The Basement is Done!

Tom and I are so pleased and thankful to have the basement done. Tom is without a doubt the hardest working, most handy guy I know. We are so excited to have this project behind us and be able to relax in it. We went to Nebraska Furniture Mart on Monday and picked out a new couch. Let the movie nights begin!

Me, enjoying the view.

Before bathroom

NEW bathroom!

Before basement

After Basement

After Basement

A Wedding Celebration Weekend!

After this weekend Tom and I were once again reminded of how fortunate we are! We have THE best friends and family. Ever. Is it possible to be this lucky, blessed, fortunate?! (I could go on and on with the adjectives that describe how happy we are!) We started out the weekend with a visit from my sister, Jessie. It was so fun to have her in town, and we got a lot of wedding errands done. She does a great job of keeping me organized and grounded. Thanks for all you do, Jessie!

Saturday was a BLAST. If I could change on thing about it, I wish that it would have gone slower, or we could do it all over again. I had my wedding shower that my bridesmaids threw for me. It was at my friend, Erica's house. She is quite the party planner. Everything was decorated and put together to a tee. I heard so many compliments on how nicely decorated her home was. (She is available for hire, people! http://www.ericakaydesign.com) Love her!! It was so good to see everyone and I am so appreciate of all the wedding presents Tom and I received. What a brunch with all of my favorite ladies! I will be writing thank you notes for days, and it still won't do justice to how much it all meant to me.

Tom and  both celebrated our bachelor/bachelorette party Saturday night! It was a fun time with all of our good friends. We are both still recovering. I haven't seen any pictures from Tom's yet... I think that might be a good thing. They took a bus to Weston, Mo and went to a small Irish pub up there. I went out in Kansas City and rode the trolly. What a fun night!

My roommate Becca and I out for my bachelorette party!

The spread! I have some amazing friends.

The bridal party and my CUTE wishing tree. Each guest wrote a special note or advice to me! Loved it!

My sweet grandma!

The amazing apron Abby made me. She is talented.

Mrs. Sanford

My cousin, Molly was so sweet and sent me an early bridal shower gift in the mail this week. I was so thrilled to open the package and find a personalized, purple, comfy sweatshirt! The front has 'BRIDE' down the side and the back reads: Mrs. Sanford 4-28-2012. This will be perfect to wear the day of the wedding while getting ready, and on the plane when leaving for our honeymoon, or frankly for the rest of my life! ;) It will be good motivation to stay in shape so I can wear this fabulous sweatshirt forever. I had originally pinned this to my Pinterest board and Molly was so sneaky and found this. It was a very, very thoughtful gift. Thank you Molly!

The sweatshirt really got me thinking about becoming "Mrs. Sanford." I'm not going to lie when Tom and I were filling out our marriage license, and I came across the line that read: New Last Name I had a bit of an emotional breakdown. I think part of it might have been the lack of sleep and stress from wedding planning, but I have been a Connell my whole life, and sometimes change can be hard.

Connell has been good to me, it's gotten me out of a few speeding tickets in El Dorado, alphabetically I always got to go first, and hello... it fits perfectly into the Snoop Dogg rap song. (Ask, and I will gladly sing it for you!) But, on the other end of the spectrum I am SO excited to become a Sanford. I can't wait for Tom and I to start a new "era" and all the wonderful things that will come along with being Mrs. Libby Sanford. Has a nice ring to it, right? Not to mention that people actually know how to pronounce Sanford. It's Con-el people, not Conal. (kidding!)

Random Fact: Were you wondering where Mrs. comes from? Weird!? So was I... 

"Mrs. is a contraction derived from Middle English maistresse, “female teacher, governess or head of household.” <---- That's right, head of household. Whoop whoop!

Tile is DONE

Tom (and I) are so thrilled to have finished the tile this weekend. Chris Thowe came over to help grout and clean the tile. I watched from afar and it looked like a long, messy process. They both came away with huge blisters on their palms. (or battle scars depends how optimistic we are feeling) We sealed the tile Sunday and it takes 2 days to dry.


I included a few pictures so you can see the final look! Tom did an amazing job on the tile, and the pinwheel pattern is VERY hard for a first time "tiler" <--- is that a word? The carpet gets put in Friday and then it's furniture time. We even got a trip to Costco, church, cookout with friends, a wedding dress alteration, a birthday party, and gardening done this weekend too. Shew, that made me tired just typing it. We will be celebrating by having a movie night and tons of popcorn soon!

Looks great, Tom!

The bathroom turned out great. Lots of tricky corners.

Chris hard at work, and a blister to prove it!

The grout color turned out great. (It will show less dirt!)

All done... amazing!

Congratulations Tom!

Tom doesn't like to brag, so I have to for him!! (Plus... I am one proud fiance) Tom received an invitation yesterday to serve on the KU Finance Advisory Board. This is a HUGE honor, and I am so excited for him.

