Project time

We have lived in our house for almost 5 years now!  Wowza!  In the last several months, we have done a few things to give it a face lift.  We originally thought we would live here only around 7 years, but with the housing market in our area still falling we realized we might be here longer.  And with that, I started like a mad woman.  Of course Dave always looks at me like I am crazy, but he enjoys building just as much as I do.  Painting....is another story for him.  :)  

This is our most recent project.  We built in our refrigerator!  We would not have added an extra cabinet in the middle, but we had to have a way to push the fridge further back towards the wall.  For clarification - the water line is set about 6 inches out from the baseboard, which has always made the fridge stick out at least 4 inches further than it should.  To fix this problem, we took a pre-fab cabinet and cut holes in it to accommodate the water line and outlet.  Then we used plywood and the existing wall cabinet to build in our refrigerator.  Now, we just have to add trim.  And then we will build all of the cabinets up to the ceiling and paint.  I just know it will be beautiful when we finish!  Can't wait!

Working hard!

My good friend Vanessa is having a sweet baby boy very soon.  Last fall she asked me if I could help her put together a budget friendly nursery and of course I said yes!  Budget decorating is my fave thing!  She already had an idea for what she wanted .... aqua and gray with a touch of orange a brown.  

So, we found the right fabrics and put everything together.  

I don't have the final pictures yet, but I do have a teaser!

Holiday Season

Just wanted to post a few pics from the holidays.  Over Thanksgiving we had Dave's mom, stepdad, and one of his younger brothers here.  We half smoked/half baked a turkey :) and had dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and rolls.  It was all yummy!  Dessert was crack brownies (brownies with peanut butter cups, marshmallows, and peanuts).  Hayden and Livee ended up having strep by the end of the week, so that put a damper on things.  And by that Sunday, I had come down with it as well.   I had at least gotten the tree up before I got sick, so Christmas prep just needed a bit of finishing.

Christmas was a nightmare to plan this year because of Dave's work schedule (he's still off on Thursdays and Fridays) conflicting with Hayden's school schedule (he didn't get out until the Friday before Christmas).  We had everything planned out with a lot of running around on our parts.  The weekend before Christmas Dave's mom and siblings came over to celebrate.  Christmas day we were going to drive to B'ham for lunch with the Dave's dad's side and come home that evening.  Then we were going to drive to Muscle Shoals on Wednesday evening after he got off of work.  He would come back Friday and the kiddos and I would stay until Monday.

On Christmas Eve morning, Dave went to work.  A little later, I received a call from his father that his beloved Granddaddy had died.  I finally got in touch with Dave and he came home.   The funeral was scheduled for Thursday, so Dave secured his bereavement days and we replanned our holidays.  We still stayed home for Christmas morning and left that day for Birmingham.  We headed to Muscle Shoals on Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday.

We were reminded this holiday season how important it is to tell your loved ones how you feel as often as you can.

Here are some pictures:

Halloween Pics

For Halloween this year we had an astronaut and a mini "Dorothy".  H's astronaut costume was a gift for his birthday and I had to talk him into wearing it.  I guess he thought it wasn't cool enough, but he enjoyed it when everyone told him how cool it was at school.  I made Livee's dress this year and was so proud of how it turned out.  It took me a solid day of sewing, but she has worn it so many times it really has made it worth it.  We trick-or-treated around our circle with a couple of our friends and then Dave came home.  Livee stayed with him to hand out candy and I took Hayden up his friend's street for more trick-or-treating.  We had a blast!

Blast From the Past

10 Pounds Down!

I am down 10 and feeling great!  I haven't exercised in about a month, but I have been continuing limiting sugar (with an occasional splurge).  In addition, I have incorporated trying to eat vegetarian lunches and dinners several times a week.  I honestly think that this has also helped my weight loss.