Can You Believe It?!?!?!?

I WON!!!!!!!!

Today Boo & I stopped in at Kroger's to pick up a few groceries for our special dinner tonight. We saw they had a little tent set up right inside. They had Titan paraphernalia all over. We looked around but there was a big crowd so we went shopping. Later we heard over the loudspeaker that they were giving away Titan's tickets. They announced the first giveaway and then the 2nd. I started thinking I would kick myself later if I didn't' at least check it out. First I went up to see if it cost anything to enter. I finally made my way through the crowd and found out no purchase was necessary. Yay! Then the guy saw me & gave me a ticket. I made my way back to Boo & less than a minute later they were reading off the winning numbers. I couldn't believe it! They were calling out MY numbers!!!!!!! I thought I was misreading it at first and the lady started reading the numbers again. By then people were looking all around for someone to claim the tickets. I squealed, " I think that's ME!!!!" and went running up through the crowd with Boo right behind me. They gave me the envelope with the tickets, had me open it up & took our picture. We were ecstatic!!!! I could hardly wait to get home & tell Dave! We quickly finished our shopping bubbling over with excitement. I drove the 5 minutes home with the tickets clutched in my hand. We burst out of the van once we reached our driveway & I told Dave. He couldn't believe it! I told him they were his. An early anniversary gift.

I can see God's hand all over this. I know God timed this entire blessing from start to finish. I am deeply thankful that He gave me these tickets so I in turn could give them to my sweet husband. Dave even asked me to go with him. It will be so neat to see an NFL game in the stadium. We can hardly wait!

And THANK YOU, Kroger for this giveaway!

Family Room

Today was the toughest day yet. Not only were we tackling one of the hardest rooms but we were low on energy. I'm proud to say we set a goal & pushed through. The girls & Elvis even made some headway on the boys' room. Here's some more pictures!

The boys' room before.

I'll post after pics when it's done.

Hopefully this weekend!

The Family Room

(See my previous post for 'Before' pics)

Dusted, vacuumed under & behind, purged & organized.

These shelves are cleaned & organized from top to bottom. Even the tippy top has been sorted through & dusted. To top it off I shelved all the books by subject or theme.

Progress in the boys' room.

Nice & neat!

The stuff on the table is going back to their homes in the office. =)

Such a great feeling!

(The tub is stuff that is going.)

I'm proud of my Clean Team!

Day #4 ~ Clean Team Hits the Family Room

Today was Day #4. I overslept. I am feeling the wear & tear of this week on my body. The kids were tired today too but we plugged on.

First we moved all of the sectional couch. The kids picked up all the junk that had accumulated both under & in the couch while I vacuumed. We then shoved it all back in place & worked on cleaning up the rest of the floor.

Chaos!

I worked on the bookshelves over by the television, put all the videos away & then came over to work on these shelves. We now have a tub of books for the yard sale. I think this is pretty good considering I purged before we moved.

Elvis helped to sort the books into 3 categories - science, history & fun reading.


Bugs helped pick up trash & a few toys. Then it was time for a movie break.

Boo worked with Elvis sorting. She then shelved the books acccording to those categories.

Tonight we worked on sorting out the various bins & tubs. They have all sorts of stuff in them that doesn't belong so this took some time. About 3 hours to be exact. We even dragged out the big tubs from the boys closet. Several months ago I worked really hard sorting everything, cleaning out & labeling in their room. It is helping during this clean up. I also vacuumed under all the white shelves and found a lot under there, washed up toys, and tossed lots of garbage. Dave helped sort some stuff too.

I finished sorting out the books, organizing them & stacked them on the freshly cleaned shelves. You can also see some of the newly sorted toys snug in their bins.

The shelves, desk & T.V. have all been cleaned & dusted. I even have an empty shelf! Well, for now anyway. Lol!

Now all the videos fit in here with room to spare!

Sweet Pea worked hard too. She took all the pictures today which is why you don't see her in them. =0)

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We hope to finish this room tomorrow. I still need to organize the books on the other shelves, clean off the tops of the shelves and go through the toys. We may try to squeeze in the dreaded boy's room. It's a jungle in there!

Kinda Dragging On Day #3

Day #3 got off to a slow start. We were all tired & it was hard to get motivated. But eventually we got started. The first task was to finish the kitchen & laundry room/pantry. Some scrubbing still needed to be done as well as finishing under the sink, a couple of drawers & the dish cabinets. Sweet Pea also worked on the downstairs bathroom giving it a good scrub & tidying the drawers, under the sink & the little closet.

Bailey keeps his eye on Sweet Pea making certain she didn't miss any spots. Lol!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Before a jumbled mess. Now nice & orderly.

BEFORE

AFTER

Dave agreed to block off this cabinet from the sink. Right now it is wide open & I dislike that. I am looking forward to it getting it's own defined space.

