I Work Out

I've mentioned a lot about how I always seem to be busy, but I don't know if I've actually ever said how much I actually appreciate being busy! Although I do enjoy relaxing, I am not the type of person to be able to sit around all the time and be satisfied with just that. My husband can get so upset because I always have a list of projects that need to be done around the house and I don't blame him.  He enjoys relaxing all weekend and I enjoy relaxing for an hour and then I start to get fidgety. So here's what keeps me busy

Being in school.

Who doesn't love being able to get an education? While I am sick and tired of living on such a small budget, I also forgot to mention that I will have very little to pay back once I graduate.  I'm so thankful that my husband and I have been blessed with the job he has...it has paid for most of my schooling (and some of his)! While the pay isn't great, that is one AWESOME benefit! If you can't tell from the books, I'm one of the nerds who actually likes science and it consumes a large portion of my life. 

Sweet Feet.

These sweet little feet are by far my favorite.  This precious little girl takes the cake when it comes to time consumption and I don't mind at all.  Did you know that when your parents say "it seems like just yesterday you were born" or "you grew up way too fast" that it is actually true.  I'm learning this every day.  In my busy life these sweet little feet have taught me to enjoy every moment because life really does fly by.

Housework.

Seriously, I regret all the times we would pick on my Mom because she was a stay at home mom (not that we didn't appreciate it, our family just jokes around like that).  Moms do a lot. Not only do they take care of their kids but somehow (my mom at least) they manage to keep the house clean, cook dinner, run errands, and all that other mom stuff. Now I know...housework is a pain! 

    

Spare time

Crafting and Home Improvement 

Mmmm how I love this.  I swear if I had the money and time I would be doing crafts and home improvement projects every day! I also have project ADD, so you could probably find about five projects around here that I have yet to finish. 

Work out. 

All I can think of when I say that is the song "Sexy and I Know it" by LMAFO. Are you singing it yet? Anyway, this is my love hate relationship that I have to make the time for most days during the week.  

So, when it all works out right...somehow during little girl's nap I try to clean, workout, and shower.  Then when she is awake we can play and I can do homework during her next nap or later when my husband gets home. Some days it is a little off balance, but it works out!

Kasie

Back to School

Now that school has started back up, so has our crazy life! No more relaxing all day long with the little Monks (baby girl) with a little bit of picking up the house while she naps! Her nap time = my school time! That's been the biggest bummer since I have been loving the three hour naps she takes so that I can nap too clean up or get dinner prepped before my husband gets home! 

To start the school year off right my computer kicked it and the computer charger for my husbands computer stopped working about two days later! Awwwesome.  So I have been sharing a laptop with my very generous little sister (thank goodness she lives with us)! Fortunately, our new cord came in and hopefully soon I will be able to figure out which computer would be best.

In the meantime, I have been shopping for a new camera as well...Nikon d5100 say what???

Love her. I think I have been checking the prices every day since at least November.  Soon sweet camera, soon. 

Decorated Baby Wipe Container

Here is a quick project to do while you're just sitting around watching TV. 

This is everything you need, plus something to use as a straight edge...like a ruler.

And here it is after drying

I already had everything except the paper and the container, so this was only about three dollars! Now I just need to make one for our sweet girl!

Kasie

For Photography Fans

There's a giveaway on Crave Photography's Blog! There are six winners and the number one prize is a Nikon 85 mm  1.4 lens OR a Cannon 85 mm 1.2 lens and the winner picks which one! Go check it out!

Kasie

Homemade Potpourri

Our house doesn't always smell lemony fresh or like fresh baked apple pie.  Let's be real here, we have two dogs and a sweet little girl so there is usually dirt, mud, whatever else the dogs roll or step in, dirty diapers, and spit-up around somewhere in here.  I wanted something that would put off a nice subtle smell that might compensate for the not so great aromas floating around.  Since I decided this later on in the day and I'm not a fan of waking a sleeping baby, I looked around our house for whatever we might have to help and spotted some roses that I had let dry up. So, I decided to make some homemade potpourri.  I already had essential oils on had and I wasn't necessarily worried about making it the right way.  Here's what I did:  pour a few drops of whatever essential oils I wanted (fragrance oils would probably work just as well) on to the dried flowers (crushed cinnamon or something similar might also work if you wanted something else to add to the scent), sealed them in the mason jar for a little while (apparently the suggested time is four to six weeks and mix it up just about every day...I looked that up, but was too impatient to wait), and then I just opened the mason jar and set it near our front door.  Even though I didn't wait the whole four to six weeks the flowers smelled great and helped with the stinky diaper smell, plus I didn't have to wait around for my house to smell nice!

Kasie

Soon is a Relative Term

Especially when you are a college student! A month is soon right? Anyway, I put the finishing touches on my pillow finally.  Apparently being in college and taking care of a sweet little baby takes up a lot of time...who knew?  The pillowcase is envelope style back, I think, but I honestly have no clue.  I worked on this project with my sister after my dad taught us how to sew and we basically winged it then got a little confused towards the end and asked my younger sister if we could see one of her pillowcases.  We turned that baby inside out and bam we finished the pillowcase.  After my pillowcase was sewn I started sewing some flower rosettes to add to it. That took forever. I was going to sew them to the pillowcase since I have a baby who will either drool, pee, poop, or puke on basically anything, so it needed to be washable.  That wasn't going to happen after I sewed on the first flower because the pillowcase was all sewn and that apparently makes it difficult to only sew on one layer.  Basically I continuously poked myself and it hurt...bad. So, I got out some fabric glue and stuck those suckers to the pillowcase. I am hoping I don't need to wash it often, and if I do the fabric glue says it is washable so I am crossing my fingers on that one. The last thing I did was stuff it with an 18 x 18 pillow, but it probably could have used a 20 x 20...oh well.  It is just a little bedroom progress, but every time I see it I get a smile on my face since the rest of our bedroom is not so great. Here are some pictures.

That's it, and it only took me a month to post pictures about it.

Kasie

Attic Progress

Our attic is slowly progressing (yay for more space)!  These pictures might not look like much progress, but I'll explain what all took place.  When we first bought the house the attic had two rooms.  As you walk up the stairs there was a room on the left and a room on the right.  If you went into the room on the right you would see old and ruined drywall on all four walls and the ceiling.  The drywall was wet in some places and no longer useful.  Along with the drywall, there was minimal electrical work and unfinished floors.  If you left this room and walked over to the next room you would first see a random door hanging on a framed wall.  The door was useless.  By that I mean if you opened the door you would walk into our chimney, not into the other room.  Other than that, you would notice blue paneling.  That's right guys, not even your typical, already unattractive brown paneling.  We were blessed with blue, fake wood, paneling.  Awwweeesoommme! Oh, yeah, did I mention it was only on half of the room and some of the pieces were half hung on the ceiling (the rest of the room just had insulation dangling).  That is the beauty of old houses, there are trends that you never knew existed, trends that are coming back into style, and half "finished" rooms if you're lucky!  

So if you can't imagine any change here's list of what has changed:

• The drywall, old paneling, random framing (and door) have been ripped down
• ALL of the insulation from the walls and beneath the side floor boards has been removed
• Screening was added to keep the birds from coming back in
• New insulation was laid down
• The new insulation was covered with plywood for flooring so we can have storage on the sides
• Duct work was ran up to the attic (no window units for us!)
• More electrical was added
• My handy Dad fixed two spliced wires

We still have a lot to finish, but we are much closer to the end than it may seem!  I cannot wait until I can share pictures of the end product!




Kasie