October 6, 2009 - May 17, 2017 RIP

As of today, this blog officially dies.

I have neither the time, the desire, or the energy to share what's happening in our life.

Maybe sometime in the future, I will breathe new life into it......but for now, my focus and energy are devoted to other things.

Signing off................

As we get closer.....it got longer

Remember that list that I shared with you earlier in the week.

Well as we get closer to opening day.......the list got a lot longer.

Paul and I have been spending 30 minutes sitting on the front porch each morning strategizing and making lists.

Here's what my list looks like now:

Damn......I need to get busy!

Our pizza life is getting ready to change

Opening this new store has been extremely busy and extremely stressful at times.

In fact, it's a miracle that we are still married at this point.  There's been tough decisions (and lots of them) and sometimes it hasn't been easy for either one of us to let the other person "have their way".  Luckily for us, we are able to compromise or agree on most things.

There's still a million things to do before we get open and there will be lots to do for awhile after we get it open and get stuff figured out and systematized.  After that.......we're already talking about taking some time off.  We haven't had a day off since the beginning of January.  I think we deserve one (or two).

But for today -- I'll be tackling this list instead:

But every time I walk into this brand new location.......the hard work seems worth it.  

But, we still need a vacation!

Time flies when you're having fun!

It really does fly......however, it hasn't been much fun.  In fact, it's been all work.

We're getting closer and closer to opening day.  In some ways, I'm ready.....in some ways, I'm not.  There is a BILLION things to do.  Can't wait for a vacation.

Here's some of the highlights of the last couple of weeks:

 We spent Easter at the new store with a group of employees working on 

getting things hung up, cleaned up, and figured out.

 The new traffic light looks awesome in the hallway. 

 The arrow is actually pointing towards the bathrooms.  Cool.

 Fire Marshal came out and we passed the inspection.  

Next up is the health department and we're expecting that to happen sometime this next week.

Paul is driving me crazy with his new pickleball obsession.  It's like ping pong but you play it on something similar to a tennis court.  He hasn't played yet, but he's getting the equipment so he can start (not sure when he's going to find the time to do this)!

 It got tired of our backyard looking like crap and the weather has been beautiful, so I tackled this project.  Digging up this mess and creating something beautiful out of it.

 Of course, there is always a helper or two nearby to lend a hand!

This girl is almost 16 years old....I guess she deserves to take it easy.

 Making a new pathway to the garbage cans and making a flower bed.  

Having to axe out tree roots and clean out weeds to make this spot look beautiful

 This is hard work, but it will feel so satisfying at the end to see the final project

 Got the azaleas planted and the mulch done.....just needed Paul's vision to finish off the end of the pathway.  Took until the next weekend to finish it all.......but so pleased with the results:

Now I just need to get that area where the other garbage cans are all fixed up.

 I've got these 3 gorgeous rose bushes to make a new flower bed and plant over by the other garbage can area.

 And once again, I've got a small garden growing again this year.

Cherry tomatoes and jalapenos

Got to hurry and get all my house projects finished up......in the not too distant future, I'll have to be working at the store every day again (boo!)

The exciting events happening in our life this week

We really really wanted to take off and go somewhere this week.  It's a dead week since there was no school nights, not a payroll week, we're not needed at the new store yet, and we're just plain tired and ready to get away.

But unfortunately, a couple of things got in the way.  Our awesome amazing dog sitter is temporarily not watching dogs due to some personal issues and we don't have another one in back up yet.  AND....we also just didn't want to take the energy to plan going somewhere when it could only be a couple of days, plus we do have a million things that still need done around here.

So instead, we hopped in the car on Monday and jumped on back roads going places we had never been and discovering new things.  We were originally headed towards Huntsville, but got side tracked along the way and ended up in Willis, Livingston, a bunch of small tiny Texas towns, and then finally cruising through Huntsville on our way back home.

We stopped at a few little antique stores along the way and picked up some more treasures to adorn the walls of the new PZ:

We worked at the new store the other night trying to figure out where everything needs to go so that we are efficient.  Took a picture of the sign out front with the empty space just waiting for our sign.  Of course, we are still waiting for the County Engineers to approve our building plan.  We have submitted it 3x now and this has been going on for almost a month now.....we are hoping to get approval this week.

Got flowers from the husband this week.  He had a little apologizing to do :-)

We created a Pizza of the Month for April......the Wise Guy.  

We take a picture of it raw for the employees to see how it is made: 

And we take a picture of it cooked so the employees can see how amazingly delicious it is:

And last, but not least......Aaron and Shay bought Wrigley a new dog bed for Christmas.

Unfortunately, Misty the cat thinks that it's hers.

The dog loves the bed so much that she is willing to lay on a corner of it and share it with the cat.

But the dog really hopes that Misty gets her own new bed for Christmas (so she can use it too)

Life is good.

I sometimes just need to keep reminding myself of that!

Let's keep this short and sweet

It's been a crazy ass week.

I need a vacation.

