Makeover Monday - Theatre Room

Welcome back to another edition of Makeover Monday! This week we’re talking about our “theatre room” in our basement. No, we are not rich -we are very thrifty/good at finding deals and we are very lucky to have great friends and family that were so willing to help us finish our basement. Last winter, Chris, my dad, me and some very nice friends/family spent a LOT of time and hard work finishing our basement. It’s crazy for me to look back at the pictures to see where we started. I’m breaking the basement up into different rooms (so I have more posts and not 1 huge/long post that people struggle to get through)

Here is what the basement moved in. Please excuse the boxes/crap everywhere!

View into theatre room from the future hallway

View if I was standing in the theatre room and looking into future bathroom/storage

The steps down into the basement - future hallway and bathroom

Looking straight ahead to where the screen will be

Dad and Chris built the wall that separates the bathroom and the living room

Built doorway that leads into future (and current) storage room

Looking straight ahead is where the screen will be. Wire has been run for the future electrical

Sheetrock was put up.

Wall that separates the bathroom and living room. Chris installed all of the trim. The door on the left is the door to our storage room

Ahead is the wall where the screen will be hung

Door into the storage room

Another shot of the wall separating the bathrrom. I don't know what all of the spots on the pictures are. Lighting was not good at this point

We put the screen up!

Shot of the wall with the windows and sliding glass door

We finally got our carpet and furniture! Happy Day! No ceiling or overhead lighting yet

Our compromise for the surround sound speakers - put them in the ceiling! I hated the idea of huge box speakers sticking out from the wall when you entered the room



And now for the Finished Product!!

View from the hallway into the theatre room. Running on the treadmill watching 120" screen isn't so bad ;)

View from where the treadmill is. That's the storage room in the corner

View from where the storage room door is. LOVE our sectional. It's amazing for sleeping watching movies/TV

View from the corner. Storage room door on the left, my bed the chaise and the hallway (tan color on the right)

View of the screen straight on

All in all I could not be happier with how it turned out. We are so lucky to know people in the trades. We would not have been able to afford to do this without knowing who we know. My husband did such a great job with everything. There were a LOT of times I think he wanted to give up, but he kept going and now we have a great 3rd level of our house to hang out in. We started our project in October 2010 and finished at the beginning of April 2011. 

Happy Monday, hope everyone had a great weekend!

Confessions of a Workin' (out) Girl

I've been inspired by Kelly to document my workouts. And since I am actually working out right now, I figured why not blog about it and hold myself accountable. The hubs and I started a little competition "goal plan" to get us inspired to work out. My goal is to run/workout equivalent to 25 miles/week and his is 20/week. This was started mid December and is scheduled, for sure, until we leave for Florida in 3 weeks. 


So, here's what I got up to this past week:


Sunday, January 8 - 1st spin class ever - about died, but felt amazing!
Monday,  January 9 - Step Plus Abs class and Zumba class
Tuesday, January 10 - 2nd spin class - not as difficult as the first but was happy to be there at 5:45 on a work day
Wednesday, January 11 - 1st Aqua Fit class - was more of a workout than I was expecting!
Thursday, January 12 - no workout, date night with the hubs
Friday, January 13 - ran 4 miles on the treadmill, 1 mile on the StairMaster and a light ab workout
Saturday, January 14 - Spin class was full so I walked 1.25 on the 'mill before kickbox cardio class followed by Zumba
Sunday, January 15 - ran 5 miles straight on the 'mill (time 52:30 - for me to see improvement, not to brag cuz that's not too fast) 


I'm definitely seeing improvements! I really enjoy going to the classes, I wish they offered more at different times. 


Today I went with Chris to Golf Galaxy to use up some gift cards he got while playing in a tournament last Tuesday (yep, outdoor tournament in MN on January 10 - crazy). I scored the best deal on a golf shirt for when I golf in Florida in a few weeks. It was originally priced for $60 and with the crazy clearance and one of his $10 gift cards, it was mine for just over $16. I was sooo excited! 

I hope you had a great weekend! Check back tomorrow for "Makeover Monday"

Spin Class and a Dress?!?

What a week!


On Tuesday morning I got up at 5 a.m. to attend a 5:45 spin class. This was my 2nd spin class ever (the first was last Sunday and it was amazing). I got dressed and finished getting the rest of my stuff packed up since I would be getting ready for work at the gym (never done that before). What did I have packed to wear? A dress! I have never worn a dress to work in my life (I rarely wear dresses or skirts in every day life, let alone to work). I told Chris this is the beginning of crazy day if this is how it's starting out :)


I was accompanied by 5 other people, quite the interesting group of people. It was a different instructor than I had on Sunday and I didn't enjoy it as much as Sunday's class. At one point we were listening to a really slow song and I wanted to yell for her to change it before I fell asleep, but I resisted. I made it to work relatively on time. They're pretty lenient where I work so no biggie. I felt fine Tuesday night and then Wednesday came and hit me like a bus. I was sooo tired and exhausted that I asked my boss if I could take a couple hours of PTO on Wednesday and Friday (this week was going to be rough no matter what, haven't worked 5 days for a few weeks now).  So I survived it at all, but it wasn't easy!


