Heartbreak

I got dumped recently.

No, not by my new husband but by my best friend. I was friend-dumped. Guess what? It hurts too. A lot.

There was no major fight, no epic blowout, not even a slow drifting away. After 2 weeks of silence I got am email that said we were no longer going to be friends.

I guess that sounds a little bitter and snarky and I don't mean it to be. There was a third party that loomed ever-present in our friendship and finally became too much work to handle keeping the third party appeased. That's what the email said.

And I totally understand. It WAS a lot of work to constantly keep the balance just right so that we could do things together without starting 'drama'. It's exhausting, and silly for adults. But it was the way it was and there was no way around it.

That's not the point here. I'm here because I need to vent my heartbreak. It's been a long time since I have been dumped.

I haven't felt that gut wrenching pain in your chest that rises up when something reminds you of that person.

I haven't had the sadness fill your mind when you see happy pictures of times past.

It hurts, and I don't know what to about it. I don't have an excess of girlfriends so my poor husband has had to pick up the slack of losing her.

I feel very alone and without closure I guess.

After it happened, I acted out a bit and handled some situations in ways I probably shouldn't have. But its worse because I can't explain it to her. I felt I didn't have another option, but from the other point of view it seems worse I suppose.

I hate not knowing how she feels. I hate not being able to call, text or email when something funny or interesting happens.

I hate that I can't say anything about things I find out that happened to her.

It's all a mess. I just needed to get these feelings out, you know?

I guess now I just need to move forward and try to make new friends. Which I have no idea how to do anymore. I don't know.

I worry that I have nothing to give someone else. I am insecure and I wonder if I was doing terrible things in our friendship and didn't realize. That really she was just sick of ME but didn't want to say that.

I would rather know. I would always, always rather people tell me the truth so I can recognize what I did that was wrong and try to fix it.

Anyone have any advise for me?

An Identity Shift

Well, I have been married for 20 days now. But it really sunk in for me today. I got my new license and bank card in the mail. They were the last to arrive after my social security card and credit cards, but the are truly the most important.

Now its for real.

I had a very odd feeling taking the old license out and going to put the new one into my wallet.

I have always known I would change my name and wanted to when I got married. I diligently practiced signing my new name and ordered knick knacks with our joined names emblazoned upon them. But man ohh man have I had a bit of a struggle with it now that its real.

The first was when I was at the DMV and the man at the counter handed me back my old license with the dreaded hole punch through it. The one that basically means "Hey there, I'm a useless piece of plastic now!" All of a sudden I felt like I was losing a little piece of myself.

Over the last 2 weeks at work I have had a hard time remembering to use my new name when signing for a package or leaving a voicemail. It just doesn't sound right yet. But then again, saying my old name doesn't sound right anymore either. I'm just stuck in limbo.

But boy howdy, when I took my old license out I almost had a shortness of breath. I was really, really this new name now? I'm a wife, with my husband's name, and the old me is just going to slowly fade away?

It was a sobering experience. Now my wallet is all full of my new name, and there are no cards left with my old. I know I will adjust quickly, but today I just needed a moment to reflect. I am SO happy to be the new me and share a last name with my husband. I'm a grown up wife now with a new name (and a hideous new picture)

Seriously, why the eff is it zoomed in so much farther?
You can't even see the necklace I purposely wore, man.
Goodbye, beautiful, skinny, tan 15-year-old me.

Anyone else out there have this feeling when they changed their name?

Confession Time

Here's my embarassing confession for the day.

Before I will put a piece of paper in the shredder under my desk, I practice signing my new name on the back, because I want to to feel natural by the time I'm using it for real.

Ohh ya.

Why I feel old today

I have been beginning to see tiny little signs of things that make me feel/realize that I am no longer of the youngest generation. Yep, its true. I say "those damn kids" far to often and haven't been trendy in years.

Now, I am sure that all some of you reading will roll your eyes and scoff at me for feeling old at the ripe age of 25, but I'm just saying-its gotta start somewhere.

The first one to really hit me was when I was channel surfing and saw Full House pop up on the guide. I look over and realize- its on Nick at Nite. Jesus Christ. Full House? On Nick at Nite? Why don't you just put me in a home now. I watched Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie on Nick at Nite. Full House was prime-time viewing, my friend.

