Painting Day 1

Well Jim and I started working on Jimmy's bedroom today. We didn't get as much done as I would have liked but we did get quite a bit done. We at least got all of the holes filled in, sanded, and re-textured, plus a coat of primer was completed. The primer was Jim's idea since we are painting over original paint from 1972.

So I must tell all of you that one wall in this room was peach (yes ugly, nothing matches with peach) and the remaining walls were this greyish white. I didn't realize how bad it was until I got a good look at it. At which point I had to ask myself; why the hell didn't we paint this sooner. Anyhow, the room already looks better with just the coat of primer. I'm thinking about leaving work a little early tomorrow afternoon so I can at least paint the ceiling. It looks like Jim will be doing most of the work by himself while I'm in New York (I leave Wednesday) and I feel really bad that he's having to do this by himself. So me leaving work early is a small price to pay in order to help him out.

Here are a few pictures that I look today of our work.

In the following picture you can see three pink squares on the wall. These were actually holes created by the previous owners when they decided to put track lighting in the room (we have no idea what they were thinking). We hid those holes when we hung my metal coca-cola signs over them. Anyhow the pink was the spackling that we used...it was really cool because it would go on pink and it would turn white as it dried.

And here's Jim sanding those pink patches after they dried.

New Link!

I just got done adding a new link to the site. If you scroll down the page on the right hand side you'll find a link titled 'Margot's Travels'. My sister Stefanie introduced me to this cool link for http://www.travbuddy.com/ and all of the areas that are shaded in green are countries/states that I've traveled to. I thought it was really cute, so I decided to add it to the site. I'll try to figure out a way later to update it as I travel to new destinations. According to the map, I've traveled only 5% of the world. If you would like to view the map in a larger form all you need to do is just click on the little plus symbol and it will get larger. You can also hold down your mouse and drag across it...pretty cool!

Anyway, Jim and I are about to start a rather busy weekend. We'll be going to Albuquerque tomorrow afternoon and spending the night down there celebrating a friends birthday. It will be a fun couples weekend for the four of us complete with dinner at Black Angus (yummy!) and of course a little drinking...and maybe some hot tubbing. We hope to come back early on Sunday so we can get a move on painting Jimmy's new bedroom. However, I highly doubt we'll get it complete on Sunday since I'm not sure how many coats of paint it may take, not to mention, we have some holes to cover up from the previous owners. While I'm looking forward to the end result of this project...I'm not looking forward to actually doing it. I'll start taking pictures on Sunday of progress, so keep your eyes out.

Let The Maddness Begin

Well work has begun on Jimmy's new bedroom. In case you didn't know Jimmy will be swapping rooms with the office. The office is much bigger then his current bedroom and this is a move that Jim has been wanting to do for awhile now. So, him and Zech have been busy in the attic trying to install a ceiling fan. I was really wanting Jimmy to have a ceiling fan in his room since we have no air conditioner and I don't want the poor kid to roast. Once we get the fan installed then the room is free for Jim and I to paint.

A few months back Jim and I decided to invest in a new bed for Jimmy. He's been using my Mother's old bed since he's been with us and I felt the need to get him his own bed. A furniture store in Albuquerque was running a good sale so I decided to jump on it. We got him a queen size bed with drawers underneath (similar to a water bed). The drawers underneath serve two purposes; 1) we don't need to also get him a dresser to put his cloths in, saving us room; and 2) we don't have to worry about him putting junk under his bed.

Jimmy's bed is scheduled to be delivered January 26th so we really don't have a lot of time. Next weekend is going to be a busy weekend and it looks like we will only have Sunday to work on his room. The following weekend I'll be in New York and the bed will be delivered the weekend after that. At this point I think we may end up working in his room during the week. The room is only about half packed and I think the painting may take us two days. Jim may also end up working by himself while I'm in New York, in which case I'll feel very bad if he ends up painting by himself.

So that's our project for the next few weeks. I'll take pictures as the project progress's...at this point the room is just a disaster so no need to take pictures of clutter.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year All!!!

Well, to ring in the new year I decided to change the look of my site. I pretty much decided new year, new start, new look...so you'll have to let me know what you think. In reality though, I was getting bored with the old site and was really wanting to make a change. For the last several months I had been researching blog templates and I came across a site called http://www.templatesflow.com/ that had some awesome templates...I was really excited! However, my excitement was shot down when I was told templatesflow wasn't compatible with blogger...bummer. Anyhow, in the meantime I changed to this template already provided by blogger. Please let me know what you think...it's kind of manly for me though.

