A Cheaper Alternative

Those who have been in our house know that one of my favorite stores is West Elm. Although I absolutely love everything in their store, I often have a hard time justifying the prices of their products. When looking through their catalog recently, I saw some wall art that I really liked. Being the cheap person that I am, I decided that I could easily replicate the pictures and make them them more to my liking. So a few days later, I came home with 3 large canvases to begin my latest project. After countless hours of painting, I have developed a newfound respect for artists. I think it's safe to say that I'll be putting away the paint brushes for a while.

West Elm's

Our Project

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Biggest Loser?

Last night, one of our friends told me that I look like a girl off "The Biggest Loser." Considering they're only in their 2nd week on the show, I don't think I can really take that as a compliment. You tell me...is Rebecca my long lost twin?

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Another Year Older

This weekend we celebrated Ryan's 26th birthday. For his gift, our parents and I gave him money so he could buy whatever he wanted. We spent Saturday afternoon shopping and after careful consideration, he decided he wanted a new gun. (There's no doubt that Ryan is ALL "boy.")

Luckily, his birthday fell on Labor Day this year so we were able to spend the day together. To celebrate, we went to the Diamondbacks game with his brothers. Although the D-back lost, it was fun getting to spend the day with family and friends. I hope you had a great birthday Ry!

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Home Owner Nazi's

Today marks a momentous occasion as it is the day we received our first HOA violation. When Ryan walked up the stairs to tell me we received a violation, my mind began thinking of what we could have done to get ourselves in trouble. As far as I'm concerned, we're the best residents in the neighborhood - we always pay our outrageous HOA fees on time, we haven't put anything obtrusive in our yard, and we always take our garbage cans in and out on the right days. So take a look at what our wonderful home owner's association had to say...

"The following non-compliance issue with respect to your property was noted on 08/17/2009: All trash containers must be identified by the owner's unit number. Identification stickers will be provided by the Association and attached to the front of the container by the unit owner. Stickers were mailed to you when you received your pool keys. If you did not receive a sticker, please contact AAM."

Not only did we never receive the stickers, but we've never even heard anything about this policy until now. I just can't help but laugh at the thought of someone actually taking the time to notice something so inconsequential and then taking the time to report it.

So today will officially go down in history as the day we received our first HOA violation. And from the looks of it, I'm sure there will be many more to come!

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