Your Questions Answered
/This is lengthy. Grab those Christmas cookies and a caffeinated beverage before you start. You might be here awhile. I am going to answer them all though. (Some better than others.)
This post is about Nate and I. A post all about Ike will be coming soon!
First, I can’t believe most of you answered all of those random questions that I posted.. I wouldn’t have played along that well. I found most of them by Googling “weird interview questions.”
The easy stuff: Where are you from? How old are you? Do you have babies? Fur or human. I’m from Iowa. I am 29. Ouch. 1 beautiful fur baby.
Using a scale of 1 to 10, rate yourself on how weird you are. You all read this thing. I’m going with an 8.2…and I’m proud of it.
If you could be any superhero, who would it be? I would have skipped this one. Superheroes aren’t my thang.
What do you do from 9-5? I am a pharmacist in a medical clinic for those in need. I check about 200-250 prescriptions in that time frame. I also education patients on their medications and answer random questions like “If I don’t take my blood pressure pills today, what will happen?” “Your blood pressure may go up.” “That’s what I thought. Thanks.”
If you were a cookie, what kind would you be? A chocolate chip cookie, of course. Classic and wonderful.
Favorite TV show? Movie? TV: I have a lot. I love my DVR. How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, Two Broke Girls, Whitney, Mike and Molly, Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, Amazing Race Movie: Elf and Thirteen Going on Thirty. Don’t judge.
Favorite Book? My all time favorite is Charlotte’s Web. I also really enjoyed The Help and The Five People You Meet in Heaven,
Favorite exercise DVD: MTV Yoga and Ripped in 30. My preferred form of exercise is walking. When it’s nice out, the three of us walk an hour a day 6-7 days per week. I noticed that most of you don’t exercise. I am going to get on my soapbox now….as a medical professional, I strongly encourage you to exercise. Read this blog on a treadmill. You will thank me.
A funny story about yourself. I would have skipped this question. I hate coming up with stuff like this. You all are troopers. Wait, this whole blog is a funny story about myself.
Now onto reader questions. I seriously answered them all. If I happened to miss yours, let me know. Here they are in the order that they were received.
How did you come to love home improvement, decorating, etc Did you always love it? My love for home improvement has sort of evolved over the years. We dabbled in it at our first house. Decorating has been more a recent thing. I enjoy making our home pretty and I am slowly developing an eye for what looks good/suits our lifestyle. Furniture, paint colors, and fabric ideas are always swimming around in my head.
How did you and Nate meet? One of my good friends from high school went to college with Nate. She kept trying to set us up. We kept telling her “no thanks.” We finally caved and went on our first date on 02-02-02. Aw.
What would you do if you weren't saving the world one prescription refill at a time? I wish I had the answer to this question. I’ve been sort of pondering a career change but just can’t decide what would be a good fit for me. The answer will come to me soon. I can feel it. Or I’ll just stick with being a pharmacist. It’s not bad. Just stressful.
Do you live where you grew up, or have you moved around a bit? I grew up in Dayton, Iowa. A town of 900 people. No stop lights. It’s about 3 hours from here. My family is still there so we visit often. We are living in the town that Nate grew up in. His parents live a block away.
Favorite Christmas song? I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
Do you really still want to be my friend after reading all this about me? Yes.
What's your next big house project? Our office and basement are my next victims.
When are we going to meet IRL? I had a couple of these type of questions. I’m surprised by this. I’m awkward. And weirded out by meeting people from the internet. But Kim from NewlyWoodwards didn’t chop me into tiny pieces so I am more open to the idea now.
Are you going to get another dog? Nope. Ike is plenty of dog for us…and our house!
Hypothetical last meal, what would it be? Pepperoni pizza and ice cream. Any flavor.
Travel: if you could go anywhere & cost was not an issue, where would you want to go the most? Fiji. I’m not sure why it’s on my list. It just is.
Your are stuck on a desert island, and you can only bring 5 things with you (things, not people mind you), what are they? Oh gosh. 1. Chapstick. I get all irritated when I am out of chapstick. 2. Sunscreen. SPF 1000. Skin cancer is bad. 3. A lot of diet dew. I need to stay awake to defend myself against predators. 4. A blanket. I like to be covered. Even if it’s hot. 5. A really large book collection to keep me entertained. Can I go there now?
Favorite historical era? I’m not smart enough to answer this question.
Favorite animal? (Besides Ike, because obviously he's got the #1 fuzzy 4legged spot in your heart) I like elephants. They melt my heart. Ike and I want one.
Besides fixing up your pad, playing with Ike, and house-y stuff, what do you do for fun? That is my fun. I also enjoy bonding with friends and family, reading, and walking.
Is your house every messy? Yes. But not very often. I’m a complete neat freak. Clutter and mess make me nervous.
How often do you clean your house? I clean my kitchen and pick up “stuff” daily. Waking up to a messy kitchen makes me all fidgety. I clean the rest of the house once a week. I try to break it up during the week. Upstairs one night. Downstairs the next. This doesn’t always work with our schedules. Other times I just do one mad spree on the week-end. I find it easier to lightly clean once a week…it keeps me from going insane.
