Picture Overload

If you come to read my eloquent speech, this my friend is not the post for you...nor are any of my other posts because eloquent is the last adjective I would use to describe my writing.  We are in the new place and I am loving it.  I am not loving the loads of crap that cover every surface as I try to unpack and organize, but I'll get past it.  While I am rambling about the things that annoy me, I would like to add that most of the pictures in this post are blurry.  Drives me crazy.  I also cannot figure out a good way to photograph a room as a whole. OK. Done ranting.  So below are some before pictures and some progress pictures in the new place.  Be warned.  My house is currently a hot mess.  Now it will look that much better in the after pictures!  Setting myself up for success.  Also, keep in mind that we are renting.  So home improvements have to come on the cheap.  I pride myself on cheap home improvement projects and making a rental feel like a home. 

KITCHEN: Didn't take very good before pictures.  But lets just say it looked like Barbie barfed on the walls.  So that was the first room to be painted.  Plans for the kitchen include finding some artwork for the wall, a mat for in front of the sink, and finishing the new light fixture I put up.

Progress

 Progress

 Ahhhh no more Barbie barf.  The counter tops now look less green too.

 Much better

 LIVING ROOM:  I was nervous about the carpet and the massive window, but I think this room has some potential.  Plans for the living room include: Sewing new pillow covers for the wall.  Finding a Credenza to put the TV on (right now it is on a coffee table), painting the front door, hanging some type of art on the walls, and frosting the glass on the cabinet so we can store ugly stuff in it.

 None of the wood or trim in the house matches.  At all.

 Paint and curtains make a HuGe difference.  I would have liked green curtains, but didn't want to shell out over $100 for the fabric I loved.  So reusing the white curtains became the plan.

BEDROOM:  The before is the bachelor pad shot from before we moved in.  Plans include painting the walls, returning the target pillows now that I know I want to do the room in yellow, brown, and grey, making new pillows much cheaper, hanging art on the walls, and hounding my landlord for the closet door.

 Progress

 I am aware that I own too many articles of clothing.  Encourage me to purge.

LAUNDRY ROOM:  This room was disgusting and also painted in Barbie Barf.  It remains that color at the moment but will be changed in the near future.  I don't think anyone has ever moved the washer and dryer to clean around them.  I was going to take before pictures but I was too disgusted and didn't want to be judged.  In the laundry room is this weird closet that has never-been-updated wall paper and cobwebs from hell.  When I get up the guts I will clean that room out too.  For now I am closing the door and pretending it doesn't exist.  I plan to build shelves to the right of the dryer and paint the walls in here.  I also plan to paint one of the walls in chalk board and magnetic paint where we can have our calender and organize our stuff out of view.

Before.  

 Progress.  Massive cleaning and moved machines close to window

Now there is space on the side for my future shelves that will serve as our pantry.  To the right is the creepy closet with the furnace and water heater.

 The ancient wall paper.  In case you didn't know, the spine of a book is it's binding.  The wallpaper says so.

 What I am pretending does not exist in my home.  Gross factor ten.

BATHROOM:  I didn't take progress pictures yet, but here are the before.  We aren't doing much except for hanging a different curtain and putting some over the toilet storage.

The other rooms just contain out loads of crap.  Eventually I wan to take before and after pictures of the garden and those rooms, but right now I have no desire to touch them.  Here is a picture of some of my amazing friends at Joy and Nathan's going away party.

Now that I have put you to sleep with my pictures, I am going to head out for some Chinese food.  I am open to suggestions on house decorating/improvements, especially when it comes to rentals and not wanting to spend much at all.  Have a good weekend!

An exciting beginning and a sweet end

So I just completed my nursing orientation for a new job, as well as the last week of the OB clinical group I was teaching.  I am feeling extremely blessed (along with nervous, excited, petrified... you know the whole frickin spectrum of emotions, but I think that just happens when you start something new).  There were some things I wanted to remember about my orientation that just seemed to be whispers from God that this was the right move for me.  The person who organized the HR orientation was a 50/50 combo of my Aunt Joan and Aunt Bev.  I wanted to take this lady home and make some memories with her.  She was such a spitfire and just warmed my heart as I remembered my Auntie Joan.  I also loved the Chapel in the hospital.  After a hard night I can see myself taking a few minutes to just breath and decompress to help me leave work at work.  The motto on the hospitals logo states in Latin, "The love of Christ urges us on."  How true.  Overall I have just had a wonderful orientation experience and I am so excited to start working with some of the girls I have met.  I am really going to miss my old unit and co workers, but feel a lot of peace about this transition in my life.

I also just taught my last clinical, and this experience was so different than what I expected.  I think I went to bed anxious every Thursday night.  It was stressful for me to want to give every student this amazing OB experience, and feeling like I couldn't deliver based on the location of the clinical.  However, by the end of the term, everyone was able to see a baby come into this world in one form or fashion.  And, the students gave me a bracelet with my name engraved on it as well as "Best Teacher Ever" on the back.  Melt my heart.  I just couldn't have asked for a better group of students to have for a first time experience.  I am excited about going back to teaching in the future after I am more settled with my new job, and I am so grateful for how much this experienced help to stretch and grow me as a clinician and teacher.

Tomorrow we move to a new house, and I am stoked.  I love home improvement projects, and crafts, and gardening.  And better yet, I love finding the best deals throughout all of those processes.  The opportunities are endless!  I have already commenced the painting and the planning and cannot wait to put some ideas into action.  I have already packed up the camera, so after we are settled I will post the before pictures.

Happy weekend!

Waiting for the Storm

I'm sitting in my window sill waiting for the big storm that is supposedly coming.  I love storms.  I love how they have the power to bring people together.  What else can I talk to my crazy neighbors about?

I can remember getting all worked up by storm warnings in the past, but then it would be a huge let down.  This summer's storms however have delivered and showed up their sissy friends of the past. We will see how this one lives up to its warning.   I am most likely able to love storms this much because we have only lost power once and it was for only one day, unlike many of my friends.
Storms draw you in and are easy to watch and enjoy when you can do it from a distance.  When it doesn't make your life messy.  But we don't grow as much when we watch the storm from a safe distance.  While nothing monumental happened this past year, I feel like my life was in the middle of a storm.  I had to learn how to deal with the hail and the wind.  I started to break down and feel more damaged than I had in a long time.  But looking back now, after the eye of the storm has passed, I am better for it.  And my friendships are richer for it.  People came together and built me back up.  They challenged me and called the best out of me, my husband in particular.

The kiddo across the street has no idea about the storm that is coming.  The Power Wheels Jeep won't be so much fun at 3 miles an hour when you are getting pelted by hail girlfriend.  I think many times I am a lot like the girl in the Jeep.  I think life is flying by, and I have no idea what is coming. I think that is how we are supposed to live our lives.  There isn't much of a point in stalking weather.com.  It doesn't change what is coming.  I trust that it will be O.K.  That God is in control.  And that sometimes a storm isn't such a bad thing.

In the time I have taken to write this post, this storm has chickened out.  No golf ball size hail for me.  Bummer.  How many times in our lives do we stress and worry about something we have no control over?  No need. What will be, will be.  I will just prepare my best for what lies ahead.  I guess the Toyota Echo will keep the paint it has left for another day.