What 2013 Brings...

Happy New Year!  Rich and I have decided 2013 will be represented by Focus, Create and Fulfill.

Please excuse the crappy picture of the sign I made to hang on the office wall.   If I had any brain power left I would figure out how to add it as a graphic.  Maybe next time.

I will be the first to say that I suck at keeping resolutions.  So this year I'm not doing the whole resolution thing.  Just trying to think of things I can do each month that will bring more focus to my life, while creating and fulfilling our goals and dreams.
So in January I have some work things, some me things, some house things and some Rich things.  In other words I have lists (that I have done my best to wheedle down from volumes to one little note card).  Wish me luck and much focus.

Much Love- Shanna.

Here is a bonus Fratelli pic, because come on- she is way too cute not to include.

So sorry for the blurry shot but she was on the move, very excited for her Christmas stocking which held a  few small toys and a bone she devoured.  She has taken to moving as soon as i get the camera out, so expect more less than stellar pics of her. 

Since no Christmas pics were posted this year....This was our Christmas decor.  We knew Telli would eat a full size tree, so that was a no go.  Notice the awesome gingerbread house.  That was made in house and I do believe that you are looking at the first in a new Christmas tradition.

One Year Anniversary

Can you believe it?  It's been a year!
For all of you on the Muckinhoupt front... yes Rich is still here, tolerating me daily.  THANK GOD!
For all of you on the Roach front... thank god for your son/ brother that is here bringing me such joy every day.

So what did we do on this monumental day that marks the end of our first year together?  We ate, we talked and we laughed.  We laughed a lot- until tears rolled down our faces and our cheeks hurt.

Rich brought home Pollo Loco and Qdoba nachos.  We had picked up a Lemon Bundtlette from Nuthin Bundt Cake.  So the wedding dinner was replicated perfectly.  As a surprise to Rich I decorated the dining room with the linens from the wedding, as well as the birch tree panels.

On a completely different note.  MAN OUR CONTAINER GARDEN IS GOING WILD!

I am so excited for cucumbers.  It really is something that I can eat all day long, everyday.

The zucchini plant is HUGE.  The blooms look so pretty in the morning.

More to come on the home improvement front- hoping to get some pics taken this weekend to update the web world.  Now that we have returned from the Smith Family Reunion and Katie and Paul's wedding is next weekend, we will finally get on track to get some things knocked out.  I will leave you with one last picture.

Rich is mowing our lovely green lawn, with his 'Shanna Powered' mower.  Yes folks, we had run out of Shanna  power.

Much Love-Shanna

Hand Crushing Update

My poor fingers, after weeding in efforts to save the dying grass, were covered with some lovely busted blisters filled with dirt.  Typing for work the next day, well lets just say it sucked.

So now I am on 'light' weed pulling duty.  Which means I am to focus on succulents, mustard, and anything but the evil geranium looking things that destroyed my fingers.  Good news is, thanks to the efforts of our early Sunday morning weed pulling fest we have gained a little ground in the war against weeds.  The picture below was taken from my office window.  You can see the battle has just begun but eventually we will conquer all those little buggers left of the line.

Much Love- Shanna

What's happenin' at Casa de Roach- Part I

So a bunch has been happening out here in Sparks, NV.  However, I haven't posted up squat for over a month.  So we're gonna see how I do at getting things updated in cyber land.

Part I:  The Lawn....
This is where we were about two months ago, busting our butts- digging out horse pits from hell, digging out stumps, yanking up massive roots, destroying tree saplings, tilling the yard, leveling it out, seeding it and tossing fertilizer dirt over all 3000 sq ft.

Day three post seeding...

Almost two weeks in...

Almost four weeks in... 

 And now...

And I know you are thinking omg-  What the hell happen to their yard?  No worries it is in the middle of a lovely hand crushing transformation to Rich's dream back yard.  Currently it has been mowed a handful of times (in need of mowing now, but today is a watering day so tomorrow will be a mowing day) and is sporting an insane number of weeds.  So what have Rich and I been doing for fun in the cool hours of the day?  Pulling weeds, by the thousands, out of future fabulous yard.  (I was in the yard at 0630 this morning and Rich was out there at 0730.  This was the fourth attack on weeds we have made, the pics don't show it but there has been huge progress.)  Here are some of little buggers for your viewing pleasure.

