Our Fabulous Remodeled Bathroom :)

Well, it has taken about a year, but our bathroom is finally COMPLETELY remodeled, thanks to my oh-so-handy, precious husband.  :)  (I'm so proud of him, in case you haven't figured it out..)

I've mentioned before that our house needs a little love to get to where we would like for it to be, since half of it was built in the '40s.  The first room that needed to be tackled was the old bathroom.  It looked terrible.  The floor, the tub, the paint, the ceiling, you name it.  (It looked worse in person!)

Well, the vanity was nice.  ;)

Thankfully, the Lord provided my husband with a job in home remodeling while I was in graduate school.  He kept getting turned down for jobs that he should've really been able to get, and all the while, the Lord was saving this particular job for him.  If he hadn't had that job at the time, he wouldn't have been able to do all this work on our house.  I think it's amazing when the Lord does something in our lives, and we don't understand what He was doing until later on.  The Lord truly does work in amazing ways!  :)

Anyway, back the bathroom... I was not happy with it.  In fact, after seeing how disgusting the bathtub was, I refused to bathe or shower in it.  These stains can't be wiped away!

Of course, we have another shower, so that wasn't a problem.  We DID need a tub though, since we have a little one.  ;)

We ended up finding a bathtub exactly like I wanted on clearance (yay!!) at Home Depot.  The Lord is good!

Let the demolition begin...

My hubby began by pulling down the tile walls around the tub.  I'm not a fan of tile walls.  I think they look dirty, and are too hard to keep clean.  So, down they came!

He even found an old window behind the wall!  :)

He ended up pulling down all of the walls and the ceiling as well, because it was ceiling tile, which I also don't like.  I know I sound super picky.  I'm really not.  I could've lived with the tile walls and ceiling for a while, but since we were already remodeling the rest of the bathroom, this was the time to take it all down!

He moved in my beautiful bathtub, and once that was in, I was fine with the rest of the bathroom being ugly for the time being.  I was in love with my new tub.  Nothing fancy, but pretty, clean, and EASY to keep it that way!  *thumbs up*

Then, he put up new walls and did sheetrock for the ceiling as well.  It actually stayed this way for a while, and the project was on hold.  I was okay with that though.  It's funny how you get used to your surroundings, even if they don't look very good!  ;)

He applied texture to the ceiling and walls, and then painted the walls light blue.  I wanted a 'happy' bathroom.

Next came the floor.  My parents had some leftover tile from another bathroom that was remodeled in my grandparents' old house, so they gave that to us.  Score.  Once again, my fabulous hubby got to work putting down the tile.  He also added some new trim.

We put in a different toilet, because the other one broke early on.  We also bought a cheap toilet seat and some hanging accessories.  Gotta love Walmart!  :)

Ready for the fabulous 'after' shots?

I am in love!

Bye-Bye ceiling tile!

Bye-bye ugly faded yellow linoleum that no matter how many times I mopped it would never be clean!

Bye-bye scary disgusting tub!

Hello happy beautiful bathroom!  :)

We've been busy working on other projects as well, but those aren't ready to be unveiled yet.  ;)  Stay tuned, and have a happy Monday!

Check the links tab to see where I party! :)

Keeping a clean house... with a baby

As far as I can remember, my mom has always cleaned the whole house every Friday.  She's really good at keeping things clean and tidy.  I, on the other hand, not so much.

Throughout college, my room was a mess with clothes all over the floor, and I would occasionally clean.  It's actually slightly disturbing to think about my college years, because I don't remember cleaning very often.

These days, it's a different story.  I love having a clean house, but it's difficult to get it that way, or keep it that way.  The culprit?

This was the first time she discovered how fun it is to pull out the DVDs, you know... back when it was still cute?  ;)

A 14 month old little girl.

It's really difficult at first to schedule your life around your baby.  Can I get an Amen??

That's what I had to do though.  After she was born, I was too exhausted to care about keeping the house clean.  What new mom has time for that?!  If she was sleeping, then I was either sleeping or doing something to make sure I stayed sane (enough).

Later on, I began to realize that I needed to make some changes if I wanted to have a clean house.  It was impossible to clean everything in one day, so I had to do some planning.

This is as tidy as it gets in this area... (on another note, do you think she has enough toys??)  ;)

Each day, I do at least one load of laundry as well as (at least) one big household chore.  This may be cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, whatever.  Of course, I still have to do the dishes, clean the kitchen, cook, etc. every day.  With this method, my house is never spotless, but at least it's clean!  No more of those days where I clean the house from top to bottom in a few hectic hours in preparation for visitors... that's just stressful!

