Summer time spruce up

     Last weekend I decided that for the sake of my sanity that I needed to put work away and spend some time doing something that I wanted to do. So I looked around and realized, it's summer time and my house could use some sprucing up. So my hubs and I finally got around to painting a chest of drawers that we had sitting in our dining room for about a year now. It's a chest of drawers from my son's first real bedroom set, solid pine and completely sturdy. I'd known I'd wanted to save it to do something with it for a long time but had never gotten around to actually doing something. 

     So off to Lowe's we went. I chose two shades of gray to compliment each other. I also bought a stencil from Hobby Lobby and some silver paint there as well. I wish I had taken a "before" photo, but here is my after photo:

And here's the top where I did stenciling. It didn't come out perfect so I may end up painting over it and re-doing the stencil but I do love the overall general work. 

After up-doing the chest of drawers I decided I needed to bring some summer colors into my home. I love having live plants in my home and flowers. Lately I've found myself drawn to succulents so I picked up several from Wal-Mart. I had been saving jars from various food containers (mostly pickle jars because my daughter is obsessive about her love for pickles) and thought planting these succulents in some of the jars and using them as a center piece on my table might look cute. And, I think I was right...look how this came out:

I also came across a couple of wall hangings that I just had to get while I was at Hobby Lobby:

And finally, I added a little more color with some new throw pillows:

I love the yellow and teal colors together. I actually saw several other pillow cases that I really wanted as well so I think another trip to Hobby Lobby will probably be in near future. 

In any case, taking a break from work-putting the laptop in a drawer and turning the work cell off was so nice and necessary!

Highs and Lows

     So I lied, totally said I was gonna kick my butt into shape and hold myself accountable for "tattletale Tuesdays" and Yep, I didn't do it even once. I could go into how busy life has been and how honestly I just completely forgot about my blog in the mist of all the chaos that has been life lately...but I wont. Okay I lied again, I totally just told ya'll the very thing I said I wouldn't.
     So shit has been crazy lately ya'll. And really, it's probably not all that exciting to anyone as a reader but here's a simple run down.

• Week 13 of training for the new job is finally done and I passed. Actually, I ended my classes with a 98.6 something %. Pretty bad ass if I do say so myself. But I don't think anyone in my training class actually ever cared about the final grades as long as you passed.
• I'm officially case assignable for work! Woo-hoo! 
• The chaos of being back and forth between home and Lubbock Texas has been rough. My  poor kids are so tired of not having a routine...so routine, here we come!
• Along the lines of all the travel, living away from home back and forth did a number on my waist line and on the numbers on those scales.
• The above mentioned numbers along with the demands of my job and the harsh realities of what the kids on my case load have experienced has kind of slowly pushed me into a not-so-happy place.
• Said not-so-happy place, really seems to feel a lot like a bout of depression.
• Said possible bought of depression is scaring me to death and giving me anxiety
• I'm a total cluster fuck right now, seriously.

In the mean time...

• My best friend has basically gone M.I.A (on the tails of me being pretty hurt by things she said which I know she doesn't even realize she said...not sure if that makes it worse or better). 
• My hubby is constantly stressed, totally hates his job because he basically babysits grown adults who can't seem to display any logic or common sense.
• He wants out of this base desperately.
• I want out of this house desperately.
• The husband has a PT (physical fitness test) tomorrow and he isn't feeling confident. I'm starting to spazz.
• The husband managed to nail a hole into a pipe into our wall...the pipe happens to run all the water and "waste" through this pipe. Said pipe subsequently leaked under our floor boards and now floor boards need to be pulled up and Yay base housing is trying to charge us...whew.

Does it make any sense to buy a house in a place we both are certain we don't want to be?...Probably not. 

Let's get back to some high's, I don't want to end this on a bad note...

• I don't know if other moms have these moments, I'm sure they do or I'm just a big cry baby but when I drop my son off at school and I watch him walk away I get kind of emotional. He's so big, he's walking away...one day he will walk away from our home, and my arms. Sigh. Anyhow, one evening while I was talking to him before bed he started to tear up (yes, my son wears his heart on his sleeve-i love this and am exhausted by this) and explained to me that when I drop him off at school he walks away and when he looks back and see's me it makes him sad because he already misses me.  Is that not the most beautiful thing an eight year old son could say to his mom?  
• The husband thought above story was "silly". This didn't sit well with me. 
• Both my kiddos started gymnastics today. They both did so well and Emme was pretty much ADORABLE in her little gymnastics outfit. Little does she know that those uber cute pudgy thighs and round tummy probably won't be so cute in 15 years. She better embrace them now. 

So that's my life right now. Just trying to hang on to something...I hope you all have found something to hold on to as well. Or maybe that you don't need that something because you're totally rocking it.

Either way,