Biggest Project Reveal Yet!

Hi guys!!

After three weeks of a blogging break, I'm back.  Before I get to the big project reveal, I have a few things to share...

First up - the real reason I went on a bloggy break is because we went on vacation.  For four weeks.  Yep, that's right, an entire month of vacation.  Since we weren't going to be home for that long, I opted to keep it a secret just in case I have any crazy stalkers.  I'm pretty sure the only person who stalks me is my handsome hubby, and that's completely fine by me, but still...ya never know!  (I pre-posted my last three posts prior to leaving.)

So, where'd we go for a month?!  Hawaii!!!

Kauai, HI

One of my best friends lives out there, and is awesomely amazing and offered to let us stay with her for an entire month!!  Our timing was impeccable...my friend closed on her home the morning we left, and is moving back to the mainland on Friday.  Because she was leaving the island, she only had a few of the essentials, and kept saying she couldn't wait to read a blog post on her 'amenities'...

So here goes ...

We were so fortunate to have one pot and one skillet to cook with.  While this might seem scarce to some, it was a perfect way to plan our meals, and it was so much easier to clean just one pot and just one skillet.

We were so fortunate to have 4 knives, 4 spoons, and 4 forks to eat with, even if they were dollar store bendy silverware.  They provided great entertainment for mixing stuff, much laughter when we bent our silverware back in place, and made us appreciate the next item all that much more!

We were so fortunate to have one good butter knife.  Those things are amazingly strong.  They can cut fruit and chicken and potatoes without flinching.  Well, a good butter knife and a strong hubby.  The strong hubby might be key to that equation, but I will never again under-estimate the power of my butter knives.

We were so fortunate to have paper plates to eat off of.  It was so nice being able to throw our plates in the garbage, and made cleaning up after dinner every night that much easier.

We were so fortunate to have a bed, even if it was made of air, to sleep on.  It was one of the most comfortable air mattresses ever, and we slept like babies.  I'll get more into why this was so comfortable in a bit.

We were so fortunate to have a friend that we can hold great conversations with, days on end, hours at a time and only stop chatting because it's way past our bedtime.  The conversations we enjoyed without the interruption of TV and internet (she has no cable) were great, in-depth, intelligent, fun, and heart warming conversations that bonded all three of us that much closer.  We will forever cherish that time we all had together.

Here's a few pics from the millions that I took :

Hawaiian Monk Seal on Waikiki Beach, Oahu, HI

Sea turtle off of the Ho'okipa Beach Rocks in Maui, HI

Chris and I at the falls at the end of the Pipiwai Trail in Maui, HI

Poipu Beach Area in Kauai, HI

Seven Sacred Pools in Maui, HI

Red Sands Beach in Maui, HI

Haleakala Crater in Maui, HI

Hanauma Bay in Oahu, HI

So now that I've filled you in on our wonderful vacation, which included wonderful and amazing trips over to the islands of Maui and Kauai, both of which we could afford to do because of our generous friend that we're so fortunate to have on the island of Oahu, I'll get onto the next item of business.

Chris is DONE.  D.O.N.E. DONE with school.  WOO HOO!!!!  He worked so hard for his Master's, put in so much blood, sweat, and tears (okay, maybe not blood...but I bled for the both of us on some of these solo home improvement projects, so that counts for him too), and I couldn't be more proud.  He didn't walk with his class, he decided he'd rather be walking in Hawaii than in Gainesville, FL ... but the sense of accomplishment and pride and joy and relief is all there!!

And finally ... the big project reveal.

A pictures worth a thousand words, so here it is :

Yep, that's me at 20 weeks pregnant (and Chris being a goof)!  This was taken on our last full night in Hawaii.  We couldn't be more excited, elated, scared, and happy all at the same time!  If you go back to September, you'll notice that my posts start dwindling down quite a bit.  Morning sickness and the pure tiredness of the first trimester hit me pretty hard.  I had a few 'do over' days where I didn't get out of bed at all and decided that I'd just try again tomorrow because today wasn't a good day.

That's all over though...I'm feeling amazing, overwhelmed, and big!!!  The amazing part might have something to do with being gone for a month in Hawaii, but nonetheless!  Oh, and the air mattress that we slept on was amazingly comfortable because it absorbed some of my new found belly so I could enjoy sleeping semi on my stomach for a few extra weeks.  I'm still trying to figure out this side sleeping thing!

Sorry I waited so long to tell you bloggy world!!  I actually just officially made the announcement today at work, and I have no idea who reads this blog, so I waited to say anything until I let the cat out of the bag.

