The Oscars! And a big house project.

I'm so excited the Oscars are on tonight! I love the Oscars. I'm watching some of the Red Carpet stuff right now and thoroughly enjoying it. And for the first time EVER, McGee and I were able to see all of the Best Picture nominated films!!  So, I thought I'd give you my quick opinions on them (in no order whatsoever):

The Revenant: AMAZING.  Leo's gotta win Best Actor for this. It was intense and awesome. Tom Hardy was also really great in it.

Spotlight: SO well-done. I was kinda dreading watching this one because of the subject matter, but it was REALLY well-done and interesting, and I thought it was great. I think this is my pick for Best Picture, but I think it'll probably go to The Revenant.

Brooklyn: Such a charming and cute movie!  I wasn't really excited to see this one because I thought it might just be a cheesy romance movie, but it was adorable.

Bridge of Spies: It started a little slow for me, but then it got SO good!  Loved it. And Tom Hanks did an amazing job, of course.

Mad Max: Fury Road:  It was an awesome action movie and I really liked it, but it just didn't really make sense to me as a Best Picture nominee. I thought Straight Outta Compton should have taken this movie's place in the nominees. Don't get me wrong, Mad Max was GREAT... but just not Best Picture worthy to me.

The Big Short: I thought this movie was great (and very educational for me!) and I thought Steve Carell was really great in it.

The Martian:  Loved it!!  And I'll definitely be watching this movie again. Everyone did an awesome job, and it was so exciting.  And Mom and Dad - You'd love this movie too if you haven't seen it already!

Room:  WOW. This movie was super intense, but SO well-done. It was great, and Brie Larson definitely deserves the Best Actress win. And I think the little boy should have been nominated too!  He was amazing in it. It was a mo-fo movie though... It definitely stayed with me for a few days!

That's all of them!!  Some really great movies.

This weekend we did a LOT of work on our house!!  McGee made some MAJOR progress on our downstairs bathroom, so I'll show you pictures of that bathroom very soon!!  And I started the project I've been dreading: removing the wallpaper in the Master Bathroom. I was SO dreading it, but I've been tackling it all weekend, and I'm happy to say that the end is in sight.  I think one more day and I'll have it finished.  We're hoping to crank out that bathroom re-do in a few weeks!  If you have not seen the wallpaper in this bathroom before, you are in for a treat..... I took this after I'd barely started removing the paper (so you can see a few blank spots by the window):

 

 

Yep... That's the wallpaper!!  And it's SO slow to remove too... Mostly just little tiny shreds are coming off. 

And a quick update on our boy:  He's feeling good!  He's not having any fun at all with this required relaxation for two weeks, but the drugs are helping with that. We have to keep him fairly doped-up on pain meds and we also give him anti-inflammatory meds. We'll have a check-up early next week, so hopefully he's given the clear to start going for walks, jumping on the couch, etc!!

 Hope everyone had a great weekend, and I hope your week goes quickly!!!!

Guinness and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really Bad Evening

Well, last night was a rough one. But thankfully everything is FINE now, so don't worry.

So, yesterday evening started off normally enough... McGee had to work late to prep for a big meeting today, but when he got home Guinness was SO excited to see him (as usual). There was some play-time and fun, and then after a bit McGee and I sat on the couch to relax and watch TV.  Guinness decided to jump up and join us (he likes to sit on the cushion between us), and he did this crazy long jump over McGee's legs to get on the middle cushion, because he's CRAZY and he's always doing nutty things like that.  So, it was normal, and we just kept watching TV. Well, after about 5 minutes, Guinness started acting weird and he seemed like he wanted to get off the couch, but he seemed confused about how to get down.  So, I helped him down... and he walked over in front of the TV and sat quite oddly and he was panting a bit... so I was just kinda watching him... And then he walked into our dining room and walked around to the back of the table (kinda hiding from us) and sat there. That is NOT normal behavior for Guinness... He always wants to be as close to us as possible. I could see him through the dining room table legs though, and I could see that he was still panting and sitting kinda funny. I thought maybe he was feeling nauseous or something, so I was still just watching him... But then I mentioned to McGee that Guinness was acting weird. So then McGee walked into the dining room and started talking to Guinness, and then we went into the kitchen with him to see if maybe he had to vomit (tile floors in there)... But he was acting SO weird, and he was shaking all over, and his breathing was getting worse.

