2009 Resolutions...

Below is a list of 2009 Resolutions...

• Work out more: meaning go to the freaking gym you lazy ass. 3x a week!
• Take more pictures: being a photographer means taking pics, unfortunaltey they are never of my own family. I need to take more of my life!
• Be more creative: I seemed to be in a creative rutt. This is due to the Holiday hussle and bussle. There has been no new creative makings in the Nusbaum household. That needs to stop.
• Scrapbook more: seriously, I haven't scrapbooked since early 2008. My scrapbook friends would not approve.
• Show my inner fashion: I was shows like "The Hills" and "The City" and I am like "okay, I need to dress cuter"... sometimes I am so lazy, it just doesn't happen. Thowing on accessories does not take that much work. I am really an artsy person, I need to show it.
• Pamper myself: I got A TON of lotions, bath salts, etc for Christmas. I need to take the time in the evening to actually use them. I tend to do just that! I also want to paint my finger nails more. LOL Funny as it sounds, I NEVER paint them, and I should.
• Blog more: I haven't done too bad about this. But I want to show more pictures and my creative talents on here.
• Wills: Ryan and I have not done our wills yet. Last year we finally got Life Insurance. But I know that we need to get this done sometime this year. It's never a fun thing to do, but you never know what will happen. I need to find a lawyer for this. Any suggestions?
• Be more thankful: I needs to count my blessings more, everyday, for what I have, where I live, and the people I know.
• Donate more money: Usually every Christmas I donate money to a charity. This Christmas, I didn't. Money was tight from getting a new floor and of course Christmas. It is weighing heavily on my shoulders. I tend to donate money once we save up some again.
• Stay in touch: I have many friends and family that live outside Columbus, I want to stay in touch more with them, write them more emails, and let them know I am thinking of them.
• Go more places with Ryan: We rarely travel, mainly because we love our house and our dog. We hate to leave him :( So I want to go on more little weekend trips around Ohio that we can take Fender to too. Last year we went to Marblehead for a little weekend trip. We stayed at the Surf Motel right by the water. It was nice and Fender had a good time. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!
• Get a new kitchen sink: We have done TONS of stuff to our house since we moved in. There is always something to do, to update. My next thing I want is a new kitchen sink. Our's is pretty old, it's stainless steal. But I want a new stainless steal one with a cool faucet. It should be around $300-$400 I estimate. Maybe for our Anniversary in May :)
• Organize: Okay, all of you out there KNOW I LOVE to organize. Ryan calls me "Paul" all the time (Paul is his dad, who is SUPER organized with everything). But I have a few projects I want to tackle before next Christmas. One would be the basement. I want to organize all of our stuff with those sterilite 5 shelving units (I need like 5), and get more rugs down there. We are hoping to actually finish part of the basement, but who knows when that will be. Another organizing project is the computer room. I did it last summer, but now I am thinking some of the stuff I could store in containers in the basement. We will have to see.
• Put laminate in one upstairs bedroom: Our goal, or well, MY goal, is to get rid of 3 of the 4 bedroom carpets upstairs. We love our laminate we just had installed downstairs. So know I, one by one, want to remove the old carpet that is upstairs and put laminate. This will only be done with the help of our dear friend Steve, who has done it before.
• Do more cooking of new recipes: I love to cook, I really do. But after an 8 hour work day, I am pooped and would rather fix something fast and easy. I need to suck it up and cook actual meals more. I usually go into spurts. I will cook like 2-3 new meals a week, then for a while, I just make easy stuff. I need to compramise in the middle and do like 1 a week.
• Buy a new TV: We have two FABULOUS televisions. I have no complaints! But we have decided (shhhh dont' tell my mom, she would freak) to make our front formal room (which no one sits in anyways) a tv room with a flat panel on the wall. :) We were thinking that someday when we have kids, they will want to watch Disney/Pixar movies like NON-STOP (as we have witnessed with all of our neices and nephews). So this way,we would have two tv's downstairs. One for the kids, one for us. We are thinking like a 42-46 inch. It's pretty exciting. Ryan and I are tech JUNKIES. We are hoping for a nice tax return check ;)
• Traditions: I LOVE the show Jon and Kate Plus Eight, and I love that they have all these traditions. Example: She always makes her homemade sticky buns on Christmas moring. I really want to start making traditions like that. Its just a good, reassuring feeling. :)

Pictures

This is just a cute pic of Ryan and I's nephew Luke. He's adorable. I thought I would share. :)

Oh, and that is a pic of Ryan and I... that's my typical husband (lol) never a dull moment.

2009 will be an AMAZING Year...

I am soooo looking forward to the upcoming year. 2009 will be great! I intend to make it great!

Starting out having "9" in the year, it my favorite number. It was my volleyball number, my softball number in high school, it was my sister's volleyball number- it's just a gooood number! :) And the year starts out with my birthday on January 10th. I will be 26- wow- 26. That is kind of scary! But it's a good even number- LOL.