The main deets that everyone will want to know...my due date is May 30th, 2011, and we find out Saturday morning if it's a boy or a girl!  Do you have any guesses of boy or girl based on the way I'm carrying?!  I have no idea...this whole first time Mommy / pregnant thing is all new to me, so I'm not guessing!  We'll find out soon enough!!

Oh, and... HAPPY 1 year bloggy anniversary to Kara's Korner!!!  I can't believe how much this has grown over the past year, and I hope to continue and build on how far I've come thus far.  We've got so many projects on our to-do list, that we can accomplish TOGETHER now that Chris is done with school.  And yes, that includes a nursery!!  So make sure you stay tuned to see what this year's fun projects have in store!

Hope everyone's 2011 is going well!  Our's so far is awesome!

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And I'm Out!

Well guys, this has been an amazing year. I love this blog and the feedback I get from it, so thank you so much for all of your support over the past year.

But I'm taking a few weeks to do what I haven't done in a long time. Spend quality one-on-one time with my husband. Without school, without computers, without work, just us. Pre-Chris's schooling days, we were pretty inseparable. I'm so excited to take these next few weeks to go back to our place of happiness...being together with no stress.

Our friends Erin and Chris joke with us that we're Amish because we don't watch much TV. The next few weeks is going to be filled with very little electronics at all. Do you hear that? It's the sound of heaven...ahhh!!!

So, while I know you're not supposed to take 'blogging breaks' if you want to make your blog a success, I'm hoping that you guys will stick around to see what 2011 brings us.

I do have a promise though that hopefully entices you to stay tuned till I return next year. I promise I'll be back, on my one year blog anniversary (January 13th), and I'll post a BIG huge project reveal that you most definitely won't want to miss. We've been working on this one for quite some time, and I can't wait to share the big reveal with you guys!!

So here's hoping you a Merry, joyous, wonderful Christmas season, and a New Year filled with hope, inspiration, love, and joy!

See ya on the flip side!!!

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New Project

Chris and I worked on a few projects together this weekend. While I do love having my husband to do projects with, these projects aren't exactly the fun ones that I love doing with him. We did his school projects...and since you guys like seeing pictures, here's one of the things we were working on :

Oh yeah, 2 microcontrollers that talk to each other.  I've told you what dorks we are before...do you believe me now?  Anyone want any step-by-step instructions on how to program this up?  Or how about a 10 page report on all of the software and hardware that went along with making it possible to write my husbands name on it?  This picture was actually taken for the report, not for your viewing pleasure...but since this is a project blog, and that's my latest project...well, I thought I'd share!

The other project that Chris wrapped up this weekend that we've been working on for weeks was pretty close to what I do on a day to day basis.  Lots and lots of code and waveforms.  Anyone want to see a screen shot of a bunch of lines of code or some waveforms with a bunch of signals traced?!

Yeah, I didn't think so...just thought I'd check.

It was quite reminiscent of our college days together though.  Chris moved in our big 6 ft table and we worked side by side in the office.  I'm not used to having an 'office mate' anymore!  This is how we went through our undergrad degree together our last year.  Side by side, working together.  When you can work with someone on this kind of stuff, and then still have an amazing time doing all the fun things in life, you know you've met your soul mate.  Things are just better together.

I took this picture this morning...Chris's laptop was set up on the other desk.  The office is in major need of some redecorating...it's on my 8 million mile long list of things to-do eventually.

I called it quits relatively early last night and climbed in bed to watch Sunday night football.  When Chris came in at half time with a glass of wine and said he hit submit on his final report, for the third time in a little over a week, I cried.  These tears were tears of joy though.  He just has to have a telecon with his TA tomorrow morning on his drive into work to go over his report, and he's done.  Forever.  He finished.  He made it.

WE made it!!!  I'm beyond proud of him, words can't even begin to describe all of the emotions and the huge sense of pride I have in him.  He was a full time student as well as a full time employee, even earned a big promotion while going to school.  On top of being a wonderful husband.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, there were so many times over the last year and a half that I thought I can't do this anymore.  There were so many times that HE thought he couldn't do it anymore, but hand-in-hand, side-by-side, we did it.  Chris was always so grateful for all of the housework that I picked up so that he could focus on school, and has been so supportive on all of my projects that I've attempted solo.  I kept telling Chris that he could finish getting his Master's, that I could help, and that it wasn't impossible (even when I really thought it was).  Our undergrad Electrical Engineering degree was a tough program.  I remember phone calls home during college, bawling my eyes out saying that there was no way I could do it.  It was just too hard.

