Picture Memories

I love pictures, I love the memories and I love to take them. I always have a camera with me ALWAYS! I know some people who who keep items as memorabilia and I would rather have the pictures and they take up less space. My husband is one of those who keeps things for the memories and I have had to initiate a rule; if you haven't seen or used it in 30 days we don't need it, most of which we don't have the space for it. I am constantly organizing and re-organizing closets, dressers, cabinets, everything. My junk drawer is even organized! To help with kids clutter every year before birthdays and Christmas I go through the kids closets and dressers and their toy boxes (all of them playroom included). If they don't use it we donate it, broken or missing pieces we throw it away, and Punkin's old toys might get handed down to Doodle Bud depending on condition. I use the pictures of the stuff or activities as the memories. Not the stuff I hate clutter.

I still have my pictures printed, now it might take me three or four months to upload them and have them printed but I do it. Computers crash, phones don't always work, memory cards get full etc. So I like to have them in a photo album that I can always go back to and I have to look at whenever. We also have our screen saver as a slideshow of our pictures and every time I print pictures I update all of our picture frames with the exception of our professional photos and a few special ones that will never get changed out.

I finally printed some new pictures and its been like 6 months, I got over 300 pictures for $38 bucks. I upload them to Walgreens and always get a coupon code and it makes them dirt cheap. Usually I only have about 100 pictures but this batch had a ton of recent activites. I have hosted two baby showers, my birthday, Punkins birthday, fathers day, mothers day, Punkins first lemonade stand, Doodle Bugs first teeth and three play dates, and a couple of birthday parties. I just got done updating our picture frames and our family albums, and setting aside pictures for the girls photo albums.

This is our mantel. I love mantels they are perfect for displaying pictures. LOL.

One of our side table next to our love seat...my aunt took the pic of me and Punkin during Christmas last year.

My favorite photo collage and the dogs have a permanent spot...lol.
I love these pictures they are our best professional so far!
This is the side of my fridge for random pictures and the kids crafts!
My bookshelf, it is mostly full of dvds that we get 4/$20 at Hollywood video and they are usually new releases. I wish I could fill it with pictures.
The other side table and the picture of me and Doodle Bug was taken at random last Christmas and she was only two in half months old and now shes almost nine months, they grow up so fast.

This is my china cabinet, we also display cards here for about two weeks before I take them down or something else comes up.
There are pics all over the playroom of the girls.
I have to buy another album tomorrow our fourth family album is full now.
Do you see all the pictures I didn't even put in there, and that stack also excludes all of the ones I put in the frames, set aside for the girls albums, and the ones that hubby takes to work to decorate the wall above his tool box.
I just love things that can decorate your home but display pictures at the same time even though those candles never get lit.

I love pictures and will always be updating. I have however lost three cameras this year, well one broke. So my hubby told me I could go pick out a new one, he needs a camera for work to keep his portfolio updated. Then two weeks later we went camping in Albert Pike, Arkansas and were 4-wheeler riding and it either fell out of my pocket in a creek or off a cliff. When we came home I went back to get a new one week later got the same one Samsung 12.2 mega pixels only the first one was silver (the one that broke), the second one was red and oh so pretty, the third one was blue, and now I'm on my 4th and its black. The blue one we lost 2 months later at the zoo in Tyler, Tx and a couple of months after, someone who picked it up called my hubbys boss, he was flipping through the pictures and saw the shop in the background and looked it up, he said he would call my husband and hasn't yet. Who in the world would go through all the trouble to find the owner so bad and then never call to get our address to mail it to us? We got our hopes up because we were really missing a couple of great pictures we took at the zoo. So far my black one has been the lucky one, even though I did figured out what the problem was, the silver one I had for 2+ years and it only took AA batteries, all the other ones are strictly chargeable and I forgot. When we went camping I bought a bunch of batteries for the camera and it died on me and the batteries didn't work. Put it in my pocket and it fell out, same thing with the blue one. One of the reasons why I think I haven't lost the black one with the exception of getting threatened by many is I have three chargers for it. One stays in the kitchen junk drawer, on in my truck and one it my suitcase. It pugs right into my iphone car charger :) So My black one is my lucky one!

Goodnight all and sweet dreams!

