Catch Up

I KNOW!!! I will catch up, I just don't know when. Pictures will follow.

Brief Rundown:

I'm no longer irritated at life, things are good.
My skin is looking great!
My bathroom: Big picture good, details not so much.

Please bear with me as I haven't been posting recently.

So Much to Catch Up On... Mainly Just Griping

I have now finished 11 days of Accutane. Unfortunately I don't know what are symptoms and what are my feelings from being removed from my bedroom for the past 9 days.

My first 2 days of Accutane were great, absolutely no problems. Day 3, huge irritation urges! I mean, EVERYTHING irritated me. My skin had already begun to flake and my make-up stayed with the flakes :( So, by 10:00AM my face had strips of make-up and redness. It was so upsetting and it irritated me. My mom told me at work that I would have to sit at the front desk, that irritated me. Kyle wanted to snuggle with me in the morning... that irritated me. It was awful. (Keep in mind, I was yelling all the things that irritated me while in my mom's office, and then I cried). So, by 11:45 AM I felt better. I researched skin care while on Accutane and I came across a WikiHow article! Best thing that has happened to me so far!!

Since then, my skin has not been flaky and actually has been glowing! My acne is getting a little better in some respects and worse in others. The amount of small pimples that I have been getting have lessened so my cheeks don't look so much like the Applachians. I am getting some bigger pimples, but they are at least not like a giant mountain among some smaller ones.

The rest of the work week went by without a hitch. I wasn't highly irritable, I haven't received headaches and my night vision seems to be fine. Kyle does say that I have been more agitated recently. Just a little bit, and my agitation rears its ugly head more often. Fortunately I don't feel depressed or want to withdraw from friends or family.

Saturday I started getting sick, so I took Nyquil. Sunday woke up still sick and with a terrible ache in my neck and shoulders. Monday, I still had that ache in my neck and I was miserable throughout the night! I hate my guest bedroom!!! I WANT MY BEDROOM BACK!!!! The bed sucks. It's at an incline and if you are on the crappy half you just roll to the middle and get in an awkward position, causing said kink in my neck.

Good news!!!

Accutane works by drying up all the oil glands in the body, which means... I don't have to wash my hair as often! I'm very excited about this!!! And also, I am moving back into my bedroom Saturday!!!!! Pictures of the bathroom and my face to come soon!

Vulnerable Moment Here

Okay, so not many people read this blog, which is why I'm going to share my journey with accompanying photos.

Since I was 12 years old I have had an issue with acne! What a beast those pesky red mini mountains are. Some of my first memories with acne is going into the 6th grade (I'm 11 years old here) I got to start wearing make-up before all my friends did. Cool, right? Well, I started wearing foundation at the age of 11 because of acne. In this same year I started going to the dermatologist. I will always remember the doctor saying, "I'm going to put you on this, however it might cause your teeth to turn yellow because we usually don't put people on this drug till they are 16." I also got a prescription for Retin-A at the same time. Retin-A made my skin so dry, especially around my nose, I thought my nose would fall off, and I was not as popular as Michael Jackson so I do not think I could pull off that look. I eventually quit using it, it wasn't working anyways.

Then, in 7th grade, there was this mean boy who actually said to me, "Ever heard of Clearisil?" Why yes, I had heard of it, and it sucked! I then found Proactiv. It worked wonders. At first it completely cleared up my skin, and then progressively did less and less for me, but kept it decently managable.

In 9th grade, my skin was still a pain to have. I hated it, and nothing seemed to really work. I then decided to go on Birth Control. Again, same as Proactiv, worked beautifully for quite a few years. I didn't have the "I hate looking in the mirror without my make-up" acne. Even though I still had at least 3 pimples at one time, I didn't mind it so much, I mean, I was still a teenager/early 20s after all.

Well, about a year and a half ago I decided that I was going to go off the pill, and stay off. If a kid happened, that would be amazing, if it didn't, well, I'm still young, but still too old for teenage-like acne. Well, a kid didn't happen, but what did happen is my face consistently bore more and more acne each day I was off the pill. What the CRAP!?!?! After this bout of acne I have decided that I have had enough.

Today, I started Accutane. When I tell people this they look at me and say, "Your acne's not that bad." I always think, that's because I have gotten good at my make-up, until the day goes on and it wears off.

Now, on to my journey. I will be taking pictures weekly to watch this journey, and for anyone who is thinking about going on Accutane they can see this and decide whether it's for them or not. Okay, here we go. Here are a few rare pictures. Not many people have seen me without my make-up on.

