It's finally open and My little model

Well as of this week, the long awaited day has arrived. The lab in Murfreesboro is officially open. They have run studies 3 nights this week. I toured the lab on Tuesday to familiarize myself with my surroundings before I run any studies. Then I received an email on Wednesday afternoon asking me if I could make it Friday for a photo shoot at work. They were getting some new pictures for the marketing brochures for all three facilities (Baptist, Hermitage and Murfreesboro). I asked mom if she wouldn't mind to tag along to help distract Alli so I could do this photo shoot. They needed me since I was the day tech for Murfreesboro.

So we headed down there this morning and right as we walk in the door, we walk in on the photographer taking pictures in the front lobby. Immediately he is taken back by Alli and starts taking pictures of her. I was thankful I had dressed Alli nice today! The photographer and our marketer just kept going on and on about how adorable Alli was....of course I'm biased, but I agree :). We showed mom around the lab and waited for them to need me. Then the marketer pops in and sits down to have a chat with me. He says, "So Ashleigh was telling me that the facility also does studies on pediatric patients. (I knew where he was going with this) How old is your daughter?" I laughed to myself and I told him that she was 19 months. They then asked me if I was open to maybe taking some pictures with Alli in one of the patient rooms. They wanted to showcase that our facility works with pediatric patients. I agreed based off the knowledge that we would only do what she was comfortable doing and once she was upset...that was it, we were done. Little did I know my daughter was a HAM!

We sat her on one of the beds and I knelt in front of her trying to interact as if I was her technician. She didn't like me being in front of her and being on the bed all by herself. So I sat on the bed with her but she kept trying to climb in my lap and hug me. So I pulled the headbox and wires off the wall and sat them in front of her. I showed her the wires and let her play with them. This is very similar to what I would've done anyway with a pediatric patient to try to get them comfortable with the wires so it worked like a charm. She sat there and felt the wires and ran them through her fingers. The photographer LOVED it! It gave them exactly what they needed. I bet he easily took 50 pictures of her today...if not more. They got some of me by myself at one of the computers...acting like I was reviewing a study...I HATE acting...it feels so cheesy.

Not only are these pictures going to be in their marketing brochures but they are also updating the website...so I'm curious to see what they choose for each. I will post a link to it once it is updated. We'll see how our little model worked out.

Quick post

It's late but I had to post this really quickly before I forgot it. As Alli gets older and develops more independence, we've been dealing with some minor power struggles to show mom and dad are still in charge. This mainly came into play recently at bedtime. We had about 6-7 nights where we had to insist on 7pm as bedtime and crying wouldn't mean you got to stay up longer and play. Well finally one night after persistently pursuing our schedule, we had a break through. Alli and I said our goodnight prayers and then as I was holding her she leaned over to lay down in my arms. I asked her, "are you ready to go night night and lay in your crib?" She then leaned rolled and pointed towards the crib. So I took this cue as a possible answer that she was ready to go to bed. I was fully anticipating her to stand up and start to cry as soon as I laid her down. I was so wrong. Instead, she laid there calmly and let me cover her with her blankets. Then she did something I wasn't expecting. I told her I loved her and she blew me kisses. It caught me off guard but it has now become a new tradition. Normally she would only blow kisses when asked, so to blow kisses unprompted was very sweet. So every night now we ask, are you ready to go night night and then we exchange kisses. Then last night and tonight she added one more cute thing...she now also tells me bye! LOL

She woke up screaming around midnight from what I can only assume was a bad dream. We snuggled and when I put her back in bed she blew me kisses and then said bye bye. haha so cute. Good night everyone

1 down....many more to go...

We finally finished the 1/2 bath. We had some kinks in the road but we learned how to do some things we didn't know how to do so that's cool. We are so tickled with how it turned out!

Here is the first step in the "fake" board and batten look. We placed our boards 10 inches apart.

Alli running around with the dog leash while we were working on the bathroom. She loves to take the dogs on a walk.

She wanted to help daddy out so bad. He was filling in the nail holes with wood puddy. So she started rubbing her finger on the wood trying to be like daddy. Loves her daddy!

See, like I said, LoVeS her daddy!

Step 2 in board in batten is the chair railing

Last step...a nice coat of semi gloss white paint to give the wall a nice board covered shiny...beautiful look!

~We LOVE it~

My taste buds NEEDED this!

I had some Tilapia in the freezer that we needed to cook and I wanted a new recipe to try. Tilapia is really the only fish Ben will eat. I love just about any type of fish but Ben isn't as fond of it so we like Tilapia because it isn't as fishy tasting! So I wanted to grill it. We had a Taste of Home grilling magazine and I found this tasty sounding recipe for Halibut. I knew halibut was a white fish and thought Tilapia would be a great substitute. Here's the recipe.
Halibut with Zesty Peach Salsa:

photo curtesy of taste of home website (wouldn't want some copyright person to get huffy over the use of their picture)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lime peel
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 halibut steaks (6 ounces each)
  SALSA:
• 2 cups chopped fresh or frozen peaches
• 1/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

• In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients; mix well. Remove 1/4 cup for basting; cover and refrigerate. Pour remaining marinade into a large resealable plastic bag; add the halibut. Seal bag and turn to coat; refrigerate for 2 hours. In another small bowl, combine salsa ingredients; cover and refrigerate until serving.
• Drain and discard marinade. Using long-handled tongs, moisten a paper towel with cooking oil and lightly coat the grill rack.
• Grill, uncovered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from the heat for 4-6 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork, basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Serve with peach salsa. Yield: 4 servings.