If you've been around here long, you know about my planning board.  This idea has been a life-saver for me.  Now, I just write certain chores to do each day of the week, and then usually, by Friday, I have some spare time to do something fun!  :)

For example, here is my schedule for today:

• Wash Towels
• Vacuum
• Clean Dishwasher

Mommy's little 'helper'... see those cute little legs??

I've accomplished the first two things on my list, and I doubt I'll get to the last one, considering the dishwasher is full at the moment.  Since I've completed (most) of my list, I have time to do other things!  So, now I'm washing our comforter, working on a craft project, and blogging!  :)  It sure makes you feel good to accomplish the things on your to-do list at the end of the day!  

Does anybody else have some good tips??

Mission: Organize M's Closet

You know those superstar bloggers that do amazing makeovers to rooms in their homes?

Source - *sigh* If only....

I'm not one of them.  Sad.

Sometimes I find myself feeling a tiny bit depressed and jealous when I am browsing blogs and come across pictures of beautiful rooms.  I would LOVE to redecorate/redo just about every room in our house, but we're on a tight budget.  And, I have a 13 month old.  And, maybe I'm just not that gifted.  

Our precious house is (and most likely will be for the next several years) a fixer-upper.  Half of it was built in the 40's, so really, I can't complain too much.  It's in very good shape, just needs a little love.  :)  

(Gushing moment:  My husband is an AMAZING handy-man.  We could NOT have bought this house if the Lord hadn't have provided him with the knowledge he has!  He's done so much already.  I'm going to keep him.)  :)

Anyway, the main reason for this post is regarding my sweet girl's closet.  It's a disaster.  Seriously.  Right now it is doubling as a linen closet.  From too-small clothes, to her old car seat, towels, sheets, blankets, toys.... it looks awful.  

I've tried organizing it once, and I DID make it look a little better.... for a few days.  :(  I gave up halfway through the process.  So, this time, I want to have a game plan.

I was going to show you a picture of what her closet looks like right now, but then I chickened out.  If/when I get it looking better, THEN I'll post a before picture.  ;)

Here is my 'original artwork' of how I would ideally like to organize it.  Keep in mind, I'm trying to work with what I have, for the most part.

The gray section on the right side is actually behind the wall.

Step One:

We have to organize our storage closet out in the garage.  Then, I can take out all of the things in her closet that need to go into storage.  I think that will free up quite a bit of space and clutter.  

Step Two:

I need to make some kind of toy box for M.  Right now her toys are in a cardboard box.  One day, I bet my husband can make her a nicer one, but I'm fine with a cardboard box right now.  I just need to get a bigger, sturdier one (hello, jumbo size diaper box!) and somehow make it cute.  

Step Three: 

I'm not sure what all will be left after I move out stuff that needs to be stored, but I'd like to add a couple (or more) baskets to the top shelf to place miscellaneous items in.  We have a few baskets already, so hopefully they will do the trick there.

Step Four:

The towels are sitting on a rolling kind of shelves rack thingy.  They were all over the floor of the closet, so that is an improvement in itself!  On the right side of the closet are all of our sheets and blankets.  It's a mess over there.  Thankfully, you can't see it since it's hidden behind the wall.  I'm really not sure what the best solution for that is.  I'm thinking that maybe I can bat my eyelashes at my sweet hubby to fix our (tiny) linen closet.  That way, I can at least put the towels back in.  Then, maybe I can move the sheets to the rack.  

Step Five:

I have curtains (somewhere??) that I can hang up.  They're sheer, so I'm not sure how it will look, but again, it's what I have, so I think it will make it look a little nicer.

Source - This is similar to what I'm thinking about...

I think once (or if..) we get all of this done, it will looks TONS better!  Maybe we can begin to tackle it this weekend.  Stay tuned... ;)

Our Home - Part Three :) (last part!)

