Pay It Forward

Several of my friends are doing this, so I'm giving in. :)

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their own blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Comments on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!SO, REMEMBER... Pay it forward

Happy Mardi Gras!

I hope some of you are getting to enjoy mardi gras parades today! I had really planned to make it down to the Coast for Mardi Gras this year, but when our water heater died, that plan died with it. :( I'm making up for it by having a Mardi Gras party in my department at work today. We are having a potluck lunch of red beans and rice, shrimp etoufee, jambalaya, gumbo, and king cake! YUMMY! My stomach is growling just thinking about it!

I'll just close my eyes and wish I was here instead:

been a while

I finally pulled some pics off my camera, so this post will be a random assortment!

First of all, we have hot water again. It is wonderful to have hot water again! Unfortunately, the insurance estimates came in about $50 under our deductible and wouldn't cover the water heater at all, so we are footing the entire bill. Oh well. The joys of home ownership! I will say our new tankless water heater is bigger and better than our old one and there are actually people who can service it in Oxford! It also has sensors that detect when the temp drops below 30, so that heaters can automatically come on to keep the thing warm. Woohoo!

The pics below are from our Valentine's day dinner. We grilled some lamb, and had spinach/parmesan risotto and asparagus on the side. Daniel set up a nice romantic picnic in the living room for us. It was a low key night which suited me just fine.

The lamb was marinated in blackstrap molasses, rosemary, garlic


Rich and creamy spinach, parmesan risotto is muy delicioso, but not very healthy!


Daniel likes to plate the food. This reminds me of a skull and crossbones for some reason. :) Oh, and we overcooked the lamb a little, but it was our first time grilling and the lamb was still very tasty and tender.


Our candlelit picnic set by Daniel.


On the weekends Sophie and Bailey enjoy doing many of the same things. Below is one of their favorites! Find a sunny spot and take a nap!


So, I'm way behind on my violin videos. I actually have a valid excuse though (other than the hot water crap). My last set of strings I bought apparently came with a bad A string, so everything I play on that string (which is everything) sounds terrible. I bought some new strings today, so I'll restring tonight and see if I can't make a video for you all. If not tonight, then definitely tomorrow night after my next lesson. The progress is very slow!

where to begin?

I don't have another violin video for you yet, but I have been practicing! The songs I'm currently working on: Ode to Joy, Largo, Yankee Doodle, a Russian Dance Tune, and Dixie. I can definitely tell I'm improving, but since I'm now playing songs that use all four strings, things have gotten MUCH harder! I'll try to remember to make a video tonight when I practice.

On the hot water battle: we are still without hot water. That's right. We've not had hot water since February 5th. An insurance adjuster will be coming to the house this afternoon, but has already told us they won't cover the cost of replacing our P.O.S. tankless water heater. We have currently ordered and replaced two parts on that thing and have had numerous plumbers out here to try and get this thing working...to no avail. I'm tired of bathing at work and friends' houses and tired of boiling pots of water on the stove to wash dishes. If I have to shell out every penny of the $2000 or so it takes to replace that piece in the attic with a decent one with freeze protection, I'M DOING IT! THIS WEEK! Can you tell I really can't take it anymore?

On the gardening front: I received my March Southern Living magazine in the mail this weekend, and have found my dream vegetable garden. There is no way the new one I hope to build will compare, but a girl can dream. Could someone from the Delta please bring me a truck load of decent dirt. The sand and clay (aka concrete) aren't cutting it. If the water heater and taxes don't totally wipe us out, I really do hope to start working on the soil for our new garden and building a compost bin next weekend.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday! Sorry for the not up beat at all post today.

violin video 2

First, a disclaimer. I have only had two 30 minute lessons. I only practiced twice this week. I was told to work on my form rather than my sound. why in the world did i say I would post videos of my progress?


I have my third lesson this evening, so hopefully I'll move on from variations of Twinkle Twinkle this week.

A tankless water heater update: Today is day 6 with no hot water. We received the replacement part yesterday afternoon, but the plumber who originally came out to the house is no longer returning our phone calls. We have switched to a new plumber who is sending someone out at noon today. Fingers crossed that we will have hot water tonight!

when it rains...

It pours. Literally. Through my kitchen ceiling.

I know I promised a violin video, but since I woke up to water dripping through my kitchen ceiling, I've been a little distracted. Our @$^#$@W(!!$(*@%# Bosch tankless water heater sprung a leak and dripped from the attic down through insulation, the kitchen ceiling, and down part of one wall. Anyone considering getting a tankless water heater, let me give you some advice. Don't put it in your attic. I can only assume because it is on the north side of the attic near the eaves, that cold north wind keeps causing our problems, but I'm really fed up. Since we've lived in our house, we've had to deal with our hot water freezing anytime the temperature gets near the 20 degree mark. Daniel has added more insulation and wrapped pipes, but it apparently hasn't solved our problems. I suppose we are lucky that the part that has to be replaced wasn't very expensive, but we still have had to deal with no hot water since Tuesday night, and will now have to replace the insulation that got wet, repaint the ceiling and wall, and figure out some other way to prevent this POS from freezing or bursting again. We are open to any suggestions. Our very helpful plumber had this suggestion for us: "the builder should never have put it in the attic". Really?! You think we didn't figure that out about 2 years ago? Unfortunately, since the thing has both water and gas piped to it, moving it to another location will not be cheap or easy. If we can just get through this winter, maybe this summer we can look into more permanent fixes for this problem. The picture below shows the water spot on our kitchen ceiling. Thankfully we have wonderful friends in the neighborhood who have graciously allowed us to shower at their houses for the last week. Please let the part arrive today, so I can take a shower at my house (and wash dishes, and do laundry).


On a more positive note, the weather has been phenomenal! I've really gotten the garden bug after such a warm weekend! I have big plans for composting, rain barrels, and a bigger and better veggie garden! I'm thinking about moving my tea roses to another location as well, but haven't quite decided on that yet. I'll keep you posted!

violin lesson 2

I had my second violin lesson last night, and it went fairly well. This week I'm to focus on my form more than my sound or hitting the right notes. Because of that, I was a little shy about making a video last night. Let me at least get my latest theme sounding slightly better before I share a video with you all. I'll make it tonight and post it tomorrow, I promise. I have unrealistic expectations and really need to slow down and accept that I'm gonna sound terrible for quite a while. My teacher tells me it's much more important for me to get my form correct, so I don't get used to bad habits (like resting the violin on my wrist, pushing down to hard with the bow, etc).

After my lesson last night, I went straight to the gym. I ended up doing 8 miles on the bike and 2 miles on the elliptical! It felt wonderful! If only every night at the gym felt so good! Of course I didn't bring my clothes with me today, so I guess I'll be skipping until Friday night. Why not go thursday you might ask?

Thursday is 'girls night'. We are going to dinner and a movie. Most of the crew is going to the AMP to see Marley and Me. I'm gonna branch off and head over to the first night of the Oxford Film Festival. They have a lot of great movies I'm excited to see over the weekend. Let me know if you want to see my schedule or join me for any of the films. Daniel will most likely be in Holly Springs at a disc golf tournament Saturday and Sunday, so I'm on my own.

If anyone is interested in a young, female black lab mix puppy or an 8 month old, male yellow lab mix, let me know. they need forever homes and my husband is a meany and won't let me get either one. :) I don't have a picture of the male yet, but Heidi is below. How can you say no to that adorable face?