Shit I want to do in 2013

I like lists (don't die from shock) and I think my 2012 list helped me stay somewhat on track so here's my 2013 list:

1. Get a new job - this one is a carryover from 2012. Le sigh.... I think I need to redo my resume. And I definitely need to get over my social anxiety (yes, it does exist) and go to more meetings of my professional organization.
   
   
2. Find Jesus. Again. - Another carryover. I swear this is on my list every year...


3. Learn to sew - I've wanted to learn to sew for a long time but never had time. When my great grandmother died two years ago, my mom got her sewing machine and had it fixed with the intention of teaching me on it. But life gets in the way and I finally just asked her for it. Fingers crossed that between YouTube and Pinterest I can figure that thing out.


4. Read 52 books - I love to read. If we aren't friends on Goodreads, we should be. But babies and grad school had me putting my love for reading on the back burner. And even after I graduated, I'd catch myself in a reading "rut". My "to read" list is starting to far surpass my "have read" list. So I'm shooting for at least one book a week. I wish I could commit to more. OH. And first on the list is Harry Potter which I have not yet read but have heard is fabulous.


5. Eat more veggies - I know. I swear I'm not 5. We eat veggies. A lot actually. But more often than I'd care to admit, our meals are carb heavy with little to no fresh veggies on the side. I just want to make an effort to have at least one roasted or fresh or steamed or not-cooked-with-potatoes (yes, I swear he does this) vegetable on the table with each meal.


6. Tackle my house "to do" list - I don't know when we'll sell our house but I'm thinking it's probably sooner rather than later. Once we do make that decision, I'd rather not have 5 million things to do at one time. So along with making my bedroom pretty, I also really want to concentrate on making our house "sell ready".


7. Keep running - I know. I KNOW. I said I was going to run my race and be done. But apparently I lied. I miss it. Stop saying "I told you so".

That's it! Perfectly attainable. Nothing unrealistic. Let's get this party started...

Happy New Year! 

2012 Recap

I know this is such a "shit girls say" kind of thing but seriously, HOW is it 2013 already? I feel like it was just Christmas last year! Looking back, I can say that 2012 was good to me. A little bit of a boring year but that's not always a bad thing. :) There were several things that I wanted to "do" in 2012 and I think I'm at like 50%. Let's see... How did I do in 2012?

1. Finish grad school - CHECK

2. Go to church more - Meh, this was like 50/50. I did go more often than usual but not as often as I'd like.

3. Get a better job - Oh this is a frustrating one. I've sent out more resumes than I care to admit, had several promising interviews, and even had a lowball offer. I wish I was made of money so I could have taken it. Sadly, not the case. I feel like I need to do something different but I'm not quite sure what yet.

4. Get in better shape - I think I can call this a success. I ran a 5k in November and while I am by no means, a runner, if you had told me in January that I would be running 3 miles straight before the end of the year, I'd have offered you another cookie.

5. Do more for "me" - Another win here. I have gotten more pedicures, baked lots of yummies, gone to the gym, started running, spent time with my family, decorated my house, and spent time with friends. And read many, many wonderful books.

So that's 3/5 at least. Maybe closer to like 3.5/5? So...70% success rate according to my trusty calculator. Not too shabby, no?

No worries, I have a list for 2013 too. Stay tuned. Since you're so interested in my fabulous daily life and all. ;)

Birthday Talk

I realized this morning that NJ's third (!!!) birthday is a mere two and a half months away. How the hell did that even happen? I swear she's still sleeping in pj's that were gifts from her second birthday. I cannot believe my little monkey is going to be three.

I've heard through the mommy grapevine that the term "terrible twos" is just something made up so that when two is over you're all "I made it!" and then three hits and you're like "who the fuck is this demon spawn?!" And I kind of believe it because two was really not that bad. I kind of like two. But I see three on the horizon and it's not so much a pretty picture. My sweet child has discovered more than just "no". She has discovered gems like "hang on" and "in a minute" and "nothing" when asked what in the world she is doing that is keeping her so quiet. All served up with a side of teenage attitude. So I'm a little afraid of three but even through all the smart mouth comments, I still see my sweet baby under there so I have faith that we will make it through three just fine.

So I get to plan her party which I love because I really, really missed my calling as a party planner. Like really. She told me a couple months ago that she wanted an elephant party. Then two weeks ago she told me she wanted a blue party. (These are just random statements, btw. I'm not asking what kind of party she wants.) Anyway. That's so spot on with her personality because we went to the zoo in September and she just about fainted over her love for the elephant and has talked about him nonstop and got an assload of elephant themed things for Christmas that she is now OBSESSED with. And blue is her most favorite color in the whole wide world ever, ever so a Third Blue Elephant Party shall be had.

