a dresser re-do!

So obviously, I'm not the 'best' blogger! I don't know why I forget to do posts because I love blogging! I've been working on a couple different projects lately and I'd like to share some pics of my favs with you! Things are going well here.....my daughter started pre-school today! EEK! She did AMAZING, I mean couldn't have gone better amazing. She was just so excited to be "in school." Although I did have to explain to her this morning that she wasn't going to be riding the bus to her school because that was one of her first questions this morning when she woke up. Pre-school is one thing for this stay at home momma, but if I had to put her on a bus at the precious age of 3......I don't think I'd be emotionally stable!

So she started school today, both kiddos got flu shots yesterday (yuck!), but my poor little man Henry had his 1 year check up and ended up with 3 other shots on top of the flu shot......he was devastated :( But on a happier note, he's a very happy, healthy growing baby (a 14 month old baby!) according to the doctor weighing in at 26lbs and an exciting 33ins tall! "He's very tall (97th percentile) and skinny (75th percentile)" were the doctor's words. Not that I'm surprised since his mommy and daddy are 6'0 and 6'4 respectively and both pretty active! But here's my growing momma's boy trying to help me take some photos!

Look at those big brown eyes! He's going to be a little heartbreaker!

Anyway, on to my projects! Thanks for tagging along on my little rant about my babies :) So for the last few months I've been dreaming of finding an old dresser, fixing it up and putting in my entry way for extra storage, but also just because I thought it would just give the room that "pop" you know?! After months of looking and refusing to spend more that $75 on the entire project I found "the one!" I knew in my head what I wanted the dresser to ultimately look like when it was finished, I just needed to find the dresser with the right bones to it. So here's a picture of my little beauty as I found her in a second hand store for $50!!!

Obviously, not the prettiest thing, but I knew she was the one. She just needed a little makeover, some TLC and a little elbow grease and she'd be better than new! I get her all the way home and my wonderful (and very patient) husband comes out to get her out of the van and he notices that the bottom of the dresser is separating from the drawers! OH NO!! My heart sank! We pull it out and we're looking at it and it's not popping back into place. It looks as if the wood is warped and just pulling away. I'm devastated. My husband is pushing and pulling on things trying to just get it to slide back into place and it just won't budge for us. Neither one of us are really sure what to do to keep the original structure as "original" as we can with out replacing some pieces. So I'm pretty bummed out that my lucky find isn't turning out to be so lucky. Plus I'm kicking myself for possibly wasting $50!! My husband being as great as he is knows I'm upset and says, "let me go talk to our neighbor, he's always working on wood projects maybe he can make a suggestion for us." What to do we have to loose?! Nothing, so he walks across the street and my neighbor, Rocky, (seriously, that's his name!) is coming over to take a look at my "project." With one swift look he says, "oh that's nothing, we can definitely save her!" He and my husband flip her upside down and he pulls the one side of the dresser pretty far back and just starts banging his fist on the drawers, etc and every part fell right into place!! "Let me get some wood glue and clamps and she'll be good as new in no time!" So he returns with tools that my husband and I looked at each other and said, "we need to get some of those!" He put a little glue here and a little more glue there, clamped it and told me if I can leave it for a good 24 hrs, that would be best. Considering I'm the most impatient person you've ever seen coming, I was okay with the delay as long as the dresser was saved! This is what my baby looked like for a good day and a half......

You can see the bottom was pretty banged up......but it won't look like that for long! But while I waited for my dresser to dry and set I worked on another little project I found while at the second hand store also. I found this awesome stool and knew it had a very bright future in my home!

All I did was add some fresh paint then added some extra badding to the cushion and changed the fabric and this is what I have now......

I know it doesn't look like it, but I repainted the base a brown color so there wasn't a a huge difference. This little stool cost me $10 at the store and then I had all the other materials on hand, making this fabulous little find a steal!

But back to the dresser.......after the glue dried and I waited 24 hrs, I started sanding, priming and painting.

It took about two days total to get it completed, but it's beautiful and I couldn't be happier! So are you ready for the finished project??!!! I hope you love it as much as I do!!

Do you love it??!! I'm SO, SO happy with it. I kept the original handles and just painted them black to make them pop! I originally was going to replace the handles with the same style just in a nickel color, but when I tried to remove the original handles, it was a little bit, shall we say, uuuummmm, challenging! So I kept the originals and just went with paint! Plus the Halloween decor just makes it look so awesome too! My kiddos think it's great. The decorations I mean, they could careless about the dresser!

Here's a mirror I redid also. It was black, but our living room is so dark that it was just getting lost in the room. So I spray painted it white and made the moss letter myself with things from Crafts 2000 and, TA-DA it's beautiful! I've seen the moss letters in Pottery Barn for awhile, but wasn't willing to pay anything near the $65-$100 they were wanting for letters that are smaller than this one! So thanks to the crafty and thrifty little lady over at the Thrifty Decor Chic blog, I found this idea and thought....'I can totally do that!' And I did. The letter was $6 and the moss was $20 (and I still have quiet a bit left). I just love my entry way now. It's so bright and open. It turned out better than I thought it would!

So what do you guys think? Are you working on any projects that you've been wanting to do for some time now? Thanks for stopping by :)

Playroom!

Hello, hello! I told you I'd post some pictures of the projects I have been working on and I'm sorry to say I won't be posting those today, but I wanted to show you what has me completely side tracked instead! It's my kids' playroom! It's been screaming to be cleaned from top to bottomed and organized for weeks now, but I just wasn't sure where to even begin......let me share with you what it looked like when I'd walk in and turn on the lights..............

That beautiful little girl standing smack in the middle of the picture is my sweet Grace, just up from nap and eager to play! Anyway, this is what I walked into each time I came into their playroom. Anyone who knows me well enough will tell you this makes me crazy. It gives me anxiety on some level, seriously. I start looking around at all the craziness and the little voice in my head starts going, 'oh my God, oh my God, oh my God....' it's just too much and I've let it sit for too long. With colder weather coming I've got to have some place for the kids to work out their energy. I think I've been able to ignore it for so long because we've been able to go outside for so long, I haven't been forced to face it.....until now. I want it done and over with before I get too pregnant and bending over to pick things up becomes more of hassle than what it's worth!

