Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

For the first time since I joined the working world, I got Martin Luther King Jr. Day off! It was a nice change of pace and who doesn't enjoy a 4-day week? I could have deep cleaned the house that day, but instead, I decided to do something fun. I have been wanting to tackle this DIY project for about a year, but I am bad at making decisions so I've always found a reason to put it off. Now that it's done, I wonder why I waited so long. When we bought our house, it just so happened that my aunt and uncle were remodeling theirs. Their trash became our treasure, and we couldn't have been more thankful! If it weren't for them, we still might not have any furniture in our TV room. One of the things they gave us was this glass-top coffee table.   I love the piece because it provides a good place to display our wedding album and other things that we don't have shelf space for. However, the color of the wood really didn't match anything else in our house. Ins...

I have the pleasure of working with some fabulous, hilarious ladies every day. They are a ball. They make me laugh and know just what to say when I am having a bad day. I am the youngest one in my office by an average of about 25 years. Although I constantly give them a hard time about being older, the truth is, I’m a little jealous. There are great things about being young but there are also great things about being older. With the years come life experiences that shape you and help you mature into a better person (in most cases). I feel stuck in the middle sometimes and wish for the day when I will have more confidence in who I am and be able to offer more to those around me. It's been a strange few months for me, and I'm not exactly sure why. Something is off and the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe it's the 20-something in me. I know there are things to be thankful for in every season of life. While I'm not going to wish away my 20's, the...

It was an emotional New Year's Eve for me this year for several reasons, but mainly because I was sick and sickness makes me crazy. I wouldn't consider myself an emotional person, and I rarely cry about things especially not around other people. However, when I'm under the weather I do strange things, like cry hysterically over things that aren't that big of a deal. The first time this happened was probably when I got my wisdom teeth out. Luckily my mother was the only one who had to handle my emotional outbreaks. I think she found them comical, much like I do now. The second time it happened was when I got the swine flu. That's right, H1N1, people! This was back when people were freaking out about an epidemic. I had just returned from the doctor, and I got a call from my boss's boss to see if it was OK for the Foundation to release my name as someone who had been infected. Poor Marlo Duffy Turner had to listen to me mumble and cry for what seemed like 10 minu...

This news is a little late thanks to the sinus infection that has had me down for the count since NYE. But better late than never, right?! Henry Todd Fox joined us at 9:26 a.m. on December 31, 2011! Right on schedule. Stacie thought he might come late because she was measuring about a week behind, so Kyle and I were very surprised when we heard the wonderful news. He weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20.25 inches long. What a little cutie!   Unfortunately we’ve made a habit out of being sick when babies arrive, so we haven’t gotten to meet this little guy yet. We are planning to make a trip up to see him on Sunday, and we can’t wait! Now that Henry has joined us, I’m sure he’ll enjoy seeing pictures of his Harley-themed baby shower that happened way back in OCTOBER. Better late than never, right?!  This was the sign-in table, minus the actual guest book.   Stacie's mom did a great job on the cake. It tasted better than it looked.   Ho...

I am not one to complain about anything Christmas-related, but for this post I'm making an exception. Was anyone else very annoyed by the fact that Christmas was on a weekend this year, and a Sunday at that?! With a husband who doesn't get a lot of holiday time off work, this made our multiple celebrations a little complicated. However, that's my only complaint. The rest of the holiday was absolutely fabulous because we got to do all of the things we love best: spend time with the ones we love, eat good food and laugh until our stomachs hurt. In the interest of brevity, below is a little Christmas timeline for you with photos of our celebrations. Dec. 23, 6:30 p.m. - Kyle gets off work and we head to Wichita to spend the night with Greg and Stacie. It was likely our last night to spend with them as couples who are married with no children. Little Henry will be joining us any day now! Dec. 24, 11:00 a.m. - I take Kyle to the Derby Medical Center to be treated for a sin...

Merry Christmas! I hope all of my wonderful readers had a great holiday. Kyle and I were blessed to get to spend it with our families, and I'll post some pictures of all of those celebrations soon. For now, though, I'm getting my last work day in before leaving for Kansas. I am looking forward to more time off because although I've only had to work two days this week, they've been brutal. Mainly because no one else is here, but also because I have been dealing with credit card statements and approvals. I "enjoy" keeping up with our personal budget as much as you can enjoy a task like that, but work is a different story. I have an aversion to anything relating to accounting. It's probably because I  have trouble comprehending reports and always forget to submit something. Pesky details! The only thing keeping me going the last few days has been thinking about this weekend and all of the fun giving and getting that comes along with Christmas. This year pur...

Since Christmas is almost upon us, I thought I'd share some of the holiday treats I've given this season. I always see cute ideas for packaging online, and I want to try them out. Figuring out what to put in them is always my challenge. I struggle with baking. Not all of us are blessed with baking talents like my cousin, Blair. She even makes her own marshmallows and has a blog to prove it! Take 1: Puppy Chow I decided that for my Student Foundation executive team I would make them a little bag of puppy chow to thank them for all the time they've dedicated this past semester. I like the holiday treat mixes with almond bark, pretzels and Christmas M&Ms, but there's something about puppy chow that makes me feel like a kid again. Probably because I still have vivid memories of eating it at Beth Berkenbile's house during play dates. Unfortunately the store was out of Chex cereal, and I had waited until the night before to make the treats, so I grabbed the off...