Making the House a Home

I have slowly been painting and installing things into the new house. Here are some pictures of some things I have been up to.


Before


After-As you can see I painted one wall a light teal color to match the wall picture


Before- A broom closet


After-A large pantry


Before Dining room wall


After-Legacy purple with white tree vinyl decal


Before-garage entry



After

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day. I have many mixed feelings about today. I am glad we have people willing to give their lives to the service of our country. I just don't feel our country gives them enough back. I now know of at least 4 young men around my age who have been affected by PTSD from this ongoing war in the middle east. One is afraid of loud noises like fireworks. Another has dreams. He wakes up and realizes he has been messing with his gun in his sleep. He drinks and does drugs to try to cover these things in his mind. He can't get proper help or counseling from the VA.I worry he will do something he doesn't really mean to. Another I know also uses alcohol to cover his PTSD. He has bad dreams. The latest young man I learned about having PTSD died yesterday after battling with life for 4-5 months after trying to commit suicide by shooting himself. He was married with a wife and little girl.

I hate that our VA services don't seem to be able to handle this returning problem with PTSD or they make it very very difficult for the soldiers to get help.

As I said before I am grateful for these people and their families who sacrifice. Thank you for your sacrifices; body, mind, and soul. I think about you more than this one day a year.

Moving Day!

I moved out of my apartment today into the new house. Juston Rouse helped move with his trailer. I also had Travis, Kelsi, Aunt Candi, Mom, Josh, Brenna, Dad, and a few of his friends help too. I wasn't really allowed to lift anything too heavy due to the recent surgery so I did a lot of directing. Most things ended up in the second bedroom since I had cleaned the garage floor, but was not able to paint it before the move. Nobody could walk on it or it could get dirt on it and the epoxy would not stick well later. It took me 4 hours to clean the floor well and I didn't want that work to go to waste. As you can see this made the second bedroom the drop zone for everything. Too bad it was on the 3rd floor.



Here are some more pics of the house.



The patio

The view of the river and downtown


Garage in alley


My solar lights


The dining room and kitchen


From kitchen towards den area


Dining room towards living room


From dining room towards stairs


Powder room


Looking down to living room




Living room



Entryway



Master Bedroom



Second Bedroom


Bathroom

Ear Surgery....Again

Since I am in the running to get a new job at Holy Family I am trying to get all my health things done before my insurance is gone and since I have met my deductible. So today I had surgery again on my left ear. Dr. Giddings did tympanoplasty with ossicular reconstruction, which means he replaced the current prosthesis in my ear bones with another and took some cartilage from my ear to thicken my ear drum. My hearing had been decreasing again since I had the prosthesis done in high school.






I did pretty good after surgery. I did have some pain which I didn't remember from the first time and I also had some stitches in my ear where he took the skin for the eardrum. I pretty much slept with my pain meds while mom packed the rest of the apartment up since I would be moving in about 2 days.

Got my keys!

I got the keys and garage openers to my house! I can offically start moving stuff in. Mom and I made a couple trips to bring clothes and things over that we knew we could put away. I of course have to work so we only did a few runs.

I Bought a House

So I offically have bought a house. Signed my papers today. It was actually a short process. I was disappointed though because I didn't get my keys. I always thought that you go your keys when you signed your papers.



I really need the keys because I am going to epoxy coat my garage floor and this process takes a few days to a week for the floor to be ready to walk on. I am having surgery on my ear again on Sept 29th so I won't be able to do things after that for a little while. Moving day is Oct 2nd. I wanted to get the floor done since most things will be needing to go in the garage. Maybe I can get the keys earlier through Josh.

American Flag Cake Surprise

Josh sent me a link to a page for making this flag cake. I wasn't going to make it till next year since I didn't really have a reason, but couldn't help myself and decided to take a stab at it and bring it to the lake for the family to see.

It was fun, but definitely difficult to cut the cakes and layer them neatly. I put them in the fridge like the instructions said to make them easier to cut, but I don't think it really helped. I am going to have to freeze them next time like they do in the cake baking shows.



Boy what a mess this was.

All in all though it did turn out even if it was somewhat of a nightmare to assemble and frost with all the crumbs due to its coming apart. Everyone was delighted and surprised with it. They all had thought that it was just a white frosted cake.

A Missing Piece of My Heart

Abby
May 1996- June 9, 2011

I lost a piece of my heart. I had to let her go and put her to sleep today. I was stuck in Hawaii unable to be there with her. After 15 years I feel like I should have been there at the end. Abby was like a child to me and I know I was her person. I will never forget the way the sun would shine on you and your hair would light up like an angelic glow. I loved watching you in your beanie bag either bouncing and pouncing around or sleeping like a baby. You were my baby. I will miss your sense of adventure always getting yourself into a hole or even into trouble getting out of the yard or going on "extended" walks at the lake. Taking naps on the couch with me when I would come home from work. Your little toes hairs. Your fluff butt. The light in your beautiful brown eyes. My companion. Sitting up on your butt begging like you taught yourself to do. Howling and talking back to me. I miss you and it hurts. I don't want to forget all your little quirks. You will always be in my heart.