Here are some more pictures of the rest of the room......

Picture from the corner on the right.......

Picture from the back right corner........

Picture from the back left corner..........

Here's the even better part for this space......this is also doubling as our guestroom! HAHAHA!! Sorry that kinda makes me laugh when I think about everything this space has to serve as! My hope is that the corner there straight ahead where the printer is can house the guest bed when we have people come in??!!

Picture from the right corner.......the door on the right is a bathroom, a whole bathroom actually which is really great so my little ones don't have to run up and down the steps to use the bathroom (well, only one of my little ones right now, but eventually there will be two of them using this bathroom). It's also great since we're trying to have a guest room also. They'll have their own privacy when they stay instead of having to go up and down the steps. The other door to the left of the bathroom is actually an entrance to our garage which has come in very handy since I've been moving stuff out of this room to the garbage. I can take it straight upstairs through the garage and out to the curb. No piles sitting and waiting to be taken out.

Do you see what I mean that it was SCREAMING to be helped! Now keep in mind we are renting so what I'll do to this space is limited, but if the house was ours, I'd be throwing a great coat of paint on these walls and replacing this terrible navy blue carpet! So, I don't know if you can gather from the picture that the room is rather large so that is a plus. But my kids have a lot of toys and they just had a huge birthday party so the toys doubled!

So my overall goal for the room is organization (obviously) and functionality. I'm hoping to put several sets of shelves along the wall where the boxes are currently sitting and the boxes will be emptied or gone through and put in storage. The guest "corner" I guess you should say will have the playhouse in it until company comes because our guest bed is just a nice double stacked air mattress that works perfectly for us. So it can be taken in and out very easily. I'd really like this space to have some openness to it because this will be a great place to get back into my workout routines. The kids will have more than enough to keep them occupied so I should be able to get some good stuff done, especially after this next baby comes :)

Currently the room has some organization going on in it. I've been moving toys around and steam cleaning the carpets by sections so that the kids can still enjoy some of the space as I clear the rest of it out. There is only one box left in the area and I've gone through most of the toys and put them in labeled bins. Now most of them are just sitting in a corner waiting for a shelf to come along that they can call home. All the bins, buckets, tubs, etc that I'm using are ones that I had around the house either sitting or just had stuff piled in them. So essentially getting this playroom organized is also forcing me to purge other areas and recycle what I already have! Double score!! My goal is spend little to no money at all in this room because I don't want to set it up, have it be amazing and then we move in a year and our next place not have the room for something like this playroom. So I'm really forcing myself to hold back on making the room something that I fall in love with because it can't be permanent for us :( at least not for awhile (double sad face). I'm going for simple organization here, but one day I'll be able to go crazy and let all my creative juices flow when we have a home of our own.

Oh I did want to share this with you too....as I've been cruising the internet and stores for inspiration to organize the playroom and any space in the house for that matter, I found this AMAZING bedspread that I oh so want desperately for our bedroom!! I mean I seen this beautiful quilt hanging in a store and I knew it was exactly what I've been looking for for our master bedroom. I fell in love with it just like I did our curtain fabric! And I still adore my curtains and have yet to find anything that makes me half as giddy as the ones my friend and I made! Here's a picture of the quilt......be prepared to fall in love.......with bedding!

Isn't she lovely?!!!! This is a great color for my room, but the one I found in the store was a much darker grey and would be just as beautiful! Doesn't it just make you want to crawl in bed and snuggle!! Maybe that picture isn't doing it for you, so I'll show you another one, just to be sure........

Anything?? Anything at all?? Maybe it's just me, but I just love this quilt! So why didn't I come running out of the store with my dream quilt in my arms dancing to a song only I could hear in my head? How about the fact that my dream is going to cost me $280!!!! Yeah you read it right TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY dollars! I knew it was too good to be true. When I found it in the store my BFF Nikki was with me and we both temporarily lost our breathe and slowly backed away from the quilt because if we broke it we definitely couldn't buy it! Although Nikki didn't help matters any by pointing out that this quilt would match my curtains and current pillow cases perfectly! My husband being the great man that he is says to me, 'why don't you ask Santa to bring it?' Well, dear husband I would ask Santa, but our Santa is either you or me so I guess Santa is out of the question! I've been pondering for days on how I could get this quilt....I surfed all the websites looking for one cheaper, but came up with nothing. So I figured I could just save a little cash each month until I come up with $300 so I can possibly get this quilt. Until then I will be scanning websites regularly looking for coupons, deals, sales, etc! I REALLY don't want to pay full price and to make matters worse.....it's getting fantastic reviews! No matter what website you're on everyone loves it. They all say it's a lot of money, but worth every penny. What a kick in the money saving pants! Well, thanks for listening to my rant :)

That's about it for tonight, so after I get the carpets cleaned and toys back in place, I'll take updated pictures of the playroom so you can see my progress! Then after the playroom is done, next will be my craft room....here's a sneak peek at the horror that is waiting for me in my tiny little box of a room.....

Did you let out a big 'ol shriek!? I do every time I think about all the work waiting in this room! So there you have it....everything waiting for me when I go to my basement.

Anyone else out there trying to conquer a space that you've been avoiding or putting off?

blog re-do!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the ever changing blog theme. I'm stuggling to find one that is blog reader friendly! I'd like the page to be bright, cheery and easy to read so please be patient with me while I figure this whole thing out! I'll be posting pics tomorrow of the projects I've been doing around the house. Like the kitchen cabinets that I cleaned out and re-did. I hope everyone is having a good week! Talk to you tomorrow.

Additional car organization!

