Making Plans!

Since tomorrow is the first day of school, aka my new life, I have decided that Monday I am really going to start this new chapter off the right way. I know that I have said multiple times that I am going to get healthy and lose weight. But this time how can I not follow through? I will have most afternoons free. So I can't possibly make excuses! If anyone has any workout tips or tips on eating right, will you please fill me in! I really want to make it work this time. I don't care how long it takes to get down to the weight I want to be, which is really a general range. I would rather be considered healthy than just at a specific weight. And I will be starting on a Monday because it's just an OCD thing where I have to start at the beginning of the week. Monday has always been the beginning of the week to me instead of Sunday. I consider Sunday the end of the last week. It's a complicated place in my brain haha.

So this is what it feels like!

This is Day 2 of being home and not working full-time. As of right now, I can't say that I could get used to this. I have been really bored in the mornings. I have made plans for the afternoons so I would at least have a reason to shower. Is it sad that I need a reason to shower? But school starts on Friday, and I know then I will be thankful for all of the extra time!

And believe it or not, I have vacuumed (not the whole house, but the main areas), washed dishes, cleaned countertops, organized things, made several crafts, and shopped for school supplies (and maybe some other various decor items)! I really hope that no one is having a stroke after they read that last sentence. Sitting around with all this free time definitely makes me look at a million blogs and Pinterest and get a lot of ideas (that of course cost money)! Like I said though, once school starts it won't be so bad. I won't have time to shop or the money to spend so it will be fine.

I most definitely know that I can never be a full-time stay at home mother. I am just not loving this enough. I have never had time to just be. I've been working at least some amount of time since I was thirteen. I like working. It's fun to me. Not fun like a party, just interesting. I like being busy and learning new things. I don't like being bored. But I am appreciative of the fact that I can take this time for myself for the next 21 months and accomplish a goal, a career, and a lifestyle change. Am I nervous? Heck yes! Am I scared? A little. Am I excited? Most definitely!

Found It!

So the dog didn't really eat my ring. Whew! She did move it though! I fed her the vaseline sandwich Monday night thinking it would work like a laxative and get going fairly quickly. Wrong!

I was supposed to be somewhere at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. I was getting ready to leave and took Cinnamon outside before I left. It was a nightmare! The vaseline definitely made it easier for things to come out! Unfortunately it was not my ring that came out. I won't go into much detail because it was just gross haha. The short story is, I had to call my dad to drive all the way here (about 15 minutes) to help me hold the dog down while I hosed her off. I wasn't going to even attempt to pick her up. I had just showered and gotten dressed! And she was so scared of the water hose that she was fighting and trying to get off the leash (and she can get off the leash). I couldn't hold her and hose her down at the same time. I didn't have time to chase her down, especially with her having a several thousand dollar ring in her gut! She was worth too much to let go!

There was still no sign of that ring for the rest of Tuesday or even Wednesday morning. I was cleaning up the bedroom some Wednesday and sorting through my textbooks for my upcoming classes when voila! I found it! The ring was between two books, books that happen to be on the opposite side of the room where I had left the ring. This is how I know that Cinnamon did move it. Matthew and I had both looked through those books though, so I think we might have just moved it around some.

But at least we found it!

My Dog Ate My...

...engagement ring! Bet you thought I was going to say homework, huh? I wish it was my homework. At least I could redo that and it wouldn't cost thousands!

I woke up this morning, like every other morning, stumbled to the bathroom until my eyes decided to join the party. I did my usual routine of using the bathroom, checking facebook on my phone (it wakes me up!), and washing my hands. Finally I was ready to take a shower so I grabbed my towel and off I went. I have been showering in the guest bathroom for a while now. I like having the window open in there and since my bathroom is on the front of the house, I can't exactly open it up and let the sunshine in.

