The Sports Guy was Right...

Every morning Boon reads this column on Grantland written by Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy.  I'm assuming most of his column focuses on sports (given the obvious), but every now and then he writes a few doozies that Boon shares with me.  Well, the other night when we were driving home from the grocery store, Boon mentioned that The Sports Guy has had this long running theory that Jennifer Love Hewitt was poison to the ears of women - basically, by just the mention of her name it would cause women to perk up and say "her neck is to tall" or "her boobs are too big" or whathaveyou.  Well, one of his readers recently found the woman who provokes the exact opposite reaction....Khloe Kardashian.  The reader's theory was that every time Khloe was mentioned in a negative way, that all women will come to her defense bellowing "she's NOT fat" or "she is the ONLY normal one", etc.  

JLH vs. Khloe ... what's your reaction?

Well, the reason I decided to bring this up today is because my reaction to Boon's story surprised me and even though I didn't think I fell into either one of the categorical reactions described above....I TOTALLY DO! 

First, my reaction to Jennifer Love Hewitt - which, mind you, I still don't think I have a "poison-like" reaction to, but I can't sit there and listen to Boon say how hot she is without throwing back a snide remark...even though I don't mean to!!  For example, I was attempting [note: keyword attempting] to contradict The Sports Guy's theory.....

Me:  "Well, I don't know if I agree with the Jennifer Love Hewitt [JLH from now on - her name is too long....and that doesn't count as snide!] theory because I can understand how guys think she is pretty, but really she is kind of mousey."

Boon: "I don't think so...she is HOT!"

Me: "Yeah, but also mousey.  Her face is kind of skinny and looks mousey. I mean she has great hair and I don't care that she has big boobs, but you have to admit she looks mousey."

Boon: "Nope, just hot."

Me: "Hot and...MOUSEY!"

Ok...so I think you get the point.  I didn't even realize what I was doing until we drove the rest of the way home in silence.  I never did admit The Sports Guy was right, but, in all honesty, I think there is no denying it.  Even if her name doesn't trigger a totally poisonous reaction in me, I couldn't say a nice thing about her without throwing in the mousey thing.  I guess point proven.

So, now let's talk about Khloe Kardashian.  At the first mention of any Kardashian, I, along with the majority (I'd assume), would agree that they are somewhat annoying and boring, are famous for nothing, are totally overrated, etc. etc., but at the end of the day I hate to admit it but I really do like them!  I watch all the Kardashian shows on E! - they somehow pull me in and are totally addicting...I'll even watch the gazillion reruns they show.  Thus, even though I would agree with all of the normal Kardashian-haters and wouldn't jump to the conclusion that I'd have any heavily weighted reaction to one of them in anyway, I really do think Khloe is my favorite.  First of all, Khloe is NOT fat and she really is the only normal one and the most fun, realistic one.   I always feel so bad for her when fans chant horrible things about her when Lamar is playing basketball and hate to watch her weight struggles on TV.  If I had to choose one Kardashian to be friends with, it would be Khloe...I actually think we'd have a lot of fun together.  And, just like any friend, I would defend her until the end!  Apparently this theory is also correct....and really I'm kind of starting to get a little fired up as I write this just thinking that people actually think she's fat.  SHE'S NOT FAT!!

So there you have it....looks like The Sports Guy knew what he was talking about.  Even when trying to resist the theories, I fell right into the trap...disliking JLH and loving Khloe.  What can you do?!?!

Renovation Realities - Tub Surround!

If you remember from my March 12th post, Renovation Realities!, our next DIY project on our to-do list was Phase II of our Guest Bathroom renovation...the tub surround. 

Before

Well, I think we started around March 24th (give or take a week - I've blocked the past month out!) thinking we had PLENTY of time to finish before 8 or 9 girls were going to be staying at the house for a bachelorette party the weekend of April 20-22nd.  Mind you, we only have two bathrooms....thus, only two showers....so with 8 or 9 girls in one place, both showers were definitely a requirement.  Wwwweeeeelllll, we sort of underestimated the amount of time and work that would be involved with this and came down to the wire finishing just two nights before everyone got here....phew!!!!

