Oh my gosh, update!

Okay, let's see...since last we talked it's been really nice outside (and really tornado-y!) and I've done a ton outside. Ben's dad came to visit and help with some little fixes that we couldn't figure out, couldn't find help with and were too cheap to hire someone. The biggie being fixing our saggy floor. The shower in the extra bathroom has had a leak for years and became a slight mold issue and caused one of the beams underneath the floor nearby to give way a little. And once they fixed that, our back door no longer closes correctly and the deadbolt won't work. Still haven't figure out that one yet, but soon! Ben and his dad also cleared out most of the junk the previous owners left behind: three doors, an outdoor table (kept), empty boxes, and a keyboard w/ stand (broken, unfortunately). They also: replaced the rotting crawlspace door, cleared out the culvert, rigged the gate to stay open when we need it open and hauled a lot of dirt and mulch to the house. Hooray!

Ben and I then bought our first lawn mower, about which I learned yes, you want a self-propelled mower. I also had to learn how to turn a push mower on; my parents had a riding mower for their yard and cows for the pasture when I was growing up. Learned that you can't easily tell your backyard is overrun with weeds if you mow everything low enough...haha.

I finished cleaning up one flowerbed and mulched it, and the weather has kept me from finishing the other :(

My daffodils finally bloomed like crazy!

Planted my very own first real gardenia! Hope it can actually survive here. And Zoey helped.

Also got some other interesting plants, a fuchsia:

And some strawberries in hanging pots.


So excited about these!

Finally finished our picture wall, for now...



And I did a lot of cleaning. You can finally walk into the extra bathroom now that I've taken all the tools out and put them away in the shed. Straightened the bathroom closet quite a bit.

But in the last month there's also been a lot of life getting in the way. We've had three severe weather days, two of those were bad enough to get into the bathtub. Between the two of us, we were sick for three weeks, which cancelled our trip to Austin and SXSW. Found out we have a huge carpenter bee problem (which also meant finding out what a carpenter bee was) and I'm trying to fix it right now. And this guy escaped into the neighbors yard briefly...

Which doesn't sound bad, except Ceti turns into a feral lion when he gets a little taste of freedom. That pitiful look is only after he tried twice to bite a hunk out of me and was screaming like a bobcat for ten minutes! Ben had to come home from work to get him. And of course when he gets there, Ceti just walks right to him and lets him pick him up. 

In better news, Ben got two job opportunities recently. One with a company in Nashville that would mean less pay, but it wouldn't be retail and it would be a set schedule. The other would be with his current employer. The store in Huntsville recently lost their general manager and Ben has already applied. I'm kinda hoping for Huntsville to happen because it would mean a lot more money than he makes now, he would have some control over his schedule, and we both have friends there. Franklin's great, but I don't really know anyone here except Ben's family and friends. Even my boss is Ben's old college roommate!

So that's what we've been up to lately. Hopefully, I can start balancing completing projects and blogging about them!

What a week/end!

Sorry it's been a week since I've posted, but when I get time with not only my husband, but also my sister and brother-in-law everything else gets put to the side. My sister Shanna and her hubby Scott came to visit last weekend and I was so happy! Scott had to take an exam for his pursuit to become a paramedic and they decided to make a little weekend trip. Friday was a taco and game night with the four of us plus our friends Ryan and Jai. Saturday, Shan and I hung out in downtown Franklin and discovered some amazing fried chicken. As in, we were wondering if someone had resurrected our grandmother and had her cooking in the back kind of good. Then we hung out with Ryan, Jai, and their roommate Raffi and his adorable doggy, Pico...

I have never met such a chill chihuahua! He needs to come talk to Foster, seriously. Then we went for sushi and the Birth of Impressionism exhibit in downtown Nashville. I've never had dessert sushi, but I will definitely be going back. Who knew banana, coconut and crab was delicious together?

Sunday we didn't do much. It's funny how good my family is at hanging out. There were some things we meant to do while they were in town, but poor Scott's test ended up being nearly 12 hours long! But it's okay, we had a good time just doing nothing. Shan and I even had a good time meeting another neighbor of mine. Finally met the lady that lives behind us, Mary Alice, and she is so cool! I'm pleasantly surprised by all the cool old people living around us.

Monday was a little lonely after Shan and Scott left. Ben and I spent the day running errands and furniture shopping (or scavenging to put it more accurately). I still haven't quite found a good junk store, so we spent the day hitting up thrift and antique stores. And finally we got to try out Pre to Post-Modern, a really cool vintage shop in Nashville that is mostly mid-century modern furniture and goodies. I'll have to go back to check out the clothes section when I don't have Ben with me. We finally got everything out of Ben's parents house, which means I'm scrambling to put it all in some sort of order.