Secondly, during the summer of 2009, there will be 2 new additions to my family. Ryan's sister, Rachel, is due in June with her 3rd, and my sister is due in July with her 2nd! AND a dear friend of mine, Leslie, is due with her 1st in July... so Summer 2009 will be the summer for babies.

Thirdly, my closest cousin Erika, who I basically call my lil'sis, is getting married in September. I am honored to be her maid of honor and am soooo looking forward to hosting her shower and bachelorette party. I love her soooo much and I am so excited for this special time in her life. I remember my year of planning for Ryan and I's wedding and I wish her only the best of the best this year as she and Jeremiah plan their big day. :)

Some other reasons why this will be a GREAT year...
I recently got my photography business authorized with the State of Ohio (Studio E Photography, llc. ) and finialized my website: http://web.me.com/erinnusbaum. I am looking forward to doing more photography work this year for sure. I have two weddings planned this spring which I am looking forward to.

I am looking forward to the annual sister's trip to VEGAS in May. And THIS year, we are seeing CHER! So pumped! It's going to be a great show! SOOOOO EXCITED! "Do you believe in life after love?" LOL (sorry I had to).

There is the annual Vera Bradley Outlet sale this spring in Fort Wayne that Lauren and I go to. This will be the second year for me, but her like 4th? I think.... IT'S CRAZY! But sooo much fun, and who doesn't like getting Vera stuff, on sale even!? :) Good times!

Oh, I am sure there will be many other exciting things happening this year, things I do not know about yet. Which I will surely blog about, so don't worry. But these are probably the top ones for right now. :)

So see ya 2008- it's been a good time. But 2009- You will be it!

Christmas updates and to-dos...

I thought I would update everyone on my status, since I have been M.I.A. for about 3 weeks.

Today, the floor was completely finished! We had to have the installer come back out and finish two transition strips in the doorways that we were missing. It is finally finished! Yee-ah! (CHECK)

Today, also, the new couch (seen below) and brown leather ottoman was delivered. I have not seen them yet, but Ryan claims they look fabulous! I can't wait to see them. (Pics coming soon) (CHECK)

Ok, I am SOOOO behind on Christmas stuff this year it is ridiculous! This is sooo not like me. I usually have the tree up the week before Thanksgiving, the Christmas Cards out the week after Thanksgiving. I got nothing. The floor has totally taken up my time. But, this past Sunday we got the Christmas tree up along with the fireplace decorations. I love them! :) We got them last year from Home Depot. They look so good. I recommend Home Depot for Christmas decor.

I did get to finish my Christmas shopping this week, except for my brother-in-law and the mailman, garbage man, and paper boy. But I got everything I have wrapped last night (CHECK off the list)... so I am catching up.

As far as Christmas cards, yeah- we usually do the photo ones... but I haven't even taken our Christmas pic yet. Whew... really need to do that and get those ordered. (TO-DO)

Fender has had his grooming at Petsmart for the Holiday season. He is clean, cut, and ready to go! (CHECK)

My sister's and I booked our flights for our annual Vegas trip in May. We are all booked now! (CHECK)

Ryan's family has their annual Cookie Day on Saturday. I make my famous Gingerbread Men... have I made them yet? Nope... I think Friday night I will do that. (TO-DO)

The Salvation Army is coming tomorrow to pick-up our couch and loveseat we are donating to them. They are the old ones in the living room (beige ones). (CHECK)

I was really hoping to have my annual Holiday Dinner this year. I have a few of my close friends over for a very nice dinner at our huge dining room table. I don't know if I will have time this year.... I am hoping though. (TO-DO)

I also want to go see the Wild Lights at the Columbus Zoo. We have FREE tickets and our schedule is crazy... hopefully though, maybe this Friday!? (TO-DO)

So yeah... I think that is about it of my Christmas list of to-do's....

WHEW!

As quoted from Christmas Vacation "It's Christmas and we're all in misery."

LOL (love that movie)

Done and Done

Hello... yes, I am still alive. Boy oh boy, terribly sorry for not blogging in forever.  I have been BUSY BUSY BUSY. Not enough time in the day.

So, I must announce, that my FLOOR IS DONE! YAY! (Pictures Shown)........... Whew! It was quite the process. My life has been nothing but FLOOR for the past 2 weeks. But it is done. DONE AND DONE and it looks GREAT!  Don't mind the messiness in the photos, we were in the process of putting everything back in its place.

We have ordered a new couch, replacing the beige one in the pictures. The couch is a dusty blue modern style couch, very comfortable. The sweet brown and beige rug is from Pottery Barn, and I absolutely love it. We also ordered a large brown ottoman that has storage inside, perfect for games and toys for the kids someday. I am currently waiting on ivory drapes from JC Penney's, which are backordered till January.

Ryan LOVES the floor and has really has started to enjoy the interior design aspect of things. He is learning why I bought this and why this works with that. :) He's so cute. It makes me smile.  

