Happy New Year!

Well, so much for this not being a repeat of last year... I'm home sick on New Years Eve with the same cough I had last year at this time.  This week has been wonderful, though, so I can't complain too much. I had saved up most of my PTO in case I needed to use it for the adoption, figuring I would just take time off over the holidays if the adoption didn't happen this year.  It didn't happen, so I have had an amazing 12 days with no work to relax and get some things done around the house.

I did well at the relaxing part, but not so great at the getting things done around the house... until today.  After spending three days reading, sleeping and watching movies, I decided it was time to actually do something.

Since we bought our house almost four years ago, I've had a "wish list."  The house is only 8 years old, so there's not a ton of work needed, but there are things I'd like to update/change/add.  We decided to make one big update per year.  The first year was painting the majority of the house.  The second year was the landscaping and putting in our little garden.  Last year the plan was to do the flooring.  The carpet in the living/dining rooms wasn't in great shape when we moved in (the previous owners had indoor dogs), and neither was the laminate flooring in the kitchen.  However, with all of the medical expenses, we pushed it off until this year.  And this year, due to the adoption, we pushed it off again.

So, this morning I woke up with the plan to rent a Rug Doctor and see what I could do on my own.  Which is why I am now sitting in a huge pile of all of our furniture crowded into a corner of our house, while the carpet dries.  But I must admit, it does feel good to get something done around the house.  The carpet looks somewhat better... hopefully it can hold on another year or two.

In other house news, the nursery has been cleaned out, carpet steam cleaned, and now it's time to figure out what I want to do with it.  I've decided on the theme of birds and/or owls... not the creepy kind but the cute ones.  I'm thinking of painting a tree on the wall, but not sure if I should do a sky blue background or stick with the mocha color that's currently there.  Then for the mobile over the crib, I can make one out of a branch, and hang little birdies from it!  It looks awesome in my head, but I'm not at all artistic, so we'll have to see how it works out!

Well, Happy New Year everyone and here's to an amazing 2012!!!