I know how hard the EE Master's program was, and I honestly don't think I could balance work and school as successfully as he did.  My brain turns off after work...I couldn't watch 2 hours of class or do homework and projects after working all day.  Chris did.  For a year and a half.  And he's DONE!!!  WOO HOO!!!

I'll stop my gloating now and get back to work...I did manage to finish up my one homemade Christmas gift this year, so stay tuned for a post on that later on this week!

Happy Monday!  This might be the happiest one yet for me for the past year and half!!

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Go Hubby!!

For those of you that come here for craft / home improvement / project type things only, please disregard this post!

For everyone else...I've got a bit of bragging to do!!!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, my hubby is the smartest guy in the whole wide world! He just found out today that in addition to graduating from UF in 11 weeks and 4 days (not that I'm counting or anything) with his Master's in Electrical Engineering (MSEE), he'll be adding a minor in Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) to his transcript. Woo Hoo!

I'm actually semi confused because it's all Master's level courses...and it's his MSEE that has a minor in ISE, not his undergrad EE. So does that mean he's got a Master's in a Minor in ISE? Hmmm...confusing!! I'd better stop here before my dorky engineering side comes out any further...

Regardless, he's so smart, talented, and brilliant all at the same time. After these 11 weeks and 4 days are up, he's going up for total world domination!!!!!!!!!!

Or just returning to a normal life without having to come home from work every day and watch class, study, and do homework. He gets to do fun stuff like help cook, and clean the dishes, and paint the house!! Oh...the joys I have planned for him.......

Just Kidding!! Well...sort of! I'm so proud of all of the hard work that Chris has put into getting this Master's, so adding a Minor to it is just icing on the cake. Good job Babe!!!

T-minus 11 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 26 seconds and counting...ya know...if you're keeping track...

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Closet Part 2 : Door Makeover

Back in April, before most of you knew I existed, I did a quick transformation of our closet doors from this:

to this:

Please ignore my dirty laundry in the background...oops!

The silver was a nice little quicky upgrade, but I didn't do it right, and the silver scratched off easily.  This is what led me to research everything to re-do the door hardware once I found the actual color I wanted (it's even a comment of mine to my good friend Erin at the bottom of this post back in April...so many ideas swirling around constantly in this head of mine!).

So now that we've learned, and been successful at, re-doing hardware, it was time to upgrade this mirror, again, as part of our 8 million part closet renovation.  Besides, they were already off from adding in the shoe shelves, so now was as good a time as any to get it done right.

Step 1:  Get a hot guy to Lightly sand and then spray on primer.

 Step 2: Sit and read instructions on desired color spray paint bottle to make sure that your impatient wife is correct in saying that as soon as the primer dries (~10 minutes), it's okay to spray on the color.

Step 3:  Spray on the actual color.

Step 4: Spray on clear top coat / protector.

Step 5: Scrape off tons and tons of paint on the mirror with a sharp razor (not fun...perhaps taping should be step 1 the next go round).

Step 6: Hang Doors!

And one from the other angle so you can see how much better this goes with our existing vanity area and mirror:

And a rundown of the deets for those of you who are interested:

Primer:  RUST-OLEUM's Clean Metal

Spray Paint: RUST-OLEUM's Metallic all-surface paint in oil rubbed bronze

Top Coat:  RUST-OLEUM's Crystal Clear Enamel

Hunky Husband:  Not available for purchase.  Sorry ladies.

This time around took a lot longer than the last go round, but they don't scratch and look SO much better.  Ahh...the simple things in life.  Now onto part 3...sigh.

I'm linking up to the linky parties on my links tab...go check out what everyone else is creating!

I'm here, I'm here

We had another busy and project packed weekend, although we did manage to fit in an 8 mile run and some beach volleyball on Saturday.  We being a loosely used term...Chris ran less, but played more volleyball than I did, so it all works out in the end.

We had a lot of things to wrap up around here project wise before Chris starts back to school today.  We're generally the type that finishes one project before moving to the next, but we haven't been as good about that lately.  Too much to do, not enough time!

This weekend we finally finished installing the door hardware on all of the doors.  Actually, even that's not 100%, but it's close enough for me to cross it off my list.  Chris is waiting for me to finish up my big project before installing the door knob in the junk / craft / someday kids room.  He apparently doesn't trust me to not get paint all over the newly finished door handle.  I can't wait for the newness to rub off!

