Happy Valentine's!

Here at the Gage household we believe in celebrating holidays when they are convenient.

It all goes back to our 6 month anniversary. {I know, I know, it can't be an anniversary if it hasn't been a year. High school logic unfortunately does not follow root words.}

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It is April 24, 2001. Picture 16-year-old Courtney, so excited because she and her love have been dating for six whole months. {If you don't remember, that was a big deal in high school.} "I wonder what he will give you," her friends squealed at her.

Long story short, sweet little 16-year-old Courtney got nothing. Not even a "Happy Anniversary!"

Luckily, 17-year-old (and two days) Austin had some lovely girlfriends who realized his major faux pas.

Due to their influence, Austin showed up on Courtney's doorstep on May 24th, 2001 with flowers, a big smile, and a card that said, "There are 14 months on my calendar."

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Fast forward to Valentine's Day this year. Austin had watch (quelle surprise), so I spent my Valentine's Day on the couch, cuddled with the dog, catching up on reading. It was delicious.

Today was our Valentine's. Austin had off so he came and took me to lunch after making all the girls swoon by bringing me these:

Hope your day was great!

A post about nothing in particular

Having snow all weekend was so much fun. I loved staying home and organizing. I got to throw away so much stuff that I have been meaning to. Which meant I got to go buy fun organizational boxes and containers.

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Austin is home! He got home yesterday after sitting off the coast since Saturday morning, since the base was closed and there was no one there to let the ship in. So, they anchored and did fun things like playing Monopoly.

He got home yesterday. Now he is back on the ship. Stupid duty.

Austin's duty rotation has the worst timing. He had duty Christmas Day (or would have if he wouldn't have taken leave), New Year's Eve and Valentine's day. Lame-o.

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I love having Austin back. It is so weird to have to get used to him being gone ad back and gone and back and...

so on.

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The dog is still wearing the cone of shame. Poor Mr. Bings. He broke the edge of the cone in the snow. He had his head in the snow for so long the plastic froze really hard, and then he rammed into my leg. The cone shattered in one spot.

I will be really glad when the cone is gone.

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I went back to work today, it was fun to be back in routine. Not as fun as snow days, but still.

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OSL is coming to town this weekend. I am excited. We will be missing some key people, like the Megans, and Corey, but it will be good to see old friends.

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I started watching LOST again tonight. Oh, this show.

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Now I am exhausted and my bed is beckoning. I will go curl up with my dog instead of my husband since he is on duty. It is hard to cuddle with a head surrounded in plastic cone, but I will try.

Good night.

Snow Dog

Bingley loves the snow...

...and hates the cone of shame.

And it's still coming down!

The rumors of snow were TRUE for a change!

When I went to bed at 1:30 last night, there wasn't even a speck.

But, this morning:

{All taken from my cell phone}

And now the flakes that are coming down are getting HUGE! Good thing I made a huge pot of chili last night.

The Story of a Cabinet

 Once upon a time...

(Like in July)

My husband was deployed.

I had no job.

We were a month from closing on our house.

And I was restless.

So, I started a project!

When Austin and I went to Richmond to hang with his family the weekend before we left, we stopped by this amazing furniture store, Ruth and Ollie in Carytown, where I fell in love with this cabinet.

The super cool retro-ish circles, turquoise paint inside, and inside lighting? 

Sign me up.

Sadly, the $2,153 price tag laid waste to my dreams.

A few weeks later I strolled into a thrift store and saw this baby...are those cool retro-ish stylings on a cabinet that would fill up that bare wall in my kitchen and provide extra storage?

and is that a $40 price tag?

Well, I thought to myself. That could keep me busy. And I had a vision. And I found out it was being marked down to $20 in front of my very face! With that, it was mine. (Though it had no shelves. Back to that later)

She's a beauty, right? no? well, maybe after I clean her?

Seriously, this thing was so dirty, it changed colors as I washed it. 

From yellow to, well, a different yellow.

Then, I took all the doors off, and started sanding.

In my mind, this could be my version of the $2,000 cabinet. No one else really seemed to get the vision. Especially not the paint guy at Home Depot, who was repelled when I had him mix up a bright green for the inside. Yup, his customer service skills were right on.

