What to do?

Let’s just ignore the fact that I have not blogged in months and jump straight into another house project.  Not blogging has been a lack of motivation combined with all I talk about is all the projects around the house and I’m not sure anyone cares, lol!  So for the archives I am adding this to the blog roll! 

Since the day we moved in and probably 15 years prior to us owning our house our staircase has needed a major overhaul and has been on my “fix it” radar for the last 12 months.  After getting some serious motivation from my pals Chip and Joanna and the know-how from Super Dad I got some SHIPLAP installed in our master bedroom (still need to blog about that) and I have almost finished painting our room, just need to do some touch up paint here and there and paint the crown molding (ugh) and then I will share it with all of you.  Now, I am on to the staircase, every time I look at it I want to take a sledgehammer to it and tear it down but thanks to Uncle Sam and my tax return I know have the $$$ to replace it with something I want.  I have spent many hours perusing Pintrest like it is my job looking for the perfect staircase and I have finally narrowed it down to three choices (one I liked, one the Sheriff liked and one that I think both of us would be fine with).  So, I did what any normal person would do and I polled my Facebook friends, Instagram followers and some coworkers.  I was shocked at how many casted their vote, even more surprised with their explanation of why they chose the one they did and amazed about how many people care about dust and dirt (because being the type who likes a clean house I have never been too concerned about dust on my staircase, probably because ours currently looks like hell and no amount of cleaning is going to make it look better so I don’t really bother with it) note to self, need to clean the stairs more often, oops). 

Here are the three options…

Number 1 is my favorite; from the moment I laid eyes on it I have not been able to get it out of my head.  Number 2 has the Sheriff’s vote and many of your votes as well and number 3 actually belongs to a friend of mine who put this in her brand new house a few months ago and when I was new to the staircase search I was set on doing what she had done.

This is what we currently have, holy moly I am embarrassed to post pictures of it.  The staircase is sooooo dated, the paint is dingy and dirty and already has several layers of paint and up top it is not up to code and small child could fit through it.  

Tonight I have a contractor (Super Dad decided to sit this project out and I do not blame him) coming over to go over all of the details and get this going and I cannot be more excited. 

And for the moment you have all been waiting for the tally of the votes!  I like to call this section WWCAJD (What Would Chip and Joanna do?) Voters include Facebook friends, Instagram followers and some coworkers that are not on any of my social media accounts.

#1 – 28 votes

#2 – 13 votes

#3 – 8 votes

Undecided – 4 people

As for me, as much as I want #1 I think #2 will look better in my house.  We have the reclaimed wood wall so close to the staircase and I think #2 gives the house a more modern farmhouse look that I am slowly trying to get too especially with our traditional looking kitchen. It has been a really tough decision, stay tuned for the final results, not sure how long it will be but I will report back when it is all finished.  

7 Years of I'm Just Saying!

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the blog, wowzers this is the longest I have committed to anything!  Lately the blog has taken a back seat to home improvement projects and the Sheriff’s mom moving in and getting her settled in just in time for her to announce that she is moving out.  I have a few choice words regarding this and several of them start with the letter “F” but I will refrain from using them here today.  But since I cannot say this to her, I will say this to all of you “I am f-ing pissed at her”.  I seriously uprooted my life for her and sold my beloved Crate and Barrel couch (I know, very materialistic) so she had a nice place to stay and this is the thanks I get, mark my words NEVER AGAIN WILL SHE LIVE WITH US, so on that note, we have a really nice guest room that will be open for visitors on March 1, so please know you are all welcome to come and visit.  Anyways, moving on from my rant about ungrateful relatives and my desire to share all of the ungratefulness that has occurred, the blog is seven years old today, yay!  Now, I will have to go through my 680 pictures and get you all caught up on everything we have been up too lately!  

Thank you to all of my faithful readers over the past 7 years!

And NO, I am not helping her pack!

So Long 2016 - A Year in Review!

We now have 11 days of 2017 under our belt so I am about 11 days late in getting out our 2016 year in review, I know a lot of people dubbed 2016 to be “the worst year ever” for many different reasons and towards the end 2016 I was feeling the same way, but in all reality 2016 had some really good parts to it and this is a great reminder to not let the bad outweigh the good.  So without further to do, here is the good, the bad and the ugly of 2016…..

January- I closed escrow on my sweet little condo seven days before the New Year and moved in with the Sheriff.

February- On February 15, 2016 the Sheriff and I spent the day house hunting with our beloved realtor’s Gregory and Danny and my Mom, we spent the day touring around Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita in anticipation of a good offer coming in on the Sheriff’s house.  That day the very first house we went to (after looking at probably 50 homes on our own and stalking realtor.com every day for months) we loved.  While at lunch we got the offer we had been waiting for and had to make a quick decision on the offer we were going to put in on one of the four homes we saw that day.  Later that day we found out that we were the fourth offer on the house we wanted, so we upped the ante and crossed our fingers, thankfully our realtors worked the deal for us and the house was ours! 

We celebrated these three little ladies!

Happy Birthday

March- The house buying and selling process was intense and I probably started forming some serious gray hairs but we survived it, there were a lot of tears along the way but it was worth it.  We moved in with my parents for a few weeks, the Sheriff slept in the garage with Ebo, we moved our uhaul around the neighborhood every few days to avoid the street sweeper and parking tickets, cried a little more, enjoyed a lot of home cooked meals, had to dig deep for some extra $$$ and survived.

Locking up for the very last time!

Moving

April- April 1^st the Sheriff and I closed escrow on our very first house together!  We moved our stuff in, got settled and Gracie made herself very familiar with the pool very quickly. 

