Make-up Drawer

So, today, in my adventures of spring cleaning, decided that I was going to clean out my make-up drawer in the bathroom. Considering it was one of the "big tasks" in the bathroom, I wanted to tackle it first.

Now... that makes it sound like I have a TON of make up. I really don't, it's just everywhere! So, what I did was this
1) took the entire drawer out of the cabinet
2) tried to figure out HOW I was going to organize my drawer and still keep it free
3) aimlessly searched around the house for a while
4) spied a USPS flat rate shipping box
5) folded shipping box to see if it would fit
6) jumped up and down with joy that it did
7) cut apart shipping box
8) super glued sections into box
9) painted box a pretty shade of green
10) waited not so patiently for the paint to dry
11) loaded junk back into drawer
12) marveled at my creation while husband asked "That took you an hour to make?" *insert evil glare*

And... that was about all I got accomplished today. It was a pretty big thing! Not really...

I did manage to get a before (after all the junk I was going to throw away was weeded out) and after picture! :-D

(click it to make it bigger)

Now, instead of digging around screaming "WE'RE GONNA BE LATE TO CHURCH!!!!!" I can quickly find exactly what I'm looking for. I'm quite proud of my little drawer divider, even if it is only made out of cardboard, super glue, and paint. 

Now all I have to do is put things back in the right spots when I'm done with them and I will be doing great! :-)

I'M ALIVE!! (sorta...)

So, I've been UA (for you non-military folk that's Unauthorized Absence) for a while. I apologize. I really do. But... life has been getting in the way of my blogging time! Quite a few things have happened since my last blog post!

1) I did, in fact, start C25K! Tho, I did skip this morning and now I feel like a total poop for not going. I did 3 weeks of the program and didn't skip any days, and then I miss this morning! *pout* To be honest, I THOUGHT I was going to be sick this morning. Not like, throwing up sick, but stuffy nose, sore throat sick. It turns out that it was only because of sleeping all night that my nose was stuffy and my throat hurt. As I lay there saying to myself "I'm sick... I hate being sick!" trying to battle dogs and hubby for bed space and blankets, I realized that I really wasn't sick and I was starting to feel much better, but, by that time it was getting to late to go running. :-( If it's not raining in the morning I will go, if it is, it looks like Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I will have back to back running days! ACK!

2) Monkey got a cell phone and we cut the house phone. Who really needs a house phone anyways? Other than Bug... who now doesn't have a phone number for her friends to call her at.. other than my cell phone. Oh well, I guess I don't mind too much. Does it make me question whether she should have her own phone? Sure! Does the thought of my 7 (almost 8) year old having a cell phone make my eye twitch and question my sanity? Absolutely!

3) We got a free paint sample from Valspar, and I chose a color close to the one that we will be using to paint Bugs room. It's really pretty up on the wall, but we've got a LOT to do before we can paint her room. I do have plans to put up a cork board so she can hang all of her papers and whatnot and not have tiny holes all over her walls. There are a few other things that I would like to do for her room as well, like put up a chandelier and other things, but, that's not in the budget right now.

4) My sister and her girlfriend are coming down to visit us in about 2 weeks! I'm SO excited!! I haven't seen them since Christmas 08, which was right before Sam and I got married, and the kids haven't seen them since summer of 09! Wow... crazy to think that I've gone that long without seeing parts of my family. I seen my mom and my other sister just this past summer, but I haven't seen my brother since December of 08 either. I guess at some point in time we're going to have to go to Ohio for a visit.

5) I have no idea which days are which on my P365. I'm a terrible photo taker, and I feel like a failure. :-( I'm going to restart it today

6) I'm a thief, but it's okay, I was told to steal by the original owner. (Yes... that sounds strange... LOL) We live at the end of a cul de sac. There are 19 houses on our street. We have the neighbors with the giant house, and then Mr Toms old place. Mr Tom lived across the cul de sac from us, and right beside our neighbor, which would make him our neighbor as well. Well, Mr Tom is an older gentleman, and he sold his house (which was GORGEOUS and I wish we would have bought it instead of ours) and moved into a nursing home. Mr Toms wife passed away right before we moved in (I think). Mr Toms wife always planted beautiful flowers all over the place. The new owners aren't taking very good care of the place, and currently aren't living there because there is no electric or water. Well, Mr Tom told our neighbor to go ahead and take any of the plants that she wants because they're going to waste because nobody is taking care of them. So, my neighbor and I went over there and pulled up quite a few flowers and a couple of Forsythia (I think... LOL) and planted them in MY yard! So... that makes me a thief. :-/

7) I still haven't finished trimming the Crepe Myrtle. I dunno how the heck I'm gonna reach the branches way at the top without tromping all the flowers underneath! I guess I will have to see if someone has a ladder I can borrow. Oh the joys of not having a shed! We're going to have to remedy that very soon! I'm tired of my lawn mower being outside under a tarp, and my gardening tools being in my laundry room! *grumble*

8) I am a parent of a Pee-Wee Football cheerleader. Bug BEGGED us to let her be on the squad this year. So, after a talk with Grammy and Panpaw Punkin-head, she had a check in the mail for the cheerleading fee. (Yes, we're poor... but we're working on that!) We signed her up on Saturday, and she even seen one of the girls in one of the other 2nd grade classes from her school signing up as well! She's very excited to get started. Maybe when we get all our debt paid off we can afford to send her to some tumbling and cheerleading classes! I'm sure she would love that.

