Hollywood names

Just like celebrity romances that get their names combined (Brangelina, Swiftenhal) Mike and I combined our last names. No one really calls us by our combined name. We just refer to ourselves with it... We combined our last names - Schmidt and Bounds - to be 'Schmounds'. Last fall, Mike was in the mountains in Colorado hunting elk. Beautiful. He didn't have any luck finding any elk, but he entertained himself by doing this... Cheesy? Yes. Adorable? I know.

I need to start blogging again.

For the past few weeks (ok, maybe months) I've been telling myself that I should really start blogging again. I enjoy reading my friends' blogs, along with peoples blogs who I don't know - -or really have anything in common with. I think that is what makes it so intriguing for me. It's kind of like reading a gossip magazine about actual people and their real-life stories.

I used to tell myself I don't have anything great to blog about, no cute kid, no personal chef making beautiful meals, no beautiful mansion I'm building... but hey, Mike's cute and looks younger than his age, I can cook - kind of, and we're fixing up our little home!

So, Blog on, I say!

Since I need to start taking some picture of things I'd like to start blogging about - here is a little something that I found hilarious. Quite fitting for this Minnesota girl on a typical Minnesota March snowstorm kind of day.
http://www.minnesota-visitor.com/minnesota-jokes-jeff-foxworthy.html

And really, my mom did have to plan out our halloween costumes to fit over our snowsuits.

Love.

I learned what love is. Finally.

And Mike must really love me.

Over the weekend Mike said "Do you want to go to Ikea?" I had not mentioned Ikea once that day...and for a guy who hates that place, for him to mention it out of the blue...must mean that he really loves me.

To be fair, I had mentioned Ikea a little earlier in the week. A little back story - We need more counter space in our kitchen. Who doesn't? Since we moved into our house, random shelving units have sat along a wall in our dining area - as an extension of our countertop, holding the microwave and other small appliances that we don't use every day.

One evening last week, I was flipping through the 2010 Ikea catalog while Mike was watching a TV show that I couldn't get into. Then lo and behold - I find the perfect table for our kitchen needs! The length is perfect to take up the whole wall and the depth is perfect too!So I show the picture Mike - as he his fully engaged in his show - and he glimpses at it and says "Oh yeah, neat". Oh well, I think to myself as I store it away in my memory bank for a later time.

I hadn't thought about it since until that joyous Saturday when my, ahem, husband, asked me if I wanted to go to Ikea and check it out! Wow! I didn't even think he was listening!!

Luckily, when we got there and saw it, he approved (he is very critical of Ikea furniture)! So now I have a new table that looks nice in our dining room and if functional for us as an extension of the kitchen! I'll post a picture after I set it up in a nice way...I'm still trying to figure out what goes where on/in it!

Love is going somewhere you hate just to make the one you love so incredibly happy. Thanks Mikey!!

'Bout time for a new post...

...And just for fun, let's show off some wedding pics!

Mikey and I tied the knot on April 15th! We were married at the Dove Creek Lodge in Key Largo, FL. Check out these teasers from our photog!

A little pre-wedding....It was way too windy to wear the veil that night...took a few pics with it and that was it. Sweet $70 bucks spent.This is what we call our 'mean face' I don't really look mean do I? We make 'mean faces' at each other when we are fighting to get the other person to laugh. I know, adorable.

No, I didn't wear those shoes the whole time - actually for about 3 minutes total just to take some sweet shoe pictures. I just had to! I went barefoot for the ceremony and the rest of the night - it was great!

Here are some from during the ceremony...
No, we are not Jewish, and yes, Mike broke a glass at the end of our ceremony. Why, you ask? 'Cause I wanted to. Here are a few other fun pics...
Starting the celebration!My beautiful momma...A view from above the festivites.The drummer/singer from the steel drum band - Reel Ting!
...and the name cards.

We should be getting the rest of our pictures from the photographer in a month. I'll post more then!

ta daa!

Introducing the most beautiful house on the block!

Mike, along with a ton of help from Jon and Eric (thanks guys!), painted our house last Thursday and Friday! Here a few pics of the work in progress.

Friday night Mike and Jon worked late into the night...

While Martini a.k.a. 'Tini' (Jon and Lindsay's pup) and I made dinner for the boys and then did the dishes. She hated walking on our kitchen's linoleum floor. It was kind of funny.

I tried to get a funny picture of Tini actually helping me with the dishes... but she was not having it.

Anyways, now I have a beautiful GREEN colored house!

Next summer's project...Landscaping!

Paint - A love/hate relationship

We're painting the exterior of our house! We've actually already started...Well I've stared painting - and Mike is putting a new back door on as we speak! Last weekend my grandparents and my mom came over and we painted the exterior of our garage! My Mom and Grandpa helped paint and my Grandma made sure we were all fed and well hydrated. Mike was up north checking out his brothers brand new cabin with him. Check out the new color!

Painting the exterior is a love/hate relationship for me. It's going to be a lot of work - but I'm going to LOVE the chagne of color!! For those of you who don't know - This is what color our house is...

Yeah...peachy, pinky, salmon-y... you choose the right adverb.

Anyways...here's the view from the living room. I love looking out this window since the garage is already painted, I just pretend that the house is done too!

Here's what the house looks like from the back. You can see where Mike has been scraping off the painted cinder blocks by the back door.

And speaking of the back door...here's a picture of what Mike's doing to put in a new door.

Ok, enough of the dirty stuff. Let's move on to the prettier things. Here's a close up shot of our front door and house numbers.

For Christmas last year, my parents gave us a super cool new house number sign! It was handmade especially for us by my mom's friend's sister (get it?). I love it and can't wait to take down those ugly numbers and put this up!

The Survivor...and us

Here we are...with Les Stroud. He was pretty interesting to listen to. Mike and I were impressed with how much he talked! We waited in line for an hour before he came out, another hour of standing in line listening to him talk (and a little Q&A session), and then another 1/2 hour waiting for his autograph. My feet still hurt - I should have worn better shoes!