So today has been kind of a long day. The kids and I made the almost 3hr trek home to spend the day with my mom and then made the 3 hour trek back to our house this evening.......like I said, it's been a long day. The trip wouldn't have been too bad except on the way back home I realized that I had never actually driven the route from my mom's to our new house in southern Ohio!?!! So there I was on the highway....driving..... alone.....pregnant.....and I have a 3 year old and 1 year in car seats and only a "general" idea of how to get us home! Awesome! Enter frustrated, 'UGH!' followed by a tiny voice behind me saying, "yeah mom, this is frustrating!" That would be my daughter! Generally, I would shrug and say, 'no problem' and punch the info into the handy dandy GPS, except my husband has the GPS with him.......in his car.........in KY!!!! Double awesome! Thankfully I have an iPhone so I have a mapquest app there, but it's really not great having to look at the phone and drive because this smart lady didn't realize the phone would talk to me and tell me the directions until after I had pulled in the driveway and went to turn the app off and accidentally hit a button that made it start talking!!! Really??!! I mean really?? None the less we're home and the kiddos were immediately put into their jammies and put to bed because it was late and all of us were exhausted! But my whole sob story does have a point. On the way home my son got super fussy out of no where and began crying. I don't mean just fussing like I want out of my seat or I need a drink fussing, I mean crocodile tears, screaming, barely catching his breathe crying! So I pull over and he is just uncomfortable, tired and of course, running a little bit of a fever! Why not, right! I mean the trip was going so fantastic anyway! But I knew when we left my mom's that he was probably teething because of the drooling and constant gumming of anything he could get his hands on. Not wanting to drive the 3 hour drive with an uncomfortable kiddo, I pulled out my newly stocked car bin that I created yesterday (perfect timing) and had some medicine for the little guy! What does my car bin look like you ask......well let me share with you!

Generally, any time I know I'm going to be traveling with the kids either by myself or with my husband tagging along, I try to prepare for just about any situation so that I can just sit back and enjoy the time with the family. I say this so casually, but for me "preparing" tends to lead to WAY over packing for even the smallest trip! But I've come to accept my moderately paranoid personality and instead of fighting it, I just embrace it. My husband on the other, well, he's still working on that some times! Here is a picture of all the contents of my "car bin": small trash bag, scented diaper bags, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, feminine products, toilet paper, Tylenol/Motrin (adult & child), band aids, neosporin, comb, cough drops, chapstick, pacifiers, wipes/diapers, deodorant, sippy cups, wet wipes, lint brush, sharpie, car freshener, snacks for each child. My kids are little so I need 'baby items' on hand just about every place I go. This isn't going to end any time soon seeing as I already have a 3 year old daughter, a 1 year old son and I'm currently 17 weeks preggo for baby #3....sex undetermined. So like I said, baby items will be much needed for some time for our growing family.

All those contents fit perfectly into this nice little container! And I picked this one because it fits perfectly in the front of my car right under the middle console by my seat so it's easily accessible (when I'm not driving of course!)

From this angle it doesn't look very organized, but everything went in so well. I was really happy with the way it turned out.

And I wouldn't be me if I didn't include a label on the outside listing all the contents! I laminated the list so that if I ran out of something I can put a check mark next to it so I know I need to re-stock that item and when I've replenished, I can easily wipe it off! Of course, after I printed, laminated and put the label on the container, I noticed grammar errors and that I completely forgot to list some items! So I'll be redoing the list in the very near future!

This bin went together so well, I thought, "wouldn't it be handy to have car tools organized and easily accessible also!?" Things like my jumper cables, first aid kit, etc that were previously just stuck under seats or in compartments in the back with no particular home. Well, that is no longer the case. With winter only a few months away, I always put a blanket, travel pillow, gloves, a hat and extra socks under each of my kids' seats just in case. You never know and since we have to travel good distances to see family, this is a season I don't mind over preparing for! But remember, I'm paranoid, probably almost to the point that I could be a therapists' dream!!!  So here are just a few things I've put together in a little bit of a larger bin to go in the back of my van. (yes, I'm the proud owner of a mini-van and I'm not ashamed to admit that I absolutely ADORE it!!). The contents of this bin are First Aid kit, extra oil, de-icer for the windows, jumper cables, flashlight, extra window scraper, windshield wiper fluid, febreeze and Lysol wipes. The only extra thing I could think that I might like to add would be an extra set of wiper blades because unfortunately, I've been in a situation where I wish I would've had an extra set with me in the middle of winter! Obviously, the sippy cups went into the first bin and the febreeze and Lysol are for more of a personal comfort!

All these contents wouldn't fit into one bin because when I put the windshield wiper fluid in, I originally laid it on it's side....not so smart. It started leaking. So I took it out and fit everything else in.

So here's an after shot!

For my flashlight, I taped the batteries to the outside so they didn't go dead sitting in the flashlight. Also, this keeps it from accidentally being turned on while driving and then you'd be stuck with a flashlight that was no use to you. I'll be getting extra batteries to put in here as well.

So here they are....all the extra contents of my car (and then some) fit snuggly in an organized and labeled place with easy access! Best part, this whole "idea" cost me less than $5 because everything in these bins and one of the actual containers were things we already owned! Cha-Ching!!!

So what about you guys? Anyone else paranoid about random things or feeling the need to be over organized with anything?

Fall is coming, Fall is coming!!!!

Hello again, I realize it's been some time again, but I can tell you where time has gone! The days and months seem to be going by so quickly. I mean just this month my babies turned 3 (August 17th) & 1 (August 6th)!! And today is my husband's birthday (he turned 29!!) so we've had a busy month of celebrating. Then to top it all off this Saturday we're having a birthday party for the kids (and my husband) with family and some friends. I'm so looking forward to it because this year the party is actually going to be at our house instead of somewhere else......this is huge for us! Typically we have so many family members coming we don't really have anywhere big enough to house everyone, but this time there are only going to be roughly 24-25 people so about half of what generally attends. So with the party right around the corner, my urge to get projects done around the house has moved up to full blown obsession! Since I've been terrible with the fitness part of my days, I'm desperately trying to off set that with minor tweaks to my eating habits, such as less sugars. Which in general is just an all around better idea for me, pregnant or not. I learned my lesson when I was pregnant with my son, I purchased things with no added sugars and just tried to avoid the bad sugars all together and gained a wonderful 22lbs! On the other hand, when I was pregnant the first time with my daughter I didn't watch the sugar hardly ever and gained a devastating 40lbs! Now it's interesting to look back and compare them because when I was pregnant the first time I really didn't feel like I had gained that much weight..................until I seen the pictures! YIKES!! Even more interesting, even with all the weight I gained with my daughter she only weighed 7lbs 10oz, with my son, he was 8lbs 6oz and I only gained 22lbs!?? Apparently my daughter took all the sweetness and left the worst of it for me to deal with post pregnancy! So now I'm just hoping to keep the sugars in check and I'm trying to expand my eating habits into more veggies that I really hadn't tried before nor had a taste for, such as peppers! I'm finding I really enjoy red peppers and cooking with them is great! Speaking of cooking......................

