The Doctor in Spite of Himself

Once again another show has come to a close. This cast and crew were fabulous (as always) to work with and I'm really going to miss them! 

Naturally all shows have their snafus. Ours was a cast member showing up to opening night so drunk he could barely stand, let alone act. Cue rehearsing a cast member with a smaller part who goes on as an understudy in addition to his own part! Luckily he did amazingly and with the help of an incredible memory, a Sicilian rehearsal Friday morning and a lot of dedication the show went smoothly with the understudy in place!

The cast party was awesome, bonfire and hot dogs included. 

My family came for the weekend and saw the show as well as helping us around the house. Our shower doesn't leak, the toilet works, our front garden is planted and the backyard is French drained. Whew. Thanks dad! My mom and I went to the beach and my dad and Ryan did the most grunt work. Stefan and Ramon helped later on but it looks great!

And Lacey helped me fix up my costume and make up to make it slightly less Bo Peep and more milk nurse (aka my part!). 

Had to KCCO opening night!

The final effect. 

The glorious cast!

Flowers from my family and Ryan. 

And Ryan hard at work as I left for the matinee. My parents dog Dippy kept him company! My poor Dip. She's almost 12 years old!

So another show is done. Maybe this fall I can do another one!

 
 
 
 
 

Bugging Out

If you follow me on facebook you already know the bugs down here in the South are killing me. We had bugs in DC and in New Jersey... hell some people say NJ mosquitos are nuclear/radio active and the size of hummingbirds. Bugs are important to an ecosystem and everywhere and I get it, ok? But right now I am just getting a little annoyed... bugged if you will.

When we moved in my husband sprayed our house with Spectracide on the inside and out. Our house was vacant for six plus months, it was desperately needed. Inside we have been ok up until yesterday. We were enjoying a nice bottle of wine in the backyard, our ankles and feet covered in bug spray, and we were still getting bit. Once again I covered myself in deep woods Off. I, at the present time, have twenty nine mosquito bites in varios stages from that's gonna scar to I got this six hours ago. They LOVE me. So after killing brain cells from the fumes of bug spray I go inside to use the bathroom.

As I am finishing up I see a tiny spider. Now I am not freaked by spiders normally, and this one was very tiny. But then I start to look. In the shower there are about twenty spiders forming a web. The shelf above the toilet had about ten more. All the corners of the ceilings were in various stages of web production. Mind you my husband was showering in said bathroom less than two hours ago! I think he would have mentioned this. Now, like previously stated, spiders don't freak me out that much. That many spiders freaked me out.

My poor husband had to come in and start squishing. He couldn't find the source so he emptied our stuff from the bathroom and made a bleach/ammonia bomb and turned on the fan, sealing the room off. Luckily it killed most of them. I squished a few more when I went to shower but have not seen any since.

Have I mentioned the beetles? The ones the size of baseballs that fly into our siding and I can hear them bouncing from inside the house?

And the mosquitos. I hate the little black and white striped monsters that love my blood. I was getting gas on base last week and I got bit on the face at the pump!

Yea, not the best picture but a woman at the check out asked me, "Oh dear, what happened to your face??" That makes me feel better :P

And I didn't even mention this guy yet.

Luckily he was not poisonous, but I didn't want Rylie out back for awhile after I found it since I wasn't sure. Turns out it is the harmless kind that eats slugs or whatever, but we thought for a bit that it was a baby copperhead. Glad we were wrong!

Our house juts up to a block of woods. I mean literally, a block. It goes for maybe five hundred feet and then there is a street and a Kia dealership. I hear them over the loudspeaker some mornings. The woods may be adding to it, we rarely get bit in the front, it is usually out back, but man I am tired of it. And it is only June! I want to enjoy my backyard darnit, and not bathe in bug spray to do so.

Yes, "Welcome to the South". I've heard it from about twenty different people..... still not a fan.

Furniture!

We finally got the furniture we have been waiting for! Our Master Bedroom set was ordered the week we moved in and it arrived over a month later. Then we waited for the mattress. Then we had to settle on a dining room set we both liked and could afford. After two months we finally have it all together. We are sleeping in our Master Bedroom (and using the awesome updated Coca Cola Master Bathroom) and have a real dining room. For two years we used an old party table my parents had and chairs from IKEA. They worked great in the apartment, but now it is time to have real stuff!

Here it is!

Our new dining room set. We went to six different stores and got priced on this one three different times. Finally the right sale came along. Thank you liquidation sales!!

Our china is unpacked for the first time since we got married! The apartment had no room for it and I didn't want it to break. I am so glad it is finally out where it belongs!

Champagne flutes and our wedding toasting glasses

AND it lights up!!! 3 different levels of brightness.

  Now just to remind you this is our Master Bedroom BEFORE...

And now, AFTER...

Our master bedroom. Curtains are hung, furniture is in, french doors are functional! Sorry it is a little dark in the picture, it is so bright in there. Ryan said this is his favorite room in the house.



I have a mirror!

It is totally official since our wedding picture is hanging. We need some more art work and to hang our TV but it looks great!



Antique shopping got me more Coca Cola signs and knick knacks. Signs are even in the shower!

Love the knick knacks. I need to stop.

Moved some signs around

I got a proper Coca Cola glass now too

We added just a valence in here and our spare bed room is ready for use. Who wants to visit?

Coca Cola Bathroom

After weeks of scrambling my Coca Cola Bathroom is basically ready!!! I think I want to get one more antique sign or two as well as a trash can of some sort.... otherwise I LOVE it! Yes I way overpaid for the shower curtain but it was totally worth it. Thank you eBay :P

 The hooks I got from a wonderful eBay seller who sold me them and the toothbrush holder at a terrific price. Unlike the curtain.

