100 holes

In this new life I'm getting used to new things, Costco being one of them.....I've never been a regular Costco shopper so when Jim "goes to the grocery store" and comes home with something somewhat random, I am still a little surprised.

As I am writing this I am reminded of the day Jim called me a work to ask, "what size pants do you wear?“ my immediate thought was that we ran out of milk and Costco had a killer deal on clothing, and you know what?, the plum capries waiting for me when I got home proved my theory to be correct.

Several weeks ago Jim came home with two bags of tulip bulbs he bought because we were out of pineapple and because they were purple (the tulips) we decided to place them in the basement until the weather cooled enough to plant, which turned out to be today.

After trimming the shrubs and cleaning the flower beds we began digging holes. I had a garden trowel and tulip planter but quickly realized that with small tools this would be no simple task. Jim wanted no part of the garden trowel and retrieve a big boy shovel from the garage. Soon we had as system down where he would pierce the soil and open a small crevice where I would put the bulb in, then he replace the dirt.

After a few minutes of aggressively planting, Jim paused to ask me how many bulbs needed planting,  I told him that each bag of bulbs contained 2 smaller bags of 25 bulbs each, so in total he bought a total of 100 bulbs so we would need to dig 100 holes!

I'm pretty sure this was the first time I had planted bulbs and I am really glad Jim did not buy three bags of bulbs. I'm already excited for spring and for the opportunity of seeing our hard work translated into a carpet of purple tulips.

Are you interested in golfing Saturday?

I am beginning to learn that having a new man in my life involves a reexamination of my skill set. I've learned that in some activities a particular level of mastery is not important, say throwing a load of whites in the washer or picking up a gallon of milk on the way home, for instances, these things are easily accomplished regardless of the aptitude of either person.  It makes no difference whether Jim or I unload the dishes, make the bed, or pick up the living room, the result is the same.

In some things I rock....the wreath I made for the front door is amazing, and it was my idea to take sterno and marshmallows for a s'mores dessert at Friday nights reunion dinner.  I came up with a real neat wall arrangement for some family photographs and artwork, but when it comes to coordinated physical activity (sports) I really suck! And Jim is really quite good.

It wasn't until I was about an hour into getting my trash kicked in ping pong that I learned that Jim was the champion of his school while in the sixth grade, and has owned a ping pong table most of his life.  He plays racquetball three mornings a week so you can imagine the damage he did to me the morning we went down to the park to play tennis.  He hardly broke a sweat the last time we decided to run a timed 5K, while I was panting like a dog, then today he tells me that there will be a group of Gillman's golfing at the family reunion this weekend and asks me if I am interested in going, my response was not only NO, it was HECK NO!

Marrying an athletic man has really illuminated just how poor I am in this area, something I really did not expect to find out about myself, and I know it is not a competition, but how can it not be? I am me.

Paint by Number

A couple of weeks ago when Lacie was visiting she mentioned that I should paint one of the kitchen walls red, reconsider my cabinet hardware, update my kitchen faucet, find a new home for my newly purchased (antique) china hutch, and restyle the island. All of this in a relatively newly built home I have live in just eight weeks (since marrying Jim)! I was a little overwhelmed and decided to grab some paint samples while at the home improvement store this weekend.

After looking at the samples for a few days, I have definitely come up with a favorite, and then I had a thought, "what is the perfect color ISN'T among the four samples I have chosen?" I need to find a color that will work well with the existing kitchen walls, in fact, I need a color that will actually compliment the existing walls, what if I haven't given myself the right colors to choose from?

Then somewhere in my search for the perfect red I remembered that my Math Professor told me that calculus is used in every day life and I remembered that each color had its hex code based on the amount of primary red/green/blue it contains. In order to find the perfect kitchen red, I would need to find the hex code of the existing walls (Sand Trap 187/167/149), run those values though a color wheel program and mathematically determine what color would analogically accented.

The results? Sherwin Williams 7585, Sundried Tomatoes, which isn't even close to the four samples I started with!

Sunday Breakfast

Last last night I found out Mike and Lacie (and baby Lillie) were planning on dropping by this morning......I decided to break out the waffle maker and extended a last minute invitation to Nicolas and Ashelyn (and baby Addy).

What resulted was a home full of family, a kitchen full of food and some great Sunday memories. Pictured below are some of my favorite people.

Post It

I'm still a little surprised when alone in the house I find a a Post It note attached to the bathroom mirror, fridge, car, or dryer. This subtle reminder helps to reinforce to me that I am in a healthy relationship with an amazing guy (the notes are always positive) who cares deeply for me.