Since it is the hubby's birthday, I spent a good amount of time in my kitchen this weekend baking him a homemade carrot cake (his fav!). Little nervous about this baking adventure as I had never baked a carrot cake before and generally me + baking = DISASTER. Surprisingly, this went very well and it was completely edible! A win, win for me!! Beau said it tasted really good, so that is also a plus and he ate another piece of cake tonight so it must not have been too bad or he wouldn't have gone for seconds!

After spending so much time in my kitchen this weekend I found that certain areas aren't flowing very well. So tomorrow, I'm exercising my organizing skills and working on my mental health and trying whip my kitchen cabinets into a more functioning unit! Sadly, this whole "project" has me uber excited! So I dug out all my organizing bins, buckets, baskets and shelves to figure out how to incorporate them into my work areas. I'll empty all my shelves onto my counters and table and observe the damage (a wonderful tip I picked up from one of my frequent blog stops, IHeart Organizing................LOVE!!). After all this I'll begin putting things back away that are absolute necessities and pieces that are used on a daily basis, and work my way down. Things that aren't used, or I don't feel an absolute overwhelming love for or basically just don't fit will be tossed! As will any leftover organizing bins. I'm really just hoping to maximize the space I have rather than shoving things here and there and keeping non-pantry items in the pantry, etc. I will even be organizing my refrigerator (another idea/tip from IHeart Organizing..................seriously check out her blog, it's amazing!) Here is a picture of my wonderfully clean kitchen (I said in my last post I would provide an updated picture now that it is completely unpacked and put together, that is until tomorrow!)

See that beautiful wooden drying rack!! I've been looking for one of those literally for MONTHS!! Couldn't find one in good condition or within my budget, until a random trip to Family Dollar one day! Seriously, I paid $5 bucks for that mama jamma!! I love it! I give a it a big, "I"m so glad I found you" sigh whenever I'm doing dishes! (too much??)

So all those cabinets will be emptied and re-organized to hopefully better suit my everyday kitchen needs. It's basically one cabinet that NEVER stays organized no matter what I do and it's just ended up a hodge podge of this and that. That doesn't work for this gal! I'll be taking pictures to share with you through my adventure, but be prepared for the crap that will flowith from those cabinets!

To leave you with a smile here are a couple pics of my babies celebrating their birthdays with cupcakes!

Have you ever seen such brown eyes! I love these two more than I could ever express :)

And then, just some extra tug at your heart strings sweetness......a total Grace and daddy moment <3

I'm back already!

I know, back so soon you ask?! Why yes I am. I forgot how much I enjoyed blogging until I sat down and gave you all a semi-update on what's been going on in mi casa! So last time I updated you on the move....pretty exciting stuff huh!? I know, my life is pretty excellent. But just to give you an idea of the sorta mess that consumed us for a few days I'd like to share with you a couple pictures of our kitchen before any boxes were unpacked. Brace yourself.....it's scary! Picture quality isn't the greatest because I had to use my phone.....didn't know where my camera was at that moment.

Told you......scary stuff..............but wait here's one more............

Oh yes, this is what every room looked like for a few days. Seriously, EVERY room. We actually couldn't close our bedroom door for days! It was boxes, boxes, boxes. If I ever see another moving box it will be too soon. But after just one day of my slighty OCD personality here is what it looked like.......

aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh......already so much better!

I'll take pictures of what it looks like now that it's completely done and share with you all. Moving is so tedious and boring. Although I do like being able to purge and reorganize, but again it's so tedious. And I really was feeling pretty exhausted with the pregnancy and all so I was feeling pretty worthless for about a good week or so, but you must push on!

So with the move, the unpacking and the new pregnancy, my workouts were, um, well,...................honestly close to extinct. I actually went a few days without even thinking about them and one day while I was vacuuming, I literally stopped and thought, "oh s**t! I've completely forgot!" So I really dropped the ball at the end. But I'm hoping to get some things put together and get back into it. At least on a smaller scale with the pregnancy. I think I'm going to focus on core strength and stretching. Those two things will make labor (and the rest of my pregnancy) easier for my body.

Not a whole lot to say today, but I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite man in all his cuteness!

Nibbling on his first ear of corn! He was loving it! And so frustrated when I took it away and put him straight in the bath! This is going to be one easy kid to feed. All he wants to do is eat off your plate, whether it's safe for him to have or not.....God love him, he always tries to get it! Isn't he the cutest?!! And getting so big!

two months??!!! yikes!

Okay so not a full two months, but pretty close. I'm officially the worst blogger ever!! Geez, it's taking me a second to get back into the swing of talking to you all again! Sssssooooo................since the last post (please don't look at the date, just know it was some time ago!!) lots of changes for our family, but I think most have been good ones! The most important and exciting one......I'm preggers with wonderful baby number 3! I'm so excited and can't wait to see who are newest addition will be! This baby will be the tie breaker, we have mom and daughter and dad and son! One team is going to get an extra player! I actually found out I was pregnant about two days before our big move.....seriously, timing could've been a little better, but we were so excited I don't think we cared. And I mean timing in the fact that, I had big plans for moving furniture and heavy lifting, all my big ideas and super organized moving plans.......right out the window with each positive pregnancy test (I ended up taking four total, never can be too safe!)

