the diet

I'm officially on my first diet. I've never actually participated in a dieting program, I've only ever tried on my own to watch what I eat and to exercise. But that has never worked because I have no self-control when it comes to food (or sweets, more specifically). So I'm trying weight watchers and I'm really going to try to stick with it. I thought if I make myself post about my progress once a week, maybe then I would hold myself more accountable. We're going to Vegas in a few weeks and that's about how long I'd like to try weight watchers. I'm hoping it will be the lifestyle change for me that it's supposed to turn into. We'll see. So my next post will come on either Saturday or Sunday. I'm going to post about how many points I went over or under total in the week, pounds lost or gained, and how often I exercised for the week. The last time I made a goal to lose weight, I stayed disciplined and it worked. But I stopped and went back to my bad habits of eating bad and not exercising and I pretty much reversed all of my progress. Ugh! I really want to lose a little and tone up and I know I can do it if I really try. So here goes....

a post about poop

This was sort of a long weekend for me. Jordan went to Detroit with the guys for a few Tigers' games. He left Friday morning and the minute we (Natalie and I) shut the door, Natalie was crabby and mad. I think I gave her more spankings (that's right, we're spankers) in that day than I have this whole summer! My patience has really been tested this weekend and I think I'm usually a patient person. So what's the testing for?! I don't know if Natalie was acting up just because of Jordan being gone or if the terrible twos are now in effect. My mom noticed that she was being testy, too, so I don't think it was just me. Natalie was much better today (Sunday) up until she decided to take her poopy diaper off.... I was on the phone with Sara and doing some laundry when Natalie walked up to me with her pants and her diaper off and poop all over her butt. I went to her bedroom where she had been playing and there I found 2 terds and...

Ruby.

With a handful.

And a mouthful.

Of...

POOP!

I was yelling into the phone (sorry Sara!), trying to clean out Ruby's mouth, and keep Natalie from touching her butt. So disgusting!! I sent Natalie to the bathroom to wait for me (thankfully she obeyed) and she was yelling to Ruby "No, no Ruby, Nay-Nay poop is yucky!" as if Ruby was naughty one. Jordan will be coming home sometime in the middle of the night and I'm hoping he returns with my sanity that he left with.

from drab to fab :)

I don't know why but this year I have been obsessed with garage sales and thrift stores (even more so than usual). This is something I picked up at Bibles for Mexico for $2.



It was an old, ugly, lightbulb fixture - maybe something you'd hang over a bathroom sink. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with it and it turned out just as I hoped it would. This is the final product:


I spray painted it black, stamped the fancy design on it, and added the crystals and candles (all of which, I might add, were already in my possession!) I put it in my massage room because I thought it would add more to the ambiance I am trying to create in there.

Last week, my 'girlfriends' and I went to IKEA. I love it there and made a list a few weeks prior to going of what I needed. It never fails- I get there and buy all this stuff that I really don't need but forget the stuff I really do need. Hence, the very detailed list. And I'm proud to say that I stuck to it (minus a few {cheap} essentials)! Included in my list were a few various items to give our bedroom a makeover. Of all the rooms in our house, our bedroom is the only one that I haven't changed since we've owned the house. Which we've only owned it for 4 years but I'm just finally starting to get the hang of this decorating thing. And for the past few years, Jordan and I haven't been happy with our room. Hence, the makeover. I should have taken a before picture because it was pretty hideous but didn't think of it in time. So here are the after pictures:




I'm really happy with it's transformation. Before, we had these (dresden dream) blue walls and a blue and brown floral, black comforter (don't ask me what I was thinking when I bought it. In my defense - I was pregnant). For quite a while, our dresser was white with a white mirror above it. So I painted the dresser and the mirror black. I found a second oval mirror and also painted it black. It still needed something else so from IKEA, I bought the shelf underneath the mirrors and a couple of candles. I also got the comforter , the big pink pillow, and the curtains from IKEA. I repainted the walls with this slate gray color that I already had in the house, and I collected other knick knacks to add to the shelf. It's funny, when I took off the switch plates to paint behind them, I noticed that under our blue color was the color of the room before we got our hands on it and it was the EXACT same color as the gray I was putting on! Isn't that crazy? And I remember that we thought the room was too dark when we bought it. Although, there was still dark oak trim and I think now the gray walls with the white trim complement each other so well. And we had these black frames that I put scrapbook paper in and covered with lace curtains I was no longer using. Another freebie!! So total cost of our 'master' bedroom makeover? Seventy Five Dollars!!

Comforter: $35
Mirror #1: $0
Mirror #2: $8
Window: $0
Decorative Frames: $0
Curtains: $5
Shelf: $15
Pink Pillow: $10
Two pink/red Candles: $2
Finally being content with our bedroom: Priceless

I'm not sure that the frames next to the bed are going to stay or go. What do you think? I always think that every wall should have something on it, but sometimes that's not necessarily the case. All in all, I'm pretty happy with our new room - and especially the fact that with a little bargain shopping, we could make it over for so cheap.

