Biggest Loser

Biggest Loser is over! I ended up taking 4th all together and lost 19 pounds...but have gained a few back so I've got to stay on top of it! For 4th place, I won $75 so what did I do with the money???

Well....a while back I won some pans from PickyPalate that retailed at $160 but they came with the lids shattered. I took them back to Walmart but instead got a gift card instead...so I combined my winnings (no, I did not go to Walmart...I used the gift card for groceries) plus Justin went all out and surprised me and let me go pick out a new oven and microwave!!! I LOVE them! We have bigger plans for our kitchen, but this is just the beginning. Since then, Justin's painted our fridge black to match all of our appliances. Thanks Love!

Oooh, I LOVE It!

Welcome to the darkest room in our house...until now! Our living room before had a fan, but no lights on the fan! (Stupidest thing I have ever heard of - and it was an ugly fan). That room has always been so dark at night. To help with it, we got a lamp a while ago, but it still seemed way dark.

But now, it's so bright and pretty!!! I won the $25.00 gift card to Lowes for the Biggest Loser so Justin and I went shopping on Saturday and picked this out! I seriously LOVE it! It adds so much to the room. Who would have thought a light would do that?

I get so excited to do little things to our home to make it more "ours."

Bitter Sweet

I always feel better when I vent, so I guess this post is for me. I love being a homeowner. I love the pride you have in your home as you work to fix it up and keep it nice. I love the memories...but at the same time, I hate being a homeowner. What happened to mom and dad taking care of everything and not having a care in the world except when your homework assignment was due and what you were going to do for the weekend? Oh ya, I grew up. Blah! And with that comes responsibilities...

Let's start with our dishwasher...2 years ago (ONLY 2 years ago) we bought our dishwasher. She treats me good. I love how she looks in my kitchen (since it's the only decent looking appliance in my kitchen) and she cleans so good! But what I don't like is how loud she is getting. It was the quietest dishwasher I had ever heard when we got it. I had to stop to listen to see if it was running. Now, it lets our entire house know it's running....like it's lacking attention. Justin's torn it apart only to find nothing wrong with it. We talked to an appliance guy and we are now just waiting for the motor to seize up on us. Great.

Then let's move onto our washing machine. We had to replace it just over a year ago and when we did, it was a good option to get a refurbished one from Advanced Appliance. It was the same washing machine my mom had before she upgraded to her front-loader. But someone in our house (me) has a hard time keeping the loads at a reasonable size and weight. Sometimes it is to worth it to pack an extra towel or pair of pants in it to avoid ANOTHER load of laundry to wash and fold. Well, we had to get the clutch replaced on it again...yes again. The clutches that should last 3-5 years only last me less than a year...Yes, I am now doing smaller and more frequent loads of laundry.

Now let's move onto our air conditioner. 2 years ago it wasn't working and we had Barlow come and look at it. It has a leak in the hose so instead of replacing the part, we just had them try to seal it to see if that would fix the problem. It didn't and we had to have them come fill the coolant stuff up again last year...once again, I've used the wonderful cooling devise enough this year that it's telling me it wants a break...Looks like we'll need to call Barlow again.

Am I really that hard on appliances and technology? Man, I think these are the same things I vented about 2 years ago. But my lovely 15-year-old stove, refrigerator, and water heater is still working. As much as I wanted them to go out when we bought the house, I'm just hoping they'll hang in there for me for a while longer. I think I'll keep paying my tithing just to make sure things don't get out of hand.

We're Ready!

5 days left! Here's the latest picture of our little boy! My last appointment was on Thursday night and I was dialated to a 3 and 75% effaced. The doctor told me he would be surprised if I made it to my next appointment this Friday...but I just smiled because that's exactly how I was with Mya and I still made it to the day he started me. In fact, I'd be so disappointed that I made it to the next doctor appointment, so this time, I won't be discouraged because I'm just counting on the 3rd.

We are ready for him! His room is done! Here are the pictures:

Before:
After:
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After:
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After:
We're pretty excited! Justin was sad to lose his hunting room, but I think he's okay with it since it's for a good cause.