Oreo

Meet Oreo, our current foster dog. He is a super sweet little boy (only 18 months) and is a springer spaniel and border collie mix. He is house-trained  and (almost) crate trained. Let me tell you, crate training a very hyper 18 month old dog is no cake walk. Good news is that I think he is finally catching on, based on the fact that he doesn't bark constantly and extremely loudly when we put him in the crate. He is good off leash, but a terrible leash walker. We will probably have him for a little while because he is heart worm positive which is terrible and makes me so mad at whoever owned him last! Giving a dog a pill once a month to prevent heart worms is not that hard people!  He is halfway done with his treatment, but still has to get a shot of some pretty strong stuff that will weaken his heart for about 3 weeks. After the shot, we have to keep him quiet with no running or jumping for 3 weeks. Who even knows how we will do that since he is insanely energetic. Hopefully he will find a great home soon!

Family Reunion

This weekend was the Tree's Family Reunion (mom's side of the family). The majority of the family lives in or around Dallas area, but since the extended family doesn't really ever get together during the year, we have a reunion every fall. This year we weren't able to go home for the whole weekend so we just made a day trip. Me, Michael, Phillip and Kristen all carpooled together which was pretty fun. Phillip just got back from a week in France for work (yeah he has an awesome job) so he told us all about the fun things he did and had lots of pictures to show.

The turn-out this year was a little smaller than other years, but there was still more than plenty of great food. Plus it was held at my parent's house so there was lots of room for the kids (little and big) to run around and play. Probably the highlight of the day was when my parent's dog Alex got out and ran down to the corner (at the edge of their property of 80 acres are two cross streets and a big ditch), found a big nest of rats in a hole and was killing them one at a time and barking up a storm. We didn't know he was down there until the police were called by 2 women who stopped to see what he was doing. My dad went and got him and when he got back told us that the women had gotten out of their car and were cheering him on! Pretty hilarious.

soccer game

my parents with  Alex

In other news, Meg (foster dog) was adopted on Saturday by a really sweet older couple who will probably spoil her rotten, so we are back to a one-dog home until the next dog comes along!

A New Sewing Table

Since I got my sewing machine, I have been using a card table to sew on. Not really an ideal set-up. It worked ok at first, but once my sewing skills started to improve and I collected more supplies, etc, I decided that it needed to be replaced by something bigger and better.
Here's what my sewing area looked like:

Pretty messy with zero storage space, and the table was not sturdy at all.

So began the craigslist search. I looked off and on for several months. It took me a long time because the space I had available was in a small weird corner. I was also really picky on how I wanted the desk to look. But finally, I found this beauty for only $50!!

Ok, so it wasn't really very pretty when I bought it, but I knew that it could be pretty with a little bit of TLC (and maybe a good harsh sanding).

I borrowed my dad's electric sander (lifesaver!) because I am not even kind of patient enough to sand something that big by hand, and bought some wood stain, sealer (to prevent scratches), new hardware and got to work. As I told you in the last post, its been a little busy around here so after it sat in my garage for about 3 weeks, I slowly worked on it during any free time I had over about a week and a half. But I finally finished and here's what it looks like!

bonus cubby

I stole a chair from the kitchen table til I find a good permanent one to keep up there

Looks sooo much better right?? I picked a really dark stain to hide the fact that its an older desk. Also, I just like dark wood colors.

I cannot even begin to describe how perfect this desk is! It is literally just the right dimensions for that corner without making the area feel cramped. Plus the drawers are huuuuuge so now I have tons of great storage space! 

Way to go craigslist!