Organization update...

Okay, so I've been able to get a lot accomplished on the organizing of it all. I have gone through all the scrapbook supplies and I have them organized, now I just have to find a desk and bookcase that Steve and I agree on. I've set up our card table, in the meantime, to be my desk. And it actually is making it so much easier to scrapbook! Here's some of the proof:

(don't know why it downloaded like this)

I did all of these in one night. Steve watched a movie, and Emily & I scrapbooked together. It worked so great! When I went through my scrapbooking stuff, I sat aside things I didn't think I would use and some of the pictures I didn't really want to scrap (some that were out of focus or I had doubles of). And I put together a basket for Emily, that way while I'm scrapping, she can scrap too.

This is scrapbooking area (of course not complete) as of right now:

It's still a little cluttered for my liking, but hopefully once I find a desk and bookcase, it'll look better.

This is what I accomplished in the Bonus Room closet:

Before I did this, our movies were a little bit of everywhere. Some downstairs, some in the closet, some sitting out. So, I have sorted between VHS, DVD and video games. And yes, they are all alphabetized.

And finally, this is the last thing I want to accomplish:

These are all of bills and things, in the bottom of the Bonus Room closet. I'm going to try to find a CHEAP bookcase and organize all of this. And then I should be done for a while! The flood of '09 has really made me realize how quickly all of this we think is so important can be taken away. I definitely feel very blessed with all that Steve and I have. Although, if all the "stuff" was taken away, I still know my God would provide for my needs!

Here's some websites that I check out every once in a while for organization ideas:

http://orgjunkie.com/

http://www.home-organizing-ideas.com/organizing-a-scrapbook-room.html

http://www.makingmemories.com/Products/categories/Organization

http://www.organizeit.com/index.asp

Organization...

is my best friend! When we moved back into the house, we had to put basically everything back into closets and into our rooms. So I took the opportunity to purge and organize while I was at it. I mean, there's no reason to put something back into a closet or drawer if you are not going to use it again. So, last weekend was all about keep, sale, or trash. I think I've watched one too many episodes of Clean House. I even had a bin for each, but at least I didn't have flower in my hair like Nissy Nash! (Only true Clean House fans are going to know what I'm talking about) I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I'm planning on it. 8 hours later and 5 large trash bags full, the house is almost completely organized! There's actually room in Emily's toy box for more toys! I have started 2 new rules at the house: 1. if a new toy comes home, an old toy has to be given to charity 2. before you can get a toy out to play, you have to put the previous toy up. And I think for her birthday we are going to ask for donations to the church's children's ministry instead of toys. She has WAY too many toys!!! I said the house was almost completely organized because I still have a few things I want to do. Like my closet - you see, I still don't have my clothes back from the water damage, so I'm waiting to do it once I get those back. And my project for this weekend is my scrapbooking stuff. I want to take it out of my closet and put it in the Bonus Room since I have room in that closet now. And maybe if it is more organized and in a place I can get to it better, I will actually scrap more. I have even made a wish list room by room for the house of stuff that I would like to eventually buy to help life around the house. With a husband who works 60-70 hours a week, me working 40 hours a week, 3 dogs, 2 daughters, and a crazy social schedule, I'm trying to simplify our life. In fact, Steve and I both are on the simplify bandwagon. So, I'm starting to make a meal plan every two weeks, clipping coupons, and doing everything possible to simplify our life and our budget. In fact, I suggested to Steve we should get rid of his car, because honestly we don't need it. He rides to work with his dad pretty much every day. It might make things a little bit more difficult but in the long run I feel like it would be worth it. He didn't go for it, but I'm still working on him! With this new, simple lifestyle I need some accountability. Steve and I have always been a couple who would rather go out to eat every night and if we want something we just go buy it. But with the new mouth to feed and of course all the talk about the economy (Steve is in sales and my company is a staffing agency, so the economy could affect our jobs, hence our budget, drastically), we have to cut some of those luxuries out. That's where you come into the plan. I'm going to start using my blog as an accountability avenue. My plan is to start posting the different things we do to help us with our simple lifestyle that we are choosing. Whether it be a great deal that I found or a great meal that I've made. Don't worry, I'm not going to be going to extremes at this point. I don't think I can keep up with the CVS stuff like others have. I'm just trying to come up with little ideas that will help us out. I will also share different websites that I find useful for things like organization, menu ideas, and fun things to do with the kids. Like for instance, last night it was just Steve and I for dinner. I made an awesome recipe that I picked up at Publix. If you have a Publix around you, I'm totally jealous! They have this great section near the produce. You can pick up a recipe card and they have all the ingredients right there, so you don't have to look around the entire store for them. And they normally have someone cooking the food, so you can sample it. So last night, I made Sicilian Steak and Strawberry Poppyseed Salad. It was incredible! And it cost roughly $15 for the whole thing, which makes the meal roughly $5 per person (we had enough left over for another person). I didn't take a picture of the steak because it wasn't very pretty, but this is the salad:

It was delicious! In fact Steve said it was the best thing I've made in a long time.