FOOD PANTRY BEFORE

AFTER

I had it organized before as to what shelf held what items but of course with everyone in it every day it needed to be washed down & straightened up. I like having a shelf for my large, dry & canned baking ingredients, one for my bulk items, another for breakfast foods, one for chips & bread & another for smaller baking ingredients & baking decor.

These drawers are now clean, neat & tidy too!

Fresh produce

The peppers, watermelon & cantaloupe are all from the Farmer's Market. The zucchinis are from our own garden.

I cut up 5 of the peppers for freezing.

The last one I cut up and put out on the table for snacking.

Sweet Pea helped me peel & shred the 6 zucchinis. We measured it out and froze the shredded zucchini in freezer bags. I think Sweet Pea kept some out to bake with this week too.

Dave cut up the cantaloupe & watermelon for dessert tonight. He also added blueberries we bought at the F.M. on Tuesday. Oh, so yummy!

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Tomorrow the goals are Princess's room & the Family Room. The latter may take more than a day. Yep. It's that bad. Come back tomorrow for more pics! =)

The Clean team ~ Day #2

It was Day #2 & we dug in to overhaul the kitchen today. Since I rose at the crack of dawn to go with Dave to the Farmer's Market today I was ready to work much earlier than usual. The teen was in a dragon of a mood but we soon pulled her out of it with our dancing & a quick warning. =0) I hit the wall about 3 p.m. & had to lie down for an hour. I got back to work after that & dragged my way into the evening. I finally had to quit around 8p.m. b/c I simply couldn't stand up anymore. It kills me to leave a job unfinished & it wasn't easy to walk away but Dave insisted. The girls worked hard almost all day. I am very proud of them. Elvis worked the first hour or so and tried to join in later but most of it was stuff he couldn't do. He did help entertain Princess & did his regular chores. Bugs helped a little in the beginning but soon ran off to play. He managed to stay out of trouble today which was a huge help in itself. Lol!

I have some 'Before' shots I took Monday night. I had posted them asking for help from a frugal mamas group I belong to. Jenn, had some great suggestions & I printed them out to use them today as we worked. Thank you, Jenn! I have 'After' shots too. Some I still need to take but this is a good start.

We began with the storage containers. They had all been shoved in the cabinet.

Elvis, Boo & Bugs helped me sort, match & wash them.


We turned up the tunes & danced and sang with our buddy Trace.

Bugs played in the living room after he tired of the sorting.

Sweet Pea vacuuming out the cabinets.

Sorting, matching, sorting, matching......

There were lots of dishes to scrub especially when it came to the pots & pans.

The boys munched on some Quaker Snacks for a mid-morning snack.

Princess danced with us, played in her playpen & then passed out in the middle of snack time. So cute!

Next it was time to vacuum the tops of the cabinets. I don't think anyone has done that since they built this house! I was sneezing like crazy!

Jenn, that's your email of ideas on my frig!

Boo was my sidekick holding the vacuum up so I could reach with the hose.

All the drawers were emptied, cleaned, sorted & organized.

While I was up on the counter I cleaned out those cabinets over the fridge too. Later I did the top of the fridge & the top of the white pantry too. Here's a 'Before' picture of the top of the cabinets.

My "pretties" are now displayed above the sink.

And these are all nice & neat. I even found a spot for the tomatoes Dave canned this weekend!

Now for the upper cabinets!

Yes, this is a 'Before' picture! Lol!

And 'After'.

My spices & herbs are all in those containers. Easy access! One container holds the baking ones & the other hold the cooking ones.

Sweet Pea organized this shelf.

(She took this pic before we found a new home for the spices & herbs.)

A close up of the left side.

The cabinets by the fridge. Yikes!

Sweet Pea did these too. Nice!

We later moved the crackers to where the spices used to be freeing up some space.

This is the little, narrow cabinet beside the stove. It used to be filled with a jumbled mess of pan lids & odds and ends.

Here are the cabinets underneath. They sit between the stove & the frig. What a mess! I hated it b/c every time I opened the door something would jump out & attack me.

Now look at it! What a difference!

I put the appliances we use only occasionally in the way back. This uses the space efficiently & also frees up some room on our laundry room/pantry shelves.

Now for those storage containers we spent all that time sorting, matching & washing.

Now all nice & neat! I was even able to fit in my casserole dishes!

Another 'Before' picture.

Dave worked in the laundry room/pantry tonight. Boo went in there first to organize the food shelves. A big job! Then Dave went in and organized some of the other shelves & the cabinets after I sorted things out into containers. I'm thrilled this job was tackled too! I'll get an 'After' picture tomorrow.

The kitchen is almost done. We did the white pantry but I still need to get 'After' pictures. I was able to use a lot of containers I already had on hand saving $. Some were store bought & others were creative. The dish cabniets are going to be worked on tomorrow & then some more scrubbing. I will feel so good once it is all finished!