It's not the beach....but the next best thing

Since we did not make it to the beach this week, I decided to have my dad over for dinner and make a beach inspired meal. I just used things around my house to decorate: mason jars with twine tied around for glasses, starfish and kraft paper for the center of the table and pages torn out of an old atlas for place mats (from beach states of course!). I made Barefoot Contessa's shrimp scampi, a nice salad and corn on the cob. We also had a yummy baguette. For dessert I made mini individual mixed berry pies with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!!

Almost Finished...

Here is the current state of the former "Man Den". I painted the walls a light lime green and the beams hot pink!! Joe installed some leftover wainscoting on the back wall. I have a lot of little projects that I am working on and will also be getting a new desk at IKEA when I got to Atlanta in July....it's all happening!! I will post updated pictures as I get them

Here is the bathroom as of today. It's still not done yet...but we are almost there. This whole process has been such a headache. Joe and I have been working on it about 10 hours a day! We still need to add more paint, seal the floor tile, and we are getting the tub refinished next week. Then we can put up the shower curtain :) What do you think so far?

Happy Father's Day!

I was so happy to be able to spend Father's day with my dear ole' dad and sweet hubby (who is a dad to Hank). We went to 10:00 a.m. service at church and then came back to our house for a brunch. I made yummy thick cut bacon, cut up some fresh watermelon and used Barefoot Contessa's sticky bun recipe to make some yummy num-nums!! We also had pineapple juice (my fav). Later, we took my dad to see UP! which was so cute. If you haven't seen it yet, get yourself to the movies now! For dinner, we went to my dad's fav. place, Red Lobster, a.k.a "Red Rooster". Fun was had by all :)

The Process Continues...

Joe and Darren laid the floor...yay!! This process has been so annoying. I want my house back!! Hopefully we will be done soon :)

Free Stuff......Save Money...My favorites!!

If you go to http://www.energyright.com/audit_kit.htm and fill out a quick form, they will mail you this kit. Joe and I got ours last week. Inside there are free light bulbs, filters, etc. It's free and will help you save money!! It's GRRRRRREAT!!!

Being Fabulous in The Hamptons!!

Joe and I took a weekend trip to visit our friend, Craig in the Hamptons. We rode the Hampton Jitney to get out there. The whole trip took about 2 hours. We had a lot of fun. Craig drove us all around the island showing us East Hampton, Sag Harbor, etc. We saw some really pretty lighthouses, drank some good wine, played on the beach, and ate yummy food!

Look!! We saw Martha Stewart's house!!

Joe and I on the beach!!

Minnesota

Look who I ran into at the Mall of America...ESTHER!!

Peggy and I had a great time shopping in downtown Stillwater. They had the cutest paper and cooking stores!! I could have stayed there all day, but we had to go and get Joe from the airport.

Joe and his high school buddies at Eric and Becky's wedding in St. Paul.

Downtown St. Paul.....pretty!