House Crashers minus Josh

Holy moley cannoli! It’s September. I feel like August just flew by.

So I must have gotten the HOUSE CRASHERS bug in my system since it’s been a year since we had our sun room redone, and I felt those creative juices flowin. I redid 2 rooms of our house, with the help of my husband, but mostly me, right? hahahahahaha

Our bedroom got a makeover. And our living room got a major facelift. YELLOW be gone! I had to do a lot of research for all the pieces to come together. Things my husband doesn’t quite understand. I guess he thinks you just go, “I’m going to redo this room!”, and then BAM everything is there. I had to think…what style do we want, what colors, and where the heck do I find what was in my head!

We both went to some stores together to look at things and he kept saying, “What are you looking for?” I said, “I’ll know when I see it!” Well, this answer in clearly absolute absurdity to the man. “What? You’re just aimlessly looking at EVERYTHING?”….

Uh….yeah. It was like shopping with a toddler. So as most things go when I’m shopping for something I need and we are together and it’s not for him only, I decided to stop the search and come back by myself. SHEESH! What a waste of time he says….indeed. A waste of time, since now I have to come all the way back by myself another day so I can spend as much time as I need to think…will this bedspread go with this quilt and that sham and this throw and those sheets? And will this scheme look good with the color of our walls…but what curtains goes with this new color scheme I’ve constructed….does anyone know where I’m coming from?

All he kept saying was…when are the sconces coming…are we getting bedside tables… where are we going to get this stuff…am I just going to shit it out? I wish! Because if I could just shit it out he’d shooooosh!!! (That’s librarian talk for cut the yap buddy) Guys just don’t get it. I need to see things to get ideas. That’s why I took myself to the Pinterest boards. I created my scheme and then googled the shit out of anything that would match the pictures I found. Thankfully, and miraculously it came together like magic. Every time a box appeared on the porch my husband would say…are those the sconces? The man and sconces. You’d think sconces made a room suddenly A ROOM. Sconces do not make a room. Curtains do not make a room. And I didn’t dare put all of these things up one by one as they were all different colors and patterns and textures. I thought if I did that he’d have certain expectations of the room and the style it would be…so I waited like an actress waits for opening night. I did a dress rehearsal to make sure I liked it…then I staged the room for opening night.

Curtains in place. Sconces and lampshades installed. Euro shams, pillow cases, another sham…no…another pillow and then another pillow. Wait…maybe another pillow. Yes, then sheets, quilt, duvet and accent throw. Is the quilt too much…is it the wrong yellow…oh gosh…he’s gonna hate it…the quilt ruins the whole thing. No wait, the quilt is fine when you just show a corner. Oh yeah, that looks planned. Bedside tables free of clutter and will be painted to match the lampshades when I get the paint, but I’m not worried about that. It will be fine. Then get out all of the trash, laundry, fur and nonsense. PERFECT. Set the ipod to the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack “Come and Get Your Love” and fast forward to the part where he says “Come and get your love…” Table runner on the dresser, candles, Lego tree, and glow in the dark Groot. We are set to launch, people! Now to wait for the man to see it. Will he like it? He better…I didn’t spend all this time and money for nothing!

He came home and it was time for a moment of truth. I ran up the stairs and said wait right there I need to do something don’t peek. I hit PLAY on the song and TA DA!!!!! I said, “I’m going for Portland hotel room. Do you like it?” I forget what he said exactly at first…I think he was more shocked that the room was clean. But he said he liked it. He was like…”we finally have a nice room!” Then he saw the Groot and was like “there’s Groot and a lego tree.” Do I know this guy or what?

That was the beginning of Labor Day weekend HOUSE CRASHERS Solo Edition.

P.S. I had before pictures my phone died and everything got wiped out! Sooooooo….I will give you some pictures of some cats enjoying our bedroom before the makeover.

Bros on toes! That’s a shot of our bedroom pre-makeover from a “being in bed” POV.

This is from the front of our bed from an “I’m in a drawer” POV.

Here’s an overhead shot of the top of the bed “cat on my head” POV.

Looking at the bed and the former lamp on my husband’s impromptu bedside table. “Bed bathing.”

From an Eowyn POV looking at a cat hiding in our curtains.

THE BIG REVEAL – AFTER PICTURES

NEW BEAUTIFUL ROOM! Bedside tables. Sconces. Black out curtains. New sheets. New quilt. New duvet. Comfy throw. Cute pillows. Accents. LOVE!

My side of the bed. A closer look. Beatles lyrics. Hedgehog candle. Cute clock. LOVE!

This side of the room awaits a gallery wall display. But I wanted to show the ipod with the GOTG soundtrack playing. Glow in the dark Groot! And Lego tree that my husband was so excited about. LOVE!

And the key ingredient if you hadn’t picked up on it…LOVE!

Stay tuned for part two of our Labor Day Weekend Makeover…the living room. House Crashers Husband and Wife Edition.

The Wonder Years

OMG! The Wonder Years is going to DVD. I never thought this would happen!!!!

