Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Big Changes...

So it has been a LONG time since my last post. I am now living on my own. I am currently going through a divorce and this is a totally foreign chapter in my life. For the first time ever I am totally responsible for myself and my kids. I have a nice 2 bedroom apartment and while I did spiral out of control for a while I am working to get my life back. I go back to work on July 4th (yay...sigh) and I'm hoping I will have another job starting very soon to bring in more money.

I never thought I would ever reach a point of enjoying being alone but having my own apartment has given me a sence of independance that I never thought I would have. I am contemplating going to school again. I have no idea what for specifically but maybe a couple of pre requisit classes to begin with would be a good idea.

The details surrounding my divorce I wont post about but I will say that going through a divorce is probably the most emotionally devistating thing I have ever done. I chose this path and I still struggle with whether or not it was the right choice. I do miss my ex husband and I think I will always love him. We had 10 years together and two beautiful daughters. Luckily our talks have gotten friendly again and we are trying to be friends. He is truly supportive of me when I am doing the right thing and after what has been done to him it is GREATLY appreciated.

On a lighter note, thanks to my ex husband and my friend Kc my daughters are potty trained. We still have accidents but I'm so proud! Brey starts KINDERGARTEN this year! Where the hell did the time go? I think the thing I'm struggling with the most is how to juggle my girls, work, and taking them to school...it's gonna be crazy but I know I have loving supportive family and friends that will help me when they can.

This is a very off the wall jumbled blog but I just feel so good right now I needed to post it.

I think I'm going to start a new blog...more like a daily journal of my thoughts and feelings so that I can track my personal progress emotionally through this process and learn what makes me tick.

Monday, February 7, 2011

A tisket a tasket are you sure you don't want to use that gasket?!

So for my audience of two...wow I'm a killer blogger, I believe you are aware that I am doing lots of household upgrades/improvements. We had big dreams all year long of what wonderful things would take place at tax time around our home but as things do it didn't quite pan out as we had hoped. Surprisingly enough the thing I set out to do that meant the most to me was accomplished. Our baby (Natilee) now has her very own twin size bed complete with butterfly bedding. She is on cloud 9 and bedtime has been amazing ever since we moved her out of her sister's room and into her own room with her "big girl bed".

Our second home improvement project of 2011 was installing some MUCH needed ceiling fans in the bedrooms of our home. The south facing portion of my home (upstairs) is incredibly hot in the summer. My girls rooms are easily 10 degrees warmer than my room so some good quality ceiling fans were a must to help reduce our ever increasing electric bill. I pulled a bit of a shenanigan with one of the ceiling fans because the one we had from a year ago the motor blew so we bought the same one took the new motor out and returned the ceiling fan with the old motor...shut up I know it was bad but if they wouldn't have designed such a shotty product I wouldn't have had to do this. Shaunn opted to not put the gaskets in where the blades go and I insisted that this would some how lead to our demise. He still assures me there will be no leaks ;).

Onto the more exciting improvements we are currently or will be making. We bought a wonderful security door for our home and I could not be happier with the outcome. It is a beautiful brown and it matches our house so nicely. I can feel safe leaving my front door open in the spring/fall to enjoy the nice cool air that we Arizonans are blessed to have.

We also decided (on a whim) to invest in a new vanity for our daughters bathroom. Their bathroom is the one room in the house that clashes with the rest of the house. It has vinyl flooring that is peeling up, a very out dated vanity, one of those pieces of glass that they call a mirror but just looks tacky, and it is just bland all together. We were very excited about the deal we managed to get on this but I will get into that towards the end of this blog.

Finally our last BIG purchase was a nice dresser for our master bedroom. The dresser we have right now shouldn't even be labeled a dresser. The drawers are practically hanging and it's just falling apart. I would have been much happier buying the deep freeze I so desperately wanted but when all is said and done we NEEDED a dresser while the deep freeze would have just been a nice luxury for myself.

Onto my savings (my favorite part). Now in most cases if you were to add those items up at full price we would have been looking at somewhere around 2 to 3 thousand dollars and that is if you went with low end crap. We purchased very nice things and all said and done I spent a grand total of $770! That is a beautiful vanity mirror combo, very large 6 drawer dresser, security door, bathroom light fixture, twin mattress and box spring set, and 2 ceiling fans!!!! The lesson here folks is you don't have to be rich to have/do nice things. My best friend just did recessed lighting through out her entire upstairs of her house for under 300 dollars! The key is doing your do diligence and finding the best deal. Remember you work for your money why not stretch it as far as you can while getting high quality things?

The next thing we are looking to do is to tile the girls bathroom. This project is something we will have to save up for over the next couple of months because it is costly. We will be using a nicer tile (looking for re-sale here people) and the girls bathroom is on the larger side so it means a descent price tag. We will NOT spend more than $300 on the entire project though I can assure you of that. We need 4 to 5 boxes of tile at $30 a box, grout (i have no idea), the proper tools, spacers, and whatever else you need to lay tile...if you haven't guessed already when I say "we" as it pertains to this project what I really mean is Shaunn.

All in all I'm at a pretty good place in life right now. I am enjoying being a working full time mommy and I am enjoying putting love into my home. I will post pics as the work is completed. Thank you for reading my less than thrilling blog :D