Home sweet ALMOST home :)

Well, it has been slightly over a month now since I moved into my own place. The month started out extremely challenging. The main reason being the children. Not only is it a new space, but it is the first time all 3 of us have had to sleep in the same room! I started out thinking that Benji would sleep in a converted crib and Aidan in bed with me, but after the first night it was blatantly obvious that that was NOT an option! I didn't get much sleep the first week, and finally was able to get each kid a bed. Aidan has a fabulous princess canopy bed & Benji ended up with a Firetruck bed. Both of them are awesome and the kids will sleep in them, although every now and again I have little monkies slipping into bed with me.

Also, I am one of those people who live to make a house a home, even one that I don't intend to live in forever. So I am sharing some "before" photos to give you an idea of the layout of my new place. Here is the living room.... and yes, it really started out like this!!!! haha

And then there is my little kitchen. Not much counter space, sadly. HOWEVER, there is a nook for a breakfast table which I love and which I felt the need to paint as an accent wall!

These pictures are very very very "before".... It is making me think I need quickly share the "after"s!

Here is the bedroom before.... everything in the place was offwhite (I HATE off white paint)

And with some green paint, patience, and some awesome help, this is the new color of the bedroom!

It is a little more green than I had anticipated but it is great to have color in any capacity. Livens up the place! Oh and that rug is not there anymore.

And then my awesome original tiled bathroom... PINK original tile, oy vey! I didn't know what to do with it until we went to Home Goods and I saw the cutest shower curtain (to be revealed in my next post) and that darn shower curtain inspired the CUTEST bathroom! And despite the old tile, it has new floors, new paint, and tons of useful storage... so i am not complaining!

Lastly, one of the main reasons I love my little apartment is the fact that I have in unit laundry. FULL SIZE in unit laundry! And for someone who is obsessed with laundry like myself, this is heavenly. I am lucky to have an eternal handy-man in Brian, who helped me paint, install laundry machines, switch out door knobs, hang pictures, hang curtains, install cable... you name it he did it. And I am sure he will be thrilled with me posting this picture in here! haha

Here he is installing my washer & dryer. AWSESOME!

Throughout the month I have tried my best to make it feel like "home" and it does... sort of. Until things like what happened last night go on. I picked the kids up from school, stopped to grab some food for dinner, and as I am coming towards my block, I see police caution tape blocking my street. And I look on and just MY block is roped off, with about 4 or 5 police cars blocking the way. Awesome. Talk about making me feel safe. Thankfully I was able to park on a side street and walk to my house (with kids in tow, mind you) but it is times like these that I question my success as a parent. I feel like I should be providing a safe environment and caution tape is not on my list of "good" things for kids to see :(.

Thankfully this morning everything was cleared away and I still do not know what exactly happened. I can only think of two options: murder or a car accident. Both are not good.

Aside from all of this, it is such a blessing to have my aunt and her husband next door to us. The kids adore Lily, their mini-doxie, and I love having someone to chat with, or someone for the kids to go hang out with while I make dinner. These two also happen to be their godparents so it is a nice way for them to be close as well. We hadn't seen them in awhile prior to moving in so it truly is a blessing being so close. Plus my aunt is loving getting all of my hand me downs! She had WLS last year and is doing great, but she is flying through clothes just like I was! So nearly every day I find SOMETHING to give to her and say "enjoy!". It's the least I can do, with all the help they give me :)

Oh and I am not sure if I mentioned it, but my surgeon asked me to star in his promotional online video. It was fun! And they finally have it up and running: http://beta.locateadoc.com/profile/welcome/314052. I have yet to listen to it with sound but when I watch it without, all I notice is how I make funny faces when I talk and OMG I blink like I have something in my eyes!!! haha. Must've been the bright lights and talking into a camera... whole new respect for reality TV people when they give their little one on one camera interviews!

Still holding on to my 110lb weight loss. Gotta kick things into gear because I have a tropical vacation coming up in a few months and you better believe I WILL be in a bikini, saggy skin and all!