You can read part one here, and part two here.  :)

A few days later, they called us back and gave us a counter-offer.  We had made a very optimistic offer, so we didn’t expect them to accept our first offer.  The counter offer was very good though.  They said they would pay 6% of the closing costs, which our realtor had never heard of them doing, and that they would pay for a 1 year home warranty.  They also said they would fix our air conditioner, which HAD to be done considering we’re in the middle of the summer in Texas.  ;)  We planned on closing on June 30th.  Are you doing the math?  That’s right—we made an offer on this house less than a month after we first saw it, and without looking at other houses.  Crazy, right?  Only if you’re looking at it from your own perspective, and not the Lord’s.  Trust me though—we knew it seemed crazy.  I was really nervous about telling our parents because I feared that they would think we were crazy.  In fact, I didn’t mention how quickly it all happened at first, because anybody’s first reaction would be to worry that we were making a poor decision.  However, we knew that the Lord had brought us to this point, so we followed His leading.  So, we started packing.  Fun.  Especially with an almost 2 month old baby.  ;)

  

I was still concerned about J working so far away from us.  I know people commute all the time, but at this point, I was still very new at the whole motherhood thing and wanted him nearby.  He had been looking online for jobs in "Townville", and found one listing on Craigslist.  Just one job listing in "Townville".  It had no details about how much it paid, the benefits, the hours he’d have to work, or really any details at all about what the job required.  All he knew was that it was in "Townville", so he applied for it.  A week later, on June 22nd, he went in for an interview.  We continued to pray that if God didn’t want him to have this job, then he wouldn’t get it.  We also prayed that if God DID want him to have the job, then He would help the interview to go smoothly and that He would influence those who interviewed J in his favor.  

  

The interview went really well.  J was interviewed by the owner of the company who told him that he would get back to him very soon.  Of course, we didn’t know how soon ‘very soon’ meant.  We felt like he would get the job, but we didn’t know for sure.  We just kept praying that the Lord’s will would be done.  (I told y’all we prayed a lot—I wasn’t exaggerating!)  A few days later, J found out that he had gotten the job!  Not only that, but we were getting insurance immediately!  This was PERFECT, considering that our old insurance would be ending the day before our new insurance began.  Coincidence?  I think not.  With this new job, he’d only be 15-20 minutes away from home, and would be working 8-5.  We were SO happy and thankful.  Everything was going SO smoothly that it couldn’t have been anything but the Lord working everything out!

  

We ended up closing on July 1st and moved in the next couple of days.  It was a whirlwind!  What would you think if a friend came up to you and said, “Guess what??  I just saw a house in a different town and am going to buy it without looking at any other houses!  Not only that, but I’m going to buy it and move into it all in a little over a month!  Oh, and we’re going to do it all while being new parents with a newborn baby!”  What would you think?  Crazy.  That’s what I would think.  That’s what I DID think.  Thankfully, this is NOT how God thinks.  He sees what He wants for us, and tries to tell us what He wants us to do.  When we listen and follow His guidance, He works out the details.  This isn’t the first time He’s worked fast in our lives.  In 2007, we decided to move from Texas to Missouri to go to graduate school.  We decided this in May or June and moved in August.  We didn’t even know where we were going to live until 2 weeks before we moved, but we knew He’d provide.  When we were wondering if we would move back to Texas in 2009, we found out he had gotten a job, found a house to rent the next day, and moved back all in a matter of two weeks.  Later that same year, we had been trying to decide when we should start trying to have a baby.  One evening, we discussed it and just decided that the timing was right.  I found out that I was pregnant with M a month later without letting any of our family know that we were even trying to have a baby.  Let me point out that God gave us boldness to step out of our comfort zone and do things that seemed crazy.  God has worked out BIG things in our lives VERY quickly.  So a lot of things have seemed crazy in our lives and very scary, but every time that we have followed these ideas that seemed out of the blue and crazy, He has blessed us SO much.  Will things always be perfect when we follow Him?  Nope.  Life is hard, and following Christ is hard.  However, it’s also easier than not following Him in some ways.  We ALWAYS have hope.  We ALWAYS have a friend who understands EVERYTHING we’re going through, when nobody else can.  When we have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, we always have the hope of eternity in Heaven one day.  

  

I’m so very thankful that God thinks big for our lives.  If you had told us a year ago that we would be living in our own house out in the country, and that we would have a vegetable garden, kittens, chickens and pigs, I would have laughed in your face.  Not because I didn’t want it, but because I never expected it would have come true.  We are blessed, and we are thankful for all His blessings. God is good, and that’s an understatement.

As always, if there is anybody that wants to talk about any of this, leave a comment or contact us.  I love making new friends!  :)

Have a happy Wednesday!  :)

Our Home - Part Two :)

See part one here.

