Get'n $h*t Done Up In Hurr!

Ok, so I left off letting you know I was single!! Yea.... that didn't last long. Hehe I know what you are thinking, moving on a little quickly aren't we? But honestly, I was so unhappy for so long that it doesn't feel like a rebound or anything. It's nice to have someone who you can tell actually cares about you. BUT, I wont continue to gush about him, so I'll get to mi casa!

I got the main areas of my house painted grey and I love it! (eating area, living room, hallways) I am not done painting trim yet but all the trim and doors will be white!  You can see the original color in this post.

 I need a new back door BAD; it's hideous and old and black and loud and ugh......The picture below, I found on Pinterest and have been obsessing over it for a while now. I eventually want to get white french doors put in but I love the idea of curtains and the shelf for the back door instead of those nasty big blinds that always fall off and break.

So here is the start of my back door!!!!! We went to Lowe's and Wes just bought some anchors and screws and who am I kidding?? I have no idea what he bought. I'll take a picture up close to show you how he made this curtain rod for cheap. 

I got these curtains at target for $25 each. I love them, they look like a potato sack close up.

So next we are going to use pallet wood to cover the anchors (or whatever you want to call them) , paint them white and add a shelf on top!

Now on to other $h*t...

First off, I just wanted to show of this old kerosene lantern Wes found on the side of the road and knowing how much I love rustic/primitive decor, brought it over for me! OBSESSED! 

I want everything pallet! While making shelves for my basement out of pallets, and a tub caddie thing (next post) he had this piece left over. Meh..... Why not!?

So we stained it dark walnut, which it came out a little darker than expected but I love it with the dark frames against the grey! EEK!

Here is just a mason jar I fancied up for my friend Vicky. She's always sending me pictures of things she wants me to make and I love crafting so there ya go! 

For this I used fabric tape on the top, and hot glue for the lace and twine. I always put a little dot of glue on the loops of the bow so they will stick up instead of just looking drab.

Sooo, decorating wine bottles is super easy, and quick. 

I use Elmer's glue to place the yarn on the bottles. I just cover a couple inches, starting from the top, and start spinning. Make sure to end each color on the same side as the others and that will be the back. I also used fabric tape in there as you can see!

Ok so I DO NOT have a green thumb whatsoever! I'm terrible at keeping plants alive, BUT I have always wanted to grow lavender. (hence the blog name) I want to dry it out and hang it in bundles around the house. Anywho, as a surprise, Wes bought me lavender and sage seeds to germinate and grow myself; along with all the fix-ins and that hanging plant as well. I am soooo excited! I stare at them everyday. The lavender is taking a while to come up but the sage is BOOMIN!

 I am sooooo happy with how my house is finally getting to where I want it. I honestly could not have done this with out the amazing support I have had these past few months! Thank you everyone!

XOXO,

Rachel

Oh boy....

LOTS to catch up on!

Some good!
Some bad...
Some sad.

Lets start off with all of that rolled into one! I LEFT RICKY! Or I guess I should say I kicked his ASS out! We were together 2 years. 2 FRIGGIN YEARS! Before him I had not even made it 10 months. I am soooo happy to be out of that relationship but the hardest part is Shaylee. I miss that little girl so much. I loved her with all my heart and would have done anything for her. I still think about her everyday and it breaks my heart to think of the lies her father is feeding her.

 I'll be honest and tell you, he was abusive. Mentally, Emotionally, Physically abusive. DO NOT ever put up with any of that. No one deserves to be treated that way, especially when you tried your hardest to always make the other person happy and all they do is constantly bring you down. I am so much better off without him but it is still very hard because all I knew was him and his ways for 2 years. I will tell you I am far from perfect and I had my faults in the relationship but that still does not give you an excuse to treat someone that way.

He had bought me a laptop so I could start blogging and do my own thing. Problem was, I never had time. Everything was for him and about him. Now that I am single and living alone hopefully I will be able to keep this promise to myself! I love crafting and cooking and fashion and love in general. This will help me a lot to get past my hurt and anger and be able to move on and be me again! I have really been able to see who my true friends are since all of this has happened. I am making sure to edit those bad people out of my life and save the good ones. I will get past this and I am doing everything I can to be a better person again and believe in myself. I know this post was pretty random and confusing I just had to put something. I assure you this will not be a depressing blog!

XOXO,
Rachel

So Much To Say....

Seriously.... I cant be consistant with anything! Eating healthy, exercising, BLOGGING! I suck. BUT I do have a few updates:

-Since I was last here it has been my birthday, I am now 28 HOLY SHITE! Im old :( and for my birthday Ricky took me on a float trip! Love it down on the North Fork of the White, So Beautiful! It is definitly worth the drive. While we were down there we were pulling up on shore and we found this cute little Chihuahua on the shore. Well these people proceeded to tell us that they found her on the side of the road without tags or anything. With us having already kicked back quite a few by this time ;) we said SURE! So now we have Lucy (70 lb. Pitbull) and Bella (8 lb. Chihuahua) Lord Help us!

