fabric is my friend

Start with this:

Add a little bit of this:

And the result is this:

I'm working on finishing my dining room and my sister Sally inspired me to recover the chairs in my dining room. It adds so much to the room and I absolutely love it! More pictures will come when the room is complete.

more bad manners

At the request of Lorie:

It's been a while. A couple of years actually, but in Chris's mind I'm sure it seems like just yesterday....

When Chris first started working for progressive we were so excited to finally have insurance. Chris really needed to see a dentist and someone recommended a place called Comfort Dental(it's one of those dental chains, I've also heard it called Gentle Dental). So Chris made an appointment. And being the good employee he was, he opted for a 4:00 appointment so he didn't have to miss work during the day.

So the story goes like this. Chris is in the dental chair, his mouth stuck open. There are two women there, the dentist who is actually doing the filling and an assistant. The assistant who is looking on says to the dentist "wow, your doing a really good job. That's a good filling." The dentist then replies "oh, I can do better. I'm pretty tired tonight."

Are you serious? To say something like that in front of your patient while you are working on his teeth! Come on! That is definately bad "bedside" (I don't know what they call it for Dentists) manners!

As a side note, it was in fact a terrible job. Chris ended up having to go to someone else to fix what Comfort Dental had done. AND Chris has just informed me that LORIE is the one who recommended Comfort Dental. Therefore, it's all her fault. :)

It's Not Funny

On Friday I had a doctor's (midwife) appointment. This is only my second pregnancy so I don't have a lot of experience, but I'm pretty sure my doctor isn't suppose to laugh at me.

I pulled up my shirt so that she could check the baby's heartbeat and measure me. Upon seeing my stretch marks (yes it is terribly painful for me to tell you all that I have them) she asks "oh, what number is this for you" (because obviously I've had one before) and I say "number two". Then she says "and how old is your first?" I hate when people ask this. "15 months" I say (no use pretending). And then she laughs.

Isn't that what they call bad bedside manners?

the new me

I've ditched the blonde to go back to brown. It was actually a surprise when it was done because I expected it to be darker, like the color it was last time I was brown. This is more of a light brown with blonde highlights. At first I wasn't sure about it but each day I like it more.

We'll see how long it lasts before I decide to change it again!

What's Lost In Vegas Stays In Vegas

It took me nearly six years to talk Chris into buying me jewelry as a gift but he finally did! For my 25th birthday this year Chris gave me this beautiful bracelet. I absolutely adore it! Unfortunately while we were in Vegas (for pictures of our trip see post below) the bracelet went missing. I had it tuesday night at dinner, and wednesday night I noticed it gone. I was so upset. I just cried and cried. I had only had it for one week. We called the casino's we'd been at and searched but to no avail.
The day after I discovered it missing, Chris found a casino card on the floor. Out of curiosity he put it in a slot machine to see how much it was worth. $625! And you know what. Chris turned it in. I thought, surely this good act will bring my bracelet back, but it didn't. I guess it's true. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

**ATTN: Meg Facer
you must have gone private with your blog without me knowing. (hopefully it wasn't intentional!)I don't have your email address so I've resorted to this: my email is jenn.shideler@gmail.com. add me. :)

Vacation!

We've only got three months left before baby #2 shows up and we decided if we wanted to take a vacation we'd better do it now. We found super cheap tickets to Las Vegas (where my grandparents live), and then from Vegas we found cheap tickets to Medford (where Ava's grandparents live), so we combined the trips into one big vacation. Here are a ton of pictures of what we did. Don't feel obligated to look at them all. I just couldn't decide which ones to post.

*Note: these are not in order at all! Ava at my parents house with the dogs Snickers and Molly (Ava loves dogs)
Ava with her Grandma and Grandpa

We ate dinner one night at the Rainforest Cafe and it was really good! And it was fun for Ava because they had animals like this gorilla everywher, and big fish tanks and all kinds of fun things for Ava to look at.
These are my grandparents who were sweet enough to let us stay with them for a few days. It was their first time meeting Ava. (we had just gotten back from swimming, hence me wearing a swim suit)
We actually had really nice weather while we were in Las Vegas and spent some time at the pool almost every day we were there. Ava loves swimming and had a blast. I prefered to stay dry and just soak up the rays. *As a side note, it was 3* and snowed almost a foot here while we were gone. We planned our trip at just the right time!