I'm sorry this has been such a long post. I wasn not planning it to be this long. Next week, be looking for before and after pictures of all the scrapbook stuff and more pictures of the yummy food I'm going to cook!

By the way, the simple life plan is working. Our family has sat down to eat dinner together at the table 2 nights in a row. Which never happens because of our crazy schedule. Normally, it is just Emily and I.

Now Introducing...

I'm sure everyone was beginning to question whether we had really had our house painted! Sorry it has taken so long, a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks since I last blogged. Nothing major, just a raise, lots of get togethers with friends, oh yeah, and a new job for Steve. I will save that for a different blog - wouldn't want the house to get it's feelings hurt by Steve stealing it's thunder! (Yes, I was one of those children that thought their dolls had feelings, and if I got a new doll, I had to sleep with all of them so no one's feelings would be hurt) I guess I had the signs of Co-dependancy pretty early in life!!!

Here are the long awaited pictures:

This is looking from the Kitchen to the Living Room. You can't really tell the color very well. The wall with the window and the wall going up the stairs is brown. The rest of the walls in the Living Room are a deep red. Which you can see in this picture:

The picture shows it a little bighter than what it really is. And yes, that is Steve doing his favorite pass time - VACUUMING! And this is this morning before we left for work!

This is a picture of our kitchen. I actually painted it a couple of summers ago. I just thought everyone would like to see the color of our kitchen. By the way, if you ever decide to sponge paint a room - think REALLY hard before you do it!!!! It was a pain in the you know what! Now on to Steve's favorite room - The Man Room as he likes to call it. Our deal when we moved into the house was the Bonus Room could be his to decorate. I got all the other rooms. Which means I got to decorate the entire house however I wanted and he had no say so. So, he got to pick the Bonus Room color out. I was really nervous at first because it was really dark - but I absolutely LOVE it! It makes me crave chocolate though, so I don't know if that's good or not.

Notice the missing couch? Lindsey and John came and got the old couch to make room for the new one. YAY!!!! It's comes today, I will definitely be taking some pictures of it and blogging about how comfy it is!

Of course when we made the decorating deal, we didn't realize Emily would have the last say in all the decorating!!! This is her corner of the Bonus Room. She loves sitting at her table and putting puzzles together or playing Candyland!

Now for my favorite room! This is our spare bedroom and we had it painted Tiffany & Co. Blue. I took my Tiffany box in and they scanned it and matched it up. It looks perfect!!!

Now, can someone please let my husband know we have the nursery pretty much ready to go - all we need is a baby!?!?!?

Okay, here's the deal - I would love to hear feed back from you on what you think! But only if you're nice about it. Steve and I know these colors are dark and probably won't help when we go to sell the house. Remember, I was in real estate at one time, so I know the game. But Steve and I decided we would paint the colors we liked since we are the ones living here right now with no immediate plans to move. So, if the time comes, we will hire sweet Bobby again and have him neutralize the colors. I'm interested to see what everyone thinks!

Lots of changes happening...

For the last week, the Barrios household has been in complete disarray (I think that's how you spell it...) Steve, Emily, and I have basically been living in our bedrooms for the past 6 days. We had a sweet friend paint our house this past week! We've been dying to get our walls painted since we moved in, yet just now got around to getting it done. It looks FABULOUS!!!! I meant to get before and after pictures, but it didn't happen. I know, I know bad blogger of the year award will be awarded to me very shortly. Not only did we paint this past week. Did I really just say "we painted", I'm sorry, I meant to say we had someone do the dirty work for us! Let me start over again...Not only did sweet Bobby paint for us this past week, we also bought a new couch for our Bonus Room!!!! Anyone that has been to our house and tried to watch a movie or hang out in our Bonus Room knows how much we needed more seating and how much we needed to get rid of what Steve likes to call the COUCH OF DEATH! So here's a picture of our new couch. We also bought a leather ottoman that has storage in it. It all should be here in a couple of weeks. WE CAN'T WAIT!!! I will update later with pictures of the pretty walls in our house!