if i was hosting

a few weeks back we gave our extra large sectional + end tables to one of mike's buddies. so with our lack of furniture at the moment, mike + i canceled our annual superbowl party but if i was hosting this would be part of the menu. yum!
courtesy via tiny talk via rachel ray

case of the brain farts

i've been having a major case of the brain farts {i swear i haven't been drinking, at least not before 5pm} to start off, i've been trying to fix my blog banner so it fits nicely on the screen instead of it being in your face mega big. so what did i do, went to elements and was just getting ready to start the whole dang process over when the thought of why not just change the size of the one you alreadyhave? hits me. doh!

then at diner i told mike i had a house warming present for him but couldn't make up my mind. i tend to surprise him with these type of things but i didn't know if he would want a beer pong table or a regular ping pong table. i haven't done my research so i don't know what the difference is though the beer pong says its portable. during the discussion i happen to ask him how can he not know, didn't he watch the movie with christopher walken +some ugly hairy dude drinking beer and playing ping pong? he started to laugh and i knew instantly what i did. i combined the movies balls of fury + beerfest together. doh!

and before bed, i wanted to get mike's schedule of his fridays off which is every other friday and today is one of those fridays even though he went into work. i continued on with writing on the calendar "off"on those days when the light bulb finally goes off. he gets every other friday off as mentioned a few seconds earlier. i was confusing his fridays off with his weekends of being on call. duh! mike just looked at me and started to laugh. i know, hard to believe but i'm not a rocket scientist. i'm more like a contestant on rock of love except i have way smaller boobies. and they're real.

last sneak peak into phaeton place

awhile ago i received a comment telling me that the word man cave was a word made up by hgtv and the correct terminology is the mantuary.

so welcome to the husband's mantuary. going down the steps you will see a big, red wall, the dan marino fathead might be going there to welcome all guests. and when you turn to the right this is what you see in the 2nd picture. its one hell of a long room. continuing along the right side of the room is a door that leads to the unfinished area of the basement. its pretty big going the full length of the basement and it has plenty of storage space as well as room for the exercise equipment. see the big red pole? while its not stripper regulated, i think it will work just the same. thank goodness mike's got semi decent man hands since he's the one going to be doing the dancing to help pay for the house. and pool depending how much he makes. hopefully we don't end up paying like last..... ok then, continuing on the right side is a bathroom w/shower also known as "mike's office". and after that is the bar. i'm hoping to con a few bar stools from el parentays establishment to go around it. dad's out of town so i'm hoping to get some for free from my favorite brother. {love how family members become favorites when you need something?} and then opposite of the bar will be my crafting/computer room. i was counting on ham taking this as his bedroom so my crafting/computer room would be upstairs away from the mantuary. no such luck. i'm definitely getting rid of the yellow walls, way too bright for me. and the last room will be kaylee's toy room. this "mantuary" was the deal breaker in buying the house. once mike got downstairs, his jaw dropped and i do believe he got a boner from it. {please excuse the description but i'm just being honest here} all numbers were thrown to the side and he was ready to sign on the dotted line then and there.

randomness on wednesday

its random thoughts because i dont want to make paragraphs.


1. loving this idea: via: apartment therapy ohdeedoh

2. daily conversation with kaylee: mom, i love you. (me) i love you too. (kaylee) i love you more. (me) no, i love you more. (kaylee) no, i love you more. and this can go on all day. dont know where she got it from but i love it!

3. on our way back from ikea on saturday kaylee tells me that i'm the best mommy in the world so she's going to start calling me "best" and she did. she changed her name to lulu and daddy got changed to "ba dunka dunk daddy" because he's got a big butt. dont know where she got that from either, yeah, no idea at all.

