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!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

4th of July Fun

It was a rainy 4th of July on the West Coast of Florida (thanks Alex!!!), but we still tried to make the most of it. After our plans for beach volleyball and grilling got rained out, we did a few things around the house, and then headed out, in the rain, with our bikes in tow.

Poor Kodi though...he hates fireworks, and he hates thunderstorms, so he spent most of the weekend either under my jeans in my side of the closet (please excuse my mess):

And a close up of his pathetically sad face:

Or he went outside with me, and when it started raining too hard, he'd come pout in the garage by my projects:

He's mad that I haven't figured out a way to turn off the rain yet.

Okay, enough of my pathetically cute 80 lb baby, back to us and our bikes.  We put on our rain coats, rain hats, and parked a few miles away from the festivities, grabbed our backpack with our necessities, and headed out on our bikes.  

When life hands you lemons...

We were so happy we made it out to see the 4th of July fireworks...they were so beautiful, and the night cleared up perfectly!

And, I've got to post one of Chris's favorite part...the finale!

4th of July fireworks = Happy (smelly, sweaty, and wet) Hart's!

What about you guys?  Did your 4th of July plans get rained out or did you get to see a fun fireworks show?  I'd love to know!  I'm liking to Shutter Love Tuesday's over at Trendy Treehouse!  Go check out what other fun firework pictures everyone's posting!

Dumpster Diving

The title says it all.

Most 20 something year olds without kids go out with friends, or have a few drinks, or go to a movie on Friday nights. Not us. We went dumpster diving.

Let me tell ya...it was amazing! Seriously, no joke.

There's a pretty ritzy (I think the cheapest house might be 750k) neighborhood around the corner from us that has all custom built homes. We jog through the it every now and then, and last week I realized something.  The containers that their materials come in are amazing.  The quality of wood is good, and it has a ton of character.  Perfect for a project I had in my mind.

We, of course, had to go back to get it.  Slight problem...the community is gated, and the gates are closed at night, and there's no way I'm going dumpster diving in the middle of the day with a bunch of wealthy people giving me weird looks.  I do draw my lines at some point.

So we waited until it was dark.  Then we waited (yes, we were totally captain obvious) until a car came by and followed it in.  Our wait was only a few minutes...lucky us!!

To our good fortune (maybe our luck has something to do with my new lucky bamboo), the 'money dumpster' was square in front of the model home, which we knew wasn't occupied, and next to that was a home in the middle of being built.  Sweet!

My good-sport-of-a-husband literally got INSIDE the dumpster and starting chucking out these huge crates, and good planks of wood until we filled up the back of the truck.  I was the loader and look-out.  Can you hear the Mission Impossible Song?!

Wanna see our loot (and my hubby's big goofy grin at being so excited at our find)?!

Oh yeah, we scored the motherload!

We unloaded all of this, and went to bed.  On Saturday morning, after our 6 mile run, we came home and started tearing these bad boys apart.  What.a.mess.

If you know my husband, you know that he's very anal particular about keeping our garage clean.  We took everything apart and made our 'keep pile'.

Then we loaded his truck back up with the non-keepers and tailed someone else in after dark on Saturday night to give those back.  Chris saw nothing wrong with this at all.  He kept saying "If they stop me, I'll just tell them that I took it out of THEIR dumpster, helped myself to what I wanted, and then put the rest BACK in their dumpster.  It was their trash to start off with, so I'm just giving it back!"

Oh...sometimes my husband's logic makes me laugh!

Both vehicles slept in the nice, clean garage on Saturday night.  We were exhausted, but still had to celebrate our good fortune at our very first experience dumpster diving.

Ah...strawberry margaritas (and Kodi treats)...the perfect end to a perfect night (for all three of us)!

Stay tuned for a post at the end of this week on what we created with all that wood!

And I'm Back...

But exhausted! I can't believe I was only gone for 5 days...it seems like I lived a life time. I think the most we slept was 5 hours one night.

