So, we moved into our house about 3 weeks ago and I had decided that I was done with having blue painter's tape still up in every room of our house. I informed Adam of my feelings and so he worked ridiculously hard all week after work to paint and touch up and finish up all of the paint. But it was Thursday night and I had had enough. I just could not take one more day of not "living" in the house we moved into 3 weeks ago. Well, tenacious soul that I am (and let me be clear to say that I use the word tenacious so I don't have to admit to being stubborn or obstinate), I pranced myself up to the top of the ladder in our living room and dining room to paint the crown moulding and then have the glorious boon of ripping down the festering painter's tape once and for all. And with that, the stage was set.
At first I was just frustrated as all get out. It was me against the ceiling and I was going to win. Since I'm not a tall person and my arms aren't extraordinarily long, I could paint a full six inches on either side of where I stood on the top of the ladder before I had to get down, take the paint can and rollers down, move the tarp, move the ladder and relocate to exactly 12 inches from where I had been before. The progress was slow but I was on a mission and I was not to be deterred. As it went on, I sort of got this self satisfied grin on my face thinking "boy, will Adam think I'm a rock star when he sees what I've done." (Nevermind that he was in the other room at the time doing touch ups and painting trim because he wouldn't go to sleep while I was up working...can you believe what a sainted soul he is?) I'm cruising along and before I knew it, I was one side of the dining room wall away from finishing the first coat of that crown moulding. Then, at around 3:45 a stroke of genius hit me. I would go to the garage and get the other drop cloths and line each of the walls so that when I moved the ladder, rollers and paint, I wouldn't also have to move the tarps as I went around to do the second coat. We just put in new carpet so I had to be super careful to not drip (and from 12 feet up, that's hard to do!)
So, to the garage I went. I got the drop cloths, lined each of the walls and just had that last wall to line before I could get up to the top of the ladder, finish my task and do the final endzone dance at being done with the painting. The momentum was building. It was to be my triumph. So that last tarp had gotten caught a little bit under the corner of the ladder. I went over and gave it a tug and then I heard this sort of rattling sound. Instinctively, I turned and looked just in time to watch the GALLON of paint careening from the top of the ladder and thudding on the floor. It of course the can landed on the corner and paint literally spewed forth in the ONE CORNER THAT DID NOT HAVE A DROP CLOTH!!!! You guys, it literally was like a movie. It was in slow motion and as it fell, I just could not fathom that it was really happening. On my beautifully freshly painted walls, there was a WHITE GLOSSY SPLATTER that went half way up the wall, on the shutters, on the window sill and on the baseboards. Oh, and it doesn't stop there! No sir. There was paint literally pooling on my BRAND NEW CARPET! No exaggeration: I let out the most primal, blood curdling, horror movie-esque scream. It even startled me. Poor Adam was clear on the other side of the house and came SPRINTING in to find out what had happened.
Lucky for me, he didn't kill me that I had scared him for that and then, in the calmest, most unaffected voice, he said "it's OK. It'll be fine. We'll clean it up." Yeah, here's my brilliant method. I straight like sprayed water on it and was mopping it up with a dish towel. What I thought this was doing to help the situation, I'll never know but it was worth trying, right? I can not describe the extent of the meltdown I had at the sight of my ruined carpet. It was a cross between hysteria and a straight nervous breakdown. I was inconsolable and not even making complete sentences. IT WAS 4 am PEOPLE!
Well, I happen to have married someone who is incredibly calm in tragic situations and super smart. He devises this plan by which he will flood the carpet and then flush the water over to the tile which bordered the carpet. I watched as he did it and over and over he flushed the paint from the carpet and the water came out on the other side a very very milky white shade. So there I am, whimpering and crying, in the corner and mumbling something about being sorry that I wrecked our dining room. He never even got rattled for a second. It was amazing, as if he instinctively knew that latex based paint if not dry will not adhere to a surface if it is mixed with water. And then, even though it was me who had insisted that we stay up until this project was finished THAT NIGHT and after Adam had been up till like 2 am the day before, sent me to go get cleaned up and get some rest, and then he climbed the ladder and finished painting the crown moulding and took down the tape. When I got up in the morning, the painter's tape was down and the carpet had almost dried from the incident which we've now named "The Spill."
