Traveling Traveling Traveling!

So last weekend we got to travel to Telluride Colorado to see Will and Lacey tie the knot. We have been to Telluride a few times to see them and hang out but this time was extra special. 1. We had never been in the summer and the weather was like heaven and 2. They were getting married. Here are some pics from some of our previous trips.  (Me, Clay, Leslie, and Ben usually follow Shannon and Lacey where ever they move to in the world)

LA Trip 2007

Skiing Telluride in 2008

Skiing Telluride in 2009

Telluride 2011

We always have so much traveling with them because its always some kind of crazy fun adventure we find ourselves on. Here is to many more vacations together!

Boy oh Boy what a Bundle of Joy!

Welcome to the world Brenan Evans Klinner.

Aren’t you shocked with the weight? If we would have had a pool and bet on the under Clay and I might have won! It is shocking to everyone how tiny he is being that he is a Klinner. If you know the Klinner’s the boys are not on the smaller end of the spectrum. Hence one of the reasons I am scared to have a boy. The other reason is that I am scared after all the joking regardless of what his name is that  he will be called Bobby Clay.

Backtrack story. Clay said he wanted to name his kid Robert Clayton…

Me: That is such a pretty name…we could call him Robert, Bobby, Clayton, there are so many names that we could choose from…

Clay: No we will call him Bobby Clay (said in a very redneck voice)

Me: (in my head)Oh Lord what am I in for…..

Tis the season!

So weddings and babies and more weddings and hopefully more babies consume our lives right now. I hope I got that  order right...(I just shook an eight ball and read my weegie board so we will see how that turns out…not really). However, babies are more of a science prediction in regards to their dates where as wedding events (as many know too well) are planned well in advance. At times it’s overwhelming but not so much lately. So this weekend we are going to celebrate Leslie and Ben in their engagement shower.

So about Les and Ben…we really didn't get close until our zip codes became the same. (Yes I get that they were the same in highschool but I thought it was a clever way to say she lives basically one street over from me) Leslie is the person which set Clay and I up in an inadvertently way. Where do I start with this couple…...the words that come to my mind: fun, crazy, and always up for a good time. On any given late night, basketball game, football game, snow day occasion you can find us camped out at Leslie’s house with our other favorite zip coders (Margot and Chris) and it usually ends up way too late and always WAY too much fun and usually the guys have to pratically make us leave. God love the guys that put up with us. We look forward to many more fun memories to come which I fully anticipate participating in all of them regardless where we live. Zip code and all. 

This is what is scheduled next (I think it will be first) a baby boy Klinner. Blog post designated specially for when baby Beck enters the world.

Round three: Telluride for Lacey and Will’s wedding. Who doesn’t love a destination wedding…clearly I do! Dueto moving wound the world and all of her wedding planning Lace and I rarely get time to hang out much, but she is such a special friend which I know will always be there for us. It's a comfortable feeling knowing that if we don’t talk for a while we still pick up exactly where we left off...

Even though all our true friends have at one time or another gone different paths or different ways…the constant of our friendships remain the same.

Cheers to all the exciting events to come!

Money Pit

So the verdict on the AC....just replace it.

After several quotes we decided to go with Rodd Dunn (205) 470-6814.  If you need a HVAC guy...call him.

So this is going to be a long post because I need to fully explain the title. I wanted to buy a house when I got my first job because I had been saving for a while so I did. And this was it. Two months later TIMBEERR....

Yes. The beautiful tree which made me fall in love with the house was gone. Trying to be thrifty I told Clay I wanted him to cut it down (insert how I didn't know what kind of task I was asking) he agreed. It did take a while as one could imagine. This was mid process when some creep from Google maps decided to take a picture of my house to upload to Google street view.

Weird. Anyway. Clay and I got engaged and he wanted to redo my house. This was the abbreviated convo.

Clay: why don't we redo your floors?

Me: (being they were beautiful and somewhat very cheap due to what clay does) I think that is a great idea.

So the demo of my house began.

We were not even a week into construction. Another convo.

Clay: while we are doing this let's do the bathroom too. It’s going to look awful if we don't.

Me. (After we got pricing.) Sure. I agree 

Until we demoed the bathroom and…you guessed it...well maybe not. Termites.   Wonderful.

Next up I come home to this.

 We apparently didn’t just need a new bathroom but a kitchen as well at this point I threw my hands up and just said fine. I don't really think Clay knew what he was getting into. He did a great job handling not only the stress (he coordinated and dealt with everything because I refused to) but myself as well. I can remember many times talking loudly yelling. “I just want this to be done.” A few weeks before we got married it was finished. Thank you Lord.

Den Before/ After

Kitchen Before/ After

Bathroom Before/After

Bedroom Before/After

 

The ceilings in the den (thanks to Clay) 

So now the purchase of my ever decreasing in value (thank you Birmingham tax assessor evaluation) house we got another pitfall with the AC. I remember watching the movie "The Money Pit"when I was younger (not sure why) but I am thinking of changing our names to Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. (Google it and or rent it if this doesn’t make sense). I had heard the following from many people during this period. “If you can make it through and engagement (yes planning a wedding is very stressful) or if you can make it through a renovation (just as stressful) you will be a stronger couple.” Well I guess we are both still alive after everything and doing double duty with the two things people had warned me about I say we succeeded.

As a girlscout would say "Make new friends but keep the old........" (we dont actually believe in that for air units I just thought it was funny)

So.........I get this sounds very glass half empty. But as I grit my teeth and write this I am forcing myself to say. Money is an object. I have family and a roof over my head. If I had to guess many people in the world would gladly trade places. As I have always believed someone will always have it worse than you and someone will always have it better than you.