Anyhow, happy new year to each of you! Jim and I are really looking forward to 2008 and we're very excited to put 2007 in the rear view mirror. In a nutshell 2007 was a pretty tough year for the two of us on a personal basis and we're happy to move on.

I made no New Year's resolutions this year, although I'm going to work hard on a new diet that is suppose to be beneficial with women suffering from endometriosis. Speaking of endometriosis, I'm not sure if I ever updated everyone on the mysterious pain on my right side that has been plaguing me for the last year...

I had exploratory surgery on November 27th to remove scar tissue buildup as a result of my appendix being removed in 2005. Well, they didn't find any scar tissue buildup but they did find endometriosis. I was shocked! Well I was sort of shocked, deep down I had always thought I had endometriosis as I knew I displayed all of the classic symptoms. However, on two other occasions I had surgery to look for endometriosis but nothing was ever found...leaving all of us baffled. The last look was when I had my appendix removed and the local OBGYN sat in on the surgery to look for endometriosis. Oh, did I mention each time I had this surgery it was done by the same doctor? This kind of made me wonder about her competence as a surgeon to miss endometriosis not once, but twice. I should mention that the surgery done on November 27th was preformed by a new OBGYN (Dr. Van Eeckhout) that Dr. Thompson (my infertility doc fro those of you that have forgotten) had referred me to. Needless to say, I have a lot respect for Dr. Van Eeckhout since she decided to take a chance on me and look hard for the source of my pain.

So, when the endometriosis was found a little birdy had told me that there is a rather strong link between endometriosis and blood sugar levels. I was also told that you can control and become symptom free by making drastic changes to your diet. Unfortunately, this means I must exclude the following from my diet:

1) Wheat - this includes breads, cakes and pasta products, all based on wheat refined and concentrated carbohydrates
2) Sugar, in whatever form, including honey
3) Alcohol
4) Caffeine which is found in tea, coffee, soft drinks and chocolate
5) Dairy produce including all milk and cheese
6) Fried food, margarine and hydrogenated fats
7) Soy products and soy protein - tamari can be used in small amounts
8) Tinned and frozen packaged foods as little as possible
9) Additives and preservatives

Sounds scary doesn't it? Especially considering how much of a sweet tooth I have and how much chocolate is my best friend. I just can't imagine a life without chocolate. Anyhow, I came across a cookbook on the web containing recipes that I can have, so I'm patiently waiting for that cookbook to come in. I'm kind of curious to see what the effects will be. However, I'm really going to miss cooking the foods I dearly love. I'll keep y'all updated on the progress of the diet once I begin...give me a week or so.

So back to the new year. Jim and I have some exciting travel plans coming up in 2008. I'll be going to Long Island January 16th to visit the credit unions brokerage firm that we use for federal security investments. Stefanie will be taking the train up to Long Island on the 18th, so we'll have a few days in the city just the two of us. I think I was ten the last time I spent any time in New York and I hardly remember it, so I'm pretty excited.

For Valentine's Day Jim and I will be going to Ruidoso for the weekend. Last summer I was playing golf and I managed to win a free nights stay at The Inn Of The Mountain Gods which I decided to redeem for a romantic Valentine's Day getaway. Two year ago (or at least I think it was two years ago) The Inn Of The Mountain Gods was remodeled and it's absolutely beautiful now! The entrance is nothing but breathtaking and the entire place is ahh-inspiring.

In March Jim and I will be spending time in Banff (see previous post) and finally in July Jim, Jimmy, and I will be heading back to Canada to place his father in his final resting place. While I'm sure this trip will be a somber one for Jim, I'm pretty excited since we decided to make this trip during my birthday (which also happens to be Canada Day), and our wedding anniversary.

Wow, what a busy year we have ahead of us. I'll try my best to keep everyone updated with our lives and I'll keep trying to post some photos of our travels. I would really like to get a recent picture of the three of us, so once I get that I'll be sure to share.

May God bless all of you in the new year!

With lots of love,
The LibertyHerd

Look Out Banff Here We Come!

I'm happy to announce that our trip to Calgary/Banff is now official. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself right now...I really need out of this town as I feel like I'm suffocating. I'm also excited to drive around Calgary so that Jim and I can get to know the town, which will help Jim and I on our decision to move there or not.

We decided to stay in Banff rather then Calgary for this trip. I hear Banff is gorgeous and I'm excited to be staying in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Jim and I will be staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs...I got a great deal on this world class hotel. Not to mention, who wouldn't want to stay in a castle....wow! At this point, the only activity that Jim and I have planned is to go to a hockey game where we'll be watching the Calgary Flames take on the Nashville Predators. Jim seems to think this will be an exciting game and it will be my second NHL game to watch in person. Here's a picture I found on the web taken of The Fairmont. I plan on taking numerous pictures when I'm there as you can tell the place is awesome! I just thought I would tease everyone a bit.