AND THEN, our good friend called Adam that afternoon to see what he was up to and he mentioned what had happened the night before. Our friend then says "hey, you know what? I have a carpet shampooer and I'm not too busy right now. Want me to come over?" So literally, on a Friday night, Doug just drops what he's doing and cruises on over to shampoo the Bad News Bears' carpet. I walk in the door that night to find that Adam has worked from home all day so he has the house in PERFECT condition and Doug was just wrapping up finishing cleaning the carpet. Adam had repainted the wall and you literally could not tell that I had made such a fiasco of the night (morning) before. So what if I hugged the carpet cleaner maching thingy...you would have too! Thank heavens for men who are patient and put up with their wives...and have really nice friends who come to pitch in and help. You're the greatest. And that, folks, is why nothing is EVER worth painting at 4 a.m. Consider yourselves warned.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to brag about my sister in law who is mad crazy amazing for HAND MAKING these chick costumes. 
And I'd like to thank the powers that be for the favorable gene pool that brought us all this darling halloween treat. 
Below is a before picture of the kitchen. This is how it looked when we first saw it. The picture really doesn't do any kind of justice to the hideous nature of the mustard color that was on the walls. 
This is how it looked when we took possession of the house. Keep in mind that the lights are off so it looks darker in here than it really is. 
Here's Adam all in his work clothes and going ahead and flexing for all you adoring fans out there. He's taping in preparation for banishing that horrible yellow color and I just happened to luck out enough to have caught him mid pose. I know. Aren't you all jealous that he's taken?!?
Here's our kitchen now. We painted a rich chocolate brown and when you're inside the kitchen, you actually want to lick the walls. (I actually own a picture of my sister in law licking the wall. Because I love her, I promised her I'd refrain from posting it but I mention that to express how yummy the color of the walls is. As it dripped off the roller when I first painted it, it literally looked like milk chocolate running off the brush. DELICIOUS! We don't have our art up in any room of the house yet. That'll be our next project but for now, at least we've painted!
Here's a photo of the kitchen from the family room area. I love the granite countertops and I love how much bigger the kitchen is than our postage stamp kitchen in our apartment. I've even taken up cooking and baking since we moved in. I think if Adam had known what effect this kitchen would have on me, we'd have bought a home much sooner! :)
Here is the "before" picture of the Master Bedroom. The window you see looks out into the back yard. I love all the natural light in this room!
Here's what we've done with the place. I want to put a cushion in the window seat and a chair/ ottoman over there on that side of the room to take advantage of the light over there. The lighting is a bit deceiving in the pics but this is by far my favorite room of the house. It is the most relaxing room in the house. It's spectacular. I have the hardest time convincing myself to get out of bed in the morning to face the day. I never want to leave!
The other side of our room.
And a full head on shot of our bed...which apparently also should have had a V-8. Sorry for the crooked shot. 
Anyway, there's your first installment of our house. We're so excited. We hope you guys will all come over for dinner, a game night or to stay for a weekend. We are so excited to have a house and we love visitors!
So first I wanted to go see the animals. I'd seen my nephew's photos when he went to the state fair with the Cub Scouts and ...well...if it's good enough for the Cub Scouts, it's good enough for me! Here I am with my buddy, the Giraffe. (Please no comments on my puffy hair. It's Texas. It's humid, and it was my birthday. I don't have to straighten it if I don't want to!) I also saw little dude who was a baby goat or deer or something that would grow up to be a big-ish mammal. I got to pet a sheep with a buzz and I had a very lovely moment with an itty bitty piggy. Marisa and Adam were at least somewhat entertained by the fact that I had to ask them what most of the animals were before I petted them because I at least wanted to know what species I was touching.
Not this little fella, though. I knew right of that this dude was a cow. Or a bull, I guess, since he has horns. He was awesomely large and he mooed super loud. Other highlights include an 1,100 pound swine, a llama with a full fledged mullet (Al Paca, actually) and an ostrich who, in it's haste to eat the sunflower seeds out of the petting zoo attendant's plastic cup, finally pecked the cup out of the lady's hand and then swallowed the entire thing! We got to watch it shimmy down it's long skinny throat. Is it wrong that I was pretty entertained? Oh sure, i was worried at first but the worker guy told us that it happens a lot... so then it was just funny.
And here are the good sports out in front of "Big Tex," our host for the day at the fair. He even talks. And yes...for those who were wondering, Big Tex's jeans are Wranglers if you must know.
And here is why Adam gets "Husband of the Year." (Please note that this all occured just a day after "the Spill" so extra points were awarded for putting the wife's psychosis behind him on her birthday despite its close proximity to the incident.) So, we got finished with the fair and I thought we were just going to have a quiet evening at home watching the game. The doorbell rang and Adam went and got it. Suddenly, some of my favorite peeps just started coming on in the door. Yay for throwing me a surprise party. I LOVE SURPRISES! I couldn't have been happier. I spent the day in the company of good friends and on the phone with family and friends and the evening stuffing my face full of delectable treats!
Here are some of my favorite party girls. 