But today I had another that spurred my need to share. I am starting to go through the wedding music and sort out what I want where. In one of the Greatest Hits of whenever CD's I was looking through, I saw the Macarena.

And I couldn't remember how it went.

Seriously. I saw the title, I know what it was and I couldn't find the sector of my brain that had that damn song burned into it for years. Is that amazing? I felt old.

That was so totally me in grade school. We did the Macarena in PE for god sakes. Now I have replaced it in my brain with mortgage interest rates or something.

Thank the lord I'm not some famous blogger who had to pay royalties to these guys for this post:

Ohh, and You're Welcome for getting the Macarena stuck in your head all day. :)

Our adventure date.

I love a good adventure. Who doesn't?

So when it came time for the Mr and I to go see Transformers 3 I decided an adventure was in store. About an hour and a half away from us is an XD theater. The screen is about twice the size of a normal one and the seats all recline so you are really into it.

We drove up there to see the movie and had a grand old time. The movie was good and it was nice to just be doing something different. We then had an ammmmmazing dinner at Cattleman's and topped off the evening with a walk on the sundial bridge.

  

I am a terrible photographer but that bridge really is amazing. If you are in the area, I highly suggest a walk-across. Even though the floor is made of glass and it scared to crap out of me to walk across.



Here is a real picture.

We had a great time. It's amazing what a quick little trip out of your usual neighborhood can do.

An Epic party.

So as you all know, I got my braces off last week. Also, my birthday is next week.

I have been telling Clint for over a year he needed to throw me a braces freedom party after they came off filled with caramel and taffy and corn on the cob.

So (as far as I knew) it was all set up for the weekend of April 2nd. But little did I know Clint wanted to surprise me. He planned the whole thing and pulled off without a hitch, an epic surprise party on March 25th, the day after my braces came off.

If you haven't already realized this- I'm an over thinker. Do you ever consider all the variables that can go wrong with a surprise party? Clint had Boe ask me to go shopping after work. Now, I almost never say no to Boe. I'm always down to go hang out and do whatever with her. She rocks my socks. But what if I had said no? It was a bad day at work anyway, what if I didn't feel like it and came home during planning? What if I had driven past Clint while he was shopping when he should have been at work? What if I had logged into the online banking to check the balance and seen him buying stuff for the party?

It boggles my mind. But it all went perfect. After a nice little shopping trip (where we found the bridesmaids dress-score!) Boe suddenly tells me she is feeling a little pukey and needs to get home ASAP. I was of course concerned for her and so we cut short the trip. She drives me home and I walk in the front door to this:

I got a big Surprise! and all my friends jumped out of the hallway. It was awesome. It was the first surprise party I have ever had that was actually a surprise. (My 16th birthday was supposed to be but a frenemy told me it was happening the day before)

We got down to the parting and it was a grand ol time. I got another surprise about a half hour later when my friend Danielle showed up from Grass Valley. She was a sneaky one too. I was texting her trying to convince her to come down and she told me she was snowed in when in reality she was on her way here.

Beer pong was played, drinks were had, lots of candy was eaten, and Clint BBQ'd some mean tri tip.



Every picture I have of me and Danielle she is touching my boobs.



Now, he also got me a cake. A few weeks ago I showed him this and said how awesomely awesome it was-

Candy buttons! Isn't that awesome?!?

So, my dearest painstakingly did this for me-

He added real candy buttons to a cake for me. LOVE. That is no easy task kiddos.

Here is the fun I had with it:



I'm scary with a knife.

  

Note the giant pile of candy.





Haha, Jayson's face behind me is awesome.



More fun was had:



I LOVE this picture. I don't know why, but I do.

He put blinking St Paddy's pins on his boobies.

Shake it Becca!

Now I'm sure this highly-self centered post was terribly boring to those of you who don't actually know me an my friends-I don't care. It was a spectacular birthday and I wanted to document it.

Word.

Ooshy Gooshey Love Fest

Today I am especially appreciative of my ohh-so wonderful fiance, Clinton. He is SO good to me 150% of the time and I am so lucky to have him.
This past Friday he threw me a surprise braces freedom/birthday party. It was EPIC. I was completely surprised and it was wonderful.