These little buggers are the most difficult to pull.  Along with them we have dandelions (no problem getting rid of them), little tiny ferns (they are super soft, so not to worried about them), wild mustard (looks worse then it is because it pulls out so easy), weird vine things (which are annoying to pull), every now and then some baby trees (like the ones that we dug out with all the roots, so we snag them asap) and the biggest surprise of all- succulents.

These little buggers, are kind of vine like, squishy rubber leaves that actually have cute little yellow flowers on them.  Not so bad right? Two problems 1) It isn't grass, which is the whole goal here. 2) Bees like little yellow flowers a lot, and Rich and I swell up like Cabbage Patch Kids if we get stung- so not a winning combination.
But I do like them, so one night we transplanted a hundred or so of them up to one of the dead zones by the fence.  Currently they seem to be living.  We have no idea how long they will stay up there though.  (Rich is afraid they will get into the yard by airborne seeds??? Not really sure how that works with succulents but the yard is his domain and he gets to make the final call.)

And the biggest surprise for me in this whole yard growing adventure?  The new grass we have grown has already started to die in random patches.  We believe that when watering we must have missed them for a few days, so now we are on a full fledged watering attack to regain the green ground that we have spent hundreds of hours to cultivate.

So in this picture you can see our not green grass :( and an unusual absence of weeds on it.  Why is that?  Because we pulled them all to make sure they weren't hogging anything that our tender grass needs to survive.
Basically I am hopeful for a spectacular yard in summer number three :)

Much love- Shanna

Got Grass?

Because we do!  Now I know, I know... for all you east coast folks grass isn't a big deal.  For those of us in the high desert, grass is FREAKIN HUGE!!! And we are very excited about it.

After only eight days after the "Back Yard Deconstruct- Rebuild of 2012"  we have little tiny grass growing.

Staying on the positive of other things growing at our house.  With no effort on our part...


We discovered that the snowball trees get all kinds of crazy white blooms.  This pic doesn't really do them justice.

Butterfly bushes is what they told us they're called.  They are going nuts in front of the house with these pink blooms.

Have you ever seen locus trees that bloom with big bunches of hot pink flowers?  Neither had we, but we have two of them.

Who knew that the random twigs poking out of the ground in the corner would produce these beautiful roses.

So in short our little casa here on Edna Court has proven again it has good bones, and just needs a whole lot of TLC to let it shine to its full potential.

Much Love- Shanna

Holly Crap we have lived here for six weeks

Where does the time go?  I sure don't know.  I'm writing this up as a reality check for myself.  Me, being me, I see a place that still has unpacked boxes, a garage filled with randomness and a backyard full of holes and dirt.  I need to remind myself this isn't a sprint its a marathon and its just fine for us to have stuff to do, as long as we are still moving toward the finish line.  OK enough of a sports analogy.  This is my list of all the many things we HAVE accomplished since we've moved in.  I'm not going to even get into what needs done, as that list is currently occupying a notebook with diagrams and everything. So here I go....

What we have accomplished in the past six weeks:

• We bought a freakin house!
• We moved in.
• We determined that the majority of our current possessions are place holders.

      Outside...

• We had the landscaper tree guy, Pawl, come out and tell us what's what with all our trees and plants.
• We had Bear and Shawn come out climb through all our trees and give them a much needed haircut, so they are happier and healthier now.

Our Honey Locus in the front yard is sporting a leaner look since its trim.

• We poisoned every weed in the back yard, trying to kill off the dandelions and mustard weed.  It worked... kind of... we are doing it again this week.
• We dug out two horseshoe pits and discovered our soil is so dense it almost acts as concrete when you get to a certain depth.  (This also included wheel-barrowing ~12 things of sand out of the dirt part of the yard and onto the concrete randomness of the yard)

That would be the pin that you throw horseshoes against, in Rich's hand.  Only 18 inches of it was out of the ground.

• I poisoned the evil black locust tree.  I don't think its working though.  Since the little bastards are popping up everywhere.

When I first counted there were 26 of these lovely little suckers popped up in the yard.

• I have begun to tackle the lilac bush.  We have decided to chop away at it as we see fit and if it dies, it dies.  But the big unruly bush must go.  I'm envisioning something bonsai like.  (Which after hours of chopping at the bush with pruners, I came to an entire other lilac in there, which made me acknowledge we needed a chain saw, which of course thrilled Rich.)