In other news...I received this on Monday.

My new DSLR camera case - I'm so in love with it!

Sorry, I truly do suck at taking pics of myself in the mirror - maybe some day I will look good doing it :)

The inside has a padded separator thing to keep my lenses and body all separate and protected

I used my Amazon gift cards I got for Christmas to buy it (thanks to those of you that read this and gave me a gift card ;)). I didn't want the basic camera bag that everyone carries and this should do the trick for now. I don't have a ton of photography stuff so I don't need a huge bag and I love the material and color of this.

We don't have a ton planned for this weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to 2 classes in the morning (spin and Zumba), my parents are coming down for lunch and so I can show my dad how to use his iPod touch we got him for Christmas and tomorrow night we're going with some friends to The Melting Pot - YUM! Our favorite restaurant!


Sunday will probably not lead to a lot. I will probably attend another class or two and do some shopping. Monday - I'm not looking forward to. I have to start getting all of the business tax stuff together since our appointment is the 30th. I so dread this every year and every year I say I'm going to be more prepared so I'm not doing it all at once...still no lesson has been learned, oh well! At least we're going to Florida in 3 weeks from tomorrow, YAY!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Check in Monday for another Makeover Monday! This time we're moving it inside the house. 

Makeover Monday

Well, here is my first attempt at Makeover Monday! I really hope I can keep up with at least this (totally slacking in the blog department lately). I wish I had a really cool button to put up for Makeover Monday, but I don't know how to create one or put it on my blog. Any advice in that department is welcome :)

For my first makeover, we'll talk about me! I recently chopped my hair off and got high and low lights put in. I really like it so far and was really needing a change for quite some time but wasn't sure what I wanted to do. So as any girl would do, I booked an appointment the day before Christmas Eve just in time for the holidays and hoped for the best! If it sucked, it would be documented in all of the Christmas photos for the year - yippee! 


Here are some pics from before:

Picture from the front - long, dry hair

Picture of the back

The Inspiration I found online

And after:

After about 2 and a half hours at the salon

I don't think my cut really looks like my inspiration photo. The lady didn't style my hair like the picture or how I would style it at all and I opted to not cut my bangs. Bangs look amazing on some people, I'm just really scared to try them. It's been about 15 years since I've had them and I'm scared to go back. The end result, I LOVE it! My husband is still adjusting. He liked my hair long, but I like how much time I save in the morning when getting ready. I never did anything fun with my hair - I only wore it in a pony tail or flat ironed. I didn't have the patience or talent to curl it. I kind of felt like a hypocrite having the long hair but not doing anything to it. 

Stay tune for next week's post where we'll move things into our house and look at the many changes we've done over the past (almost) 2 years of living here. I LOVE change and the hubs is starting to like it to :)


Happy Monday!

1,000 Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this picture is that for me

Christmas Eve we were doing a photo shoot on our deck since Chris's dad said he wanted a picture of us and our dogs for Christmas. Of course we would leave it until the day before we were giving him his present to take the picture and then quickly run to Walgreens to have it developed! Among the thousand 15 or so pictures we took was the one above. When I saw the picture, it brought tears to my eyes. 


A couple weeks before this picture during a routine check-up at the vet we found out that Oscar (pup on the right above) had low protein levels and had a bunch of fluid in his stomach. We ended up rushing him to an emergency vet clinic and met with a lady (who neither of us liked very much) and ran a blood test that day (cha-ching!) Depending on those results they wanted us to come back in and meet with a specialist (who we thought we were meeting with in the first place) and have more tests run costing about $1,200. After much thought and consideration we ended up getting a second opinion at another vet and have spent far less money than quoted at the emergency vet place. Oscar had fluid removed from his stomach (1lb 4oz!) about a week after it was first noticed. He has been on meds since and is doing sooo much better and seems like he is feeling better too! 


On the day this picture was taken, Oscar was not feeling well. His stomach was still feeling upset and I don't think he felt like having his picture taken or being held. Such a little trooper!


I hope we have many more years with our little monkeys! We love them sooo much and I can't imagine our life without them! Here is a picture that we ended up using for his dad

Hope everyone has a great week! I am planning to start a new thing on my blog called "Makeover Mondays" to feature different rooms/looks that I've made over recently. Hope you enjoy!

