I Fail!!!

The Best House Warming Gift Ever! (Thanks Mari!)

Geez if I ever fell off the face of blogging it would've been now and the past few months HOLY COW!!! Where the heck have I been and where has time gone?!?! July already!?!?! Seriously?!?!? I don't know how real bloggers keep up or stay motivated. Don't get me wrong I love this whole, it's my page I get to say what I want when I want for whoever wants to look, read and listen but geez all my millions and billions of ideas I have and want to post about never make it past my brain. I mean I think about getting  to the computer the second I get a minute but for some reason this new series I got into calls my name instead, and if you must know it’s called Supernatural and it is AWESOME!!!! If your into weird, paranormal, supernatural, unbelievable kinds of things. Seven seasons of at least 20 episodes each at 45minutes or more!!!!! For those of you who know me know I can't stand not knowing what's going to happen and any chance I get I have someone spoil and spill the story line and love it that much more :-) but yes folks I have been MIA for far too long and much has happened.

Where do I begin?!?! I think the last I left off was a transition in my location from the beautiful most wonderful place I can ever say I've lived Hawaii!!! Who in their right mind leaves paradise?!?!? Yes you guessed it me! (I'm a very strange person) So in this transition on coming back I was back in with the parentals and if you leave the nest and go back it is never ever the same. You do however get a honeymoon phase in the home before the orders and commands and yelling begin and yes the yelling that makes you feel like a little kid again (not fun). During this process I began the search for our first home!! I don't know what they mean by "first" seeing that I'd hope it's the last big move I make FOREVER!!! I received a POA (power of attorney) from my wonderful husband which gives me absolutely NO boundaries I have become two in one, which is great when you need to get everything done when your husband is away in some foreign war land. Now shopping for a home is NOT easy especially alone but when you have a wish of must haves an awesome realtor and an addiction to HGTV it makes things a bit more manageable. Now looking past small cosmetic issues and having an imagination is key, the bones of the house are what matters the most and can I say not having my husband made it a bit more difficult seeing that this isn't just a pair of shoes your picking out for the family it's a BIG deal and trying to make sure you hit the husbands points without him having a yay or nay did I mention was hard? Total trust and I love him for letting me make such a massive decision without a worry in his head (that I know of). The house = open living concept including separate dining and living space, 3 (massive) bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage and a HUGE, GIGANTIC, BIG yard! I’ll definitely post some pictures of the house before the Brown’s stepped foot in it and all the after’s. There have been massive changes and small things that add up tremendously in the long run (like light fixtures, paint, door knobs etc.). 

First Day Of School!!!

 Marley started preschool at an amazing school with awesome teachers who continue to provide her with all the services that benefit her greatly and who make me feel more than comfortable leaving her there for a few hours a day 4 days a week. She seems to love it and I'm noticing growth in many areas of development. Another thing we have been working on/off has been potty training and she is doing great!! Consistency is key I'm pretty sure if I was more on the ball she would've been potty trained months ago and since she can't tell me yet when she needs to go I have been failing on my part but we are both working on it. :-) She stayed dry ALL day yesterday in her big girl pull up! Pretty excited!

Picking Zoey Up From Vacaville CA

SOOKIE!

 We added two new members to the Brown family a German Shepherd Dog (purebred papers and all like I've always dreamed of) registered name Zoey Chaos Brown :-). We also saved an awesome cat I named Sookie and can I say she is the softest, cuddliest cat I have ever had, super sweet and friendly that allows my crazy toddler to man handle her daily. I couldn't have asked for a better cat for her (I didn't by the way ask for her at all, I go into a vet visit for Zoey one day and come out with an extra pet in hand lol). Let me tell you a bit about Zoey her middle name follows her indeed and granted she is still a baby it is no joke she is as just as much work as my toddler oh man!!! Staying on my toes does not begin to cover it. She listens well (kind of) and graduated her AKC S.T.A.R puppy class and graduated to the next level of training which we are currently in. 6 months old and I love the puppy stage but I'm very anxious to get out of it and into the great dog I know she will be (eventually).

Signing for the House

The House!!

So I mentioned before when buying a house you look past cosmetics and take the structure of the house versus the things you can change. Those things though can be a lot of work of course all great in the end because you make it your own and really personalize the home into what you wish it to be to reflect your personal style and what not so over the past few months color, color, color!!! Painting walls is massive a little paint changes things dramatically and for the better, tedious and a bit time consuming when on your own as well so I can blame my absence on that (a little). I can also blame it on a whole house that needs constant cleaning and a whole house a toddler roams around as she pleases and you would think the toys would be contained in her massive room but nope there are toys to clean up everywhere constantly, especially if you don't want a puppy chewing up toys that aren't hers. That's the inside in a small synapsis. The OUTSIDE!!!! Front yard needed massive help. Poor yard had not been given any TLC in quite some time and it showed. Reviving the lawn and cleaning up all the dead shrubs digging them out and prepping for new and better, WORK! The backyard is a whole other story! Granted it was not landscaped one inch what so ever dead tumbleweeds all over this massive yard you could get lost in. Riding the space of all the dead was WORK! Figuring out what we want where and what we want to do was the beginning, finding someone to execute your semi vision easy when you have an awesome all around handy man for a dad. He did WORK! With a three day turn around. The portion I wanted done up was dug out, sprinkler system installed, triple mix put in and sod rolled out and I couldn't be happier with the amount of difference is has made. I am one satisfied, happy girl all before the summer too, well kind of, if the beginning of June is considered before the summer I don’t know. Marley is going to have a lot of fun out there. The kitchen is going through a huge makeover as well in the next few weeks a complete renovation is going to have taken place in the Brown home. If ever we were going to move on and out of here the property value for this home has easily increased tremendously with the changes we have made.

