Project Pain Phase #2

And for Phase #2 the hallway that leads you to the Bedroom, bathroom, or the Scentsy (spare) room! Color is Harp Seal. This may be a small area however there are three doorways in this small area, so it was a little harder than it looks! Also, you should know that we know that we have quite the color scheme going on, but you try painting an entire house, with the two difference in personalities that Darin and Jo have! Oh how opposites attract! Here you go! Enjoy and as always, please let us know what you think, hopefully we are getting better!



The hallway view from the front room!

Coming out of the spare room. The best wall to show you the color.

The hallway with it's decorations back up.

Again the larger wall in the hallway. Incase you are dying to know

the plaque says, "Yesterday is gone, tomorrow may never come Live for today"

The small little opening that fits this frame wonderfully!

And the shelf! Please notice the AMAZING Home Sweet Home plaque

above the shelf, that is from our wonderful Aunt Jean & Uncle Jim.

We absolutely LOVE it!

They did an amazing job in making it. We will treasure it always.

Project Paint Phase #1

The much awaited Home Improvement blog and pictures, ok maybe you all weren't waiting for it, but it is a HUGE part of our lives right now, and so well you get to read about it and see our progress as well. Let me prelude this first. I know I should do a post first on the house before we moved in, however I don't have those pics on this comp and let's face it, I wanna get these pics up, so the improvements we have done so far other than the painting project will be another post when I have more time!
First off our home was built in 1948, it is very old, very small and cozy. When we bought the entire house was paneling all except the closet, which is large for the size of the house, one wall in the spare room, and the ya that's all that doesn't have paneling on it. Now really paneling was great, but catch the was in that statement, like in the 70's or something! Jo was going through a Spring Fever attack and was planning on painting over the paneling, researched it and all, Darin however decided that the paneling was coming down. The project became way bigger than we ever could have imagined. Takes about a 1 1/2 months to complete one room, due to the size, we move half the room out, start on that half then move the other half over and so on. So it's slow, space confined and stressful especially for a neat freak like Jo! It's also hard because we have people in and out of the house all the time, some we know and some we don't. Which is great but hard when you are working on your home like we are. Sorry, I'll get back to the point here- We started in the closet, it was white and we kept it that way! It had light bulbs on the ceiling for light. Our wonderful friend Shaun came over and he helped Darin put up light fixtures! Looks AWESOME! Then the bedroom, what better place to start right, get the kinks all figured out in the room you don't have a lot of company visit. Well, there's a lot of kinks in this project..... When taking off the paneling the wall is multi colored and polkadotted. We sand down the glue, prime, patch work and putty, Spray texture, and finally Paint! Keep in mind we also both work a minimum of 40 hrs a week and are trying to stay on a budget! Anywho- here is the bedroom all decorated up. Sorry but I'm not showing all the trim work just yet, most of it is done, however we are still working on that part! The color of this room is Cinnamon Glaze! Please let us know what you think, and be kind this is our FIRST painting project EVER! The guy at the local store we are using says by the time we are done, we will be experts and make this our career, ummmmm....... We think NOT!!!!!!!!!

The many colors and Polka dots under the REALLY old Paneling.

A view of the colors, polka dots and the old paneling still on the wall!

And the color with the bed, decorating was/is still a work in progress, as we change each room, we add and subtract from the other rooms that are done and so on.

The bedroom looking out into the hallway, bathroom, and front room.

the view into the Closet and hallway closet. (Side note that door that we got white paint on accidentally, is now completely white.

One of Jo's favorite walls in the bedroom, to always remind us of our wonderful Vegas Wedding/honeymoon trip!

The TV wall! Darin and Jo's dad have hung those mounts twice now. Awesome job guys!

Another of the walls in the bedroom! That lower plaque is one of Jo's favorite- A really good friend got it for her while going through her divorce and it really helped her through the rough times. It says, " God will heal your broken heart, if you will give him all the pieces" The same day Jo's mom gave her the picture next to it, of a young woman crying on Christ's shoulder! Enough said!

