One Way to Make Me Smile Everyday :)

The week of Memorial Day my family helped me put in a flower bed along the porch. I have been wanting to plant flowers ever since moving out of my parents house but was unable to do so when living in an apartment. If you remember, being able to plant flowers was one of the perks to buying this place!

Anyway, it started out just being something my mom and I were going to do, and it turned into almost a whole family project, which was great! I love getting more time with my family and I love how they show their love in supporting me. :) 

On Memorial Day, my dad and Kaleb replaced the landscape timbers under the side of porch where the flower bed was going to go (after 30+ years, the previous landscape timbers were practically gone because of rotting away). Then, on Wednesday of that week, my sister and her two girls, my mom, my dad, and my grandma all came over for the installation of the flower bed. Oh, earlier that week (I don't remember when...Monday? Sunday?) my mom and I had gone shopping for flowers and I had bought petunias and geraniums in red, white, purple, and pink. Also earlier that week (or the week before...again, hazy on the details of when), my mom, my dad and I had gone shopping and they helped me pick out some bricks to put around the flower bed. So, Wednesday morning, my dad and Kaleb started laying the bricks down while my mom and I finished taking out the white rock around the mailbox that I didn't want there. After the bricks were done, we filled it in with some more dirt and then Kristen and I planted the flowers. 

It was so much fun to have everyone here and to have help with the flower bed! I absolutely LOVE coming home to such a bright splash of color right next to the driveway! It still puts a smile on my face every day. :)

The flowers are doing very well. The petunias I got are a special spreading variety, so they are already spreading quite a bit and some of the plants are 4 or 5 times the size they started at!! So cool! There were a few of the red petunias that my sister and I weren't too sure if they were going to make it, because they looked kind of sad. I am happy to say that all but one are doing quite well, and the one that didn't do well was my fault....(I was pulling weeds after coming back from vacation--holy cow they grow fast!--and I accidentally pulled it up, too! In my defense, it wasn't doing very well anyway... =P) All the rest of them...the geraniums included... are doing very well. Oh! I forgot! On the day we planted everything, I felt like I wanted a slightly bigger plant of some kind at the one end by the stairs. So, Kristen and I headed off to see what we could find. It didn't take long and soon we were back with a yellow lily plant. It's super pretty! Right now it's not blooming...is it done for the year? I don't know. But it was really pretty when it was blooming! 

I know you all are dying for some pictures, but those will have to wait. I need some current pictures so you can see how well they are doing and it's already getting dark outside, so I will have to wait. :) Stay tuned for the pictures!

Long Overdue...

I am WAY overdue for an update, I know. And I apologize for that! Here's what's been going on since I last posted...

• Thanksgiving-- On Thanksgiving Day, everyone in my family came and spent the day here, at my house. It was so much fun to have my mom, sister, and sister-in-law helping me cook in my kitchen! :) It was the first time we all really got to see the two babies interact with each other. The last time they were together, they were only a few months old! My mom found some fun little projects for us to do to make Thanksgiving "decorations". One was turkeys, made out of Oreo's, candy corn, malt balls, and frosting. They turned out to be harder to make than they looked, but it certainly made for some fun memories! :)
• Christmas-- Christmas was a blast, as usual when we get our family together. :) We all spent some quality time together, cooking, baking cookies, playing cards, talking, and laughing. The presents, of course, were over-flowing, abundant, and well-received. One of my highlights was the surprise my parents had for me--a new dishwasher! We had been living without a dishwasher, and we had been planning on continuing to do so for several more months until I could save enough money to buy one. I was totally surprised when I opened it and so overwhelmed with gratitude! I do believe I started crying....and I am now, too, just remembering!

• Christmas, continued-- This year was the first year I really got to decorate my house for Christmas. We did put up a few decorations in the apartment...mainly some lights and small Christmas trees. But this year, we got to put up lights on the roof (so much fun to do on my own house!), and we got to put up an actual Christmas tree. Granted, it was a fake tree (and my parents'), and we didn't have any presents under it, but it was still so much fun to have it up and have lights and our ornaments on it! We also put up some window clings and other decorations that my sister gave me last year for Christmas. It was fun to be able to use them this year! 

 

• Not really for Christmas, but as more of a house-warming gift, my sister-in-law gave me a painting that she had done to put up in my living room. It is absolutely PERFECT! The colors are a perfect match and it is just the right size! :) I LOVE IT! 

• Work update-- Not a whole lot has changed since my last update about work, where I got a promotion. The main thing is that the GM has put me in charge of setting up and conducting interviews. I didn't take over immediately, as I had never conducted an interview before. But after sitting in on several, I felt more comfortable and started taking over in the interviews. I still run all my decisions through the GM, and oftentimes she sits in on the interviews with me so she has a chance to meet the applicant as well. I am also in charge of making the monthly flavor of the day list, as well as the truck orders twice a week. She still does the schedule, which I am fine with! She does a great job with it and I know I could not do as awesome as she does! 
• Random--
• I just took down my Christmas decorations the other day...just a little late, I know.
• I am very ready for spring and not liking the rapid changes in weather: sunny and almost 40 one hour, and cold, windy, and cloudy the next.
• My car window jumped off the track completely one day and got stuck INSIDE my door--in the middle of winter. Lovely! Fortunately, my dad is the best daddy EVER and was able to fix it! :)

News!

