House Update!

Here are some recent photos of the house. Blaine has been working morning, noon and night. Katie and I have been hanging out when we can - I helped with running cables for phone and internet last night. As Blaine said, "that's another thing I thought I would never see you do." All I need now is a pink toolbelt and hard hat and I would be set for anything!

We now have a fireplace and tubs & showers. The shingles are going up tomorrow - weather allowing! We meet with our wood flooring guy tomorrow as well. Lots going on - that's for sure.

On the boat again...

One of my favorite Willie Nelson songs is "On the Road Again." Okay, I admit - that is the only Willie Nelson song that I like, really, at all. During my country hoedown days (that I still lean towards every now and then), I was an Alabama singing, lighter waving in the air, country type of gal - back when I was four years old. (Now if that ain't a country song, I've never heard one, ya'll.) But every now and then, I still love my country roots.

As I was thinking about my weekend plans, I began singing a more appropriate version of the Willie favorite...."On the boat again. -Just can't wait to get on the boat again. The life I love is making music with my friends. And I can't wait to get on the boat again." Now everybody sing - "OOONNNN the boat again......Just can't wait to get oooonnn the boat agaaaainn. The life we love is making music with our frrrieeennds.....And I can't wait to get oooonn the boat agaaaaain!" Yee-Haw!!

Our lake summer begins May 3. Look out Shorty Pants, here we come!!

Weekend Fun

This weekend I drove to Kansas City for a jammed packed weekend of fun. First, I met up with Ryan & Melissa and Becky & Adam (in photo) on Friday for the Pat Green concert at Crossroads. What a great time! It was a bit frigid - but a great time to chill out with friends. The only thing missing from this great night was Blaine. Unfortunately, he had to stay behind and work on the house. It made me sad to leave him, but I knew that I needed to make sure that my friends behaved while in Kansas City. :-)

Saturday morning, Melissa, Becky & I met up with Mom and Shania at

Bridal Extraordinaire - my friend Danni's mom's bridal shop and where Becky purchased her beautiful wedding gown. Gorgeous...love it!

We didn't get to meet up with Danni at the bridal shop. She was signing autographs for Survivor and Coleman at Cabella's. I couldn't miss the opportunity to just show up hoping to catch a glimpse of Bo - Danni and Casey's 6 month old son. OH MY GOSH - I knew that supermodel Danni and cutie center (for now the Broncos...ugh) Casey would have a most beautiful baby, but geez....he was precious sporting his Carhart overalls and John Deere socks and hat. Such a doll. And I got the opportunity to express my sheer disappointment in Casey's new job. I told him that I will forgive him - eventually!!

After meeting up with Danni, Bo and Casey, we (Mom, Shania and I) hit the streets for some shopping. We meandered about Legends and then headed to the Plaza where we met Ryan and Melissa for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - my favorite!! Yummy. After a fun-filled day and feeling pure exhausted, we all parted ways. Mom, Dad (who had been out and about all day letting "the girls" shop) and Shania drove back to Springfield. I drove back to Jefferson City.

What a great weekend!!

Windows, Vents and Dormers...Oh My!

Last night, I drove out to the house to meet Blaine. As I turned onto Highland Waye (my street), I could see smoke rolling out of the neighborhood. I nearly choked and cried all at the same time. I could feel my heart pounding thump, thump, thump in my stomach. With my bad luck, I just knew it was my house. BUT as I kept driving, I thankfully realized that it was not our house. (Blaine had seen it too and had the same reaction.) I guess when you put this much time and effort into something, any little thing will make you feel like you are going to throw up.
(Here she is as of April 17)

The house was still there and it is coming right along. It seems like in the past 5 days, it has really began to look like a house...finally. We have a roof over our heads, the windows are in place, the doors are hung (except the infamous front door), we have our dormer built and the copper vents are positioned perfectly (thanks to Blaine's watchful eye.)

The Boy is Back in Town!!

Hallelujah! Blaine is back and assuming his contractor duties rather nicely. I got a phone call today where he told me that our plumber had rolled his bobcat down our backyard. Now if you haven't heard about our backyard....I will just say that I will not even need a sled to go flying down it in the winter. Brice the plumber is fine - but it sure freaked me out just to hear the story!

Thank goodness this happened on Blaine's time....if it would have happened while I was around I would have quit my contractor duties all together!! Ring...Ring..."Is this Jason Watts? What are your doing for the next 3 months?"

(This is Blaine tearing those pesky stickers off of our windows...I will never understand why one little window needs six stickers permanently pressed on to it. Ugh.)

Can Someone Give Me $1800?

I have been looking for a new fabulous piece of door hardwear for our front door. (Yes, I said hard"wear" instead of hardware because if I am going to pay what these places are asking, I better be able to at least wear it like a pair of fine Jimmy Choo shoes.)

I found the perfect one - of course I did. Now take a deep breath.... this beauty (which would look absolutely perfect on my front door) is over $1800. You read it right, folks....$1876....not $18.76. I nearly flipped right out of my blue pleather chair. Now the website says that I can buy the Entry Mortise Lock for $1,876.72 and the Full Dummy for $1,293.24. Let me re-phrase that....I would be the Fool Dummy for paying anything near that....

I guess that I will just chalk this up as another "want" in life that I will never have....Jimmy Choos, a giant Louis Vuitton, the diamonds earrings from Tiffany's, ....the list goes on & on & on....

