High Five Friday {Vol. 1}

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HIGH FIVE FOLKS … IT’S FRIDAY!!!  The week has gone by pretty quickly and – I am not going to lie – I am THRILLED the weekend is almost here!  I’ve decided to try something new and post five things every or every-other {haven’t decided which yet} Friday that I want to high five about.

What is High Five Friday? High Five Friday was started by a blogger named Meg from A Dash of Meg.  High Five Friday allows us to “take time to celebrate our weekly achievements, successes, and abilities. Within a week we accomplish so much, but forget to give ourselves credit for all that we do, so High Five Friday allows us to take the time and recognize these important accomplishments.”

High5Friday

ONE – I Returned to the Workforce – I officially turned in my stay-at-home-mommy hat and put on my bringing-home-the-bacon-mommy hat on Monday.  To be honest, there were some tears involved most mornings, however I take comfort in the fact that we chose a fantastic nanny to take care of her during the day.  After my first day back at work Jellybean showed me some love … check out the smile I got from my little one upon my return home:

9MonthsInside_Onesie

Onesie was a gift from my sister!

TWO – Back to Blogging – I’m excited to be blogging again.  I am starting to get the swing of this whole thing called motherhood and I’m able to find a little time for myself = time to blog.  I have some really fun {non baby} stuff to share including a bridal shower I am throwing for my oldest friend.  We have literally been friends our entire lives – our parents met in Lamaze class!

THREE – Mad Men Season 6 & 7 – Season 6 of Mad Men is being released on Netflix March 30th!  Guess what I am doing on Sunday … wink wink.  The husband and I tore through watched seasons 1-5 while I was on maternity leave and we have been anxiously awaiting season 6.  Bonus is season 7 begins on April 13th.  We will certainly get our Mad Men fill in the month of April!!!

FOUR – Taxes are Done – For some reason I always procrastinate on the taxes front.  Truth is I don’t even do them myself.  I have no idea what my issue is, but I finally got my act together, scanned in all the documentation and sent it on over to the accountant.  Feels good to check that off the to-do list!

FIVE – Established an Evening Routine – I knew going back to work was going to be rough on me emotionally so I decided to find something I could try to “control”.  The little one is nearing the 3 month old mark so we decided to implement {hello project manager lingo!} a nighttime routine.  I Googled, read blogs and skimmed a few books — all of which seem to say roughly the same thing — any routine is fine as long as it’s the same one every night.  We started Thursday of last week and successfully stuck with it for a whole week!  More to come on the whole baby nighttime routine.

What’s your high five moment(s) of the week?

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Lay Back and Enjoy the Show

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The husband’s favorite home improvement we made early on was wall mounting the TV in the living room.  For the past year we have discussed doing the same in our master bedroom.  If it was a simple wall mount we probably would have knocked it off the to do list a while back, however to make the TV more visible from bed we needed to do a corner wall mount.  And of course, the corner we wanted to put the TV in isn’t close to the cable outlet.

Being the super handy person he is, the husband decided we could run the cable wire ourselves (read himself) instead of hiring an electrician to install a cable outlet in the spot we want to have the TV.  The husband’s DIY electrical solution cost only about $45.  We purchased the following:

Plus we purchased the wall mount for an additional $60.  When looking at the picture the head of the bed is next to the window so one must turn their head to the left in order to see the TV.

Dresser Before:

tvondresser

Sophi totally photo bombed the picture with her ball! :)

Dresser After:

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This corner is to the left of our his/her closets before:

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Corner After:

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Although the wires along the door frames don’t bother me they are apparently driving my husband crazy.  What’s driving me crazy is the wires hanging down to the cable box.  We need to install a shelf under the TV for the DVD player and cable box.  Once we do that this issue will be solved:

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And thennnnn the husband can execute his project to hide the cable wire underneath the trim.  Though, this will have to wait until after the nursery renovations are complete.

We are loving the new positioning of the television.  It makes watching TV in bed so much easier!  Not only do I like the position of the TV now, but I think the dresser looks better without the TV on it.  What do you think of our wall mount?

Happy Home Improvements!

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Ten Tidbits Thursdays

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1 – Sorry to start on a somber note, but I feel like I must touch on this.  I haven’t posted anything online about the tragedy that occurred Monday at the Boston marathon.  My thoughts and prayers have been with those impacted by this all week, but I find at times when people do horrible thing I am at a loss for words.  Even just saying thoughts and prayers doesn’t seem to do justice to how I feel or what I really would want to convey.  I grew up and Massachusetts and feel lucky to have so many wonderful friend/family who reached out to ensure my loved ones were okay.  Like I said I have no words …. I mean really what is wrong with people?

2 – A friend of mine shared this article with me … 22 Things Happy People Do Differently.  Although I can see the value in a lot of the items there’s just no way I can get up at the same time every day.  I like to sleep in on the weekends =)

3 – Sometimes cooking an “old” recipes that I haven’t had in a long time makes me rediscover my love for it all over again.  This week I made spicy meatballs for the hubby.  We both were laughing about how much we enjoyed them and why we hadn’t thought to make them in a while.  Welcome back to the rotation spicy meatballs!

4 – I played Bocce for the first time ever this week!  Our team is a lot of fun and even though I thought I might be terrible at it … it turns out I was able to score the winning point for my team.  Not bad if I do say so myself!! Have you ever played Bocce do you like it?

5 –  Have any of your been watching The Americans on FX?  The hubby and I are loving the first season and let’s be honest it is always a HUGE win when we can agree on a TV show.  We are also hooked on Scandal!  Any good shows you and your man agree upon that you would recommend?