So I have been dying to tell you all this news, but I had to wait!

The general manager at one of the other stores in the area has stepped down from his position to take a different job. The owner asked our general manager to move over to that store and he agreed. This left an opening for a general manager at our store, and so, the first assistant was promoted to general manager and I, the second assistant, was promoted to first assistant! I couldn't tell you all until everyone at both stores was informed.

The new general manager and I are both very excited for this opportunity. Basically, we will be in charge of running the store. Obviously major decisions would go through the owner, and our former general manager is still going to be available to help us out when needed, but pretty much it's just her and I managing our team! :) She and I work really well together and have the same views on almost everything and, as the owner put it, it's never been a competition between us.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that bit of news with you all!

Keeping my promise!

I have been promising pictures all summer long, and here they finally are!

I am going to show you pictures of each room/area from before we started any work plus pictures of how it all looks now, so you can see the differences! There are a lot of pitures, so bear with me!

Let's start with the front door...      Here it is before we did anything with it...It needed replaced because it didn't latch anymore, due to it being 30+ years old.

And now here is the brand new door! Notice the new light? We found out pretty quickly that it was almost impossible to see enough to unlock the door when coming home after dark, so my dad was awesome enough to install a new light for us!

And here is a picture of the new door from the inside. See the tiled entryway? It was carpet before...

Oh, and I do have a rug to go there, but it's currently being washed. Plus, I wanted you all to be able to see the tile. :)

Next up is the kitchen. Here is the before picture.

And the after picture, from almost the same viewpoint....

Quite a difference, huh? Here are a few more pictures of the rest of the kitchen. Notice the brand new stove that my wonderful brother, Kaleb, bought for me? :)

Next we will do the living room. 

Here are a few before pictures...two taken from the kitchen area and one from the hallway.

And the after pictures...

Doesn't it look great?

Alright, next we head down the hallway. Not much to see in the hallway, but things did change!

Before...notice the floor, walls, and curtains (hard to see, I know)

Notice the back door on the right...again, hard to see, but it got replaced as well!

And now, the after pictures!

New curtains!!

The mirror you see on the wall was actually there before, I just didn't get a picture of it. This will come a little bit later, but notice the laundry room doors on the left? Brand new and "professionally" stained (by Dad).

Here's the new back door...a twin to the front door.

Next, the laundry "room". 

Before...

After....

Doesn't look like much of a change, does it? Notice the shelf is gone, and the new doors, and in the second picture, you can just barely see that we replaced the floor, too.

The floor is still linoleum, but you can hardly tell, right? It almost looks like wood laminate. :)

We have to backtrack a bit...going back down the hall towards the living room to Kaleb's room.

You can't tell in these pictures or in the living room ones, but we actually tore down the inside walls to Kaleb's room and moved the one that adjoins the living room out another 16" into the living room, to make Kaleb's room a bit bigger. :)

Here are the before pictures...

And the after pictures....Quite a change, huh? :)

Next up is the bathroom. This is the one room/area that we did absolutely nothing with the floor, due to the fact that it was recently replaced. 

Before...

And after... I am in love with my bathroom :)

And now, the last room of the house...my room!

Before....Sorry, the before pictures aren't the greatest...can't see much.

And after! Beware of bright colors! :)

Compare this next picture with the first before picture....see what's different? 

We tore out a whole half of the closet! Since this was designed to be the master bedroom, there were two closets along this wall...I decided I really didn't need THAT much closet space, haha. Plus, this gave me more wall space and more furniture space, since it doesn't work very well to put furniture in front of a closet door.... :) We affectionately call this area "the nook". 

Well, that's it for pictures! I told you it was a lot! We did SO much work, it's hard to point out everything that's different and/or new. Just believe me when I say, we did A LOT of work to make it look like it does now. One thing I haven't mentioned yet...remember all the new curtains? Without the help of my grandma, my mom, and my sister, those curtains would not exist! Every single curtain had to be adjusted in some way, shortened, widened....or just made in general! Remember Kaleb's curtains? The bright orange ones....those are actually a flat bed sheet! I would never have been able to make a bed sheet into curtains, but with the help of my sister and my mom, they were made! Also, the bathroom curtains were made from a pair of pillow cases...pretty awesome, huh? We had to get creative because we couldn't find matching curtains for either of those two rooms! 

Did you notice how EVERY SINGLE ROOM got a new coat of paint? Or rather, new coats of paint... :) The ceiling also got a new coat of paint...hard to tell in these pictures, but every square inch of the ceiling was re-painted as well! After 30+ years, it really needed it. 

I know I already did a post thanking everyone, but after looking through these pictures again, I just have to say thank you again to everyone for their help!! I absolutely love it all....I know it was hard sometimes getting me to make a decision, but we got through it and the results are amazing. :)

We made it!

