WAY too many pictures for anyone's good:)

I have a LOT of pictures to share today.....let's start out with some amazing finds from sally ann!

Don't you love these??

I think they are PERFECT!! And the bonus is, they are actually good books, like tennyson, shakespeare etc...so I may even read them, and not JUST use them for decor!! ha ha...I have some pretty awesome ideas on what to do with them...

Funny story about those books....little A told me that they were "ugly"...I tried explaining to him that they were in fact just old, and that sometimes old things were really nice, and I liked them, even though they were old. This was his response: "You like it even though it's old? hmmm....kind of like grandpa right? He's really old, and he's still nice...we like him. But he's pretty much the only old thing I like" HA HA!! His grandpa is young too, which makes it even funnier:)

This grandpa also is an avid painter and has been helping us out a lot in that area. Up next.....these are our house "before's"...as we have been painting it all week long!

I guess those weren't quite the before's...as you can see some mudding and sanding had already been done...so the "in-between's" I guess. 

And here are the after's so far....warning: no decor yet, so they do look a little dull...and I have a horrible camera, the colors are awesome in real life!

Sorry that the lighting is SO horrible...I guess you'll just have to come over and see it! ha ha...I plan on having it all up and decorated in the next couple of weeks, so I can plan a HUGE halloween shin-dig at our new and improved house:) Wait for more pics on all of the awesome decor that I'm putting up soon!

whewf!!...is that a word?!

Just like my last million posts....we've been  super busy lately!! We still have a million things on the go...and a million other options that we are looking into...so I feel like a cray person as of late. 
Oh, and also, we decided to re-paint almost the entire house...ya know, in our free time, ha ha. My hubby's dad has been doing a lot of it...so that's nice...it does look really good, I'll post pis soon. Although it makes the unpainted walls look a little dull comparatively...so I wonder if we should just do THE whole house...we'll see...ha ha.
What is really nice though, is that it gives me a LOT of fresh new ideas for decor...as I was kind of stuck in a rut, with nothing to do in that area. With the new colors, I feel like there is a lot more possibilities...so I'm working on them. 
One REALLY cray idea I had was to spray paint the couch?! I know, right? ha ha...but I've seen it done well on a blog...check out my pinterest if you wanna see it. 
I have some other cool tricks up my sleeve...so we'll see how they all turn out. 
ALSO...we have finally made the decision that we will be here for ALL of October...which means a lot of things...I need to really crack down and get ready for the primary presentation on the 30th of October...also, I have been asked to get together a musical number for that night too....oh, and also need to plan a birthday party for A, a Halloween party with friends...and as Halloween is almost my FAVE holiday of the year...i really need to get on making crafty seasonal decor and planning THE ultimate Halloween costumes...whewf! Run-on sentence...ha ha...well...wish me luck!!

the dresser is D.O.N.E!! (DIY dresser re-do)

Just a reminder....this is what the before was:

And here is the in-between! :

First, I stripped down all of the wood pieces off of the dresser, only the ones in bad shape, that were falling off

This is in the middle of mudding....you're supposed to use some sort of wood filler, but I used mud instead, because I'm lay, and that's what we had

After we did the mudding, we let it dry. We then sanded down all of the mud, and did a quick sand all over to scratch up the surface, so the primer would stick well

I lost the next few pictures of us priming. We primed one coat. We used regular paint primer, again, because I'm lazy and that's what we had...but you should use bondable primer, and then there is no need to sand and rough up the top and sides, because it will stick to everything.

Next, we put 2 coats of paint, and spray painted the lines, and some surrounding edges, and inside the shelf:

This picture was taken after all of the painting was done

I decided against the silver knobs...so I spray-painted the old ones black.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

BEFORE & AFTER:

BEFORE & AFTER close-up:

"The Middle Moments"

I just recently read this, which is a GREAT read by Emily Freeman, one of my all-time favorite authors/speakers...you should all read it, or at least read on through my synopsis of it.
It really hit home with me, as we really are in such a "middle moment" in our lives right now. 
She recounts the story of Joshua (chapter 3) in crossing the river Jordan. The three pieces of advice that she took from this story are: 
1-“Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5). The first lesson for the middle moments of our lives is to believe in a God who will do wonders in our behalf.
2- “This day will I begin to magnify thee . . . I will be with thee” (Joshua 3:7). One thing I have noticed about the journeys recorded in the scriptures is that each has two common themes ––the Lord strengthens, or magnifies, the people to be equal to the task, and He always, always, travels with them.  

3-Joshua told the people that if they took note of what happened they would know that a living God was aware of them, and that He would deliver them “without fail” (Joshua 3:10).

It reminded me of a quote that I LOVE, and continually think about by Boyd K. Packer: 

"Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that ‘leap of faith,’ as the philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. ‘The spirit of man, ‘ as the scripture says, indeed ‘is the candle of the Lord."

This is SO true! So many times in my life, I just want the answer....I don't want to work at it, or think about it...I want it to come easily. 

But sometimes we need to take a few steps into the darkness, before we know what our path really is. And most of the time, it is what we experience that strengthens our testimony...as she says:

"The scriptures are clear––it is not the miracle or the destination that becomes the testimony. Rather, it is within the moments that precede the miracle that a lasting relationship with the Savior is formed."

She mentions that she started writing down a lot of what is going on, and documenting the "middle" of their journeyings:  "I am learning that these moments will become the most significant part of our journey. I am trying to write down the moments when we witness the wonders of the Lord around us, the tender mercies, the everyday miracles."

"I am learning to understand that maybe the miracle is not the destination after all.

Instead, it is the journey."

Life as we know it...that's for sure...