There are a few more small projects that I'll be posting on this week, and hopefully by Friday I'll have my big project done...that's if it doesn't go into the dumpster before then because I'm so fed up with it!!  Sigh...patience!

I saw this post over at Jennifer Juniper's Hope Studios blog on how to clean your makeup brushes, and put it on my to-do list for this weekend.  As awful as this is to admit, I don't think I've ever cleaned out my makeup brushes.  Disgusting, right?  It was so simple, and I feel so much better about putting makeup on now.  My bowls when I was done, were gross.  Too gross to share, just take my word for it!

Sorry no pictures for today's post...but stay tuned this week for more.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Closet Part 1 : Shoe Shelves

As I mentioned before, we're on an organizing kick. This past weekend we tackled part 1of a million many projects that we'll take on to get our closet up to par.

We ladies love our shoes, and although I was a late bloomer at developing that love, it has become a mild obsession.  We have these dividers that separate Chris's side of the closet and my side of the closet, which the previous owners used to store their shoes.

Initially, I put some of my shoes on these shelves, and some of them on the floor.  After that became somewhat of a nightmare with shoes on the floor, I tried to stack them on top of each other without much luck.  Everytime I'd take a pair out, I'd have to pick up at least 1 pair off the floor.

So a few months back I came up with the idea of putting baskets in these cubbies and putting our shoes in the baskets.

The idea was supposed to be that the blue baskets were Chris's and the pink baskets were mine.  The idea was that I'd share.  Bad idea...I took over with the exception of one lonely basket that Chris got.  The only basket of these that actually worked well was my flip flop basket on the bottom right.  I can see all of my various flip flops and just take out the pair I want.

For the rest of my shoes though, inevitably the pair that I want is at the bottom, so all of the shoes that are in the basket wind up all over the floor.  I'm one of those panic great ready people too...my bedroom and closet area slightly look like a war zone when I'm done.  I can be holding what I want in my hand and not be able to find it.  Point being, the basket method isn't a good one for me!

The main problem with the cubbies are that they're SO high.  My shoes get lost in there, and the top 75% is just a waste of space if I set my shoes out individually.

So what's a girl to do?  Add in extra shoe shelves with the help of her handy studly hubby, of course!

We had an assembly line going of mitering 1x2's (the braces for the shelves to go on), and sanding.  After we finished up with 18 of those, we got out the circular saw and continued our assembly line of cutting and sanding.

This was the basic idea of what we were going for.  1x2's for braces, and a shelf lying across them.

We measured half way up, got out our handy pocket level, and I held the 1x2's tight while Chris screwed them in.

Then we slid in the shelves, and wala!  We have ENOUGH shelves for my shoes!

The idea is to paint all of this.  You can see from the image above that we removed the closet doors for this project, so it's not a big deal that it's not painted yet.  We've got 8 trillion quite a few steps left to work on for this closet project, so we're waiting to paint until we're close to done.  It'll save us the headache of moving clothes in and out of the closet multiple times!

Do you see my empty shelf?!?!  I told Chris that means I get to go get TWO new pairs of shoes!!!  He put two pairs of his shoes in that shelf and then a few pairs on top of his jeans instead.  Sigh...I guess I have to share!

Shoes glorious shoes!!!!  I actually can't wait to paint this section.  I want to do a fun blue like my mail holder.  I know it generally stays behind closed doors, but the completion of this project makes me so happy.  It's hard to explain!

Oh, and the best part about this project?  It cost us absolutely nothing to create.  We already had everything!

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I'm linking up the parties on my links tab...go check out what everyone else is creating!

My Favorite Things

Trendy Treehouse's Shutter Love Tuesday's theme this week is Favorite Things, so I thought I'd do a separate post to participate, because I have oogles of pictures for this very topic.

While I do enjoy a good book, a cup of coffee, a good game of volleyball, awesome friends and family, Gator Football, and any hike or nature trail, my favorite things are most definitely Chris and Kodi (sorry awesome friends and family, you came in a close second!).

Oh, how both of my boys love the water!!  We've actually trained Kodi to sit on our laps so that he doesn't just swim and swim and swim out in the river or ocean.  (Great, now I've got "Just Keep Swimming" from Finding Nemo in my head!)

I love that Kodi actually smiles when he's happy.  That's a for real, genuine, thanks guys I love you so much, lets go swimming AGAIN, kind of Kodi smile.