Editor's Note: When cutting hot peppers, disposable gloves are recommended. Avoid touching your face.

This was SOOOO YUMMY! My taste buds needed this fresh and citrus filled meal! It was nice to make something so healthy and fresh tasting. We absolutely loved the salsa. We would make it by itself! I'm not a big fan on red onions but it was perfect for this salsa. Next time I will leave out the jalapeno. It didn't need that extra zest for our liking and this way Alli can eat it without any problems. She loved the peaches and the red peppers. If only I could get her to try the fish. Oh well...small victories right?!?

I know my body parts.

I've been meaning to post this for a couple weeks and yesterday I finally sat down with Alli and got her to show everyone how many body parts she has learned. Enjoy.

DIY Disaster? I hope not :)

I've been watching a TON of HGTV lately. There is a show DIY disaster. With all of our plans for upgrades on the house and knowing some of our previous mistakes in our other home in Winchester, I hope we don't encounter any DIY disasters. We are trying to do many of the projects ourselves and well...it's a learning process. We are trying to use what little skills we have where we can, learn some of what we can on the fly and the other things we just AREN'T comfortable with....seek help! This next item was totally NOT on the to do list but we found a deal at home depot and fell in love with it and the project fell into place.

**beware many photos to follow**
1/2 Bath Upgrades!
Below is a picture of the types of counters we have throughout the entire house. The kitchen and all bathrooms have the very same counters. They aren't bad for what they are so the biggest thing we were going to do to the 1/2 bath was a nicer faucet, paint and some wainscotting with chair railing.

No this picture below is not a dressing room somewhere, it is my bathroom with the hideous cheapest dressing room like light fixtures we've ever seen...these have to go...so remember them so you can appreciate the after picture. Here is the beginning of the addition of the chesnut paint. We taped off the area where the chair railing would go and the wainscoting below.

Getting closer....

Now here is the reason for the new LOVE of our 1/2 bath. Behold the beauty of a new granite vanity top and brushed chrome faucet! **aaahhh**

more painting...Alli had to get in on the action of the pictures :) Wow her hair was looking rough that day.

Remember my hideous lights...these are SO much better! Here is where one of our DIY disasters took place. We went through two lights before we settled on this one. Before we changed lights, the old ugly gave plenty of light in our 1/2 bath even with the darker wall color. The first light we bought only lit up the mirror and didn't project any light towards the toilet area....not good. So I thought maybe we needed lights that faced up. Ben changed the fixture to face up. It helped with the lighting some but the fixture looked STUPID faced the opposite direction it was meant to. So off to the store I went in search for a light that faced up. I couldn't find what I wanted in the brushed chrome. So then I found this one that faced down but it didn't come with globes so I could pick my own. I found clear globes with some air bubble design and they work perfectly! Now we have a nicely lit half bath.

Here you can see front to back the much better updated upper half of the room.

Let's basque in the beauty just a little longer!

We have since changed our plans as far as the wainscoting goes. We are going to do a fake board and batten look, much like this post here. This will be a much easier installation and Ben won't have to worry about cutting around the pipes behind the toilet. Soon I will be able to show everyone the finished product. We are still working on a plumbing connection issue that developed with the new sink on this vanity top. This vanity has very screwy and close together pipes...so Ben has had to make a couple trips to home depot.

As soon as our beloved tax return comes in, we plan on taking care of some of our wishful to do list:
Kitchen- new counters, paint cabinets white, new sink and faucet, tile floors oh and pot lights in ceiling!
1/2 bath and laundry- also getting tile floors
entire downstairs - chair railing and crown molding
Master bedroom - fresh paint and crown molding
Hallway and 3rd bedroom - fresh paint, chair railing in hallway
Spare bath - tile
Master bath - oh the plans we have for this room (all depending on how much $$ we have to spend and what deals we can find at the discount tile stores) tile floors, tile surround on current tub/shower combo, new vanity (hopefully granite or marble), paint wood on vanity complementary color of the vanity top, new mirrors to get rid of the one big massive mirror we have and new lighting!!!

Our major projects are obviously devoted to the kitchen and master. We are hooking up with some of Ben's co-workers to get major discounts on some labor for the areas we need "help." This mainly relates to tile and electrical. We could do the tile ourselves but it is so time consuming and well...we'll see how it goes. Straight cuts are easy...its the areas where you need to make curved cuts that worry us. Long post, I know, but the family that lives far away will appreciate the updates and pictures. :)

Oops forgot

Well I forgot to tell everyone about Alli's 18month check up. First off she weighs 23 lbs (forgot the ounces) and is 32 inches tall. Her head (brain growth) is right on track for her age...but my little petite girl is overall in the 30th percentile! She's so tiny. She has a decent height with having grown three inches since last check up but her weight is so tiny. haha. It's going to get to the point that to fit her height, her pants will be falling off her.

So anyway, she looks good and we're happy about that. We talked a little about her picky vegetable eating. Alli also doesn't like drinking plain water bottles....so we talked about what to do about that. We're making some progress but it is a challenge.

.................
We've been busy working on our 1/2 bath right now..It's a big change. I'll show pictures when it's all done. Have a great week.