I loved this show so much growing up. My best friend and I would stay up and watch re-runs while sobbing or laughing while living our own Wonder Years. So cheesy!!!!! I know. But can I bring up the fact that we ran around calling our siblings Scrot like Wayne called Kevin, and no one said a thing. It wasn’t until much later I discovered Wayne was calling Kevin a Scrotum. Dude…I called my sisters a boy’s scrotum. I also told them they blew goats…thanks to Wayne’s World. Wayne again!!! I can’t believe I got away with that. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Ignorance really is bliss…or hilarity.

When my husband and I were dating he burned the whole series to DVD back when you had to do that type of thing. Rip and burn baby…in the name of love. He also wrote a song for me and played it for me once on his guitar. I think the computer he saved the song on was the one he bashed through the window on HOUSE CRASHERS. So there’s that….

And here’s a mind blower…for me anyways, I live in Burbank. They shot the Wonder Years, the Arnold’s house, in Burbank. Like, down the street from where I work. I can’t even believe it. I drove past the house a couple times. Totally awesome. I didn’t know what else to do but stare. It’s not like Kevin or Paul or Winnie were going to appear. But what if they did. Dude, that would be so cool. Weird. But cool.

I love this pic so much.

Reunited!

Remember that time, Kevin Arnold’s dad almost ran me over in the Vons parking lot so he could go into the bank and then after the bank he moved his car like 4 spaces closer to the grocery store entrance. Guess Norma was on vacation. Click the link below for a little TBT.
http://tiffstrum.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/vloggin-it-up-2/

P.S. Kevin Arnold never had a cat. He had a puppy once…but no cat. WTF Kevn. What a scrot.

Summer time summer time sum sum summer time

SUMMER TIIIIIIII-IIIIMMMME ! It’s almost here. Officially. For me, it feels like it’s over since my first summer beach trip of the season is already over. But that means, I survived being on the beach in a bikini even with my “self-induced stress fest fears.” Yes, I did it!!!!

My husband and I went to St. Maarten for a 2nd time in a year to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. I think it’s funny that people are like ‘8 years…you guys made it.’ Made it? Ummmm I’m planning on making it 80 more years. I mean, I will be over 100 years old at that point and had my picture on Willard Scott’s SMUCKERS segment on the TODAY show many times over…but I’m gonna do it, man! 80 more years of adventure with this man…my husband jokes about being a robot anyways. So what the hell. I guess we will be robots together. Traveling robots in love. Ohhhhhh I love it. I already have robot socks. So I’m already on my way to robot-ness. Socks with cute little robots on them make you a honorary robot, right?

Oh, so back to our trip. It was awesome. On our first trip we took a million pictures and the camera broke. Like soooooooo broke.. never to retrieve the pictures EVER again… until probably so far in the future when new technology is invented to get the stuff off the highly water damaged microchip thingy…so like 80 years from now when we are robots we can see those pictures. FUN! Something else to look forward to. By that time, we will forget what we took pictures of and be even more surprised. Yay!

This time around we tried out some new areas of the island. We kayaked to Pinel Island and got rained on. We went to a nice dinner and almost got duped by a crack addict pretending to be a parking lot attendant in a free parking lot. We took the hiking path less traveled and got stung by wasps. Then drank Guavaberry rum coladas all day on the beach to make the pain go away and got sunburned. And I loved every minute of it. Because I experienced it all with my husband. Cheesy alert. Cheesy cheeseball. Ohhhhh that makes me think of the delicious cheese spread and baguettes we had every morning with our coffee overlooking the bay from our balcony with Spongebob playing in the background. I wish our trips could last forever. The adventures we have…it’s the best.

Every year, we go on a trip for our anniversary and every year I think about our past trips. One of the first trips we took together was back when we were dating. The Ed Debevics in Arizona closed (sidenote: we met in AZ at the PHX Zoo, we also got married at the PHX Zoo, and now we pretty much own a zoo…un-sidenote) the only Ed Debevics left was only in Chicago. (Lightbulb realization…I meet this dude from Chicago the year my favorite diner closes and the only one left is in Chicago…weird right?) Anyways, Ed Debevics was THE place I liked to go for my birthday. I love 50’s diners, I love burgers, and I love Ed’s! My husband/boyfriend at the time, knew I was sad about not having Ed’s to go to for the first time ever, so he surprised me with a trip to Ed’s in Chicago for my birthday. The man really had some moves when we dated. He planned a surprise trip to my favorite restaurant across the country. He wrote me a song and played it for me on his guitar. He knew I loved THE WONDER YEARS and did his magic computer wizardry and burned all the episodes to DVD for me. He also bought me diamond earrings. I guess the dude wanted me or something. Hahahahahaha I’m totally gonna be one of those moms that’s like “when your Dad and I dated he pulled out all the stops….then we got married and he just stopped.” Now I get it why Moms say that. But seriously, instead of all the stops we make amazing stops together when we go on amazing trips, sometimes twice a year. It’s a different kind of awesome. No more chasing…unless there’s wasps involved. I still can’t believe we ran down the mountain in about 10 minutes when it took us about 35 minutes to go up. Mud all over our legs and sticks to fend off anymore enemies. I laughed and screamed the whole way. That’s our trips though. Always on the run. It’s because of our damn obsession with the Amazing Race , we like to pretend we are racing against other unknowing couples sometimes. Or that we have to do a task, or find a random adventurous type activity that would be similar to what you’d do on the race. We actually used to videotape these things! We’ve auditioned twice for the show via tape, never in person (I hear that’s key…in person auditions)…one of the winners of the show came to our Halloween party, my co-worker’s friend was on the race, and we live across the street from a past contestant. If the The Amazing Race was like Kevin Bacon thing we would be one degree of Amazing Race. Ever since HOUSE CRASHERS, people keep saying we should TOTALLY be on The Amazing Race. I just don’t want to be eliminated early on or eliminated at all. And if we do get eliminated I hope to God it’s not because of my lack of knowledge and pure dislike of maps. For now, I’m pretty good getting yelled at for not being able to figure out where we are WITHOUT the cameras rolling. One day, one sweet day The Amazing Race will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine. Gotta love Wayne’s World .