To-do List

Bedroom to do list:

• New dresser
• New nightstands
• New bed
• Paint the walls gray 
• Move file cabinet, bookshelf, vanity, & stool to guest room/office 
• Move mirror & jewelry box to opposite wall
• Sunburst mirror above the bed
• New frames for Norah's pictures
• Replace TV
• Bench at edge of bed (I'm not sure if we have room for one now...)
• Reading corner (again with the lack of room...)
• Replace carpet (probably should have done this before assembling the bed...)

I'm still looking for a dresser on the cheap. Ironically, January and February are months where the mister does not work 13+ hours a day and he would/should have time to refinish one but there's the whole "sun sets at 5" thing and "it's cold" thing so don't be shocked if the dresser gets put on the backburner until May. He'll go back to 13+ hours a day for March & April so May will be the next time that he has 1) time and 2) daylight. And yes, I can do it but I have that whole toddler/running the house thing going on.

Honestly, now that the holidays are almost over, I will gain a LOT of space back in my guest room/office so hopefully I can move the file cabinet and other stuff the first week of January which frees up the space to move the mirror and jewelry box in the actual room. And I'm itching to paint the walls so hopefully that will be a January weekend project as well. I'm just pumped that things are actually getting crossed off!

Hey y'all...

Guess what?

I slept in my bed last night!!

::throws confetti::

Of course it didn't come without obstacles because this bed was sent purely to torture me but we finally finished. And by "we" I mean I stood back with the camera while my two year old "helped" dad with the drill. It looks amazing. I swear pictures are coming but this didn't go down until 10pm and then I had to change the sheets and by the time it was all done, he wouldn't move so I could take a decent pic without my carpenter husband in his drawers.

Basically we finished painting and polying on Sunday. The sanding worked on 98% of the footboard. There are a few places that aren't "perfect" but they aren't noticeable and honestly, I love that it's not perfect. I'd have paid Pottery Barn $1200 if I wanted a perfect Farmhouse bed.

So it dried on Sunday night and then Monday night he started moving things into the room and dismantling the current bed and of course there were issues and I might have threatened divorce and then there was wine and at the end of it all, the bed was put together (yay!) but...the boxspring wouldn't fit.

WTF? Basically the frame is the right size but the ledge on the footboard prevents it from dropping down. Photos will explain this better. But it was honestly fine because we didn't intend to use the boxspring anyway. We were just going to use it for Monday night until we had a chance to get some plywood because apparently you can't just put a mattress on some slats and call it a day. Who knew?

So Monday night I slept with NJ and H slept on the couch. And I was mad. Oh, was I mad. But Tuesday morning I was ok and last night we went to Home Depot (I hate that place so very much) and got plywood and they even cut it for us (because of course it wouldn't fit in the van) and I drank a Mexican Coke (it's not drugged as I originally thought) and then we got home and OF COURSE he had told the HD guy the wrong measurement but fortunately he told him too long and not too short. So he went and cut the damn board ONE MORE TIME and then there were screws and a mattress and sheets and a comforter and it was awesome.  I love it.

Ana-white.com has a "brag" section so I'm hoping to do a complete post from start to finish to link up there. I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, you can find me picking out paint colors for the wall. The bed has determined that our current mustardy/camel walls ain't cutting it.

Let's play a game

Drink everytime I said "bed" in this post. Ok? Go.

Bed. That's one.

So there's no longer a bed in my bedroom. It's in my dining room now! Yay!

We've officially given Mother Nature the middle finger after this weekend. If you recall, the footboard has had some poly "issues". Let's recap what we've learned about poly:

1. It doesn't like humidity
2. It doesn't like cold weather

So of course December is the perfect month to be doing this. <-- loaded with sarcasm. dripping actually.

The mister sanded it down in places where the poly had cracked so on a GORGEOUS Sunday morning I repainted it and I was like "NO MORE PAINTING, HOLLA!" and then the sky opened up and even though it was under the carport, the wind was blowing so hard, the mother fucking footboard got wet and I wanted to cry.

It didn't get really wet, just enough to ruin my paint job. So we hauled it in the house, toweled it off and let it sit in the dining room next to the headboard for the rest of the day. This was the point where I typed up a little Craigslist ad in my head. It goes something like this:

"Solid pine bed. $300. Almost completely finished. About to cause divorce. Must sell immediately. You pick up."

Ok, it's not that bad...yet. I still love the bed. I know it's going to look fabulous if it's ever done. Friday marks one month, btw that I sang the husband's praises for building this thing. But who's counting...