Recap

Holy buckets time is flying by! Feeling a little stressed about the 5 birthdays (hubs, b-i-l, Oscar, s-i-l and dad) in December, our wedding anniversary (tomorrow - Happy 2 year anniversary sweetie) and Christmas! Not to mention a few holiday parties, get-togethers and a few added items to my workload at my job. So since I don't have a ton of time on my hands, I figured I'd share a few amazing recipes I have found on pinterest and have tried out.

double crunch honey garlic pork chops

We had these for dinner tonight and they were so delicious. I used chicken instead of pork chops (cuz that's what we had and we don't eat too much pork). The sauce alone is to die for. Chris told me to "dog ear" the recipe. LOL!

easy parmesan knots

I made these for Thanksgiving and got many compliments on them! I used crescent rolls instead of biscuits since I had bought them ahead of time (before pinning it). They turned out great! I did not roll them in knots, just made them look like crescent rolls.

nutella ice cream

I made these last night. So tasty! I am still in shock that it's just bananas and ice cream. Chris and I shared one tonight after dessert. He ate more than I did and he's not one for sweets! I halved the recipe since that's all I had on hand, but I could see myself making more of these. They are only 140 calories, pretty good in my book! 

Last Saturday was Chris's (age purposely deleted) birthday.

Enjoying his free mug (seriously, any drink you want in there - I've had a Long Island) at the Valley Bar in Eagan. Hole in the wall bar, but such a great deal for  your birthday! And they give you a mug to take with you ;)

We went out to lunch with his dad at Bonfire (so yummy) and then came back to the house to rest from our food coma. Then we went to Best Buy to get a tripod for our new camera (oh yeah, we bought a DSLR - so excited to figure it all out!!). We have met the most interesting people at our local store. We bought our Mac from the store in August and had a girl (mid 20's) helping us out. She was super nice and had just started out there. We've been in the store a few times since we bought our computer and never fail, she's always there and always comes up to us and remembers BOTH of our names. We both find it shocking/creepy she remembers our names. Of course on Saturday creeper nice saleslady sees us and comes over to check on us and remembers our names. Wasn't much help to us in the camera dept, but just had to stalk check in with us, I guess. After we got home, I made Chris get dressed up for our Christmas Card photo shoot. I thought it would go soooo much better than it did, haha! Either way, we got a picture for our card and I have them ordered. Can't wait to get them and send those suckers out! Saturday night, we met up with some friends at Ansari's in Eagan, Kind of a crazy night, but I think we left before the worst of it :)

Sunday, I don't think I could get enough sleep. It felt so nice to sleep in. The hubs ended up going in to work and I made may way to the neighboring cities for some Christmas shopping. Finally got some stuff checked off my list, still a LOT to go.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to spending the evening with my love and celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary. I'm also excited that we were able to book tickets to go to Florida and visit his amazing family in February. The next 2 months are going to go by sooo fast. I can't wait!

December 6, 2009 Captiva Island, Florida

My New Journey!

If you thought this is where I was going to be posting about us expecting our first child...sorry, this is almost the opposite (as far as my body goes).

Last week (after reading another blogger's post) I decided that it's time for me to start losing some weight again and I figured what better time than just before the holidays. Maybe I can try to restrain myself when indulging in all that the holidays have to offer.

Last Saturday I downloaded a new app on my iPhone called MyFitnessPal. You may have heard of it or already have it. I think it's so cool and I've been logging my food and workouts since Saturday. It even has a bar code scanner on it so you can just scan stuff and it will input all of the nutritional info in it. I used to carry around a planner with my workouts, food/calorie intake and daily weight. Now it's all in my phone. Soooo cool!

As of this morning, I've lost 4 lbs already. YAHOO! I know it always comes off fast at first and then you plateau, but it's still exciting. And this morning, I could even button my dress pants. Sometimes A lot of times, I will not button the top button and just wear my belt. Today I have them buttoned and haven't had to go in the bathroom to use the belt trick.

Somethings I'm doing to help me shed some pounds:

• Drinking little to no alcohol. If you see me (friends and family, especially you m-i-l and s-i-l) and I do not consume an alcoholic beverage, this does not mean that I'm pregnant. Please do not make any assumptions or ask me if I'm pregnant.
• Controlling the portions of food that I consume and documenting each and every thing that I eat, the best I can. Sometimes it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for and how many calories are in it
• Working out at home. I've been logging miles on the treadmill and outside. I've pinned (yep, joined pinterest too) some workouts to try.
• Joined the gym at work. It's $10/YEAR, how could I not join at the incredible rate. It's not a huge workout room - about the size as one at a hotel or apartment building - but it has the machines that I used when I had a gym membership at Lifetime and a locker room with showers. I mainly just plan to go down and walk or go on the elliptical during my 15 minute breaks.
• Buying more fruit and making it a goal to eat it before it goes bad. Having a fruit bowl on the counter has enticed me to grab an apple or banana for a work snack instead of the crackers, cookies, leftover Halloween candy.

I'm excited to see how it goes this time around. I got pretty lazy in the summer and I think that having my new, amazing, fun job should help me to stay on track with this.

Any other suggestions to help me on this new journey?

Hope you have a great week!