My Beautiful Mother

Dear Mom,

Do you really know just how much I love you? I hope so! As Annalise would say, "I love you all the way to Jesus and back - and nothing is bigger than that!". We've had a lot of memories together over the past 29 years! (I'm especially fond of your laughing episode at the Chinese restaurant! What ever happened to that rag anyway!? :-)

All of these memories have taught me many lessons. I've learned patience. I've learned humor (karate-kicks :-)). I've learned loyalty to your spouse. I've learned hard work - boy you were always busy working and keeping the house in order. How the heck did you always get everything done AND have dinner ready for Dad at 5pm? I've learned kindness. I've learned unconditional love - you still love me after all :-). I've learned humility. I've learned service - you were always there helping us into the early morning hours with our school projects. I've learned to "shake things off". I've learned to be a friend. I've learned to be a wife. And most importantly, I've learned to be a mother too. And I must say, I've learned from the best. I love you Mom. Happy Mothers Day.

Love,

Alisa

While the Cat is Away...

Okay, so some of my closest friends (and others who cared to hear me complain) knew that Joe went out of town for two and a half (don't mock the half) weeks. A long time for a mother of two busy girls. Before he left he said, "I'm afraid to think about what project you are going to do..". You see, Joe remembers back to the time when he left me with our newborn - who had pneumonia at the time - for 3 weeks! I remodeled our bedroom that time. But now we're older, and I felt I needed to up my game. Poor Joe - literally poor Joe, b/c I'm making him broke....just kidding, but not really.

Since we moved into this house almost three year ago, I had a vision for our front room. It's supposed to be a dining room - too boring, and I disliked how you could see right through to my kitchen. So, I decided to make it a library. Sounds fancy right? I like fancy. So the quest began for furnishings. Little by little, I bought the small items -hid them from my husband like any good wife and started my master plan. I just needed my man to go on a trip to complete it!

The time came.

Here are the before pictures...kind of before....actually the beginning of the redo, but I wasn't fast enough to snap the true before pics; just use your imagination.

Notice how you can see right through to my kitchen. Not the best.

Hard at work. Too many numbers to crunch if you ask me!A quick weekend trip to my parents to break up the construction mess.

Starting to come together!!! ............................................

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Voila!! The room is done (minus the new piece of glass I need for the little table, draperies, and a reading lamp by the leather chair, but it's close)!The inspiration for this room was this gorgeous bookcase from Razmataz. I've waited a long time for you my pretty!

My reading chair - did you hear me kids? MY reading chair!

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And, let us not forget that walls have two sides. Here's the before back side:
And the after - I'm still choosing which family picture to put in this frame.

So, I think it's safe to say that Joe won't be leaving me for any long trips any time soon! Darn! That bathroom redo will have to wait! :-)

Going Private ... sorry!

This is not the post I promised below, - that one's coming next week - but I wanted to announce that I'm going private in about a week, so please send me your emails. Send them to: joenlarson@qwest.net. And if you blog stock me and I know you or kinda know you, send me your email too! I'm not afraid of all you stockers - heaven knows I'm one! Thanks!

Joe's cheating on me with his garden......

Yes, it's true - I've been replaced with a veggie garden! I'm not joking, but I'm not sad either. I mean who doesn't love fresh lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, herbs, broccoli whenever their heart desires - which is a lot? This is our first attempt at gardening and I must admit - my man delivered. First and foremost, the garden had to look nice, so Joe built me a retaining wall. I'm very proud of this task alone. Then he followed the "Gardening by the Square Foot" method - which rocks! And now we eat fresh veggies every day. These pictures were of our fall garden and now we've extended it even more. Now we have lettuce, radishes, blackberries, strawberries, snap peas, green beans, tomatoes galore, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, mystery plant (some seeds fell out and starting growing, we don't know what they are yet), bell peppers, and jalapenos. I hope I'm still happy about our garden when it's 115 degrees!! BTW - any of your kids who want a little summer job by watering our garden call me. We go up to the cabin and to CA a lot during the summer and we'll need a little helper to water the garden and feed the dog. The waterer must not be afraid of dogs! :-)

Anyway, good job Babe, I love the garden and YOU too!!

PS - And for those of you who don't think I update my blog - just wait till you see what I post next week! Here's a teaser...."While the cats away, the mice will play....."

Thanks Friend

Dear Friend - the one who just bought a bouquet of yellow tulips,

Thank you for your kind compliments today. They were much needed. Thank you for your sincerity and friendship. I'm so glad you're in my life and it's good to know you feel the same way.
Thanks again for the extra boost today.

Love,
Alisa

The Story of Us - 9 years later...

What can I say - I hit the jackpot marrying Joe! He's the kindest man I know and he still makes me giddy. :-) He's a wonderful provider for our family and leads us with love and humility. Thanks for making these past nine years so wonderful Babe!

The Story of Us:

Joe and I met on a blind date. I had just broken up with I guy who was a real jerk and had no interest in dating at the time. BUT, my good friend Catherine, kept insisting I go out with her boyfriends best friend (Joe). After turning her down for two weeks, I finally agreed. Joe was late picking me up - not the best start. I was sick of losers. (Of course this is where Joe always interrupts me and says, "It wasn't' my fault - I wasn't driving".) This was a group date. Anywhoo, he picks me up and I'm sure this will be a lame date. Men are still dirt for me at this point.

So, during the date, Joe and I end up in separate places for a few minutes. During this time, his best friend and my friend (who set us up), tell me that Joe had an interesting dream the night before. In his dream he met this girl named Irix and he knew she was the woman he would marry. The dream was perfect and the girl was perfect for him. Sooooo, being the trickster that I am, we decided to play a little joke on Joe.

Later that evening we were all sitting around and someone asks someone else what their middle name was. So, eventually Joe ended up asking me what mine was. I simply said, "Irix". His jaw dropped and he said, "WHAT?". To which I smartly came back with, "What, don't you like that name? That was my Grandmothers name........". Joe of course said he loved that name, etc, etc. It was so funny. Oh, and did I mention that I forgot to tell Joe about the little joke we played on him? He dropped me off that night thinking I was the woman of his dreams! Which I guess I ended up being anyway. :-)

Joe won my heart that night with his genuine kindness (and his hunky muscles). And even though I rejected his kiss, not once, but three times (hey, my Dad taught me how to play hard to get), we were married 7 months later. And like I said before, best decision I ever made.

Why My Hubby is So Dang HOT!!

In a few days it'll be the 29th anniversary of my existence. I'm not exactly thrilled with this "holiday" soon approaching. And my dear hubby, knowing that it would be just too much for me to handle turning 29 AND having to clean my house, hired me a cleaning service to deep clean. Yeah, that's right - all the nicks and crannies baby! Ahh, I am totally enjoying writing this entry and not worrying about my sticky floor and dusty baseboards. The "magic fairies" (that just sounds better than cleaning ladies) are currently at work. In fact, Annalise just said, "Mmm, it smells good in here". Speaking of smelling good, maybe I'll go make some pre-birthday brownies.....because I have so much lovely time on my hands. Plus, knowing my thighs as intimately as I do, I'm sure they would really enjoy it.