Made in Richmond

Have you guys heard about this? Seriously, it’s like the people at MTV all met in my brain and tried to figure out the television show of my dreams.

I better not be disappointed.

We’re planning on putting our house on the market within the next few weeks. Here’s what we’ve done since we’ve lived here:

Installed closet shelves

Painted closet

New carpet in the bedroom

New washer and dryer

New AC

New furnace

New water heater

Painted kitchen, dining room, living room, sunroom, office, bathroom, and hallway

Pulled up weird platform portion of our back deck

Painted remaining deck

New hardwood floors downstairs

New tile in the bathroom

Landscaping in the backyard

New fence

Repaired beam under the house

Fixed wobbly banister

Installed microwave shelf

Still to come:

Address the mysterious leakish occurrence in the downstairs bathroom

Fix and paint boards on the front porch

Fix the roof of the upstairs porch

Massive cleaning

Hoping and praying that the house will sell soon

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Let us conclude with a special shout out to my in-laws, who have really done most of the work.

(Part 1. Part 2)

21. See the Pacific Ocean.

22. Knit a sweater.

23. Watch my sister perform in a Broadway show.

24. Go to BlogHer.

25. Fix two people up and then go to their wedding.

26. Tell Tyra Banks in person that there is no difference between when she “smiles with her eyes” and when she doesn’t.

27. Put together my family tree.

28. Stay up all night. I’ve really never done it.

29. Cook a turkey.

30. Thank some of my friends’ parents for always being wonderful to me. I guess I could do that now. Thanks, Nancy, Jack, Gloria, Charlie, Jerry, and Sue.

Tell me more of yours. I love reading them!

Three weeks from tomorrow, guess who will be here. GUESS.

Don’t guess, I’ll tell you.

The James and Jennifer Murphy.

I’m about to explode, too.

The food! Let’s look it at!

(Please note these pictures haven’t made it to flickr yet. I’ve been busy doing important things like watching the Dog Whisperer and complaining about the rain.)

The menu! Let’s look at it!

Sunday which is usually not featured on our weekly rundown but I’m a giver: Tofu and szechuan broccoli with rice

Monday: BLT sliders and cheesy broccoli - actually they should be BSTs because we used spinach instead of lettuce

Tuesday: Baked potatoes and spinach salad

Wednesday: Turkey tacos

Thursday: Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans

Nothing super fancy here, but all SUPER GOOD.

Grand total! $39.40!

Deal Of The Week! Let’s see that also!

Thanks to a tip from The Suze, we headed over to Kroger and got two packages of turkey for $2.50 each. Not hormone-free but we’ll take it.

The Budget Buster! Let’s see that also!

Shredded cheddar cheese for $4.69. The exact same unit price as non-shredded cheese. But whatevs, it’s required for two of this week’s dishes.

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Now that your favorite post of the week is over, I suggest you head over to The People’s Nature, the new love child of Ross and The Suze. It’s all about helping people be healthy and green without requiring them to be ridiculous.

Friday: Ummm. Hmmm. Yes, a bit of a blur.

Saturday: Up to welcome in-laws for another Saturday of home improvement. Lunch at Joe’s Inn. Nap with husband. Met some ladies for dinner at New York Deli. Apparently lost my check card at New York Deli.

Sunday: More home improvement. Realized I left my check card at New York Deli. Went to ask the people at New York Deli if they had my check card. They didn’t. Hurried home to cancel said check card. Puttered until church. Church and what not. Weekly grocery trip. Dinner soon. Bed a little after that.

Have a great week!

Please stop raining. I feel like my brain and soul are both quite soggy. I don’t like how the cuffs of my pants are always wet. The dogs need some sunshine time outside. Sucks to you, April!

I’ve never cared what people name their dogs. I mean, it’s a dog. In fact, I find it hilarious when people give their dogs incredibly normal human names like Mike or John. All I cared about was if I had dogs and if they were cute and awesome. And, let’s be honest, I would very rarely use their real name, instead opting for a ridiculous nickname.

Ross is different. He had known he wanted to name his first dog Shooter long before we even thought about getting a dog. When we talked about getting a second dog, I made a suggestion.

“It’d be neat if we got a really big dog and named it Bear.”

“No. We’re naming it Zapp.”

“Why?”

“After Zapp Branigan.”

For those you who don’t know, Zapp Branigan is a character on Futurama. A character that doesn’t wear pants. But, being that it was a miracle that Ross was even hinting at the fact that he would be OK with a second dog, I wasn’t going to push it.

So we got another dog. A sweet girl dog. And named her Zapp. After a cartoon male. Who, again, doesn’t wear pants.

Here’s a picture so you can see why this is hilarious:

Another hilarious part about her name is that when she’s misbehaving or won’t come inside when you call her, you have to yell “Zapp! Zapp! Zapp!” over and over again and sound like a crazy idiot.

Incidentally, she does have nicknames. Things like Zapp-along, Zapparoni, Zapparoo, Zappy-girl, and ZappAttack are the most common.

Shooter just has one nickname, his full name really… Shooter Belle Catrow.

Welcome to the next installment of me answering questions that you are all DYING to know the answer to. Here’s the first one.

Our first question today comes from scp:

Has anyone ever told you that you look like Kate Gosselin of Jon & Kate plus 8 in your black and white picture?

To answer your question, scp, no, I’ve never heard that. Let’s have our readers decide…

Sorry that’s the best I could do. For some reason, there aren’t thousands of pictures of Kate Gosselin on the Internet.

So what do you think?

Next question! This one is from RA…

Could we see photos of baby/toddler Val?

Uh, yes. Because I was super cute. Here’s one:

Again, with the crappy photos. This is a picture of a picture. IF YOU WANT ART, BUY ME A SCANNER.

Ahem.

Anyway, here I am! An almost-two-year-old Val! Look at the chubba legs and the lack of shoes AT A PETTING ZOO! The 80s. They were a crazy, carefree, unaware-of-hookworm time.

It’s been a thrift week, guys. Check it out.

This week’s menu…

Monday: Curry chicken and rice

Tuesday: Leftover lentil burgers (and tots!)

Wednesday: Double-crust bean pie

Thursday: Chicken and avacado salsa

Friday: Some kind of leftover concoction

Grand total? $39.52.

We’re back in action, Jacksons!

Here’s your Deal Of The Week…

Richmond boys need their brew. Don’t worry. It’s like $3 for a six-pack.

And your sad, disappointing Budget Buster…

Ross was convinced you couldn’t buy bananas in anything other than a complete bunch at Kroger. So we jumped on the $.90/lb free-standing bananas at Ellwood Thompson’s. But, turns out Kroger had a selection of non-bunch bananas for $.70/lb. Oh well.