Our life has been SO busy lately. We started managing a few properties for some friends of ours...and one of them has been vacant, so we've been busy setting up steam cleaners, repair men, viewings, advertisements, phone calls etc....super busy. 
We also have our own little housing experience going on...as we have the possible potential to get one of our own, and that has been taking up a lot of time and mind space too...I will definitely blog more about this one later, once we have some more of the details panned out...I don't want to speak too soon!
Both of those things, as well as a new exchange student, and dealing with the other one moving out...has been pretty time-filling. 
We also attend 3 playgroups each week, and then have preschool 2x a week...so yup, we are busy!!
I'd like to say it's a "good" busy...but not all of it is. I've realized that some things, like the playgroups and preschools, don't really make me feel more busy at all, they just give me and the kids fun things to do together. BUT, all of the other stuff is stressing me out! TOO busy for my taste...but luckily we finally found tenants for the one place...and things look like they will start settling down!!
I am super happy for that...I need some more stress-free time. I mean, I haven't even finished the dresser from this last post!! And it's SO close to being done too (and looking super cute already!). 
SOOOO....here is to hopefully a less busy next few weeks...as we assimilate to the new year and our new student, and our new living situation(did I mention that our in-laws moved in with us?)
And I'm making a promise to myself that my next post HAS to be the finished dresser project! :)

Room re-do #2

After this LAST POST about how I wanted to re-do the room....it has actually come quite a long ways. I thought I'd post some pictures so you can see for yourself!

This was the BEFORE of the room, once we had mudded

This was after the sanding and priming was done

Finished product, fresh with 2 coats of paint

in  the middle of sanding the doorway..it was pretty banged up too

the finished product, but it still has the ugly curtain that I hope to change out  really soon!

One thing that I really didn't take into account, was that my hubby's parents would be staying in this room for a while. So, although I would love to do all of the cute decor that I posted about last time, I'm going to have to wait until it's actually a spare room again...until then, the paint will have to do. 
I'm really looking forward to re-doing the toy room. I plan on using the same grey color on the top half of the room, with a little white ledge halfway, and white below. Then I will add my sweet little diddy of a dresser...which is
the project that I'm in the middle of doing right now.

Here is an awesome "before" picture to tie you over! 
 

I'm kind of loving the original knobs...although having a hard time deciding whether to keep them silver or spray them black....hmmm....well, the "after" post should be coming up soon!! Hopefully in the next couple of days:)

Preschool-in it up

After much thought (as most of you probably know) I decided not to put A in kindergarten this year...and instead do preschool. 
There were a LOT of reasons for it, some of them being that I was not ready for him to be gone, nor was I ready for all of the schedule!! Waking up early in the morning is definitely not my specialty...and I love that we can wherever we want, at the drop of a hat. I feel that preschool is much more suited for that, as I wouldn't feel nearly as bad pulling him out for us to go on a trip. 
I feel really good about my decision, as he so far, has loved EVERY minute of his preschool thus far...the facility is awesome, the teachers are kind, and he seems to be learning a ton already. 
The school that I chose for him is the Montessori preschool academy (not too be confused with just straight-up Montessori, it's quite a bit different I think). 
I HIGHLY recommend this preschool, for anyone that's looking into them. I prefer some sort of learning, and not just all the time play-based learning. This place does everything from music to yoga to field trips...it seems amazing so far. 
Last week A started preschool, so of course, I had to take some pictures of my cutie-pie, growing up. I asked him if he was excited about school, and he said "I'm nervous, because I'm missing 2 of my teeth, and I don't think anyone else will be missing their teeth". I wonder why he worried about that so much? When he came home he assured me that he was no longer nervous, and that he really enjoyed his day. 


Well...here he is my sweet little (um, maybe not so little, ha ha) pre-schooler, missing teeth and all!! :

new room....soon?

One of our students moved out last week...and the carpets are SUPER clean due to an awesome steam-cleaning job...so it seems like a great time to redecorate the room!!
My hubby's parents will be staying in that room, starting pretty soon...so we only have a few days to do everything. 
SO FAR...we have mudded up all of the holes...and are waiting for it to dry, in order to sand it. THEN we will paint...I'm thinking a grey/blue and then an ocean decor theme. 
I also plan on finding some awesome material and "attempting" to make cute curtains for the windows too. 
This room is my inspiration:

For your info...that room was found on THIS interior decorating blog

But THIS is what we have to start with....oh boy:

It's a pretty huge room, bigger than  our master one...half the walls are this yellow color

This is the corner connecting the two colors, the biege/gold color is called decatur buff, and it's been there for 5 years now

If your wondering why there are SO many splotches on the wall...that's after the first mudding job, before sanding...there were a LOT of holes...as you an see, ha ha

I had to take a picture of the "before" curtains...we'll see how well the "after" ones turn out This was just a quick job from my MIL from an old skirt of hers, so the room wouldn't be so sunny

View from the corner, you can see the entry to the walk-in closet...I'm hoping I'll do good enough on the curtains to make something matching for that entryway too

WELL....there ya have it...that's the before...and hopefully the after turns out amazing!!! We'll see how quick I can pull it together...I'm sure I can do it if I could just get over this cold/flu I'm dying from currently...fingers crossed:)

DIY Door

We had SUCH a great weekend with my family over labour day. Right before we left we renovated our door....which now looks awesome!! My parents saw how awesome it turned out and wanted us to help them out with their door, and some other renoes...so we went up there for a weekend full of work and visiting. It was super fun!!
I have SO many DIY before and after's to post...I'll have to get all the pics from my mom. But here are some wonderful pics of our door to tie you over...

We don't have a complete before picture, because I totally forgot...so this is after JD cut the hole out

right after the hole-cut...I'm surprised he made such a perfect cut!

the piece that got cut out

after painting, with the window in

The finished product!! What a handy hubby I have:)