The Make Over

Grant and I were lucky enough to be able to live with Tanya and Wilson for about 6 months after Grant and I moved to Austin to find jobs. Tanya and Wilson had been in a similar situation, and they definitley made life awesome by letting us live with them. We wanted to show them how grateful we were in a way that would really help out. We could have just given them money, but then since they have kids it would have most likely gone to helping the girls instead of using it selfishly. This of course is a good thing,but since we lived with them, I knew certain pieces of furniture that they were saving up for which made my job a lot easier.

So, I knew that I wanted to do this make over, but first I had to convince Grant. But before I could do that, I had to figure out how much everything would cost, but I had mentioned it to my mom and told her not to tell anyone because I didn't want them accidentally finding out, but of course, EVERYONE knew about it then. So, I kept getting calls with more and more funding coming in which I was not going to refuse, but made everything a little bit more confusing. So, eventually I had a plan with everything that I wanted, and when my older Sister Kira was in town for a visit we went shopping and got pretty much everything but the furniture. My older brother Daniel went and picked up a bed frame in Houston for us that we had found on Craigslist.

Then came the whole dilemma with Tanya said she would be induced to have her 3rd child (Now Emily Ashlyn Robertson) the 27th of November, so everything was planned around then. My mom and sister were going to visit at that time to help with the girls and the make over, while I was working on the room, etc. But Tanya was induced on Monday the 23rd which was acutally my cousin's birthday which made him happy,but it threw off our schedule! HOW dare Tanya have her baby when it doesn't fit in with my schedule!!!! ;p So anyway, I went to work Monday morning, Tanya went to the doctor's and then the hospital to be induced while awesome neighbors watched the girls. My mom and younger sister were on their way from Houston to watch the girls while my sister was in the hospital. During this time Grant was at our house getting all of the furniture and accessories that I had bought packed along with 200+ other items that I needed. My cousin Simon was also on his way from Houston to Austin with the bed frame from Houston.

When I got home from work to Tanya and Wilson's and all of my stuff had been brought to their house, it looked like a total mess, my nieces kept telling me that they wanted to paint, and Grant and my mom had taken before pictures, had moved everything out of the room, and they had taped everything off! Shortly after me, my cousin arrived and we started painting the walls.





Here you can see the before pictures of their room.

This set up was our problem set up, because of how pictures would hang above the bed, it would mean that once we moved the glider and the crib thingy back in it would look bad. So, we did the reveal so they would see it normally, and then we mess it up and move it back.

Here you can see that everything is taped when I got home from work which was VERY awesome because I had work on Tuesday too, so after work was all I had.

We were trying to take pictures throughout, but we just weren't fast enough since we were all in a hurry to take pictures every couple of moments. We painted and had lots of help! This was the first time that Grant and Anthony had painted, so I hope it wasn't too bad of an experience. We had one little hiccup where the bed frame that we had gotten off of craigslist was adverstized the wrong size. We weren't ripped off price wise, but now we have a full size bed frame in a style that we don't want to keep and are trying to sell it now.

So, Monday we took pictures, moved stuff, taped, and painted. Then we put the wrong bed frame together, took it apart and had had enough for that day. Tuesday I went to work, but Simon and Grant had to go to Ikea to pick up the correct bed frame, so once that was done putting furniture together was most of what they did.

Here you can see my nieces wanting soooo badly to help, but pretty much just being in the way most of the time. But this is what I came home to on Tuesday.

Then I started making dinner for everyone while Grant and Simon followed my instructions on where I wanted everything in the room to be hung. From mirrors to pictures to curtain rods. Here Simon is using the Laser Level.


There were a few times when I thought that Tanya and Wilson might find out what we were up to. For instance, on Monday Mia talked to Wilson on the phone and told him that she is painting with Grant and Simon, but luckily she has a painting set of her own so they didn't think anything of it. Wilson came home on Monday to put the girls to bed, and he realized what we were doing, but he only saw the paint color, and he made sure not to see it while we were doing the other work. Then when I was at the hospital with Tanya seeing Emily for the first time, she kept asking me questions and it was really hard getting around some of them to not make it sound suspicious, but in the end we pulled through it and Tanya was surprised in the end.

Here are the After Pictures!