We prayed constantly.  We always asked that the Lord would give us guidance, and that He would stop us from moving forward if He didn’t want us to buy the house.  In fact, we pleaded that He would stop us if it went against His will for our lives.  We did NOT want this house if it wasn’t what He wanted for us.  We finally decided to call the realtor on Memorial Weekend to see if we could go take a look inside the house.  J was off that Monday, so we were hoping the realtor could meet us at the house that afternoon.  Sure enough, God was at work, and we were able to go look at the house that afternoon.  The house looked like it was in good shape.  I was slightly disturbed at the sight of a dead mouse on the floor of the kitchen, but the house hadn’t been cleaned yet, and we were out in the country after all.  (At least he was dead!)  There was a bird nest in the utility room because of a huge hole in the wall where the dryer vent should be.  I also had to escape a wasp in another part of the house, and saw a spider in one of the bedrooms.  I was used to bugs when I was growing up, but since then I had lived in apartments where bugs were seen less often.  So, I knew this was something I would have to accept and that I just had to get used to it again.  (This was actually one of the things on the ‘con’ list, haha!)  

There were definitely some things that needed upgrading and the land needed to be cleaned up, but overall, things looked good.  In fact, it looked much better than it did in the pictures online.  Honestly, the pictures online were pretty awful.  They really didn’t do justice to the house or the land at all.  After taking a look around, we realized that the house would need some work, but nothing major, which was a huge blessing.  We honestly believe that the Lord made it so the pictures online wouldn’t attract very many people, so it would be saved for us.  There were only 4-5 pictures, and they were taken at some bad angles.  They didn’t capture the beauty of the land or the potential of the house.  It's actually pretty strange that it even caught our attention.  It was no doubt the Lord!  In fact, the main reasons this house captured our attention was because of the price and the amount of land.  We had already decided before that we would rather buy an older house that we could fix up that was on some land, than have a new house in a neighborhood. This was a perfect opportunity for us.

We discussed the house more as we drove back home, and J asked me if I could see us living there.  I tried to picture it, but it wasn’t really easy.  I felt myself being pulled in two different directions.  I loved the idea of ‘living our dream’ out in the country, but again, I LOVED the house we were already living in.  I didn’t know what I wanted, and I was glad it wasn’t up to us to decide.  We were truly trying to trust the Lord to answer our prayers and stop our progress if we weren’t meant to buy the house.  

The first week of June, we decided to make an offer on the house.  That’s right… we saw the house online and placed an offer within a couple of weeks.  Crazy, right?  We felt that the Lord had brought us to that point and that we should move forward.  All the while we continued to pray that if He didn’t want us to buy it, our offer would be flat out rejected and that we wouldn’t be able to move forward any more.  I was still really scared about the whole thing.  I had complete faith that if we were meant to have the house, the Lord would provide for us and would help it happen smoothly.  Everything up to this point had happened smoothly.  What I had difficulty with was believing completely that He would stop us if we were making the wrong decision.  I questioned if we could be rebelling against Him without even realizing it.  We wouldn’t want to go against Him on purpose, but could we be wanting this house so much that we were ignoring what He really wanted for us??  As I prayed, I began to believe that because we were sincerely praying for His will to be done, that we weren’t rebelling.  I wanted to have faith… I didn’t want to doubt that He would take care of us.  I’ll give you a peek into what I wrote in my prayer journal about this on June 7, 2010.  

“It’s weird—I have faith that if you want us to live there, you’ll make it happen.  What I’m having trouble with is having faith that you’ll prevent us from getting it if it isn’t your will.  In my heart I know you can do all things.  My head just doesn’t always believe.  Forgive me Lord—give me faith!  I WANT to believe more and not doubt.  I’m kinda ashamed of myself actually.  The devil whispers in my ear and I doubt.  Keep him from us!  This is what I know—you can do ALL things, and we are your children.  You have a plan for us.  If this is what you want, you’ll make it happen.  If it isn’t, you’ll stop it.  We’ve prayed for this, and prayed sincerely.  If we were rebelling, I could see you allowing us to make a mistake to learn from it.  Because we are seeking you so much, I don’t think you’d let us make a mistake.  Is that right?”

At that very moment, a scripture popped into my head.  I didn’t know if I was remembering it correctly, so I looked it up. This was the scripture HE sent me.  

“I lift my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.  He will not let your foot slip—He who watches over you will not slumber.” – Psalm 121:1-3

Can I just say WOW?!  What an amazing answer to my prayers!  He assured me that He was there and that as long as we were truly seeking His will, He would help us to make the right decisions.  I was relieved and in awe!

