Pantry Project

Oh the glorious pantry project.

Some background. Jacob is a very handy man.  Pretty much, when stuff breaks, Jake fixes it.  Or sometimes, he calls his dad or my dad and then he fixes it.  And when we moved into this house, our initial hope was actually to find a fixer-upper.  Unfortunately, we either had enough money to buy a small move-in-ready house, or a large fixer-upper... and no money to do the fixing-upping.  So we bought our move-in-ready house. (which we love!)

But it doesn't have a pantry. (or a fireplace.) Those were pretty much my only two compromises.  So sometime, over 2 years ago, Jake decided to turn our shallow under the stairs coat closet into a large pantry/closet.  And he took a sledgehammar to the wall.  (I helped!)

Some of you remember, that a little while after that, our house got hit by a tornado.  And more importantly, with help from friends and family, Jacob repaired the house.  Understandably, pantry renovation comes lower on the priority list than "My shingles are missing and there is a tarp keeping water out".

And then school and work happened.  And then I found out I was pregnant.  And since the pantry is currently living in the room that is going to be the nursery, The Nesting Diva got.... impatient.

So, Jacob, being totally drowned in school, had to call in some professionals to help finish up the pantry.

He and my dad wired the pantry for electricity and installed outlets and switches and lights.
Then he drywalled and mudded it himself. (I wish I had a picture of when it was just a coat closet. See that carpet? That's where the closet used to end.)

Then the pros came. They smoothed some mudding, installed the floor, painted, and installed shelving.
After Day 1:

After (a rainy) Day 2:

Finished after Day 3! (and I ADORE it!)

So you know what this means!!  Next: Nursery pics! ;)  (Don't hold your breath though... it's going to take me awhile!)

Jasmine's Spay

 Found this blog post as a draft from last March.  I had actually forgotten a lot of these details, so I thought I'd go ahead and publish it. :)

It was the day I had be dreading since last September. The day our darling Jack Russell Terrier gets spayed.

The night before I hadn't slept at all. I had been up between the thunder and a especially nagging defect I couldn't solve at work, plus worrying about all the things that could go wrong with Jasmine the next day...

On Wednesday morning, I got up to take Jazz to the vet. But before I could get there, I dropped my cell phone (again) and destroyed it. No longer little cracks in the glass, but full out hardware failure.

We went to a different vet - the one through the dog adoption agency, since the cost spay was included in our adoption costs. She had a nervous breakdown. She barked, she flailed. They finally came and took her away just so I could finish filling out the paperwork. Which of course made me more upset. And, I had to give them Jake's number since I wasn't going to be able to be contacted.
I was pretty stressed all day. At one point, I was giving Jacob a "at the top of my lungs" lecture about 4g networks (and that it's a marketing term not a technology term.). Let's just say, I probably wasn't very pleasant, being so stressed and sleep deprived.

But Jazz came home and she was incredibly groggy and sore, but fine. And sneaky. I ended up having to gate her away from all furniture, because if i turned my back for 1 minute (to write an email, to get a glass of water, to do my job) she had jumped on the couch or the bed. Sneaky little thing.

She also attempted to jump several feet in the air to eat a bumble bee. Yeah.

But she and I had a great time hanging out for 4 days. And since I wouldn't let her play with her big brother, she has learned a new trick. She jumps up into my lap and tries to put her toy in my mouth. Delightful. (Ok, it's hilarious... but it makes it extremely hard to read a book...)

And she's healing up quickly.  Should be 100% and allowed to fight brother pretty soon here.

Making Frozen Pizza Yummy

In my house, we call this process "loaded pizza".

Lemme explain. :)

When I was in college, my mom got me a few cookbooks for starting out.  "The College Cookbook" and "The Little Black Apron".  The College Cookbook is recipes submitted from college kids and one of the recipes is this loaded pizza.  You take a boring ole cardboard-y CHEAP frozen pizza, and you just put stuff all over it.

Extra cheese is a MUST, as well as herbs (italian spices, usually).  We also put basically whatever leftover veggies we have that could possibly taste good on a pizza. 

It's quick, easy, and turns a boring ole pizza, and your left over half a tomato into something delicious!  It's a Diva household favorite!