A note on productivity

It seems that I am way more productive when Austin is gone than I am when he is home.

I think that this is because he is not around to distract me. Let's face it, when he and I are both home together, we would rather be having fun than doing projects, and it is only if I am adamant about getting something done that I usually win out.

He thinks that I am more productive while he is away because it gives my self-admitted procrastinator self some deadlines for the first time outside of an educational setting.

Either way - I am more productive when he is gone. The fact that my parents are coming on Wednesday may have also had something to do with the whirlwind of project-ing and cleaning I have found myself in over the last two weeks.

In that time I have:

• Painted our downstairs bath "Washington Square" by Ralph Lauren. Look it up. It's a super dark purple. Don't freak out, it looks totally glam and fabulous.
• Touched up the 'man room', hung curtains and bought a rug.
• Repainted the Living Room in "Offshore mist" by Behr. A slightly greyer blue than what we ended up with before.
• Bought new pillow covers from PB for the hideous pillows that came with our couch.
• Bought and planted 4 new tea olives and a bunch of yellow pansies in front of our porch - (and mulched, go me).
• Cleaned the winter dirt off of all of our front porch furniture and bought fab new outdoor pillows from Target.

Clearly I have done various other things in this time (like taking care of three dogs) and yet my whole to-do list is not checked off yet, but we are getting there! When I have time, I will post lovely photos of all these projects (and of the whole house in general. Until then, know that I am working away.

Erin Go Bragh

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

I hope you are wearing green. 

If not, you might get pinched.

Not that I would do such a thing.

Motley Crew

Austin's mom Leslie is in Florida this week for a romantic trip with her boyfriend Matt. They are seeing Michael Buble in concert and visiting Leslie's family. While they are off trysting in the sunshine, I am taking care of this crew.

My house is a mess, but at least there is a whole lot of cuddling.

Happy new week!

Only in Norfolk...

But, wait! That's a Georgia plate! Wow.

{yes, I took this while driving, don't judge.}

Too Blue

We recently decided to go ahead and paint our living room. We bought a green couch around Christmas time and green couch + green walls = one unhappy Courtney.

The color was great, and we kept it in the dining room, but it just wasn't different enough from our couch color to keep in the living room. We searched and searched for a color that we liked and would tie in how we wanted.

We finally settled on Ralph Lauren "Spa" which is very close to this image of Glidden "Tropical Surf"

So, we set out and started taping and painting the room. Throughout we kind of looked at each other and said, "Hmm"

It ended up looking like this:

{Bingley has no comment, so long as we don't move his chair}

Not bad, but not what we were looking for. When we saw the color originally, we thought it had great grey undertones, but in our room it came out a little more aqua. We have lived with it for a few days and looked at each other last night and both said, "Nope."

I think this color would be great for a little boy's room, but not for our living room. We will be hitting the drawing boards again and going for a richer, more soothing grey-blue. All in all it didn't take us long to paint (one evening after work) and a can of paint is around 20 bucks, so it's not the end of the world.

We did hit a great note with another RL color though, up in the 'Man Room'. The color is "Toast" {who gets to come up with paint names anyway?}. Photos to come.

Cone of Shame, Part Deux

Bingley is happy to announce {to all of his fan favorites out there} that the Cone of Shame is GONE!

After a few test days this week, and a noticeable reduction in the size of his {now} little bump, he is now free and clear of the cone.

You can all breathe a sigh of relief along with all of Bingley's little doggie friends. He recently made friends with the new Puggle puppy across the street {Brutus}, and Brutus is definitely glad to see the cone gone. He came over the other night to lick Bingley's face all over in commemoration. 

Happy Friday!

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. A day that symbolizes repentance and is the official kick off of the Lenten season.


This year for Lent, I am giving up two of my most favorite things in the whole wide world:

• Caffeine and...
• Picking fights with my husband

{I usually think that it's funny - he does not usually agree - which further brings the lolz.}


I think he should give up his favorite thing:

• Telling his wife how ridiculous she is

{Which I may or may not always agree with. I plead the fifth.}


Here's to Easter!

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.

...

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.

...

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.

...

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.

...

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

...

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.

...

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

...

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.