This wall was just finished recently. Jo did this as a surprise for Darin. Darin loves the Iowa Hawkeye's but living in Utah, he doesn't get to watch the games or hear about the scores or anything. He is an avid collector and Jo tries very hard to keep his collections out, this stuff has been hidden away in a box since we moved in, trying to find it's perfect spot. The idea for this has been with Jo for over a year, just had to wait for the right way to display it.

Graduation Day

Last night we had the opportunity to go see our beautiful niece, Ashley graduate from High School. Although, it doesn't seem possible, it's true! I looked and couldn't find any pics of the two of us when she was a little girl, but here are a few pics of the graduation ceremony. We would just like to tell everyone that we know that is graduating this year, Congradulations, it's an accomplishment you should be proud! To Ashley- we love you and are so excited for you to begin the rest of your journeys. We know you have been looking forward to this for a long time now, and so take a few minutes to enjoy it. It's the beginning of the rest of your life! We love you Ash- Smash! Congrats!!!

Love this smile as she is walking up to the stage!

Mustang Pride!

Our 2 beautiful nieces, Ashley (18), Katy (16), and handsome nephewLonnie Michael (20) Love you all, and thanks for letting me take the picture!

I will not even try to deny that I am a proud aunt!

Haircut day (for the dogs)

Scotty & Karlee went to the Dog groomers today and I had to share, please keep in mind that this is Karlee's first hair cut. Scotty gets so scared to go, usually Jo's dad takes him to the groomer while we are working but today we scheduled it on Jo's lunch hour, (due to the recent hip replacement of dad) Anyway we were so impressed he went right to her and didn't even shake. Karlee was the same way. Way impressive. Anyway we were just beside ourselves on what to do with Karlee, she is shedding so bad but we were very concerned about having her shaved. We decided with it getting so warm, that we would try the shave once and if we didn't like it, it will grow back and we won't do it again. Well, we are doin that again! She looks so good, and you should see these two prounce around! They love it when we say how Handsome and pretty they both look. Scotty couldn't wait to get his bandana off, so we hurried to take a few pics, but when we tried to take Karlee's off she pawed our hands away, and lightly bit at them. So she is still prancin around the house with the flowered bandana they put on her! SO CUTE! Also they painted her lil paw nails, and I've never seen a dog with different colored nails, but for those of you who know anything about our Karlee know that it soooo fits her lil personality. It's just adorable. Here's a few pics to show off how adorable our little ones are! Enjoy!

Darin with Scotty & Karlee, they both love the camera and will sit still really well for pics, hard part is getting them to focus only on me! Yes treats should be given after this lil photo shoot.

Our handsome lil Scotty! It's funny to think that we almost didn't bring him home with us from Iowa, we would both be so lost without both of them.

Karlee does this really adorable lil head tilt when she doesn't understand what is going on, so to get her to do it I whistled. The more tilted her head the more confused she is. Funny that when we call her Beautiful or Pretty she understands completely!

Karlee's lil pose with Daddy! Notice the painted paws, I beg to differ if you do not think this is just really dang cute!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Darin and I wanted to do a post today, to tell our Mother's and grandmothers a Happy Mother's Day! We both feel so very lucky and blessed to have our Mother's in our lives. We love them both so very much! They are wonderful examples to us. So to our Mothers, our precious Grandma Blad and to all the other Mother's, Aunts, Mother's -tobe, we hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!!! Celebrate the joy of being a Mother today! Here is a picture of both of our Mothers and some fun times we have been able to enjoy with them. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Grandma Blad on the computer, but we love and cherish her as well. Thanks to each of you and all you have done for us. We owe you!

We love you Mom Noe!

We love you and your craziness Mom Bills!

Scotty & Karlee, our babies!!!