To top things off my husband who has only been home for a total of 6 weeks (not consecutively) in the past 18 months has come home sooner than expected!!!! A lot sooner!!! Like 4/5 months sooner!!!! Beyond excited for him to be able to be home and sit and enjoy what all his hard work has done for us and the opportunities it's provided and the life we have now. Sacrifice and hard work truly pays off. The kind of sacrifice he has made, we have made as a family has taken us from low income housing, to living in Hawaii in an MTV crib to now having a wonderful car and a beautiful home. If there was an American dream I could ever dream, I'm living it now. Extremely grateful cannot even express the way I feel.

I probably missed a lot of things going on but I think you might get the picture before I start babbling or becoming redundant. Enjoy the pictures and I'll try to make sure my next leave of absence isn't quite as long :-)

Below are just some random photos of everything Enjoy!!

First Things First, PAINT!

Light Fixtures/Ceiling Fans

                               

Shooting In March

Our Young Pup

Park Day

Bonding

Getting All Grown Up

Stare Down

They Keep Me Company

My Other Other Other Baby and The House

Paint Jobs (Burnt Almond, Melted Chocolate, Oriental Silk)

Marley In The Master

Living Room And Kitchen In The Back

Just Chillin

P.S

I will be blogging with massive pictures of the kitchen renovation ASAP!

Holidays

Seeing that I had ZERO posts in December I felt it only fair to go back a few weeks and recap on my festivities. I'm a simple character and I'm not crazy about celebrating holidays, the only one that has ever really mattered to me was Thanksgiving and it was AWESOME this year! (upside down turkey = WIN)

From Male Turkey

To our lovely Female Turkey

Deliciousness in our mouths non-stop

Upside down leaves your white meat just as juicy if not juicer than your dark

Team Work in the kitchen ended us with turkey overdose, it was so good! I'm drooling! lol

Now to my December festivities as soon as I landed in Reno began the Christmas shopping.Winter cloths shopping too! Not a lick of winter cloths were left in our wardrobe so we had to get us in warm cloths fast! That is where I began, back to jeans and sweatshirts I went with some new edition long sleeves and shopping for Marley was the best part. I LOVE getting that girl in cloths she is SO FREAKING CUTE! lol So a variety of outfits for her galore! After we were all warm and bundled I can get to the Xmas list (online shopping FTW) I didn't even have to leave really which is the funny part. Spent all that time making sure we had cloths to go out in the cold in and I can't even remember how many times we actually left the house. I hate leaving! So December consisted on boring hibernation nothing BIG or extreme that I can think of. Marley has been attached to my moms hip since we landed and is back to bossing my little sister around, its like she never left. She yearns to be in the water which makes me sad to think of the amount of water play and pool time she is missing out on, its a fight to get her out of the bath. Other than the usual things like keeping to Marley's daily schedule I have many pictures below to all the many things I've been up to that have been keeping me away from my precious blog enjoy!

First on the list CLEAN RINGS!!! The first time in MONTHS and they came back looking NEW I was mesmerized for days! 

Family time!! All my Aunts and my Mom

More Family Time Brother Brandon & Cousin Jenny

Back to the grinds Arroz con Leche and Cinnabons how I missed them so..

They waited for Marley and I to put the Christmas tree up so that was fun to do. It was the first time we put a big tree up in YEARS!!

Marley in semi-winter attire and MITTENS! :-)

Attached to the hip I say!

She started smiling like this every time the flash comes on and wont let me catch her with her eyes open anymore its pretty funny!

Winter Cloths!! I got my boots with the FURR :-p

Just a Shaka Kinda Time Chillin'

CHEESE!!!

Getting in bed with boys not even weeks after being back what a hussy!! Lol Jk Little/Big Tristen Dugger & Marley hanging out

Christmas Ready

Marley Just waking up being cute and what not

I got FOOTSIE PJ's!!!! So Marley and I decided to take this moment and enjoy our PJ time together :-) I'm in love and want to die in these!

More cousin time, I'm teaching this girl how to bake ;-) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Its no Island salad but it will have to do, I've been trying different things to meet my new found cravings

Marley being a hoodie girl :-)

New Years Hat!

Just baking baking baking!! These were probably the best cookies I have ever made!! From scratch I know it looks store bought but NO people I put my love, sweat, and tears in these :-) Weather appropriate cookies

Step by step they looked like the most unreal batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER :-)

Crunchie on the outside and perfectly soft in the middle!

Moms Famous fried fish, rice, and pasta salad

Found a new app that pretty much completes me lol!

Just driving around in the cold and what not but never without the trusty portable DVD player

Reminds me of delicious meals Robin would make for me makes me miss all that deliciousness when I have to do this without you :-( But doing these little things makes me feel like I still have you guys around :-) thank you for giving me rad skills :-)

New Hair!!! As you may have seen in my last post! Keeping myself busy in multiple ways

More family time with my brothers

Here I am spending time trying to get my fish out of the water it took more than 5  minutes and the water was completely gone!

Breakfast time with Marley Brown :-)

So as you can see from the many pictures I have shared I've been doing a little bit of this and that and still some days I wonder where the heck has time gone?! Everything happens so fast and all those little things that I feel sometimes were nothing, like I didn't do or accomplish anything the whole day really add up to loads of memories even just small ones. Everyday is different and some days do seem to move slower than others but at the end of the day looking at Marley I know it was a good day no matter what. I may add that I purchased Just Dance 3 for my Wii and have been gaining some wicked dance moves over the last few weeks so not only am I baking and cooking, I'm DANCING! I'll let you know how that goes ;-) 

To be continued....