Here's my ham of a dog smiling it up for the camera again.  My MIL likes to get Kodi the most annoying toys that make lots of noise, and he absolutely loves them.  This is a little squirrel thing that gets so slobbery and disgusting, but makes the Kodi-man happy, so we let him play with it.  How can you say no to that face?!

I took this picture on our way to the Farmer's Market.  It's so telling of how they both are.  Chris has got a short leash to keep Kodi close, but it's not tight because Kodi loves being right next to him.  Kodi is a little ADD though, and keeps constant surveillance of his surroundings.

I love this grin, even when it's from him being SO filthy dirty after running or rolling in something.  It had rained a lot this day, and Kodi took full advantage of the mud puddles.  He's exhausted and so happy in this picture...the best!

My husband is hot.  He's my absolute favorite!!

Kodi goes outside quite a bit to sunbathe and just 'be' with nature.  We've got a bench out by this patch of grass that he loves to lay in...it's nice to just go out there and sit and relax.  Believe it or not, I do it...on occasion!!

And finally...my two studs on the water.  When they're happy, I'm happy.  They make my heart smile!!

I know, I know, I'm so very lucky and so very blessed.  That's enough of me being mushy though, I'd love to hear what your favorite things are...please share!

Fun Hart Family Photos

We are goof balls.  Huge goof balls.  Sometimes I can't decide if I can't wait to have kids so we can have so much fun with them (and not look like weirdo's playing) or if I'm scared to have them because then we'll have to grow up, and I never want to lose our goofiness.  (The "I don't want to grow up" Toys R Us song is playing in my head right now).  We've actually gone to playgrounds with just Kodi (our yellow lab). He may or may not have sat on my lap and slide down the slide with me.  There's no pictures, so who knows if it really happened!

Point being, we're goof balls.  So when I want to get DIY family photos, I really should expect nothing less.

Just to give you a first glipse of what our photo shoot looked like, here's Chris taking a few "practice shots".

Oops, need to re-adjust the camera angle...I chopped off the top of his head!

There we go, I got all of him!!  Love the concentration in his face too! (Isn't he H.O.T too?!?! ah hem...sorry...where was I?!?!)

I'm not normally a fan of showing anyone pics of me in my bathing suit, but I do play beach volleyball when I'm not running, so I'm not exactly not used to walking around in front of a lot of people in it either.  Everytime I look through these pictures, I can't help but laugh, and laughter needs to be shared, so I'm sharing!

Oh yes...so now that you've got a preview of what kind of photo shoot we were going for, let me tell you the deets.

I set the camera on a chair, set the timer button, pushed the take picture button, hauled bootay over to the other side of the pool, said GO, and took off.  Kodi, of COURSE, thought this was the BEST photo shoot EVER.

Here's my first shot...oops.  I forgot I had a motion / action setting on my camera.  Lets see if that helps anything!

Still somewhat blurry , but better.  Chris couldn't figure out how to hold his knees up for a cannon ball without using two hands, so he likes the smile from the side approach.  I think it's hilarious that we're both hamming it up for the camera.

We probably took 15-20 shots with me running back and forth.  Here's a blooper:

Chris kept Kodi on one side of him and the idea was that the three of us would jump TOGETHER.  Can you see how well that timing idea worked in this pic?!  Chris would say "READY?!" and Kodi would jump.  He didn't need the tennis ball to jump after (it's still in Chris's hand), he was definitely ready!  Kodi kept jumping right where Chris was supposed to jump too...this happened at least five times!!  I'd come up and find Chris dry and laughing hysterically standing on the waterfall ledge.  The above picture kind of symbolizes our family.  Kodi jumps in immediately at anything he thinks can remotely be fun, I hurry to get the finished product, and Chris analyzes stuff till he's blue in the face (Chris's Brain: wait wait wait, this picture isn't going to work...if I jump in at the wrong angle, I'm going to mess it all up...I'll just stand here, think it out, and try again next time.)

And this as the picture we ended on.  It was getting too dark after this shot, so we put the camera away with promises to have some more family fun with another photo op when there's more daylight out.  We're gonna get the shot.  We are.  And we'll both put our legs in cannon ball format, and it'll be fun and a fitting photo op for us!

Our good friends Erin and Chris actually gave me a really sweet birthday present this year of a photo shoot with them, and they're so talented, so THOSE will be our 'good' family photos.  These ones are our 'goofy' family photos!  Just keepin' it real!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Happy Friday...finally!  Hope I gave you guys something to laugh about!