So it wouldn't be our official blog, until we have a post about our "children" Scotty & Karlee, our dogs are basically our lives! We love those two dogs so much, and since we are having such a hard time getting pregnant and starting our family, they have become our Children. They go everywhere with us that is possible, and they love it. They are two very spoiled dogs, but oh so precious and lovable to all. When Darin is at work and Jo is home alone, they bark at every sound they hear, it's almost annoying! When we got the Big Screen earlier this year, they discovered animals on TV and they go berserk! They think they are invading their territory. When we are babysitting Korbin, Karlee gets a lil jealous that her "mommy" is holding him. Darin even bought me a Mother's Day gift with a beautiful card from the dogs, which by the way came early, because they were all so excited to see the reaction! Not to mention, Karlee was trying to make up to Mom for chewing and ripping her large Raggedy Ann & Andy doll's she has had since about the age of 5. Luckily Grandma Bills knows how to sew and repair poor Andy's outfit. Anyway, here are a couple of pics or our Precious baby's that help to make our lives complete! Just so everyone knows Scotty is a Silky Terrier, which we got from some friends in Iowa on our vacation in 2007. And Karlee is a Pug, which we got here in Vernal from a girl at Jo's work. We debated getting either of them, but now we'd be sooo lost without them. We love you Scotty & Karlee!

Darin and Scotty takin a Sunday nap! So cute. Sometimes when Darin is playing video games, Scotty crawls up in his lap and watches the screen like he's playing too!

Scotty loves to lay like a dead dog and sleep, he even tries to lay like this at night, in bed with us.

Karlee's favorite spot, whether we are sitting in the chair or not. If you look close you will notice the paint just above her back leg, she decided that she needed to help mom paint the closet, not just watch, poor thing it's been there about a month or so. More posts to come on the Home Improvement Painting project, it's just a slow slow project!

This is how Karlee looks from the back of her favorite spot! Just doesn't look comfortable to me. We recently got this new loveseat and she is having a hard time adjusting to it, since it has less cushion on the back and top then our old one, she falls off the back a lot! Don't worry she's a tough one and just jumps right back up, trying to get her comfy spot.

Sorry this picture is kind of old, but it's the only one I could find right now of Jo with Scotty, and Karlee! So precious!!!

Pain update

Well, a couple of weeks ago I gave up on my struggle to control the pain myself, after being up all night long afraid to move and Darin being afraid to touch me for fear of making it worse, I got into the doctor. We decided to increase my Nexium to 4 times a day instead of 2, he added another medicine, that is really nasty! It's supposed to kind of coat my stomach and esophogas to help ease the spasms which is causing me so much pain. He gave me more Percocet and told me to use it, said I am not addicted to it, and it's obvious I need it for the pain to sleep. We also talked about the stress and ways to manage and cope a lil better, with my lack of energy and my restrictions on being able to work out and lift, the Dr. thought it best to put me on a new type of Anti-depressant. I am so hesititant about taking yet another pill, but I thought I would try it. Well, my outlook on life is a lot better since, which is good, and I'm sure Darin is very greatful! The pain is back under control and I am not needing to live off the pain pills anymore. Which is great! Now my issue is I'm awake about 2 am every day. At some point I am sure I am just going to crash, from lack of sleep, it doesn't matter what time I go to bed, I'm awake every morning about 130-2 am! It's crazy I tell you, solve one problem to create another. Until next time!

Pain

Well, as most of you know, Jo has been having abdominal pain for the past few months. Well it's hitting hard this week, and I'm not sure why. I do know that it comes on strong when I am stressin out! So my question is, how do I stop stressing and worrying so dang much? I can't go shopping, because part of my stress is $MONEY$, I haven't found something that I could spend time doing that I enjoy, because it makes the stress worse as well. When I am done or taking a break from that, I start to freak out because of all the things that need to get done. So you see I am just not sure what to do to help with the stress issue?!?!?! The pain has been bad enough this week that I have been taking 2 pain pills instead of one, but don't fret it's not the Percocet that I was originally on, and have since been told I am addicted to, it's the non narcotic one. The bottle does say I can take 1-2 pills every 4 hours as needed for pain. Problem is 2 pills makes me really out of it and people keep asking me what's going on, and then when I get off work all I do is sleep. It's also getting hard to eat a meal again, so it's back to piecing I go! Which isn't healthy because all I tend to piece on is bad for you crap.

So I'm asking everyone, what do you do to relieve your stress, apparently I need some new ideas, options, because the ones I have are just not working! And while you are all at it, if you know of a way to just make this stupid pain stop, I would be FOREVER grateful, and owe you so very much! Any ideas for me?

Beginning in the world of Blogging

So this is our first blog, we are total newbies, but thought we would try it out. Please leave us comments and tell us how to make it better, and so on. More later but for now, I just had to get a post up here!