm home fixing things up. We'll make it work somehow...

We are scheduled to have internet up and running by next Wednesday, so unless I can "borrow" an unsecured wireless line somewhere in the neighborhood, I most likely won't be posting again until shortly after that.

Thank you for all your prayers!! They're being well used.

til next time.... !!!

Sunday Goodies

Jon and I went back to Irving Bible Church yesterday. It's been very easy to become complacent on Sundays with Jon now working nights, but we fully realize how important it is for us to not only attend but to become involved in a church. IBC is a bit far from our new house, but we both really like it, so I think it's where we'll wind up. Yesterday we attended the young couples study following the first service and we really enjoyed it. And we met another couple who live in the development next to our new one!! Such encouragement.

After church we went to Tom Thumb (Vons for all our Cali/Nevada friends) and were hungry - which is never good. We overshot it a little bit when we got a big box of mac & cheese, however we also got a container of the yummy tomato basil soup and a sourdough baguette. We're still talking about how good it was.

Jon hit the hay shortly after and I went to browse Lowe's for goodies for the new house. Kind of overwhelming but definitely exciting. We can't wait!!

Less than a week away!

Jon and I close on our new house in less than a week. We're scheduled for Thursday, July 19th with movers scheduled to come first thing Friday morning! So far, so good. Things have been really smooth - we just hope it continues that way!

I'll have off work for a week starting Thursday. Friday after the movers leave, the plan is for Jon and I to rush over to Lowe's to go shopping! We are in need of a refrigerator, washer & dryer, lawnmower, trimmer, doggy door, etc... !!! Very exciting, yet a tad overwhelming.

We're on our way!!!

We're baaaack!

After a long break, I'm officially picking up the blog again. Yes, again. I realize I take long breaks now and then. It really shouldn't be as much of a burden as I sometimes make it to be. I worry about getting the right pics, the good stories, the interesting tid bits. But I've come to realize this is just us.... So here you go.

We've found a house!! Actually, we found two. The first one fell through after the sellers just weren't seeming to be very flexible with repairs after the inspection. It was a tough decision because we loved the house and we couldn't beat the location. The house would have been a lot of work over time, and it would have extended us financially. Probably more than we would have wished as a first home.

BUT - We feel like that was a necessary detour for us to find the one God really had for us. We went and looked back in the area we've been interested in from the beginning. And we found it!! It's an absolutely beautiful 1-story home, 1900 sq ft in a new development. The house itself is just about a year old. The inspection went extremely well and as of right now, we're scheduled to close on July 19th! Thankfully this home needs absolutely NO work on it right away - save for a few coats of paint once we get settled. And it's already got the appliances we wanted to buy anyway!! Hooray!! We've just got to get the fridge, washer & dryer. (Oh yeah, and Jon's TV). We have tons of plans for the future of this home and are just so excited.

We're just looking forward to being settled in by our first anniversary. So far, things are looking good.

Jon and I were able to take a weekend trip to San Antonio over Memorial Weekend. A very much needed getaway and we had a wonderful time staying on the Riverwalk.

But the bigger news over Memorial Weekend was the birth of the newest (and final??) addition to the Dunn family. Tobin Christopher was born on May 27th weighing 9 pounds, 1/2 ounce and 22 inches long. Auntie Holly was able to visit last weekend and I instantly fell in love. I wasn't convinced I'd be able to love another nephew like I love Camden. But now I understand how, like a parent, your heart just grows bigger to make room for all the love you feel. It was amazing to be able to visit and spend good Auntie time with Camden and get some good baby cuddling time with Tobin.




Yesterday I attended the baby shower for Michele, Jon's sister's oldest daughter. Got that? In otherwords, Mine and Jon's niece. She's pregnant with her second child due mid-August. Had a lovely time and got to say hello again to Karyn (Jon's sister), and her two other daughters, Samantha and Christi. Jon and I hope to be able to spend more time with their family soon. There's not too many funnier families we've found.

Jon and I are both doing our best to become more active and lose some of the weight we've gained since moving to Texas, plus the weight we've gained since getting married, etc, etc... We're in a aerobics/step/weight/spin class that we attend twice a week, plus we're walking two other days a week. Slowly noticing changes, so we're trying to become more serious about the diet part.

Dogs are good and funny as ever. They manage to crack us up every day. No less full of their own issues, though. Funny boys.