it's friday the 13th...and i had a run-in with the lawnmower man

so one of the perils of being a stay-at-home wife is that i feel REALLY bad if the hubs does yardwork when he gets home. so last weekend, he cut the backyard, which is HUMONGOUS, and then i was supposed to cut the flat front yard, and the side...except it got hot. so i decided to do it this week.

BAD. FREAKING. IDEA.

it all started yesterday, when i cut the side, and then the front....all's going fine and well and good, minus the fact that it was about 5000% humidity. until...

this. don't be jealous of my artistic representation of my front yard....half cut, and half not. because the lawnmower CUT OFF. and wouldn't come back on. see, we've got an evil contraption of a non-self-propelled mower....so i have to PUSH it. and it wasn't having any of that. so i stopped. and the front yard looked like my awesome picture.

this morning, i decide to man up and finish the job.

going along, minding my own mowing business...until i feel something on my left ankle.

i look down, and there's at least a dozen of these....
EVIL EVIL ANTS.

so it takes me about 4 seconds to get my shoe off, sweep them all off my foot, and bang my shoe on the ground trying to get them all off.

that's right, i'm jumping around ON ONE FOOT IN MY OWN DRIVEWAY. thank goodness we're pretty much the classiest folks in the neighborhood...driveway ant killing doesn't trump setting someone's yard on fire in then trashtrastic neighbor scale.

seriously...who does that happen to?! and more importantly....what's the likelihood i can talk the hubs into letting me out of lawn duty??

it's been one of those weeks

this is how i've been feeling lately....uninspired.

nothing to write, nothing to talk about, not much happening in my life. it's tough sitting at home, and it's tough not having any direction....not knowing what's next, what i want to be next....i've never felt quite this lost.

when i was working, i was a kickass tv producer. i felt comfortable doing my job, i excelled at it, and i KNEW i was one of the best.

but jobs like that will ruin your soul if your heart isn't in it...and my heart hadn't been in it for several years. and staying would have meant legal paperwork, forcing me to stay.

so i left. and i don't regret it...but i am struggling with the change. i'm used to excelling at what i do...and i feel like i'm a mediocre stay-at-home wife. our house isn't spotless, projects aren't done...and i feel like i'm just being lame.

anyone else every left a less-than-stellar job without a plan B? how'd you deal?

the only constant in my life is my daily date with jillian michaels, and even that feels uninspiring. like i'm not pushing myself as hard as i can....because i can just push tomorrow. or the next day.

i know part of this whole melancholy is because it's that time of the month...but it's also just feeling very out of sorts. very un-hayley. my WHOLE life i've had a plan....and now i don't. and it scares the crap out of me...like what if i don't HAVE a passion to pursue? what if i just like a lot of things...and none of them will lead me to a new career path?

perhaps friday will bring more sunshine...but maybe less heat, huh? it's been SWELTERING.

like i need more trash in my life

anyone else watch the trainwreck that is "bad girls club: miami"?? a friend texted me last week about it....i'd heard about it before, but never watched....so i tuned it to the premiere.

OH MY WORD.

these chicks make snooki and jwowww look like freaking emily post, all etiquette-filled and proper. it's UNBELIEVABLE.

one girl spent a night at the club dancing ON THE FLOOR with her underpants hanging out...and one girl is a stripper. from inglewood. like, where dr. dre is from.

by the way, inglewood stripper TOTALLY judged panties-out girl. amazing.

the girls also "voted" and put one girl's stuff on the front porch...and they call her "whore-gan" instead of morgan. so amazing.

seriously, someone has GOT to watch it so i have someone who's not my poor, reality tv-force fed husband to talk to about it...

apparently, i smell primal

happy monday my dears!! the hubs and i had a weekend full of hanging ceiling fans, finding out once again it's a MIRACLE that our house hasn't burned down...and we got a sweet new vanity for our bathroom...can't wait to get it put together and installed!!

also, did a little NON home renovation shopping....
i put on this lotion after my shower today, after getting it for a shopping whole dollar at bath and body works. LOVE when they preview new scents like this, because hello, it's a dollar....plus, the littles are great for traveling.

according to the website, "Our exclusive Dark Kiss is a seductive blend of dark berries with a kiss of vanilla to unleash your most primal passions". umm....i dunno about the primal passion part, but it is a litte berry-vanilla-y. but not as fruity as the black raspberry vanilla from B&BW.

clearly, i have a lotion problem.

i also scored this GORGE transitional dress from ross...for $12.

and yes, i took a picture, and then i put it on facebook, and then the hubs mocked me for doing so. whats the point of mobile uploads if facebook friends can't validate new purchases?? boys don't get it.

it's gonna look so cute saturday at a baby shower/barbecue with my gold sandals....and in a few months, with my boots and my cognac jacket?? so. fly.