4. kaylee's been trying some "new" foods: oranges, blueberries, orange juice and cheesy scrambled eggs

5. 14 more days till closing day on arlene and hopefully on phaeton

6. even though its snowing and its cold, i'm suffering from allergies hard core

7. ham still doesn't know if he wants an itouch. just asked him this morning before dropping him off at school

8. i'm having a hard time coming up with meals. even with all the websites + recipes. i just want new and easy recipes to try

9. today is part 2 of root canal and crown

10. i cant seem to find the desire to lose weight. i'm blaming it on the cold weather + the allergies. its making me tired.

i want

i want to see this movie. at the big theatre. with lots of buttered popcorn. isla fisher has become one of my favorite actresses. she was just awesome in wedding crashers + definitely, maybe.

short trip to ikea makes for long post

thursday morning i decided that i was going to ikea on saturday. i've been talking about going for a few months now and i was going to make it happen one way or another. mike invited himself to tag along. later in the afternoon i get a call from nana- mike's mom. she wanted to know if kaylee wanted to spend the night friday and maybe the whole weekend. {whoa nelly! a whole weekend away from my little mini me?} sweet, little kaylee was all gung-ho about it even friday morning when i asked her. her reply,with much enthusiasm, was "today's the day i get to spend the night at nana's? today's the day?!" and once nana got here, kaylee asked if they could leave. as i was getting ready for mike and i to get some bites, i decided that maybe we should stay in since we had a big day planned for saturday. translation- i planned on spending some money at ikea. so we got a movie- stepbrothers, it was dumb, and some sandwiches from a local place and some candy/popcorn from target. it was a nice, quiet evening of not having to get the demands of a very high maintenced four year old when we get THE CALL. its nana. kaylee wants to talk to me. all i hear is mumble, mumble, crying and sniffles. nana translated it to "mommy i want to come home because i love you." it was sweet yet sad. sad because nana lives an hour away, sad because kaylee cant be anywhere without us and sad because mike's parents wanted to spend some time with her. half an hour later we get another call- she finally fell asleep.

later that night we get another phone call except this time its mike's work. first thing in the morning mike leaves because he thinks he's found a way to fix the problem at work. he loves his job and he loves being the boss. i know he does. i knew this was going to take some time since he told me to take my time in getting ready- my trip to ikea is getting delayed! around 9am-ish, there's a knock on the door. i'm thinking its mike and he just left his keys in his truck. nope. its kaylee, nana and pop pop. kaylee had a rough night and she looked it- her eyes were all red and puffy. the first thing she said in the morning is that she wanted to go home to mommy and that her mommy's name is kristi. and she kept repeating it over and over like nana and pop pop were complete strangers. kaylee is one strange cat- it was only a few months ago that she went right back to nana's house after being brought home, she wanted to stay with nana. so after this episode i'm thinking what are we going to do once school starts? will she behave this way and maybe, just maybe the doctor was right and we should have kaylee see a shrink? oh the joys of parenthood!

so we finally took off for ikea around 10am. i got a few things for the house and we found some bigger items that we need to buy once we move so you know what that means- another trip to ikea! we ate an early dinner at one my favorite places- pf changs and then headed back home. it was about a 6 hour drive total but the no traffic made it nice. of course kaylee complained a little about a "bellycake" {she just needed to poop} and that she wanted to go home and watch spongebob but overall the trip was a good one. mike even behaved.

need to get me a sugar daddy

i am so in love with these bad boys. christian louboutin armadillo satin shoes. if i had an extra $865.00 to buy a pair, i would wear them everyday and admire myself in them.

image from: net-a-porter

i saw them first on jasmine star 's blog. i about had a heart attack seeing them against the green grass and the "i do" printed on the bottom. and tell me how unfair is that jasmine star has a great name, is soo talented and beautiful + has a great sense of humor along with being so smart? some people got all the luck!

sneak peek into phaeton place part 2

starting again at the entry way and instead of going forward to the living room or left to the kids "wing", we go right which is the dining room. i'm liking the color so it can stay for awhile. and the really cool thing, there's a pocket door to the kitchen entrance. i love pocket doors! after going thru the kitchen and breakfast knook and turning right again is another hallway with a closet, entry to garage, basement

and another bathroom. the bathroom is really big with a toilet and sink. i love that its right off the garage and near the patio. no having everyone trek through the house to use one. and again, for my love of pocket doors there's another one to hide the laundry which is right off the bathroom.

to the left of this hallway is the master bedroom. you can see the entry way to the master bath in the picture. the bathroom has two seperate sinks and a garden tub, linen closet and another door. cant remember if its a pocket door but it closes off the toilet and shower. a photo of my closet. i know i don't have enough clothes to fill it. anyway, i would like to have wood shelves put in instead of the wire shelving system thats in there. i've had bad experiences with wire shelving. though i would like to remodel the bath and combine the two spaces together like in the deville house. mike doesnt know about this yet, i'm still in the planning stages. one more post about phaeton and then i will have some colors to share. only 19 more days till closing day on arlene.