As I walked back in the bedroom no more than 10 minutes later (is that a long shower?) I saw my beloved Cinnamon sitting on my bed with something shiny in her mouth. I approached her and she ran under the bed. I got up to see what she had and realized all of my jewelry was no longer on the table where it had been. I cried, I screamed, and then I got on the floor and crawled around right after I took a shower and might have just had an OCD/germophobic moment. I guess my screaming got to her and I managed to pull her out from under the bed. She was eating my "pearl" earring. I found the other one on the bed. So I started looking for my ring. The band was next to the bed. But where was the rock?!

I searched with a flashlight for ten minutes. I was going to be late for work so I just gave up looking. I thought about it all day long. I felt naked without my ring on. And I felt like a terrible wife. How could I let my dog eat my engagement ring? By the time I got home from work, I was so mad about it I was laughing. You have to find humor in this situation. How many people have this problem? And how many times does it happen to them in a lifetime? I'm hoping more have this issue than I'm thinking do, and I'm hoping this is the only time it happens to me. But what a story for when I'm old and gray!

Matthew searched during his lunch break. We searched again tonight. No luck. I did call the vet and they told me to feed her a piece of bread with vaseline on it folded in half like a sandwich. Yummy! I did that and nothing has been pooped out yet. They told me to keep an eye on it for 2 days up to a week! So stinkin fun! (pun intended!) Cinnamon better hope that she can poop that thing out and doesn't get sick or have to have surgery because of it. I cannot afford for this dog to have surgery right now, although it would be cheaper than a new ring! Does anyone know if homeowner's insurance covers your dog eating your jewelry? haha I've never been more excited for this dog to poop in my life! It's like panning for gold, but pooping for diamonds!

Project: Kitchen

A big reason I fell in love with this house is the big kitchen! It has tons of cabinets and drawers! There's access to the deck! It has a bar! And the dining room is attached! Okay, so it's not a formal dining room, but it's got hardwood floors!

The kitchen was not very appealing when I first moved in though. The walls had been painted white... over red. And you can tell in areas like where the wall meets the chair railing. You could tell it was a cheap, rushed paint job. The cabinets were filthy. And the vinyl floor was disgusting. So the first thing we did was clean everything! And then we found some of those peel and stick tiles to put over the vinyl flooring. I know that may sound cheap to some of you, but any other option was just not in the budget at the time and still isn't today. This is what we chose. It was affordable and both quick and easy to put down. Instant upgrade!

My plan from the get go was to get all of the cabinets and trim painted a bright white because they still seem a little dingy to me. For the walls I wanted to find a really nice blue/gray color. And I found it! I picked out Mercer Blue in the Eddie Bauer collection for Valspar. We also picked out a glass tile backsplash with white, blue, gray, and charcoal. You may be thinking those colors sound so boring, but I love all colors. So I don't want to paint my kitchen green and always be tied to that color. With a neutral background, I can still use all different colors!

I found this rug and I love it! My sister paid for half as my wedding gift and I paid the rest. It looks sooooooo good! And I got these pictures for Christmas since I didn't get them off my registry.

Now for the pictures!

We still have to cut a few tiles for the odd areas, grout the tiles, and buy all new plates and put them up. I also have plans for a plate wall over the mirrored console table, and I need to get some decor items for that. We just got the table last weekend at Tuesday Morning. If you don't go to that store, you should, because it is great! I have been thinking about that table for months and I figured it would be gone, but they still had it! It was meant for me!

We haven't painted the cabinets and trim, so that's still in the plans. And I will definitely be changing out those gold hinges and knobs! I'm not sure what we're going to do behind the stove area yet, but we've been thinking about mounting a microwave over it. Right now the ginormous outdated microwave sits in a little alcove next to the refrigerator, but I'd rather utilize that as a cookbook shelf. So we'll see. It's still a lot of white in there. Maybe we can change the counter at some point to help break up all that white.

And excuse all the stuff on the counters. I just went grocery shopping today and I've been buying a lot online lately. See that Foodsaver in the next to last picture? Best deal ever!