Tom received his MBA from KU in 2009. While he was there he was president of the graduate business council and served on the new building committee. His new duties on the fiance board will include educating students on the field, continuing to help with the facilities, conducting mock interviews, and much more! This is a amazing opportunity for him to work with some great people in the Kansas City/Lawrence area and give back to his school. (Even though we still cheer for the Wildcats!)   ;)

I just had to share the great news! So happy for him. :)

It's Tile Time (Remix of MC Hammer's 'Hammer Time')

Tom and Kyle are putting down the tile in the basement tonight! We are so excited because this is one of our last steps before installing the carpet. Tom borrowed a tile saw from his friend Scott Bird (thanks Scott!!). We bought the tile from Lowe's after shopping all around KC. We decided to extend the tile out farther from where it was and have it run into the bathroom. Tom will have to fill in the details of how this one was done. I just supplied the Pizza and pictures (below). We can't stress enough how lucky and thankful we are to have nice friends that let us borrow equipment and come by to help.

I was thinking about how quickly this BIG project has been (almost) completed today while warding off another anxiety wedding attack. I came to the conclusion that it's actually a good thing that we decided to do this project right dab in the middle of planning a wedding. It's really helped to keep us balanced, work on our 'team' building and communication skills, and kept my mind busy on something besides what color of socks the groomsmen are going to wear.  <--- vital, I know. Can't wait for the new basement!

Kyle and Tom hard at work.

Tom using the tile saw - loudest noise EVER!

Just a little clutter...

And there she lies.

48 Days to Go!

We had another busy weekend of wedding and remodeling activities. Tom helped his last roommate move out of his house while I had a gown alteration and bridal hair trial. (inside scream for joy for all of thee above!)

Then we both headed over to our friends Kyle and Abby's house to make sushi. Chris and Erica were there too! It was so nice to have a relaxing night in with good friends.

We got ALL the painting on the basement done. Things are really coming together and Kyle and Tom are putting the tile down this week. It is so weird (but the greatest thing ever) to come over to Toms and have it just be him. No loud, messy roommates... sorry Jon and Phil. It really is a good taste of what our lives will be like in just a couple short months. I can't wait!

From Vegans to Ominvores in One Weekend: 3-3-12

This was an eventful weekend, as most of them are these days. We started out our weekend with a trip to a local vegan restaurant called FUD. Tom started off with a chocolate milkshake (the proper way to start any dinner, right?) It was amazing! I was super jealous after I ordered my carrot, beet, and orange juice. His shake had caramel sauce of maca, mucuna, lucuma, agave & mineral salt with cashews. I would love to find out the nutritional info of the shake because it tasted just as good as a chocolate milkshake but, I am sure was healthier. Then we both got a Mexican style dish that included; wild rice "meat," or spicy seasoned green jack fruit, goji cheddar, guacamole, pico, and lemony sour cream. Overall we give it 4.3 out of 5 stars on the Libby and Tom dining scale.  It was fun to try some local vegan cuisine.
Service: 4.3
Price For What You Get: 5
Drinks: 4.8
Food: 5

The remains of a vegan taco.

The yummy shake and the...interesting juice.

Fun decor! (sorry about the sideways pic)

On Saturday we headed to an event at a new local butcher shop in Kansas City. The Local Pig opened up in Kansas City's East Bottoms. The event was a lot of fun and we are excited about the addition to Kansas City. Good music, delicious food, good company... how can you go wrong? We tried their bourbon bacon for breakfast on Sunday at it was VERY tasty.


To top off the weekend we had a visit from my little brother, Tristan. He helped us paint and we finished off the night with the movie. We really enjoyed having him up!

Inside the Local Pig

They have "meaty option" you could ever imagine

 I apologize for this picture... gross. This is the pig head, that originally was on the body of the pig we ate.

The FitzGeralds and (soon-to-be) Sanfords at the Local Pig

60 Days and Counting!

This was a big week for Tom and I in the wedding planning process. We sent out our invitations, and have already gotten a few RSVP cards back in the mail. Coming home from lunch to find out you got snail mail, is pretty much the best thing ever. We were so pleased with the way our invitations turned out. Chris Thowe ( a good friend that is a graphic designer) designed them, and a friend at work helped me print them. We are so lucky to have such talented, kind friends in our lives. 

We attended an open house at our reception site. It really made things really to walk around, and discuss table settings, room decor, and stand in the spot where we would first dance as Mr. and Mrs. Sanford. They threw a great event and had several caterers in attendance that resulted in over eating, and a free dinner. After the open house we zipped over to the church to meet with our piano/organist at the church, Gloria. She is the sweetest little old lady, I just wanted to hug her... but didn't feel that was appropriate. She walked us through our music selection, and was very very helpful. We have some fun things picked out to make the wedding more personal for Tom and I. Music has a way of setting the mood and really making things real. Hearing Gloria play the songs on the organ that will be at our wedding gave me chills. I cannot wait.

Ready to mail! A beer was necessary to get through this.

A SNEAK PEAK of our venue site. We are so excited to dance the night away with good friends and family!

The invitation assembly line. The whole process only took a few hours - (I had great help!!)

Things are coming along well, and there are just a couple months of planning left. My little brother is coming up this weekend and we are putting him to work painting. We finally made a decision on paint, carpet, tile, and are ready to rock and roll. We are getting better at this remodel thing, one day at a time.