The Bookcase Jenna Built ;)

I've never put a piece of furniture together myself before, I always leave that to Joey. But, he wasn't here to put together the book case that I finally bought, so I decided to give it a try. I've had boxes and boxes of books stacked in my closet, but no where to put them, and I wanted them put on the new book case NOW.

This guy decided to help. You know, by holding down the box.

I was a little over whelmed at this point. But I do have to say, I will not hesitate to buy another bookcase like this from Target, the pieces were put in the box in the order that you needed them, and all the hardware was numbered by steps (step 1, step 2, ect.)

But I got it done, all by myself! It did take me quite a while to do it, but I think that's just because I've never put anything together before. It was pretty easy I think, I just had three kids, a cat, and two dogs helping. 

Shortly after I got it put together, we lost power for the first time that weekend, and it was out for about 18 hours, because one of our trees in the back yard fell on the power line. We had power back for about, oh, five hours, when it started surging, breakers in the house started throwing, and then the best fun of the weekend: the Directv box in Blythe Anne's room started SMOKING. I don't know why THAT breaker didn't throw, but we were freaking out. I think I handled it pretty well, I ushered all the kids into the living room, next to the front door, and then threw the main breaker to the house.

Nothing in the world smells worse than burning electronics.

I called 911, because, OMG, something in my house was smoking!!

Guy at 911 thought I was an idiot. "Uh. Take the box outside?"  I had the box situation under control, I wanted someone to come check out the rest of the house!! What if there was a fire in the walls or something??

After all that excitement, I turned the main breaker back on, and a few minutes later, we lost power. Again. At 5:30 Friday evening, my estimated time of getting power back was 7:00 PM. SATURDAY NIGHT. 

But they power company had it back on by 10:00 AM, this time it was transformer that blew. I wish you could have seen my kids when I told my Dad that the power company left a transformer in our back yard.

They thought this guy was back there:

If the power company left me a Camaro, I would not be complaining.

So after all that FUN and EXCITEMENT, I finally got all of my books out and put them on the shelf. And come to find out, half of those boxes of books -- are the kids. And I need another bookcase.

"Love is patient,

Love is kind,

It always protects,

always trusts,

always hopes...

Love never fails.

~Corinthians 13:4-8"

I guess I kinda have a Bible collection ;)

Summer Storm

We had an AWFUL storm last night, I do believe it was the worse storm I've ever been through. The kids and I ended up sitting in the hall with Marley Cat and Lucky for about an hour. There were noises I've never heard before, and honestly, I was scared. We lost power around 9 last night, so it was also a very long night, with all of us piled up in the living room.

I think I got about 4 hours of sleep total, and got up as soon as my eyes opened, to go evaluate the situation. And I quickly realized why we don't have any electricity, a tree from our back yard fell across the power line and was blocking the road too. The power company finally got the power lines fixed, so we're all soaking up the AC right now.

But, other than the downed trees and limbs, we have no other damage, thank the Lord!

Is it time for school yet?!

Ya'll. I love my kids, I really do, but three kids, ages 4,7, and 8, it's an experience that nothing compares to!! They're wearing this momma out this summer, is all I have to say! But we only have a few more weeks before school starts back, so we're trying to enjoy the last of our summer. Thinking about maybe a quick, short beach trip before they head back to the school house. My babies have never seen a 'real' beach, so it would be a new experience for them. We take them to a lake nearby that has a "beach" area, you know, with sand and brown water ;)

And with school about to start... that means all their kids' activities are about to start back up, along with a few new ones (both boys are starting karate soon, and are super excited!) And you know what that means... it's time to start getting ultra-organized to keep this house running smoothly! I've been doing lots of cleaning and purging, one of my favorite things. I know some people hate to throw things away/give them away, because of that whole "I may need this some day..." concept, but not I! I don't keep little things just because "I may need it in 10 years." If I end up needing something, I'll just go get another one.

One thing we really need to get organized are all the kids electronic toys. Nintendo DS, iPods, and then mine and Joey's phones and iPads. We really need a charging station in this house, I just have to decide where and how to make it. I do believe I hear Pinterest calling my name for this!! 

Getting the wall done

Well, hello everyone! It's been a few weeks, and I apologize! We had an unexpected, life shattering, family emergency, and we're just now all getting back on our feet. Right before that though, Joey got some of the frames on the wall, and I have to say, it went NOTHING like I planned it to.

(I hate when that happens!!)

I'm not even sure if I like the arrangement, and I'm sure that it'll help once I get our pictures in the frames, right now I only have my pictures in two of the frames. I pretty much let Joey decide the arrangement of the frames, since he was the one actually putting them up, and my plan wasn't working. 