So, by this point we were starting to get SUPER concerned, because Guinness is always just happy, hyper, and healthy. We were still thinking maybe he was nauseous though or just not feeling good, so we tried to take him outside to go to the bathroom, and he would NOT go. He just sat down and refused to budge. That has NEVER happened before. So then we were trying anything to get him to act normal. We were trying to tempt him with treats, we tried to give him an ice cube (he LOVES ice and comes running anytime he hears us getting ice out of the freezer), and we were trying to get him to come to us when we called him. He wouldn't budge. His breathing was getting even worse, and he was shaking SO badly, so McGee started Googling the symptoms while he was also looking up the nearest 24-hour Vet (our vet is 24-hours but is about 25 minutes away). I was just sitting with Guinness on the floor trying to soothe him and see if I could figure out what was going on. His breathing was getting SO much worse... He would pant like crazy (and he was drooling a LOT) and then he would have some moments where his breathing would slow down to nothing and he'd just stand there shaking with his mouth wide open and his eyes closing. So, I was getting full-on freaked out and I said to McGee, "I think we need to go".  And he said, "Yeah?" And I said, "Yeah".  So McGee had already mapped it and the closest vet was 14 minutes away, or our vet that we like a lot was 25 minutes away (and we know it's a great facility), so we opted to go to our vet. I gave them a call and told them we were coming (and I was already starting to cry so my throat was all tight while I was trying to speak), but the lady on the phone was SO nice. McGee was doing a great job of holding it together and comforting me and Guinness, and he drove (like a champ) while I sat in the back with Guinness.

When we got to the vet, they were amazing. I was so thankful that they were so calm and kind and just ON IT. But we were getting more and more worried about Guinness because he usually loses his mind with excitement and stress at the vet, and he's usually so hyper and crazy. He was very calm, and he calmly sat on the scale to weigh-in (that has NEVER happened... we usually have to hope that he stands still for 2 seconds so they can get a weight measurement of some kind), and he was sitting calmly in the exam room. The shaking, drooling, and erratic breathing was still happening though. The vet (who was awesome!) pretty quickly figured out that Guinness was in pain or discomfort, and his shaking, drooling, and erratic breathing was due to that. So then we had to figure out where the pain/discomfort was coming from... The vet said his heart sounded perfect (whew!!!), and he figured out that when he was pressing on certain areas on Guinness's back that Guinness was having a very strong reaction. He did more checking around, but determined that Guinness definitely injured his back, which started making a LOT of sense since the symptoms started about 5 minutes after his crazy long jump over McGee onto the couch.

The vet took Guinness into the back room to do a quick blood draw to check for a few other things, and after they left the room McGee and I both breathed a HUGE sigh of relief and we were tearing-up from the relief of it. We'd been SO scared and stressed out. McGee was a champ and had managed to completely hold it together until that moment, but I'd been fighting back being a wreck for like 2 hours. Haha :)  We were both tearing-up after we knew he was ok, so thank goodness they had tissues in that room!! They gave Guinness an injection of some heavy-duty pain meds. It was methadone... When they first said "methadone" we thought they were joking, but nope, it was ACTUALLY methadone. And they gave us some anti-inflammatory drugs and some pain meds (NOT methadone) to give to him for two weeks, and then we have a follow-up appointment. During those two weeks we have to keep Guinness from doing ANY jumping or exercising... We can't even take him for a walk. So, wish us luck with that one!!  Haha :)  Guinness seems SO much better today already. What a relief!!!  Here are some old pictures of our sweet little guy:

Puppy Guinness! 

Ugh, that face... He too cute. 

This is like toddler-age Guinness! 

Handsome boy! This was last year. 

Don't worry, this is from last week!!  We're not letting him on the couch until the two weeks are up.

That was our terrible, horrible, no good, really bad evening!! Everything is MUCH better today though, and we're relieved to know it's nothing serious. Our boy should be feeling back to 100% in no time. 

Valentine's Weekend

We had a really great weekend! On Saturday we went out to breakfast and that was quite delicious, and then we ran a few errands, and then we went to see Deadpool! It was soooo good and hilarious but soooooo not for children! We loved it. After the movie, we went back home and started a fire in our fireplace, and we pretty much had that going the whole weekend! It was such a cold weekend! Then we watched the Tottenham soccer game on TV, and it was an exciting one! They're having a really great season, and are currently in 2nd place. McGee and his friend Juliff are HUGE Tottenham fan, and I've become a fan over the years too. When you've seen as many games as I have, it's hard not to become a fan!

