Home. It's where your crap is.

Since realistically the husband and I won't be ready to look at houses until next year (that will put him at his current job for a full year, increasing our pre-approval amount and giving us the next 12 months to get some things paid off) I need to make some changes to our humble apartamento. I also need to stop looking at houses online, because I get attached to one, and then someone who IS ready to buy snatches it up. Then I am sad.

So I'm hoping to accomplish all the following before we move since I know there will be a long list of things we'll need to buy once we are in a house. Like a lawn mower, ladder and other things I can potentially hurt myself with. Good thing we have insurance.

Let's list things, shall we?

Living room:
Large bookcase (think Expedit 4x4 from IKEA) for books and nonsense storage.
Couch/loveseat combo OR sectional. I've never owned my very own couch, and the blue and white checked monstrosity, while comfortable and sturdy has got to go. I am very thankful that the husband had it donated when he lost nearly all of his stuff in a fire long before we met, but the time has come to say goodbye.
Re-configure stuff on the walls and perhaps furniture arrangement

Bedroom:
Closet system- We currently have one extremely bowed closet rod and piles of nonsense below, so we need one. It will go with us when we leave, or the landlord can pay us back.
6 drawer low dresser- Two people and a four drawer garage sale find from when I was 16 does not compute.
Baskets for storage under nightstands.

Bathroom:
New Shower curtain
Shower organizational thingy-Right now we have two small ones and the clutter in there is suddenly driving me nuts.

Girls' room:
They both need small, three drawer dressers. We have a clothes storage issue all-around in our home. Half of their closet is hanging clothes, the other half is Christmas tree/hockey crap storage. We have no storage besides unused kitchen cabinets.

Hopefully, some progress shall be made! Perhaps I'll even remember to take some before/after pictures...they are always my favorite part of the home design shows but let's be honest, I tend to get all excited about new things and organization and only document the after. Oh well.

I am also hoping publishing my own little to-do list here will help me actually accomplish some of it. It is not like I want to re-furnish the entire place. In the past though, I jump from room to room and can't seem to decide where to start. This time, I'm starting in the living room, since we spend most of our time there. That, or the closet in our bedroom. See...I'm doing it already. Not that we spend a lot of time there, but with the husband's grown up job, he and I are getting ready at the same time now, and the closet leaves SO much to be desired. I try to keep the bedroom in check so its a peaceful place for us to rest our heads but it often looks as if the dresser upchucked clothing everywhere. My OCD tendencies don't really enjoy this.

I am going to try and make something happen in the next 30 days. We'll see how it goes.

Day Seventeen: Book.

The day we picked up my first set of glasses when I was 6 years old is a day I still remember clearly. I was mostly nervous but a little bit of me was excited. I brought a book (Bearenstein Bears) and read the whole thing out loud to my mom on the way home. My mother said from that day on she would find me in my room, reading out loud to my stuffed animals and later I would spend hours curled up on the couch with a book. Once I started a book, I couldn't put it down and once it was finished I wanted more.

My first book report in the fourth grade was on a biography about Jackie Kennedy. I read it twice just because I was sad when it was over.

I read 10 or 15 V.C. Andrews books the summer between 8th and 9th grade simply because my older sister had left them behind in what was now my room after she moved out. I thought it was weird to have them in my room but to have never read them.

So I did. And then after I read all of them, I took them to a used bookstore and traded them in for more. I was on a first name basis with the lady who owned that store by the end of the summer.

I love books. I've spent countless hours reading in my lifetime but one that stands out on changing my view about something is Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. It tells the story of a little girl who's family takes in her friend from school during the war. I read it in the sixth grade and it was my first exposure (that I remember) to learning about World War II and the Holocaust. Once I was done, I felt like the world was a different place; that not only good things happen, but also the bad. I remember thinking how my grandparents were alive when these things were happening and I was in complete awe of how big the world really is.

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My thirst for books will probably never be quenched. I go through phases with types and genres. I've been known to wander libraries for hours, reading backs of books and jacket flaps to find the right one. Reading is such a great escape, plus it's free!