But what spurred this post is not just that. So we occasionally will send each other text messages with "I love your  ____" (nose, ears, toes, butt cheeks) Anyway.

Today out of nowhere I get a text that says "I love your teeth".
I could DIE. Made me smile so huge. Then we went on an ooey gooey love fest of text messages back and forth that I will not share.

But I just had to put out there how much I love this boy. He is my favorite.

My all-time favorite picture of him (which he of course hates)

Theeeeeeeeyyy'rrre OFF!

My braces are off.

MY BRACES ARE OFF.


My. Braces. Are. Off.



The first look

 It was the most amazing event of my life thus far. It took 1 year, 6 months and 25 days to give me a movie star smile.

Here's a run down of the day.

We arrive at the orthodontist office.

We sit in the waiting room for 5 minutes 200 years.

Pop, crack, snap.

Here they go!



We have teeth!



On to grinding off the glue, and permasmile is engaged.

It's done!

Off to breakfast. Mmmmmm Coda......

That's all I got for now. I'm giddy. I'll give you more words later :)

Counting Down

Well I’m just about 24 hours out from braces freedom and the excitement level is high! Well yesterday, being the good little planner I am I started reading up on removal and retainers. When you are in excitement mode you forget about the fact that getting braces off is no easy feat. It’s going to hurt. They are removing fixtures that were cemented to my teeth over a year and a half ago. So, my excitement is mixed in with a bit of nervousness. I know it will be more than worth it, but it still is gonna suck in the during. But a vicodin and some ear plugs will help me through the yanking; breaking, grinding and polishing that will lead me to my most beautiful smile.




I can’t wait to post pictures!!

My mother hated me when I was young

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm here to share a traumatic fond memory of my childhood.

My mom is very festive. VERY. So on St. Paddy's when I was in 4th grade, my mom went all out. She sent me to school pretty much dresses as a leprechaun. I had a green sparkly vest covered in light up pins, a green bow tie, giant shamrock earrings and a green plastic top hat. Ohh ya, I thought I was the shit.

I <3 google images. I have no clue who that is. Or why she is eating a kitten.

Now had there been a costume contest or festival of some sort at school that day, I would have ruled. But there was not. There was just a school full of kids is a green T-Shirt or sweater, looking at me like I was insane. Luckily we ran out of time before painting shamrocks on my face and I was able to take most of it off and shove it in my backpack for the day.  But that damage was done.

So here's to St. Paddy's and that memory that is burned in my brain for all time. Thanks mom. It must have left some permanent damage too, because a month after I turned 18 I got a tramp stamp tattoo of a shamrock.

Aww, my first apartment. The pink bathroom and band posters on the wall.

 Ahhhhh, stupidity. I think I'll call my mom today and tell her that was her fault. She'll have a fit and yell at me. Sounds like fun.

Growing Up

At what point in life do you feel like a grown up? I'm about to be 25, have a mortgage, a college degree and am getting married. But every time I walk or drive around my neighborhood I wonder if the people who see me think I live with my parents. I feel like they see me as a kid.

So is there a point in life when you suddenly think "ohh, I'm the grown-up now"? Or are there 40 year old stay at home moms out there who still look around and think their not 'there' yet?

Is it having kids? I know people who have kids who are more immature than my 5 year old niece.

Is it just age? My best friend is 56 years old and still giggles when anyone mentions the last name of her husbands golf buddy's, the Seamen's. (Hi Boe!) She is the most fun person I know and we get together and act like pre-teens some times and I absolutely love that.

So, what are your thoughts world? Do YOU feel like a full fledged 'grown up'?

No cupcake

I bought my wedding dress yesterday.

Yep, just like that. It was fabulously anti-climactic. My mom is going to be FURIOUS when I tell her.

MOH and I were just out for a random shopping trip for nothing in particular besides a french press from World Market. MOH says "hey JC Penney has a huge dress section let's go take a look".

Sure! So we get there are start perusing. There is not as many dresses as usual since a big section is clearance jackets. But I spy a big poofy intricate sparkly prom dress (in navy blue) and a short white lace sundress.

I try on the blue cupcake dress. It was very very pretty. It looked nice. But it was trendy and I knew 10 years from now I would look at those pictures and go "GOD what was I thinking?".