ham's sweet 16th party

once again i get the lame mother award. i'm 19 days late in posting ham's birthday and i didn't have anything planned for his big day. we talked about having a party at the bowling alley but when you're a winter baby, the bowling alley has been used to death. we talked about having it at a nearby indoor water park but between the weather and the 3 hour drive, it was iffy. we also talked about waiting till summer to celebrate with his friends. i told him we could take a few days over at cedar point since they have a water park too. he's not too keen on roller coasters so we will see if this actually happens. and he never told me what he wanted for his birthday. it was between an iphone, itouch or some other kind of ipod. he finally chose the itouch, which i still need to order. i wanted to engrave something cool on the back to mark this historical occasion but he totally nixed the idea. whats wrong with "happy sweet 16th ham or ham i am, i am ham or hamtastic"? i was just kidding by the way but it was fun to see his reaction. it will say "hamilton, 2009" just like on his old ipod nano. i did get him a chalet cup with a $ sign on it just so he would have something to open. we then headed over to the big mall so he could spend his gift cards+big money from christmas. we had reservations for dinner at his favorite place, hani yori's. the only place he will be seen in public with us without much fuss. the following monday night dinner was at grandma's house per his request. he said all the cousins are too loud in our house and he wanted grandma's famous beef and noodles for dinner. i got him a speed racer cake but exchanged the car to something more his style, some sort of a scion tc. grandpa thought he would be funny and put a dollar in his card as his birthday present. that's him making his famous "grandpa face" in the photos above. ham said between christmas, gift cards + his birthday he made well over $1000.00. looking back i wish i had planned a surprise party for him. hindsights a bitch. with my track record guess i should start planning now for his sweet 18th.

no drama

no new drama to post about. everythings starting to get back to regular scheduling. kaylee's getting bigger and smarter everyday, ham is well, just ham. okay- he's getting bigger too. waiting to hear back from the lender. not worried because we do have excellent credit and some moolah to put down but ya still never know. so in the mean time, waiting for closing day- only 22 more days. i'm still packing and picking out paint. i've been reading some blogs where people are making changes this year to go along with the presidential changes. i'm making changes too. i tried out the wii fit last night. it was fun. i hope to continue it till it gets warmer outside. i want to be in shape for next years 20th high school reunion. no better revenge than having a smokin' hot body.

if i could, i would love to look like lokelani mcmichael. she's a triathlete. and if i had any kind of balls i would be one too but i dont like pain. other changes, i went tanning last night. tired of complaining on how pastey white i look. i love that i have some color even if it is pink at the moment. don't worry i'm not one of those freaks who goes everyday. right now it will be twice a week till i get a good base, then once a week just to keep the color up if needed. also thinking about changing my hair style. i might share once i get it done.

i got something super cute in the mail over the weekend. magnets from nina over at charlie and nina. they're on the blog header so i inquired about them. nina said her mil made them as wedding favors and they match the same tradional korean outfits that they were wearing. how cute are they? {charlie and nina are super cute people with super cute boys too}

and to finish out the day. remember my big cavity from last week? well it turned into a root canal. my first one ever. it kinda sucked though not as bad as i've been told. the only bad part was not being able to eat a yummy lunch because the left side of my face was all numb. the good part, i don't have to pay for any of it. nice having a dentist in the family.

love

something else to add to my "to make list". found over at oh dee doh via pottery barn kids.

new address

from simplesong again. lettergirl address stamps. these are so cute + once again so my style. i want two of them with our new address. one with the family name as in "the buss family" and the other with just my name on it. cant decide though on which style for either.

kaylee's room

this is the inspiration for kaylee's room at the new house. this was showcased over at this young house. a reader sent in before and after photos of their remodel. i love the light blue color on the wall with the white trim and i love the green. this green is the perfect shade. thinking about heading over to shipshewana tomorrow- weather permitting- to look for some material to make her curtains.

kraft foods

if you have a hard time coming up with meal, snack or party ideas, like me and don't know about kraft foods you must head over to their website. don't forget to sign up for their food & family magazine that they send seasonally. its loaded with delicious recipes to have on hand and they also send out beautiful calendars.
*opps- i forgot to add that - it's all free! thanks stacy!

