My Absence Explained

For the first time since I’ve been blogging, I took a little break. It wasn’t intentional, but it was a much needed time to focus on other more important things. Plus, winter gives me the blues. All I want to do is cuddle up with a blanket and pillow on the couch keeping warm by the fire and watch DVR’d episodes of my soaps and favorite television shows that I’ve been too exhausted to stay up and watch.

Why the exhaustion, you ask? This girl is officially 16 weeks pregnant! Due August 10th!

On January 2nd, I had my first doctor’s appointment. At the time, we were trying to keep things on the down-low until I was at 12 weeks along. So much for that! While we were there, I saw like five people from our town….one of those being the mother of one of our very good friends. Needless to say, she was on to us! How many wives bring their husbands along to that kind of doctor without their being a reason associated with being pregnant? We were able to brush it off to all of those who asked, but we knew they weren’t stupid.

Two days later, I was struck with kidney stones….at school. I didn’t know what was happening, but I thought for sure I was dying. The pain was excruciating! So horrible, in fact, that I had no reservations about laying down on the gym bathroom floor. You know you are in trouble when you are able to do something like that. All I knew was that I couldn’t move from that position. Long story short, they had to call Colby at work and my parents at home to come and get me. Going to the emergency room like that meant that the truth had to come out. My parents and the whole world knew from that point on. It’s kind of hard to keep a secret when they put you in the OB hall. Luckily, I passed the stone quickly and was released.

Sickness set in from that point on, and I’m not really talking morning sickness. Sinus infections and horrible headaches. For what little morning sickness I had, I learned how to control it a little better. Nighttime digestion has been quite a problem that I’m still dealing with, but will hopefully get some relief for when I visit the doc again on Monday.

Between work, sickness, and normal day to day activities, I’m completely zapped at the end of the day. Bedtime comes early for this girl. By the time the weekends roll around, I’m completely worthless.

With all that being said though, some major things have taken place around these parts lately in the house department. And we’ll be finding out what baby Langham is this afternoon! Stay tuned for the big announcement!

Fruit Basket Turnover

I would say that’s the perfect way to describe what is going on in our house right now. As a matter of fact, the same thing is happening with my ALL of my in-laws. Remember that list of goals I made? It’d be pretty hard not to seeing as how that’s the last post I’ve made. I’ve been pretty pathetic here in the blog world lately, but life’s been throwing me some curve balls. Hopefully, I’m on the road to feeling better. The good news is that lots of progress has been going on around the house lately although if you walked in my house you might disagree.

I wouldn’t blame you. Want me to make you feel better about your house? Just look at what I’m living with in the mean time.

See what I meant when I described our house as a fruit basket turnover? We have carpet going in the bedroom that you see up top. The boys moved all of the furniture and ripped out the carpet, which has left me with this mess. (Of course, I’m grateful for all of their hard work though.)

Quite frankly, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with all of this furniture because our in-laws are giving us a king size bed to go in the bedroom since my BIL and SIL are moving into the tailgate house in Auburn that my in-laws own.

That’s right. A whole house of furniture is coming out of the tailgate house, and a whole house of other furniture is going to squeeze in. You people might see a pretty good yard sale happening in the future. Between the three households, we might have plenty to get rid of. If it happens, you guys will be the first to know and possibly see a preview.

In other news, the last picture that shows my living room filled with my junk will be filled with living room furniture very soon. It has officially been ordered, and we’re just playing the waiting game. If the carpet doesn’t get here pretty soon, I see a king size bed being placed in there as well.

I know this is normal for a period of time when renovations are taking place, but this might just drive me crazy before the reno is over.

Let’s pray that carpet installer calls early.

Ten House Goals of 2013

I thought long and hard about house goals for this upcoming year. 2012 was such an amazing year that it would be very hard for 2013 to top it. However, I didn’t expect 2012 to be such an outstanding year either. The Lord has definitely blessed us in the past year, and without him we would not be in the place we are now. In an effort to build upon that, I have set us some goals once again for our house. Last year, we did achieve some goals from the list, but not many. This year I wanted to make some more attainable goals.