Our awesome fire! 

Later that evening we made some homemade pizza on our new pizza stone. I made the crust and McGee made the sauce, and we topped it with some cheese and green peppers. It was our first time trying out a pizza stone and it worked out really well! After we'd finished with dinner, we watched Crimson Peak and it was good! It was a horror movie I'd been wanting to see for awhile, and it was definitely a very interesting story and SUPER creepy. I don't know if I'd call it scary, but it was super creepy! We both liked it.

On Valentine's Day morning we made breakfast at home! We made cinnamon rolls and bacon and coffee. We usually have turkey bacon when we have bacon at home, but this time we made REAL bacon because I had some leftover from making that potato soup last week. It was heavenly! And after we were finished with breakfast we drove into the city to go to the bowling alley we love, and we walked up to the door... and there was a sign saying it was closed until 5pm for a private event!!!  We both just started laughing, because seriously what are the odds??  We go bowling like once or twice per year, and it was closed on the day we tried to go bowling. But, the sign on the door also said that they have another bowling alley on the other side of the city (one is called North Bowl and the other is called South Bowl), so that was only about 15 minutes away. We drove to the other bowling alley, and we had a blast bowling two games!!  McGee had a GREAT first game and totally slaughtered me, but then we somehow tied on the 2nd game!!  The guys in the lane next to us were super nice (they celebrated with me when I got my one strike!!), and they told me that even though Kevin and I tied, I actually got the "win" because it was Valentine's Day. Haha :)  I'll take that win!

My handsome husband!! 

Our tied score!! And no, neither of us will be going pro anytime soon... Haha

When we went home we relaxed for awhile, and then we started making our homemade pasta!  I was really nervous when I was kneading it together that it wasn't turning out right, but I just kept telling myself that no matter what, it would be edible. But, much to my surprise and delight, it turned out GREAT!!  And McGee was seriously a pro at feeding the dough through the pasta attachment on the mixer. We both took turns at first and were helping each other with the super long strips of dough, but then McGee kept at it on his own while I started making the homemade alfredo sauce. Both things turned out SO great, and we're thinking we'll have to make it again very soon!! It's crazy how easy homemade alfredo sauce is!

Our homemade fettuccine alfredo!! It was super fun to make, and SO delicious.

And the perfect ending to our Valentine's Day was watching the season premiere of The Walking Dead. It was maybe the best episode of it EVER, so we loved our whole Valentine's Weekend!!  We had so much fun all weekend together, and we were sad to return to work on Monday (neither of us were off on President's Day). Yesterday we got a few inches of snow, and today it is SO gross outside!  It's raining so hard, and this morning it was freezing temps so everything iced up, but now it's warmer (like in the 40s) so everything is melting and flooding with the heavy rain. Yuck. It's a soupy mess outside.

It is SO cold!!

Wow, it has been freezing!!  Like, literally. Today the high is 17 degrees and the low is 3 degrees, but with the wind chill factored in it's -4 degrees. That's NEGATIVE 4. And that's pretty much the weather expected for this weekend too. We woke up bright and early this morning to go to the gym today, so I think we experienced that low temperature! We only made it to the gym twice this week, partially because of the weather and partially because we were just too exhausted. I am SO sore today though! I've been trying really hard to get my leg strength up, and today I was able to do a leg press set of 10 reps for 180 pounds and then two sets of 10 reps for 200 pounds! That's a lot for me, so I was pretty proud.

I made a delicious soup last night!  It's a potato soup, and here's the recipe:
http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/potato-soup-recipe/

I stole this picture from the website with the recipe! 

It turned out really great, and tonight we're going to have leftovers with some bread I am making today. Soup just sounds TOO good when the temperatures outside are this freezing! And this recipe could easily be adapted (Mom - you could make this if you substitute turkey bacon!).

A few days ago we got some light snow (an inch or two), so I took some pictures because it looked so pretty out! Here they are:

Part of our backyard. You can see our little bat house on that big tree! 

Another part of our backyard. That tarp-covered blob is our firewood. 

Here's our cute little guy! He loves the snow. 

This is our front yard and our neighbor's house across the street. 