Week 1. I've been on the pill now for 2 months, so it has improved a bit.

Falkor from The Neverending Story

So, last night as Kyle and I were watching The Neverending Story, I realized how much I hate that dog/dragon. Everytime I see it, it grosses me out!!! What the crap is on his back? Does he have a disease, a bunch of puss bubbles? How GROSS!?!?!?!

Also, while watching the movie I realized that my husband knew the chorus to the theme song! He just sang it out as if he had just heard it on the radio 10 minutes ago. It was the funniest thing I had seen/heard all week!!!

In Honor of Valentine's Day

Here are some great Valentine toy fails from Walgreens:

This next guy wasn't a fail, but was just very funny in the store. It's a stripper Dalmation Dog

YAY for a New Bathroom!

So, I'm so excited to share with everyone that Kyle and I are remodeling our bathroom and I couldn't be more excited!!! Here is our list of things we are having done:

Vanity Painted Black
Mirror Taken Down and replaced with 2 black framed mirrors
Shower/Bathtub conversion into just a shower with subway tiles
Lights placed above each mirror
New Countertop
New Tile for Floor
Wallpaper removed and then walls painted
Crown Molding put up in our bathroom and bedroom
and Glass Blocked Window

Here are some pictures of the way it is now:

Here are our lovely linoleum floors

Here is my sink and MY counterspace

Here is Kyle's sink
Above our Mirror where the new lights, mirrors and crown molding will be
And this is our Shower/Bathtub/Toilet Room

Now, here is our new tile and mirror that I have purchased. I have also purchased everything else at Home Depot. Thank goodness for 12 months no interest and 10% off!

Easter is ONLY 2 months away

You might ask... Why is Erica saying that Easter is only 2 months away? Well, I am determined to make my Easter dress. This can be quite a feat because I still haven't made a Christmas present for my friend. I know how awful, but you see, I need a lot of time to make something.

Okay, before I get to my Easter dress let me start by saying, "I have done sooooo well with not spending money except on food!" I am so proud of myself, and I find out that spending money on clothes is kind of like a diet. For the first week all you can think about and want are sweets. Brownies, pudding, cake... heck, even just a small scoop of ice cream might do. Well, the same goes for a budget. For the first week all I wanted to do is spend money on anything and everything that I didn't need. Well, I think I'm past my fast!!! YAY!! Now I can move on with my life (for now). However, I know that once I start I won't be able to stop. Kind of like.... No I'm kidding. I'm done with examples (although I have many more that I could give).

Okay, back to my dress, which I know I just talked about how I don't need to buy anything and I'm so proud of myself, and yada yada yada ya... Well, I'm going to buy the pattern for my dress tomorrow. First off, it costs like a whopping $10.00, then I'm going to buy broadcloth or any super cheap cloth to make a first run dress so that when I cut into the beautiful fabric I'm going to buy to make this dress, I won't make any mistakes.

Okay, my Easter dress....

and the fabric that I'm thinking of right now for the body of the dress is...

and then I'm thinking that maybe for the ruffle collar would be something like what follows, probably not the exact thing because this fabric is expensive per yard and my guess is that I will need the maximum yardage to do the ruffle, so I'm going to try to find one close to this...

Confession

Yesterday I was talking about contentment and how I'm going to consume myself with that, right?!?! I can't believe that was just yesterday, oh how it has been a long 12 hours.

First, I'd like to report that I slept like a baby. I had nothing on my mind because I went to bed utterly content and had no home improvements on my mind.

Second, here is my confession... So, Haley and I decided that we were going to go to lunch at the Chick-fil-A at the Regency Mall and then just walk around the mall. We first made a stop at Kay Jewelers to check out Aubrey's ring, which is stunning. I cannot wait till it is on her finger, oh the excitement!!! Then we went into Belk's to see if they had any shoes that Haley would like to wear to Aubrey's wedding, well they didn't. After that we were heading out and decided to just stop into Express real quick. WELL...

My first point is that they were having a sale with an additional 40% off already reduced prices!!! So (and yes I'm still content with everything I have, I just want more to be content about), I found a super cute pink and red leopard print shirt that will look so cute with black pants and a black cardigan $19.99 with 40% off, then a blue under shirt (that are just great to have around the house) $9.99 with 40% off. I know, $12 and $6. Well, then I got up to the front to pay, yes I was buying clothes, he rung them up and the total was $10 and some change. The $19.99 shirt, only $5.99!!! So, although I feel a little guilty for buying clothes they were SUPER on SALE!!! But, these are the only items of clothing I'm buying this month.