In the meantime.......I'll feel fancy drinking a much needed beer from my favorite glass!

We'll catch up soon.............

The bathrooms are finally done (well 98% of them)

The two new bathrooms are finally decorated and done.....well almost.  We still need to get up the towel holder and toilet paper holder before it can officially be declared as 100% finished.  I still need to find rugs to finish them off.....but having a difficult time deciding what color they need to be to match the tile.

Oh well......here is the amazing transformation:

This is the before shot of the downstairs bathroom:

 (I can't believe how hideous this bathroom looks and how long I left it like that)

This is the after shot:

The downstairs bathroom has been designated as the "beach theme" bathroom

These are the before pictures of the upstairs guest bathroom:

I know.....this bathroom was awful too.....but wait until you see the amazing transformation:

It makes this bathroom even more special to hang pictures that I took during our trip

The theme in this bathroom became "Paris" after finding these cute little metal Eiffel Towers at Big Lots.  It just seemed like a great theme, given the fact we had just been there.

The shower turned out amazing. 

It's been fun shopping for Paris items to decorate the room.....a couple of these items were actually things we brought back with us when we visited!

These bathrooms turned out even more amazing than we could ever imagine.  My husband remarked last night "we have such beautiful bathrooms".....and he never says things like that. Next on the list.....getting the master bathroom fully re-done!

Going down the rabbit hole

The title above has nothing whatsoever to do with this post.  The title actually came from a podcast I listened to today.  I am addicted to listening to talk show type podcasts.  My latest obsession is true crime podcasts.  Every day you'll see me at my computer working away listening to some podcast or another.

As we grow closer and closer to the opening of the new PZ, we've been out searching for cool things to decorate the walls with.  Some of these trips I'm by myself and send pictures to the "boss" to see if he thinks we should get it.  Lately, he's been giving me a bunch of no's.  Here's some of my pics I've sent him:

 I really like this one.  I think I'm going to over rule his decision and go get it.

The rest of these......I'll accept his decision on:

 

This next painting we found in an antique mall and were really drawn to it.

Unfortunately, we found out that it had been sold.  Darn it.

Well we might not always agree on our taste in wall decorations.......but we both agree that this creamy Italian Dressing that he decided to look up a recipe and make for our salad last night, is certainly very delicious.  Glad I have him around.

Has Spring sprung yet?

Every year I get sucked into the warm and fuzzy feeling of Spring and go out and buy lots of flowers and other things to fix the yards up and make them look pretty.  Then about 2 months later, I'm cursing myself for getting all this stuff that makes extra work for me.

This year.....I told my self NO!

Well kind of.  Although, I am cutting way back.

Here's how we spent our day (other than sweating like pigs).

The first thing we had to get done today was put Weed & Feed on all 3 lawns.  Has to be done every March so that the grass will be beautiful all summer long.  I walked up and down the lawns and put the fertilizer on......and Paul got the job of watering it in.  We only got 2 lawns done today because it got too darn hot.  Backyard will be done tomorrow morning!

Bought just a couple of vegetables to plant and bought an Azalea to plan in the front yard.  Still need to get a couple more things to plant in there and then buy mulch and mulch all the flower beds and tree wells.

Cleaned up some junk laying around and getting ready for the trash man tomorrow

Took a selfie.  Note:  this is not a beauty shot.  It was over 80 degrees outside today and I was hot and sweaty.  I still need to learn to hide my fat neck.

Got the cherry tomatoes and the jalapenos planted today.  We plant jalapenos every year, because there is nothing tastier than home grown jalapenos.  I really love having a garden......by the end of the summer it's just a big pain in the butt.....so this year, I went little.

Started getting the front porch cleaned up.  Everything has yellow pollen on it.  We really, really love having this porch and do enjoy sitting on it occasionally (when there is no mosquitos out).

The plant that we had growing up the trellis last year died, so I cleaned all the dead vines up with the intention of buying something new to grow on there this year.

But then.......to my surprise, the trellis plant was sprouting new life!  I'm so excited.  It had the most gorgeous pink flowers covering it all summer long.  I'm going to taking loving care of this so hopefully it will be beautiful again this summer.  Guess I need to get those weeds pulled out of it.

We bought a pressure washer last weekend so that we could clean up a lot of things that need cleaning (driveway, sidewalk, brick walkways, etc.).  How many people do you know that keep a pressure washer in their living room?

Then again.......how many people do you know that keep a working traffic signal in their living room?  We do!

Actually, both of these items are just temporary residents in the living room.

And in other news.......still waiting on the county permit so we can get our inspections done.  We decided that the floors looked crappy after the construction (because the contractors beat the crap out of them).......so we decided to put new flooring in PZ.  

We actually are thinking about putting this product in our living room and my office.  It's really awesome, durable, better quality than laminate, and looks really nice.

But of course, we still need to get this PZ open and get this mess cleaned up.  We need to start making money on this place.......instead of spending it!

Time to take a shower.  I am exhausted.