I try on the lace sundress. It's beautiful. It's simple. I can be added to to become perfect and I love it. It's 40% off with my coupon and the sale.

So after carrying it around the store and trying it on a second time after grabbing a whole-body-sucking girdle and some heels (well 1 heel actually, you aren't allowed to take both shoes to the dressing room. Is that too funny?) I said Yes to This Dress.

Not a salesperson in  site, no pedestal and three way mirror, no crying, no pictures. I love it.

As I said, my mother is going to be livid. She of course wants me in some poofy long sparkly heavy cupcake monstrosity. Ohh well. She will just have to get over it because its my wedding.

You ready for the best part? How much did my wedding dress cost you ask?

Sixty Three Dollars.

Hell to the yes. As I said as I was buying it, I'd rather spend $400 on a zipline tour in Hawaii then a dress I'll wear once. BUT WAIT- the dress is 100% cotton so I'm gonna dye that sucker yellow after the wedding and wear it all the time. BOOYAH.

Now I know I will end up spending more of course. I want to add a petticoat for some more fullness (much harder to find then I thought it would be), maybe a sash, I need shoes and undergarments and I'm gonna get it altered to fit perfectly. But I would have had to do that with any dress. So I still saved major moolah.

I'm so stoked.

And just to be sure- after that we went by David's bridal to look for a petticoat. (the idea of a short petticoat was so foreign to them, I don't understand). While there I tried on another fancy poofy long dress that was on the $99 rack. It was nice, but it just reassured me that its just not for me. I can't imagine getting down and jiggy in a 20 pound dress with a train. It will get filthy, stepped on ripped, everything. I just wasn't comfortable or happy.

So my dress, the dress, is perfect for me.


Sorry for the super-long pictureless post, but I just had to share.

I am Completely Insanse, part 45239.

OK. So. I am a crazy person. Let's just get that out there. I know, everyone knows it. At least I admit it. I'm nuts.

So- here is an example.

Backstory- My first love. He was.....something. Anyway, we had a nasty horrible breakup and he got married very shortly after said breakup to the girl he knocked up. That was almost 7 years ago. Ya, I'm not so good at letting things go. (I still hate you Alyssa who stole my sparkle pencils in 4th grade).

So. About 4 years ago, my friend saw the ex and his wife and kid in Trader Joe's and told me about it. Since that day I have been terrified of Trader Joe's. Because of course if she saw him that must mean he is there 24/7.

Anyway, the other day I had to go to Trader Joe's and was thinking about that with every corner I turned. But not to worry- I made it out unsighted. On to Costco.
I'm walking through Costco and (just like a movie) his wife walks out of an aisle and walks right past me.
I immediately realize its her. Because she is not insane like me, she does not know who I am.
I turn on a dime and start to follow her.
Ya, you heard me. I followed her all while slightly hyperventilating and shaking.
He is not there. She's with her mom and kids.
I stare at those kids. STARE. They look like him. I look at that oldest kid and think to myself that I was with her dad while she was baking in her mom's oven.
I want to vomit.


ANYWAY, why was I sharing this? I don't know. It really really shook me and ruined the rest of my night. It made me really sad that I don't have a best girlfriend I could have called to talk to about it.

But as I drove home listening to very very loud music (the best therapy) I had a realization.

It's not him that I miss. I let 'him' go years ago. What I miss is the way my life was when I was with him. Now common sense tells me I can't compare life at 15 and in love for the first time to now. But back then was so easy. We were so sickeningly happy. We had  great friends, did fun things all the time. High school and college, first apartments, first jobs and other firsts.

I mourn for that. Before car payments, mortgages, careers and heartbreak. Being naive and starting fresh.

Anyone else get what I'm saying at all? Anyone else still think of their first love, years and years later?

People don't answer texts at 6:30am. That's just preposterous.

Sometimes I think I think too much. Or at least, more than average. Sometimes I'll ask Clint "What are you thinking about?" and he tells me honestly, nothing. Just the one task at hand, be it watching a show or playing a game.

Not me. At any given point in time I have at least 3 different things running through my brain. I wish I could turn it off sometimes.

So. On that note this morning I have had 2 very different yet concurrent things going through my head (and now thumbs since I got responses to my texts).

