We're engaged!

In true "Joe" fashion, he asked me to marry him on January 26th. It was somewhat romantic, but as I said - true Joe fashion... I'll spare you the details. We talked about it here and there, but it was definitely a surprise when he pulled out this ring and asked. I said yes! :-) 

We don't have a date. We don't have a plan. YET. Still working on that. He works a lot of hours, overnight -so we aren't really even sure when will be the best time. He gets a couple weeks off in July, but July is hot! :-( We have talked about even just eloping, but having a reception later. We are still working on all the details of everything and figuring out what we want. 

I am over the moon ecstatic and happy. This guy has been amazing. We tried dating several times before we actually took the plunge. (Or should I say - that I agreed to go on another date...haha) and we definitely have had lots of time to figure each other out and really make it a real relationship. Heaven knows I've had my share of rocky relationships. I think when you choose to be with someone, though, you have to 100% commit yourself to that person despite their faults, despite the fights or disagreements, and despite the hard times. We all think we do, but so many people are ready to run at the slightest glimpse of discomfort. I've been one of those people... and I am not going to lie -  I have been tempted to run when we have had some rough moments. It's natural, its human nature. I stuck it out because I see what an amazing person he is. Even when we do have issues, we are able to work through them together and figure it out. I can definitely say that I have never had someone that truly tries to work together.  I am also pretty lucky that he has stuck around in the not so pretty moments, too. Thank goodness, I have found him! I am very very lucky. 

Isn't it gorgeous?!

Another year, new beginnings.

Every new year brings new beginnings. It's a chance to forget the past year, move on and create new memories. Most people choose to make resolutions. I decided not to this year. Mostly because I will always been a work in progress. I make resolutions and break them. This year - I am aiming for goals! What are some of your goals for this year?

My health has become a priority over the last couple of years, however - maybe not as much as a priority as it should be! I will work on that.

Joe worked the night before and didn't sleep all day... but I am in a great mood! :-) 

We started the new year off by seeing a fertility specialist. For many years, I have had infertility. Mostly unexplained. I was never really tested for PCOS but it was assumed that I had it based off some symptoms and issues that I deal with. We had many long talks after the past year, where I committed to working on my health and weight for the year. We decided we needed to take a few steps to make things happen. One was booking an appointment with Dr. Ryan Riggs at Blue Sky Fertility. Their office is absolutely amazing. Super sweet nurses and patient coordinators. Dr. Riggs is very approachable, easy going, but straight forward. He does have a sense of humor, which is a plus for us! He also tells you that he isn't going to sugar coat the BS. Which he didn't.

TMI Warning - if you aren't interested in learning more about us in depth or how a woman's body works... go ahead and stop reading now ;-)

So I have never really had normal menstrual cycles. I can literally count on both hands how many normal regular cycles I have had. Most of the doctors that I have seen have not seemed too worried about it. A few things have been tried here and there but with no success. Come to find out, not having a period for a couple months is more heard of... but years - not so much. It puts me at higher risk for other issues such as endometriosis and endometrial cancer. Later this week, I am going in for ultrasounds and an endometrial biopsy.

I haven't really been all that happy with my primary care doctor, so I was told to fire them and move on. My previous doctor was super awesome but she left the hospital that I use and is out of network :-( At the urging of Dr. Riggs, I booked an appointment with an endocrinologist to help get blood sugars under control. I have been a diabetic for years, but still have some high numbers more often that I would like or that obviously Dr. Riggs would like.

I will also be seeking out a new primary care physician. Which, I am still looking for currently.

We had a lot of questions answered, but are starting with the testing this week. I don't think having a baby is our priority right now, but would like that to be a goal for the year.

An update is way over due!

I have been so busy with work and well, life... yet again!

We have done some upgrades to our bathrooms. We started back in February. We had been talking about redoing the downstairs bathroom and the upstairs bathroom as well since we moved in. The wainscotting downstairs was old, warped, water damaged, and almost impossible to clean. We complained about it for awhile...then one day I came home from work and Joe had completely taken it out.