Well, until we make it on The Amazing Race, we will definitely keep making a race of our own on our trips. Who else can say they were laughing at their husband getting stung by a wasp and then got stung mid laugh? And how many contestants had the front desk people squeeze their stings to get out the poison and alcohol swab that shizzle? None. The answer is nada. Also, who would be this excited about getting stung by a wasp. Maybe I should get my brain checked out. I am pretty itchy. That’s a different story altogether. Wayne’s World 2 this time. Man, I love those movies.

Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for…the vacation slideshow. A picture is worth a thousand words. But I put captions on anyways. On with the show…

Silliness on Orient Beach

Dinosaur mimosa on the balcony!

Our super nice anniversary dinner over the water… post parking lot crack addict trying to dupe us!

Our version of a Corona ad

Our infamous hike with wasps!

Classy in Philipsburg.

Before kayaking in the rain.

Boardwalk fun!

Messing around with the timeshare stalker!

Snorkels!

Photobomb!

Ocean love!

My angel fish friends.

My island kitties!

Ohhhhh kissy face!

Last night in paradise.

Cheers to 8 years.

P.S. I think it’s funny how we have been together over 10 years now and I still have to explain to him that when I’m hungry I get cranky. I don’t know why I have to explain that I need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s pretty standard. Whenever we go on vacation I made sure we have lots of snacks because the guy doesn’t stop for nothing. I know he’s hungry since he eats the snacks too! And when the snacks run out, the claws come out. MEEEEOOOW!!!

P.P.S. On the plane ride back we had a lot of turbulence. Thankfully, my husband waited to tell me after we landed that the turbulence happened when we were passing over the Bermuda Triangle. HOLY CRAP BATMAN!

Friday Funny…Valentine.

Last year, I joined PencilPals and BookPals through SAG-AFTRA. Best decision ever…why didn’t I do it sooner? Getting to read to kids weekly and writing my 5th grade PencilPal is awesome. I remember doing Pen Pals when I was that age and I loved it. So today, Valentine’s Day, there was a Milk and Cookies event to meet your PencilPal. I will admit I was reluctant to go for many dumb reasons I made up in my head. It’s too far away, I have to work, I usually have a morning meeting on Fridays, I’m scared to meet my PencilPal, what are we going to talk about, what if he doesn’t like me, what if it’s awkward. Well, I told my husband about the event and he immediately without hesitation in his typical Jay fashion said, “GO!!!!!! You have to go…you can’t leave him there alone. GO!!!!! And if you don’t go, I’m personally calling him and saying you got in a car accident and died." I know, a little extreme right? He said that’s how important it is for me to go. Then all I could think about was poor Cesar sitting there with a valentine for me, sad that I didn’t show up. And then what if me not showing up is the first big disappointment with girls he has in his life, and then he references that time his PencilPal didn’t show up to every other time in his life when a girl screws him over!!!! So I promptly RSVP’ed and got my silly excuse-filled self to the school on time, actually early, and made Cesar’s day. Not only his day, but mine. I had brought a valentine for him but he had brought a valentine for me too. Handmade!!!! I didn’t expect that. Seriously, how bad would that have been if I didn’t go.

I was the last one to stand up and describe my PencilPal and he said before I did he was getting worried I didn’t come. Then he heard me talk about him and he got all tingling and excited that it was me! So, thank you husband of mine, for making sure I went and made not only Cesar’s day, but also my own. Since my husband has to work a night shoot on Valentine’s Day and we can’t celebrate tonight, I’m glad I got to share it with Cesar. Someone that loves crafts (he made me a bracelet), Nancy Drew (we are reading the first book of the series together), and soccer. We bonded over the fact that headgear and braces suck, drugs are bad and makes Beiber go crazy, and why he likes the color pink. He just does, ok!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Today, I realized it doesn’t have to be all schmoopy doopy (althought it is nice when you can spend it with the one you love), it can be about making someone else’s day which then makes your day. It’s a cycle of love, people!!!! Yeah yeah yeah, we should do it everyday, but until someone abolishes Valentine’s Day, this is a day of extra public show of affection. So stop complaining about it and make it about someone else, like a Cesar!

P.S. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he spelled FRIEND wrong.