Tuesdays are my Mondays

Our Monday was a pretty good one and not to busy. Most of our Mondays are like that. Tuesdays however are not. Tuesdays are usually the day that I'm completely recovered from our weekend (thanks to our Mondays of relaxing) and is when I hit the ground running. Punkin has gymnastics at 3:45 on Tuesdays so I usually try to make sure I get up the first time my alarm goes off or by the latest when I hear my husbands truck leave. As I'm up and getting my coffee and the girls their breakfast my mind starts going with all the things I have on my to do list, a lot of which was on my Monday list that gets put off. As the girls eat their breakfast I'm starting a load of clothes and picking up what I didn't pick up the night before and stopping in between to play games or chase the girls or deal with the dogs etc. I am not a morning person and pretty cranky in the morning so as soon as I get up I have to start moving or I won't do a thing all day. I also can't stop because if I do and sit down to relax before my to do list is done I will not get up.

So anyways, I realized today that I have been feeling really guilty for putting off my workouts then I realized I should not be at all. Because, just on Tuesdays I get plenty of a work out from just being a mom/taxi driver. After getting breakfast, breakfast dishes, three loads of clothes, which I don't think there is a such thing as being caught up on laundry unless your have a naked day because you are always wearing clothes, playing with the girls off and on in between my chores, lunch, lunch clean up, nap time, me getting ready during nap time, and making sure the girls are up from their nap by 3pm to be at gymnastics on time is a work out in itself. Then loading two kids in the truck, wrestling two dogs outside and its so hot they don't want to go outside, and having to put our St. Bernard in the laundry room because its to hot outside for her and wrestling her to stay inside and not getting in the truck and then playing 20 questions of why with Punkin on our way to gymnastics I'm exhausted! I do however try to answer all of her questions with the correct answer in toddler language because I don't want to tell her what I was always told "because I said so" and it usually works. Then when we finally get to gymnastics Punkin goes to her class and Doodle Bug and I head upstairs to watch and its so miserably hot that her 40min class seem to last a life time, but Punkin loves it and is so cute it makes it worth it then after class we get an icee and go by hubbys work to see him (he's usually working late on Tuesdays) and today we had to go to the grocery store then come home to cook dinner pick up the playroom and do baths and bedtime routines and I have to say when 8:00pm finally got here all I wanted to do and could do was sit on my couch with my feet up and watch my dvr. But I have to say that was nice and I will have to do dinner dishes in the morning because I'm not doing them now! They can wait. Tuesdays also make me love Wednesdays even more especially tomorrow because last week the girls were sick so they didn't go to my parents and tomorrow they are. I wish my plans were to relax but I'm going to do some much needed scrubbing and filing paperwork. Usually without the girls here I can do both of those in no more than a hour in a half tops so that still leaves me with an hour in a half do whatever :)

I can't wait for Doodle Bug to be old enough to start a class, she is our "dainty" one so it will be neat to see if she chooses gymnastics or ballet. I think Punkin will want to stay forever. HAHA! Its so worth it though!

School

Tonight I finally registered for my fall classes! I can't wait and I'm really nervous. I graduated high school going on six years ago. After I graduated from high school I took off a year of school to save. Well like they say if you don't go to college right after your graduate high school your probably won't go, guess what I didn't.

Now there are a few reasons why I needed to go back to school. One, I've always wanted to be a teacher and thats one of the last goals I have that I need to do for myself. Two, it will better our lives as a family and especially for my kids (goal being all three of us being at the same school). I also like the idea of being a teacher and a mom because we will be on the same schedule and out on the same holidays and breaks so I can still be very involved and making sure things run smoothly. Last but not least, this might be childish or immature or anything but this is what has driven me for years, proving certain people wrong! It was said that I would be pregnant before I graduated high school, have to get married, not graduate high school, and never go to college. I was being compared to a family member that did all of the above and it was always said I would be just like them so I made it my mission to prove them wrong. And as of tonight I did!

I graduated high school sent myself on a cruise and bought myself a mustang as a congrats gift. Then I met my hubby and after six months we were engaged and six months later we were married. Shortly after that we decided to add to our family, thankfully had no problem, and tonight after 5 years I finally got approved for financial aid, registered for my classes and I AM GOING TO COLLEGE! Now I know this is going to get tough especially since I haven't been in school for five years and I'm taking on 5 classes. Four are online and one is a night class on my free Wednesday nights so the routines will still stay the same. I am determined! I have to graduate before Doodle Bug starts school so I'm excited, I'm nervous, and I'm proud of myself. My dad told my hubby when he asked for my hand in marriage that he better make sure I went to school and he promised that I would and I finally am. It's been a long time coming!