Here you can see how close the bed and the chest of drawers are, this was not how I wanted it, but this was one of those pieces that Tanya and Wilson wanted in their room for sure. No matter how we moved it, it would not fit better, so we gave them options if they wanted it moved somewhere else, but at least all of the drawers open completely without hitting the bed.

Here you can see everyone in the room after the reveal and the girls fighting over their new little sister. Then we had to move everything to fit the crib and stuff, but eventually it will look nicer again.


And here is the Video with Tanya's Reaction!

 


Another view from my iphone

My New Addiction

Grant thought that it was time for me to confide in other people about my new addiction. I don't think that he wants me to give it up since it has not shown to be harmful quite yet, but we will see. Tanya showed me this blog, listed below where this amazing lady writes out all of the deals in most major grocery and drug stores in the USA. She tells you the deals, the coupons to use, and how to completely understand each of the stores and how they function. It is soo much fun getting good deals, but it can also be very addicting. When you get something for $0.20 cents, it makes you want to buy it even though you don't need a certain hand cream, etc. I have been trying very hard to not buy things that we don't NEED unless we are getting them 100% free because otherwise we are still spending more money than we would have without the coupons.

Here you can see a whole group of items that I was able to get for free, some samples, some deals, some coupons, and some I could only have gotten with the help of this blog.
http://hip2save.blogspot.com/

One of the best things about the blog that I use is there are sooooo many free samples to keep up with that for the picture above, I couldn't even keep up with all of the things that I have gotten for free! Here you can see free luggage tags that I got from KLM Airlines. I got one for me and one for Grant which was a fun thing to get in the mail.

Here you can see all of these items I got and only spent $1.32 which definitely shows how much you can buy for a dollar. Clipping and using coupons takes a lot of time,but since Grant and I are on a limited budget, it really helps us out. It lets us afford things that we don't always need, and it lets us have some luxuries like some name brand items and some snack food that we would normally not be able to afford. We have even stopped doing the Angel Food Ministries because we are saving more money with the coupons. We still think that it is a great ministry, and is very good for people who cannot make the time to save money otherwise, but it just hasn't been the right thing for us since I have come to enjoy couponing.

Trip to Searcy Arkansas

A while ago now, Grant and I drove from Austin, TX to Searcy, AR for a weekend, or better yet two days. We left on a Friday morning when I had taken off of work. We made it into Searcy later that night, and then hung out with my Cousin Simon. We were also very blessed to be able to stay with the Robertson Family (My older Sister's In-Laws) who seem to have almost adopted us since we are treated like we are their children or married into their family! The next morning, Saturday, we went to our storage unit and got winter clothes and random other things that we had been missing. After that, we headed back to Austin, TX and had most of Sunday to chill.

This was driving into Dallas, I thought it just looked like a nice city scape!







This was also in the Dallas Area, a nice body of water.





This is one of the funniest things that I was not expecting! Here you can see a TRANSFORMER! If you click on the picture and look at it more closely, you can see multiple Transformer Logos, and even Autobots instead of expedition or whatever make SUV this car is.





Here you can kind of see flooding on a construction site where they were trying to pour concrete... not the best conditions... this was leaving Little Rock.





In the next few pictures you can see more of the flooding where even equipment was under water.




As stated above.




This might not be the most interesting picture,but Arkansas is not the natural state for no reason! It is always so beautiful.





Speaking of natural, here is the infamous Trash Mountain, that is literally all trash... this is as we were leaving Little Rock to return home.





I love seeing funny animals, and this giraffe with its tongue stuck out really made me laugh! I cannot remember for the life of me where this was taken,but it was still funny to see.


And now after we have gotten home. I am sad to say that all of my clothes that we brought back are not yet put away. Since our return from this trip, I don't think that we have been as busy since we have gotten married, but thus is life.





In this picture, you can see the items that I brought from the storage unit on the left. On the right, are the items that Grant decided to bring back. Also, Grant wanted me to mention that there are still more shoes in the storage unit that are mine, and I accidentally had 3 more pairs of shoes in one of the bins. We actually had more room in our car to bring more home, but we would need somewhere to put everything we bring back, so we refrained. I for one am ecstatic that I have more of my clothes, but am very happy and grateful for all the different things that Grant and I have been blessed with through out our lives and marriage that matter so much more than clothes and shoes.