before and after

my friend chris has a friend maryanne that does staging on the side (maryann's fulltime job is an interior designer), so i figured why not give her a try and see how she does with our house.  she offered such a great deal that we couldn't pass up.  we figured why not - it doesn't hurt, if anything, it'll help selling our house.

maryanne and megan showed up at around 10:00 this morning and finished around 2:30.  at first i thought they were going to put some things together and bamn! our house would be done.  but they went back and forth to see if that certain art work looks right, or if that furniture looks okay in that space, etc.  trust me, i took notes!  all the furniture are ours, with the exception of the dining table.  she said she wanted to break up the white cause our dining table was white.  some paintings are ours and some are maryanne's.  the bedding are all ours.  some pillows are hers and some are ours.  and they thought that our side tables in each of the rooms were very cute - yes, i did tell aaron that they said that :)

i love how the house looks now and i hope that a potential buyer will fall in love with the house too :)  below are before and after pictures.

den

dining area

guest bedroom

guest bedroom

master bedroom

living room

kitchen

master bathroom

guest bathroom

what a good listener

this is what dexter does when you talk to him.  and if you keep talking, he gets all excited thinking (hoping) that you'll give him something. 

gone, but not forgotten

november 20 was riley's birthday.  there is not a day that doesn't go by that i don't think about him.  i miss him terribly, but i'm glad we had five fun years with him.  he is our doggie angel looking down on us from above.  i picture him running around and eating all the yummie treats he could get his paws on.  we love you riley.

find your happy pace

while aaron ran a half marathon in clarksburg (in sacramento), thanhha, ami and i ran a 5k in san francisco.  it was an all women's run called the mermaid run.  our goal was to come in by 45 minutes and we did!  we came in around 43:37.  i am so proud of thanhha and ami!  i think they are ready for the next 5k :).  afterwards, we celebrated with some yummie lunch and ice cream at fenton's. 

weather was gorgeous and you can't beat the view!

our reward for getting up early and running 3.1 miles :)

13.1 miles on toesocks

on halloween morning aaron and his friend ron ran a half marathon from downtown san jose to los gatos high school.  they were just jogging it and their finish time was 1:45.  i guess they would have gone a couple of minutes slower, but this girl passed ron and he couldn't let a girl beat him, so he chased her and of course, passed her. 

aaron in his toesocks.  this helps keep his feet from blistering.  i tried it on and it felt weird!