After one coat of white...

This is where people (read: Leslie and Ashley) started really getting my vision.

Then, I got to move it into our new house!

Check out that pretty green...

Don't mind the reflection from the windows.

Look! No reflection!

Remember how I said that it had no shelves? Well, I had some glass shelves cut to fit the space for shelves inside the cabinet for $12. Seriously! Who knew?

I had glass shelves cut because I knew I wanted to put glassware in the cabinet, so that I could see how it would all sparkle when I turned on the light!

Total cost of my cabinet?

Cabinet............................... $20
Paint and Supplies.............. $15
Shelves................................$12
Total...................................$47
(And as the saying goes - my sanity? Priceless.)

In any case, it might not be my dream cabinet, but it comes pretty darn close for over $2100 of savings.

Though if you have $2,153 laying around...my birthday is in approximately 8 months and I have the perfect place in my dining room for a low and wide cabinet.

Just saying.

Yay!

they are done. and in the mail.

every last one of them.

When I spoke with my husband (for approx 2 minutes) tonight, upon hearing of my accomplishment he proclaimed,

"Good job babe, way to take one for the team."

Oh, marriage ;)

A big weekend

Today I find myself excited to go into this weekend, not because I will have a chance to relax and do nothing, but because I am excited about being productive!

I find myself much more productive when Austin isn't home. Usually because he isn't here to distract me with fun things that have nothing to do with my to-dos. {read: Rockband tours, going out to eat, or getting wrapped up in HBO movies - there are no commercials! You can't break away!}

On the to-do list for this weekend are many things that have just not been accomplished, lingering projects, like one specific lingering project that I must address. Publicly and shamefully.

I haven't sent out my wedding thank you cards.

I know! How could I be so brazenly unthankful???

Rest assured, it is not that I am not grateful, in fact every time that I use gifts from the wedding, I feel a little thrill go through me that someone knew me well enough to buy our food processor, or the lovely sheets I am putting on our bed...the list goes on.

And along with a little thrill comes a big blush of embarrassment across my face that the person who gifted that thing to me doesn't know just how grateful we are. I almost wish I could send a picture of me blushing with all of the thank yous, just so people would know.

The Thank Yous were started, waaay back when. Really they were. But then things mounted and mounted, and I didn't feel right about sending out some, but not all of the thank yous. {what if people talked to one another and someone felt unthanked?!}

But now everyone does, and there is no excuse. It has been this little monkey on my back for the last few months. My shameful secret.

But not anymore! This weekend, I declare it in front of the entire internet, every last one of those thank yous will be mailed.

Coming to a mailbox near you.

Very near you.

Like at the end of your driveway.

Happy Friday everyone!

The Life of a Navy Wife

or Goodbye...Again.

That's right, Austin headed out again today on that big metal ship.

This was supposed to be routine,
and it was supposed to be a domestic trip,
and he is supposed to come home on the 1st of February.

But the last I heard, the mission is "subject to change". Quelle surprise.

Cone of Shame

A few weeks ago, we noticed a tiny little bump on Bingley's ear.

That little bump soon grew into a big bump that we, being the responsible puppy parents that we are, were seriously concerned about. We took him to the vet and they diagnosed him with what is called a "button tumor" or a histiocytoma. The diagonosis took about 5 minutes...and $150.

In any case, they let us know that it will bleed really easily and we could pay to have it surgically removed...or just wait and it would go away on it's own.

We clearly chose the later option, being more cost effective (read: free).

Well in no time, of course the thing started bleeding, and then it scabbed, which made it itch, which made him scratch, and the whole cycle would start again. We tried everything we could think of, but we finally had to resort to...

...the cone of shame.

Here's to hoping it won't really be three months before this thing goes away.

I think our dog is losing his street cred.

The big 3-0

{This post is two days late because clearly something is wrong with my auto-post. will investigate.}

Today, {read: January 5th when this was supposed to post} is my parents' wedding anniversary!

They have been married for 30 years! Together they have moved 9 times, raised 3 brilliant children, lived in 4 different states, had one grand-dog, survived the Navy and their *sometimes* high maintenance daughter planning a wedding and acquired a son-in-law.

Congratulations Mom and Dad! I love you!