Dining Room

When we were looking for a house, one of the things on my checklist was a formal dining room. I really wanted a separate room off the kitchen where I could put this beautiful table I'v had my eye on for years from West Elm. I wanted enough space to have dinner parties and family dinners no problem. When we bought this house it had a super small dining room with a half wall separating the dining room from the front living room. I knew my table wouldn't come close to fitting in there so my step-dad said taking down the wall would be easy.

Before

As you can also see the entire inside of the house was painted a pale yellow...which also needed to go. 

Michael and Jim took down the wall and me and my mom got to painting. I knew I wanted grey paint and fell in love with this Bher color. 

^Bye-bye wall!

The end results are better then I could have ever imagined. I'm completely in love with my dining room and how everything came together. I got almost everything on sale which is a total plus in my book!

String State

About two years ago I kept seeing the new rage all over Pinterest...String States. I loved them, and wanted one, but of course couldn't just get on Etsy and buy one for myself. I obviously had to make it. It honestly probably took a year to complete. Bought all the supplies from Home Depot, and then they sat in my garage for a few months....then I stained the piece of wood I was going to use..

Then  a few months later I got around to tracing WA State and put the nails in. 

Michael ended up doing the string and hung it up in our Dining Room. I seriously love it so much and we get a lot of compliments. Its even better because we made it together!

My Poor Kitty

two weekends ago was definitely not one I want to repeat. Short Story one of kitties went to the hospital. Long Story...

On Thursday night I was kind of noticing that one of my cats, Melo, wasn't sitting down all the way, and when he did squat down he was leaking little drops of water/pee. On Friday morning he was throwing up and just standing in the litter box meowing like a little dinosaur. I made an appointment to go see the vet that afternoon. I got off work a little early and we went to the local vet. Needless to say he wasn't to happy about the trip.

The vet felt around his belly and said she needed to take him to the back right away. She came back and let me know that his bladder is suppose to be the size of a golf ball and it was the size of two softballs and ready to explode any time. He had some type of blockage so he couldn't go to the bathroom. She told us we needed to take him down to the emergency animal hospital and that he was going to need 24 hour care while a catheter was put in to remove the blockage. I was so upset, thank gosh my mom was with me, Michael had just left for Miami the night before. We were referred to Summit Emergency Referral Hospital in Tacoma so we headed down there. When we got there they were expecting us and took my baby back right away. They hooked him up to an IV and took a blood sample to further analyze. They took me into a room and explained what was going on. I guess build up in male kitties is common but his was really bad, his blood was infected pretty badly and there was a possibility of permanent kidney damage. After alot of explanation from the doctor and a large bill later I had to leave my baby for 48-72 hours so they could fix him up. Unfortunately I was so upset all weekend because even after the blockage was out he has a 30% chance of re blocking. I got updates all weekend from the hospital and he ended up doing really well. I was able to pick him up Sunday night. He has been on pretty heavy medication for the last week and a half but is doing much better. I sure hope this is the last of the kitty problems because I was a wreck all week being worried about him. The one upside to this all is Melo is now the most cuddly kitty ever. He always wants to be next to me and have his belly rubbed.

New Year New You

Super Cliche but its the beginning of the new year and I am very ready to get into shape. I see all these pictures of the gym in November/December super empty and then in January its really full and I'm going to be one of those people (Sorry regular gym goers) Everybody has got to start somewhere. I don't know what it is about the new year but it feels almost like a reset button, its an automatic opportunity to better yourself. As I said before I did pretty good with my goals/resolutions last year so I hope this year is no different. I have started my Advocare 24 day Challenge and I'm in this great mindset right now where I actually want to go 60-90 days eating very strict. I honestly think I can do it. My biggest weakness is Starbucks and Sweets but If I go long enough without them I know my body will get used to it. I'm pretty sure I'm mildly Lactose intolerant from the first time I did a challenge (almost 2 years ago). I really hate before pictures, I feel like my face looks so bloated and fat (probably because it is) but they are necessary to show how great I'm going to look.

^ Chubby Face, Double chin Picture of me from work last night (I'm not going to post a full body before till I have a good after pic!)

Me and Michael have booked a Vacation for the end of March which is the perfect motivation to get skinny and fit. Wish me luck readers, and lets hope I'm still in that gym picture come the end of the year!

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2015 Resolutions

I would have to say I had a pretty successful 2014. I think I stuck to and accomplished all of my goals except one. We bought a house, I completely gave up pop, I started and kept up with this blog, and I really tried to eat out less. I did not however really workout/exercise.

2015 New Year Resolutions 

1. Exercise! holy cow am I out of shape! Its actually quite embarrassing, I'm starting the new year out with a 24 days challenge which is oddly easy for me. I have the opposite problem of most people, I have no problem eating healthy but I can't seem to get in the habit of working out. This is a super cliche goal but whatever, it needs to happen. 

2. GET MARRIED, I'm not sure if this is really a goal because I have to be asked first but I REALLY want this to happen in 2015. I'm not someone who needs a year+ to plan a wedding I just want to me married already!

3. Save and buy a new car.... If you know me you know I drive a POS Nissan and it NEEDS to go. I'm just to cheap to add a car payment to my monthly bills. I should probably get over it and be rid of my little black beater of a car. 

4. Write one blog post a week. If I want to call myself a lifestyle blogger I should at least be doing one post a week. I did good with my 35 posts this last year but I feel like I can do at least one a week. 

5. Start to learn a new language, this might be the least realistic of them all but, HEY, everybody has to have one of those goals. I should probably buy Rosetta Stone or something to get started. 

This is a good list for the year and I hope I can be as successful this year with my Resolutions as I was last year. 

Christmas Time

We had such a great Christmas this year. Michael is such a great helper and made sure I got two trees like I wanted, and all the Christmas lights hung up outside.

I forgot to take pictures of the house until I started to put everything away but I managed to get a few at the last minute.

My all Disney tree was so cute this year, I'm getting more and more Disney ornaments. The tree topper was hanging almost upside and I never fixed it...oppsies.

My cute mantle with fuzzy stockings for me Michael and my kitties (and my not centered TV, but hey we are still moving in and it needs to be hungup)

 

^ My already falling over front room tree. 

 

We Went to my aunts on Christmas Eve and then headed to Michael's sisters house.

On Christmas morning we packed up all the presents and went to my Moms for breakfast and Christmas morning.

Later that we went to Michael's Parents house to finish off the Holiday. 

^Michael and Jalen trying on the Kids Christmas presents.

It was a Perfect holiday and we were beyond spoiled. I can't wait for next year!