more sweetwater street love

i have 5 nieces. 4 of them are over the age of 5. one of them has a birthday coming up next week. i'm getting 4 out of the 5 nieces this for their birthdays this year. i'm signing them up for 6 months of kids club over at sweetwater street. i love the idea because they get mail, just for them and they also get to make something. its 5 bucks per kit + $2.50 for shipping.

expensive tequila

about two years ago i bought myself this its tequila and its good. put it in the freezer to make shots smooth but it is strong. i have maybe a little under half to go. i need to make a pitcher of margarita and it will be gone. the reason why i bought it, because i love the bottle. now i want one of these.
and one of thesethough this one i probably wont get. its $740.00

kaylee's birthday party

no school today- yeah! but i woke up early anyway. getting some quiet time and i'm loving it. hopefully ms. chatterbox will sleep a little longer, its still pretty dark outside. to catch up with this blog here's kaylee's birthday party that we had a week after her birthday. her cousin, the one in the 4th picture without a shirt on was being a little orny and he yelled out " this party's boring" the minute he walked in the door and later pulled down kaylee's birthday sign that i made her for last years birthday party. he decided to take his shirt off for some unknown reason too. oh, kaylee was so excited to have her cousins over that she wet in her undies! that's a first in a very long time. i'm sure she'll appreciate that memory later in life. goodie bags consist of ring pops, fun dip, chocolates and bubble gum. and each of the kids got to decorate a piggy bank to take home though my rub-on's were not rubbing on and all my other scrapbook supplies, ie: stickers are in storage. the kids still had fun anyway. dinner was bbq chicken sandwiches, bourbon baked beans, mac-n-cheese, ice cream and cake. i got kaylee's cake from our local grocery store. i love cake and i love cake better from a bakery so next year i'm spluring.

kaylee got a packet of balloons w/a pump as a filler gift from one of her cousins-that's crazy cousin cate wearing the bunny ears. i have more pictures of my family but they're all either making funny faces, not intentionally or their eyes are closed. mike's side of the family couldn't make because it was on a monday and they do live an hour away but they did mail kaylee her gifts. she had a fun time and still talks about to this day.

tagged

today's going by pretty fast. ham had a two hour delay from school and i had a dentist appointment right after dropping him off. found out i have a huge cavity on one of my left upper teeth. why is it that its bothering me now after the appointment? never bothered me before. *sigh* it will get taken care of next week.


found this on coveiter today and i'm seriously thinking about applying especially with the weather we're having.
Usually help wanted ads with headlines "Best Job in the World" make you skip that listing...surely it is not really the best job in the world. However officials in Queensland Australia are searching for someone to fill the position deemed "Best Job in the World" and the job comes as close as I've seen to living up the hype. Job responsibilities: experience the beauty of the islands and blog about your adventures, feed fish, and otherwise enjoy yourself. The pay/benefits: $105,000 salary for your six months of work, a three bedroom residence on Hamilton Island complete with plunge pool + outstanding views and lots of amazing experiences. Interested? Join the thousands (maybe millions) applying in droves and overloading their servers.


and i got tagged by stacy over at the order of disarray. from your picture file pick the 5th folder and post the 5th photo. since my photos are organized in a different way i decided to go to elements and just pick the 5th photo and this is what i got. kaylee and her dad were out last week sledding in the front yard. kaylee tipped over and got some snow on her face. i love how her little nostrils flare out.


if your reading this blog, consider yourself tagged.

easy peasy and real yummy

image via sweet nicks

first batch made monday. second batch made 5 minutes ago. super easy, no baking and real yummy.

peanut butter crunchies. recipe can be found on my very neglected blog called bites.

