Hotel de Wards is coming together

This weekend was so productive it is almost impossible to believe how much we got done.

We went to Home Depot 3 times. (Yeah, you heard me right.) I have already painted that trunk three different colors and am even considering painting it yet another shade of mint… I can't seem to find the color that I was looking for. But on that last trip, we ended up finding those globe lights that I have been looking for for our patio. I love them. Can't wait to put them up.

the curtains still need ironed but at least it hides the mess a little

We went to Ikea and wandered around and found curtains on the cheap ($10 for the pair) to cover our messy closet without a door in our guest bedroom and found patio furniture that was super reasonable. Now, we just need to put it together.

We got a bed frame for the first time in our married life and were able to use the bed lifts that my sister, Amy, got us for our wedding. Now our bed is so high, I feel like we need a step stool to get in it…. We'll see if we keep it that high but for now, it's an extra place to store things.

We got plywood cut down to be shelves in our bookcase and I stained them and put polyurethane on them to protect the shelves.

We got brackets and I spray painted them with leftover gold spray paint I had. Love them.

Adam got a bike and some stuff done for work that was needing to get done.

I got a zucchini plant from one neighbor and our car got a scratch from the other neighbor who backed into it. Honestly the scratch isn't too bad especially if you look at the front of our car. That's bad…

now it's my favorite wall in the house ;)

 Repainted the top of my dresser and polyurethaned that as well. Since the top isn't wood, the paint seems to chip easily when something is left on there for a while. I had to clean off the top of my dresser to paint it, so I took time to only put things back that really need to be there. It had been a drop zone for all of my things and looked pretty bad.

We even had time to hang out with some friends on Friday night and with each other the 2 other nights. Whew, just thinking about all we did makes me tired. Hopefully this week will be a little more low key.

Furniture Projects

Sorry, we've been so quiet on the blog this week. We've been up to our ears in projects while we have the time. We have this weekend before our apt becomes Hotel de Ward for the summer and we really want it to be ready for all the loved ones we'll see this summer ;)

Turning this trunk into a bookcase. Can't wait to get it done and show you guys ;)

He is Risen

Growing up, we never celebrated the Lenten season. This year, I tried to be more intentional and be more aware of the Easter season. I really enjoyed it more not letting the Easter season surprise me and am just so thankful for all that God has done for us.

Thankful for a family that is close and that we can spend time with them 

 Sarah's boyfriend, Bryant, and cousins, Nate and Matt, and Matt's girlfriend, Valerie joined us

A funny, supportive husband

 Laughing and playing lots of croquet in the beautiful weather.

a game of Heads Up (you guess or act out the words on the person's forward based on the category)

I don't even know what we are acting out here

This one was scuba diving.

I'm thankful for his grace. We are so unworthy yet he chose to rescue us to have a relationship with him. It's truly amazing.

Friends Weekend

Last week, I got glutened… I started to get my symptoms back but they were really mild. I started checking everything I was eating and couldn't figure out the culprit until I saw my vitamins.

boo! I hate when I assume something is safe to eat and just totally forget to look. Oh well! At least I caught it now.

Chris, my old coworker, and his wife Ellen hanging out with Southpaw

We went to a White Sox game on Friday with an old coworker and his wife. It was really nice night and really fun time. Also the White Sox score a lot more than I remember the Cubs ever doing haha I love the cubbies but I will admit the Sox game was little more exciting. It was also funny to compare the Cubs crowd vs the Sox crowd since we had just been to a Cubbies game. The crowds are very different but still fun.

On Saturday, we headed down to Marion, Indiana (where I used to live) to visit friends and go to gender reveal party for Abby and Aaron. It was so good to see everyone. (silly me, didn't take a single photo ;/) but I got to see so many people that I love.

The Stray Dog. We went here back in September during our Vacation

It was a short visit as we headed back on Sunday but I'm glad we went. We stopped at our favorite Michigan restaurant (a stop a little out of the way) to finish watching the Master's and get my favorite nachos. Yummy!  A fun trip out of the way ;)

Happy Wednesday! 