The big move from Lewisburg to the Parkersburg area happened on June 14th (so long ago, I know!) It actually went pretty smoothly considering the amount of "stuff" our family has. I was blessed enough to have my wonderful dad and awesome brother in law (Lance) come into town and help load the truck while the hubs was off taking the board exam in Charleston! I must take the next few lines here and give a VERY big shout out and HUGE, HUGE thank you to my dad and Lance because they worked their butts off. They were fantastic. They lifted, moved, grunted, pitted out shirts and smiled the whole time. Several times throughout the day I thought to myself, "these guys are the greatest!" And when I say they worked their butts off, that's nothing short of an understatement. Let me give you a "brief" run down of the moving situation....I rented a 24 foot truck, my dad brought a huge diesel truck and I of course, still had the mini van. I packed the mini van with the essentials of snacks, clothes, toiletries, paper products, bedding, personal items (passports, social security cards, etc), the kids (obviously!!), toys, and the dog. In the bed of my dad's truck, Beau's three bicycles, washer, dryer and our deep freezer (still full of frozen goods). Then in the cab of the truck other random items and boxes. Our 24 foot truck shrank considerably once we began loading it. There were literally boxes/rubber maid containers stacked from floor to ceiling in that truck with odds and ends items filling the awkward holes. We had that whole truck loaded in less than 3 hours, but when we turned around after the truck was full, there was still quite a bit of stuff waiting in a large heap in our living room, plus all the beds................not good. We were feeling a little defeated and this is when the day started to get very long. Quick thinking, I called U-Haul and rented a 5x8 trailer to hook up to my dad's truck....perfect! This is going to be great. So we got all the beds squeezed onto the back of the rental truck and closed the door. Then we started packing the U-Haul, it was loaded down and ready to go, but....................there was STILL more stuff. My dad, being the laid back guy that he is casually says, 'you're not going to make it! We'll have to make another trip." NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I was so bummed. It was a three hour drive from Lewisburg to Parkersburg, which meant we'd have to drive there unload the U-Haul and dad's truck and drive BACK to Lewisburg the next morning, get the stuff and DRIVE BACK to Parkersburg! UGH, what a pain! Thankfully during this heart wrenching moment my children were safely in the care of my BFF Nicole who so courageously and thoughtfully volunteered to watch my two kids along with her 2 year old while I packed the truck.......great woman (maybe slightly crazy for volunteering for such a daunting task all on her own since she would be moving just two days after us, to Parkersburg, thankfully). So admitting defeat, we load up the vehicles and head out of town. I picked up the kids first, of course and we stopped and got lunch because by this time is almost 3pm and none of has eaten since 8:45am-ish. We were hungry, not a lot of talking during our meal, just a slight degree of inhaling what food we had in front of us!

Got to Parkersburg area right around 6pm. I don't even dare start unloading that truck that night, no way! We unload the beds and that was it. Get them all set up in the rooms and I realize the only "bedding" I put in the van was pillows......no sheets, no blankets....nada! Smack hand to forehead now genius! I DID NOT want to get back in my car to go to the store, especially Walmart. I hate that place, but I did because my babies can't sleep on beds with no sheets or pillows. As Lance is setting up the beds (I told you, these guys were better than any moving company!) my dad graciously volunteers to drive back to Lewisburg that night, load the truck and then drive back to the new house the next morning. I tell him he doesn't have to do that and to just get some sleep tonight and we'll go tomorrow. Too late, his mind is made up and he got in the truck and headed out. (*side note: I learned during this move that personality wise, I'm SSOO similar to my dad. He gets his mind made up to have something done and he does it and he won't stop thinking about it or working on it until it's done. He's a thinker and a planner and very much a "do-it-yourselfer"........just like his little girl!!). My dad got back to the house around 10am the next morning and then he and Beau busted their butts all day unpacking the truck while I started unloading boxes inside. My dad stayed until everything was unloaded and helped me return the rental truck and U-Haul that same day even though they weren't due back until the next day!

Once the truck was unloaded, it only took us a couple days to have the whole upstairs of our house unpacked and set up. The basement took some time because we did more purging as we unpacked down there. There is still so much I want to get done. Small organizing projects, etc that have taken a backseat right now because this first trimester is kicking my butt right into exhaustion by evening time. I was the same way with the other two also, so I'm hoping in the next few weeks that changes and I can get back to feeling a little more motivated. I'm currently 10 weeks pregnant and I'm already starting to feel a little better each day. Not as tired when I wake up, not practically passing out and drooling in my husbands recliner when the kids are down for naps, you know typical pregnancy stuff!!

I'll post before and after pictures of some of the areas of the house to give you a general idea of what chaos we lived in for a few days. But big things coming up for the family......my baby boy turns 1 in just a few weeks!!!! Then 11 days later my baby girl turns 3!!!! Lots of celebrating to do with my little ones so the party planning is starting as we actually get to have the birthday party at our house this year!! Plus the hubs started his 3rd year of medical school and is currently in his family medicine rotation and it seems to be going well. I have my first ultrasound on July 27th so I'll get to see the baby and hear their heartbeat which is always so exciting and a huge relief to know that things are going well.

But I think for tonight I'll close it up here and wish you all a happy friday and a wonderful weekend! And thanks for anyone who has continuously checked back for updates. I'll talk to you soon, heck maybe even tomorrow....haha!

Long time no.......see?

I apologize for the neglect this poor blog has suffered the last couple weeks. We got home from visiting family on the 16th and it took a couple days to unpack and get back into the swing of things again. It was kinda strange unpacking knowing that I'm going to have to turn around and re-pack everything in just a few short weeks. To be honest with you, workouts have been sporadic so I'll apologize to you for not being as consistent as I know I should be or that I originally set out to be. I'm disappointed in myself a little for letting it get away from me. That wasn't my intention, so each day now, I'll be getting back at it pretty intensely again and since I missed days during the week, I made them up this weekend.


