Happy Thursday!

I just love these short work weeks after a holiday. Every week should be a 4 day work week in my opinion!

I picked up our second load of veggies the other day. Here they are on the counter, aren't they beautiful and delicious looking?

Thanks to the CSA, I've recently discovered a love for fresh dill. I threw some on top of a salad the other night and last night made a pesto-ish sauce with dill rather than basil and used it to top a chicken breast. Delish - so fresh and summery!

Dream Design Friday

**In an attempt to a) bring some structure to my blog, b) blog more frequently, and c) keep home renovation talk from dominating, I'll be introducing a few theme days. Friday will be 'Dream Design Fridays' since I've got a pretty big renovation project underway! Please feel free to share ideas and pictures - I'm not the most creative person in the world so I'd love any and all input. Thanks!**

Some dream kitchens that I'm loving right now...

I love the white marble counter tops and the glass front cabinets. But is this too much white?
Beautiful tile back splash and that stove/oven is amazing!

Love the furniture-like details of these cabinets...

Another white on white design and the back splash over the range is pressed tin ceiling tiles - I love the bit of antique charm that adds to this sleek kitchen.

Another white marble and glass-front cabinet combo. (All pictures courtesy of Traditional Home.com)

the full story...

whew! Just when you think you've got things figured out, life throws you a curve ball. A month ago, I was sitting at my desk starting my day, drinking green tea, opening email, etc. I received a call from our alarm company telling me that the glass break sensors were going off at my house. There was a high wind advisory that day - the wind was so strong it was rattling the windows on the 19th floor of my office building. I was sure that this stiff breeze had rattled the poor windows on my 90 year old house so much that it set off the sensors, so I was not that worried as I drove home to check it out. Just to be safe.

This is what I saw when I pulled up to my house:yep, that's our adorable little house under there, the one we just purchased and moved into 7 months ago, the one we had nearly finished painting and started some front yard spruce-up.

Several of my neighbors were outside and had called 911 and were trying to get in touch with me. A very nice man who lives down the street helped me climb over the branches (in 3 inch heels) to see the back yard. At this point my biggest worry was Jackson - I needed to know that he was ok and get him out of the house. We got around to the back and I saw that the stairs leading up to the deck - and both back doors - was completely crushed, no getting into the house that way. But I could also tell that the room where Jackson's crate sits was not crushed. By the time I got back to the front yard, Cary was there and he climbed over the side of the front porch and went in to get Jackson who was shaking and terrified but otherwise ok.

Honestly the rest of the day is a blur. I was outside talking to neighbors, the gas company, firefighters, etc all day and kept just hoping that this was a dream and I would soon wake up.

The next two days were some of the most stressful and emotional days I've ever had. We hired a tree removal company to come out to remove the trees from the house and yard. Because these trees were so huge, this required a 70-ton crane sitting in the front yard.

This process was really quite amazing - especially considering how close the houses are to each other. Here is a piece of the trunk from one of the trees, with Cary standing next to it to demonstrate how big it was.

Here is one of the biggest sections of trunk from the largest tree. You can see that it is hollow in the center - that's a sign of a diseased tree.

And here is what the house looked like once the trees were gone. See my pretty navy dining room? (This was taken from the roof of our neighbor's house)

Now we're all moved out and renting a condo nearby. We've met with 5 contractors in the last week to get ideas for design and price and hopefully we will pick someone in the next week or so. The estimates so far are 6-9 months for the re-construction. sigh.

The bright side of all this is that no one was hurt and we now know all of our neighbors (including the awesome couple from Virginia who let us stay with them for a week!)

We will also get a brand new, renovated kitchen, new bathrooms, all new wiring (this makes me really happy because, call me crazy, but I did not feel comfortable with the close to 90-year old wiring in our house), new heating/AC, new windows and we're adding on a bit. As my grandmother said, "God works in mysterious ways."

Sorry this turned into a novel and congratulations if you made it through my ramblings!

trees

We are all fine (including Jackson). I won't be blogging for awhile as we try to piece our life back together and find a place to live.

Masters weekend

The husband was not lucky enough to get tickets to the Masters this year, which is a bad thing for both of us. I'm pretty sure that going last year made his list of "top 5 life events ever." That means he will be completely glued to the TV all weekend. To give you an idea of the extent of his obsession:

Last night I get home from work and there is a tied-up bag of dog poop on our front steps. I walk in the door and inquire about this. His response?

"Jackson wouldn't go out in the back yard so I had to take him out. I missed Tiger playing 1 hole!"

so he couldn't take 2 seconds to throw the poopy bag in the trash can. Lovely.

In an attempt to make him feel better about not actually being at Augusta, I will be making him pimento cheese sandwiches this weekend. And then I'm leaving the house to get a pedicure. I try to be a good wife... ;)

mid-week fun

Last night I went out to dinner at Top Flr with a group of women from my street. It was a fun group; several neighbors that I know and some new faces. I've always liked to be friends with my neighbors. I guess it comes from growing up in a small, southern town where I played with the kids on my street and later baby-sat for the younger children in the neighborhood. When I lived in DC this was difficult because people tend to be wary of strangers. If you smile at someone and say hi, they look at you suspiciously. Well, not everyone, I'm generalizing a bit, but you get my point. Anyway, it's nice that here my neighbors are friendly and hang out together.

One of the women I met is also from Richmond, she and her husband both grew up there, and she went to Virginia Tech and her husband went to UVa. What are the chances that we move 600 miles away and live 4 houses down from a couple from the same town??!! They also do not yet have children and we laughed about how different our schedules are from the rest of our neighbors. For example, you will rarely find us up before 9 or 10 on the weekends. Don't judge, I get up at 5 in the morning during the week. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep!

It was a very fun night and Top Flr is great - delicious food and a very fun cocktail and wine menu. Our waiter was fantastic and friendly considering we were a fairly loud group of 12 women and he didn't panic or get rude when we had a late addition and required an extra chair and some shuffling. Honestly, I'm not the pickiest eater so usually the service in a restaurant makes all the difference to me.

Tonight we're going to a cocktail party here hosted by the Atlanta UVa alumni club to celebrate the start of Cavaliers Care week. I love drinking for a good cause ;) Happy almost-Friday everyone!

walk like an egyptian

Last night we went to the Fox for a special lecture by the famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass. If you ever watch National Geographic specials or pretty much anything on ancient Egypt you'll recognize him. And yes, going to a history lecture on a Thursday night probably qualifies us as either old, boring, or dorks - or maybe all three! but it was really very interesting. Dr. Hawassi talked about and showed pictures of his work finding, excavating, and preserving sites like King Tut's tomb and the Valley of the Golden Mummy! This all goes along with the big King Tut exhibit that is in Atlanta until May. I'm hoping to go soon as I've heard that it's amazing and a really well-done exhibit.

Hope everyone has a delightful weekend!