Deep cleaning, and some pictures (finally)!

This is the third morning in a row that I've woken up before 6. At least today I made it till 5:30 rather than 5... And two out of those three mornings, I've been woken up not of my own volition, but by this little dear climbing on my side table:

I don't know what I'm going to do with her... Actually, I do know one thing. I'm going to put her on a diet. Because she is getting very very very fat... I've been doing research about pet foods, and I was horrified to realize what she's been eating. Basically the equivalent of McDonald's ... no wonder she's fat. So we're switching to better (more expensive, boo) pet food. Anyway, the kitty and I had a little iPhone photo shoot the other day...

Her favorite place to sit is on my knees. She's not the biggest fan of being held like a baby ... right after I took that picture, she wiggled out of my arms. She really is a pretty kitty, she just needs to lose, oh, about 3 pounds...

Also, because I've been such a bad blogger lately and haven't posted any pictures of my exciting things lately, I decided to give you all a sneak peek before I get my pictures printed...

Here's our fence that we built last Monday (which I actually had a dream about last night - the maintenance people weren't very happy with us for building it, and I'm not quite sure why...)

It looks pretty darn good, I think...

And here is my dresser!! Let me see if I can find you a picture of what we started with...

It's a pretty bad picture, but this is in our first apartment. The dresser is that white ugliness with the crooked handles... It was a handed-down hand-me-down, as is a lot of the furniture in our house...

And here is the finished product, which I LOVE, am SO proud of, and looks FANTASTIC in our room and with our bedding and other furniture...

TADA!!!

I love it :) 

We still don't have a puppy picture yet, but I do promise that you guys will see it when I get one :) Currently, I am deep cleaning/puppy-proofing my house, otherwise known as being-a-grown-up... Yesterday, I cleaned the kitchen (INCLUDING the inside of the oven, but that's a whole different story...) and then headed upstairs to start my systematic Go-Through-The-House-and-Deep-Clean-Everything Project. My thought process here: we're bringing a little six-week-old puppy home in three weeks, and I want everything to be spotless and the floor to be as clean and tidy as it can get, so there are less things for sweet puppy to get into. Case in point: I vacuumed underneath our bed for the first time in, oh, I don't know, ever. So far, the bedroom is complete, and the bathroom is half done (I still have to scrub the shower tomorrow), and the office is about half done. This is also the beginning of the Chore List Initiative, which I caved and did the other day. As much as I hate them, I am thrilled with the prospect of always having a clean house. (I've also been inspired by Hoarders on A&E which I've been watching on Netflix ... I never ever ever ever want my house to look like that. Ugh. *shudder*)

Now, the story of the oven ... so, I said the other day that it was smoking and I didn't get to make lasagna, right? Well yesterday I deep cleaned it pretty well. We don't have a clean setting on our oven, so you have to just use elbow grease, and my favorite cleaning product, Bar Keeper's Friend. I cleaned everything but the very back, which I couldn't reach because of the oven door, and part of the top. Turned it on, left it on for about 10 or 15 minutes, and it started smoking. Again. So there's definitely something wrong with it. I called about 10 am yesterday, and the maintenance people were tied up with other issues. Apparently they were tied up all day, because they never came (even after I called again...) So we cooked lasagna at Andy and Suzie's house last night... Hopefully they will come today, because I can't survive for very long without an oven.

I'm sorry this has gotten so lengthy (AND it's probably boring, so that's two strikes, but oh well...) If you've made it to the end, I salute you :) Happy Thursday!