All day, everyday!

More Moving!

May- We bought a lot of stuff for the backyard, added lights and we cannot wait for summer!    We 

also had a reclaimed wood wall installed in our entry way that turned out awesome!!

Around the house!

June- June was probably the best month of my life EVER!! I got pregnant, I was so excited and scared all at once but I was so happy, all I have ever wanted was to have a baby and it was finally coming true.  I felt sick immediately and all I wanted to do was sleep and not feel sick, but it was worth it, I was going to have a baby!  It was the hardest secret to keep!! 

July- Nothing happened in July besides all day pregnancy sickness and going swimming in our pool, it was hot and I was sick and it makes me sick just thinking about it.  I also took an unofficial three month blogging break; it was hard to not blog about the baby, so no blogging occurred. 

August- I kept little Baby Francisco a secret from family until I was almost 8 weeks along, I just wanted to wait until my first prenatal appointment before getting their hopes up.  My Mom was throwing my Aunt a surprise birthday party, so it was time to share my little surprise with them.  They were SHOCKED, it was so much fun to watch their reactions!

September- All hell broke loose this month and continued the downward spiral until the end of the year.  The Sheriff’s Dad had “the accident” as his Mom refers to it, but it was no accident, it was the most deliberate and selfish thing ever and even though I have gotten over the anger part of it for the most part, I am still really pissed off at him (I guess the anger is still there) and want to smother him with a pillow when I see him, but in order to avoid prison time, I will no longer visit him. 

On September 9th, we found out that we lost our sweet little baby, there are no words!

September 13th, I had my D&C, it was not as bad as I thought it would be but I pray I never have to do that again.

A few days later Ken backed into our neighbor’s plumber’s truck, $3000 worth of damage and an insurance claim later, it still makes me mad.

September 28th, I turned 38 and I watch my clock tick by every day.

October- Just when things can’t get any worse I get the scariest phone call of my life at 12 pm on the dot on October 17^th, the Sheriff had a stroke.  All the emotions still flood through me thinking about it.

A few of our visitors

   

Trying to keep things up beat and not worry about everything all day every day, I start Christmas décor shopping, I bought a ton of stuff for our house to help make it festive and for me retail therapy solves a lot of problems.  Blogging resumed sort of!

Our new stockings!

November- Despite another trip to the ER, this time for me for a crazy unexplained bleeding episode that mimicked a crime scene we enjoyed hosting our first Thanksgiving!  Initially I was bummed it was a small crowd, but after all of the craziness, we needed a small crowd.   

The Sheriff and I celebrated our fourth dating anniversary, four years and I am still waiting for a ring, one would think that after all the shit I have been through with him and his family this year he would think to himself, this gal is great and I should make things more official. 

More of November

December- Things started off very windy, our neighbors palm trees completely destroyed our front and backyard and I spent hours cleaning it up.  Christmas lights went up, the tree was decorated and the stockings were hung, we attended two brain injury support group meetings, enjoyed the Harbor Patrol Christmas party and boat parade, I found out I need to have uterine surgery (oh boy, that sure sounds fun) to removed a mass of some sort, celebrated our first Christmas in our new house and counted down the remaining days of 2016 praying for no more disasters. 

The Sheriff’s Mom moved in with us on December 27^th, it has been an adjustment, but things are settling down and everyone is finding their new place in the house. 

Here is her room all ready to go!

In a nutshell we spent all of 2016 doing house related tasks (buying, selling, packing, moving, unpacking, signing documents, decorating, etc.) or at Mission Hospital, I am really hoping for something more fun in 2017.

Today – Reading all of this makes me want to cry, so much has happened, so many storms have been weathered and I am so thankful we have survived and are starting to thrive again.  Here is to a happy and healthy 2017 and maybe a baby!!!  

And if you are bored and you want to read more year in reviews here ya go...

2015 

2014

2013 Review did not happen!

2012

2011

Christmas in Our New House!

Now that 2016 is OVER and things are trying to settle down, I guess it is time to archive the events of our first Christmas in our new home on the good ole' blog!

Our living room was so cozy with all of the Christmas decor up, I could not help but take a bunch of pictures, I just wish I could find my real camera to take better photos, oh well, at least I have these!

Can you spot Ebo?  

The Sheriff and his meat!

Gracie wishing for a bite and being told a firm "NO!"

We had my parents over for dinner, it turned out so good and it was so nice to have them over!

Just another picture of the living room!

 

When we were house hunting I knew I wanted a fire place and I am so glad we got it!  We fired up the fire place but we did not know the damper was closed, doh!  The bad news was it filled the house up with smoke, but the good news is that our smoke detectors work like a charm!

My dream come true, everyone asleep, the house quiet, the Christmas tree all pretty and a fire in the fireplace! 

Christmas morning was quiet, Mr. Pie was at his Mom's house, so it was a morning walk for Gracie and I, a nap and then off to the parents for Christmas Day! Thank you to all Starbuck's employees who went to work on Christmas morning, Ebo and Gracie thank you too!!

I hardly took any pictures of Christmas Day, but I did get the one I wanted....

I have another picture of the four of us from a couple years ago and I plan on making this a tradition every time we get together.  Katie and I and our tall, dark and handsome men!

Darrell and Mr. Pie showed up in the same outfit!  LOVE IT!

Typical boys!

And after all of the celebrating at my parents we brought Mr. Pie home with us and celebrated Christmas as a trio!  New shoes, lots of toys and good memories were enjoyed by all!

I hope everyone had a VERY Merry Christmas!