So, as I mentioned, this was a little more time and work than we had anticipated....and by "a little more" I mean "a whole heck of a lot more" like "I never ever ever in my entire life want to do that again more."  First of all, there are about a billion and three ways to re-tile a tub surround so trying to choose the "right way" to do it is super stressful.  As soon as you feel like you know which direction to start heading, somebody says something that totally contradicts what you just thought and you are back at square one.   Seriously, by the time we started, we pretty much just figured we'd jump in, figure it out as we go and hope it doesn't leak when we are finished.  And to the best of our knowledge it isn't leaking so I guess we did ok!  Basically, everyone has a different opinion on the "right way" to do this ranging from the bare minimum [read: contractor-grade] to over-the-top-waterproof-everything-five-different-ways [read: we might consider if we were building our dream home and planned on living there forever]....so we shot for somewhere in the middle.

For the sake of time and in an attempt not to completely bore you with all of the details, I'll briefly list the steps we chose to take, but am considering posting a "HOW TO" post as well for those that may be contemplating a tub surround renovation for themselves.  [Side note:  Consider yourself warned - and by no means am I suggesting anyone should put themselves (particularly their poor hands, back, shoulders, legs, arms....really their whole body) through this.]  If I end up posting a "HOW TO" I'll update this post so you can find the link to it. 

Obviously, step one was to demo the exiting tile....which was actually pretty fun!  We opted to demo down to the studs which was definitely a heck of a lot easier, but it made a royal mess.  Dust everywhere!!!  However, it did give us a blank canvas to start with and made it easier for the plumber to come in and change out the plumbing and raise our shower head (step two).  Not to mention, our "bare minimum contractor before job" left the sheet rock moldy underneath so I'm glad we got rid of all of that.  Pretty gross!

Demo!

No going back now!  Step three and four were to add blocking for the recessed shelves and start reinstalling the sheet rock - we used 1/2" hardibacker board.  Step four probably would have been pretty simple and we would've snapped it out like nothing IF we didn't decide to add three recessed shelves.  Those shelves were almost the death of us!  I'm not exaggerating either.  All the measurements and cutting were ridiculous!  BUT...in the end, I'm really glad we did it because they look awesome and are so handy!!  One other thing worth noting is the $17 cement board saw blade that we decided to purchase - best $17 spent on the whole tub!!  I'm pretty sure it saved Boon his sanity! 

Looking more like a tub surround everyday...

After getting all of the sheet rock back up, it was pretty exciting because you could kind of start to see what it was going to look like again.  It felt like huge progress at this point!  Next...the dreaded, questionable, not really sure how much you need, waterproofing step....which just happens to also be the most important step.  Ugh!!  So even though the hardibacker board is technically waterproof by itself and most contractors stop here, we were shooting for the middle of the range; thus, chose to tape all of the joints with mesh tape [note: buy the gray mesh tape from Lowe's if you do this - the white Home Depot mesh tape sucks!] and then go one step further and paint the recessed shelves and all joints with Red Guard.  Unfortunately, Red Guard is super expensive and only comes in two sizes - huge and gigantic - so we have about 7/8 of huge left over, but if nothing else, it gave us more confidence so it was probably worth the extra expense. 

Waterproofing

FINALLY we get to start tiling!!!!  Boon and I made a great team - I applied the thin set and laid the tiles while Boon measured and cut...we had a pretty good system down.   Although we always thought we were moving along fast and we'd be finished by "tonight", every "tonight" turned into "tomorrow" which really turned into "weeks"....it was crazy how long it took!!!  Seriously, before we knew it five hours would pass and we had to start cleaning up again for the night.  So frustrating!  The pictures below show our progress at the end of each night (not in order (obviously)...I'm still figuring out how to edit in Picasa-sorry!)   Our last weekend (before the girls got here) we were in panic-mode and of all times for me to get a headache, I get the worst migraine and am out for the count until about noon on Sunday.  UGH!!!  Poor Boon was totally on his own and put in a good 13 hours on Saturday alone to finish the top two layers of tile.  He was a rock star!

tiling.took.forever.

So come Monday I was back in the game and since it was now crunch time, I ended up using a personal day so I could start cleaning, de-hazing and grouting! To no one's surprise, this also took longer than expected and lingered over until Tuesday night.   (Are you starting to see why I never want to do this again!?)   But by the end of Tuesday night, we were able to caulk the edges and get the fixtures back on. 

Last step...finally!!!

