Craft Room Update

So it has taken me a long time, but I finally got my craft room put together, and guess what???? I actually  have EXTRA room, so I'm ready for more crafts! :)  So any of you retiring crafters out there I am happy to take donations and would selflesly take items off your hands!  I started out with not having enough room to put all my stuff and not knowing what to do.  The problem is I not only have all my craft stuff, but I have all my party stuff too, and I know with every party I do comes many more items to store.  So eric bought me a cheap shelving unit to give me some extra space!!  Now everything fits beautifuly with extra room to spare so that's a plus!

  I should have taken pictures of the before, because it was a DISASTER!  Then you would get how big of a transformation this really was! Seriously this one room probably could have gotten me on the show horders!  I think I was too embarassed to show how bad I had let it get!  It just became the dumping ground for months.  Then I would get a few minutes and start to organize it, and then another party would come up and it would all get piled back in there!  Well now I am happy to say that it is neat, tidy, and clutter free!  It took me a whole saturday until like 3 in the morning to do it, and lots of Sabrina the Teenage Witch episodes, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.  Now it is certainly not my dream craft room that I am determined to have one day.  Maybe something like one of these

 

but for our small space, and for all the containers coming from the dollar tree?  I'm pretty happy with it!

Here is a before picture from how I had it set up when we first moved here.

Now imagine a space where a bomb had exploded and tons and tons of clutter, crafts, party supplies and lots of projects had gathered.



and now the finish product!

I got it done just in time to work on my sisters curtains!  She bought some gorgeous curtains, but they were not tall enough for her living room.  So I found some fabric and did a block at the bottom.  I think they turned out great and for my first time with only self taught sewing skills I was pretty proud!  They are lined and everything.  I even had some extra fabric left to make a few pillows.  We got to put them up when I went to Houston last week and they look fantastic!  Now my sister can enjoy the "best living room EVA"



Life Update

Life has been pretty normal as of late.  Eric is forging ahead in school and looking forward to graduating in May!  I can't believe it is so close!  He sure has come a long way and I am so proud of him.  I know he is ready for school to be over and to start working! He will start working with Chevron in June and is really excited for that.  I know he will feel accomplishment to finally be in a career and to be able to challenge himself in a new area of life and not just in school.


 I'm still working and continuing to try and keep motivation there.  I do work for such awesome people and I really couldn't ask for a better job with where I am at in my life!  I have been so blessed to find this job, and it is so nice to be able to help provide while Eric is in school!  They have been so nice about letting me have time off.  Last week I got to go back to Houston to help Mel out and it was wonderful!  We got so much done, and I truly felt like I was helping her and that was such a good feeling.  I just love that family so much and it's so fun to be an Auntie!


   Eric is still serving as a primary teacher to the 7 & 8 year olds.  I went into his class with him a few weeks ago and it was so fun to watch him teach and interact with the kids!  He is sure going to be a good daddy one day...hopefully!  I'm still in young women's and I love it.  It's hard because we have more leaders than we do girls, so I feel useless sometimes.  But I enjoy interacting with the girls and it's so fun to teach, even if it is once in a blue moon.  This is my month to teach though so its been fun.  I'm teaching about apostasy, the restoration, the Book of Mormon and all about Joseph Smith this month!  I love teaching this because I know the girls already know so much, so it's fun to all learn from each other!  I did an activity with them a few weeks ago and we decorated scripture journals.  I have now challenged them all to use it daily to write down things that influence them while reading, or during the week, or during the lesson.  We only have had one week with them, but just the one week we had some great in sites shared by the girls and I loved it.  Here is hoping they continue to take me up on the challenge and rise to the occasion.  I can't wait to see what they have for me next week.


We still live in our lovely apartment at the college.  It suits us just fine, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't dying to move somewhere else.  It's just so crazy to find housing in Midland that we don't really have anywhere else to go!  It's super frustrating, but I guess that means I don't have to worry about packing or moving my stuff right? RIGHT?  Every few months I do check for other apartments and just throw up at the cost and decided I am quite content where I am.   Eric's now convinced that he wants to get into a house......I love my dreamer!!  Heck who wouldn't want to be in a house over rentals haha but come on babe!  No but we are really getting serious about heading in that direction soon.  We met with a lender/financial adviser to help us out a bit, and got some great tips of where we are at, where we need to be, and what we need to do to get there.  Hopefully a house can be in our future sooner rather than later!

dream home....haha yeah right, like that will ever happen!

  Our future plans right now consist of Eric working the summer with Chevron and getting settled and then starting back up with night school come the fall.  He is going to do a few more general classes at Midland college and then transfer over to UTPB and finish with his engineering degree.  I will be starting in the fall to pursue my nursing degree.  I only have a few college credits under my belt, but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.  I'm hoping to get my associates in Nursing, to start working, and then go back to school to finish with my bachelors!  Hey who knows if we still don't have kids by then maybe I'll take it even further than that and follow in my brother in laws footsteps and do the CRNA thing and bring home the bacon haha! No I'm only kidding, I don't know what next week will bring so I'm not saying anything for sure.  I mean anyone who knows me, knows  how many different things I was going to go to school for.  Hopefully now I have a direction I can stick with.  Heaven knows that It has taken me 5 other career paths to circle back to Nursing.  Silly me, if I had just stuck with it from the beginning!!! Needless to say, we are staying in Midland for a lot longer than first intended....sooooo... visitors are welcome! Please anybody come! Come today, come tomorrow just come and visit us I will love you forever!

On a happier note Eric finally bought me my baby!  It's my pride and joy!  I adore it and can't wait to see all the awesome things it accomplishes!  Meet.......my Silhouette Cameo! 

Isn't she a beauty?  No but in all seriousness she is awesome and I'm having so much fun making all sorts of projects! I have been busy making lots of cards and items for parties.  Hopefully later I can post some pictures of the parties I have used it for!


Lets see what else is new.....well I have lost a total of 21 lbs!!! That is kind of exciting.  It has taken a few months and I haven't been as diligent as I could have been, or that number would be more, but I'm still happy.  Progress is progress no matter how small!  I go back to the doctor next week and I certainly didn't lose as much as I had hoped, but hopefully its enough that she can see that I'm trying.  I'm excited to see what she says about my progress and to start talking about fertility.  I'm not getting my hopes up, but it would be nice to get to the next step.