Before and After Pics

The view from our upstairs looking at the dining room and entry way. We remodeled the dining room and changed the entry way light.

This is the dining room a little closer up. It still needs a bit of decorating. Joey did the marble himself. Pretty impressive!


.This is the basement. We took too long to take before pics. But this is when they just started to put up the framing. The next picture is after the dry wall is up. Its the media room with the bathroom right off of it
The bar!! Yay!! I still need to take updated pictures with the fireplace in it.. but this is all I have for now.
Sorry there is so many pictures! I just had a lot I wanted to show you. I must admit.. its much better in person. lol

Busy Bee

Life has been pretty busy lately. Joey and I have been working extra hard. I have really been trying to pick up a lot of extras lately.. nothing too crazy (3-4 this month). Whenever I'm not working at the hospital I am working at home. I am either working on Joeys business stuff or working on the basement. It hasn't been too difficult though. I really enjoy working on our basement! The fireplace is in with the oak trim around it. It is soo much fun to see it come together. I have almost the whole top half of the walls painted. We are doing a chair rail so that's why it is only the top half. :) Joey and I also went on Tuesday and bought carpet for the media room in the basement and our living room. I am even more excited about that. I have been embarrassed about our living room carpet since we moved in. It had bleach stains on it... I have no idea how that happens!! Soon our house will be almost like new. I am still working on posting some pics but Joey keeps taking the camera to work with him so I can't take the pictures off of it. But I promise... soon. Our hope is to have the basement completed by Thanksgiving. We have been working on it for almost a year. Joey just keeps adding more and more stuff. But I think it is going to be well worth the wait!

Thus far.. everything has been going well with the NOT trying to conceive. I think about it quite a bit, but not too much. I still ask friends some TMI questions related to TTC, but not too many. I have been trying to focus on working out more. I have only officially worked out 3 times, my work schedule sometimes makes it difficult to work out when I really should. My bowflex recommended only working out on Mon, Wed and Fri. I am not going to weigh myself for a little while, I feel good so I want to think that I HAVE lost weight. Its all part of my positive thinking campaign. ( I just wanted to use the word campaign).

My Thoughts...

Last night was the third and last presidential debate. It was definitely the best one! McCain came out throwing punches. He also seemed really antsy, Joey thought he had taken some Ritalin. LOL. What was with all the blinking?! However, no matter what McCain would blurt out.. Obama was quick with a come back and remained calm. Obama never ceases to amaze me.. always so calm, cool and collected AND knowledgeable. He is really smart on the issues and has yet to say something that I disagree with. I like his ideas for the economic crisis. I also happen to adore his running mate. During the vice president debate he KILLED Palin with his knowledge. But lets also be real here.. it doesn't take much knowledge to make Palin look silly. I cringe at the possibility that someday Palin could be running this country. She is very pretty and very dumb. :) I completely agree with Katie, I love to talk about politics and listen to others ideas. I am not usually up for a debate though. I never want to tell someone why I feel like their decision is wrong.. I just like to listen to why they have made that decision. I will however correct people when they bring up uneducated "facts" about Obama. i.e. 1.Obama took the American flag off of his plane. 2. He won't say the pledge of allegiance or hold his hand to his heart during the national anthem. 3. He is Muslim. All of these are untrue and if you come to me and tell me you don't like Obama for these reasons I may or may not tell you that you're wrong but I WILL think that you are not smart and worry that you are going to be voting for our future off of false facts. On that note.. I will end my discussion.

So I started to work out this week and I feel really good. I have just been doing my stair climber and the bow flex. I am doing the workout that the bow flex manual suggested and thus far I really like it. It has not helped me take my mind off of TTC but it is making me feel a little better about myself and that is much needed. :) I will keep you posted on the success of the losing weight battle.

I have previously spoke about a family that I adore. The Mooney family. They are the parents of Eliot who had Trisomy 18. They would celebrate his birthday everyday because they knew the odds said he shouldn't be alive. He lived fro 99 days and his life was amazing! His parents couldn't be more awesome! I even emailed his parents and they so graciously emailed me back. Well.. they just had another baby! I am so excited for them! They inspire me to be a better person and to have faith that everything happens when it is suppose to! I am following their blog, it is to the right and called SV. You should check it out.

Time For A Break

As you probably already know, the delay in writing is because I was waiting to find out if I was pregnant. The answer.. no. I already knew I wasn't, but that rude mother nature put a period at the end of it (literally). So.. I was ok with it, really. I thought, "Ok, thats alright. I can work out and lose a couple pounds". I had told Joey that I wanted to take a couple months off of trying to clear the mind and frustration and work out to get back in shape. I had been saying that for a while, I said if I wasn't pregnant by October I would take some time off. What that means is no ovulation kits and no constant checking for pregnancy symptoms. We'll see how I do on that last part :). So when I first started I was like, "Dangit, but I guess thats ok". However, when I told Joey that I wasn't pregnant I got a little teary (thats been a constant thing lately though). I just want to be a mommy so bad and I know Joey is going to be the best dad EVER!


This morning I was cleaning out my purse looking for a receipt and I found a fortune I had gotton a couple weeks ago while eating chinese. We ate chinese food like 3 times within a week and a half and had previously had the fortunes that said "Don't feel like a failure for not making it, feel like a success for trying" and the other one said " Your aspirations will soon be fullfilled". So the time after that my fortune said "To conquer your flaws, you must first accept them". I assumed it was talking about how I had gained weight. But today when I found the fortune in my purse I noticed on the back it had the thing where it tries to teach you to say a chinese word. The word was "Hopeful". And although I currently have tears in my eyes due to my disappointment R/T not being pregnant.. I am hopeful! I feel like it will happen when it is time and Jesus knows what he is doing, as does St.Gerard. I will continue to pray to St. Gerard daily.. multiple times daily, and I will try my best to be patient. I am hopeful that I will get pregnant by 2009. This month was hard because the doctor said it takes a "normal, healthy couple" 4-6 months to get pregnant.. this is month 5 (tear). But I am going to be positive and confident that is WILL happen and there was a reason it didn't this month. So anyway.. my fortune today said "Welcome the change coming soon into your life". What on earth! I keep getting fortunes that I swear are saying "You are having a baby soon, stay calm and get ready to be pregnant". My assumption is that for any other person they would think something COMPLETELY different.. but I feel good about these fortunes. Maybe it is Jesus's way of saying "Don't get down MB, it going to happen soon. Just stop stressing out". So this is me saying "OK Jesus, thank you for letting me know. I will do my best to quite being so crazy and emotional about the whole ordeal".


Alright.. so now I need to refocus and get ready to lose some poundage and "Start getting excited about my life" (thats from Dr.Phil). So.. as usual, here are some pictures of working out. It first is from South Park. That show is pretty funny! And the next one.. a squirrel working out. HOW FREAKIN CUTE! The last.. just a funny picture.