 My mom found the signs at an antique shop near where she lives. Thanks Mom!

 Thanks to pintrest I did the tile mirror frame again, along with some antique coke caps, also care of eBay!

 Little touches!

 Close up of the bottle caps.

I also put some on the shelf thingy over the toilet, because I had extras and I can!

The mirror was there when we moved in and I used extra bottle caps to cover the nails that were quite ugly and sticking out of the white frame. Much better now!

And there you have it, the Coca Cola Master Bathroom!! We heard from the furniture company yesterday about our master bedroom furniture and they were supposed to deliver it Thursday. Then we got another call saying the factory forgot the bedposts, would we want it any way? I asked could it be assembled and used without them and they said no. Why would I want a pile of a bed in my bedroom I can't even use???? So we're waiting for the posts to come in hopefully this week or next week so we can use out master bedroom!

PCS - Part 4

The last post on our PCS/house, I promise!!

So after the kitchen and dining room we have our office. Not a desk in the middle of the living room. Spoiled, I know.

 This beauty is a solid cherry desk that we got on Lejeune Yardsales for $80! That sucker was heavy, trust me I helped Ryan get it out of the truck and drag it in here, but it was so worth it. I love it.

 Our old plywood rigged desk is now our printer area. We just, you know, have to get ink for them to work.

 My book case and our old bathroom drawers complete the office. Check out those gorgeous carpets too!

Another view of the desk with Ryan's Iwo picture, my diploma you could see in the first picture.

 Our hallway then leads to the bedrooms and the rest of the house. It is so nice to have wall space to hang pictures on!

 We have a laundry room!!! The washer and drier are awesome. After almost two years of driving my laundry to the barracks and spending three hours waiting on it, it is so nice to be able to throw in a load and go do something else until it is done. And only fold one load at a time! I know I will complain about laundry in the near future but for now it is a novelty. And I have a real vacuum! Man, I sound derranged don't I?

 This is our guest bathoom. We have our beautiful new floors that don't make me shudder to look at. Ryan installed towel racks and we used all the stuff from our apartment to furnish it.

I finally did a crafty pintrest project! Based on this pin I made that frame for our mirror. It was a pain in the butt but I am so glad I did it, it looks nice in my opinion! Ripping the tiles apart from the $10 sheet I got at Home Depot was the hardest part. I had to use tweezers to pull the glue off the back to separate them. Once I did that it was pretty easy. I used silicone adhesive and just stuck them up. The top was a little touch and go but thanks to a binder clip it set easily. Pin Accomplished!

 Now this is the spare bedroom. We painted it Shamrock, fittingly, and are currently sleeping in there. In the future it will be a spare room and way down the line maybe a nursery, but for now it works! Even with the random shelves.

 Another painting by my Poppa hangs above the bed. I sleep all curled up against the wall, something I have not done since I was living at home way back when!

 My lady bug photograph is hung in here above Ryan's dresser.

 And a real Genie drawing from Disney is near the door. He is my all time favorite Disney character voiced by my favorite actor Robin Williams. I was so glad to get that thing out of storage and hang it up! Ryan wasn't too thrilled but he is a wise man and let that one slide.

 Our master bedroom is still a work in progress. We ordered a whole new bedroom furniture set which will arrive in "2 to 8 weeks" so Rylie is still living in there for now. We also have french doors getting installed later this month instead of the beat up sliding doors.

 We painted it Blueberry Twist and love how the dark blue came out. It took two coats, same with the spare bedroom, but it worked out nicely in the end.

 The master bathroom is also a work in progress, it is going to be Coca Cola themed! If you are friends with me on facebook you saw I spent an outrageous amount of money on a shower curtain, so I will post pictures of it all once it is complete. Apparently Coca Cola fabric is discontinued, so any shower curtains or fabric curtains are very pricey. Good to know. What sucks is that I used to have a shower curtain back in college that gone thrown away during our many moves. REGRET.

The floors are MUCH nicer now and I will walk on them barefoot. I also will be tile framing the mirror this week, with a special Coca Cola touch. So far I have a shower curtain, hooks, a tooth brush holder, a mug and two vintage signs for the bathroom. Still looking for a trash can and maybe a few other touches. We have bright red rugs and red and white towels too.

 Also a big fan of our closet. Plenty of room. We share it, half and half (ok maybe 60-40). Command hooks were my friends for the belts and my purses and I also have a shoe organizer hanging that you can't see here. Love it.

 From the master bedroom you go into the backyard. Rylie has claimed this as her domain and we haven't done too much work yet. Stefan suited up and killed all the poison ivy and poison oak for us (I am highly allergic to it and couldn't even go near it) and my dad trimmed back the stuff growing on the fence.

 It is mostly pine needles, not a lot fo grass until you go on the side of the house. We plan on fixing the fence up, getting some of the pine needles up, and maybe a patio set in the future. A garden next year is also in the works. For now Rylie runs around and can be out of the way while we get stuff done!

 She does love playing back there. It is full of her favorite toy.... sticks. I spent so much money on toys for her and the dog is happiest when she has a stick. It's like buying a kid a pricey toy and they play with the box. Lesson learned :P

Poor pup pup. She does not like the cone of shame. She keeps catching it and trying to bite it off. Her coordination was not the best before but it is worse now. In the house she scrapes all along the walls, walks into furniture, takes us out at the knees and gets whiplash getting stuck. One more week pup! I promise!

And that friends, is our new home. I hope you enjoyed the tour and I can't wait to post more updates along the way, especially with the master bedroom and bathroom!