My Feelings Exactly

I've probably mentioned at some point how much I love TheNester. What's not to love - - She lives in the Charlotte area. She's crafty, creative and a great decorator. She says so many things that I think, but could never put into words. She's inspired a few of my decorating projects here in the new house like my coffee filter wreath and a sunburst mirror that has yet to be completed or begun for that matter.

Today or yesterday - sometime in the past few days - my days seem to run together or over each other and most of the time I have no idea what day of the week it is...Okay..the point is she had Karen from the Art of Doing Stuff do a guest blog on how she sold all of her stuff in a 2 week period of time and totally redid her house, only keeping those things that were truly meaningful. Check out her post here. While you're there, be sure and read some of TheNester's other posts on this topic.

I don't know about you, but I have been overwhelmed this week by many things - one of the main ones being my disgustingly filthy and cluttered house! Since Saturday, I have mopped my kitchen floor 3x because two of the tornadoes have dumped entire bowls of cereal on the floor. It could stand to be mopped again, but I can't let myself bond with the mop any more this week. I just can't do it! In an effort to have one room in my house be relatively clean, I spent a little while cleaning the laundry room this morning. It even has clean baseboards and that's totally not my style.

I'm feeling the need to just start tossing more stuff from our closets and drawers and wherever else I can find useless, meaningless things hiding. One day, not today or this week or even this month, probably not this year, I will have a clutter free, peaceful and easy to live in house.

If I could only figure out where I left that Diet Dr. Pepper I had in my hand, I could get started on the decluttering. I really do lose opened, half consumed cans of Diet Dr. Pepper in my house. I could do a whole blog post on the topic, I'm sure!

More House Pictures

It really is a shame that pictures can't just jump off the camera onto the blog page! I know some of my readers are interested in seeing what the inside of our new house looks like. At least, I think you want to see them. Honestly, I'm not sure who my readers are these days since my blogging is extremely sporadic lately. On to the pictures...

This is a picture of the front exterior of the house. I only took this because I was taking pictures of my new ride that was parked on the street. (That's another post in itself!) You can see the hubs standing by the garage.

The master bedroom has been fairly done for a while now, but it's those darn pictures that don't jump off the camera onto the laptop that have kept me from posting these.

These are of my dresser wall and this image has already changed since we were the recipients of a new larger tv for the living room. Our old tv from the living room is now on my dresser. It's much larger and easier to read the onscreen guide from the bed! (Thanks Dad)

A view of the bed.

The lampstands have been sitting on the night stands since we moved without lampshades. I finally made it to Ikea to get these last week. I'm not sure if these curtains will stay forever or not. I actually need 2 more panels, but finding 2 more of these panels hasn't been a priority. They no longer sell them at Target so it'll take some serious hunting to find them.

Mirror with sconces. Nothing special.

The best part about this mirror is how easily it went up when I was in one of my get it done moods and hanging mirrors all by myself! It went up on about the 2nd try as I was contorting my body to hold 2 different hooks and look behind the mirror to see if the hooks were hitting the screws. I've not had near as many picturing hanging mishaps in this house as I have in previous houses. I guess I'm getting to be a better picture hanger with all of my experience and the help of Command Strips! Love those things! I'm actually considering painting these sconces at some point, but that's hanging out on the bottom of the project list with finding the 2 panels for the windows.

I wish I could take a good picture of the ceiling and the 3 different sets of lights on it. I tried today, but just can't get a picture worth posting.

More to come...

F1's Room

F1's room is really the easiest room to decorate after we move. I think it was the first room complete when we got to our apt in OK, too. Once the bed is in place, it's pretty easy to decide where things will go on the walls. I'm not positive what I'm going to do with her windows. This valance is hung with a tension rod under a decorative piece of molding at the top of the faux wood blinds. There are arches on the 2 windows in the kids' bedrooms and I'm conflicted about how to cover both of them! For now this works for me in her room.

Apartment Sweet Apartment

For quite a few years I've said that I never wanted to live in an apartment ever again! When I was single, after college, my best friend and I lived in a 4th floor apartment in Fairfax, VA. It took my entire first paycheck of the month to pay my portion of the rent. I really didn't mind apartment living then, but certainly never thought we'd resort to living in an apartment with 3 kids! I don't recommend it. Some times I just have to fantasize and pretend that we're just renting a condo at the beach or something to make it feel somewhat enjoyable. I also have to remind myself that this is just for 6 short months and then we'll be back in a house with a yard. I'm hoping it's a house we own so I can paint a wall or two or ten!

