backyard updates

Well, we spent the whole weekend power washing the house which was oh-so-very-much-fun. I'm tired and my thumb hurts from holding the trigger! Thus, I shall just put up some simple picture posts....If you would like to refresh in your mind what the backyard looked like before... please visit HERE. I'd say we're ALMOST at the halfway point in this new post...So much More to do. *SIGH*

3 Blessings:

The smell of marigolds and tomato plants instantly takes me back to being about 4 years old.

My amazing husband who goes up onto the roof to power wash parts of the house that no one would even notice.

That so far the swine flu in the US seems to be...not so scary.

april showers bring....april flowers?

Last night, P and I took advantage of the gorgeous evening and worked in the yard. It's a good thing that we did since today is another miserably rainy, gloomy day in Ohio. I would say that overall it was a fantastic evening. P had another go with the hippie mower. He mowed the front yard, picked up dog droppings (yeuck..that's a boy job) in the back yard and then mowed. If he got the weed wacker out to do some trimming, our yard would look pretty nice...crabgrass and all.
While he mowed, I planted some perennials in our new flower beds out back. I think it's still a little early to be doing any planting, but, the lady at the garden center (a different garden center than the one that told me to buy the hardwood mulch that would later sprout fungus) assured me that they would be okay as long as I paid attention to frost. I also realized that I didn't buy enough of one plant and had to run to the Home Depot to get a couple more. One of my mother-in-laws says that one should always buy ones plants at a garden center or nursery because they are better quality. But here's the thing, Home Depot is like 5 minutes from my house, the nursery is like 30 minutes away. Home Depot sold me 6 plants for $35, the nursery sold me 4 for $40. I'm thinking that I like Home Depot. Just how superior can a nursery plant be anyway? It's a plant! We'll see.
So, here are the cutie pies that are growing in my yard right now...these aren't my pics, I just stole them off the internet because it was too dark to take pics by the time I finished planting last night. Not so much an exciting post today...but, it was just a nice relaxing evening, I wish you all the same thing today!

I'm beginning to think that our yard has more crabgrass than real grass... If you squint it's kind of pretty? Right?

Raspberry Swirl Dianthus (pinks)

Firewitch Dianthus

Tickseed! Yeah...I kind of bought these because I like the name. It makese me laugh.

3 things:
After 6 years of dating and being married, my husband still tells me I'm "cute"
For random sunny days in April
I get to see my sister this weekend :-)

The Curse

It's ironic that on Friday I was discussing with my sister the subject of our family curse. What? Cursed you say?? Yes. Cursed. **disclaimer** what you are about to read is an account of true incidents, but actual curse may be overdramatized for theatrical effect.

You see, my family has a long history of having random weird things happen to them that are just pure and simple bad luck. We have come to determine that it's really Karma's way of protecting the rest of the world population. You see, if it happens to us, it wont happen to you. We serve as the guardians of all other people's luck, because the bad luck bestows itself on us.

Case in Point: This weekend.

You all know that my husband and I dug out and rebuilt a flower bed last fall and after careful consultation with the garden center, we decided to use a particular brand of hardwood mulch that is designed to cut down on weed growth. Well, it's looked beautiful for the last few months and then all of a sudden on Friday, husband noticed these funny brown puffball looking fungi. Not just in a couple spots. All. Over. The. Mulch. We thought, Hmm...that's weird. I wonder what those are...and other random things. We went to the garden center on Saturday and bought some plants and went to put them in the flower garden and that's when I noticed it....the front of our house has all these little itty bitty black dots all over it. They look like this . Just like that little period...exactly that size though some are a little larger. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!? SO, I head inside and check my trusty google website and find that more than likely the fungus is the culprit. WHAT??? SERIOUSLY??? The fungus is shooting polka dots at my siding.

You may read more about said fungus here: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d/d/ddd2/ I have not tried the Mr.Clean Magic Eraser yet, the soft scrub with bleach and scrubby sponge worked fairly well. We scooped up the areas of the mulch that contained fungus and threw it away. I am really disinclined to replace all the mulch as it is such a waste of $$. We shall see how the next few weeks progress with the fungus attacking our siding.