The big reveal

Today was the day my hubby finally came home! We went to the airport to pick him up and the Punkin ran to him screaming "DADDY DADDY DADDY!" It was so cute. Then we came home to relax and just enjoy being home together. I was really nervous to show him our bathroom the new paint is green. After drying and seeing it in the light it is green! I do think that it will grow on me but he HATES it. He was proud of me that I did it by myself but hates the color and thinks the mirror is to small. So now he said he is going to re-do it. :( But at least I tried and it might grow on him too.

So what do you think? I like it he needs to at least do some touch up painting because I was not very good at that and after we learn how to lay tile floor we can do our floor. The previous owner left us enough tile for this bathroom :) !

Anyways, we will have a busy week ahead trying to get the girls back on their schedules. I do want to do a couple of swim days and we are going to have some family in this weekend so Punkin will get to play with her cousin she hardly gets to see fingers crossed that this week will run smoothly.

There is not much else I have to say tonight, I'm exhausted! Having the kids to myself since Thursday morning, doing the bathroom, visiting with some out of town family this weekend too, birthday parties, and errands the bed is where I'm headed.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great week ahead. GOODNIGHT! and sweet dreams!

Crazy Saturdays!

This morning we had a late start but it did start off with a great birthday party that the girls were invited to. We were late though because we got half way there and I realized I forgot the gift!...my mind is everywhere! But we got there and Punkin had a fun and talked to her daddy on the way out there. His Grandma is doing better! She is starting to lose her memory though but my hubby had a great visit with her. They are finally heading home tomorrow and he can't wait to get home and neither can we. Punkin is a daddy's girl and she has been so upset that he has been gone she hasn't been sleeping that well.

Our fishing plans this afternoon got canceled because a storm but me and the girls played board games and did a small craft with the left over paint from my bathroom project. That probably was not the smartest idea either but they had fun. After getting them to bed and my little sister coming over to help, I finally got my whole house cleaned and I'm almost completely caught up on my laundry. Yay!!!!! I don't know about ya'll but I can't relax if my house isn't clean, I should probably see about that.

My bathroom is a success and I'm so proud of it. I just got done putting on the first coat of paint on the bottom half and will do the second tomorrow after church during nap time. My dad is also going to be coming by to do the electrical work for my new light fixture and light switch and outlet. I can't wait for the hubby to see it although I did mess up on the trim a bit but I know he will be able to fix that so easily so I'm not worried about it. Hopefully soon we will be able to lay all that left over tile that matches our full bath and kitchen, we got lucky and there is just enough to do our half bath! Therefore I really didn't worry about the paint I got on the floor either...lol. I hope he doesn't mind. By the time I finally got around to putting up the first coat on the bottom I was so exhausted I'm pretty sure I quit caring. But I did get all the shelves and my "new" mirror and the medicine cabinet put back in. "New" is a mirror we got for a wedding almost 4 years ago that has been in our living room and I'm using it to replace that huge mirror I took down. Hopefully tomorrow it will all be done before I pick up my hubby! Wish me luck!

Also thank you all for the support and kind words it means a lot and I'm glad ya'll like it!

Goodnight for now, its 1am and we are going to early service tomorrow so I have plenty of time to get everything done so I need to get to bed!

Home Renos

We love to update our home and we do it pretty cheap. It's amazing how a couple of coats of paint, switching out light fixtures, and changing the hardware and light switches makes so much of a difference. My hubby usually does all the painting because, well I'm not very good at it. Our smallest room in the house is our "master" bath. The bathroom in our bedroom is a half bath and thats what makes our room the master I guess. Our three year olds room is the same size as ours she just doesn't have a bathroom and we don't have the room to expand because our room is in the front, so we make the most of it.

Our first project we did was to paint the "formal living room". We painted it a blue and its real calming. You will see we LOVE color. We figure when/if we decide to sale our home we will give a painting allowance, although we do usually try to paint some what of a neutral color. We never use it as a formal living room and don't really understand the point of it so we turned it into our play room/office area. Since we don't have a guest room I also maximize the space and use it as a guest room too. I blow up an air mattress, make it up as a bed, and put up a black curtain in the door way to give our guest some privacy.