I've tried to do my best to get settled in and make this 1300 sqft feel like home for all of us. Here are a few pictures to let you know what 1300 sqft of Wade stuff looks like! Jenna Beth's room was the easiest to do so I did hers first.

She has these 3 cute little windows that if we were to stay here longer I would work on some cutesy curtain or covering for, but for 6 months, I thought her initial letters would hang perfectly on them! I have some pink flower hooks that must be in a random box that the letters normally hang on, but until I start digging through boxes that didn't get opened a nail will have to do.Her curtain that matches the bedding and the very versatile window seat bench that both of the boys used in their rooms. My mom and I recovered it with a different sheet a few months ago so that it would better match JB's stuff. She even wanted to make sure she got in the picture!This is the quilt that goes with her bedding. I bought the little flower hooks that are holding it up from someone on Etsy a year or so ago.And her blah bed! I didn't put the bumper back in it when we got here. The other night we heard this weird banging sound and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. We opened her door and found her banging this metal flower against the wall! She was not ready to go to bed and wanted to make sure we all knew. I think Maverick was vacuuming the floor for her.

I have pretty much every other room except for the boys as decorated as they're going to get. More pictures of those to come!

VBS...Check...Purging...Ummm...

As our time here in EP is winding down, last night marked the end of Vacation Bible School (VBS) and my first public tears shed over our leaving here. We had a great week with all the cowpokes (kids) who attended. Now the fun clean up, reorganize part begins.

This week I get to send about 40 kids and sponsors to camp. There's still some prep work that needs to be done to get them there, but it's minimal compared to prepping for VBS.

I feel like I'm getting my life back in some respects. I have a lot of winding down and finishing out to do at FBC, but can start to focus some of my energy on the much needed purging projects that have been neglected here at the house. Finding the right time and energy to focus on any of these for any amount of time has been difficult lately. I've come to the conclusion that not all can be done, but some can and I need to focus on those.

Beware craft room, here I come...Beware master bedroom closet, here I come...Those are the only 2 threats I can make at this point in time!

Observations on the Homefront

Since LT's been home about 3 weeks now or maybe closer to 4, there are some things that have changed a ton compared to our lives while he was away. Here are a few of the obvious:

1) The stockpile of food in the pantry doesn't seem to last as long, especially the diet sodas! When he got home, the pantry was bursting at the seems and every shelf was packed with multiple layers of stuff. Now, it's looking pretty bare in comparison. One more adult mouth to feed really makes a huge difference in my cooking and eating habits.

2) The laundry never ends! LT has done a great job trying to keep the laundry under control, but his 3 outfits a day, most days, has made a significant increase in the amount of laundry we do.

3) My routine has been rocked! Part of this is because LT hasn't been working a 'normal' schedule and has had many days when he's home at lunch and never goes back to work. He's had several 4 day weekends, too. I'm having a difficult time adjusting to this sporadic schedule change. I would say it's going to get better soon, but we're about to go on vacation and there will be no routine when that happens. Maybe in April we'll start to sort of understand a normal routine again.

4) It's so much easier to go places alone when daddy's here to provide his child care services. I try not to take advantage of him, but there are days when I feel like I have a year's worth of me time to catch up on.

5) I don't spend nearly as much time on the internet as I used to! That's good for him and probably good for me, too. My poor farms on FB have been neglected and I'm sure they'll be foreclosed on if I don't start planting some crops again soon.

These are just a few observations - that are okay for public sharing! Things may be different and it may take us a while to get completely adjusted, but we're glad he's home, most of the time! :o)

From Drab to Fab

Since the boys have gobs of toys that seem to be a constant source of clutter at our house, I always tell Grammy, my mom, to get them something that's probably more valuable to me than to them for Christmas or birthdays. Believe me, Grammy and Pop make their contribution to the toy clutter!

This year, I asked her to get the boys new stuff for their bathroom. It's not a bathroom we use that much so it hasn't been high on my decorating priority list. I've just been using old bathroom stuff in there that is now in a pile to go to Goodwill.

Bailey's first thought when he saw it all was "It's beautiful." He really said that! It was really sweet.

Here are pictures for you to enjoy the "beautiful" new stuff in their bathroom.

Boys' Rooms #2

I didn't have space to upload pictures of Maverick's room on my last post so he gets a post all to himself - for once!! Finally he has something that's JUST HIS!