We officially made it to September, when we said we were going to move in, and guess what? It happened! Everything is not done yet, but we got to a point where the things left can be finished once we are moved in, so last Saturday we packed up all our stuff and moved in!

It's so great to finally be in the place that everyone has been working on so hard. The first month to month and a half was spent tearing out old things and replacing things like the sub-flooring that you can't even see now. Finally though, we got to the point where we started putting things back together, so to speak. Actually making it look like a place that could be lived in, eventually. Bit by bit, it started to look more like a house, and less like a construction site. A fresh coat of paint in every room, new curtains, new wood laminate flooring throughout, new doors.....all of this stuff slowly made it look more like a house.

It wasn't until we actually moved in, though, that it really started to look like a home. I've been trying to picture how everything would work and what each room would look like once all the furniture was moved in. My mind could not do the place justice, though. Everything looks even better than I imagined it would.

I know you all want to see pictures and I promise, they will come soon. At the moment though, most of the ones I want to share are at my parents' house. Plus, we are still trying to finish getting settled in...once we do, I will be sure to take pictures and share them with you all!

I know most of you only have a limited idea of how much work went into getting this place ready. Many of you helped with different parts of it, some of you helped with all of it...or even DID all of it. I just want to thank everyone for their help with everything. Thank you for taking time out of your own lives to help me. I could not even imagine doing all that was done by myself, hiring contractors or other people to get things done. I am blessed by God to have a dad who was able to do so many different things...to have a mom who was willing to be here almost every night with my dad, helping him, supporting him....to have a younger brother who was willing to give up his nights off to work on his sister's house, when he could have been spending it with his girlfriend...to have a brother, sister-in-law, sister, and brother-in-law who were willing to give up their weekends to come help work. Thank you all so much; there is no way I could ever repay you all. I love you!

Woah, what just happened?!

It's official!

I am a homeowner!! (of sorts)

Today we went and got the title to the mobile home transferred into my name. I paid my uncle for it. And now it's mine.


I. OWN. IT.


Just a slightly weird feeling, haha.

Moving!!

So I promised you I would update you all on what has been going on....a month later, I'm finally getting around to it!

As you all know, Kaleb and I have been living together in an apartment in Cedar Rapids. It has been great...but reallllly expensive. Our lease expires on the 31st, so a few months ago, we started thinking about other possibilities. I was not very optimistic about finding another apartment because it was so hard to find an apartment the first time around that accepted dogs and had washer/dryer hookups (as opposed to a common laundry room). However, God brought along an opportunity that I never saw coming. My uncle has been living in a mobile home that belonged to his parents (my grandparents) for several years now. This mobile home was "Grandma and Grandpa's house" for me when I was growing up (at least, when they were in Iowa; they spent time in Florida, too). My uncle has decided to move to Texas to be closer to his daughter and offered to sell the mobile home to me. At first, I wasn't sure. I never really pictured myself living in a mobile home, not that there is anything wrong with it, but it never crossed my mind as a possibility when looking for places to live. However, the more we talked about the benefits and the cost differences, the more I began to get excited.

Let me explain the cost differences first....rent alone is less than a third of what we are currently paying. Even with utilities, internet/cable, taxes, etc added on, we will still be paying less than what we are currently paying in rent alone. Other benefits include being able to paint walls (yay!), hang curtains/pictures, plant flowers, a screened-in porch, our own yard, no one living above/next to us, guaranteed parking spots (a driveway!), a shed (although, we have a garage currently, but again we pay extra for it...), oh, and a garbage disposal! (That may seem like a small thing but it's amazing how much of a difference it makes!)

As I mentioned earlier, this place was my grandparents when I was growing up. We would go over there just to visit; we would have sleepovers there. It has numerous memories for me. And, although we are going to change its looks, the memories will still be there, forever. That's the other part of this I need to explain. Our lease expires the 31st and my uncle isn't leaving until June 7th/8th. Plus, seeing as how the mobile home is about 30 years old, it needs some fixing up. So, on Monday, Kaleb and I will be moving back in with our parents while we fix up the mobile home. We are going to be doing stuff like tearing out and replacing the carpet and other flooring, possibly moving a wall, painting, installing new kitchen cabinet shelves, and adding a central air conditioner. It's going to be a whole lot easier to do all of this stuff while we are not living there, and our parents were gracious enough to let us move back in (rent free!) until the place is ready for us.

Because we decided this a couple of months ago, it hasn't really seemed real to me. Yes, I've talked about it with numerous people, but I haven't allowed myself to get too excited about it, because it was so far away and we aren't moving in right away. We have no idea how long it is going to take to do everything that needs done, so I didn't want to get excited about moving in there when we don't know when that is going to happen. However, now with our move being right around the corner, and June right around the next corner, I am starting to get excited again. I get to make all sorts of fun decisions (and, even though I'm kind of indecisive, it's exciting), like what color to paint, what color of carpet, what kind of flooring for the kitchen, etc. I feel like such a grown-up!! :)