YAY!!!!!  We finally have a finished tub surround!!!!  Now to clean and get the bathroom back together on Wednesday night before the girls get here on Friday - what a great feeling!  I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sure Bentley and Bella were just as happy to have us finished as we were - the poor lil' furbabies got neglected the last week horribly.  :(   And with no further ado....

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have this finished...and it looks so good!!!

A blow-up of the final product!

 And of course, I can't leave you without a Before and After picture....

What a difference!!!

And I tried getting a photo of both Phase I and Phase II together to give you an idea of the overall project, but it was a little challenging getting it all in one picture so here's my best shot...

Phase I and II as a whole - I probably should've opened the curtain, but didn't think about it...sorry!

Despite all of the complaining and ridiculous amount of hours we put into this, I am still very glad we did it and am very happy at how it turned out.  (I'll say I definitely enjoyed Phase I of our Guest Bathroom renovation more than Phase II though!)  Our guest bathroom looks so different now and it makes me want to re-do our master bathroom really bad...well, correction...have somebody re-do our master bathroom!

** National Princess Week **

At what age are you supposed to stop loving princesses?  Because I haven't yet, and therefore, in honor of the first annual National Princess Week, the inner-princess in me...who secretly loves this week [read: kinda-sorta-feels-in-a-tiny-wishful-ridiculous-slightly-imaginary way like I should be a part of it...haha!]...wanted to dedicate this post to just a few of my favorite princesses! 

#1:  Duchess of Cambridge Catherine Middleton

Big surprise, I know!   Of course, Kate is my #1 favorite princess and probably always will be.  I just love everything about her  (in particularly her fashion!) and am pretty sure, without a doubt, that if I was lucky enough to live in London (perhaps next door to Kensington Palace or something), we'd be good friends.  Haha!  So I know technically she isn't considered a Princess (yet) and the Queen has to actually bestow her with that title, but for all intents and purposes she is practically a Princess.  Besides, her official title, Her Royal Highness Duchess of Cambridge, just doesn't have the same ring to it and is rather cumbersome to say (and write)....so to me, Princess she is...and my favorite at that!!   

#2:  Belle

Although it was hard to choose just one favorite Disney Princess, I'm going to have to go with Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  First of all, she's obviously a beauty (and, ahem, brunette - just sayin')...I mean that is the title of the movie, right?  But more importantly, she is a sweet, loving princess who ends up seeing through the harsh exterior of the Beast and falling in love with the man inside (who just happens to end up being a gorgeous hunk of a man, but that's besides the point).  Also, who wouldn't love being able to talk to "everyday" household items who help you clean and organize and create the path to your perfect love story?  I could use a Chip and Cogsworth, even a Mrs. Potts (despite her tendency to be a bit bossy) to help around the house every now and then! 

#3:  Dame Julie Andrews

Last, but not least, I have to include Julie Andrews.  Not only is she part-founder in National Princess Week (which makes her totally awesome!), but she is a HUGE part of my childhood...and really every child's childhood quite honestly!  Dominating two of the world's most classic films, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, who couldn't love Julie Andrews?! I mean a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down and just like when we read we begin with ABC, when we sing we begin with do-re-mi!  (Yes, I've got a little dork in me, but come on - admit it, you actually sang those lyrics when you just read that!) 

So those are three of my favorite princesses.  I don't know if I'll ever grow out of loving princesses (and secretly wanting to be one), but I can't wait until the day that I have a little girl that I can share this love with....or at least "blame" all of our trips to Disney World on!  Who are some of your favorites?   

I'm on a boat?

The question surrounding (literally surrounding....like taking-over-every-thought-of-Boon's-being surrounding) us these days is whether or not we should take the plunge and buy a boat.  Your thoughts? 

So here are a few things to consider:

First, we both love the lake and really really really want a boat.  It would be a blast and I wouldn't mind sprucing up my wakeboarding skills a bit.  Plus, the summers here are brutal and I can't stand being outside when it is 100+ degrees [read: I'm a wuss! Fainting, dizziness, moodiness...I have them all when I get too hot.  Remember I'm from Wyoming - I have a good excuse] unless I'm in (or by) the water.  So all of that sounds good, but then money/logic set-in and now we also have to consider all of this....

Boats are super expensive - even used boats!  And considering I'm rather cheap and have the worst buyer's remorse ever, I just can't imagine throwing $30K in for "fun" - it seems like soooooo much money!  Also, I've heard that the best days of a boat-owner's life are the day he buys the boat and the day he sells the boat....so what are we missing here?  Maintenance? Gas? Storage? Insurance? Winterizing?  It all adds up so are the "really really really want a boat" and "can't stand the heat unless I'm in the water" excuses worth the expense?