Because It'd take me days to summarize our trip, and because some of the fun we had is not blog appropriate (Hi grandma and mom-in-law! Love you guys!), I'll just post a few pictures with mini recaps to hold you over until I catch up on my sleep. I actually forgot my camera all day Friday, so these are just from Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

THURSDAY:
We got into town and headed straight for the stadium. We tailgated at Cask'n Flagon's, which is literally right across the street from the stadium! Tailgating for Red Sox game is equivalent to tailgating for Gator Football games for all of you southerners like me that don't know those Northerners and their baseball!


Us at Fenway Park...Amazing!!


After the game, we drove to CT and met the rest of the crew out at the bars.

FRIDAY:
No pics from today. Chris went golfing on this amazing golf course and I went to the vineyards with the ladies. We both had SO much fun!! We got back in time to hurry up and do a quick change and head to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

SATURDAY:
We got up, worked out for a little bit, and then met the groom and the groomsmen for lunch. I helped get Chris ready and off to the wedding, and then the rest of us had A/C'd busses that took us from the hotel to the church then to the reception, and finally back to the hotel. What a wedding! So fun! We made some great new friends and had SUCH a good time!





SUNDAY:
We got up and went to brunch at the bride's parents house. It was so delicious and so beautiful! After we wished the new couple a happy honeymoon (and told them not to forget...happy wife equals happy life!), we took two new friends with us to Boston.

Our hotel was so nice, and right next to both the Harbor and the airport, so it was super convenient too! We ate outside overlooking the Harbor, then headed out for the night.


The original Cheers!



MONDAY:
We walked ALL over Boston!! The history of that city is just absolutely amazing!
C: Go stand in the center of there so I can take your pic.
K: Umm, ok.
Chris stands with the camera to his face for 20 mins 20 seconds, but doesn't say anything.
K: Um, have you taken the pic yet?! (Click on the picture to look at my feet) Um, K...I''m done posing!




We also caught the T up to Harvard to see that campus. The buildings and the campus there were absolutely amazing as well. Do you think it's bad if I frame some of those pictures and put them on the wall for someday kids room?! They will, of course, be smart enough to get a full scholarship there!




I have 8 trillion more pictures, but in the interest of time, and blog post length, I'll leave it at those! We headed back Monday night and got up Tuesday morning and drove over from Melbourne. It was such a fun trip!

Between work and trying to get my house back in order from unpacking, I won't be doing any projects the rest of this week...but hopefully I can finish my 'small' projects this weekend!

Hope everyone's had a great week!

Ski Trip - Day 3: Helloooo Vail!

We got up early on day 3 and headed over to Vail with my new, non-ghetto, gear. The boys made a silly decision in thinking that it'd be okay for our boots to ride in he back of the truck on the drive over. They were frozen.

After we thawed our boots in the bathroom, we headed to the slopes. Jennifer and I, much to the boys dismay, kept singing 'today's gonna be a good good day' (Black Eyed Peas, slight modification to day from night). By the end of the trip, we decided we needed to learn the rest of the lyrics to that song!

We got on the slopes and headed to the back bowls. To keep this blog relatively short, I'll touch on a few fun (and not so fun) moments through the day...

I'll be happy if I never see another catwalk again for the rest of my life while snowboarding. Highly unlikely, but I'd be thrilled.

Trees aren't too fun for boarders, or at least not these 2 boarders, so we let Jenn and Brett head off to the trees while we supposidly were taking another run down the wide open bowls. Chris had grown in confidence (making up for my lack of confidence from falling everywhere day 1), and decided he was going to lead and take us down fun, new adventures runs. In the picture to the right, I've captured Chris right as he was saying "I'm SORRY babe, this sucks, don't be mad at me!!!". He led us down a path where no one else was...right in the trees! The view was beautiful, and we laughed the whole way too, so it wasn't that bad..

I had my first experience at a T-bar to get to the restaurant at lunch, and then to head back to the bottom of the slopes at the end of the day. I think it was Jennifer's first experience too. I'll sum it up by saying this: Kara: 0 , T-bar 2. Jennifer had better luck the 2nd go round, Jennifer: 1, T-bar 1. The boys, of course, did fine.

I gained enough confidence to ride ahead of Chris and stop and take pictures of him coming down, so I'll close with a few action shots! Vail was beautiful and a ton of fun. I think it was also the place that we saw the best snow, so day 3 was a success! I only fell a handful of times, so I made a good rebound from day 1!