-My friend, Kristen had her wedding and it was a great time! It was suppose to rain that day but it ended up being perfect! Not even too hot. She looked GORGEOUS as always! I am so happy for her and Chris!

-We are redecorating the townhome! Man does it need it. Even when I moved in the carpet was gross and stained but now that we've brought the dogs in, it is terrible! So new carpet, new paint, new decor, new beds, repurposing dressers, new crafts for around the home, making headboards and more! SOOOOOO excited we just started on it this weekend and we want to go ahead and get shays room painted and carpetted and get it done with. Well seeing as how the trim and doors are pre-treated/stained... it took ALOT of paint just to do her trim and door. 4 coats all around some places 5 ugh! Thats all we got done though haha but that is ok because this is our first time doing this so we want it to look good. Do it room by room, floor by floor, mistake by mistake :)

 

This is the first sample... a little too dark and blah

 

THIS IS THE ONE!!

This is my living room.

That is the color of the ENTIRE house. It's not bad but looking through all these amazing blogs I want MORE MORE MORE! If you look up to the left you can see the color of all the doors and trim. The actual handle part of the bannister is white so we will retouch that and paint underneath (because the previous owners did not?) keep the spindels wood and paint the bottom white. I'm also thinking a pallett wall or something neat for that high wall up there. What do you think? not sure what color i want to do in this area. But I have alot of ideas for decor and making it all look rustic.the people who owned it before me were eager to sell this place so they half assed their paint job. TERRIBLE. but I think all of this will be good for me and Ricky. Something new, fresh and to keep us busy during the racing off season! 

So exciting my brain is like TOTALLY OVERFLOWING!!!

OH MY GOODNESS! I almost forgot to mention... I got a new job EEK! This Saturday will be my last day at Arvest Bank and Monday I will be starting my new job at Canopy Insurance as a Licensing Coordinator. I am so excited for the new opportunities this will bring me. It's 8-5 Mon-Fri. So finally normal working hours again! I already went shopping for my new job but I definitly am not done! This is a great position for me,  it's actually a career and I feel like I am finally starting my life out!

Well I will keep you all updated on the house and my job  and hopefully get my camera screen fixed so I can take better pictures!

Clean Eatin'

I really, really, really want to be healthy. I just dont feel like I am. Yes I am skinny but that doesnt mean I am in shape! I use to be ALOT skinnier with no butt whatsoever but I've finally started putting on some weight so now I have a nice butt hehe! but my stomache isn't as flat anymore :( I would really like to have nice flat abs, maybe even a little 6 pack. So I will be joining 9 rounds and going to start eating clean. I've been to 9 Rounds once and I LOVED it! You are in and out in 30 mins. There are 9 different stations around the room and each station has 3 different work outs such as one station had sumo squats, jump rope, and jumping jacks. Every station is different and you are at each station for 2 or 3 mins doing what the board says until the buzzer goes off and you move to the next! One thing I like is the stations change everyday so you arent doing things over and over. The big thing right now seems to be body building or bikini contests.... Yea... uhmm... no thanks! I'd rather not be bigger than my boyfriend. But anywho I want to start eating healthy and clean. So I've been doing research and looking up things for clean eating beginners. I'm not the best at deals but Ricky is, so hopefully he will do good with healthy food today at the store. Last night was my first attempt:

-Sweet Peppers and Onions: laid aluminum foil down sprayed some pam, sliced the peppers and onions and sprinkled with greek seasoning. wrapped it up likea  bag and cooked it in the oven at 450 for 25 mins.
-Strawberries: Raw
-Brown Rice with Black Beans, Green Chilies and Diced Onion: Instant Brown rice,  half a can of canned black beans (rinsed a few times) Canned green chilies (drained) and sauteed onions.
-Parmesan Crusted Tilapia: Pre Made at Hy-Vee 2 filets for $6 and you save 6 cents per gallon!!

Yes Yes I know I know.... the wine isn't a good choice but I thought it would pair nicely with the fish. Trying to be fancy and all but the wine was only $4.99 a bottle! WOOP WOOP

My friends keep begging me to do fashion posts but I dont have a good camera, just my phone, and
the lighting in my bedrooms suck. But I will see what I can do!

Any of you have any tips on clean eating or recipes? Let me know!

ASCS 360 Sprint Car

No one is probably too interested in this but I just want to share what goes on in my life!

Ricky races an ASCS 360 Sprint Car on circle dirt tracks. Every track is different in size, width, length, etc.