Sunday the curse continued in full and angry force. P and I slept in Sunday and got up and read the paper, ate cereal and drank coffee. It started off to be a great day. We went and bought some crabgrass preventer because the people who formerly lived in our house apparently never touched the yard and it's going to be a years long project to rid ourselves of all the crabgrass. We planted the new plants and then I went and showered and got ready to go do a floor set at Bath and Body works. I came outside to eat my lunch and talk to P who was still pottering about in the garden. He went around the side of the house and got the hose out and watered the new plants. Then he went back around the side of the house to untangle the hose. I saw him kind of.....shake the hose to try to work out a kink. And then I heard him yell "OH SHIT"....and then there was this funny noise...and some silence from him. Then he yells a few more expletives that I wont print and I ran over to see what had happened. The faucet, my friends, was pulled about 4 inches out of the side of the house and water was GUSHING, FLOODING, POURING down the inside of the wall straight into the basement. You know, the basement that we just finished. Thank GOD that P knows how to turn the water off to the house because if I had been home alone while it happened, it's quite possible that I would be treading water in my kitchen at this point.

It turns out that whoever "fixed" the pipes before we moved in, thought that it would be okay to just "make it fit". Long story short, you should never try to stretch a 90 degree angled pvc pipe to fit a slightly larger than 90 degree angle bend. Years of stress on said stretched angle and my husband's shaking the hose cracked the stressed angle right in two.

So, the family curse continues despite changing my name when I got married. It's too smart for us, it must have access to my social security number or something because it definitely is still present in my life.

The curse touches us in a multitude of ways, horses getting loose, mom falling into a 5 foot hole while walking through a field, my sister falling up the stairs in front of the entire Greek community of her college, dad burning a hole in the counter and backing the car into the garage door of the house they JUST BOUGHT that week....it's those random little "Slim to None chance" things that happen to us so that the rest of you can live awkward free and lucky lives.

I accept flowers, candy and credit cards as thank you gifts.

3 things:

That my husband knew how to turn the water off
That we own a wet/dry vac
That the rescue plumber was really nice and in a really good mood because his alma mater is in the championship game. I might have to be a UNC fan today.

before before

One of the amazing girls at work (She of the new link on the side of my page Blood Sweat and Beers...)told me that my realtor might still have the pictures from our house's listing back when we bought it. I emailed them, and sure enough they did!

Take a look...this is what Casa d'Ominous looked like before I got my paint brush and went color happy all over the walls...

This is now the office upstairs...eventually it might turn into a nursery again, but let's not get hasty. The basement was also this color....only worse because they didn't fully cover any of the walls so it was patchy and weird.
This is the guest bedroom. Those blue squares were painted on and they left the tape on the wall. Have I shown you what this room looks like now? My sister decorated it as she's the only one who really stays there and it's turquoise and black.
The backyard...asyou can see...nothing has really been done.
Kitchen
Living room...The living room had these giant window coverings. The wooden box kind with big heavy drapes. Does anyone know what they're actually called?
Master bedroom.
Front yard. This is where the bulk of our changes have come in...that tree is no logner there, neither are the bushes, the flowerbed was extended and shaped about 5 feet and we now have roses, a lilac tree and azaleas...I'm planning on planting more there when it gets a bit warmer.

This is the after....or the in progress.. can you see this link? http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2522520&id=12415426&l=4ce81fabbd

Before...more will follow in a few months

So, last post, I shared my to-do list, so for this post, I thought I'd share my back yard. Here's the before pictures for what I hope will some day be a beautiful after.

This picture is of the back yard and the back of the house...I don't think we're changing much there other than putting our patio table umbrella back up. We are going to re-paint the deck...possibly a slightly darker shade than it is now so there's a little more contrast with the house and the fence. I dont know yet. Also, on either side of the steps, a big purple butterfly bush grows. If it grows back after I over-pruned it last fall :-\

This is from the deck looking down. You can quite plainly see the bumpy yard and that the whole yard is really boring and plain.



This is the one part of the yard I like right now...we're pretty much done with the fire pit circle. I kind of wish our chairs matched, but I'm not sure that I'm really invested in repainting them with that plastic chair paint. We also probably should have dug the rocks into the ground...but we didn't want to make it quite so "permanent" yet. Our goal is for the grass to grow up around the rocks and in between the cracks so it looks more like you're camping on a cute little mountain plateau ;-).





