I want these

Paula Deen's nachos. They look sooooo good. When I get home I going to make the HUGEST most BIGGEST, ETREME. HAPPY FUN TIME Mexican dinner. If you want to come paint a wall in my house, margaritas all night long. 

To baby, or not to baby?

   Is it just me or does it seem that everyone is having a baby? First everyone was going to college and now everyone is having a kid. I know that not everyone is doing this but it seems that this is all I read about on facebook. I used to use facebook to stalk photos of people who were usually taking pictures of themselves, now its been taken over by babies.
   I honestly still feel like a kid. There is no way that I could be taking care of a small human, I just love drugs, alcohol and partying wayyy too much. Okay, none of that is true but seriously I feel like this is my time to get some living out and do some growing up.
   My life has lead me down a different path. After I turned 18 and graduated from high school I immediately started traveling to just about every single state. I had a great opportunity and I took it. Since then I have taken a lot of shit from family members and friends for not going to college straight away, so I can't help but feel guilty about that.
   I don't think that there is anything wrong with making babies and I will be every single one those babies Aunt Tori, that's what I have been for most of my life, it's what I know. I don't want to offend anyone of my friends, you all have beautiful babies. All I am saying is slow down because all of us baby-less women don't know what to with ourselves.
   Since meeting Ryan people want to know things about us, like when we are getting married. Isn't that answer obvious? After he knocks me up and before I go to college. So any day now, just keep looking for my fetus photos on facebook. ;)

Okay so really I had a baby right after I turned 18.

He is 3 now. 

A List of Things.

   I mostly write this blog because I know that Ryan will read it everyday. I know that there are others who do read too though so I will apologize right now for this next blog however, I will make it short.

1.  Fix the kitchen table. We have a 1950's table with all of the legs falling off that need to be cleaned and repainted and probably have the seats recovered. Lots of work. 
2. Finish painting. The hallway, all of the trim, baseboards, stinky room, and living room all need to be painted. I really hate painting but I think that maybe after the 4 month break we took it won't be so bad. 
3. Finish painting the cabinet hardware. I forgot to take off the part that holds them up, plus the paint I bought sucks. 
4. Fix up the laundry room. Those shelves are gross, need to be... painted. 
5. Finish the floor in the kitchen. Again, need to paint the floor boards which would be much, much easier if they didn't have nails sticking out of them. 
6. Wash and paint the nasty side table, you know which one I am talking about, the one from the gross room. 
7. Touch up bathroom and look into what we can do about the bathtub. 
8. Fix/ purchase new blinds. I hate the metal ones, I can't clean them and they are all bent. 
9. Stairs, oh god. Maybe we should leave that one for when we are feeling really, really ambitious. What were we thinking? Should have just had those covered with carpet. 
10. Find new home for work bench stuff in my kitchen and under the stairs. 

   I think that if we could finish all of that our house would be just about finished. I could hang pictures up! And we could have people over without our house looking like a construction zone. Here are some pictures of what we have done.

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

Bathroom Before

After. Painted cabinets, and walls and CLEANED

The stairs were not even the worst part. 

This room was, I would not even go inside there. That white table is the one I am talking about. 

These are the colors we used in the house. Starting from left to right: Guest bedroom, Master Bedroom, Living room/ halls, Trim/baseboards, Dining room, Kitchen, and Bathroom.

This picture was taken at the lazyboy showroom but we bought that couch, isn't it lovely!

   I don't have as many before and afters as I thought I did, probably because nothing is really finished. Our house is livable and clean but needs lots of work. We kind of had to skip the finishing details because we were more concerned with being able to walk without our shoes on through the house and not getting sick from the air we breathed. I still think that the guest bedroom is stinky but that was before I left, maybe it has gotten better, I really hope so. If anyone wants to come help us I will make your dinners at your request! 

To my love.

