It's like I'm living in a new home...kinda

So it's been a while since I did this, however, I still wanted to post the changes I made in my apartment. Now I know it's not going to be anything super wonderful or cute-sie oreven impressive. Remember who we're talking about here...me. I'm not an artistic person when it comes to decorating and organizing. I have to say though, I'm very proud of the purchases I made and I feel like it has made a huge difference in how I feel about being in my apartment. Just he little splashes of color and actually having decorations on the wall makes a HUGE difference!! I'm just posting a few pictures to wet your palet. There will be more to come in the future. So...without further a-doo (I know that's nolt how you really spell it so stop thinking I'm an idiot already!) here are my before and after pics!!!
Before: After:







Before: (living room with shirtless husband included) After: (clothed husband - upgrade!!) ;-)







Before: (Mary Kay "office") After:









So there are a few pictures to show you first of all, how messy I was, and secondly what I did with what I had. I was pretty proud of myself. Waylon always happened to be in the living room when I took the pictures in there so you will have to excuse his shirtless condition. He doesn't really always go around shirtless. Pantless, yes, but shirtless no. haha. jk!
I've also taken some of the tips from my book on organization that I got from Barnes & Noble so I will be taking some pictures of those. Right now I have several hundred cheerleading pictures that I need to give to the varsity sponsor so I don't have a lot of room on my camera, plus it takes forever to upload b/c it has to go through EVERY SINGLE picture on my camera. This has really kept me from wanting to take pictures because then when I want to upload them, I have to go through the other 250! Anyways, I am going to post a couple of really cool pictures I took at some of our games so you can see how talented my squad is. I'll actually leave you with a picture of the two stunt groups showing off their amazing "scorpion" stunt. I love this picture because it looks so cool and it shows my girls off well. Here you go!!

Isn't that so cool looking?! They are so good. I'm impressed every day that I watch them perform.
Anyhoo...I'm pretty tired and need to get some sleep. Waylon is long gone to dream land and I think I will go join him. I stayed up to watch the most recent episode of Grey's Anatomy and to post this blog (don't you feel special??) Today was a long day. I went in to my old job (where Waylon currently works) to do a drop-off catering. It ended up being kind of a pain-in-the-rear b/c on my way back I got stuck in ridiculous traffic on 635 for a really bad wreck that looked like it included at least 5 cars if not more. We went from 4 lanes down to 1 and in DFW traffic, that's a bummer. Took me an extra forty minutes to get back from that catering than it normally would.
I leave you with this question:
why do drive-thru ATM's have braile on the panels where the keypads are? Take some time to think through what I'm asking...let me know if you come up with an answer...
good night from your decorating guru,
Stephanie

Update

I just wanted to post an update about Waylon's dad, my father-in-law. For those who didn't know, this past Sunday evening he was in a bad motorcycle accident and was taken to the hospital in San Antonio and was in the Sever Trauma ICU. He broke several bones in his face and his collar bone and had bleeding in his brain as well as swelling in the brain. We got the call halfway through the day on Monday and Waylon and I left as soon as the school got a substitute in there for me. When we got down there, the doctors were not giving him a very good prognosis. They were saying it didn't look good and weren't giving him good chances of survival. Well, I'm happy to report that by Wednesday when I left to come home, the bleeding and swelling in the brain were gone, he was able to open his eyes that were previously swollen shut, he could hear us and follow commands and he was moving his legs quite a bit on his own. He was still on a ventilator so he is unable to speak yet and wasn't conscious for long periods at a time but he did know we were there and made huge improvments. He has basically cleared the "critical" zone as far as the doctors not knowing if he will pull through - it should be moving forward from here on out. While they haven't given us details, we do know just from the extent of his injuries that it will be a long recovery. His family has been great about going down and seeing him and Mitzi, his wife has been by his side at every visiting hour time slot. Waylon stayed one day after I left and I know it was hard for him to leave his father but we did have to get back home and work. :( It was a tough week but God was at work and so many of our friends and family were praying. We are so thankful to all who lifted Don and his family up in prayers. We are also thankful to the Lord for once again showing how loving He is and that He is watching over us and listening to our prayers.
Keep praying for his continual recovery and thanks again to all who remember him in your prayers!
Stephanie

Preview...

I am beginning to finally get to the point where I will be designating specific time during the week, probably just one day a week, to organizing and decorating my apartment. I feel like we might be finally finding our "groove" here in our schedules and as crazy as they may be, I'm going to start scheduling my time to include some organization and decorating time. It needs it and if I want to have company more often and be able to feel proud of my home, I need to do something with it other than just keeping it tidy.
I'll start with my office/den because that's what needs to most organization. I have all my Mary Kay stuff in there and that definitely needs to be better organized. I also want to set up a system for keeping better track of my bills and making sure they get paid on time. I've been late a couple of times lately with paying bills simply because I forgot and didn't have the bill in a place where I would see it and remember to pay it. I also need to start filing things away after I pay them. I'll have to get some office organizers to help me in this but I think it will be money well spent that will keep me more sane and on track. I read today online that in your office you should have a nice decoration or something pleasing to look at within 90 degrees either way of your computer screen to give your eyes something pleasant to rest on when they need a break from staring at the computer. Right now all we have is a poster Waylon wanted that has lots of guitar chords. It's a cool poster but it's not pretty or "pleasant to look at" really. I need to find a nice decoration or maybe hang some prints of Waylon and I on that wall. I think I also need a desk calendar with big boxes to write stuff in for important dates. I want to start keeping track of all my family and friends' birthdays, but I need somewhere visible that I would see regularly to keep that on. I want to start sending out Birthday cards for birthdays and anniversaries. Anyone who knows me, knows this will be a HUGE accomplishment as I have NEVER been good with cards!
The next room that needs decorating would be my living room. There are a couple of things on the wall but nothing really exciting. We even have a really cool long picture frame hanging over our TV...with no pictures in it! I hung it up there to get it out of the way, not thinking it would take me this long to put pictures in it. I want to give it a more "cozy" feel and I also want to decorate it for the upcoming fall seasons. I LOVE those decorations!!
The third room will be our "dining room" which doesn't have a lot to work with but I want to find either a nice big picture or wall art to hang over where our table sits, OR a set of several wall arts that go together that would look cute in an arrangement.
Third would be our bedroom. This will be last only because it's the room people see the least so it would just be for our own viewing, but it still needs to be decorated. We need some drapes to hang on our window, more wall decorations and just a little "something extra" to make it not so drab. We will be living here for a while since we're trying to get completely out of debt before getting into a house so I want to feel as at home as possible and make it as pleasant as I can to be in. I'm not a super artsy person to start with so I'm going to call on some friends who are really good at this stuff to help me out.
As I make progress, I will be posting pictures up of what I've done with each room; thus the title of my blog today: Preview. I'll probably take a before and after picture so you can see the difference too. It will be fun! You can also evaluate what I've done and give me suggestions if you see something that looks awkward - I will try to not take offense!! lol. jk, I WON'T because I know I'm not good at doing this so any suggestions are going to be welcomed.
So, here's to a new "beginning" in my apartment! Pray for me and keep those ideas coming!! Any money saving tips for organizing or decorating would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks for reading my blog!
Stephanie