life is messy

So is our house. Cobwebs, dust bunnies, fur balls, crusted dishes and mountains of laundry. It never ends and I am JUST NOW realizing this.

Everything I ever wanted lead to these increasing chores. Bigger house = more to clean. Husband = increased laundry. Cutest puppy in the world = fur EVERYWHERE.

To whom much is given, much is expected. Luke 12:48

THANK GOODNESS the pup helped with the chores or we were looking at 2010 before we saw the floor of the laundry room again.

Being placed in the clothes basket and popping up for a staged photograph counts as helping, right?


The master bedroom is almost finished, but I couldn't help sharing before all was accomplished.

We bought this new {used} gargantuan furniture from another pharmacist at work. Getting married and moving to a house with a smaller master bedroom had left this gorgeous, barely used furniture in storage. That is, until our good fortune found it.

It also came with a beautiful canopy that I would love to attach but we would have to detach the light/fan combo. I can't sleep without the fan, thus no canopy to be seen in these pictures.

Big thanks to my husband who is legally bound to a nag that convinced him the curtain rods should be reinstalled closer to the ceiling so that the windows could appear larger AND so that our new curtains wouldn't be pooling in a big mess on the floor.

{Finishing touch still missing here - looking for a nice cushy bench to set between the curtains. It will seem as if it's there to help out with lounging and sitting on to put on one's shoes, but really, I need a place to throw my clothes besides the floor =) }

All four curtains: $32 at TJ Maxx.

Much better than the curtains I originally brought home for $200 and returned after they just weren't the look I was going for, exasperated that I would never be happy with any on the market and that I would be making them myself as soon as I learned how to sew {which is never}.

Glad I didn't have to resort to the mess I'm sure I would make or the big $$$ I may have spent on a seamstress!

The lamps are lucite, also from TJ Maxx. They just don't sparkle in these pictures like they do in person. I ♥ them.

The white bedding I ALWAYS wanted and looked for, literally, over 2 years... believe it or not, a place I next to never shop: JC Penney online. Just crazy to me!

And I know you're just dying to find out where we got my nightstand as well! It's just so darned glamorous. It's even too delicate to store anything in, as the drawers WILL NOT stay on the tracks, evident by the crooked top drawer in the picture below, which I couldn't even struggle to fix before showing you.

If you didn't catch on, this little piece it really just holding up my lamp and cell phone on my side of the bed until something else canbe found.

Our eyes are peeled for a second nightstand to even come close to matching. The furniture is by Pulaski, where this exact line is no longer being made as far as we can tell and they do have lots that would fit nicely but, geeze... they're almost as much as we payed for the entire set PLUS the mattresses. {i.e. we bought it at all for a STEAL!}

A few pretty plates hung around the mirror above the bed and a couple running rugs on each side and we're set.

Now only 6 more rooms to finish. By then, we'll probably have 3 kids and looking for a new house. It really never ends, but it sure is fun.

P.S. Ironically, I uploaded all of these pictures and wrote the ENTIRE post before accidentally deleting it just before hitting the "publish post" option. I was crushed. The kicker: the post was originally titled "life is messy" and the title stuck for the second writing . Even more appropriate this time around.

 

 

Have you tried any Amazon promo codes for home to save money on decorating and organizing?

October 23rd.. 'cause I just can't come up with a title

Amazingly enough, I've had the last 3 days off and I have NO IDEA where the time went.

With the fantastic weekdays off comes the inevitable working through the weekend. Before I go AWOL from blogworld, I wanted to leave you with a few new sites around the Roberts household...

I've bought 4 area rugs since we've bought this house, all from Overstock.com, all have made me very, very happy. Rug numero quatro just came in about a week ago, ordered specifically for the *new* office.



I tried to make it manly, but more importantly - it's fun! We even got a new desk from craigslist. It's HUGE, 72 inches across! I love the desk space, lots of room for some decorating with a little room leftover to get some office type work done ;)

Sorry, no full room shots yet. I still have some decorating to do and a fish tank to buy fishes for before the finished product can be revealed. {What I'm doing here with that last sentence is pretending like it's all so exciting for you, like I usually do. Just play along or you'll hurt my feelings.}

***It's the "new" office because the old sad office was moved to this smaller room, which fits the lack of office furniture much better. The former office was much larger for our second guest bedroom... which will someday be the nursery♥. I figured we might as well get the office situated where it eventually would be anywho when those youngins come along.♥♥♥

Last stop, the basement, where the theater is coming along as well.