Today I took Zoey for her second round of shots and she was GREAT! Everyone was so surprised she's already working with a leash and at how happy she was being at the vet. Which makes me a proud parent, but I'm also feeling guilty. It makes me wonder how different Foster would be if I had had more time to work with him when he was puppy, had more patience, and just knew more! Thank goodness for Dogster.com, it is super helpful if you have a puppy or dogs. You can sign up for emails, and I get an email every month explaining what I should be working on with Zoey. My only complaint would be it had nothing on leash training; I had to read through a few websites before I got any real answers. And I needed those answers, there's no way I can walk Foster and Zoey together right now with how much Foster pulls....oy vey.

So pretty busy around the house lately. I guess tonight I'll be getting some things done around here since Ben's out of town on business. Or I'll be catching up on all those Star Trek episodes I have on the DVR.

Snow Day, Part Deux

Yesterday and today have been snow days for us here in Franklin. Sunday night into Monday we got about 4" and it was snowing again this morning. Thank goodness Ben had the day off already or he would have been trying to get to work in this...

Call me a nerd, but I thoroughly enjoy knocking snow off cars! And see that trash can on the left? That's my first attempt at compost. (More on that later, and when it's warmer!)

A much better snow picture of the abode.

Ben attempting to show me how to sled. Sorta.

After my first decent run. We weren't very good at it; though, I'm not sure if it was us, the sled, or the road.

Ben trying his hand at it. (He put his hands up to make it look like he was going...haha)

My first really good snowman. Or snowwoman? I thought she looked like Lucy the hominid.

I love how snow makes anything look beautiful. Even the bags of recycling in the backyard look gorgeous with a few inches of snow on top!

Action shots!

Power Tools!

Yesterday and today has been spent putting up baseboards and casing with my handy dandy nail gun. Working on the house has made me truly appreciate the one theatre tech class I had in college. Thanks to Ed Zuckerman, I know the correct names of tools, how to use them and the difference between window casing, chair rail, crown, and base moulding, I feel like such a badass!

My very own miter saw...yippee!

Oh and I also spent some time chipping out grout to put in some thresholds, which is difficult when Zoey wants to sleep in my lap every opportunity she gets...

Happy New Year!

Those would be the black eyed peas we're eating for the first of the year. This is the first year I attempted to make them from scratch and they were...better with Tabasco. Next year I'll get brave and try to make the peas and the turnip greens from scratch. This is one of the days that I am uber-superstitious about. You have to eat black-eyed peas for good luck, turnip greens for wealth, and whatever you do the first of the year is what you'll do all year. So far things are looking good! Rang in the new year with friends and family in Huntsville, drove back home (in the worst rain and lightning I've ever seen - it was so bright it hurt!), slept in, ate a huge delicious breakfast, watched Bama (Ben's team) and Mississippi State (my team - there was much cowbell ringing) dominate their bowl games, Roger picked up the huge pile of paneling and moulding that had been an eyesore in our backyard, ate our black eyed peas and turnip greens, and now I'm cleaning and waiting for Ben to get off work so we can eat paella at his parents.

Normally, I'd try to avoid cleaning on New Years Day, but I'm sick of looking at the mess left over from the move, Christmas, and me being sick during all of it. December ended up roughly for me and I am so glad to start out the new year in our new house! And with a new puppy!

Meet Little Miss Zoey!

This little cutie was my sister's, Shanna, Christmas present to me. And she is a-freakin'-dorable! My family have a small herd of Boston Terriers completely by accident, sort of. They bred two a couple of years ago with the intent of selling them, and I knew better. Three years later, they have: Jackie, Spot, Rufus, Zeke, Lily, and Malia. Accidentally Rufus and Lily had a litter, and Zoey was one of four. And of course, the Culpeppers won't be able to part with all of them. Or really, none of them since the two they're giving away are staying in the family, haha!

I had forgotten how tough having a puppy was, but thankfully I am a much more patient person now. And even better, I know about crates! Foster and Ceti weren't thrilled to begin with, but she's won Foster over. Ceti, however, gets so stressed out about Zoey that he will start coughing up hairballs when she gets near him. Poor guy!

As far as house happenings go: we moved in!, had our first houseguests, Ben's brother Ray and his girlfriend BaoNhi, got all our furniture and appliances in and assembled, got our new king-size mattress!!, put up some of the baseboards, put down a couple of new thresholds and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Once I get rid of all our boxes, I'll post some pictures, but the rooms are all still in the very working-on-it stages.