We jumped into renovating it, right after that. I thought a muted gray color would be a nice choice. It was previously a light purple/blue periwinkle type of color before hand. I will share a few photos.

This was from before... We hadn't actually moved in at this point.

Choosing a paint color was kinda fun. We looked at several samples and then narrowed it down to these two. We went with "GC" Graphite Charcoal from Behr.

These are a few photos of "After" in the downstairs main bathroom. It is still a work in progress. We are currently trying to decide on tile choice for the half way where the wainscotting was before. I have a nautical theme going on if you weren't able to tell. ;-) 

This was before we moved in - the upstairs master bathroom. It was basically the only room in the house that hadn't been redone and they left it in some wonderful 70s decor style.

We decided to go with the same color upstairs for the wall. We redid the floor. Put in a gray/silver tile floor. It turned out really nice! We just have to replace the cabinet and shower stall still... but its basically ok the way it looks right now. We touched up the cabinets with white to make them appear newer. 

More Projects

The biggest news in the Smith household is that we bought new furniture for the living room!
We were finally able to get rid of the old sectional that I have had for several years. It has broken down in several areas, and was just super uncomfortable. It also did not fit very well and took up a lot of space in our new home. It really opened up the layout of the living room. We have decided to keep our end tables and just gave them a new paint job to spruce them up. We are on the hunt for a new ottoman or a new coffee table, though. Out with the old, and in with the new!

We also added in some new light fixtures this week. The master bathroom upstairs had a small dinky candelabra lightbulb type of fixture that barely lit the up the room. Now we have (much to my surprise) almost Griswold style with how bright the new lights are! :-)

Old

New (also don't mind the horrible paint colors, that will be changing soon!)

New paint job on the end tables!

And new light fixtures in the hall and stairway:

new!

Old

old

It is Autumn!

This is my favorite time of year! Autumn!
I love the cooler weather (or lack there of, this year...) the changing colors, and the fun!

We decorated our front porch a little. Joe has been working diligently on the yard. I need to get some more pictures. It has changed so much even from these pictures. He has completely revamped our yard. It looks like a lush green golf course now. I get yelled at to stay off the grass, so do random squirrels. Haha.

We tore out some of the bushes and plants in the front, and plan to replant some new bulbs and plants this weekend for next year. Joe trimmed up quite a bit. We took out a small burning bush in the back yard and have worked on it. It was in way worse shape than the front, so we will have to do more work on it in the Spring. We have quite a few admirers that stop by or comment when we are outside.

I ordered two purple mums from a co-worker's daughter. They are beautiful. We bought two other mums from Lowe's. We thought they were bi-colored, and much to our surprise - they are actually tri-colored. Very pretty. Added a couple pumpkins. I found a cute solar lantern that lights up at night to place on the bench. We hung some Halloween purple and orange lights. Joe hung some fake spider webs. We were going to do more, but decided that we weren't just yet. But - Christmas - ITS ON! :-)

I have been pretty busy working on little projects around the house, or for the house.

Mostly, I have been working on the living room. We are on the hunt for a new living room set. My huge sectional that we have now, just doesn't really fit. It's too big, and I have had it a few years and it has broken down in some spots. We want a more open feel to the living room so looking for either a love seat, or smaller sofa set. We are also going to get a new tv that mounts on the wall.

I found a really cute cabinet for dvds to go under the tv that I have been refinishing. I paid $20 for this gem on a facebook swap shop. I am still working on it, because it has been a long process and we don't have the new tv just yet. This is the before pictures. I didn't take a picture of the doors to it. I will before I start on them.

I had a mirror that I had put stickers and mod podge on years ago, it looked kind of silly. It was black, I had painted it silver in spots to make it look older. I thought it looked pretty neat years ago... not so much anymore. I redid it - took the stickers off and removed the mod podge and painted it a bronze/metallic brown color. Before and after photos. 

