The Past Six Months

Well, a lot has happened in the past six months, so much that I feel it's easier to sum up with pictures instead of words.

My job is going great! I enjoy being an activity assistant CNA and interacting with the residents. I plan on staying here until graduating with my RN degree years from now.

We adopted a dog - his name is Rusty. He was 9 months when we got him. He now is 1 year and 3 months. He is supposedly an australian shepherd mix. We think he is a lab mixed with something but don't know quite yet. He is a handful at times… we're trying to train him. He is able to do tricks such as roll over, lay down, speak, praise, sit, stay, give the paw, high five, and be quiet. Although, the quiet one is rare.  We are training him how to play dead next. He enjoys playing with the neighborhood dogs by running around and chasing each other. He is friendly with all dogs and loves the dog park.

Visited my grandfather for the first time since he passed. His stone was not there yet.

We did a lot of updating of our home inside and out.  On the outside, in the front,  we removed the front landscaping and adding in our design with new plants and flowers. In the back, we planted flowers on one side of the fence and in the back wall we added a row of bushes that will grow tall to allow privacy and reduce sound from the road beside us. Our next step is to add flowers on the other side of the fence. On one side of our house, we removed the grass and added in some flowers with mulch. We plan on removing the other side and lay down rocks. Also, along the back porch, we added a rock border.
A major change to the yard, is grass! When we moved in, there was no grass. That was the first thing we put in after the landscaping.

Front of the house before and after. The front porch is now all painted white. 

The back is hard to see where we planted the flowers along the side of the fence from the angle I took. 

The inside we hung up pictures, changed a few minor details. Nothing too major. Once all that was completed, we had our house warming party and it was a hit!

Matt went to school full time and I started school as well to finish up my RN degree. We both finished this semester with A's! Next semester is soon to start in about 1.5 weeks

Signed up for Origami Owl - find me at bridgetlacey.origamiowl.com

My brother in law got engaged and they had finally had their bridal shower. 

Spent time with family out of state and family that lives close by.

Celebrated Brittany's Bachlorette Party

Ran the Neon Run - it was horrible.

Hubby had to have surgery to get his appendix removed

Celebrated my brother-in-law and Brittany's Wedding! They became the NEWEST Mr. & Mrs. Lacey

This picture is taken with my youngest brother-in-law, James

Us four girls can be trouble

The cousins

Hubby and I

my newest sister in law

The cousins again

Sisters with the mother

They became husband and wife!

Matt and I at the reception

Family picture

Celebrated my best friend, Trisha's bridal shower and bachelorette party

My best friend, Trisha got married

Their reception was just too cute

Run Nona 5k - awesome!

Thanksgiving with family

We grew pepper plants in the backyard. This is our first picked green pepper

Ran our first race together at the Reindeer Run Seaworld as a couple; also made my best time of 25:40 5k

For Christmas we both received a marathon and half-marathon ticket to the Space Coast Marathon from my parents

Our house lit up for Christmas

Since moving home, we have not regretted any decision making. We enjoy being close to family! We look forward to what the next year will bring us! Farewell 2013; 2014, We greet you.

DIY Spray Painted Monogrammed Doormat & Wicker Balls

Yesterday I spruced up some home decor that I purchased so it could go better with our home.

I bought these balls and bowl set together for $4 at a thrift store. Normally the wicker balls (6 in a set) range from $7 - $13 and the bowl could cost anywhere from $8- $10.   I already had the spray paint on hand from a previous project.

I don't have a before picture (I forgot) but the wicker balls were 2 different shades of green.

The other project I did was spray paint a doormat I purchased for $4.99 to add more of a "home" touch rather than a plain doormat outside. It was really simple to do so I didn't take pictures step by step.

Decide what you would like on your doormat. Cut out stencils either by hand or if you have a cricut machine; which, is what I have and used, pick the image and size. I laid the stencil on the doormat and taped it down. I made sure to cover what was not being sprayed because I didn't want to overspray areas. Then let it dry!