This is from our front yard, looking up our street a bit. 

Here's our house! 

This is the plum tree in our front yard. 

I am SO excited for our weekend!! It's going to be so much fun. I think tomorrow we're going to try to go see Deadpool too. I think we'll be SLIGHTLY productive this weekend too, but not too productive. We have a few projects around the house we're working on, and we have a few errands to run too.

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Fun Weekend, and Valentine's Day Plans

We had a good weekend! We didn't do a lot, but we had fun. One thing we did on Saturday was we woke up early to take Guinness to the dog park (we wanted to get there before the ground thawed and the park became muddy), and it was SUCH a success! It was maybe the most successful time we've ever had - Guinness had lots of fun running around and socializing with the other dogs, and he was super well-behaved. We'd also brought a few tennis balls, and he had a blast fetching them too.  We were very proud of our little guy when we left the park!

Our handsome pup!

On Sunday we didn't do a lot, but we did make some chalupas in the CrockPot to eat on nachos for dinner. I thought the Super Bowl was really great! I was definitely rooting for the Broncos, so maybe that's why I liked it so much... But I thought both Defenses made it so incredibly exciting. I'm happy for Peyton Manning, and I hope he retires now! 

We were going to go to the gym this morning, but I was SO tired so I bailed on it... And tomorrow morning there's going to be too much snow to go, so we'll go Wednesday. We went three times last week, and that feels like a good amount!  I don't know if that'll happen this week since I bailed today, but maybe...

This weekend is Valentine's Day! We don't like to do most of the traditional stuff, but we have a few of our own traditions that we're planning on doing again this year. One tradition (that continues from my days of being single) is watching a horror movie at home on Valentine's night, and we're planning on watching Crimson Peak. I'd wanted to see that since it was in the theaters, so I'm excited to finally see it! I hope it's good. The commercials for it creeped me out, so that's a good sign!

Another tradition that we've done every year on Valentine's Day is make a nice dinner at home together. This year we're thinking of making homemade pasta! It'll probably depend on how motivated we feel by dinnertime, but McGee got me a pasta attachment for my mixer awhile back, and we haven't used it yet! We both love homemade pasta, but we've never tried making it.

I'm doubting ours will look this good... haha :)  

We're also thinking of going bowling early in the day, because we did that last year and had SUCH a fun time! The bowling alley we like is very kitschy and Big Lebowski-esque, and they have a nice beer selection and amazing food! And they take your order and serve you at your lane, so you don't have to go up to a counter or anything.  It's super lovely! And last year they had all sorts of cheesy Valentine's Day decorations, so that was funny.

I hope you all have a great week and a great weekend! 

Happy February!

Yesterday was Groundhog Day! And that silly little groundhog did NOT see his shadow, which supposedly means an early Spring! It's been SUCH a weird Winter here... We've only had one really bad weekend (the blizzard), and this week it's getting in the 60s. In February. That is beyond weird! I think we're supposed to get some more snow early next week though.

Last weekend McGee and I joined the gym at the YMCA! It's only about a 5 minute drive from our house, and it is SO nice. We went Monday and Tuesday morning of this week, and we are SORE today! It's been hard waking up so early to go workout, but it's also felt really good to be active again. Here's a picture of our YMCA:

It's kinda cool because it's a new modern building attached to a cool historic building (on the left). It's huge!! 

And after we joined the gym on Saturday morning, we felt so proud of our healthy choices that we decided to celebrate by going to the Victory Brewery! Haha :)  We understood the irony as we were driving there, but it's only about 20 minutes from our house and we'd never gone. We both enjoy their beers, and we'd heard good things about their brewery, so we were there in plenty of time for their noon tour. It was a great tour, and we had a great day! 

Here's the outside of the brewery! 

Here's the bar area. 

Here's a cool machine they have that sounded very important and expensive. It's for grinding grain. 

Here are sacks of hops! These yellow bags held international hops, and there were grey bags full of domestic hops. And we got to smell and taste both, and you can totally tell the difference! 

Here's a hop! 

Here's the restaurant area! 

In other news, our dear Guinness is 3 whole years old! His birthday was yesterday. And here is an adorable picture of him from when he fell asleep on Kevin while we were hanging on the couch. 

I'm so excited the Super Bowl is this weekend!!  I hope it's a great game!!

I hope you're all doing well!