We were supposed to have new family pictures done a few weeks ago, but we had something come up so it didn't happen, and that's what I wanted to put on the gallery wall. I guess I'll just have to print some of our old family pictures, from like, two years ago ;)

But this is what we have so far!

And I thought it would be fun to show a picture of the dinning room from right before we bought it, so we have something to compare to. I didn't change any of the major stuff. We still have the original hard wood floors, and the paint colors that the previous owners had picked out -- I love!! So I haven't painted anything anywhere here (except for the one room she didn't do either. The Peach room.... ewwww) The chandelier is also original to the house (I LOOOOVE that), so no change there. It could probably could be stood to be dusted, but hey, you can't see it in the pictures, it doesn't count, right?? ;)

So what have I done?

She didn't have any curtains up in the dinning room, and Joey couldn't stand it, it was driving him crazy, said it was turning the room into a green house, with all those windows. The curtains are from JCPennys, and let me tell you they were not nice on the budget. But to get curtains in a long enough length for these ginormous windows, it cost. I'm happy with the ones I picked out, I'll get better pictures of them for a post tomorrow.

We got a new table for the room also. Which that was a very fun trip, going to buy the new table. It HAD to be done THAT day, because Joey had broke another chair just that morning -- it was just time for it. I could tell the long story of the shopping trip, but I wont. I got it from Pier 1, along with the two chairs and the two benches.  And it works wonderfully for our family, just as I hoped it would.

And now there's the gallery wall. I also have an antique wash stand in the room too.

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And about our newest family member: we finally named him!! Please meet...

Captain Gusamus!

aka

Gus!

I do believe he's going to be the worlds most spoiled dog ever. He's getting along with the other two dogs, and Marley Cat actually likes him, which is a huge shock!

Introducing....

Our newest family member!

We haven't named him yet, we're at odds on that matter.

Blythe and Jonah want to name him Blaze. I don't love it.

Peyton on the other hand, has a list:

*Spiderman

*Batman

*LegoMan

Um. Yeh. I don't think any of those are going to make the final cut ;)

Frames on the floor

This is what we're living with while I attempt to figure this gallery wall business. I'll probably move it around about 10 more times today. I'm liking this though.

And this is where it will go, on the wall behind the cutie-pa-tootie. This wall has been nekked for way too long, I've been saving it for my gallery wall, but I was skerd!

(How many made up words can I put in two sentences? ;)

While floating around the inter-webz looking at gallery walls, I found this post on (in)courage by the nester. The Nester's gallery wall is another one that we all know and love:

Source: thenester.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Lovely, yes?

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Shelly over at The House of Smith's mentioned the online photo editor iPiccy the other day, and I have to say, I'm in looooove! It's so easy to use, and we can all stop morning the loss of picnik. So go check it out!

Gallery wall lovin'

Gallery walls. They're every where. Every one is doing it. I want to do it, but...

Ya'll, it's hard!!

I went and bought a bunch of frames from Target to go with the ones that I already have, and then came home and stuck them in a closet.

("I'll get to it after *fill in excuse*")

I had stuck a bunch of things in that closet that needed to be hung on the walls, but I'm so scared of putting ittle bitty holes in the walls, it's ridiculous. So one day I gathered up all my courage, and hung a bunch of stuff, finally, after living here for 6 months.

But all the frames for my gallery wall??

Well, at least I got them out of the closet, right? They all sat leaning against the wall in the hall to my bedroom for a month. Joey has gotten tired of looking at them leaning, and suggested we get them put up. (I so should have just left them in the closet ;)

I've seen plenty of beautiful gallery walls.

Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Jenna on Pinterest

We've all seen The House of Smith's gallery wall. Love it! I especially love how there are other things besides photographs in it, like the subway art and the "Party of 5." So I definitely know that I want something like this. Shelly even wrote a how-to over at Home Stories A2Z that anyone wanting a gallery wall should check out.

One thing she suggest is getting lots of inspiration, which trust me I have, like I said, gallery walls are every where! And of course, again, Pinterest is your best friend!

Source: younghouselove.com via Jenna on Pinterest

One thing I love about this one is how their thermostat on this wall and you hardly even notice! Awesome!

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I love the different frames in this.

Source: google.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Fab.u.lous.

Source: tiffanykelley.com via Jenna on Pinterest

I could do this all day ;)

I even found this:

Source: interiorspl.com via Jenna on Pinterest

The website isn't in English, but some things don't need words.

So where am I right now, in my gallery wall adventure?? A bunch of frames spread all over the living room floor that I rearrange every time I walk through.

I think Joey is rethinking his "lets hang the frames" idea.