Part three (the final part) coming up tomorrow.  :)

Our Home - Part One :)

I wanted to share with y'all the story of how we bought our home.  I know, it sounds boring, and it probably IS boring to some, but to us, it is amazing.  It's a testimony of how God works things out when we trust Him.  It's my hope that this will encourage at least ONE person.  This will be three parts, so if you end up reading this, stay tuned.  :)


Let's rewind to May of 2010.  Sweet M had just turned one month old, and we were trying to adjust to our new life. It was very difficult for me though.  I have a hard time dealing with life-altering changes, but at the same time, I suppose a lot of people do.  Anyway, around this time, other things started changing.  My husband considered applying for another job in town.  This was pretty surprising, but I didn't mind what he did because I wanted him to be happy.  He ended up not getting that job, but I believe that this was the first step in pointing us in a new direction.  

We were also attending a large church in town that I LOVED.  I mean seriously loved.  I really enjoyed going and looked forward to it every week.  At this point, we were only making it to Sunday morning service because we had a newborn, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!  One Sunday, J mentioned that he really liked our church, but he missed going to a smaller one.  I wasn't surprised that he felt that way, because although he really liked the church too, I think I enjoyed it more.  Well, once he said this, I began to see his point.  I still loved our church, but I began to feel like maybe we should be in a smaller place where we would know everyone.  That seems to be more of our style anyway.  This really bothered me, because we had finally found a place I loved, and here I was starting to feel somewhat convicted about switching again.  I was afraid I wouldn't be strong enough to leave this church to go to a different one in town.  We had already visited several of them and I didn't like any of them nearly as much.  Our greatest desire is to do what the Lord wants us to do though, so I wanted to follow Him.  I decided to not worry about it too much until the Lord led us elsewhere.

A little bit of background on my husband and I for those who don't know:  We both grew up in the country (in separate towns) and LOVED it.  We lived away from town and enjoyed it.  We were used to having to drive a ways to get to a Walmart or anything like it.  We have always known that we wanted to have some land of our own one day in the country.  I knew it might not happen, and that if it did, we may be in our 60's or 70's before we could afford to make this dream come true. In the town where we were previously living, we were renting a nice house on the edge of town in a neighborhood.  It wasn't the way we wanted to live forever, but we planned on being there several years, and we really loved our town. We both desired our own home in the country of course, but J desired it most of all.  He's very outdoorsy.  The man LOVES to be outside and to work on things out there.  He liked our home as well, but he didn't have the space or freedom to do the things outside he wanted.  I know it sounds silly, but to me, it really seemed like he was like a caged bird in some ways.  Because of this, he always enjoyed looking at land for sale online.  He had been looking just for fun for years, and occasionally he would show me something that looked really nice.  (He's so cute.)

One evening, I was dying to get out of the house, and we had a gift card to a grocery store in another town nearby (we'll call it 'Townville',  just for privacy reasons).  We decided to make a fun trip out of it and go to this town that we had never visited.  While we were driving out there, we noticed the land was very pretty, and the town was small.  After we bought our groceries, we went home, and that was that.  Or so I thought.

A few nights later after M was in bed, he called me into the office and showed me a house for sale in Townville.  It was an old house--built in the 40's.  The pictures of it weren't impressive, but it was a really good price and had a good portion of land.  I just kinda humored him, nodding my head and saying "Oh yeah, that's cool."  I figured it was just another one of those times he was showing me something for the fun of it.  


Wrong again.  


Before I knew it, he suggested that we go take a look at the house.  I was all for this, because I was excited for any excuse to leave the house.  So M took a nap in the car seat while we took our drive out to this house.  Upon first sight, I still wasn't very impressed.  It's not that it looked bad--it was cute in some ways, but it needed some cleaning up.  The grass was tall and there were a lot of fences and weeds.  We looked around a little bit and then headed home.  As we drove home, we talked about it a little bit, and I realized that we were seriously discussing the possibility of buying this house.  

I think it’s important to note that we were content where we were living.  We weren’t looking for something because we were miserable or disliked our home.  The reason I think it’s important to tell y’all that is because it shows you even more that THIS WAS ALL GOD!  

We discussed the pros and cons of buying the house.  We even made a list!  It would definitely be something we had to put a lot of work into, but it had a lot of potential.  It was in a small town out in the country on several acres of land, which was the dream.  There was a school nearby that had a VERY good reputation, and we had already had some concerns about where M would go to school one day.  We'd have to pay for the down-payment and everything that goes along in the process of buying a house, but we were already 'throwing away' a chunk of money on rent.  I was terrified at the idea of moving in general, because moving is SO difficult.  We had only lived at our home for almost a year, and I SO didn't want to pack up and move AGAIN.  I was so exhausted and hated the idea of packing WHILE taking care of a newborn.  I worried about how I would handle the whole process emotionally as well as physically.  I worried about J not finding a job in Townville and having stay in our old town at his old job, which was almost an hour away.  I was worried about EVERYTHING.  (Keep in mind that we're still only in May, so I'm still emotional from giving birth!)  We decided that the best thing we could do was just pray and ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance.  