Last year was his first year in a 360 and we did not have very good luck. We blew 3 motors in 3 races. EXPENSIVE! But this year we have a new crew chief and everything is running great! Except the fact that people keep getting in Rickys way! Ricky is a natural! He has raced all kinds of different things his entire life; 4-wheelers, go-carts, dirt bikes, A-Mods, 600 Sprints and more! He knows what he is doing but this year we have not been able to finish a race because someone either spins out and hits him, runs into him, spins him out, etc. BUT! Finally this last Sunday at Double XX Speedway in California, MO He finally got his chance! I am a nervous wreck when he is out there. It is a 750hp car (almost like nascar) and going about 100 mph or faster (depending on the track) I can barely watch but I have to! I have to film it. ANYWHO!

At the track you first have hot laps- Just a few cars out at a time for a couple laps to get some heat in the engine make sure everything is running ok, the right gear, etc.

Then there are Heat Races-  You draw a number and it places you in your heat race. This is a race to get your place in the feature show (A Main)

(I'm still not the best at this whole Racing thing, but I'm trying and learning!)

A Main- This is the Main Event of the Night for that certain Class of cars

So Sunday (5/18) he started 7th row outside (14th) dodged a couple of wrecks and ended up finishing 10th out of 20 cars!! So proud of him! It feels good to not have to work on the car for once and just wash it for the next weeks race!

 

This is Ricky's Car and Truck!

 

Next post will have crafts and such in it I promise!

 

Til next time! XOXO

 

 

STL



 

Back at the end of March Ricky took Shaylee and I to St. Louis to see SuperCross! SOOO MUCH FUN!! The only time I've been to STL is to the airport so it was really cool to see everything! I had never even seen the Arch so we planned on going up in it and waited an hour just to realize it'd be ANOTHER hour until our turn and we had to have Shay back so we didn't have enough time. But it was still neat to see the museam and the actual Arch!

 

 

 

 

 

At SuperCross 2014!!

 

The Arena!

 

Our ride to the Arch!

 

Shaylee's selfie at the Arch!

Tomorrow I've already planned to be ALLLL about RACING!! Woop Woop!

Til Tomorrow..... XOXO

Lucy Lou-er

Alright so I'm still not doing good at keeping up on this! SOWY! But I'm here now!

Lots to catch y'all up on but I dont want to over load you so I'll spread it out (hopefully) through the next couple days! :)

MY LUCY LOU!

 My dad lives on a couple acres on a busy road. We usually just let her run free because she never goes in front of the house towards the road. Well one night I noticed her up by the road a few times and I called her back. Well later on I looked away for a minute or two, went to check on her and couldn't find her. I started yelling for her and running towards the road where I could see cars slowing down, stopping, and getting out. I asked them if it was a dog and they said yes so then I started running back to the house screaming bloody murder for Ricky. He came running and told me to get inside. As soon as I walked through the door I collapsed, praying, bawling, not knowing what to think or expect. One of the people that stopped had Ricky follow her to the Animal Hospital, which was super nice. 

 

At the hospital Lucy was sedated, given painkillers and put into an oxygen tank. Ricky then came and got me and headed back to the hospital. We either had a choice of leaving her at the hospital over night and seeing how she does or bringing her home and hoping for the best. Well we took her home, made a pallett on the living room floor to sleep with her and waited. It is a friggin MIRACLE! By the next day she was just about back to normal!! Eating, Drinking, Jumping, Barking, etc.

I'll tell you what, if Lucy was not a pitbull with her big, huge head, she probably wouldn't have survived. The lady said the driver hit her and she went flying 20 ft (which the driver did not stop GRR!) and all the impact was in her head! I prayed and prayed and prayed for my baby to survive and she is still here :) Thank God!

 

ANYHOW......

 

Sorry for the depressing story! Just something major in my life that I thought I'd share! So I'll just go ahead and leave you with anthoer recipe today:

 

 It's my go-to. Ricky and Shaylee LOVE IT! It doesnt have a name but when I explain it to people I guess it is like a shepherd's pie? Never had it... Anywho!

 

Ingredients:

1lb. Hamburger

1 Can Corn

1 Can Green Beans

1 Can Tomato Soup

1 Package of Instant Mashed Potatos

1 Packet of dry onion soup mix

Shredded Cheese

Any cassrole dish will work. I use a deep glass one 

 

Directions:

-Preheat Oven to 375

-Brown Hamburger and drain grease, once drained sprinkle on packet of soup and mix

                 (During this you can make the mashed potatos)

-Put hamburger in bottom of dish

-Drain Corn and spread on top of meat

-Drain Green Beans and spread on top of corn

-Spread Concentrated Tomato Soup on top of Green Beans

-Spread Mashed Potatos on top of Soup

-Place in oven for 30 mins, the last five minutes sprinkle cheese over the top and place back in oven until melted

 

...and VOILA!!! We eat big portions around my house so usually if the 3 of us are eating it, there is not much left. But the leftovers are just as good!

 

I also like to serve it with crescent rolls!

 

Let's see if i can keep this up for tomorrow ;)