So let me share some ideas for the upcoming year…..

{one}

Get seating for the living room

{two}

Paint the living room

{three}

Get lamps for the guest bedroom

{four}

Paint built in cabinets in den

{five}

Buy one large rug for the house

{six}

Remove vertical blinds in bathroom and replace with curtains

{seven}

Replace at least two light fixtures

{eight}

Have rocking chair reupholstered

{nine}

Have one piece of art framed and hung

{ten}

Have carpet replaced in guest bedroom

 

There are some pretty expensive goals on the list, but some are already in the works as we speak. They just haven’t been put into complete action yet. I’m excited about crossing these things off of the list. If I mark half off of the list, I think that would be satisfactory.

Unexpected {but greatly accepted} Change in Plans

This year has been a year that held a very wonderful blessing. We certainly didn’t see it coming and had no idea that we would be buying a house. Of course the thought ran through my head constantly, but after a big fail in the house buying department {which was a blessing in disguise} I really thought we would be living at the 203 for much longer. While I loved our first little house together that we put blood, sweat, and tears into, it just wasn’t home. It didn’t have that feeling of safety that you should always have within the walls of your home. Packing went quick and so did the moving, which left little time to miss it. Truth be told….I haven’t missed it since we’ve moved. It’s been a refreshing change.

With that being said, I didn’t completely finish my twelve goals for the year. I actually was pretty far from completing them, but I’m going to make an exception since our extra money went to our new home. This year though, I am just writing ten goals. I want to at least accomplish one per month. I figured that was reasonable. Plus, if I kept on with the yearly goals {12 in 2012….13 in 2013}, it would become completely ridiculous. That’s why this year I’m sticking with just ten attainable goals….nothing ridiculous…nothing that will happen in my dreams. It’s just ten simple goals.

Want to know what they are? That will have to wait. Right now, I’m challenging you to make your own list. Write it down on a piece of paper. Write a blog post. Post it on my comments. Do all of the above. Whatever suits you. Just make it visible to yourself. Start making a plan for completing those goals and be prepared to mark them off. Seeing them will definitely motivate you, and marking them off will motivate you even more.

I will be back later with my official list!

Going a Different Route in the Christmas Card Dept.

Am I the only one who is late on Christmas cards this year? I almost opted out, but I seriously couldn’t allow myself to do that two years in a row. When it comes to Christmas cards, I’ve done it all. I’ve ordered online, I’ve bought from Wal-Mart, and I’ve {obviously} chosen not to send Christmas cards at all because I couldn’t get my act together. I really thought this year was going to be one of those years.

Christmas cards can be so pricey, and I did not have the moo-lah left in the bank account to be jumping the gun and going all out. With that being said, I went for an option I use frequently for other occasions, but never for Christmas cards. I went the DIY route, the print it yourself route, the cheap route.

How cheap? $10 cheap!

Seriously.

10 George Washingtons, and it was a done deal.

People, I tell you now that if you are not familiar with Etsy then you need to be. You can find tremendous deals, and most of the time you’re helping other women make a little extra money while they raise their family. It’s a win-win.

All you have to do is create an account. Type in printable Christmas cards. Search. Put a heart on your favorites. Browse your favorites list. Follow the shop owner’s directions and place an order. Wait 24-48 hours, and you’ve got yourself a Christmas card ready to print at home {or Walgreens or some other printing place if you are so led to spend more money}.

This year I went with a shop named OhDarlingPaper. I swear to you that I placed my order and a couple of hours later she emailed me my card. Seriously fast service! You even get to choose if you just want a jpeg or a pdf with the cutting lines already there!

In the end, I only spent $10 on Christmas cards. I already had the envelopes, paper cutter, stamps, and printer ready to go from other projects.