The Fairmont Banff Springs after a recent snow storm.

Merry Christmas/Happy Boxing Day

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well I can't believe Christmas is now past us and I'm beginning to think ahead into the new year. Jim and I had a great day yesterday...pretty quiet, but still good. I cooked dinner Christmas Eve (Mexican...yum) and then Mom, Jim, and myself drove to Los Alamos to look at some Christmas lights followed by midnight mass. We were all pretty disappointed by the Christmas lights this year...it really was a let down. Our favorite spot to drive is Los Pueblos on Barranca Mesa where all of the residents line the sidewalks and their driveways with luminaries, your suppose to drive down the road with you headlights off. This is one of the more prominent areas in Los Alamos and typically also has really good light displays. Not this year...the lights were kind of blah. We were thinking since it was pretty late then most families had already turn their lights off...or at least we can only hope. As usual we also saw our share of Griswold homes which gave each of us a nice laugh. I would swear one house in the Denver Steel area had every imaginable inflatable Christmas decoration displayed in their front yard. Keep in mind, that the lawns in the Denver Steel area are very small...which made this look very tacky (sorry I didn't take any pictures of this).

We returned home from midnight mass just after 1am and Jim and I stayed awake drinking wine in front of the fireplace for about an hour. We went to bed just after 2am and got up at 7am to start cooking breakfast. After breakfast we opened our gifts and relaxed a bit before cooking dinner. I should have started dinner much sooner because I didn't realize the turkey I was about to cook was 23lbs and would take 7 hours to cook! Needless to say, we didn't sit down to eat dinner until 8pm. It was very tasty though, and well worth the 7 hour wait. Thank god mother was here, otherwise it would have been much later. For the most part her and I cooked everything together which made the entire process less stressful. Since it was just the three of us this year I didn't need to stress out about food being ready at certain time or making sure everyone was happy and comfortable. I have to admit, this was the least stressful Christmas I've had in memory...

Anyhow, I did take some pictures during the course of the day that I'll share with everyone.

I had to embarrass Nanook and take this picture of him with the antlers on. I think he looks cute, but judging by the look on his face...he's not very happy with me.

Here's the before photo. Our family room was overrun with gifts. Yes, I still have those ugly Motel 6 curtains that I'm hoping to replace them shortly.

Here's Momma laughing about gods know what getting ready to open a gift from Stefanie.

Here's Jim opening up his gift from me...a log splitter. Can't you tell he loves it??

And finally here's Jim testing out that log splitter by making kindling for the fireplace.

Some Christmas Fun

What a wonderful day Jim and I had together. It's the weekend before Christmas and since Jim and I are done with our Christmas shopping we decided to spend the day together. Jim thought it would be nice to spend the day in Santa Fe ice skating at the Chavez Center and I've been wanting to check out the new movie theater in Santa Fe. So, we spent a few hours at the ice rink and then went and saw 'I Am Legend'...it was kind of a weird movie but since Will Smith was in it I knew it had to be good.

Here's a picture I took of Jim today at the rink...I really like this picture.

Speaking of movies, we have a new movie being filmed right here in Los Alamos. The movie is titled 'Brothers' and I have no clue what it's about, but we have some pretty big stars in town. Apparently Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire are here in Los Alamos. It's been a long time since we've had movie stars in town so it's pretty exciting.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner and now that I'm done with my shopping I can breath a sigh of relief. Although, I still haven't done my Christmas cards so if I don't get them done and in the mail by Monday I think I'll give up. It looks like Christmas will just be Jim, Mom, and myself so it should be pretty quiet. I'll cook Mexican for Christmas Eve and I'll cook a turkey Christmas Day. As usual I'll be attending midnight mass the night before and I hope to have time to drive around Los Alamos to look at all of the Christmas lights around town. All in all I'm really looking forward to Christmas and the easy week to come.

I have a few pictures to share with everyone today. This first picture was taken earlier in the week of Sasha and Corki sleeping on our bed.

The following pictures are of Corki playing with his Christmas present from my sister. She decided to make all of the animals catnip logs and she was kind enough to send one to Corki and Sasha. Corki loves his log but Sasha isn't impressed...I'm guessing there's not enough parts to interest Sasha. Anyhow, I did manage to take a few good shots of Corki playing with his log (thanks Stef).