I already had the spray paint at home so this project was $4.99

Check out the step by step for my DIY Fourth of July wreath

Thrift Store Find

When Matt was deployed last year on a MEU, he went to many countries. While he was in port at Singapore, he bought this gorgeous china set for me. It's been sitting in a box in the closet ever since. We had no place to display it, so it just sat. Until a couple weeks ago when I managed to come across this beautiful heavy china cabinet at a thrift store. I text a picture to Matt since he's in California right now to share my excitement, and he was all aboard about it too. So, I bought it for only $140! That's what I call a steal!!

Now, the china cabinet sits in our formal dining room with the china he purchased for me, woo hoo!!  (no table yet, but it may come in the future) 

We don't plan on changing anything about it, except maybe the handles. This china cabinet is in really good condition.

Ignore my half body reflection. There is another row of china above but it had too much of my own reflection again, but you get the idea of it.




Pictures were taken on my cell phone.

A Few New & BIG Happenings

Well, I took a little hiatus because the Lacey household got a little busy the past month or two. I know I still wrote a couple posts regarding food recipes but I never shared any of the exciting news! So here we go from March! (Told you I am behind.. I'll try to make it quick)

In March we went to Florida for a visit with family, a birthday party…. and to house hunt. Yes, you read that correctly. Matt decided he wants to retire from the military so we can start our lives together, build a family, and focus on what he wants to do in life outside of the military. While the military has provided us a great beginning to our future, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time (and still does even at times it is a little nerve-wracking).  Well, we quickly got ahold of an AWESOME  broker through the VA to help us along on our first-time home buyer experience. He set us up with a relator in the area of Florida where we were looking to buy. We looked at a total of 7 homes.  The 6th home we looked at, felt so right. It was close to both of our parents and other family members, in a good school district (thinking about that future, ha ha), good size house - not to mention MOVE-IN READY!! Scary, we took the plunge and told our relator we want to put an offer in. It was a foreclosure so we were hoping to get lower than asking price. Offer came back, they hardly budge. So, again - another offer. Hardly budge again.. we weighed our options and discussed what we could afford, and decided to say okay to their second offer. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!  From there on, there were a lot of papers to be signed, documents to be read, papers to be faxed, money to be sent.. but about 30 days later, we were signing the official documents out in California (we flew back) on April 24, 2013. We were then new homeowners. It felt so great to have a house of our own that we could call a home. A home that will have our future pet and kids. A home where family can come over and celebrations can happen. A home where we will always be together! It seriously is still one of the best decisions I think we have made as a couple thus far.

Our last month, May, in the house on base felt like it dragged by. During that month: We ordered a fridge for the new house, I quit my job, I sorted out items for a yard sale, We both enrolled in school in Florida, and we started to prepare for our move by canceling services.
Yard sale day came the weekend prior to us moving.. it wasn't that huge of a success as I thought it would be, so I ended up packing it away for a yard sale in Florida.

and relaxed a bit

Moved out of base housing and began our move on Fri, May 31. Along the way we stopped and stayed with my sister, nieces/nephews 1 night. We arrived at our home on Mon, June 3. We made really good timing, and again - it was a nice road trip but we were so happy it was over too, haha.

Matt has not retired yet from the Marines, so he was on leave for a couple weeks to help with the moving process. During his time, he helped unpack boxes once the movers arrived, fixed the hose connection to the fridge, fixed the dryer connection to the wall, installed a garage door opener, fixed the  dishwasher and sink.  We went to get office furniture and set that up, as well as a few items for our home and set up all of our services. He really did help out a lot. I wanted him to stay because we just moved in but he had to go back to California for 3 more weeks (he will be back in 4 days now).

So, since my husband has been gone from June 10 until now June 28 I have been busy doing something every day. It has been exhausting but since he's left: Our fridge arrived, I bought and installed blinds, decorated the house, organized the bedrooms, bought a china hutch, changed the layout of the living room, sprayed the yard to start killing all the weeds for removal, and ordered curtains to hopefully have up before he comes home. I do have the picture frames laid out for him to hang when he returns! Haha, what a fun project (rolls eyes)

Not only the house stuff was accomplished. I managed to apply at 5 nursing facilities for a CNA position. I went on one interview, got hired on the spot but after further thought and research, I declined and decided I would rather take my chances to keep looking elsewhere.  Then just the other day, I got called in for an interview. I got hired on the spot, again. I accepted and so far I am happy with the decision I made. I will go in for orientation sometime soon and then start work.