Burnin' Rubber

Lately, I have been burnin' up the highway between here in Springfield. I am pretty sure that the guy on the side of the road in Lebanon trying to sell pizza's for $5 is tired of seeing this crazy girl go by. The house adventure has steared us South for 3 weekends in a row now. I love Springfield, don't get me wrong, but a girl can only drive down and back in twenty-four hours only so many times.

This time, I made the venture myself. Blaine is in Las Vegas this week working on his tan and I am taking care of all of the manly duties - like loading up some lumber in the pick-up truck and delivering it back to Jeff City.

I drove down Sunday for some shopping time with Mom, Julie and Shania. And I will say that I did find many things that I neeeeed. I swear, I need them. I did purchase some great things so my momma can show me how to make fabulous flower arrangments. (It is perfect time that she is taking flower arranging classes this spring and summer. She has got some skills.)

On Monday, I hopped in the Ford truck and headed to the lumber company. After they loaded my 4 million pounds of lumber and the Ford truck was now on its two back wheels, and after my mom's eyes almost popped out of her head for pure nervousness, we trucked it down the road. I dropped off Mom and headed back to Jeff City.

My manly duties are done for the week. BLAINE - COME BACK HOME SOON!!!!

Oh How Time Flies...

I was searching some photos recently and came across some very funny photos. Since it is springtime and love is in the air - I couldn't resist sharing a1995 prom photo. Oh the memories. Oh the effort we put in to finding the perfect attire.

I wore a dress that I gotten at the evening gown store called Charlie's in Springfield. All of the girls wanted a dress from Charlie's. I knew that I had to have one too. I had never been deprived of dresses (through my pageant days), but I also wanted "THE" dress from Charlie's - black sequined halter with gold trim.

Blaine donned the ever-so-fabulous Mickey Mouse tux. (I am still laughing over that one.) It was awesome back then. It looked great on him, really it did. Friends of Blaine - can you EVER imagine him in a Mickey Mouse tux? Now seriously.

Well folks, here is the photo to prove it all... Laugh all you want, choke on your donut, and spew your morning coffee all over your computer screen...this was our dance at the prom forever printed in our Senior Yearbook - my stunned look and Blaine's Mickey Mouse tux.

Wow - how times flies.....

CONGRATS SHANIA!

So I get a phone call yesterday...actually, let me re-phrase that. I got 10 phone calls, one frantic voicemail and one text message (that read "PLEASE CALL") yesterday from my parent's number. I thought that someone had hurt themselves or that something was major wrong in the family. There was something major going on at the Moore household.

SHANIA WAS PICKED FOR THE SPELLING BEE!! And she was ecstatic when I finally called to see what was so important at the Moore household. Shania was chosen as one of four going to compete at the end of the month in the Spelling Bee. She had to compete in her grade to make it to the next round of competition. GOOD LUCK SHANIA!!! I know you can kick some bumble-butted bees at this competition!!

Here is one for the girls!

My Chicks, My Homegirls, My Peeps - I just recently found a great new website for some hot new looks. It is http://www.hautelook.com/. Each day they feature one brand with items majorily discounted. Today, they are featuring LaROK - and I am dying for a sequined t-shirt on there donning the number 88. I love it. (Blaine's football number was #88 and I have always been partial. Mushy, mushy, I know.)

You have to sign up with this website to view. But in doing so, you get great reminders of what is being sold each day. I love it, love it, love it. Check it out!!

If you do sign up with this site - put my email in the "Sponsor email/code" section. Use this email - mistipreston@hotmail.com. I promise I do not work for this company - but if you do enter my email and make a purchase, they will give me a $10 credit. Not a bad deal!! And I am guessing that I am going to find a lot of things to buy!!!

Grammar Police!

Some people are grammar police....and I am one too - sometimes. I realize working in communications, I should always have perfect grammar - blah, blah, blah. Someone (aka DH) pointed out to me today that I had misspellings on my blog. Darn.

So here are my ground rules: for this blog - whatever goes - this is for fun, isn't it? I will continue to have misspellings, misuse words and use slang. So if you see something that doesn't look just right or is just plain wrong, you can either let me know or live with it. I am willing to live with these grammar imperfections in my life...

Off the soapbox and moving on...

We Almost Have a Roof!!

Blaine and I ventured out to the house yesterday. Hallelujah, we almost have a roof. It was about 80-90% complete. Blaine says that there is no amount of money in the world that would get him to climb that high to roof a house. You cannot tell from this photo, but the backyard is a bit of a drop off. (My momma will hate that!) I guess there will not be too many Christmas lights on the Preston house this year!

Check out the photo of Katie taking a break from her hard day of napping.

Life's Good

Today is a great day. Life's Good. And that is because finally after at least 3 years of wanting, Blaine and I finally bought a new washer and dryer.
We are now owners of an LG washer & dryer in blue. I love the new colors that these appliances are coming in. I would have settled for any color (as long as I got the SteamFresh option.) Blaine wanted gray; I would have settled for red. But we both agreed on blue. They are beauties.
I don't actually get to use these until we have moved in to the new house. But I don't mind - I guess. I want so badly to go home right now and wash something. Who would have ever thought I would become this domesticated? Not me. Soon enough, though, I will be washing away. And soon enough, I will be able to toss out the ole Ropers - who have been troopers over the years.

I am counting the days until the delivery of my new pride and joy - June 27!