This is the weird coffin sized dirt patch that was here when we moved in. This will be remade into a flower bed. The other corner of the yard behind the fire pit will be a matching flower bed. If only I can figure out what to do with the giant grass plant that currently hides the stupid cable box thingy.

Hello All

I am loving this warmer weather...thought it brings with it the reminder of just how much work P and I have to do outside this year. Let me share with you our to-do-list for Spring/Summer.

1. Get trim of house repainted. Should we do this ourselves....probably, but neither of us are very keen on balancing ladder and paint bucket on our bumpy lawn.
2. Fix bumpy lawn.
3. Power Wash House and Deck
4. Paint garage door and mailbox
5. repaint deck
6. carpet upstairs
7. cut out flower beds in back yard and clean up flower beds around deck
8. plant flowers in said beds
9. plant remaining flowers in front of house.
10. buy flower pots for my birthday present in which i will plant vegetables
11. plant birthday vegetables


I'm pretty sure there are some more things in there, but I can't quite remember them all. I will be SO SO excited to work on them though.

We made the first steps on tuesday, we went out to Lowes and bought a reel lawn mower. Yes, you know, the old fashioned kind that run on your sweat and not on gasoline? I think it goes nicely with our hybrid car and fits much much better in our garage than the big honking one that we broke last year. We also bought more paving stones for our fire pit circle and set that up. As soon as they settle into the ground and the grass grows, I think it will be a super fun location for us to sit and relax in the evenings! I am going to take some before, during and after shots of our backyard so that you all can see what I'm putting my poor husband through :-) mwahhahahahaah.

What are all of you planning for the warm weather?

3 Things:
That my computer training session was cancelled today!!!!
That my dad's cataract surgery went well this week
That my mom is officially retiring this summer

and a bonus:

my sister actually got an A on her math quiz....*cross your fingers folks...she needs a C- in the class to pass.* The Ominous gene pool is historically awful at math.

welcome to the ominous house!

Welcome to the Ominous House!! This is the best picture of the front of our house that I currently have, we decorated the outside for MojoKid's first birthday. Would you like to come in for the tour?
As you come in our itty bitty entryway, you can hang your coat on P's awful old coat rack that I hide behind the door. Hopefully, you'll just notice the pictures of our honeymoon that we have hanging on the wall beside the door.


After you finish looking at those pictures, you can see my favorite thing in the whole main level....our wedding photo frame. I got the frame at Target when we first moved in and put a bunch of the proofs from our wedding in it. I love it and lay on the couch and stare at it frequently.

If you'd like to have a seat you can sit on the worst decision I ever made...The white couch from Sofa Express. A) the stain protector they said they put on doesn't work AT ALL B) we have a dog we can't keep off the couch. C) sofa express in columbus went out of business D) the back rest cushions are only filled with that cotton batting type stuff and not real pillows or foam. They suck. If anyone has ANY suggestions, I would love you forever. I can't even really put a slip cover over it because the cushions are ridiculous. The pink blanket isn't usually there....it's just cold.

Our little fireplace and our map of places we've been. On it you can see my 2nd favorite thing in the living room...the little horses that P got me for Valentines day one year.

Our Kitchen adjoins the living room...it's a small house. This is our kitchen table which was our 1 yr anniversary present to eachother...we got it on a trip to North Carolina at a British Antique store and had it shipped back to the OH-IO.

Table top...and P's Squirt salt shakers that he loves.

This is my little art project that I stole from Imperfect. I framed a bunch of my grandmothers old handwritten recipes. I don't really like how the 2 are haning on the wall, but I don't have enough room to put them all on a shelf. Suggestions?

This is the part I actually really like, and a little closer look at the recipes.

My bakers rack that I'll eventually replace with something that matches the table...for now though, it's what you gotta kinda watch your hip on as you walk into the kitchen. I get more bruises by not paying attention to it! You can also see the coupon book that I made after Imperfect inspired me yet once again! I don't know how to be cool and link to her entries :-(

Last thing I want to show you before we head upstairs tomorrow are my cool antique candy jars. If you're like me, most of the time you can't find canisters for flour,sugar,coffee AND Brown sugar and powdered sugar and self rising flour. Staples of the cooking world....anyway, I think that antique candy jars make GREAT substitutes! They are airtight and DEFINITELY hold a 5 pound bag with plenty of room for a scoop! Plus, the labels are just super cute.