To be continued... ;)

Linking up to Not JUST a Housewife

Home Management Notebook

UPDATE:  I have made a few alterations, and am slowly making these files available to purchase in my Etsy shop.

I have a coupon for 50% Off every item until March 31, 2014.  The code is GRANDOPENING.

I have dropped the prices on everything!  Prices range from $.99-$2.99. 

Click HERE for the Cleaning Checklist.  :)
Click HERE for the Meal Planning and Budgeting Set.
Click HERE for the Medical Contact Sheet.

As I was 'stalking' blogs the other day, I came across the IHeart Organizing blog, and found this super cute idea!!  It's a way to organize tasks and other information in/about your home, and I decided I wanted to make my own notebook.  I've mentioned a few times how much I want to be organized, but I ultimately fail.  It's just not a natural part of my personality, but I'm working on it, only to make my life a little easier, not to mention keeping the house cleaner!  ;)

I decided to make all of my pages on paint.net, which is a free program you can download.  I don't know half of the things I can do on there yet, but I LOVE it!  SO much better than using the old paint program that's on every computer.  ;)

Allow me to show you how super cute (in my own, humble opinion, that is...) our family notebook turned out!  :)

I still have a couple (or more, we'll see!) pages to add, but you'll get the main idea.  ;)  First I have a "Cleaning Checklist" sheet.  It has things for me to complete daily, weekly, monthly and annually.  I laminated it so I can just check things off if I'd like.  I think it will be helpful.  :)

To purchase this cleaning checklist, or have it customized to fit your needs, please check out my Etsy Shop--FairyTinkBoutique.

Then I wrote down a list of meal ideas as well as side dishes.

Why does it turn my pictures?! :(

Across the page I have my "May" meal planning calendar.  Now I can look at my list of meals to get ideas and write them down on my monthly calendar.  I try to plan out every couple of weeks or so, to make sure that I have everything I need for our meals.  Plus, it sure does take the stress out of thinking of what to make for supper!  I'll still use my planning board though--I LOVE that thing!  (I just realized a mistake I made.... I laminated my calendar so I could use dry/erase markers, but it says "May" at the top, so I can't use it every month...ptth)  Well, I guess from now on I'll either just print out a calendar for each month to place in a page protector, or print out a blank one to fill out each month.  I'll probably just go the first route.  ;)

Now that I have planned out my meals, I have a grocery list, along with a list for other items I need to buy.  I'll be honest here and say that I'll probably print out future grocery list pages in black and white, but it's so pretty like this!  ;)

Next I have a list of doctor's numbers as well as insurance information.  Now when I'm on the phone with my doctor and they ask for my insurance info, it's all in one spot.  :)  (After all, it's SUCH a chore to go get my card out of my wallet...*sigh*)  ;)

I'm also working on an emergency contact list, which includes the local hospital, poison control number (?), family phone numbers as well as neighbors' numbers.  I think this would mainly be helpful if somebody was babysitting for us and needed to contact us while we're out.

Here are my 'fun' pages!  I have a list to write down craft ideas as well as things I want/need to organize.  This may seem pointless to some, but there have been several times that I've had an idea and then forgot about it when I had time to do it!  So now, that problem is fixed.  :)

The next page is mainly for my hubby.  We have an old house, so we have a lot to fix up!  Note that I made this page slightly more manly with the darker colors, although the little hearts that dot the 'i's probably take all of the manliness away, oh well.  (Not that I don't love blue too!) ;)

The last page I have finished is my travel list.  EVERY time we go somewhere overnight, I make a list of my things as well as M's things to pack.  I always over-pack, but that's beside the point.  I just want to make sure I take everything we need.  Since a lot of my list is the same each time, I went ahead and typed up a few things.  I also left space to write down the rest of my list whenever we go places.  :)

I'm working on a budget sheet as well, but y'all don't need to see that one.  ;)  I may add more pages when I think of things, who knows?  It was really fun to make, so we'll see how useful it is over time!  I'll be testing out the meal planning/grocery list system tonight.  (I have never enjoyed grocery shopping as much as I do now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, can I get an amen??)

Y'all have a fabulous day!!  :)

Linking up to THESE parties  :)