1. I woke up from a bad dream. I have alot of those by the way. If I sleep in, I will invariably have a bad dream. Anyway, it was about an old friend of mine getting badly hurt and me visiting him in the hospital. It was very sad, I was worried he wasn't going to make it. The thing that makes it odd is that I haven't talked to him in almost a year. We have a complicated history to say the least.

2. The wedding. I started thinking of ideas and now from the very web page from which I blog there are 6 other tabs open with wedding stuff. MOH is coming over in a few hours to brainstorm. Plus she is bringing her pup over for a playdate with Roxie. Fun! I'll try and take pictures. TRY.

Anyway, I am now having a text conversation with said old friend and it is distracting me from writing. So I'm off. Maybe I'll write a whole post about our story. It's a juicy one. But I think too many of my real-life friends read this to do that. Anyone care?

Dinner Fail.

I'm still doing pretty good on the making dinner at home kick. (Here's a shocker, on the week that Clint was supposed to cook every night, we ate out 3 times.)

Anyway, I tried a new recipe that was a major FAIL. It sucks because I wasted so much good food.

It was a chicken and veggie pasta with a garlic sauce. Well the recipe called for shrimp but the boy hates it so I subbed chicken. Maybe that helped the suckyness. Sounds great right? When I first read the recipe it sounded good. Check it-

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/garlicky_shrimp_vegetable_pasta.html

Then I actually started to make it. So the sauce is yogurt, fresh uncooked garlic, lemon juice and a freakin ton of parsley. Right away I knew that the amount of uncooked garlic and parsley was going to be way overpowering.

I kept going though. I made my big pot of pasta, chicken, asparagus, and red bell pepper ( I left out the peas because they are the most vile vegetable on earth. I just THINK about peas and want to yak.).

I mixed in a little sauce and let it heat up for a bit, hoping to cook down the garlic flavor. No go. I finally tasted it and it was GOD AWFUL.
OK, I can fix this. I added some milk to think it out and some parmesan. WORSE.
Added some chicken broth. Ever so slightly better but still not really edible.

At this point, it's about to go in the trash. It was that bad. So I said What the hell and did something weird. I put the whole pot of food in a strainer and rinsed it. Yep, washed the food to get rid of that awful sauce.

It worked! I was back with a pot of just noodles, chicken and veggies. Go me for thinking outside the box. I just tossed in some olive oil and called it a day. A nice plain dinner with no awful sauce. Way to go me for not wasting.

Purses

Ladies- why is it that purses are always endless black pit holes of evil?

I use a pretty small purse.




Blogging at work again, naughty naughty.


In it I keep-

• My wallet
• My braces kit (floss, brush, paste, pick, wax, elastics...etc other obsessive cleaning tools)
• My keys
• Small lotion
• misc little things- hair ties, clips and a pen.

I'm not counting the front pockets because thank the lord those things I can usually manage. But as for the middle- so help me god I can reach into that thing for my keys and not find the for a solid minute.

W. T. F.

Why, ohh why is is that I just can't reach in and pull out what I need. It's a small purse which I keep very clean for christ sake!!

Need a hair tie- find your pen!

Need your keys- find THE DAMN HAIRTIE!

Am I the only one who has this issue? Please tell me there is not a personal vendetta against me ladies. Tell me the purse gods are not spite-ing me for using those tiny backpack purses long after they were out of style.

Ohh ya, that was me.

About to buy a fanny pack,

Shellie

My soapbox

For those of you who don’t know me- I’m an accountant (Well, a bookkeeper really but this is my blog and I can sound fancy if I want to).


I am a budgeting, coupon clipping, deal finding, checkbook balancing obsessive compulsive freak. I will give anyone and everyone my advice on what they should do with money if they talk about it in front of me. Ya, I’m one of those people. I’M SORRY, I can’t help myself.

But I do think the way I have my bills set up is a pretty nifty way to stay on track, so I decided to share my philosophy.

I get paid weekly, so I took all of my monthly bills and by due date and amount, split them out so there was approximately an equal amount to pay each week. I looked those over, round up to the next hundred and came up with a number to use as my Minimum Output Per Week.

I get paid hourly, and my MOPW ends up being approximately equal to 31 hours of work. I work 40 hours a week, give or take.