9) We've started a "Family SOP" system here in our house. We just implemented it on Saturday, but, so far it's working well. My living room and dining room are spotlessly clean, and the kids rooms are pretty clean as well, and the kids/guest bathroom is rather clean to boot! That just never seems to happen, but it is! The only thing left to perfect is that kitchen. It will get there. I gave Sam the task of putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and I get to hand wash all the pots and pans.

10) I don't know what else to write about right now... but I will think of something, hopefully tomorrow, and be back! :-D

Yes... I suck... I'm sorry!!

So.. I know I missed P365... and I've been terrible about taking pictures this past week as well. It's so close to P365 for THIS week that I'm just going to wait and post them all together. I'm sorry guys!

There has been quite a bit going on, but it seems like nothing at the same time!! I always feel like I'm busy, but it never seems like much of anything gets done! *sigh!*

Well, I'll just drop a little update down for everyone. After the news of Sam going to Wounded Warrior barracks was handed out, he gave me a little more info. He's not sure that they're even going to approve it, and even if they do, it's only for 90 days at first. If it takes longer than 90 days to get him out of the Marine Corps they can either ship him back to his unit, or keep him at the WW until he is out. Either way, he will be able to focus more on getting out of the Marine Corps and finding employment and whatnot.

A new development for me is, on Monday 14March2011, I'm going to start the Couch 2 5K program. It's basically a running "program" that helps get you in shape to run a 5K (or approximately 3 miles). You can find out more about it here. I downloaded a program on my phone that helps time you. It gives audible beeps for when you're supposed to switch from walking to running. It's quite the nifty little gadget! It essentially gets you from couch potato to 5K runner in a matter of 9 weeks by only working 3 days a week! Of course, I would really like to run MORE than 3 days a week, ideally I would like to run every day!!

The reason why I decided that I wanted to start the C25K program (Couch 2 5K for those that weren't paying attention) is because there is a 1 mile, 5k, 10k, and half marathon here in Jacksonville for the Wounded Warriors. It's called Hope For The Warriors and I would REALLY like to run it! It's only $20 for a single person, but, there is an option for the entire family, which is $65. There is a discount for Sam since he is a Wounded Warrior, tho I'm not sure what that would be. Monkey is on board for doing it. I figure Monkey and I could probably run the 5k, and Bug and Sam could walk the mile.

On another note. The weather here is icky!!

{via wunderground}

That red circle is where we are. Tho it's not as bad as it could have been! Holy moly! It starts pouring, then it stops, pours, stops... etc etc!! It really doesn't impact me all that much, other than I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV all day... more so than usual that is... *shifty eyes*

Speaking of watchign TV! I did find more than one channel on our bunny ears finally!! Tho we don't watch much TV, we have been stuck with only ABC for live TV for quite some time because we turned the cable off to save a little bit of money. It didn't really bother me that much, other than not being able to watch a couple things that I wanted because we didn't have that channel any more (Hello!! Classic Nickelodeon cartoons!! {Random fact: A nickelodeon is also known as a jukebox or as an early movie theatre [yes, I know it's spelled theater in America]}) I was TRYING to watch The Bachelor : The Women Tell All and it wouldn't come in very good so I started messing with the bunny ears. Wednesday I decided that I was going to go thru the channels again and see if we got any of the other ones since I moved the ears. Wouldn't you know it... we now get all the major ones... including FOX! Wooo!! (Hello!! House! {Random Fact: I don't have one for FOX})

Wounded Warriors Battalion

So, as some of you know, my husband is a Wounded Warrior in the Marine Corps. His isn't exactly a "normal" Wounded Warrior story... because his "wounds" came from stateside. I know that sounds kind of strange to say that a man that has a Bachelors degree in Biology and can remember just about every single major muscle in the human body but can hardly remember if he changed his underwear that morning "isn't a normal injury." ANY injury like that isn't normal, and shouldn't be considered normal in any way shape or form. But, we're military. There are lots of guys that have it much worse than my husband. I know of a blogger who's husband has TBI (like Sam) and he can't even remember his favorite foods. I'm blessed, but I'm also saddened.