So...got any suggestions for my couch or for my collage??? I got nothin.

the great ice storm of 2009 and how I spent the day

So, today was awesome. Yes we were pretty much Iced into the house despite one short trip to the Gym, but it was so much fun to be home with the Husband and the dog.

Let's begin with the beginning shall we? I got up at 530 a.m. to check the email, found that campus was closed and broke the news to the hubster that we were going to be off all day. I then went back to sleep until 930!! SO AWESOME. We got up, I ate nutella on toast as a special treat for the day, drank a coffee and hung out for a bit. We then went to the gym, it was EMPTY except for a couple die hard lifters. Post workout, I showered and began my favorite tradition of the snow days. I cooked. I cooked alllll day. I made Southwest cornbread from a mix (you just add beer). Then, I made homeade Chicken Black Bean Chili
Clearly I'm not showing all the steps...but here are my chicken chunks and shallots and onions and garlic sauteed and simmering in chili powder.

Here's the secret ingredient.


And here is the DELICIOUS end result.



I made a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting too...I wont post pictures of that, it's too fattening and gross :-)

Whilst I was cooking my little heart out, my super wonderful P chipped off the driveway. Yes, I do mean chipped off...not shoveled. He said it was like 3 inches of snow, 2 inches of ice and then another 3 inches of snow all packed down under a crust of ice.



After cooking, we ate, and now P is waiting impatiently for me to take the dog on a walk. Tomorrow, I plan on posting some pictures of the house. I always get intimidated when I do this because while I absolutely adore and am really proud of our first house...there are SOOOO many more people out there in blogland who are amazingly talented and coordinated!!!

Here are just a couple more pics of the ice storm til tomorrow!

"sick" day

so....maybe i'm not sick. but i was so so tired. and P was home.

so. I stayed home from work today.

It was a wonderful day, we had so much fun and got soooo much accomplished.

Here's the list:

Took the Prius to get its oil changed
Went to Waffle House for eggs and waffle
Got prescriptions filled at Walgreens
Went to the garden place and bought
a burgundy mum
a giant blue ceramic flower pot
a dwarf lilac bush/tree thing that will be delivered on 10/18 to make
my front garden complete for the season.
P mowed the grass
I planted my burgundy mum in my giant flower pot
I split out some of the giant grass bush from the back yard and seperated the split into 3 new little plants and planted them on the side of the house to hide the utility thingy.
went to the gym
went to on our annual pumpkin getting trip
got 4 pumpkins
got 1 spaghetti squash for dinner tomorrow
got one jar of apple butter
played football in the park near Pigeon Roost Farm
Came home and grilled Hot Dogs for dinner. Yes. we were very healthy today.
Watched Thursday Night football.
Blogged.

3 things:

pumpkins
apple butter
sales at the garden center

:-) What a fantastic day.

Hello, my name is Ann and I'm a buckeye-holic.

It's now 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter....and it's getting worse. How depressing.

This is the extent of my obsession...and the reason for the frantic posting from 10 minutes ago. My husband and I are "that" couple. You know, the cheesy ones that incorporate their favorite football team into their wedding? The ones that everyone shakes their heads over and goes "oh my.....well, they ARE unique." Yep. That's us. Check it out.







In no particular order....


my aunt made our cakes.



We changed into jerseys for the reception.
Please note, he did not actually smash the cake into my face. :-) good boy.







Our colors were indeed scarlet and grey.





The grooms cake was the stadium.

We had pictures taken at the stadium after the wedding. The handsome and studly boys.

and the girls... weren't my bridesmaids gorgeous? The one on the left is P's sister. Then there's Chuck, the one who married the guy in the LA national guard, then Llama...she's the amazing one who just had her heart broken, and then my sister, The Pig. You can see why I call her Pig. She's such a fatty ;-)

That nickname actually came about because on occasion she snorts.