Hiking Location

Sorry I am a little late at posting my response. The red rocks we hiked were in LAKE FOREST. Yes, the town I currently live in has cool trails. The trail is part of the Whiting Ranch trails. Pretty sweet, huh? We don't have to travel far to get awesome scenery!

As for the snake, we have absolutely no idea what type it is. We were hoping one of you could tell. Tom thought it was a baby rattlesnake, but we have no real idea.

There are no winners today. Better luck next time. I love you all anyways! (✿◠‿◠)

It's Official...

We have now changed out every single outdated light fixture in our home. Last place changed was our master bathroom.

Before:

 

After

Ahhh...so nice to have non-gold light fixtures. (o:

Hiking Location Contest

Big prize goes to the person who can guess the location of our hike:

Bonus prize goes to the person that knows what kind of snake we ran into while hiking:

Good luck. Contest ends Tuesday evening. Winner receives a surprise prize.

More Home Improvements

We've made a few changes the last couple weeks to our home. We started by adding additional balusters to our stair railings, since they were spaced too far apart, posing a danger to small children (and animals) who could walk through them. We then had them painted, so now they don't look so outdated:

BEFORE



AFTER

 

Then we stained the living room fireplace the same espresso color from the railings:

 

BEFORE 

 

AFTER

 

What do you think? We are slowly but surely eliminating/disguising all the oak from our home. I love it!

The only two problems with remodeling projects:
1. Once one thing looks fabulous in your home, it makes the other non-remodeled things look worse.
2. The remodeling never ends.

That being said, I am LOVING the changes we've made to our home over the last two and a half years.

Come Save Me!

Help!  

We tried to have a nice Father's Day at our house.  Really we did.  The kids made him cards, I grilled him some steak, I even took out the trash for him, but man oh man, you won't believe what happened next.  

While I was taking out the trash, I left the front door open and holy guacamole if a zombie didn't walk right into our house!  I gave him a swift right hook to the noggin, which slowed him for 2.1 seconds then kept coming after me.  Eventually I got to my can of Zombies-Be-Gone spray I always keep by my front door and he took off running for the hills.  

I am fine, but I'm sad to say that it was too late for the rest of them.  

If any of you all know where I can get me some Zombie Antidote please let me know ASAP.  They're all fresh out here in Southern California and I don't know how much longer I can take picking up their stray limbs every time they walk through a wall.

I ❤ Trader Joe's!

There are many reasons I love Trader Joes, but today I especially love them for this sign outside their store:

Thanks for making me smile today TJ's!

Madeline Update

Much to my great surprise we found out yesterday that Madeline had tested POSITIVE for strep. Huh? Sure seemed like a bona fide stomach bug to me. It may have been a blessing in disguise that I felt like I needed to bring her in for dehydration, because I don't think we would've found out she had strep otherwise!

The great news is Madeline is almost back to her normal self. She is very anxious to play with her friends again!!

On a partially unrelated note, Madeline lost her first tooth at the doctor's office! When the doctor was taking the strep test Madeline was shaking her head and the giant q-tip knocked out her loose tooth. HA! Glad it's finally out!