The view from the door. I need to adjust the letters on the wall because they're not spaced out very well. The C was added as an afterthought because it's been dropped and broken into 3 different pieces on 2 occasions - once by Bailey and once by me as I was hanging it! I wasn't sure if I would be able to find all the pieces so I hung the M and W without it. It's amazing what a little super glue can do!You can see the vent on the groudn by the little rocking chair. Much like a fireplace does in a living room, the vent and the windows just about kill the usefulness of that whole wall. I had the crib over the vent at one point, but decided it might be blocking heat a little too much so I moved it!When I moved the bed so that it was next to the blanket hanging on the wall, I knew that Maverick would pull it down. Sure enough just a second ago when I went to get him from his nap, he had it in his hand. I may have to relocate it now that I rearranged the furniture!

Finally, his dresser! Exciting, I know :o)

Hope you enjoyed the first installment of house pictures! There'll be more to come since I'll have to get this place into tip top shape by Friday.

Moving Day - Sort Of!

Many of our neighbors are spending this pleasant November Saturday packing their trucks, vans and cars with their personal belongings to move to their new house about a block from where they currently live. It's a bittersweet day for me because it's the reality that our neighborhood as it is will no longer exist and we'll soon be moving out of our very first military post house. It's also the first single family home our little family of 4 has ever lived in. It's a great day because it's the beginning of the day we've all been waiting for - getting to move into our NEW houses! We've all been looking forward to moving since we moved into these houses. Unless there's a surprise letter in our mailbox today, we won't be moving until December. According to our housing rep, we're right on the cutoff line of who will move in this phase. It just depended on how many 3 and 4 bedroom houses were available.

I told Jake I've had visions of decorating this house with all my Christmas decorations and just putting my already decorated tree on the back of a truck and taking it across the street to the new house. He didn't like that idea so I guess I'll just leave my Christmas tree up until Maverick's birthday so that we can fully enjoy the work it is to get all the decorations out! We could have Maverick a snowman birthday and the house would already be decorated. Not a bad idea at all! I'll have to start looking for snowman plates and cups. Oooh, even better maybe I can find some on clearance after Christmas.

In other news, we're in the process of finding out where we're going after Fort Bliss. I may have mentioned once before that Jake's current battery is folding some time between February and April. We've been in discussions for weeks about what we would do next. Our favorite option is to try to get another assignment here at Fort Bliss, but we're not sure if there'll be a position available here. We have some other options. Anyone who knows anything about the military knows that nothing is ever in stone and there are no definites. Pray that we'll be open to where the Lord may need us to be next, whether that's here or there, wherever there may be! As most of you know we didn't want to come to El Paso, but have grown to love it here. If we can like El Paso, I have a feeling we can like most anywhere.

Our House and more

I told you I would post pictures of our house a long time ago so here are a few. One I took from across the street so you could see all of it in all its glory. The other is a close up of our nameplate as proof that we live here. Notice my mini-van and my SC license plate, the one part of the South I can hold onto until September! My license is good until 2008 so I guess I can hold onto it, too. When the house is clean and picture worthy, I'll take some inside shots of the 'chateau.' I still haven't gotten the curtains hung in mine and Maverick's rooms. Jake's had tests and projects so my projects got put on hold. I need to spray paint my curtain rods, too, so I guess I'm holding it up, as well. I would hang curtains myself, but I don't have enough strength to drive the drill bit in the concrete wall. Believe me, I've tried!

I made another major purchase today that I'm so pumped about. I bought myself a full size electronic piano with weighted keys. I know you're saying what's the big deal? I'm a piano player that has lived without a piano for about 10 years. Now that I'll have 24/7 access to one, I'll never get anything done! I don't get anything done already so I guess it won't be any different. I did get 2 pages in Bailey's scrapbook done last night while we watched a special on places to visit in Hawaii. I don't think I'll ever get caught up! Maybe when Jake retires and I have a room in my house dedicated to all my hobbies, I'll finish scrapbooking baby pictures! Ha!

We had more Bailey drama yesterday over a buggy, but I won't bore you with those stories because I could tell one about every day. He and his room got some serious bonding time! The whole trip was for him and he just didn't care. I was going to Hobby Lobby to buy some art supplies so I can be a good creative mother and do some projects with my wonderful son. I could've been taking him to Chicken Nugget Heaven and it wouldn't have made a difference! Jake's outside now trying to talk him into being a golf prodigy. He's not getting very far. I don't think Bailey cares that Tiger Woods could hit a ball 50 yards when he was 2. He's still got 11 months to be 2 so maybe he'll figure it out. I'll have to get him a better club than the plastic club I got at a consignment sale that's currently taped together.