And as of last week, we are enjoying some of the 'fruits of our labor' from our garden. I LOVE having a garden at last!!

pictures...

I could probably write a lot more about this past weekend but it's easier to just post the pictures. On Friday, Jordan and I just hung out with our girls and had a quiet night at home. We knew that this month would be flying by with how busy our weekends are.

On Saturday, we had 4 different parties/events that we were invited to but we could only make it to 2: Andrew and Melissa's housewarming party and a boat cruise with the Havemans that Jeremy and Crystal bid on at a church auction. We had such a great time!



On Sunday, we went to a pool that our friend was housesitting at. It felt so good to lay out by a pool and swim. Natalie loved it, Ruby wasn't so sure but the water was a bit cool. Normally we'd be hanging out at Jordan's uncle and aunt's pool but they just moved and don't have a pool this summer....so we've been having withdrawals!

I love this one of Ruby! Too bad I couldn't get it to rotate.

Yesterday, Ruby started crawling a little. She's been scooting all over the place but she's finally getting the idea of how to crawl on her knees. She's so stinkin' cute!

This weekend, Jordan and I are going on a date!! We are going to go out to dinner and see the new 'Harry Potter' movie. I am so excited. I think the last time we had a date night was shortly after Ruby was born. And that was only for dinner. Originally, we were going to go to Chicago on Saturday to the Science and Industry museum to see the 'Harry Potter' exhibit but I think we're going to go another weekend instead when it will hopefully be less busy. And I'd like to space it out a little with getting babysitters. I'm way too attached to my girls! Have a good weekend everybody!

nonsense

It's really late as I write this. Jordan is on his way home from a Tigers game and I'm attempting to stay awake until I know he's safely returned home. And to unlock the door for him because I'm always so paranoid of robbers and murderers and vampires! Vampires, you say? Yes, I have just started reading the 'Twilight' series. I have gotten halfway through the first book in just a few hours. It's really holding my attention. I just finished reading the 'Half-Blood Prince', the 6th of the Harry Potter series. One of my favorites, that one. And I wanted to read it in time for the movie that's coming out next week. But back to 'Twilight'. As grabbing as it is, I cannot keep my eyes open anymore. So I thought I'd blog instead. But now that I'm typing, I realize I don't really have anything to say. I can just see myself babbling for a while and re-reading what I write and deciding not to publish it. But if you're reading this now, I probably didn't re-read it and published it without thought. So.... what can I write about.....

Natalie puked on the 5th of July. We were just about to eat (grandpa was starting to pray) and she just throws up. She hasn't since and there had been no signs that she was feeling sick beforehand or after the fact. So hopefully she's fine. So far, the twos haven't been so terrible. The only 'problem' we really have with her right now is that she somehow manages to climb into our tall bed in the middle of the night without us realizing it. But, as bad a habit as it is, we kind of like it. Usually, we wake up to find her feet in our faces. She insists throughout the night to sleep the opposite way of us. But we still enjoy her company. I know it's a bad habit but it's not like she'll be doing it when she's ten. We'll break it someday :)

Ruby said 'mama' on Sunday and has said it a couple of times since. That's exciting for me! She is so close to crawling also. She can get on all fours and scoot backwards. She's still just as happy as a baby can possibly be. Always all smiles! I think she had a good 4th of July holiday weekend. It was really laid back and we didn't do a whole lot this year but we had a relaxing weekend. On the 4th, we journied to our friend, Brad's house with many other friends and had our 2nd annual whiffle ball tournament and a bunch of food and fellowship. Good times as always with our friends.

Wish I could leave you with some pics of the 4th but I didn't really take any worth sharing! Oh well, my eyelids are beginning to shut down on me anyways.


...and Jordan just got home as I was typing that last paragraph (perfect timing!)

thrifty

I've been on a big thrift shopping kick lately. I love to find random items that I can find a use for. I usually end up spray painting and the stuff looks good as new. So last week, I went to the Salvation Army (which usually isn't my favorite thrift store) and I was glad I went. I found an oval framed mirror that I have painted white and plan on hanging in the girls' room. I also got a shelf, an organizer box (originally $10 from Target), and an ugly welcome sign that I got for 50 cents just for the pegs. I spent $6 on all of it because there was a half-off special going on. Yay! I had a boring wall in our kitchen that I decided to work on this weekend and this is what I came up with.

You're looking at maybe a grand total of $15 spent for everything on this wall (minus the apron). I had gotten the strawberry picture a couple of years ago half off for maybe $5 and the other frame was $2 from Hobby Lobby with an ugly tree picture in it. So I took the glass out, glued a piece of scrapbook paper on the backing, and screwed a spray painted peg into it. I'm happy with how it turned out. A simple project but my creativity is minimal :)