   One year ago today Ryan and I went on our first date without the supervision of my older sister. Ryan and I had decided that after talking to each other we had a lot of in common, most importantly being our love for dogs of course. We met online, I feel really cheesy saying so but my sister and my cousin both had accounts on plentyoffish.com because they had saw it in a Lady Gaga video and they each had a lot of fun scanning through their matches. Well I guess that it worked, and with great success, still feel silly about that though, I need to come up with a good lie.
   Ryan drove from Mountain Home to Twin Falls to pick me up in his mini. I noticed that he smelled, but I couldn't really blame him, it was over 90 that day. We went to Pandoras for lunch then went back to the park where they were having a car show, Ryan knew absolutely everything about each car there. I showed him the falls and the waterfall that you walk underneath, he fell in front of a couple of people when hoping over the barrier, must have been nerves because he is usually pretty agile.
   We spent the day just exploring all over Idaho, driving on dirt roads, finding lakes and just enjoying each others company. We had a bratwurst dinner in Sun Valley, which we both think was foreshadowing our future because about three weeks later we were in Germany!

This was the view from our porch. 

A garden in the village. 

The wheat field. 

Nurburg the city. 

Brussels, Belgium 

This was on a biking trail in the town we stayed. 

Bitte ein Bit

Trier  

   Although we never wanted it to, our European vacation had to come to an end. I went home about a week earlier than Ryan who stayed behind and got to to Italy. While he was there finishing up work I was in Idaho packing my Honda Element. We had fallen in love and would be moving in together. I would be moving 2,000 miles away from my home to live in Huntsville, Alabama.

   Ryan was working on buying a townhouse there but just hadn't been there long enough to do so. The townhouse was his friends, he had been renting it out to his dad, who had trashed it. The plan was that Rob would fix it up, and get it all clean before we moved in. That didn't happen, not even close. We moved into a motel for two weeks while Rob got his dad out. While we were waiting and while Ryan was at work, I started designing, researching and learning everything I could about the huge project we were now facing.

The kitchen, after it had been mopped. The counters were brown, the fridge had greasy black finger prints and when you opened it, it smelled like cigarettes. We put it outside. 

Removing the wall paper was a nightmare! There were two layers and the one on top had to be scraped off with a putty knife. 

Finally got all of the wall paper down and started taping, paining corners and filling in holes. Note bleach, my third jug. 

Ryan and I had LOTS of help from our dear friend Nick. Give him a monster and he goes until the sun comes up. 

After lots of man and doggy hours, we finally had a clean, beautiful kitchen.

   Ryan and I had lots of help fixing up our house. His parents came down one weekend and helped us paint and Nick was there almost everyday. The entire house really had to be re-done. Every room needed to be cleaned, primed, painted, cleaned, carpet torn up, new carpet laid down, and then cleaned again. It was so much work, but we still managed to have lots of fun. When my kitchen was finished I think that is when Nick started staying the night.

Turkey chilly and cornbread. 

Pumpkin-chocolate pudding. 

Chicken Alfredo. 

Portal Cake.

Lasagna roll ups.

Pork loin with mustard wine reduction and very hungry dog. 

Beer brats, red cabbage and steamed potatoes. 

Awe yes, carlo and green olives.

   People could see we were happy. Our families, friends and strangers. I was really getting to know everyone in Alabama. They all took me in and made me feel very welcome. Being with Ryan is like living for the first time. He is my best friend. We do everything together and have so much fun doing absolutely nothing as well. Sadly though, at the end of November Ryan had to leave for work in Qatar. Beau and I stayed behind.
   While Ryan was gone we made the most of the holidays. Beau and stayed with Ryan's family in Birmingham and I was really thankful to have them. Since I didn't have much money that year for Christmas gifts I decided to make them and Pam helped me, a lot.

Bollywood Christmas Apron I made for Kat. 

Pam modeling some frames. 

I got to spend Christmas with my dear friend Kat in Chicago.

Beau looks a bit like a retard here...

We went to medieval times for my 21st birthday! SOOO much fun!

My attempts on wasting time and decorating. 

Rat/mouse that made its home under my dish washer. I called my mom crying so hard because I thought I killed it. I was trying desperately to get it off of that sticky pad. 

