While she is swimming away, she'd be winking at me...telling me it would all be okay

I really need to listen to more early Ryan Adams. His music goes hand-in-hand with rainy fall days. The dead of winter isn't fitting for Ryan Adams, I don't think. It's more...pumpkin spice latte and rainy days on the couch with an afghan kind of music. Ah, I'm looking forward to that time of year rolling around again. Yes, in ten or eleven months. What can I say? I look toward the future. Anyway, the post is a line from Sylvia Plath, maybe one of the prettiest songs that I know. (Speaking of good songs, me and Dan were driving to Brighton last weekend - long story, more below - and were listening to The Boss. Simultaneously he said and I thought, "Name a better song than The Rising that was written this decade." I couldn't do it. Neither could he.)

I had a nice long talk with my mom last night - almost an hour. It was really good to talk to her for so long. And in a double whamy move, I washed dishes and made today's lunch for me and Dan while I was on the phone. Anyway, I'm about 90% sure that my parents are going to come visit in July! My sister-in-law is getting married and they're invited to the wedding...plus I think they kind of want to see me and Dan :) I'm already super excited. (I can't decide if I'm super excited for the actual event, or super excited because I know that by that point a lot of our house project will be done.)

Side note: My sister just finished reading the first Harry Potter book and I couldn't be more proud. As the movies have been released, we go see them together when we can. She always asks questions about the back stories that the movies don't have time to touch on. So last night she was telling me how much more informed she felt, even after reading ONE of the seven books. Keep trucking, Amanda. You need to have all of them read by the next July release!! You'll thank yourself, for real! Seriously, so proud.

ANYWAY...some pictures of house stuffs...

But first, here's a random picture of Dan that pretty much embodies his whole personality. I think Jessie took this at Mackinaw


Wintry morning view out of our bedroom


Another bedroom view (same window)


Our bedroom. The view from the first two pictures is out window that's so bright you can't see anything through it :)


Walking into our bedroom through a little hallway off the kitchen/back entry (The closet is inside the doorway on the right)


Dresser - we have a t.v. to mount above the dresser on the wall. But we don't have the mount yet, so for now it sits empty :( Soon, though! (The master bath is through that little sliver of doorway you can see on the left)


Upstairs guest bedroom. So, so empty. Wall art is my current project. I'm trying to find stuff I like. It's harder than it sounds, trust me.


Front entry. This is the light fixture I got for my birthday! I love it!


So...here's a frustrating story....

Me and Dan drove all the way to a Home Goods store (like Marshall's or T.J. Maxx, but ALL home stuff) in Brighton, about two hours away. Our goal? A perfectly sized mirror to fit our awkward bathroom mirror space. Originally there was an ugly stock mirror in there, and we took it down. Only then did we realize we'd need an awkwardly sized mirror due to the electrical outlet that the stock mirror had been customized for. CRAP. So we've been on the hunt for about a 30"x40" mirror for the past two months. (One sub $100, preferably.)

So anyway, we were resigned to the fact that we'd have to drive all the way to Home Goods for their wealth of selection and super cheap prices. We got there and within five minutes, found a lovely 30x40 mirror. (Little did we know it was too good to be true.) As a bonus, we found two rugs, one for the back entry and one for the front door that would be perfect. So, within fifteen minutes, we had our rugs and our mirror and were on our way home.

The whole drive back I was anticipating putting up our mirror. The one we have now is propped up on the counter and is covering up the beautiful backsplash I dreamed up and installed. So Dan goes to hang it up, and the mirror is just a behemoth. WAY too big. ??? The sticker on it says 30x40!! So we got the measuring tape and measured...the mirror itself is 30x40, NOT including the 3-4 inch frame. Okay, yes, I admit, we should've taken a measuring tape with us to be sure. But I think it's kind of weird that the size they had was for the mirror itself and not the frame? At any rate, we're on the hunt...yet again...and somehow have to figure out when we can drive two more hours to return this son of a gun.

Front entry rug (Not sure if we'll keep these...they're a ratan material and not super great for absorbing water. Since we have oodles of snow every year and we'll leave our snowy shoes on these rugs...not sure if it'll work. I wish it would though, because I love the way they look!)


Back entry rug/runner


The cursed mirror. (On a good note, you can see we finally moved the t.v. into the bedroom, even though we don't have a wall mount for it yet. Dan wanted it to watch the Oregon Auburn game last night.)

So anyway, that's all that's new on the western front...