My mom and dad came down today to see the floor. Mom about passed out when she saw the new floor. She couldn't believe that was the same room. I agree. It looks incredible without that carpet. And will look even better with the new furniture. 

YAY!

Love it, Leave it #4

Love it: The Body Shop Hemp Hand Protector

Every year about this time my hands get really, really dry. I have used many different kinds of hand creme, but this one takes the cake. It is a huge tube that will last you over a year at least, if not longer. It smells devine (not flowery or strong) and it works so well. They also have hemp chap stick that would recommend. :)

Leave it: Swiffer duster

Because I couldn't think of anything else to put under my "leave it", I decided to put the swiffer duster down. I use it probably once a week, and it does the job- pretty well.... They recently came out with one that has the fabric 360 degrees around, which is why the one pictured above is on my "leave it". Only have the fabric on one side of the handle was a huge pain in the butt. Once I get all these used up, I am going to buy the one with the 360 fabric on the handle.

But over all, I think pledge and a soft cloth works the best and you can smell the cleanness too.

Four Floors and Seven Years Ago...

So... I just wanted to start out saying how much I love my house. Sure, its not the newest thing on the market and it WAS built in 1989, which unfortunalty has some left over 80's goodies for us to contend with (best one- seashell shaped sinks, always a pleasure). But it is OUR HOME, and we fell in love with it the minute we saw it. It is our greatest investment and our greatest challenge. There is honestly no place I would rather be.

We have done alot of updating in this little baby. We were blessed to have a newer kitchen in it as well as a sweet masterbathroom with a soaking tub and seperate shower. There were many pluses to this house that we did not have to worry about. But there is ONE ASPECT... one thing about this house that is ABSOLUTELY AWFUL...

THE FLOORING!

Carpet, carpet, carpet...... EVERYWHERE. And it is in no means new, I can tell you that. All the carpet in the house is original. First off, there was carpet in the laundry room. That has been taken out (last fall 2007) and my wonderful dad put in vinyl stick tiles (looks nice and very inexpensive). THEN, we had carpet in the Master Bathroom (YES BATHROOM PEOPLE), which eventually caused a carpet ant infestation. That luckily was taken care of this past August, thanks to my dad again, who installed ceramic tile (and looks fabulous). Now the guest bathroom upstairs has nasty *ss laminate in it... its not even nice looking laminate, its all marked up and is coming up at the ends. So thankfully my dad will be replacing that is ceramic tile that we have left over from master bathroom (probably will be done this winter yet).

But the worse, the absolutly WORSE is the dark, stained, burbur carpet in the kitchen/dining/living room area. So bad, so bad. I tried to shampoo it a couple times to get it to actually be the color it supposed to be, but nothing works. It is so stained that nothing will lift out the dirt. There was a rug put down in the kitchen when we moved in, I just swept over it, then one day I lifted it up and to my surprise that carpet was about 20 shades lighter than the other carpet. I about died.

Anyways, its bad. No way would I EVER let my child (when I have one that is), crawl or roll around on that carpet. That is how bad it is. I can't even walk on it barefoot, it grosses me out.

So to get to the point of the story, we have (BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER) decided to finally replace that carpet with a nice Pergo laminate floor! TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) Me so happy!

Sample is shown in the picture. It is called Pergo Pestige Harvest Chestnut. We didn't want to go too light, cause it doesn't match our decor. But we didn't want to go too dark, cause we have low ceilings and our house is dark anyways (80s=very little ceiling lights). Ryan liked that one the best also.

So we are super excited to finally get rid of this carpet. We plan to have this installed professionally, since this is our main living area and we just want it done asap and get everything moved back in. Other rooms we want to get carpet taken out is the two guest rooms, the computer room and the big dining room. We plan on doing those ourselves (with the help of our dear friends Jill and Steve), to save some money. Plus the other rooms are alot smaller. This area we are having done is about 500 sq/ft.

So, that is my happy news for today. I told Ryan this is the best Christmas gift ever! LOL Granted, it won't be cheap, but boy will it be an improvement and truley something we are thankful for. I will post pics when it is all done. The guy is coming out tomorrow to measure... should be done around the end of November, beginning of December! YAY! :)

Chop Chop Chop....

I got a new haircut on Tuesday. Its the shortest I have ever had it. It was a little scary, I won't lie. But after the HUGE amount of responses I received, I think I will keep it for a while.

What do you think?!

Recovering from the party...

 You will see above a picture of myself and Ryan in our infamous Halloween costumes. They were a hit and we really did look amazing (in different ways of course). Ryan played off Deputy Dangle so well, it was almost scary.

The party was amazing. Everyone had a blast and everyone got home safely. I need to thank the Lord for getting us through such a big event with minor problems, since we did have over 50 people at one point of the night. Thank you Lord for keeping everyone safe and letting everyone have a blast! 

The planning for next year's has begun! :)

To Everyone...