Wondering how it turned out? Look below!

I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. The owner of the shop is incredibly kind and helpful! I’m sure you can find something from her shop that will suit your needs. All of the photos above are samples of cards from her shop. How precious are those designs! Very classic designs!

I’ve had several people ask me about my printer. I scored a great deal at Office Depot on my printer a couple of years back. My printer is an HP Color LaserJet Printer CM1312nfi.It has earned its worth through my wedding and countless parties and showers. The only thing I wish it had would be a bypass tray.

Well, the next couple of days are going to be crazy busy, so I hope you all have a magnificent week full of Christmas joy!

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It’s the most wonderful time, and it’s the busiest time of the year. However, it is my favorite time of the year. I may complain from time to time about going here or there, but I really do enjoy it all. Christmas makes the winter season so much more beautiful than it would be without all of the sparkling lights. I’m a sucker for driving down the streets just to admire everyone’s Christmas decorations. My favorites are the classic white light decorations, but I do get a kick out of seeing the Griswald family décor on the lawn.

On top of all of that, I love decorating for Christmas around the house, too. Since this year is our first time in the house for Christmas, I’m living and learning about what works and what doesn’t. I can’t wait until I can make this a two {big} tree house…one for the living room for all the passerbyers to see and one for the den for me to constantly admire. That’s a goal for next year. We’ll see if it happens.

For now though, this is a sample of the Christmas décor you’ll see when you take a stroll around the house. Nothing too major….just some simple ideas thrown together.

I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season and remembering the true reason for the season!

{Trying} to Give Up on Perfection

About a week ago, I had a complete meltdown. Every encounter that people had with me probably consisted of me melting down of how there was no way I was going to be able to get everything done before Christmas. Most people would be concerned with the main things….buying gifts, putting up the tree, and maybe even figuring out what they were going to bring to this party or that.

You see, though, my list went way beyond that. When I was looking around at my house, all I was seeing were all of the projects on my to-do list that were not done or all of the things that I need to get to give the rooms a more completed look. That’s realistic, right? I would suppose so if we hit the lotto, or were self-made millionaires, or if we had all the time in the world to do all of those things all of the time. Even then….not so realistic.

In my conversations with a sub {and good friend} at school, my mom, my sister, and another co-worker and good friend, I made my case about how there was no way everything was going to get done. Then, I would remind myself that my expectations are impossible and totally ridiculous. After all, we just moved in the house in August. We’ve only be married two years. We don’t have some crazy triple digit income {not to mention the fact that I’m cheap}, and we work day in and day out {and I do not mean in the house….although that’s a never-ending job}.

In my head, all I could think of was all of the Christmas decorations that I wanted to put up and such with the reality in the back of my head. In the end, I compromised. I made myself a ridiculous list of things that wouldn’t cost me a dime {or not much moo-lah at all}. I marked things off as I completed then and felt terrific about my progress, and I tried to forget all of the things that weren’t getting done and weren’t going to. I also tried to focus more on the things that mattered most, my family and the true reason for the season.

I’m constantly at battle with my head and my heart. Sometimes I get too caught up in the worldly things when I should really be spending my time with my family and building a stronger relationship with God. I get too caught up in what people might think of me, and they probably don’t even give a hill of beans.

So, my house isn’t perfect, and if it were it would be boring. It’s never going to be “finished”. It’s going to be a constant work in progress.

Prepare yourself for tomorrow. I’m going to share some ways I’ve incorporated the Christmas season in my house and brought the beautiful creations of God right on in to remind me that He is the reason of the season and not the gifts and perfect presents that commercial America thinks it should be instead. I’ll also share some ideas I have for next year’s Christmas.

Typical me….always planning…….

Even a year in advance.

I hope you’re not as stressed as I’ve been. I’m teaching myself how to take a chill pill. I’m a work in progress.