Current events

There has been a lot going on lately that has just not been good enough to have its very own blog post. Lots of tid bits & interesting stories that I just couldn't weave into something on their own. So I came up with the idea of doing the hodge podge in one BIG post. Ahem - let us begin...

You may remember I was in Ohio last weekend. And B-rad was home. Unsupervised. And this is bad. Because his little brain never stops running. With ideas. On how to spend our money. Sigh.

I'm not sure when he came up with his newest gem, but he decided he was going to sell one of his motorcycles. Oh-no worries - he already had a plan to buy ANOTHER one. (See why I'm crazy?!) This just really infuriated me. And once again I started with the, "You're never happy with what you have! You always want more, more, more!" Alas, it did me no good. He was not swayed. And I was left with the task of figuring out how to pay for yet another hair brained scheme of his... (Funny side note - I had training last Monday night & a show Tuesday night. I didn't get home until late both nights. Tuesday night when I got home, B-rad had done some laundry. Gasp. AND had unloaded & re-loaded the dishwasher AND ran it. He was laying it on thick, huh?!) Anyways - I came up with what I hope will be a master plan for B-rad's future hair brained schemes...

What we USED to do is take a certain amount of money out of each of B-rad's paychecks. But it was only on paper. I had a sheet in the office that listed the paycheck date & how much money went towards his 'funny money'. If he bought something, we simply subtracted that from his balance. Nifty! This worked perfectly until the day he decided to buy something that cost MORE than what he had on his little sheet. "Oh, it's more than what I have - just take it from the next few paychecks..." Well - as you can imagine - he was in the hole more than he wasn't so that was nixed.

Then, the Angels in Heaven spoke to me & gave me a genius plan. Lets start B-rad a checking account. With his own little debit card. And put his allowance money in there every other week. If something he wants costs more than what he's got in the checking account - too bad, so sad. I love that plan! So that's what we did. B-rad has his very own debit card on order & when he sells stuff he already has ('cause ya'll know he has a TON of stuff), that money is his very own to deposit into his checking account & spend however his little ole heart desires!

In the spirit of full disclosure - he did not sell his motorcycle to buy another one...this time...

Next up is the destruction of my house known as the office makeover. B-rad has moved 'most' of his gaming stuff into the other bedroom. When I say 'most' I mean his tv, his gaming system & the games he wants to play. The other stuff is still in the office. On the floor. And the stuff that was in the other bedroom is in my dining room until we figure out where to put it. It's a vicious circle...

I am a lotta things, but decorator is not one of them. I have no clue what goes with what or what looks good with something else. All of the walls in our house are...white. No lie...

I knew I wanted the walls to be purple. Duh. But I didn't know what shade or anything. I went to Rhonda's last week (she was the jewelry show!). Her dining room was purple! Be still my heart! It was a darker purple on the bottom, with a white chair rail & then darker purple & lighter purple stripes up top. UHM-stripes are WAAAAAY too much trouble so I thought about doing the darker purple on bottom, painting a white stripe for the chair rail (hello, I'm cheap!) & a lighter purple on top!

But THEN I was talking to the girls I work with & I was telling them how I wanted the office to be purple & purses. And one of them suggested finding a purse border for the chair rail. Oh, I heart that idea! So I went out trolling the internet to find a super cute purse border! This is what I found! I love it! Sadly, it was $36/spool & I need 3 for my room. Gulp. BUT-my jewelry mom read on facebook about me looking for purse borders & she sent me a link for a purse border. It was the.exact.same.border only on a different website! Great minds think alike! And even better - it was only $17/spool!

Yesterday, B-rad & I went to Home Depot to look at the purples. These are the cards I chose for now. I want to wait for the border to get here so I can match up the purples from it! My fav right now is the one on the right. Probably the bottom purple for the bottom & the 2nd or 3rd one down for the top. (The bottom looks MUCH darker in this pic. Trust me - it's an awesome purple...)I spent about 3 hours working in the office on Saturday morning cleaning out papers, papers & more papers. We have SO much crap! Not only do I have jewelry stuff in there - I keep paperwork for the farm there too! I am in paper hell! I had stuff dated back in 2000 & 2001! That crap went straight to the garbage! (Don't tell my brother-in-law though... He hasn't asked for anything like that in years, but if he knew I threw it away he'd have an aneurism!)

B-rad suggested that we get a new desk. The desk we have now is not really conducive for 'work'. We bought it when we moved in (11 years ago...) & it was just a spot to house a computer & a printer. So I decided if I'm doing this - I'm going ALL out! Go big or go home! B-rad suggested I get an 'L' shaped one & I liked that idea!

I looked on Office Depot.com & the desks were reaaaaaaly expensive. And it was hard to tell what you got because each piece cost different things! We stopped in at Staples Saturday night to look around & I found one I really liked! It is all billed as one piece. It was $340. I didn't think that was too bad considering the ones at Office Depot were in the $700 & up range! There was a sale that ended that night on the hutch. If you bought the desk, you got the normally $200(!) hutch for...for... FREE! Yee-haw!Next, B-rad decided we needed a new chair. Ours is broken. And office chairs are crazy expensive! It's a little ridiculous! We went through all the chairs & most of them were in the $250-$300 range. Are you freaking kidding me?! Then I found this gem: regularly $289, on sale for $189. Come to momma...
A-ha, there was a catch! When we got to the register, the chair was going on sale the.next.day. They had just already put the tags out. Hhhmmmm, so I asked in my bestest, most nicest voice while batting my eyelashes - since we were buying the desk AND the chair, could they go ahead & give us the sale price? Uhm, YEA they did. Staples is awesome-sauce (& batting your eyelashes at the male manager totally helps!!)

I have quite a bit left in the office to do before we can get the old desk out & the new one in. Right now its still in the box in my dining room. Office makeover day is set for March 19th. B-rad & I have some prep work to do to the walls before we paint them as well. I am SO excited about it. I think if I have my OWN space (where B-rad is not allowed...) & it's a pretty room I will enjoy working in there more!

We also went yesterday to buy B-rad his own laptop. We've been sharing mine & that's just not working. He uses the computer for field yield stuff from the combine & it seems whenever he needs the computer I do too. Now we each have our own so we don't fight. We also went back to Staples for that. I told the manager because they were so good at working with me - we wanted to bring back our business! (Plus they don't charge you to set up a new computer - Best Buy charges $70!)

I did take 'before' pics of the office. And they're baaaad. I mean reaaaaaaly bad. I almost don't wanna show you. I said almost...

Stay tuned - I'll have them in the post after the office glamour work is done!