There are two candle holders I had from years ago too, I decided to paint them and give them a new feel. They were previously an off white color. I painted them a rose gold color. Before/After photos.

And the last project that I complete was the shutters on the bookcase. The previous owners created an in wall bookcase and with the wall mounted tv, decided to make a place where you could put your dvd player, dvr/cable boxes and hide all the cables behind doors/shutters. Which is super cute. However, I cannot stand the brick red color. So it had to go :-) Before/After photos

I still have plenty of projects that I am working on. Joe has a few of his own, too. I will try to keep this more updated. 

I'm not a very good blogger

I often forget to keep up with the blog. Oops.

I read over some of my past blog entries, and wow - there's so much of my life that has actually been left out. How much of my life has actually changed since I first started this blog.

I will try to shorten it down to a few paragraphs. I was married in 2009. My (now ex) husband cheated on me multiple times, got a girl pregnant - the child was born two days before we got married. He cheated on me several times after that, and supposedly got someone else pregnant. Fast forward to 2012. We were having a lot of issues. He didn't like to work, he job jumped a lot. He didn't like to help pay bills. A lot of responsibility was left on me. We fought a lot. He was going out to the casinos while I worked overnights (and probably out with other girls at this time, too). He started not coming home and supposedly spending the night at his sister in law's house a lot. It just got to be too much. I told him that it wasn't working for me anymore. I asked him to move out. While he was living at his Dad's we were still talking and attempting to fix things, talking about going to marriage counseling, etc. I found out about the child. I even still tried to make things work. But, he was still lying and going behind my back. I decided to end it for good. I ended up losing my job at a sleep lab at the time. I took on a contract data entry job at Sprint for awhile. Got an apartment of my own in Missouri. We didn't actually get a divorce until 2014. (A lot of people don't know about that). Divorces and lawyers are expensive. When I lost my job and took on a contract job, my wages were basically cut in half. Rent was much more expensive in Missouri also.

I had several short horrible relationships. One lasted a little over a year. It was immediately after I split up with my ex-husband. Which wasn't smart. I wasn't ready for a relationship. BUT, it also taught me that there are guys that actually do pay bills and take care of things. Fast forward a few more crappy relationships, I dated someone off and on a few times. Not really sure why it didn't work out the first like 3 times, but it makes sense now - because we have a really solid and mature relationship now. He is an amazing person. He helps me take care of bills, he splits responsibilities, I never have to question his love for me, he never makes me feel like I can't trust him. He is perfect for me. He makes me laugh. Our personalities mesh well.

I applied for a part time job at another local hospital back last November. The manager told me about another position open at a local hospital that was close to where I was living. I applied for it, didn't even expect to get a call or an interview. I did. I got a call back and got the job. I started this job in January as a sleep lab manager. I work days now after working 10 years of overnights. It's been amazing. I've learned so much. I've had more opportunities with this company. They have crosstrained me into EEG. My resume keeps on building. I make more money than I ever have. The best part is the hours. I am not micromanaged, so I basically make my own schedule which is nice. My health has improved just from changing to days.

I've lost a lot of weight. That is still a long journey. It yo-yo's. I am down 40 lbs since Dec. 2014. I've been on a few different medications. I started phentermine in March. My doctor just put me on Topiramate since I have Migraines, but it helps with weight loss also.

We just bought a house and we don't plan on getting married at least until next year so baby plans are on hold for awhile. We discussed it and because I have had infertility issues in the past and my hormones are out of wack. My doctor and I don't think I ovulate. I don't have regular periods. TMI I know. My doctor and I came to a mutual decision (with Joe of course) that I will try birth control for one year to regulate things. Then come off it and we can try to conceive. We discussed and mulled it over for awhile before deciding this was the best decision for us. We want to really focus on us and the house but also not waste time.

So that's basically my life in a nutshell right now.