Each week I pay in bills the same exact amount, my MOPW. Any money that is left after regular bills goes to paying off debt, up to the MOPW. Any money I make over that amount is what is left for “fun money”. Sometimes I work a full week and end up with extra, and sometimes I just barely make the threshold. It doesn’t matter- I always pay out the same.

Also, I based a month on 4 paychecks and just repeat them every 4 weeks. So I end up ahead, and about once a year I get so ahead that I have an entire paycheck free. It’s awesome.

I like this system. It helps add extra money to my regular debt payments, and gives me a nice stable amount I know I need to make. It’s clean and easy and it works for me. Just thought I’d share.

Wedding Update

I think we have decided that OneRepublic’s “Secrets” will be our first dance. Because it is beautiful and we are super nerds who love the movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I may have just listened to it 4 times in a row.


I also found a tutorial for making mega-huge paper flowers that are FO-SHO gonna make an appearance at the wedding. They can be made ahead so there will be not last minute scramble with fresh flowers and will be a hell of a lot cheaper. Plus I can make them the colors I want which are not so easy (and especially not cheap) to find in real flowers.



Look at that thing. In the words of MODG, its Amazeballs.


As soon as my braces come off I’m gonna get serious about finding a dress. My MOH just cleared her next 6 weekends so we can do some hard core wedding planning.  So get ready kids, it's on like Donkey Kong.

Shellie's Money Saving Tip of the Day

Put a band-aid on your face.

I went to the dermatologist today about my lovely 'adult acne'. After discussing my options and writing a prescription, she asked if there was anything else I wanted her to look at. I have always had a little mole on my chin, so I said "what about this?"
She said my insurance would pay for it to be removed if it ever bothered me. I said "Why yes, it does bother me."
 BAM. Five seconds later shes stabbing and cutting and stitching. My hairy mole was gone, just like that.

***Update: Upon removal of said band aid, it turns out the evil woman used BLACK THREAD for the sutures on my FACE. So now I look like I have a spider crawling on my chin. Seriously, do white/clear sutures not exist in this day and age? W.T.F.
 Do you people remember the wedding I have to go to on Saturday?!?***

What does this have to do with saving money? Well I had a craving to go shopping after my appointment. I wanted to go to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and just look at every little thing and find some fabulous stuff for my house. BUT, when the good Doctor slapped a band-aid square on my jaw, it kinda killed my hang-out-in-public places mood.

So there you have it. Next time you have a craving for shopping, just have facial surgery.

You're welcome.

My only skill as a photographer.

I am a terrible photographer, except at the beach. Is that funny? I just can't take a good picture to save my life, but put my toes in the sand and they all come out like art. Although, its kinda hard to take a bad picture of the beach. Whatever. Let me have my glory.




View from our room on my 23rd birthday




Carmel




Monterrey




Pacifica, the pier where my dad's ashes were scattered




If I need to tell you where this is, you have problems.
Or aren't from California.
It's the Golden Gate Bridge.




Dillon's Beach

 Man. Now I want a vacation. Like bad. 

Guest room update

I added this little beauty to the Guest Room

To see the rest of the room : Guest Room

OMG

I got 2 new followers this week.

That makes 4, bitches. Half of them are people I don't even know in real life.

Watch out, I don't wanna knock you down on my way to the top. ;-)

COLD

It is outstandingly cold at my work today. The way we work, there is a door that is wide open between the office area and the open-to-the-outside shop area. I have a space heater in my office, but it’s always cold.


Well today, I had had ENOUGH. If I had balls, they would be frozen. I am sitting at my desk in fuzzy boots with 2 sweaters and a scarf on. So I finally did the unthinkable- I shut the office door. The door never gets closed during the day because people are constantly in and out to give or tell me things. I feel it may become addicting. Suddenly it’s quiet. All I can hear is my music and typing, not the blaring of air hoses and boys talking about how many ducks they shot last weekend. I can get the room to be as hot as the Sahara in 15 minutes flat. Which I love.

Although, it also means my computer screen is no longer facing a wide open door which promotes procrastination and blogging. Ha.

My nightstand re-do

I needed a new nightstand. I like them to be tall and have alot of surface area on the top.