That pile of twigs on the ground was all the dead stuff I pulled out of the bush.  I will be clearing at least 50% more out.

• Rich has been determined to get two stumps out of the back yard.  One is currently conquered the other is about 80% of the way there.  (This involves digging, cutting roots, more digging, more cutting, some pressure washing to see whats what and more digging and cutting.)

This hole is now twice this size and we still have more to go before we can pull it out.

• I have been digging up our backyard to try and dig out all the sucker saplings that are popping up.  Rich and I know this will be a continual issue for years.  I really wanted to get all the woody stems that I trip over out of the yard.  This has led to feet and feet of roots being pulled out of the yard.

Not the best pic, but this is a 4 foot long root I dug out of the yard.  With a wheel barrow full of others.

Doesn't look like a place you just want to kick back and relax at?

• We bought a 'Shanna powered mower' as Rich likes to call it.  And we have actually been mowing the little patch of grass out front.
• We are trying to get the grass to fill in out front- without success as of yet.

Rich added fancy pants 'I can grow anywhere' seed to this and.... nothin. 

• We bought a leaf blower/ sucker.  Which has illuminated all kinds of things in the landscaping beds out front, as well as just being kinda fun to use.
• Rich edged the front yard along the sidewalk.  Once we get things pulling together little by little, this will be a nice addition to the yard.  (You can see it in the picture above, of the lacking grass.)
• We are trying to determine the color we will paint the house down the road.  Why?  Because we really need to paint the fence and we would like to do something with the concrete to give it a little life.  So we are trying to think ahead so everything will tie in together down the road.

       Inside

• Master Bedroom unpacked, all the clothes put away in our crazy closet, white trash window coverings created and old TV set up with Netflix so Rich can watch a sitcom to fall asleep.
• Master Bathroom cleaned.  Shower scrubbed until it wasn't icky, new toilet seat installed vanity cleaned out and over the toilet cupboard put up.
• Hall Bathroom mostly cleaned.  The shower surround needs a lot of scrubbing and I just haven't done it yet.  But the facilities are usable and not icky.  So we are good in the interim.
• Guest Bedroom.  Not a thing done, except we got the hot water heater fixed.  So now we can actually close the access to it in the closet.

Doesn't this serene view just make you want to come and stay for an extended visit?

• Office (Third Bedroom) is mostly functional.  My desk for work is up and running and has been since the second day in the house.  The rest of the room could use some love.  I currently have taken everything out of the storage and am trying to reorganize it, soooo it's in the it is worse before it gets better phase.
• Living Room is functional, just not pretty.  We have the furniture in place and we managed to get the TV wall mounted. Now I just need to dig through our possessions and see what kind of stuff can spruce it up a bit.

Perfect example of the big beige box we live in :)

• Dinning Room is functional, just not pretty.  All the furniture is put together and currently the table top is housing a pile of stuff that needs organized in the office...So we've been eating in the living room in front of the TV.

Doesn't this just scream 'I want to sit down for a big family meal'?

• The Kitchen, I don't really know what to say about it.  It should be functional, however Rich and I can't really figure out how to use it effectively.  It still feels weird working in there, which should be weird on its own since its a bigger space then our apartment kitchen. It really isn't up there on the pretty front.  Cabinets are flaking and our faux butcher block counter top has seen better days.  But it should be functional.  I 'm sure we'll figure it out.
• Future Dining Room= chaos.  We don't know what to do with this space until it is the dining room.  Right now it seems to be a home for wayward chairs and mirrors.

Hard to believe that this will be the kick ass heart of our home one day.

• The Garage, I know this isn't really 'inside' but I'm throwing it in here.  We are fortunate to have a large garage.  Even when it was full of random boxes from moving in, we could still park in the garage.  This weekend I started laying down some foundation in there so we can slowly work towards a well organized area.  So Recycling center done and area created for all outdoor/ gardening type things.

I should call this 'Rich's Happy Place'.  A home for all things lawn related.

And just for comparison... we can throw this out as a 'Shanna Happy Place' nice big shelves for all our recycling needs.  Oh and those are a pair of Rich's shorts hanging down off the top shelf.  With all the work being done in our dirt pit of a backyard, we have recognized a need for a garage laundry bin- where all the really dirty stuff will live until washed.