So here's where we stand now: The headboard is like 98% done. It has two coats of poly on everything except the very top because that rests against our wall. So one of us will have to hold it up while the other quickly applies a coat or two and it will be DONE. Praise Jesus. Hopefully that will happen tonight. Not shockingly, the poly dries very quickly when in normal conditions aka not 100% humidity.

The footboard had to be sanded again. I repainted it but the cracked poly was still showing through. What the hell is in that stuff?? So he sanded the cracked areas down to the wood. It will need YET ANOTHER coat of paint. And then I don't even know what. Hopefully it will be fine and we can poly it and be done. Worst case is that it still looks cracked. I really don't know what we'd do at that point. Let's just not even go there. My head is about to explode just thinking about it.


In other news, I hate Taylor Swift. Every time the radio plays one of her songs a kitten dies. So remember that before making a request.

5 drinks which is less than I thought it would be.

39 min, 30 sec

That, my friends, is the finish time for my first ever 5k.

I know! It took me 11 months to do an 8 week program but I did it! I ran a 5k! I'm still kind of shocked by the whole thing. I had been running a couple times a week since July then I took a couple weeks off then the race was coming up fast so I picked it up again. 2 nights before the race I ran 3 miles in 41 minutes. I really wanted to be under 40 for the 5k.

We got there early, even with traffic issues so there was plenty of time for me to get nervous. When I saw the map of the route, I almost fainted. But once it started, I was feeling good. Trying not to go too fast but my RunKeeper app kept telling me I was running something insane like an 11 minute mile and I was like, shit, I have got to slow down. The first mile and a half went great. Then I had to walk for about 30 seconds but I was still doing ok. The next half a mile felt like it took forever. When my app told me I was at 2 miles, I was like, SERIOUSLY, because I felt like I had gone SO FAR since the 1.5 mile mark. I had to walk again and I was totally pep talking myself at that point. I knew I wanted to finish strong so I told myself that I would walk for a minute and really catch my breath because I was going to run the last mile - no stopping.

A mistake I made was trying to get some water at the last water station, I feel like that cost me about 10 seconds because this other girl stepped in front of me. I might have cursed at her. Maybe that was just in my head. Probably not. Anyway, I could see the end and was pumped. My chip time was 39:30 which is awesome. I was very excited and totally partook in some beer and a bacon cheeseburger afterwards. It was as delicious as it sounds.

So yay me! IDK if I will do another one or not. I swore I was quitting running as soon as this race was over but if I know me, I'll want to beat my time because I'm a dumb overachiever. And my crazy running friends are already bugging me about the next one. Freaks.

2/3 Done

There's still a bed in my bedroom. Not put together. Somewhat coated in poly. It literally watches me sleep and if you open the bedroom door too fast, you are guaranteed to walk smack dab into that solid wood mother fucker.

The other night, as I was staring at it, staring at me, I was trying to figure out a fraction for just how "done" we are. I threw out 2/3 then did the "math" and lo and behold, I was right. 2/3. The Mister thinks I'm nuts but whatever. He's the fool that built a bed in 6 hours, 2 weeks before he started working 13 hour days. Let's just not even go there. But it's safe to say that there's only ONE reason he's not sleeping on the couch. It rhymes with smovulation.


My Bed Math:

There are 3 pieces of bed. Each piece needs the following:

• built
• primed
• paint (2 coats)
• poly (3 coats)

So that's 7 steps per piece. Times three is 21 steps total. All three pieces are built (3), primed (3), and painted (6) for 12 steps completed. The frame has been polyed 3 times and is completely done. 15 steps completed. The footboard has one coat of poly on it (16 steps) BUT there was that whole humidity issue and the poly cracked (not enough booze in the world...) so we took two steps back due to 1) sanding the poly off and 2) painting another coat of color. So now we're at 14 steps. 14/21 equals 2/3.

Now all this was two days ago. In the meantime, the husband has sanded but not painted (because of COURSE it's pouring rain on his two days off. of course.) so I guess we're at 15/21? Or would it be 17/23? IDK. Point is there's still a big ass bed in my bedroom and I'm still not sleeping in it.

Want

Isn't this bag to die for?

Nordstrom

Someone send that to the mister ASAP. I lurve it so very much. Actually I showed it to him last night and he was all, "bitch, you be trippin'." Ok, not really. He'd never say "trippin'", that's all me.

We just got a new sink and faucet installed in November and decided that would be our gift to each other (and oh how I love them so very much) but a girl can dream, no? Here's what else I want besides that fabulous Kate Spade bag up above.

Friends series on DVD

Amazon

A new fridge

Lowe's

A juicer (for margaritas. obviously.)

Amazon

For my mother effing bed to be finished and look like this

source

That's it. And World Peace and all that jazz but you know, the juicer first. 

Merry Christmas!