Do you edit all of your pics? The lighting in my house yanks it. Any suggestions on what tools to use in picnik? I don’t edit all of my pics. Depends on how much time I have/how lazy I am. A lot of time I just use the “auto fix” option. I think I’ll do a picnik tutorial soon!
Why do you live in Idaho or is it Iowa? Something with an I! We live in Iowa for a couple of reasons. Number 1 would be because our families are here. Last week-end we were able to attend our niece’s 1st birthday party, visit my grandpa in the hospital (he’s doing well!), and meet our newest niece. We spent 6 hours in the car but it’s nice being able to spend time with all of them..all in one day. I can’t imagine how sad it would be if our nieces and nephews didn’t know us. Number 2 is that we are Iowa loving people. We were born and raised here. We love the smell of dirt, green grass, and pesticides. Owning a house was important to us and the cost of living in Iowa is very affordable!
What's your fav flavor of icecream? I’m always a fan of chocolate brownie.
Have you ever played the game quelf? It's awesomely fun. I have never played Quelf…but it does sound fun. My favorite game is Quirkle.
Where did you go to college? I have a BA in biology from the University of Northern Iowa and my PharmD is from the University of Iowa. Nate has a BA in accounting from Wartburg College.
If you had kids, what would you name them? I don’t share baby names because I’m afraid people will steal them. The names. Not the babies. I guess that should be a concern as well.
Are you planning on having kids? If so, please don't get baby crazy like so many other bloggers do. and When are you guys having kiddos? Imagine, Decor, the baby and the dog blog? That blog name is frightening. We are still debating the kid thing. I think the eventual answer is yes…but who knows. We are both loving our lives right now and aren’t quite ready to change that. Waiting to have kids has been a great decision for us. We have both discovered things that we are passionate about in the past couple of years. I’m not sure that I would have discovered my love for blogging/design if I was covered in baby poop. Nate may not have taken such an interest in photography..let alone taken the time to learn as much as he has. If we do go the kid route, I can’t guarantee that I won’t go baby crazy (have you seen how we spoil our dog?). I feel that finding ourselves as individuals will help prevent that from happening though. I think sometimes people get so wrapped up in their children that they forget they are human beings themselves.
Do you ever drop stuff on Nate from the top story of your house? I think you all have a balcony area right? I do drop stuff on Nate. Our balcony is quite handy for chucking things like cell phones and socks. Ike gets very confused when it starts raining bones.
What rooms in your house haven't you shown us? You can check out all of the rooms in our house in a post I wrote awhile back (check it out here!). The post contains all rooms except for a couple of storage rooms.
What is your favorite trend right now? What decorating trend do you hate that everyone else seems to love? I’m not much on trends. I kind of do my own thing. I do like stripes. I hate buntings. I want to set them all on fire.
How do you budget for your home improvement/decorations. Do you set funds aside just for it to use on a whim or plan & save for months before taking the plunge? I think we have a different budget approach than a lot of people. We keep X dollars in our savings. Nate and I each have an allowance of X dollars which we can spend on whatever we want without asking the other. Mine is usually house stuff. Nate doesn’t usually spend his. Whatever is left over after our monthly payments (mortgage, electricity, etc) goes to paying off my student loans. If my “allowance” is used up with something annoying like car tires, then I just don’t buy stuff for the house that month. For really big purchases, we just don’t contribute as much to my student loans that month. We don’t do that often because we want the darned things paid off.
Can you post more about your yard? I am completely clueless about the rhythm of gardening here in IA (whatdoyoumean, seasons?). Although it's been remarkably warm this week. It has been warm. We’ll do more yard posts this spring. I need some motivation to tackle some outdoor projects.
You've gone thorough the process of actually building your house, but I'd love to know more about what you had to do before you picked up the hammers. The process of picking out your home, finding your lot, and what not. This is another good blog post idea. I’m on it.
--Do you drive your husband crazy with your constant re-decorating? My husband doesn't allow stuff like that, I have to be sneaky! Yes. But deep down I think he likes it. I can always tell he’s onboard with an idea if he doesn’t argue with me. He now knows that changing things is my thing so it doesn’t really bother him any more. I should probably verify that this information is accurate….
Is the pillow in the pic with Ike a cable knit sweater pillow? If so, where is it from? I need it! It is. I made it. Read about it here
Do you have any tips for spiffing up an ugly cinder block basement? I am totally not helpful on this one. Sorry. Anyone else out there?
Why do you not pack up your hubby (or leave him at home) and come visit Reno? This may or not be from one of my favorite college friends. The answer is actually a question. Why are plane tickets to Reno so expensive? If I do come out, can we go to Tahoe?
If you refuse to come visit Reno, can I move into your basement? It's walk-out so you would never have to see me......think on it. I'll wait. Yes, if you beat my brother to it.
There you have it. Answers to everything you could possibly want to know about us. Let me know if you have more. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments! Thanks for playing along…better than I would have! Ike questions coming up later this afternoon!
***Don’t forget to enter the giveaway from Cutting Edge stencils. Enter here!***
