Punch List

1. I was so busy with my fury friends that I forgot to write my punch list yesterday! Maybe if I write it first thing this morning I can sneak it in under your nose and you'll never know any different. ;)

2. Today marks one year of home ownership. On this day last year, we bought our house just in the nick of time to get the $8,000 first time home buyers tax credit. I just remember feeling complete relief after having battled for 7 and a half months with our short sale contract. The sale should have taken 3 months max, but the seller's bank lost our paper work not once, not twice, but THREE times! Oh Bank of America, how I loathed you then. And funny thing, our mortgage was sold right back to Bank of America. Oh the irony!

3. Pandora Radio is my absolute morning favorite. When I have a hard time picking out morning time music (yes, there is a difference between morning time music and day time music) I plug my phone into the speaker system and pop on Ray LaMontagne or Adele radio station. Perfect morning time music ensues throughout the house!

4. Another morning time favorite-- iced coffee. You don't have to go to the coffee shop or, God forbid, Starbucks for this one. Seriously, don't go to Starbucks. They like to purposely put the mom and pop, independent coffee shops out of business. Trust me. They tried to do it to one of the coffee shops I worked at, but the opposite happened. We put their newly opened shop out of business. Victory! Ok... back to what I was saying. Just brew an extra strong pot of coffee the night before. Let it cool over night and you're good to go in the morning. Pour the extra into one of those plastic pitchers and pop it in the fridge.

5. My Design a Day Challenge is going really well. I'm incredibly impressed with myself in that I've made it 8 days. I've fallen short of many of my other goals. Haven't gotten too far in my book. Yoga has happened a few times and has become incredibly difficult. Let's just say yoga is hard to do when you're being attacked my animals that wonder what in the world you're doing on the floor, bending around in all sorts of odd ways.

6. My parents are coming to Baltimore to visit this weekend. My aunt and uncle are also coming up from near DC for the 4th. I'm looking forward to being in the company of fantastic food, roof top fireworks, and amazing people.

7. Finn has a thing for my house plants. He's knocked two of them off the window sill already. I've moved them to a higher window sill, but that's a quick fix since he'll soon be big enough to jump up on that one as well. I need some sort of plant shelf that he can't get to. Hmmmm.

8. Progress has been made on our fence and pergola. The posts have been put in and so far four horizontals have been put in for the pergola. On Saturday we went to Second Chance and found an old door that has been installed as our gate. It is finally all coming together!

9. I've counted five jalapenos growing on my plant with many more little flowers. I'm going to have jalapeno overload in a matter of weeks! Fresh salsa time!

10. There is too much clutter in my house right now. Part of it is the ridiculous number of power tools just chilling out on the floor or in a corner because of this project or that project. But some of it is just that other clutter that I can't stand. I take care of it and then it comes right back! Aack! What do you do to stay uncluttered in your house?