{ham tried them for the first time on monday and he loves them!}

inside phaeton place

who knew that house selling/buying would be so expensive and time consuming? between earnest money, inspections and mortgage application fees we're coming pretty close to 3 grand and yet we still don't have a house. {its not ours till the fat lady sings} what ever happened to those days of trading off a few donkeys and barrels of whiskey? so this morning i started off by being busy doing nothing, now i'm busy with emailing the loan officer all our personal monetary information, not that there's a lot to see. and if you know me i've decided to do what i do best-procrastinate so here i am blogging. thought i would share more pics of phaeton place plus this is a lot more fun.
this is when you enter the front door and look to the right.

that's the dining room. i have a better pic that i will post later. to the left (nice hall closet) and going to the kids "wing".

entering princess kaylee's room i like the green but not the burgundy. will have to change that. and the hallway to ham's room which first comes the kids bathroom. though ham has stated kaylee can't use it.

love the paint color but not the border. i love the double sinks and that there's another door that separates the toilet/bath from the sinks. and there's a linen closet too. lots of storage in this house. before getting to ham's room there's another hall closet.

then ham's room. they decorated it with an indiana colts theme. whats wrong with these people? colts are for schmucks! if they didn't get rid of it by the time we move in, we will have a great time destroying it all. ROAR. while there's minor changes that i would like to make in the house, its still very much move in ready.

and that concludes part 2 of phaeton place.

today is my one year anniversary for blogging. i wanted to host a giveaway but the company that asked if i wanted to do one made it more detailed than what i wanted so no giveaway- sorry. unless you need some dishes. i've been packing up some and i think i have at least 5 big boxes of kitchen related items. that's dishes, glasses and entertaining items. i really need to downsize and keep items that i truly love. i blame it on those days that i worked at pier 1. damn you pier 1. {kidding! but it gets the right affect}

i'm still behind on lots. i have photos of kaylee's birthday party, new years eve and ham's sweet 16. i've been working on those too today. i am going to post my "goals to keep me in line", cant call them resolutions or maybe i should call them the forever revolving resolutions. its more of a guideline to keep me where i need to be or where i want to go with myself.

1. be nice
2. be generous
3. be kind
4. be positive
5. do more
6. love more
7. run or walk at least 3x week, weather permitting
8. ride bike- got it 2 years ago and besides an occasional spin around the block, its been hanging in the garage
9. be healthy
10. paint for fun
11. be goofy. quit being so up- tight especially when dealing with kaylee
12. dance and sing more with kaylee. use to do this with ham and he loved it! share it with kaylee
13. spend less
14. be brave and daring
15. take care of yourself everyday. meaning try to look your best.
16. start and finish scrapbooks. ham graduates in two years- get it done!!
17. quit living your life through others, make it happen for yourself. no more excuses!

i think thats it for now. i might add more later.

sweetwater street

i'm a little behind in blogging this but over at sweetwater street they're giving a 15% discount if you order by tomorrow. just type in valentine at checkout to get your discount. i'm ordering one of these cute little bags for kaylee. this ones plain but you can personalize it and they have a few valentines day themes to chose from. here's another bag with a design on it.
thought this one would be nice for ham.

so my style

i'm not sure if i've mentioned this before but being adopted and raised by a very american family i know nothing about my korean heritage. i'm slowly learning via blog + internet. i'm totally loving hanboks, a traditional korean dress now worn only for special occasions. i'm hoping to get one someday while visiting my homeland. i found that i love korean designer lee young hee. her clothes so represent me.

all images via lee young hee

totally spoiled

having mike be on "vacation" for the past 12 days is going to make getting back to norm a little rough for me and kaylee tomorrow. not only did he entertain kaylee, he also got up early every morning to take ham to school letting me sleep in, he fixed things around the house and he also cleaned one day. i dont think i fixed more than 3 meals while he was home either. since we went "looking" for appliances and furniture every night this week, we ended up just eating out. yep, i got spoiled.

inside phaeton place

this is the living room aka one of my rooms. its got great these great tall walls and some of it connects to the hallway and it lets in a lot of light but i'm scared of heights. and i know i would make a big mess of everything but i'm also not liking the color. i might have to get a quote from someone to paint it for me. someone whose not a scared-y cat like me. i'm thinking something more neutral.

and here's the kitchen and breakfast knook though we're not going to put a table in the breakfast area. we want

to keep it open since its a small area. anyway, the kitchen cabinets blends in with the walls and its all a peachy color. i don't like peachy color. i would love to stain the cabinets a dark color, maybe even black but not sure if mike will let me plus that's a lot of work. the walls also need to be more neutral in color. lots to do and lots to debate on but its been a fun process so far. i just cant wait for moving day.