Also, we THINK we will use it all the time, and therefore, get our money's worth, but every summer our weekends feel up faster than we even know it so I'm scared the boat will end up sitting in storage more than in the water.  Of course, I'd hope that isn't the case, but you hear a lot of people say that they just don't use their boat enough.  But then again summer in Texas is really like 9 months out of the year so our odds of using it more should be higher, right?!  I just don't know!

Next, we want to start a family soon so that can be looked at two ways.  (1) It seems like now or never (or at least not for quite a while) and then we could enjoy the fun with our family.  Why not do it now when we have the money? or (2) Is now a good/smart time for a boat if we want a family soon?  I mean won't our time be even more limited and money even tighter?  See our dilemma! 

And just so I don't leave you on a sour note before you throw out your opinions, remember how much fun and nice a boat would be when we have visitors!! 

So......what should we do????  Help us decide!!



We could watch the sunset from the boat!



U.P.D.A.T.E.S.

First of all, Happy Belated Easter!  We had a great day yesterday with Boon's family and it was nice to get out of town for a night.  I hope all of you had a very blessed Easter as well!

I wanted to give you a quick update on two of my earlier posts:

1)   Late February I posted a quick blurb on my possible heart defect (see Hypochondriac? Possibly.)  Well, good news - totally clean bill of health here!!  I went to the cardiologist last month, had my echocardiogram and just had a follow-up today - no hole for this girl!! 

And...

2)  Now that Lent is over I thought I'd give you my final tally on how all of my Lenten sacrifices panned out (see Goodbye, Vanilla Chai. Hello, Lent. for a recap).  Considering I was failing miserably when I first started out, I ended up finishing strong!

• Giving up swearing:   Besides a few minor slip-ups, I really improved in this area.  Now to keep the change permanent...that will be the true test!  I'm considering this one a success!   
  Tally: Lent 0, Failure 1     New Tally: Lent 1, Failure 0

• Giving up texting and checking facebook while driving:  I am proud to report that I ended up doing really good on this one!  It was hard and took true dedication, but I did it!!  Another success for me!!  (PS - This one I will keep doing...it makes me feel better about myself!)
  Tally: Lent 0, Failure 1     New Tally: Lent 2, Failure 0

• Giving up being negative at work:  Oops...I forgot about this one.  We won't talk about it....
  Tally: Lent 0, Failure 1     New Tally: Lent 2, Failure 1

• Giving up my all-so-cherished vanilla chai lattes from Starbucks:  I just want to remind you that this sacrifice was by far the hardest one for me, but....drum roll, please....I DID IT!!!!  Yep, that's right....go me....I'm a rockstar!!  (Overboard?  Nah!)
  Tally: Lent 0, Failure 1     New Tally: Lent 3, Failure 1

• Joining a bible study:  I just finished last week - great bible study!  Count this as another success! 
  Tally: Lent 0, Failure 1    New Tally: Lent 4, Failure 1

So, all in all, I consider this a pretty good update!  I feel a celebration is in order...if only it were Friday at 4:00...bummer!

Me inspire someone? I'm speechless!

My very talented friend, Bob (who I just love to pieces, btw), is teaching himself how to paint in photoshop and his very first attempt was inspired by my blog!  How cool is that?!?!  I feel so honored!!  It is also his one and only pin on Pinterest which makes me feel even more special than I did just by snagging his very first photoshop-painted art! 

And just so you don't think I'm making this up...Bob's exact words:  "I'm teaching myself how to paint in photoshop ... this is my first attempt and is inspired by highheelshardhats..."  (yay!!)

So it pretty much goes without saying that I had to share it on my blog....since I inspired it and all - in case you didn't catch that before!  (Sorry...I just don't think I've ever inspired anyone before so I'm going to eat this up!!)

And with no further ado....

 

Bob's art inspired by my blog!! 

Pretty great, right?  I love the pink hard hat too - I need to get me one of those for work ASAP.  (I know...shocker that I don't own one already!)  Awesome job, Bob - hard to believe this is your first attempt!  What it would be like to be so artistic, I will never know...

Thanks for making me feel so special, Bob!!!