Please remember that these pictures are taken after the room is put back together and nicely done and the kids are usually not home or asleep when we tackle these projects. My house really is not this clean, although some people think it stays spotless....IT REALLY DOES NOT!

These wood floor are the ones we laid*.

We updated this room right after we moved in, it was our first summer in the house.

Our second room we did was the full bath I have no pictures because we now need to gut it and so I will do another post when we finally we get it. Its one of the ones we keep putting off.

Then we did the nursery, Doodle Bugs room and we did it twice. We thought she was a boy first and painted the nursery blue. When we found out she was a girl we re-painted.

Her closet was so small and little girls have so much I had to do something. I love HGTV by the way and get tons of ideas from it. Here is a picture of our coat closet and it is exactly what Doodle Bugs looked like and all I did was add a closet rod and put a shoe organizer over the door. A great fix for about ten bucks.

Then we did our bedroom and it made us feel so grown up because we had plain white walls with a grandma border that had flowered hearts on it at the top of the walls. Our closet was so small for a master I added a closet rod in it too and raised our shelf. He got the top and I got the bottom and made a world of a difference.

After doing this we realized Punkin was left out and so she asked her daddy to please paint her room purple. Purple is her favorite color and so thats what her daddy did.

Then she out grew her toddler bed and got a big girl bed. We got her a full so eventually when Doodle Bug is big enough they can bunk together and our guest can sleep in her room.

Then we did our kitchen and its really small so this might help you understand if you ever read me complaining that if I have dishes in my sink or stuff on the kitchen counter it looks dirty.

the hardware was free from my hubby boss who was gutting his kitchen, and the back wall and above cabinets had ugly 70s wallpaper and so did the playroom wall going into the dining room. The paint was $2.50 on a clearance rack at Lowes so we snagged it. I got the new light on clearance too for $20.00.

Then we pulled up all the carpet. We had ugly white dingy carpet through out the whole house. The only rooms that didn't were the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry room. We found real hard woods in the bedrooms and laid down laminate wood floors in the dining room and hall. (see top picture)*

Now for the project my hubby is letting me do by myself. The tiles in the kitchen are in the full bath and the previous owners also left us a couple of boxes and its just enough for our bath. I can't do that by myself though the pics are soon to come:) These pictures are a little out of order.

I hate wall paper by the way but at least it came off pretty easy, I have to put up one more coat of paint and the bottom half will be white but by the time I got done it was after ten and Lowes was no longer open. Hope you enjoy and I will be doing another post of the finish product. I hope he approves!

After this project is done we will be doing our hall and dining room, living room (it has wood paneling that we are painting over), then last but not least the laundry room. We are hoping to have the inside done by the end of the year and then that way next summer we can work on our yard and get it all fixed up too.

Starting the weekend early

This weekend gets to sort of start today. My hubby is on his way to Florida with his dad. His grandmother is not doing to well at all. She is a sweet loving woman (age 92) and has not been doing to well. The past couple of weeks she has been having a lot of strokes and will get better and then her health goes back down. Grandma is my hubby's last living grandparent and so his trip is kind of a little hard on him. We have a lot of family down there (his parents are from FL) and my hubby hasn't gotten to spend a lot of time with them. He is glad he will get to catch up with other family members but its very bitter sweet because the doctors don't think Grandma has much longer so its also his chance to say goodbye. Please keep them in your prayers while they are on their trip and our family.

On a lighter note, he did give me permission to update our "master" bath by myself. Our "master" is a half bath. So I am excited! He paints cars for a living so when it comes to painting anything he doesn't like me to help. In his defense I'm not very good at it. Our bathroom is pretty big for a half bath but still the smallest room in the house so I think thats why he agreed. We love to update our home its one of those things we do together and it makes us love our home even more especially being able to do it ourselves. We just put on a coat of paint, update all the hardware and light fixtures and after we save update our floors. I will put up pics if I decide to take it on...I want to but I will be by myself with two little ones too.

We also have a birthday party to go to and we are planning on swimming this weekend and me and my best friend are taking our kids fishing at the bayou in her grandpa's back yard. Maybe even a trip to build-a-bear. Who knows we have 4 whole days do figure out fun filled activities! Any suggestions? So lets see how this weekend goes! I will admit it I'm a little nervous for my husband and keeping him in my prayers. But I'm trusting God to keep them safe and that everything goes smoothly and that he can have fun.