Today Sam sent me a text message telling me that his CWO is checking to see if they can get his 90 Day TAD orders. Meaning he might be going to the Wounded Warriors Battalion. When I seen this, I had tears streaming down my face. Partly happy, partly terrified! I'm happy because this is what we've been fighting for for the last almost 3 years! This is what we wanted! To get out, to start leading "regular" lives, to not have to worry about LCpl Soandso calling in the middle of the night because he's drunk and can't drive home, to not have to worry about duty nights, and standing in formation, and being "too fat." This is what we wanted! Right?

The other side of me is so terrified about what is going to happen in the future. What is going to happen with everything? Will he be able to work and still collect his "pension" from the VA? Is he going to be medically retired? Are we still going to have base privileges? What's going to happen with our insurance? So many questions about so many things. I'm scared to death!! I know that the public majority think that military members "have it made," but we're far from it!! I could go into so many things right now, but I won't. I'm not going there. Not today. I'm too stressed right now.

I won! I won! I won!!!!

I did it!!! I won the lotto!!

Okay... I fibbed. I didn't really win the lotto. Tho... $182 million would put a damper on the debt calculator... that's for sure!! I think we might be able to pay off our debt and redo our house. With that much money I think we could plate everything, including the blades of grass, in gold! LOL Could you imagine? Gold plated grass. What a waste of money! LOL

Anyways!! I'm sure you all are wondering what, in fact, I did win! Well, let me tell you!

I won purse patterns!!! :-D I LOVE purses... which is a pretty stark contrast from what I was just a couple of years ago. I remember when I first moved to NC, I carried a wallet... in my back pocket none the less!! I was SUCH a tomboy!! It's a wonder how I even got a date... I swear! I guess it's a good thing I'm cute!! ;-)

Let me tell you a little bit about the shop that I won the patterns from. She has a fantastic Etsy shop called Arm Candy For You. She has some ADORABLE purses in there! Way better than I'll be able to make, that's for sure! You guys should pop over there and check out her stuff!! So so SO cute!!

I'm such an optimistic seamstress. I think things like "Oh, that should be really easy to make... I could just *do this* and I could make it!" In reality, it more than likely doesn't work that way. But, I don't know because I've never actually been brave enough to draft my own pattern for anything other than a dog coat. (That's right... my dog wears clothes. Only the hounds tho.)

I also found so ADORABLE patterns for some clothes for Bug as well from Mythology Patterns, who is on vacation until 05March. She also has some patterns for adults as well! I might just have to get a couple and make similar outfits for Bug and I.

In other news! Our neighbor gave us a fish tank! We're going to put this one in Bugs room. Right now they have 2 giant Plecos, and what I think is an Angel fish in the tank. I'll more than likely take those to our local pet store and trade them in on some colorful guppies. Now, we have a ton of some guppies, and they're breeding some quite beautiful colors, but, they're getting to the point that MOST of them are orange. I think I need to get a few different colors in there. Maybe some blues and yellows?

Our Life In Pictures - Project 365 Week 8

This week was a bit crazy!! I thought I had forgotten to take a picture, but, I guess I was mistaken!! Woot!! I made it thru an entire week without forgetting to take a picture!! HOORAY!!!!

Sunday 20 February - Church was great!! Honestly, I don't remember much about Sunday other than church and dinner. Oh, and that I didn't watch Extreme Home Makeover because we were too busy watching something else! (I watched it with the kids on Monday!) I made dinner on Sunday. We had Lasagna Soup! I also made home made Garlic Parmesan bread sticks. Man oh MAN were they good!! I love it when hubs cooks for me, but, sometimes I just have to take the bull by the horns and cook anyways!! ;-)

Monday 21 February - HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY!!!! To be quite honest, I'm not really sure why we celebrate Presidents Day, but, the kids got a day off school, and everyone was happy. We all went to the park. I tried to take some pictures of the kids. I got pictures of Bug, but Monkey decided that he wanted to ride his scooter more than he wanted to get his picture taken. The boy on the left is our neighbor. He sometimes tags along with us to various events.

Tuesday 22 February - We delivered MORE cookies today. Eventually we are going to get them all delivered... that is if we can stop ordering more! :-D

Wednesday 23 February - The kids and I were playing around. Sometimes we just like to make silly faces. Our first picture together as a family, my mom took. We took several right in front of the Christmas tree, and my mom, the wonderful photographer that she is, always takes fantastic pictures, so I had no doubt that we would have great pictures. Well, the only one that actually turned out, was the one where we were all making funny faces. So, it's now our family tradition to take a silly faced picture together every year at Christmas. :-)

Thursday 24 February - Sam had an episode today at work. He thought it was a seizure!! I was really scared when he told me about it. He didn't think it was that big of a deal until later when he talked with his Cognitive Therapist. It was then he decided that maybe he should go be seen in the ER. We had a quick dinner, I dropped Bug off at our neighbors house, who also happens to be her Girl Scout leaders house, and her co-leader had said that she would watch her for the night. Monkey came with us because we didn't really have any other option. He is 12, but I just don't feel comfortable leaving him at home alone for more than about an hour. We got to the ER and checked in at 6:30