Week Recap

I accidentally took a vacation from my blog this week. Whoops. Sorry to my 17 faithful readers. Here's a quick recap of this week.

We helped some of Adam's bachelor friends move in together over last weekend. 

Example A of this being a bachelor pad: They only have 4 spices, well 2 really. 2 cinnamons and 2 paprikas. (I later found 2 salts and 2 peppers keeping it with the theme)

Example B: After we moved stuff, the boys started to play P-I-G. They had to get really creative with their shots, hence the one under the desk and the one under the blanket. It was hilarious.

Example C: Later they played 2-on-2 INSIDE. This was also a big lol and really fun to watch

I feel bad for the neighbors below. Yikes.

Another thing I did this week, is go to the DMV. Lucky for me, I showed up to the busiest and largest DMV in Illinois during everyone's lunch. haha This is actually just half of the building that didn't have an empty seat anywhere. It was kind of funny. I knew once I got there that I wouldn't be able to make it through but decided to wait and make sure I had all my paperwork right so that when I did come back, we'd be good to go. I'm glad I did wait, because I was in fact in the wrong building. Haha I walked into the next building which was probably a fourth of the size and had 5 people in line. It was a twilight zone type of moment. Lucky for me, I got our car registered and made it back to work before our team meeting. boom!

We went to a Cubs vs Pirates game on Wednesday. It was a little chilly but it was really fun. We sat in the bleachers with the rowdier crowd, which went crazy when there was back to back cubbie homers. It was so fun!

We also texted Ryan (via his mom of course) to tell him we were watching his favorite team. He  (leighann) sent his reaction back. He is so cute!

Can you see the wind blowing my bangs back? haha lucky for us, it was a warmer day so it wasn't too bad despite the wind.

We're hitting up a Sox game tonight with some friends and then heading to Indiana for Saturday and Sunday to visit some friends. Hope to be back to blogging next week.

Happy Weekend!

Mysteries of life

Are there somethings in life that you just don't get? I don't mean the deep, philosophical beliefs about life (some of those can be hard for people to understand) but more like the mundane, day-to-day stuff that we don't even think about until one day we DO. Then the more you think about said thing, the more you wonder  who thought this was a good idea?

For example.

1. Why did someone think it was good idea to put this type of cap on a BayLeaf container?
Am I going to strain out my large bay leafs through this?  Shouldn't have gone generic on this one.



2. Why is Adam's belly button not only a lint factory but why is it always gray?
We laugh about it every single day when we find lint in there and and even joke about saving it and making it into something. Then we throw up about how gross it would be if we actually did make a belly button lint sweater. Ew.

3. Speaking of making a sweater out of gross materials makes me think of this book and who thought that was a good idea. Got allergies? don't worry about it, just make a sweater out of cat hair and try not to sneeze. Gross.

Also what if you don't have enough hair from your cat? Do you shave it? Do you find other cats so you can get more hair? Someone help explain this to me. I just don't get it.

4. How I am now doing stuff that I used to make fun of my mother for doing.

 Yikes. Life is ironic sometimes. I used to make fun of my mom for leaving stuff in the microwave and finding it the next day. Then… it happened to me. I tried to make bacon for my BLTs this week at the same time I was making a time consuming, veggie chopping extensive recipe. Adam came in to help and asked what it's in the microwave as the beeper went off. I said, "Bacon" and that was the last time we thought of the bacon until the next morning. Talk about a grossfest, day old, half cooked bacon. 

5. Why the weekend is so short?
Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? I think we should have 2 day work weeks and 5 day weekends or week long holidays like in Europe... Just saying.

Anyways, Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend! We're helping some friends move, watching basketball and hopefully getting me some free wood pallets so I can work on some projects I've been itching to do.

How Adam feels about fulfilling his dream of living in the City