And my GFBF (Gluten Free Best Friend) Lois. (You'll recognize her by the incredible amount of Florida Gator gear she's wearing...her team won that day.) She is such a doll. She baked a double layer chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and fresh strawberries and drizzled with what? Oh, ANOTHER LAYER OF CHOCOLATE. Sweet nectar of goodness. Oh, did I mention it was all gluten free? And it tasted SO divine. We had a ton of fun. Hung out, played games, chased the kiddos and laughed our crazy heads off. Does it get better than that? 
And, as seems to be custom in my family, he got his first nickname just moments after he was named. He is now affectionately known as "Nate Dawg." These little frog legs of his (as my sister in law calls them) are so adorable. I love baby toes and the way they can wrap their tiny hands around just one of our fingers. I can't wait to meet this little guy!
Amy was kind enough to let us have 2 of her football tickets so we got to go the game with her and Suz. It was awesomes. BYU actually beat the University of Arizona and, although it was a bazillion degrees as you can see in the photo, we had so much fun. It was Adam's first time in LaVelle Edwards Stadium and even though we couldn't quite convince him to Rise and Shout, I think we're wearing him down. Maybe next time he'll do it. Also, Ty Detmer and Gifford Neilson had their jerseys retired that day. Detmer was always one of Adam's favorite players so that made it even more fun for him. 
Then, Suz (who was kind enough to let us stay at hotel Doll) had a dinner party on Sunday which was just perfect for all of us to catch up with one another. Some of my favorite people in the world (Marisa, my sister Courtney, Kathy, Natalie and Suzi) were there and it felt like old times. All of us girls around a table laughing and talking and just enjoying some good quality girl time. Oh, and did I mention Adam was there? Im pretty sure it was his favorite part of the weekend. What husband in America wouldn't LOVE to spend like 4 hours in the company of his wife with 5 of her closest friends complaining about dating and boys and why it all has to be so weird? I mean, I'm pretty sure that he'll be in therapy soon for what he had to hear that night but he's a resiliant kid. He'll get over it...I think. Actually, he had a great time too (although he'll deny it if you ask him). We all had some good laughs and really enjoyed the time together. Thanks Suz. You're the greatest.
On Monday we went to do some sight seeing in Salt Lake City. Suz was a good sport and came along as did our other good friend Adam Findley. We took a tour of the conference center roof and building. It is an amazing structure. I 'd been there for conference but never for the tour. it's just so awesome. The church thinks of everything, I swear. From logistics to architecture to aesthetics. Those old dudes are amazing!
We also took a stroll around temple square and came across this pioneer cabin. It's only 300 square feet and like 4 people lived in it. YIKES. 
Then we cruised over by the Lion house and the Beehive house. I swear, I must have been to SLC a thousand times and I could go a thousand more. I can't get sick of that place. 
And finally, the luckiest part of all was that our trip coincided with my Mom's trip up to help move Courtney in to her place. Ever the boy scout, Adam made sure he made plenty of time to help them carry the heavy boxes up the stairs to Courtney's place and move the big stuff around for her which left me time visit with my mom and Courtney. Here's him in action. Meanwhile, I had the greatest time ever. Thanks everyone for rearranging your schedules so we could spend some time with you guys. We hope you get sent to Dallas on business (or pleasure) sometime soon so that we can return the favor. I'm happy to report that the hotel Braun is now up and running and you're all welcome to come. The more the merrier!
Today is Marisa's birthday. She's one of the greatest human beings I've ever known. Not in the cliche way. I can say sincerely there are specific ways I am a better person for having known her. She is such a beautiful person, inside and out. She was the person that made me actually think I wouldn't have to kill myself for moving to Dallas ALONE. She was the first person I fessed up to having a crush on Adam to. My life was just about perfect when she and Precious were my neighbors. She is and has been my sanity for some time now. My dad asked how she was doing the other day and then said "well, when you talk to her next, you tell her I'm a pretty big fan and so is everyone else who has ever met her." I agree! She flew all the way out to LA to be with me on my wedding day and was probably the largest reason I didn't spontaneously combust. She managed to calm me down when even my mom and a box of chocolates couldn't do it. I love you Marisa. She pressed send when we faxed in our contracts to buy our home. She's basically an Icon in the Braun household. Marisa, I wish you'd stop being so darned righteous, doing what you're "supposed to do" and move your curly headed self back to Dallas! Thanks for being such a great example and a great friend. What a blessing it is to know you!
So, on my way into the office Tuesday morning, I heard something exciting on the radio. You see, Texas is having it's annual State Fair right now and the DJ mentioned that there is a human cannonball event every day at the fairgrounds. I listened intently to the description and the next thing I knew, I was in the middle of a daydream watching my body being launched out of a cannon and my mind had wandered to through following thought processes:
