Making a house a home

I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out, but I am so much happier when I live in a place that feels good to me. Seems like common sense, right?


I think the hardest part was convincing myself it is okay to spend money on this house even though we won't be here forever. The investment is definitely worth the good effect it has on my mental health. 


We are slowly putting our house together and making it something that really reflects what I like and makes me happy to come home to.


We have done a lot of painting. (We did start with bright, yellow walls, after all. I really need to find those pictures. They are pretty epic.) We have also done some decorating, but I would never consider myself an expert at all in that area. We have also refinished some furniture. Most recently, we planted flowers in front of our house and also added some strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes on the back patio.


It is really pretty great to have your own house. I was a little very overwhelmed when we moved in at the thought of trying to decorate such a large space, but I am learning to just take it one project at a time. 

How to: Write a Primary Program

Here's how it goes, as far as I can tell:


Come up with a few ideas
Ask a few veteran primary presidents what you should do
Try to take their ideas and put them together (because they know what they are doing and you do not)
Try to explain your vision to your presidency (which doesn't go well)
Rehash all your ideas and realize you don't even know the vision
Start over


I hope what comes next is a really awesome program, but that remains to be seen.

Snippet of conversation

Last night as Peter and I were making dinner, I did something silly/stupid and this is the conversation that followed:

Peter: Are you smoking dope?

Me: Umm, I don't even know what dope is.

Peter: I'm 90% sure it's marijuana.

Me: Our kids are in such trouble.

Apparently we are going to have to research such things before kids come along.

That one time when Peter got a new job

Hallelujah!
Praise the heavens!
Thank goodness!
{Insert any joyous exclamation you please!}


Peter got a new job!
Which means: no more driving an hour to and from work
                     Monday through Friday, 9-5
                     no more driving an hour to and from work
                     engineering work
                     no more driving an hour to and from work


I am pretty excited about all the money and time we are going to save because Peter's new job is only 12 minutes away. Not to mention we now have our Saturdays back, to do all sorts of normal Saturday things on, like yard and house work. Oh the little things. 


He is going to be working at Specialty Lens Corporation and it is 8 miles from our house. It is still not our ideal and we will be looking to keep moving up, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. 


I should probably mention that Peter might be most excited about the fact that he won't be working with a bunch of girls and the drama will be much less while working with other analyticals like himself. 


Oh, and he'll be getting paid more, but that really is so low on the happy list. We are, however, grateful for that, too.