So wordy post done.  This was more for me than anyone else.  I need to stay focused on the little things accomplished each day, so that the monster to do list doesn't scare me into the fetal position under my desk with a stuffed animal.

Much Love- Shanna

What Our Weekend Amounted To...

• Washer and Dryer installed.  I was very impressed with my handy husband.

Thats right!  We have clean laundry.  Do you see those buttons and those lights?  They make me smile.

• Dining room furniture assembled.  Again, very impressed with my handy husband.
• A lovely dinner at the Elk's for the bowling banquet.  Rich will tell ya, next year is his year.
• A whole lot of Cardboard wrangling.  Our recycling guy picks up this Friday, and he's gonna hate us.

One stack is broken down and is about knee high, we still need to breakdown the dining table boxes.  Supposedly we need to break down all the boxes and tie the cardboard before throwing it to the curb for recycling.  the stack will be as tall as me.

• Crawling under the house to check out the crawl space and see if I could find this 'leak' the cable guy said he saw.  I got real dirty and was pleased to see how dry the crawl space was, but couldn't find the leak.  I will put it on a list for a plumber to check out.

Supposidly there is a leak here, from what the cable guy said.  I didn't see anything and there wasn't any moisture hanging around, so who knows.  On a side note... I will not be making a trek into the crawl space again until i have some impressive knee pads.  That ground sucks to crawl around on.

• Poisoned a stump.  While I was all dirty I busted out the drill and did some damage to the black elm stump that tree guys said we should poison, after they cut it down.

Ya thats right, I was outside with my cordless drill at 0700 on Sunday morning.

• Watered the front lawn and beds there around the house.  We are yet to get a successful hose hook up (first no gasket in the hose, now we got some and they don't fit) so we are dealing w/ a leaky mess.  However,  I have managed to water the lawn/ beds for the last three days now.  So, we are hopeful all of the plants will survive/ thrive.

Me and this hose are getting to be very, very good friends.

• Massive yard clean up.  Rich was a raking madman and got the back yard cleaned so he could kill all the weeds and grass in the wrong places and prep for rota tilling the yard and seeding for grass.

This would be a picture of a sweaty, dirty, tired Richard, with his 16 bags of yard debris.  (He wasn't the most pleased that I wanted to take his picture at this time.)  Our trash service here doesn't have a green trash day or dump or anything for yard waste.  So we will be adding these bags into our trash each week until they are gone, or the next free dump day comes around.  Whichever happens first.

• Killing the backyard.  Rich managed to spray all the backyard with Roundup.  We are going to pick up some more today to do some spot spraying on really stubborn weeds (a.k.a Mustard and Dandelions).

One gallon of Roundup did a good job for a first round.  I already see things turning brown and wilting up.

• Dining Room cleaned and staged with the actually dinning room furniture.  This was one of those tasks that should of taken minutes instead took hours, courtesy of the hanging light being an ugly filthy mess.  Now at least its just ugly.

This room looks so bare without all the clutter.  I can't wait to get some things on the wall, a centerpiece for the table, spray paint the light fixture or replace it with some steal and start sourcing a side board from the thrift and consignment stores.

• Groceries!!!  We actually purchased groceries for the first time in weeks.  It felt so good to make sandwiches for lunch and eat a frozen lasagna for dinner.
• Found a solution for our big kitchen question.... where do we store the food?  This was a great solution for us that illuminated itself when the pocket door between the kitchen and dining room was closed off.

These shelves where previously in my office closet at the apartment.  Just another example of where placeholders are a good thing.  The white containers are Ikea that previously held bathroom stuff.  And its ridiculous, but it thrills me that we can hang our bananas.

Why do we not keep our food in the pantry, like any other American household?  It's as simple as our plates are too freakin big.  We have standard size upper cabinets in our kitchen and our large and in charge flatwear is too much for them.  So our dishes live in the pantry, sitting on top of some of the 85' of shelf liners I cut.

Of course there were a handful of other items that occurred.  Good news there is progress.  Actual progress we can see with our eyes and experience and enjoy.  That makes the aches and pains worth while.  We have one more weekend with me here and then i will gone for two weekends for my trip back east.  We are hopeful to get a lot more done before I have to bail on Rich for 10 days. 

Much Love- Shanna