Oh before I tell you about today's workout and I have to tell you, so far to date one of the best and most memorable moments throughout this whole process was with my daughter yesterday on our family walk. Any day that it's nice out and not raining, we try to take a family walk after dinner. Henry's in the jogging stroller, Grace is walking between Beau and I and even Crash accompanies us almost every time. (He's currently recovering from an injured foot, so we're letting him take it easy!) Yesterday Beau pushed Henry and I walked with Grace.....sorta. Just barely into our walk she decided that she wanted us to run so she and I took off ahead of Beau. She was just going as fast as her little legs could carry her, pumping her arms (in a very girly fashion) and giggling the whole time because we were running together. Well, our run ended up lasting pretty much the entire "walk" and it was fantastic. There was one point we were running together and talking; I mean actually having a conversation! It was incredible that she's at an age now that the dialogue between us is meaningful. I thought to myself, "this is the greatest thing we've done" and I really hope to do that again with her some time. Of all the workouts I've done, those moments with her, were my absolute favorite!!


...............today's workout...............not quite so meaningful or memorable! Just back to the grind of sweating my butt off and panting like a dog in the heat that consumes my living room! For example, this morning we woke up, it was about 65 degrees outside, but in my living room it was 75! My heat has been turned off since last week.....bbbbooooo to the hotness being inside. So today I did a rotation of my favs to get my spirits back up and into a good daily workout routine again. I did jump squats, jump rope, push ups, lunges and bicep curls. My butt was burning me something fierce while I cooked dinner tonight!! (After re-reading that sentence, that could really be taken out of context and interpreted SO many ways!) The jump rope was such a great addition and I am so thankful that Beau found the ones that he did. They also came with a poster of different types of jumps you can do and I was looking those over yesterday and I think I'm going to give a couple a shot tomorrow and see how it goes. Push ups are coming along. For some reason today my dog felt it was necessary to lay his head right in front of my face and breathe on me for each push up.....talk about motivation to push yourself back up again. Lunges were great......lots of cringing for those because I did jump squats first and then went right into my lunges. I do them the length of my living/dining room, so down and back counts as 1 and I do a minimum of 3 sets. I pushed it out to 5 one day and then laid on the floor wishing someone would come and cut my legs off. I should say though, that I see and feel a big difference in my lunges since I started this. My minimum 3 sets is almost not enough now and that made me feel really good today. I found myself today doing a lot of 'ow, ow ow's' and 'oh goodness'es on my very last few coming back up the living room. My bicep curls were good, did the most I've ever done today. Minus the jello arms I had afterwards, it felt really good.


I was also fortunate enough today that both kids napped at the same time today (woohoo!) so that's when I did my workout and I always try to do my jump roping when they're both napping because I go out to the garage or patio and I don't want to leave them inside alone for any length of time. Especially Henry, he's crawling EVERYWHERE and trying to pull himself up on EVERYTHING so he definitely can't be left alone for any amount of time because my house is starting to become filled with boxes....no further explanation needed!


I tried to go to the bodyrock website today to get some new workouts for motivation and a little pick me to pull me out of my semi-workout depression, but for some reason my computer runs SO SLOW with that website and randomly kicks me off the internet when I'm trying to watch a video; if I'm fortunate enough to get that far! So I'll ask my dear, supportive husband if I can borrow his computer one evening after dinner and sit down and find 5-10 workouts that I want to do and that way and I can mix things up a bit. I feel that I hit the workout wall because I was getting bored with my workouts and I have so much trouble with that site, honestly, I got very discouraged for some reason. But I'm getting back at it again, just in time for our move, which I'm wishing was over already. I'm anxious to get into the new house with the yard and have some much needed family time with my husband and not have to be watching the clock wondering when he has to get back to school! With that said, obviously the next few weeks are extremely busy for us and I look for our patience to run a little thin just over frustration with so much going on, but thankfully I've got an excellent team mate and we'll get through it all and have a big sigh of relief when it's over.


Before I go I wanted to ask you guys for some workout ideas or exercises that you've found that you really enjoy that maybe I could start implementing into my routines as well. I'm really open to suggestions and new ideas so if you have them I'd love to hear them.


Thanks for stopping by :)

workouts & family time

Hello again! The kids and I are visiting in Ohio until Monday....we got here last Thursday so this visit is a longer one. To be completely, honest I miss home :(  I miss our routine and sleeping next to my husband! The kids are doing really well surprisingly, although my poor Henry has a pretty terrible cough that he's currently trying to overcome and I'm praying that the end is very near!

So I've been doing my workouts during my visit and I tell ya it's not hard completing my workouts, but I feel weird doing them at someone else's home?!! Is that strange? I feel a lot more self aware than I do when I'm at home! Plus, my aunt has two German shepards who aren't use to kids (but, have been SO great with them) nor are they use to seeing someone working out so the workouts have been cautious ones some days and just entertaining for the most part. The kids and I are camping out in my aunt's finished basement that has turned out to be very accomodating so I have been trying to do my workouts there, but her basement ceiling is maybe six and a half feet tall! Makes for an interesting twist when I'm six foot!! I was using my tubing tonight doing some bicep and tricep work and realized I can't extend my arm above my head for tricep extensions!! So right off the bat, did one tricep extension, and man I pulled that tubing up and punched my fist right into the ceiling.....uh OUCH!! No damage was done to the ceiling, but I can't say the same for my fist or my pride! Some of my exercises are done in the laundry room....there is an unfinished ceiling with exposed beams, so I can move more safely there!! However, the doorway to the laundry room is LESS THAN six feet tall! Needless to say, numerous times I have walked straight into the top of the doorway instantly coming out the other side grabbing my head and mumbling some very un-motherly four letter words!!! But despite low ceilings and even lower doorways, my workouts are getting done, just with a few extra bumps and bruises along the way!

