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.

We bought a house!

We are so very excited! We just bought a house!!!

We move in Labor Day weekend, best birthday present ever!

3 bedrooms. 2 bathrooms. Full basement. Garage. Big fenced in yard. A huge screened in porch/sunroom. Has a cute porch in front. Lots of landscaping that Joe will love to keep up. He loves doing yard work and making it look nice (and he is good at it!).

We will have to re-do the bathroom upstairs in the master bedroom, which we are kinda excited about too. I will have an awesome adjacent room to the master bedroom for a walk in closet/sitting room where I will keep a vanity.
The screened in porch has kitty doors if we would like to use them.


I cannot wait to decorate and get new furniture! My sofa is broken down some and needs updated. I have a small kitchen table - it has a huge dining room and kitchen so we will have to get a bigger table so we can invite people over!

Some of the rooms have already been painted. I would like a different color in the kitchen and bathroom downstairs. But we are ready to do projects and make this OUR home.

Vacation pictures! I did not want to come home!

Rainy Days

It has been rain, rain, and more rain for the last few weeks. I miss the sunshine! I ran across this little quote, it made me laugh. There is so much truth in this!

I am going on now 2 weeks without Facebook. There's been a few moments when I've been bored and thought about re-activating it, but then would talk myself out of it. I am going to try to go for a month. I have been "soul-cleansing" lately, and deactivating facebook was a huge part of it.

I also have started standing up for myself again. The old Kami is coming around again. I've let too many people treat me as a doormat for too long. It has definitely ruffled some feathers. I also probably said a little more than I should have when I was being honest with a friend. I may have possibly ended that friendship. In reality, I really do care about them as a person. But it has become very hard to stand by idly watching them be sucked into a dark hole. I've tried talking to them, I've tried helping them, I've tried cut tooth honesty (recently). Which did not sit well, and I have not heard from them since. The negativity and drama is emotionally draining, and it is hard to be there for them but not get sucked into it, as well. I am super guilty of carrying others' emotional baggage and am trying to change how I am. 

Finished the dresser completely, it turned out so nice. I am quite impressed with myself (with Joe's help.) It has been very therapeutic to paint, I have definitely missed it. 

I now have a set up night stands to work on next :-)

This weekend went by way too fast. Joe and I went to my Mother's Friday. We stayed overnight. This was the first time they had met each other. It went well. He made her laugh a few times, so I think he's made a good impression. We did a little shopping Saturday morning and went to Princeton to eat. We then stopped by to see my Grandmother. She has Alzheimers and dementia, but Saturday was a good day besides a little confusion on the day and then she was laughing and joking around. I don't get up there near enough to see my family. 

Saturday night, we got home around 8pm. Picked up a few items to make Tacos while Joe finished working on his Psychology paper. We then watched a few episodes of Orange is the New Black. I haven't finished Season 2 yet. Joe is ready to watch Season 3, so he is suffering through episodes he has already seen. I am also all the way caught up. Sunday, I did a little house work. Took Joe home. Watched more OITNB and caught up on some reading. It was a nice weekend. 

This week will be pretty busy. I am hoping that it goes well. We are awaiting Joint Commission at work, so been a lot of preparation for their arrival. Hopefully, we will do well.