The Rainforest Cafe had a really fun gift shop that Ava loved. Animals like this that came to life. There was also an aligator and a snake. She loved it.

When people ask what Ava's name is, the number one comment I get is "oh, like Ava Gardner". Though I had no idea at first who she was, I did find out that she was an old time actress. This photo was right down the hall from our hotel room. My grandma pointed it out to me and told me it was Ava Gardner so I decided to take a picture of Ava with it.
Ava enjoying swimming again.

It took us a couple of try's to catch the water show but we finally made it. It's always one of my favorite things to see in Vegas.
Ava and I in front of the MGM Grand. This is where we stayed. It was really nice. We had a huge room and there was plenty of fun things to do right in our hotel.

Chris and Ava in fron the the Eifel Tower

New York, New York!!

So that was our vacation. We were gone for 8 days and it was a blast. And, Ava was great. She slept on every plane ride and slept in her pack and play really good. I was so grateful!

Play Day

It's been a while since I posted pictures of Ava. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. Already 14 months old! Here are a couple of pictures of Ava at the play area they have in the mall here (It's actually a really good one).

Ava and her friend Oakley playing in the raft.

This is just a cute picture of Ava. She loves looking out the window and watching the cows. So I pulled a chair up so I wouldn't have to hold her. And then we took a bunch of pictures. She's my little sweetie!

My Favorite Time Of The Year

I love girl scout cookies! I always look forward to seeing those cute little girl standing outside of wal-mart just waiting and hoping they will say the magic words "would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?" Of course I can't say no to these sweet girls who are only trying to do good for the community. I must buy some cookies. And then when Chris asks why I bought 10 boxes, I can say "I just couldn't say no. They were so cute," instead of the truth which is just that I'm a pig and I love them.

I missed out this year though. I never did see them outside of walmart (and believe me I was looking!) So my sweet friend Ashley, who knows how much I love them, found some for me and gave them to me as part of my birthday present. One of the best presents ever!!

My favorite is Samoas. And Thin Mints. What's yours?

Book Club

I love, love love, to read. I can't get enough of books. I love to be able to use my imagination so much in picturing the characters and the setting, etc. So I am very excited about the book club I've joined. It's a group through church that getstogether every two months (people are too busy to do more often than that) to discuss the chosen book. Because I love to read so much and just think that everyone should enjoy it as much as me, I am going to start posting the book club book so that anyone interested can read along too. Then after we have our discussion I'll post my opinions on the book (just in case you'd rather not read it until after you hear if I actually enjoyed it).

Tonight was my first discussion and it was for a book called "I Capture The Castle" by Dodie Smith. It was a cute book and I do recommend it. I loved the writing style and the story was cute and creative. I didn't love the ending, but I didn't hate it either. If you like to read, it's worth your time.

The next book, which we'll be discussing in April is "Follow the River" by James Alexander Thom. We all take turns recommending books and this book was recommended by me. So I've already read it and can tell you it's a great book. Based on a true story about a woman captured by Indians and the story of her escape. Enjoy.

Bar Keepers Friend

My mom introduced me to this amazing cleaning product a little over a year ago and now I could never live without it! It's called Bar Keepers Friend. It works wonders on anything porcelain. These are actual before and after pictures of my sink.

This is just one corner of the sink! The rest of the sink has the same scuff marks.

But...sprinkle on some of this and scrub scrub scrub, and you'll get this....

A perfectly clean sink. This is the same corner.

There is also another product that works the same way that my mom prefers, but I can't remember the name. So mom, if you could be so kind as to leave a comment letting everyone know what the other one is called.

As I recall it is also a little bit harder to find these. You have to go to a store like Albertsons or Safeway. But it's SO worth it!