Tonight my workout was squats, push-ups and bicep curls. I unfortunately forgot my Gymboss in WV so I'm a little lost without my beeps to let me know when to switch exercises! I didn't realize how dependent I had become of that, but I miss it :( So I wanted to rotate through those three exercises for 10 mins or until I thought I was going to die....which turned out to be about the same! Typically my workouts are very verbal. I talk to myself CONSTANTLY, but being in my aunt's basement, Henry is sleeping in the same room as my exercising....interesting! But leave it to me, if I want to complain about anything I found a way to do it, I do part of my exercises in the living room and when I move to the laundry room, that's when all my panting and grumbling begin! It has been a pretty interesting few days between smacking my head on the doorway and not being able to whine out loud during my workouts, I think it's toughing me up a little bit! Teaching me to shut up and get it done, something I'm not always so great at......just ask my husband! I can have a smart ass, sarcastic, back handed comment for just about anything anyone says. Anyway, I wanted to do some jump rope, but my stupid foot still isn't back to 100% and I don't have my ankle brace with me. I miss doing my jump squats and jump rope. Those are probably my two favorite exercises of all of them. I like them because I don't feel like it's exercise when I'm doing them, so I'd do them all day!! My squats tonight felt great, my push ups were a little wobbley by the end and some what ugly! But I'm doing them (push ups) again tomorrow because as crazy as it sounds, they're also slowly making there way up my list to a personal favorite. Before you know it, I'll be loving burpees!! HA! We'll see about that.

Oh and since my last post was pretty much a rant about how much I disliked Parkersburg, I'd like to let you know I FOUND A PLACE!!! Woohoo!! Such a relief, it's actually in Belpre, Ohio but it is perfect for us and I'm SO looking forward to getting there!! It's a ranch style, with a finished basement, fenced in yard, attached garage, 6BR, 2.5 baths, plenty of space and I can keep my dog!! To look at it from the outside you'd think "no way is all that in that house!" But it is and my landlords sound really awesome, making it, thus far, perfect!!

So stayed tuned for more, of what I'm sure will be an interesting rest of the week!!

Hitting the road!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to drop a quick note that it might be a few days before my next post. The kids and I are heading to Ohio tomorrow morning and we'll be staying with family so depending on computer access my blogging could be limited :( But have no fear, I have packed my jump rope, tubing and bands so I can still do my workouts even though I'm not in my own home. So tormorrow we'll be traveling the majority of the day, Friday is my dad's retirement party and my brother will be home, Saturday I could be going back to Parkersburg (more on that in a minute), Sunday is Mother's Day, Monday I'm going to try to spend the day with the in-laws so they can see the kids and catch up with them, Tuesday and a few other days are open thus far, but we'll see what happens once we get into town.

So tomorrow I was suppose to have an appointment to see a possible rental for us next year. I called and made the appointment LAST Thursday. I called today to get the address and confirm and the lady told me that they rented it to someone else on Monday!!! What the heck??? I had an appointment and then you didn't even call me to let me know?! Is it just me or is that overly tacky and rude? So right now I'm not in a good mood. I go from insanely frustrated to extremely worried and scared that we might not find something therefore leaving us no option, but to have my husband go to Parkersburg without us for a while and the kids and I go to Ohio with family until we can find something :( I am trying everything in my power to keep that from happening, but right now to say that I STRONGLY dislike Parkersburg would be a complete understatement. And of course to make everything SO much better Henry isn't sleeping well and is waking up already!! Every time we plan a trip home, the night before we leave he sleeps terrible and is up numerous times because he knows I have to get up early and drive all day! I tell ya, I'm having one of those days when it hits the fan it hits hard! Oh even better.....now Grace is crying also! This is turning out to be a swell evening!!! Maybe I should've saved my workout for tonight so I could get out all my frustrations and work through the emotional rollcoaster that has been my evening. So thanks for letting my vent and thanks for actually reading the entire blog!! I guess not everyday can be the best day :-/ but when you're down, the only way to go is up so here's to praying that tomorrow is so much better than today <3

Hot day makes for a hot workout!

Hey I'm getting my blog done early today!!  YAY for me :) It's only 1:00pm and so far to day I have completed the following since we all woke up around 8:15am:

breakfast
kids up & dressed
all beds made
dog fed & put out
oil changed in the van
grocery shopping done
lunch
dinner laid out
workout completed :)

and I'll be putting the kids down for their nap as soon as I'm done telling you about my workout! I also dropped off a case of water bottles to my husband at his school. Apparently I was feeling pretty bad ass since I thought I'd be nice and take the bottles up to his room so I carried my (approximately 25lbs) son in one arm and 24 water bottles under the other while letting my daughter walk in front of me! Everything was going very well until I got to the door of the building and my daughter isn't strong enough to open the door.....interesting! So I sat the water bottles done, opened the door and then quickly grabbed the case of water while trying to get through the door before it shut! Henry thought it was hysterical! But, ta-da! I did it :) Got to the room, put both the bottles and my son down and my arms were pretty shaky. Just a little insight into the degree of my stubbornness for those who didn't already know!

So today is a pretty warm day; sunny and in the mid-upper 70's.....and you won't catch me complaining one bit! I love the warm weather and sunshine! Our house is pretty warm so my workout was a hot one. I let Grace turn my iPod onto for my workout and she did really great: she plugged it into the speakers and turned it on, but much to my surprise she also had cranked the volume ALL the way up so as I'm finishing my stretching, 'Holla Back Girl' came screaming through my living room at an insanely loud volume! It scared the daylights out of her...she jumped and ran away a little scared with her hands over her ears. I'll admit, it scared me too! As for the workout, today I completed two sets of: squats, lunges, push ups, flutter kicks, toe touches, and jump rope. I wanted to do some jump squats, but the ankle/foot was still a little tender so the last thing I wanted to do was re-injure it. This workout felt so great and I was so happy I did it because I had kinda been feeling like a workout slacker! Today made up for that. My push ups were a little bit of a struggle today. I hadn't done any in a while, but that might have been a good thing because at times my foot hurt a little when I was doing them. So I did them the girly way and just added 5 more to the set :( I really look forward to the day when I can just hammer out a really awesome set of push ups. So I'll continue feeling like a wimp while I complete some sets on my knees :( I'm hoping to spend some time on the bodyrock website tonight and look into some new workouts; so fingers crossed that my computer isn't running ridiculously slow.

That's it for today. Workout was pretty self explanatory. I'll be attempting to get more packed and I'll finish putting away the rest of the laundry because currently my laundry baskets are empty!!!!!!!!!!! Take notes because the possibility of that every happening again are, um..........very, very slim :)

Busy, Busy, Busy.....ugh!

