These, Are the Days of Our Lives.

I didn't want to tarnish big sis's bday with a story of next-door-neighbor-dude-drama soap opera. So now that LJP has had 1 day to be 30, I can fill you in.

While I was off sipping mimosas at J&J's gift opening, NPZ and his Daddy-O were at the house starting the fence project. NPZ was able to find only 1 of 4 property line pins so determining property lines was a huge hassle. NPZ and Dad strung a few lines and decided, to be safe, that they would angle the fence in towards our house and make enough room for next-door-neighbor-dude to get his lawn mower between our fence and his garden.

Next-door-neighbor-dude (NDND) came out immediately once he saw there was someone outside, and of course, had something to say about EVERYTHING. This guy thinks he's the king of the neighborhood or something. Finally, NPZ got fed up with his bossy ways when he started ordering NPZ Dad around.

I was not there, NPZ gave me this recap:


NDND -In NPZ's best drunken voice impression: Well, you really gotta have it line up with this pole here (pointing to a pole in his garden that is leaning so far into our property that it could almost be considered ours)

NPZ: No, we can't do that, if we put the fence there, it would like up directly with the side of our house. How would we get into it?

NDND: (pissed now that NPZ has dared to defy him) Well then your just gonna have to get a f-ing survey.

NPZ: (now fuming from previous events+this new one) You know what NDND? Mind your own f-ing business. Leave me alone, leave my wife alone, stay off my property. Dont be coming over when I'm not home, dont come over and tell my insurance people things, just leave us be. F.off.*

NDND: (Walks away)

*Im pretty sure this is the PG-13 rated version for my delicate feminine ears.


Now, NPZ gets all anxious when he has a riff between himself and someone he has to see often, but is feeling good about sticking up for himself. NPZ and NPZ Dad continue on with their plans after reviewing some plats and arial views that city gave us.

45 minutes later. NDND comes out to apologize, and get this, he's crying. YES! Crying! (I never expexcted that twist!) Telling NPZ that he's lonely and stuff. (Personally, I don't think that being lonely is an excuse to come over to our house and tell our insurance adjuster that we don't need anything) NPZ told NDND to go home.

NDND has not bothered us or even come out of his house since the incident. Which, I have to say, is kind of nice.

-Liz

LJP DAY!

Happy 30th Birthday Sis LJP!

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips.  ~Author Unknown

I hope you have a great day today and look forward to celebrating this weekend!

-Liz

Summertime and the Living is Easy...

I know my wedding is far from over, but I am already planning my life after that day.

I am totally looking forward to backyard BBQ's with our city pals B&A and of course Sammy. We have quite a bit of work to do to get ready for that at our house.

We have the fence up but not finished, we have a few gates to put up and some staining yet to do. But here's a little sneak peak:

Check out the pretty lawn in this pic! NPZ has been working pretty hard, and it is definitely paying off!

With all the wacky fence guidelines in our town, we really didn't have much to chose from as far as styles, but I actually like the way our new fence looks. The photo above shows the gap between our neighbors house and garage where we will need to plant tall shrubs to keep him away. This portion of the fence is also where NPZ told grouchy neighbor 'where to go' on Saturday. (More on that later)


We got a quote from the Home Depot a few weeks ago but in the midst of J&J's wedding I had little time to actually look at it. It's within our budget and we found out that we won't need to connect to our house so that means we save some ching on permits as well. I am really excited to have some where to hang out this summer...I think it will be nice.

I'm thinking of rewarding myself for wedding planning and getting myself a 'wedding gift' after the wedding. I found this guy at BigLots website and for $179 for the entire set I think its a pretty good deal! I think I can add the swivel chairs, hammock and new cushions (not loving the ones in the picture) for under $500. I just need to cross my fingers that we stay on budget with this wedding and we will be all set for a relaxing summer!

'Scumbag'

On Tuesday we experienced our first hail storm as homeowners.

The hail was the biggest Ive experienced but the damage was minimal, except for our roof. We will have an insurance adjuster out soon enough to determine how much damage is actually there.

One thing about storms, is that it brings everyone and their brother outside...which would be fine if our neighbor wasn't a passive aggressive a-hole. He's been hibernating all winter so I had almost forgotten what a douche bag he was, but it all came rushing back when NPZ told him that we were gonna have to call the insurance company about our roof...I see it play back in slow motion, the word coming off his lips, 'sccuuummbaaag', he says to NPZ in response.