and i haven't bought these yet....
but you better believe when my ulta gets the full sized bottles of these new fall essie colors, that green and purple will be coming home with me asap. i keep going for my darker polishes, willing my nails to feel like fall....but it hasn't happened yet. and i guess i oughta rock hot pink and coral and sky blue while i can....

you just gotta watch

since the hubs and i started dating, and since he found about my undying love for rap music, he's let me listen to all sorts of stuff he doesn't like very much.

except for eminem. the hubs is adamant in his hatred for mr. mathers...which i find kinda funny, considering there for awhile em was ALL about the anger.


so when hubs voluntarily turned eminem's new song UP when he heard it on the radio, i was SHOCKED. i dig the song too...but i figured he'd hate it.

and today, when i watched the video for "love the way you lie", i was BLOWN. AWAY. i loathe meghan fox, i think her face just looks skanky...plus, she married david from 90210. who's like twice her age. and i wanna burn that stupid marilyn monroe tattoo off her arm...she looks ridiculous, with all her constant pouting and bombshelling.

but SHE IS AMAZING IN THIS VIDEO. she should stop acting, it won't get better than this. and rihanna? don't even get me started on how ballsy she is for going big for this one.

please watch. it's NOT the radio edit, so be careful at work...but i promise, you WON'T regret it.

why it needs to cool off, version 435

i have officially hit the summer plateau. the point i hit every summer where i am completely convinced it will NEVER be cool again. this happen to anyone else?

i'm sitting here sweating just THINKING about how hot it is outside...and dreaming, longing for fall. leaves on the ground, football on the tv...and fall clothes on my body.
it started with this gorgeous boyfriend cardi i got in the mail from old navy yesterday....for all of $11, i couldn't resist...and the color is GORGEOUS. i wanna wear it with skinny jeans, a tank and boots asap. and some cute gold earrings. but NOOOOO, it's a bazillion degrees right now and i got hot just trying it on!!

and then, tulle sends me an email about a sale. tulle, of the gorgeous coats and awesome prices....i already have 3 of their jackets, one mustard peacoat i wear ALL the time and 2 plaid portrait-neckline ones.

so of course....
i got this, in ivory. for TWELVE DOLLARS. i love the cropped sleeves...and i got a dress and a coat for the hubs. go to tulle's website and click on "sale" to score a deal for yourself!! but be warned....that wait while a coat sits in your closet and you feel like you're gonna melt is BRUTAL.
i also got this pin from anthro, mostly because it's awesome. i'm thinking pinned on cardis, maybe on some ribbon for a belt...maybe on a length of chain like a necklace. LOVES IT!!! and this i can at least wear right now, unlike my other purchases that will wait...and wait....and wait....

i need a closet pep talk with myself...."hayley, tanks are good. so are shorts. in no time at all, you'll be longing for warm sun when it's grey and gross and windy and rainy and cold. and it won't snow...it'll just sleet. so enjoy exposing those arms and legs while you can...it'll be gone soon."

nope, still want fall.

i've never wanted to make out with a home depot employee before....

as i've mentioned, the hubs and i are slowly but surely fixing up our home, in hopes of putting it on the market later this year/early next year. so just about each weekend, we truck up the hill to Home Depot. it's literally less than a quarter mile from our house, so it's super convenient.

and this weekend, was the coup de grace.

behold our kitchen before we moved in. that stove is gone, THANK GOODNESS, but for the most part it's the exact same. with more crap on the countertops. but the white cabinets are there...so are the bright brass fixtures. and the linoleum that "looks" like tile....still there.
and see, the rest of our house is hardwood flooring. other than the bathrooms, and the big downstairs den, we're a hardwood house. and i LOVE it.

so, the hubs and i are at HD yesterday, getting fans to change out upstairs (notice that HIDEOUS brass one in the above photo? it was tossed 2 weeks ago. but the upstairs ones are just as bad). fans in our cart, we head down the tile aisle to the register, because i like browsing.

HD dude: you guys looking to replace your floor?
Hubs: why??
HD dude: seriously, are you guys gonna redo your floor anytime soon?
Hubs: seriously...why??

and then he gestures to the flat cart, with nine boxes on it. tells us the hardwood flooring was specially ordered, and ordered wrong. so they've only got these 9 boxes, and can't put them with the rest of the floors. the boxes are originally about $120 dollars a box.

THEY OFFER THEM TO US AT $1 A BOX.

one dollar. for the price of a value fry at mickey d's, these dudes wanna give me gorgeous, glorious, reddish flooring for my kitchen. i thought the hubs' eyes were gonna bug out of his head. we were all "um, yes please, we'd love them, ring it up asap so you don't change your mind".

$9 people. $9 for a brand-new, way too gorgeous upgrade for my kitchen. and it's close enough in tone to the rest of the wood that we'll just have to figure out a way to cover up the separation between the kitchen and what will be the dining room.

i'm still so excited i can hardly stand it. four cents a square foot people. i don't think you can buy dirt, or boxes for hobos that cheap.