For Valentine's day Ryan surprised me with a beautiful ring he had made for me. 

   One thing that I have learned from this past year is that Ryan is full of surprises. I love it! He is always doing his best to make me happy because I do my best to make him happy. The best surprise of all was when he got to come home an entire month early!

I got my silly Ryan back! 

And not long there after we were headed to Twin Falls to drop off my baby Beau.

   Now we live in Abu Dhabi. We are living in a hotel that is just amazing. I get room service everyday, I have had a massage, there is a pool, a gym and beaches. There are restaurants in the hotel, cooking classes, concerts and dancing. They really do a very nice job and take very good care of me. Since I have been here I haven't done much outside of the hotel. I did go on a tour of the city, which was the best day ever but would have been better if Ryan was able to come. Today we were suppose to go on a safari and Ryan was going to get the day off but he couldn't so that will have to wait.
   I have been so many places in the past year its really hard to believe its all real. Having been able to experience all of those place while being completely in love and with my best friend has been even more unreal. I absolutely can't wait to go on more adventures with you Ryan. I just want to tell you thank you for this past year spent together. I love you, always. 

Tour of Abu Dhabi

   I went on a tour of the city on Saturday and I am just now getting to blogging about it because right after it I became very ill from the extreme heat and sun. When you stop sweating in 109 degree weather, its a bad sign. But I am have been keeping well hydrated and sleeping most of the day so I am just about back to my normal self.

 
   The trip started at 9:15 AM, which was terribly difficult for me to wake up since I normally go to bed just before that. We went to Heritage Island. There they show case how life was before the British discovered oil here in the 1970's. I had no idea that this country was that new, but I should have because well, everyone here acts like new money.

People lived these tents as late as the 1970's, some still even do. The country survived on their dates and pearl market and when the Japanese invented cultured pearls in the 1950's conditions got even worse. 

This is what the inside of a tent would look like, it mainly sheltered you from the sun, I can say that it was considerably cooler inside. 

   I spent most of my time taking pictures of the camel. I just love camels, I always have. I think that they have such a funny, expressive face that is totally worth enduring the weather conditions that I had to. A group of tourists came up just as I was about to start taking pictures of the camel so that is why most of my pictures have other people in them. Still, they are good pictures of the camel. 

This was one the only picture that wasn't blown out and had the entire camel in the picture. 

See what I mean about expressive faces? 

   After the camel ride I went to the museum and took many pictures mainly because it had air conditioning. In there they had displays of jewelry that looked more like torture devises, dead animals, pearls and daggers. 

   After cooling down we headed to the Grand Mosque. This is the most breath taking, beautiful building I have ever seen. I know many may disagree with me be but I thought it was more beautiful and an all around better experience than the Louvre. The whole thing is made of white marble, gold, colored marbles, crystals and hand woven carpets. Before they let you go in you must be dressed properly, which means woman in Burkas with black scarfs around their head, no hair showing and if men aren't wearing pants then they had to wear a white dress. 

Outside of the Mosque. 

This is the world's largest chandelier, it was made in Germany and its all crystals I believe it weights something like 6,000 pounds. 

Here I am standing under a third chandelier at the far end. This is to show you just how large the room is. The carpet I am standing on is the worlds largest hand made carpet. It took 1,200 women just 2 years to make it and it came from Iran. 

Anything that is shinny, is gold. The curvy gold and white sculpture in the middle was made to represent rivers of milk and honey. 

Really tall walls, these are names of different saints. The white shinny stuff is white gold. Also the backwards "L" shape means "The" in Arabic. 

Standing on white marble, its not hot. This place is HUGE. 

   That about concludes my tour of Abu Dhabi. By that time I was super exhausted. We did go to the gold suk, which was nothing special, the first one had burnt down a few years ago so the one we went to was inside a mall. They had lots of gold, all very Arabic designs, so nothing that really caught my eye. I am way too white to wear gold. After I got home around 2:00 PM, I smelled like Ryan so I took a shower and slept all day, then got sick and haven't been myself since.