Honestly, I have no idea how NPZ can restrain himself with this guy. If I had the upper body strength; I woulda popped him right there. He has like 200 lbs on me though so I pretend he doesn't exist most of the time. It was fine once we went in the house and shut the door.

Then, yesterday, NPZ and I decided to cook out. Bad idea, the a-hole came over and started telling NPZ that he would take care of spraying chemicals on our yard to get rid of any weeds...NPZ and I are brand new homeowners, so this was a task that we were actually looking forward to doing. NPZ had spent 3 hours watching online tutorials and researching the best products and then another hour at the store. NPZ said it perfectly, what kind of guy wants to hear a compliment about their nice yard and say, 'Hey thanks, my neighbor did it.' But the guy just wouldn't shut up about it, and kept saying things like, 'Oh, I guess I'm just old and stupid' and 'Oh, I haven't lived here my whole life or anything' all sarcastically. It seems like he has to disagree with everything that we say or do. It totally ruined our night.

We started considering this kind of fence:

But the city would likely say no.

We did manage to get something awesome done yesterday! Nick's Best Aunt D got us a new post box for a housewarming gift and it is so perfect! I love how it looks.

...Yours are the sweetest eyes, I've ever seen.

JAS is officially JAH!

The JLH & JAS wedding went on without a hitch!


JAS was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. Their ceremony was intimate and quite emotional for me. They wrote their own vows which I thought was so sweet. I didn't take any photos of the ceremony as I wanted my undivided attention on them.


Their reception hall was stunning. JAH (now) had a vintage romantic theme going on with her table settings:

Her mom made the table runners as well as these adorable signs for their seats:

I was so happy all evening, my sister LJP said it best, 'We couldn't have chosen a better sister in law if we were allowed'. JAH is the best and she and JLH are so happy together and perfect for one another, we just love them!



My favorite part? All the personal touches that were incorporated into their wedding. All the hand made items that were unmistakably JAH & JLH especially these:



JAH acted as her own florist and I have to say I was super impressed with her bouquet (which I never photographed) and the boutonniere:

 

So happy to have a new sister and very happily married little brother.

Congrats to the newlyweds who are off enjoying their honeymoon!

-Liz

The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back.

So, NPZ and I have not been having the best week or two...I feel like I have been handling pretty well considering. Last night, we had a bunch of errands to run after work- we went to Home Depot and purchased all the materials needed to start working on our fence. Then after that we went back home and I started cleaning up since I will be having company the next two nights. My house is a pig-sty right now so this was hard work.

After I got to a good point to stop, I decided it might be smart to look for an outift to wear to the Groom's Dinner tonight. I opened the closet door to a complete catastrophe.

My wire closet system had come undone and there were clothes everywhere! It was also about 9:45 pm, and my normal bedtime is 10 pm. NPZ heard the horror and came running upstairs. He swore a bunch then told me I had too many clothes. Then I cried. It wasn't because of the closet. I just needed to.

Molly cheered me up a bit and NPZ just let me be, which was good.

He started clearing out the mess and trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

I couldn't just sit there crying while he fixed my closet, so I started to help by rummaging through my clothes. Once they were all out, I decided that, yes, I do have too many clothes. Not that there is such a thing, but I have junk. Stuff I know that I will never ever wear, stuff that doesn't look good on me that I never returned, gifts from people that I keep even though I don't like them.

So at 10pm, I organized my closet. My kid sister is up visiting for the J&J wedding tomorrow (woot woot!) so I will have her go through all the stuff before I hand it over to the Goodwill.

Finally at 11 pm, NPZ called me to come to bed- and finally told me that my face looked like Halloween. Geez. Mascara mess!

Also, I still have no clue what I will wear to this dinner tonight, work clothes it is!
Anyways, here's to a better day today! And a wedding tomorrow!

Man, I need a drink! Cheers!

-Liz

I've Created a Monster.

My Calender.

It's a mess. I have this, I have that. NPZ has this or that.

I'm thinking of scheduling meals and bathroom breaks at this point. I have been squeezing in small tasks on my lunch break but even this only saves me an hour in the evening.