When I stick to that it will be a major improvement from the $160 I spent last month! YAY ME!!!

Oh How I Don't Need... Well Anything

For all those who know me you will find nothing new about me in this blog, for those who don't know me, well, it's nothing groundbreaking.

I feel that this weekend I made a lot of progress. Here is why:

Everytime I decide not to spend money on clothes or accessories I consume myself with things I want to do to my house (see my blog from April 2009), like our bathroom. It's all I can think of, or at least that's how I feel. It went from changing the wallpaper to knocking down our bathtub and putting a tiled shower in it's place. If there is a surface in the bathroom I feel like recently I want to change it. However, we will be doing the shower sooner rather than later because we have been talking about doing that since we moved into the house. However, I move way too quickly. Kyle's still in the, "Let's talk about it" stage and I'm in the, "I already went to the store and now I'm thinking about going back and buying all the tile we would need" stage.

Well now, I've pondered everything over, and do you know what conclusion I have come up with? I'm happy. I don't need to change that bathtub that has worked now for a year-and-a-half without fail. I can wait till we have the money all saved up and then do everything (and by then I won't want to take all that money out of the bank, but we'll save that for another blog, that truthfully probably won't be written, because I love to spend money). I also came to the conclusion that I need absolutely NOTHING. I have everything I need and a whole lot more, and this is what I'm going to try to consume myself with, my contentment.

***Mushy Alert***

My favorite thing that I have is my husband. I'm thankful everyday for him.

Well, this is how I'm feeling right now, tomorrow who knows how I'm going to feel, but hopefully I won't be up all night thinking about the bathroom.

Good night.

Oh yeah! My best friend Aubrey is getting MARRIED! It still hasn't sunk in yet. She found her dress though and it is BEAUTIFUL. She's going to make a beautiful bride. Congrats!!!!!

Oh how I want...

Wow, without fail I tell myself that I don't want to spend any extra money this month, and you know what the first thing I want to do is? Yes, spend money. I forgot to add to my wishlist of things I want to save money up for, my bedroom. Since we moved into our house almost 2 1/2 years ago we have done nothing to our bedroom or bathroom (which is straight out of the 90's).

In the bathroom I'd like to get:
New Wallpaper
New Vinyl Flooring (just plain white)
New countertop

In the bedroom I'd like to:

Finish the trim around the windows
Paint the Bedroom
Add artwork to the walls, shelves, just things that will help with organization and make the place seem wonderfully warm and cozy.

Although right now I'm obsessing with it, I have waited 2 1/2 years. I CAN wait another month or two, right?!?! Well, I'm sure going to try. Now let me hear, "You can wait! You can wait!"

February Financing!

Wow, it has been a while since I've posted. My goal for the month of February is to not buy any clothing or accessories. I don't plan on cutting back on the eating out, but I definitely feel like I spend too much money, and on what!?! It's not that we are in debt, but I would love to buy some big ticket items and have some money saved up.

Things I want (My motivation):
(1.) 5 Months of Accutane + Doctor Visits
(2.) A New Washer and Dryer, much like this one. Oh how I would love it! 4.5 c.u. I could do all of our clothes in 3 loads instead of 8. I could fit all my same colored towels into the same load. Oh happy day! That would make my once-a-month laundry day so much more bearable. Now only if the dryer had a self-hanging system. I'm sure it would cost extra, but I would save up for that!

(3.) New living room furniture. I have a brand new lovely leather ottoman that I received for Christmas from my parents. However, not thinking, when I got rid of my coffee table where do I put my drinks. I have one end table but that just isn't enough. Also, I would love a love seat to go in there and a new recliner so that we can give my brother his beloved recliner back. My mom swears that he has never gotten over her giving it to me, whatever!

These are my goals! The accutane starts in February, so boy, lets get going! I know it sounds easy... "Erica, just quit shopping!" My problem, I just like buying new stuff. Because I have decided to spend less money here is what will happen:

Wake Up
Get out of Bed
Go to Closet... "What should I wear today? Nope, not that, or that, or that, etc... I have nothing to wear, I NEED..."

Because of this, if you see me in some weird new outfits, this is why. I'm just trying to revamp the wardrobe with which I am already blessed with. Good Luck, hope I come out looking good!