That's our little movie poster wall we've been planning for a while now. Nick and I each got to pick our top three movies to feature, which was very difficult to do and basically came down to the posters we liked the best out of our top twenty.


{{In case you were wondering, Nick's movie picks are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Dark Knight {which scares me to look at} and Caddy Shack. Mine: Father of the Bride {no brainer!}, Ferris Bueller, and The Graduate.}}

***********

The last few images are really just for me and my memories.

My sweet boys who I can never take enough pictures of:

And my sweet, just for the heck of it, flowers that my sweetie brought me home when he was just supposed to be out getting us a quick movie from RedBox tonight:

When I can't take them with me to work {my boys and my flowers}, I'll be checking my phone and this post just to take a peek at what I miss so much when I'm away.

~Stephanie

I'll have one large pumpkin and a raise, please.

We're only halfway through the week and it's already been quite an exciting {and exhausting} one thus far.

Sunday afternoon, Nick and I fulfilled one of my wishes - to go to a pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin.

You may think that's a pretty lame wish, but you have to understand, I grew up in the mountains - we didn't have pumpkin patches. Instead, we would head over to Walmart, the local grocery store, or even a gas station or roadside loaded up truck bed from out of town to pick out our pumpkins. We had lots of fun carving and painting the pumpkins, just not one ounce of fun in the purchasing part.

{And my stars, do I love to shop - even if it is just for a pumpkin.}

So off we went to Georgetown to Bi-waters Farm to pick our pumpkins. It was great to be back in the town where Nick and I met in college and started our storybook romance.

This gal in the next pic went to college there too, but we met looooooooooong before that in preschool. Friends ever since, simple as that. This is Bridget, who you may recognize from our wedding photos as my maid of honor.

The little fluffball she's holding is Hendrix's new girlfriend, Bella.

Bella is a Coton de Tulear and Hendrix is a pound puppy, but their different classes can't stop this puppy love ♥

We had a blast on the hay ride and of course - finding our way through the corn maze!

Isn't this hilarious and adorable?

I'm already making my plans to copycat this in our front yard next year.

We laughed our butts off during this photo and even more after it was over and we saw the finished product on the camera display.

Bella looks like she's definitely done this before with her paw hanging nonchalantly out the window.

For a moment, I forgot all about my pup while in the petting zoo. I was in love with the farm babies and ready to take them all home. Too bad they weren't for sale, Hendrix would love to rabbit chase all the live-long day.

We took absolutely every chance for a photo shoot with the gorgeous fall colors and I couldn't pick just one to show you.

Sorry, just a few more...

Bridget bought these cutie-patootie pumpkin costumes for our babies at PetSmart just for the day. Thanks, girl!

I'm sure we'll be back one day with our real babies, also dressed up like pumpkins, and also being pushed together by their mommas to be boyfriend and girlfriend.

Can't wait.

To finish up the exciting part of the week, on Monday, I put on my big girl panties and asked for a raise... and got it.


I am so excited to go car shopping now!

{Probably won't be buying until after Christmas, but that's even sooner than we had planned with the raise now in the picture.}

The exhausting part of the week was getting up at 3:30am on Monday morning to be at a CVS two hours away by 6:30am for inventory before opening. Then finding out at 8:30am that I was also scheduled to work at a different CVS, also two hours away, who was calling to see if I was running late when I didn't show.

Puh-lease. I'm not super woman, people.

The mix-up was fixed {no fault on my part, by the way} but I still had to spend the night at my parents on Monday night, being that it's the halfway point between the stores, so I could make it to work the next day to fill in for the schedule mix-up. I had no clothes, no tooth-brush, no make-up and I was on a serious sleep drought. Thank God for my parents for taking me in! My mom fed me and washed my clothes so I could wear them again the next day.