I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown at this point so the following is a list in order for my heart palpitations to subside.

1. Make sure NPZ has black socks that don't have holes before Friday. And shine his ''Good" shoes (The ones he wears everywhere except work, but whatever).
2. Locate missing necklace for Friday wedding.
3. Finish NPZ's family member bday invites. Buy stamps: and try not to care if they are the liberty bell design.
4. Clean picture frames and put pictures in.
5. Go to kinkos for a really long time to make something that no one will probably even notice at my wedding.
6. Spray paint bottles. Who cares if they aren't perfect.
7. Sew table runners. Also related to this: Learn how to sew.
8. Find cakes, order them.
9. Find wedding shoes and jewelry.
10. Harass a dressmaker.
11. Install a fence.
12. Install a deck.
13. Plant a garden. Also: Learn how to garden.
14. Assemble 200 favors.

Ooftah. That feels a little better.
Thanks.

-Liz

All Hail the Hail

I previously posted about the large hail we got as well as the scumbag remark from the neighbor dude. Well the insurance adjuster came out and it looks like a new roof for our house...Whoot woot!

I am in love with all the home improvements we have going on outside this year. So exciting!

Now- back to focusing on JAS & JLH wedding this weekend.

-Liz

Weekend Recap

Friday:

Dodged straight home after work to pick up Molly to bring her over to brother JLH and Sister-In-Law-To-Be JAS's house to help out with some last minute wedding stuff. Molly loves to hang out with her 'cousin' Rock and I was planning on spending the night so she had to come along anyhow.

We spent Friday night spray painting the hundreds of candelabras that JAS has been collecting for the last few months. They were a hodge-podge of random metal and glass candelabras, none matching. When they were all painted black they looked awesome! I'm so excited to see them all set up, she is planning on placing single red and dark red buds in place of candles. I think it is going to look so vintage and awesome! Obviously I will post photos from the wedding.

Saturday:
Rock came into our room at about 6:30 and busted Molly out.
I slept another 3 hours.

Once I woke up, we started washing glass and crystal vases, in the same fashion as the candelabras JAS had collected all sorts of styles and varieties of vases...all of them stunning.

While we did this Molly, her cousin Rock and Rock's roomie Moose played outside in the rain.

When we had all the vases washed up and sparkling, we moved on to the programs and completed them in record timing.

I soon realized that the day was flying by and being that it was nearly 5 pm and I still had SO much shopping to do, I figured it was time to be on my way.

So I took this wet and tired puppy home:

And went shopping! I found these shoes to wear to the wedding and I think they are pretty darn cute.

-Liz

1 WEEK!

In one short week I will be here:

To witness my baby brother and his beautiful JAS wed!

I am giddy just thinking about it. I can't wait. I love these two together and I am so glad that JAS(JAH to be!) will be my sister.

3 years ago, if someone would have asked me who I thought my brother would end up with, I would have had no idea. Only because I didn't know JAS yet. The two are that perfect for each other.

I know I will be an emotional wreck during the ceremony so I have purchased some water-proof mascara and a cute thing of tissues. Hopefully her family doesn't think I'm a crazy person. It just always makes me emotional when good people find true happiness in one another.

Love it! Let the JLH & JAS wedding festivities begin!

Dear A-Hole,

Dear Crazy A-Hole,

Wow, great drunken apology today while I was home on my lunch. I didn't change much because yet again, you are drunk on my property, bothering me, on my lunch break even (the only free hour I have in my crammed 24 hours). So, Crazy-Neighbor, your apology did not help your cause.

What is it that makes you think that you can come over all time? Is it because our yards are connected? The only thing we have in common is geography. You freak me out. You know that my future hubby is away fishing. I know you saw him leave with a giant suit case while you were staring out the window when us normal people go to work. So why would you come over when I have made it clear that I do not want anything to do with you.

So- Dearest crazy neighbor- Take this:

The city may prevent us from blocking you out using wood-

but there is nothing that says we cant plant a thousand of these big guys to keep you out.

Enjoy!

No, but seriously...

This is what we are thinking for the deck.
Though we'd love to just wrap around the city requires our deck to be 3' off of the property line.
Now we are thinking something like this:

NPZ Gets 28 Spankings...

'Cause it's this cowboy's birthday!

Happy Birthday to my future husband and my favorite person!