Alrighty, well let's see.....I'm coming to you live from my very unorganized and hectic living room!! Surrounded by boxes, suitcases and stacks of clothes waiting to be put into the suitcases.....I decided I needed a break :) Anyone who knows me, knows that all this unorganized/organized chaos is driving me absolutely crazy! But for the next 6-7 weeks this is going to be my life while getting ready for the move :-/

I played in the All-Star basketball game this past Wednesday; we won (woot, woot!! YAY 2nd years!!) I had a blast with those girls! We all played on different teams throughout the season, but game together for the 1st yr girls vs. 2nd yr girls game. It was awesome and man, those were some athletic girls! Made me miss my old basketball days :( I missed them until I hurt my foot! I have absolutely no idea what I did or how I did it, which is even more depressing and made me feel old! So by the time I got home from the game, I was limping pretty good and had some tenderness with the whole ankle and foot. Today is the first day that I had the least amount of pain and felt like I was walking normally again. So my lower body workouts have been very limited, which stinks so I've been doing some arm stuff with the bands/tubing that I have. I'm pretty sure my upper body is ready for the foot to be back to 100% because my arms are tired and a little sore!

Thursday I didn't workout because I spent the entire day in Parkersburg, WV looking for a house for us to move into in June.....no luck!! Everything was way too small or wouldn't allow pets! Some of the rooms in these houses were so small that even our couch and tv wouldn't fit or the ceilings were way to low!! Low ceilings with a family who's average height is 6 foot is just not going to happen! I don't know, maybe people in WV are just smaller!! So the kids and I are heading to Ohio this coming Thursday and we will be taking a detour through Parkersburg to, yet again, check out some more houses! This trip home is going to be a longer one, but travel time will be broke up with the stop in Parkersburg and the kids will have the opportunity to get out of the car and stretch their legs a little while checking out the houses with me. Plus our car is going to be packed to the max, not only because I tend to WAY over pack even for the simplest trips, but I will also be taking our 75lbs golden retriever home with us so he will be occupying the majority of the space in the back of the van! So wish me luck on this little endeavor that is coming up all too quickly! I actually started packing today, just because I loathe doing laundry so I wanted to have the kids' outfits laid out and cleaned for the trip. And if I didn't do the laundry today......I just wouldn't do it period! The rest of my house could be spotless, but there is probably almost 99% of the time a basket of laundry sitting in front of my washer and dryer! It's the most unrewarding house chore there is because no matter what there is ALWAYS more laundry because everyone is always wearing clothes!!

Okay, now that I'm done with my little tangent about laundry....even though my foot was hurting pretty bad I managed to take walks everyday (extremely slow ones!) and I took some pictures of our cute little town so that once we get settled I can put together a scrapbook of our two short years here in Lewisburg!

I also managed to make some homemade granola that turned out to be very yummy!! And you all know that I'm not typically a granola eater! But this I really liked! Granola, shredded coconut, honey, dried blueberries, brown sugar and butter....and here you go!

Oh and I wanted to take the time to thank my super awesome husband for all his help this past Thursday. He took the day off from studying and stayed with the kids all day while I was in Parkersburg. I came home to dished washed (and put away....which I rarely do!), laundry done, folded and put into baskets and put into the appropriate rooms to which they needed to be put away. He seldom puts the clothes away because he says that he never does it the way I like and I inevitably go back and re-do it. To this I must say.....he's right  :( I'm a little OCD about certain things. And dinner was being made also when I came home.....it was fantastic. It was so nice to come home to a clean kitchen and clean clothes; so helpful and numerous things I didn't have to worry about catching up on on Friday. So thank you so much Beau......I love you <3

TKO!.......eventually :)

I'm diggin' this boxing thing!! It's a lot of work, but you work up a great sweat real quick, plus it helps if your boxing coach is a super hottie like the one I got! We just ran through a few more exercises tonight and added some new ones. There is a lot to think about when you're boxing! I'm sure the guys fighting in the ring aren't thinking about the same things I do, but you get the idea!! Beau had me doing a couple different hits for for 30 secs.....oh dear Lord, my shoulders were hurting! I could feel my punches getting slower and less coordinated! He also had me work in some bouncing with my hits.....hysterical! No literally, I had to stop at one point because I was laughing so hard at myself!!?? Probably because I knew I looked like a big dork!It will get better with time, but right now I guess I'll just laugh at myself!

Also did some more jump roping today. I felt like such a kid. The weather was nice, the kids were both napping (woohoo!), so I headed out to the patio and was jumping rope in the middle of the afternoon! Sometimes I like to do parts of my workouts outside because I'll work up a better sweat and a good sweat makes me feel like I've been really productive. I did some one legged jumps on each foot and mixed ,in a couple different jumps with those and my calves were burning, but I'm looking forward to doing some more tomorrow. Actually, I'm not sure if I'll do anything tomorrow because I have a game in the evening and I don't want to be burned out before that. So wish me luck, I really hope we win :)

So tomorrow I have basketball, Thursday I'm driving to Parkersburg so I probably won't get a workout in so I'll have to make it up on Saturday or Sunday, as for Friday....who really knows. Maybe I'll try another time challenge from bodyrock!! Busy week ahead, Grace's church class tomorrow, I have a sewing project I'd like to get started tomorrow, basketball in the evening.....ugh, I need a nap just thinking about it! I'm hoping to also take my first shot at doing some homemade applesauce, probably Friday. I'm really looking forward to that. If that goes well, then I'd like to try homemade jams and can them myself. If all of that goes well, I was talking to Beau about giving them away as Christmas gifts....we really enjoy homemade gifts and hopefully everyone else will too. Who wouldn't want a nice jar of homemade strawberry jam?!?? Oh and today I got a chance to really sit down and check out a blog that I am IN LOVE with.....iheart organizing! I can't wait to move and get everything cleaned up, labeled and put away, it's going to be amazing! Check out her blog sometime, it's really great.

Well, I think that's it for me tonight kids. If I get my sewing projects started/finished tomorrow I'll post pictures.....be nice though, I'm just a beginner :) Nite all!