6 – I know it’s a really old and over played song at this point, but I still get excited when “Call me Maybe” comes on the radio or on my ipod.  Can’t really pin point what about this song I like so much … it must be the beat … yeah let’s go with that.  =)

7 –  Planning a bachelorette party?  Check out these two super cute (and affordable) ideas from The McBaileys … party boxes and party tanks.  I love both ideas!

8 – Sophi, our dog, met my friend’s 7+ week old baby yesterday!  Sophi was very curious and wanted to sniff/see the baby, however once we started pay attention to only the baby she was less than thrilled.  The poor dog was JEALOUS, but luckily by the end of the visit I had my friend’s baby in my lap and Sophi laying next to us.

9 – After killing my herb garden after one of the early snows last year, I have begun my quest to conquer the black thumb … again.  I am hopeful I will have better luck this time.  So far we have basil, chives, mint and thyme.

10 – I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming a brunette.  I have always been a blonde and I’m not really sure where this idea is coming from.  Random right?

What tidbit do you have to add this week?

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Ten Tidbits

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I was rereading the about page for Life’s Tidbits the other day and started thinking about ways to share more random tidbits.  Specifically I was focused on “life is a compilation of the small things, tidbits…”.  So here goes nothing.  Below is a collection of some very random tidbits from the past week or so …

1 – I’ve taken butter out of the refrigerator to soften three days in a row and end up putting it back.  I keep meaning/wanting to make sugar cookies, however I think it’s best for my waist line if I don’t have 2 dozen cookies laying around for me to eat … I mean the last time I had them around I started eating them for breakfast on a Friday! Truth!!

2 – Texts You Don’t Want To Get From Your Parent – #5 is pretty darn funny!  #7 is fabulous.  #8 goes out to my sister … :) and omg please don’t miss #12 … scratch that read them ALL!!  90% of these made me LOL … I am laughing so hard that the dog is confused and is barking at me.

3 – I have been battling a case of writers block over the last couple of weeks.  I feel like I’m finally coming out of it, but blogger writing block is a first for me.  I found it really frustrating that the words just weren’t coming to me.

4 – Revenge has become one of my favorite TV shows and I don’t really know anyone else who watches it.  Literally I’ve been trying to recruit people to watch it for a few months now so I can chat about it with someone.  I managed to get my sister all sucked into the show, but haven’t been successful with anyone else.  Do YOU watch Revenge?  … oh my I think I’ve taken to recruiting via blog posts (hang head in shame)!

5 – I think my new recipe for March is going to be a Chocolate Peanut Butter and Raspberry Truffle.  I wanted to call it PB&R, but that kind of reminds me of the beer PBR instead of of the PB&J sandwich I was going for.  Any suggestion for a cute name for my new truffle?

6 – Lightroom is my new favorite photo editing software thanks to my friend Sara.  Don’t get me wrong I am certainly not ready to part ways with PhotoShop, however Lightroom makes editing photos super fun and easy.

7 – Lofty goals of getting back into running came to a screeching halt after just one run.  In just a few short weeks there will be no more “it’s just so cold outside” excuses …  hopefully the spring weather will help my running motivation levels!

8 – One of my oldest friends is coming to visit me next week!!! She did this horrible thing about a year ago and move all the way to the west coast.  It just isn’t the same without her in DC.  I am super excited to spend some quality time with her next week.

9 – When I learned that Google Reader was “closing its doors” (so to speak) on July 1st I kind of freaked out.  Google Reader has been like an iv for reading blogs, new and trashy celebrity gossip.  I use the mobile app as well as the bower based version more than once a day.  Not to worry I found a replacement I do believe (… more to come).  Were you as upset as I was to learn Google Reader will be no more?

10 – This post has zero pictures. I wonder if anyone is going to read it … I mean everyone likes a little eye candy.  Maybe I should add some pictures in next week … thoughts?

BONUS TIDBIT – Once tomorrow’s blog post goes live I will have blogged 4 (YES FOUR!) times this week.  I think that’s a new record.  I’m pretty stoked. =)

What random tidbit do you have to add this week?

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Top of the Husband’s To Do List

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Long before we moved into our new place, let alone closed on the condo, my husband was furiously searching for a wall mount for the tv.  He had a number of requires, but at the top of the list the mount had an arm that would allow the tv to swing out.  This would enable us to watch tv while cooking in the kitchen.  Thank goodness for our open floor plan or the swing out arm would have been a moot point.

Being the sweet man that my husband is, I was consulted numerous times on which mount I liked the best.  I really didn’t care and told him to choose and purchase whatever he thought was best.  After much search and deliberation he decided on a Cheetah Wall Mount.  Two days later the mount arrived … yay for Amazon Prime’s two day shipping.

Above is our before picture.  The tv stand was purchased from Pier 1 Imports and the dvd rack from Best Buy back when I was in college. I would say they’ve both seen better days and it is about time we replace them.  Installing the tv wall mount was the perfect first step.

First step was to find two studs.  Luckily we are in possession of a stud finder.  We marked where the center of the studs were and then we measured and drill four holes for the screws.  The wall mount is A LOT heavier than we imagined it would be.  The husband held up the wall mount while I screwed in the washer with the screw.

Then we went ahead and screwed the arms onto the back of the tv and hung it. The cool part about the wall mount is it has a built in level “bubble”.

After a few tweaks it was leveled and hanging on the wall!  We also took the plunge and invested in a new tv stand to use with our new fancy wall mounted tv.  The living room is finally coming together … so exciting!

To celebrate our newly mounted tv we cooked dinner and rented a movie on demand. :)

Happy home improvements!

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