Well while perusing Craigslist I came across this beauty:

Tall, wide and had soarage to boot! I new there was a gem hidden in there somewhere.

(Wanna know a secret? The whole time I was doing this all I wanted was to get featured on Better After. Is that hilarious? I'm obsessed with that blog.

Anyway, I spent a week

Sanding that bad boy down, then filling in the giant cut out where those inset pulls were
Filling dings and holes with wood putty
Sanding again
Priming
Sanding again
Painting 3 layers of black
then Painting 3 layers of Polyurathane
Measuring and drilling new holes for the pulls I ordered
Lining the drawers with cute fabric.


Whew! But I am madly in love with it now. Plus Clint is jealous and want's one which is always a bonus.

Crappy phone picture

 I should have taken a after picture before putting it in the dark bedroom, but I was too excited to to wait.

Yikes, I am an awful photographer. But you get the drift, right? It's black and sleek and modern and I.am.in.love.


Let's try this one more time:



AFTER!





BEFORE



Love.

A year in my life

(To give credit where credit is due, I am totally copying Erika from Newlyweds on a Budget on this year roundup post) (PS- She is a stranger and has commented my blog more than once, so I am officially calling her my first blog made friend. She doesn't know this, but that's OK. I like to pretend)


It was definitely the biggest impact year of my life, by far. August 2009-August 2010

August 29th, 2009- I got braces. At the ripe old age of 23 and every penny paid for by yours truly, I made the decision to fix my snaggletooth mouth once and for all.

Before and after 6 months.

I do wish I had taken better pictures before they went on, and just after. But it was so god awful that I told myself I didn't want to remember. Hindsight 1, common  sense 0.
This also happened to be the DAY AFTER my first day back on a college campus (my first year was all online). Talk about social awkwardness. Fat girl with adult acne and adult braces who hasn't been in a school in 6 years. Fun!

February 3, 2010- After 4-1/2 years together, Clint proposed. It was wonderful and cute and ABOUT DAMN TIME. We set the date for 9-10-11 (just after my 2 year braces sentence was up, and 1 day after our 6 year anniversary.

The only pic from our "engagement party"
 and me 25 pounds heavier, yuck.



May 20, 2010- I graduated from college. Granted, it was only community college and an associates degree but it is still more than anyone in my family has done before. And for someone who didn't have a real high school graduation (I graduated 2 years early and didn't do the ceremony. Ya, I kinda used to be a genius) it was a big deal.



Ya, I'm awesome.





From the awards ceremony the night before graduation.





Love this picture.



That tall guy behind me was hilarious.
Made the boring ceremony liveable.





Me and my momma.



FUNNY STORY: My mom has had some balance problems and had been falling down a bit. So before and after the ceremony, me and the Mr were watching her and helping her to make sure she didn't fall. As we were leaving the stadium, I walk down a step, tumble down 4 stairs and FALL FLAT ON MY FACE. In the cap and gown and all! It was HILARIOUS.

July 15, 2010- After hearing how ridiculously low mortgage rates were, I said 'what the hell' and we met with a mortgage broker for the first time ever. She gave us the most amazing news- we could totally afford and qualify to buy a house.

July 19, 2010 (yep that's 4 days later, and includes a weekend!)- We are in contract for our first house, the first house we actually toured with a realtor. ( I have been breaking into vacant houses for years to have a look around. I use 'breaking' loosely. I would NEVER cause damage to a home. But if you leave a back door unlocked or have a handle that can be opened with a Costco Card? I'm all over it.)



That was the first day we saw our house!



Damn, I'm gonna go over a year. Ohh well.

September 4, 2010- After a week solid of scrubbing, cleaning repairing and packing, we move into our first home. I still can't believe it. I am a homeowner. It's unreal.

October 4, 2010- I start my new job, which I love and am so happy at.

That was one jam-packed (just over a) year. Especially since before that I had been at the same job and just dating the same guy for over 4 years. It was a huge jump-start to a stagnant life.

Since then we have been just enjoying making the house our own, spying on our neighbors, happily working, and adopted our puppy Roxie on the last day of 2010.

Now, its getting to the end of February 2011. My braces will be off soon and we are getting married in just over six months.

Let's see what else is to come!