Friday 25 February - This was just after midnight. This was about 30 minutes after we got a room. Yes. We sat in the waiting room at the ER for just about 6 hours before we got a room. On the right side of the bed, Monkey is sleeping on the floor with about 3 blankets on the floor to make it not so hard. I eventually joined him, and in total I think I got about 2 hours of sleep. We left at 4:30. Monkey got to stay home, and we slept a little bit after I took Bug to school. On the way to school, we heard a Group 1 Crew song, and Bug says "Mom!! This isn't KLove!!!!" I say to her "Nope! It sure isn't! This is Big Fish tho." she then says "Mom! You KNOW we should be listening to Christian music!!" I got a really big laugh out of this because Group 1 Crew is in fact a Christian group, they just SOUND like a secular hip-hop/R&B group.
**EDIT** Sam is fine... he had what is called a Vasovagel episode. It basically is where you heart rate and your blood pressure drop at the same time and you feel like you're going to pass out. Sorry to leave you all hanging!! LOL

Saturday 26 February - This was gas on the way to Family Fun Ice Cream Social. I almost cried when I seen the total! I guess that's what I get for trading my small stick shift 4 banger family car in for a V6 SUV! It's okay. I don't really go that many places, and a tank of gas lasts me 2 weeks. We did have a blast at Family Fun tho! It was hosted by our church, and Sam was dubbed "Connect 4 Champion" because he kept beating all the little kids... what an honor! ;-) We stuck around after wards to help with clean up, and I played with a few of the kids. We all had a lot of fun.

This is Sams rootbeer float. That's right. That's a rootbeer float!! It was made with Cookies and Cream ice cream, had more cookies in it, gummy bugs, M&Ms, whipped cream, and a cherry!! Monkey had about 4 bowls of ice cream, and several handfuls of candies, and Bug had at least 2 bowls, and several candies. I, on the other hand, contained myself to 1 chocolate rootbeer float, and a couple handfuls of gummy bugs!

I can't wait for next weeks P365!! :-) I've got a great surprise for you all!! :-D

Early mood boards for the house

So, as you've seen on here a time or two, I can't WAIT to pay off our debt so we can start redoing and redecorating our house. I have some BIG plans in store for this place. I want to build a front porch, put a new fence up (that goes all the way to the edges of our property and not just directly behind the house!), build a new dining room off of the kitchen, remove the sliding glass doors from the current dining room and turn it into a den/office/craft area, and build a deck on the back. Those are just the things I want to do to the house! Not including the landscaping, outbuilding(s) or anything else!!

So, I've been playing around with Olioboard, and I must say, it's pretty stinkin cool!! Of course, it doesn't have EVERYTHING that I want, but, it's pretty good for being free!

So anyways! I played around with things today and I pulled out our "house dream book" and I put a few things together. I tried to get the colors as close as possible, but, they're not exactly accurate.

First is the kids/guest bathroom. I think I might want to put tile or something on the floor. I'm not a huge fan of vinyl. Never have, never will be. We're also going to put wainscoting panels up about 3 foot all the way around (other than the inside the shower of course.) I'm Thinking that I'm going to put in some of those nifty "air plants" in the kids bathroom so they will have something live in there that will be super easy to take care of.

Kids/guest bathroom

Next is Bugs bedroom. She picked her own colors, which I think they are good. They're not too little girl neither are they're too adult. I think it gives her some good colors to work with for quite a few years. I'm not quite sure which chandy I'm going to put in. The "pink" one (which is actually white) only has 3 lights, and the green one has 5. I also forgot to put in a chair for the desk. (oops!) I had put a nice lap on her night stand, but apparently I forgot to redownload after I did it! We will also probably reuse her current bed and dresser. They're in great shape, other than a couple dings here and there. 

Bugs bedroom

Monekys room was the hardest. The only thing we have picked out for his room really is the paint scheme and the bed. Even the bed we're not completely sure about. We may end up doing a hybrid bed of what's in the picture and incorporating a bookshelf/entertainment center/dresser bed. The colors that Monk picked out are Laura Ashley (Lowes) Sky Blue 3 (or 4) and Light Copper. They didn't have either of those colors on Olioboard, so I came as close as I could. I DON'T think that either of the bedding sets I have up there are going to work. I need to find something that would match well with it. It's sort of got a beachy vibe to it. 

Monks bedroom

I am open to suggestions for bedding for Monks bedroom. I'll probably end up having to make a quilt if I can't find something that I (and he) fall in love with. I think tomorrow I will do the dining room, kitchen and our bedroom/bathroom. I had a lot of fun doing it! :-)