All of this saved me precious drive time from going back to my house, providing me a tiny bit more sleep for the 14 hour work day and 3 hours of driving I had ahead of me. Not to mention, had I went back to Lexington, Nick would have seen a full blown sleep deprived and work frustration fueled melt-down, in fabulous 5 year old style. The melt-down has now been postponed for a later date. If the raises can continue, I think I can muster up enough willpower to postpone it indefinitley. Ha!

I don't even want to think about where I would be without my mommy and daddy...

for the moment

This past week, I wrote you a thank you note.

I had no idea I would feel compelled to thank you once again in less than a week.

For your prayers, your thoughts, and your sweet comments after letting you know about my mom's health woes, THANK YOU!

She is home now and resting up, though we still do not have any answers. She's scheduled for more appointments and tests. If nothing happens to turn up, she'll have no choice but to wait for another episode of chest pain to return to the ER so that they can run their tests during the occurrence.

I pray {and hope you will too} that she does not have to endure the pain again. We know that preventative medicine is the best medicine and I hope that we will end up with answers and a plan that will resolve this issue. {OR it could just all go away and forever be a mystery that we never hear from again - that's an even better prayer.}

*******

On a different note, I volunteered for my own bodily pain tonight. I even paid to be in pain.

I'm limping around and feeling like I sorta wanna karate chop/kick this lady:

It's only fair. She totally kicked my butt tonight.

In only 20 minutes.

On level 1 of 3.

{Supposedly she's the fitness trainer from The Biggest Loser? I don't watch but know plenty of people who love it. So maybe you already knew she was tough... I, however, was completely caught off guard.}

I am in sad, SAD shape. I no longer know the girl I was in high school... that was very nearly a decade ago. Or more accurately, 20 pounds and 1 million hours of television ago. That girl that was on a national champion dance team, that did ballet and pointe in her spare time, that came home from 3 hour dance practice to get on the treadmill. That CRAZY girl who woke-up very early before school to do the video "8 minute abs"... twice. {So, 16 minute abs???}

I don't want to actually be her again. She was a tiny bit psycho obsessed. {But hey, we danced at half-time of our high school football and basketball games and our outfits were on the revealing side. It was all in the name self preservation!}

I don't want to be her, but I'd love to feel a little more of the energy she had back then.

As for dieting, I had no plans to try and alter what I'm eating right now, just to start with working out, but after tonight's dinner of Velveeta shells and cheese and then the 30 Day Shred... dinner almost didn't stay down and I can't even dream of eating it again anytime soon.

So hey, there's one crappy food already cut from my adolescent diet.

It's a start.

Prayer Request

I got a call from my mom while I was at work yesterday to let me know she was on her way to being admitted to the hospital.

{She told me to stay calm and not freak out before telling me - she knows me far too well. I wasn't freaking out after hanging up, but I was fighting back the big baby tears.}

She's had a few "attacks" lately that she thought may be heartburn, perhaps gallbladder attacks, but while at the doctor to figure it out, her EKG showed abnormal. Thus, they admitted her for lots of tests and monitoring. After talking to her this morning, we know NOTHING yet except that she wasn't able to get one wink of sleep last night! Poor thing.

Please pray for her health, the doctors' wisdom, and some peace and much needed rest/sleep for my little momma. I wish we weren't 2 hours apart! I'd get in there, tell her stories about work, and she'd be asleep in 5 minutes flat ;)

She's also dealing with some lingering pain from a little accident she had last week - stepping on the soap and falling face first into the shower wall has left some bad pain in her neck and her knee which hit extremely hard as well. Not to mention that during this time, Dad had a terrible case of the flu! Neither were able to help take care of the other. Mom had to go by herself to the ER to have a cat scan.

Needless to say she and Dad could use a few days without pain and illness. We are hoping for the best in this situation and appreciate that whatever the case may be, we can trust in Him.

My entire family covets and appreciates your prayers more than you will ever know.



"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6&7

my home away from home

The last few days, my evenings after work have been spent holed up in a hotel room just passing the time. Luckily, I brought a few friends along. Together, we are working up lots of plans and schemes for home decor with the ootles of eye candy and mutiple DIY projects offered up within their pages.


