Dave & Buster's

Court and I went to Dave & Buster's (basically the adult version of Chuck E Cheese's) with some friends yesterday for a ticket competition. We all bought $23 worth of points to play various games and the deal was that whoever got the most tickets would get everyone else's tickets. Court and I had our strategy down because we had gone there for her office Christmas party; we would play the trivia game for the whole time and see how many tickets we got. So we played it and ended up with 3280 tickets and won the competition! Everyone gave us their tickets and we ended up with almost 10000, so we decided to cash them in for golf balls.



We ended up with about $70 of golf balls, which was pretty sweet. This brings our total year-long earnings at Dave & Buster's to 8 sleeves of Pro-V1s and 4 Pinnacle golf balls. We are all set for golf season!

Projects

We got down to business these past couple weeks and knocked off some DIY projects.

First, I covered the back of the Ikea shelve with wallpaper. I got the paper at Target on sale from their "Home Decor" line. It is really nice stuff. I had never used wallpaper before and the smell brought back memories of my mom wallpapering various rooms when I was little. Overall it was a pretty easy project and I really like how it turned out.



Next on the list of projects was making a headboard. I had been in the market for a headboard for some time now. Always looking at the online and searching craigslist for a good deal. Never found one. Then my mom came to the rescue. She sent me some instructions for one that she found on Joann.com. It turned out to be pretty easy to do. It took us a couple of weeks to actually get to it but I am glad we did. We went to Home Depot last Saturday after the shooting range for the lumber and other random things. It was a bit of a challenge getting it all home since the board did not fit in my car like I thought it would. I still have to get used to the smaller back end. We ended up tying it to the roof. Then we put the wood parts together that night. Sunday, I shopped around for fabric and the other supplies. Monday, I finished upholstering it.

This is the board laying on the batting. You can see all the markings where the buttons will go.

Here is Peach checking it out. She liked playing with the button sticking out.

Here it is waiting to be moved.

The finished product.

I got the fabric at Calico Corners. It is white and has a small quilted pattern. I covered the buttons with the same fabric. Overall the total cost of the project was about $150. Total time was three days but it could easily be done in one if you are organized :)

Here is the project PDF: http://www.joann.com/static/project/0801/P488316.pdf
Webpage: http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat13860&PRODID=xprd509570

Shooting range

I have a friend from my men's group who goes to the shooting range a lot and he invited Court and I to go. We were a bit nervous trying it out (our hands are both of our livelihoods!) but we really wanted to try it. We went this past Saturday and had a great time. Here are some pictures and a video of us. And yes, Court was more accurate than me, as you see in the last picture.

Peach

because she is too cute! Doesn't it just make you want to take a nap?

Courtnay loves...

cornmeal pancakes! Seriously what else would I love on a Saturday morning?? Oh these are so good! I woke up this morning with them on my mind and had to make them. And lucky for me, the recipe is on the box! Oh how I love Jiffy! You can also make waffles with the recipe so maybe that's next on my list of morning goodness.


Key ingredient in this is the real Michigan maple syrup. Thanks Mom!

Cornmeal Pancakes
1 box Jiffy Corn muffin Mix
1egg
2T shortening melted (I used butter)
3/4 c milk
Preheat griddle/ waffle iron. Mix all. Cook like normal pancakes.

How hard is that??
Yum!

What a difference a week makes

It's funny to read the last blog post and see "I am not sure how soon we will actually get a new car". Because we sold Court's car this weekend and bought a new car today!

What a weekend though. On Saturday Court decided to put her car on craigslist to see if we could get a better deal on the car than a dealer trade-in. Immediately after listing it we got a bunch of offers and ended up selling it on Sunday. But we had to do a ton of research to make sure that what we were doing was legal and that we weren't going to get scammed. We even bought a counterfeit pen and laser-light to make sure that we were given legit cash. But everything worked out great and we got a good deal for the car.

So this morning, I decided to go make a low-ball offer for an Escape hybrid and see how they responded. We went back and forth several times and I finally got a deal I liked and so we bought it! We are so pumped. It has everything we wanted and it gets sweet mpgs! The navigation system is ridiculously awesome and we got 45 mpg on our trip around town tonight.

This is why...

So I am in need of a new car. My car has been making a noise for a few months now and I finally took it into the shop last Friday. I was afraid that there would be nothing wrong and they would just tell me that it is normal and I would look stupid. But I was right, there was definitely something wrong with the car. A lot wrong with the car. They also were quite shocked with the amount of rust and kept asking "where is this car from?" So after hearing all that was wrong and adding up the numbers, Adam and I decided that the cost to fix the car is more than it is worth. I called my dad and he agreed, "don't put any money into it." Yea! New car for me! Kind of funny timing because I had been eying all the new Escapes on the road and REALLY wanting one.

I am not sure how soon we will actually get a new car but this is why I really want a SUV:

I made a trip to Palo Alto today to visit Adam, go to Anthropologie, and Ikea. And look what I found in the "as is" dept at Ikea. If I had a car this would have never happened. Notice the rust coming through above the wheel.

I had been wanting a white shelving unit for some time now so this worked out perfect. I am planning on covering the back with paper or fabric. Here is it in the living room. I just threw some stuff in to get an idea.I also bought frames for the pics on the wall but naturally they are too small. So for now my Christmas presents from Adam are taped up.

Peach likes it too.