No Recipe Wednesday

So unfortunately I haven't been cooking anything new lately. Since Chris is leaving next week, it's been mostly old favorites. He's also been working on his fitness so I don't want to have a bunch of sweets around the house. I figure that the holidays are coming soon, so I'll have plenty of time to be baking our normal holiday variety. I'll make sure to take lots of photos and share the recipes that aren't secret in the next few months!

In the meantime this week has been fairly crazy. We have a very busy week to finish up everything that needs to be done before he leaves. Here's the 3 most important things.

1. Finish cleaning the office. Chris works out of here on most nights and he just set me up with a new computer, so the other computers we have (6 in total, I know, we are crazy) are scattered around with an assortment of techie related things.


2. Finish constructing my garden. We are finishing an above ground garden on the side of the house and need to finish the wall and watering system.


3. Clean out the garage. We haven't been able to find the appropriate shed for all of the yard equipment and since Chris has a ton of "manly" things like tools, saws, etc., right now we can't park a single car in the garage. There's also a grill waiting to be installed in our outdoor kitchen (whole other issue) that's still in it's box. We need to move everything to fit at least 1 car in there.

Wow, we will be busy for the next week! And since I don't want to leave without some kind of visual appeal, I bought this the other day upon Chris' request...

Finally!

After two years we have new hallway lighting! I'm sure that most people don't really care about the lighting in their hallway, but this was honestly something that had been bothering me since we moved in. Ok, to be honest, since we looked at the house. I actually noticed these lights and mentioned that they would have to be changed. They are simply not my style, and in fact, they scream Southwest! However, hallway lighting was on the back burner to many other things, especially when I hadn't found any replacements that I truly loved. UNTIL...I found some at Home Depot on clearance for $9.00 a piece! At this point I couldn't turn them down, they were nice and neutral and not anything that looked like it belonged in a Southwestern museum.

I had planned on putting these up when I painted the hallway, most likely while Chris was gone. Yes this weekend, Chris surprised me by putting up the lights on Saturday afternoon. They are incredible! Thanks so much to my handyman, you are the greatest :)

I do still have to do some spackeling where the old light was, and repaint of course, but this is it! There are two, but I only took a picture of one.

Things to look forward to

With Chris' departure soon upon us, I've been trying to stay positive and think of things that I can look forward to while he's gone. We are now 15 days away, and it still seems unreal. I'm certainly not ready to "live alone" again but it will certainly be an experience!

1. Less laundry to do, and certainly no boxers and undershirts to fold.
2. I can watch whatever I want on the big screen.
3. The food/electricity/water bills should be smaller.
4. When I get ready for work I can have all the lights on.
5. I don't have to blow dry my hair in the guest bathroom.
6. No one stealing the covers.
7. A break from the Military Channel.
8. Earlier bed times.

On another note, I am planning on doing a few projects around the house, mostly small things such as painting and replacing fixtures. I'll make sure to keep everyone posted on my progress!