Along with the friends I've also found an enemy. This {evil} menu, conveniently placed in my room, and the restaurant located next door {with free delivery} HAS NOT been my friend. Or, at least, it hasn't been a friend to my goal to get back into some of my jeans.

Shucks.


What have I done besides lie in bed, read magazines, and stuff my face full of Applebees?

*watch Marley&Me -> have a good cry at the end

*walk around Wal-mart for a hour

*trim my own hair

*laugh A LOT at Wanda Sykes stand-up on HBO

*shop online {didn't buy a thing, but had fun looking anyway}

*chit-chat with my hubby on the phone

*and just before writing this post, I found this exciting new project(!) that I can't wait to start on our office walls.

{The picture below was taken over a month ago of the roses I brought with me left from Chad&Lauren's wedding weekend. It was a diva moment, as Nick pointed out, to cart the flowers hours in a car and into the hotel room, but it made the five days I had to live there a tiny bit sweeter. Besides - why leave them at home with a man who wouldn't even acknowledge their presence?!}

I'm winding up my time here {going home tomorrow after a 14 hour shift!} and I must admit that the couple hours I've had in the evening between the end of work and dream time are a welcome luxury to veg-out without the guilt of knowing there is laundry to do, floors to sweep, and furniture to paint.

{Did I mention I contemplated bringing one of the chairs, a drop cloth, paint can and brush with me to the hotel room so my "down-time" wasn't wasted? Crazy, right?}

With that said, I would trade in all the lazy time I've had to be back at home with the ones I love in the place we call home.


Signing off from the glamorous Hampton Inn ;)

~Stephanie

Darlings,

I just had to write a note to say...

Thank you!

You all are always SO sweet to me with your extra sugary sweet comments and encouragement.

I can do the smallest thing, think it's totally unworthy to be blogged about and still you go out of your way to make me feel like I have really accomplished something.

So again, thank you!

{You shouldn't have!}

=)

I'm off for a long 4 day stint of working from sun-up till sun-down and living away from my darling husband and precious puppy. But when I get back, boy oh boy, do I have some things to show you all!

Two more chairs have been painted {TWO more, that's THREE total! Can you believe it?? I can't.}, the master bedroom is getting it's finishing touches, the movie room is evolving to a more theater-like feel, and the guest bedrooms - well HECK, they're all new.

Can't wait to share with you!

A steady supply of candy corn & coffee

That's what I've been chowin' and chuggin' on for my entire day off. It's the kind of fuel that gives you a big peak of energy and a sudden crash later. Thankfully there's a wonderfully comfortable couch nearby and I can always refuel with more candy cornand coffee.

Today, work has followed me home and this time, it's the unpaid kind. Though it IS awfully rewarding and I DO get to take a break whenever I feel like it. Instead, in lieu of money, I get paid with kisses from my husband who is also home for fall break from grad school, which makes working on my day off a little sweeter =)

My job: painting the dining room furniture.

We were lucky little brats, as usual, to have this table, 6 chairs, and china cabinet passed down to us from Nick's grandfather.

We've decided it could use a coat of paint, new fabric on the chair cushions, and a fresh new blank canvas on the chair backs... a.k.a. Syonara, seashells!


I used wood filler to putty in the seashells. My dearest husband sanded down the excess filler and roughed up the rest of the chair with sandpaper.


After being sanded and wiped down, I got to priming the the chairs, as you can tell, VERY close to the television screen.


Work always goes by a little quicker with some entertainment in the background, right?





Voila!


Seashell go bye-bye.

While painting and watching TV, my other hand was playing tug-o-war and throwing things for someone to fetch.

It's just too hard to say no to this face.

Besides, all work and no play makes me a dull girl.

What happens when you forget to graba paint stir stick at Lowe's?

You improvise, of course.

Those crappy plastic hangers from the store actually ARE good for something!

One coat of black...

Two coats of black and back to the dining room.

I dripped, I splashed, and my brush strokes
show up nicely in the right light to display my amateur display of brushing on paint hither thither in different directions.

But it's done.
Four hours later.

Just 5 more chairs, one long table, and one tall china cabinet to go. I also need to pick out the fabric and reupholster the cushions.

I should be done around this time next year.