weekend warrior!!

The title of this blog is a bit wonky....
but basically we have a TO-DO LIST 10 miles long.
And in order to get through it all we gotta be weekend warriors!

Quit frankly I can't take the living room being out of order one more DAY!

Our floors are done,
the baseboards in,
the walls are done
but we still have painting-caulking-tiling
sanding-more painting and some additional flooring to do in our hallway.

I don't see us getting done by Monday.
This weekend was the weekend we were going to be working on the yard.
BUT I doubt we'll be doing that.

I just wish we could clone my husband.

Ow ow! How nice would that be?!

Not only could I get everything done on my Honey-Do List....

but I could have a non-tired husband for some husband/wife fun?! xoxox

(Did I just go there?!) Yes I did. 

I'm a married woman ;) I cant say that.  Anyway--I can't wait to show you the reveal.
I'm going to say by NEXT weekend we should be set.
Btw, we are also throwing a party in a few weeks--so I have to have things done!

Also-I must brag on my sweet baby--who is growing up EVERYDAY! (Where's my pause button?)
So my sweet Kie man, loves LOVES to clap and wave.  E X C E P T. . . . . . . 


He claps and says "da da da da" over and over.
Yes, every single time he claps he says his daddy's name.


Oh me oh my!


Hello, Kie baby!? Mommy is home with you all day! Care to make my heart flutter by saying "ma ma" instead?  It is ADORABLE. But it would be so sweet and nice if he just said my name?


Selfish? 


Nooooooo...
Just honest.   Alright I gotta go-we're gearing up to head to the museum today.


Until next time,


-HK-

Lil Bit of....MESS!

Care to see the current condition of the Knuth household?!

Don't judge.




Ok, you can judge.




It's bad.

And if you're blessed with a house from the 80's---then you'll understand.
Or the 70's? I'm not real sure when brown shag carpet and wood panels were in?
I digress....

ENJOY the pictures....
(but please come find me in a week or two to see the FINAL reveal!)
And remember--we are remodeling on a b u d g e t .
We're a one-income family with a husband that already works 80 hour weeks....
and as much as I'd love to have some money trees growing in the back yard-we are fresh out.

Anyway--here is the house b e f o r e pictures...

like I warned it's pretty awful...

*this was actually taken in December--because I don't have a picture of one of the walls before we started our renovation. (Notice the very VERY small 5 week old in my arms?)

side door to house

one of the back doors

TV/entertainment area

this is an old picture because we no longer have the BROWN recliner.  Yes,  brown dominated our house!

did I mention we needed to fix our ceiling as well?

so much brown you can hardly SEE the black chairs...

take note of the always stylish brown carpet

other side---also brown! excuse the ladder...

a little white paint here and there (the fun has started)
-foreground-ipad, Gerber puffs and Boppy

good bye brown paneling I won't miss you!!

oh yes, here's our lovely shelve system--ignore the neon blue lights they won't be there long

no more brown carpet but look what we found underneath!? 
Good day yellow linoleum... who ever thought going from the yellow linoleum to the brown shag?

we should of just stopped here and kept this--so inviting!

our sweet friends came by to give us a hand with some painting
-Kie is just hanging out with his dad-
*we didn't leave him in the paint room long-just a few minutes to snap a picture

Our floors are FINALLY down (no baseboard yet)

Oh and here is where our furniture has been the last few days---guess it's a good thing it never rains.

baseboards I've been painting (at least our yard looks better than the house)

And our work area-where all the cuts we make.
(Notice all the wake boards?)

Sooo there you have it.

If you are BLESSED with brown panel walls like we had--then you understand and feel my pain.
There's not much that looks good with it.
Our house is old and needed a face lift...however we are on a limited budget.

 And so we have done all the work ourselves. 


 And we never use a credit card (cash only-thanks Dave Ramsey!) so we have to get crafty when it comes to fixing things up.

 Anyway--come back soon to see the finished product.  I'm praying that in two weeks we will be back up and running again.

Until next time,

-HK-

life without

This past week has been an interesting week...
we went a WEEK without TV! 
Initially I was so sad because I was missing all my shows.
(Goodbye Teen Mom, Housewives--and countless other shows--Modern Family and the Middle...)
But after the first day I realized how MUCH I got done without the tube being on.
Kie and I went on tons of 'day trips'--we had better quality play time and nights home with Justin were great.
We worked together as a team on the living room--dinners were spent catching up and relaxing.
We even enjoyed our patio and deck more because we sat outside to eat. (All our furniture is also outside!)

We also spent a few days without A/C...
That time wasn't AS enjoyable as the no TV deal.
But luckily we have friends and family that let me and Kie come over for his afternoon naps when it was hottest.
And the nights weren't so bad because we made a pallet on the floor all together and slept with fans.
It was as though we were camping :)
Luckily the no A/C situation was short lived.
Our A/C unit just needed a minor fix...


And we also went a week (and counting) without a living room.
Our living room is the HUB of our house.
It's where we eat, play, hangout and it is Kie's playground.
He can't be in there at all because there is no floor.
Yep, NONE!
So we've roped off that part of the house (the biggest part of our house)
and have cornered Kie into just his room--the guest room and on occasion he gets to be in our room.

It's weird how much you use or need things when they are gone.
Obviously the A/C --out of the 3-was missed the most.

Life has been a whirlwind for us these past few weeks.
The progress that has been made is astounding.
I realize I'm babbling--I just have been waiting for SO long to get rid of our dark-dingy, gross brown living room.

I will show you some before pictures on the next post ---
I can't wait to reveal the finished product.

Alright---I'm wrapping this up.
We are in the midst of laying down real, hard wood floors (not the laminate kind.)
You know the solid-fall-and-hit-your-head-going-to-make-a-bruise-flooring....
Yes, not ideal to babies that are pulling themselves up on every piece of furniture....
But luckily I bought him the whole foam lettered flooring you see at daycares or nurseries in church.
They are super soft and comfy for babies on the move.

Ok-I'm off to finish the floors (let's pray we lay them all down today)
And I'm going to be painting baseboards...
and starting my wall decor project as well.

I thank God everyday I have a house.
Be it an old house that needs a lot of TLC.
Just makes life more fun...
And makes us both appreciate our little home more.

Hope everyone is having a blessed Sunday.

Until next time,

-HK-

looking out the window

Mario and Kie playing at the Austin Children's Museum

still learning to play together

Kie man on the move

He never sits still.

buddies

Mario working on his legs.

3 sweet babies on the go

love these sweet boys

besties

bubble blower

happy baby

love this cutie

mommy's best friend

my wreath I made

5+ Year Plan?!

BONJOUR!
So I'm finally making the TIME to make my announcement.
LIFE has been crazy but good.
BUSY and productive.
(Oy our countless house projects!)

But I'm pausing it for a bit (while the baby naps) to catch up on things.

So my news is....DUN DUN DUN....
I'm going back to school!
Not anytime soon.
And I'm not going back for my masters like I planned (maybe in 10 years?)
But to go to beauty school.
Not to be a cosmetologist...have you seen my hair lately?
To be an e s t h e t i c i a n .
I love, love skin care and skin products.

I have been obsessed with facials and skin products since I've been 12-13 years old.  (I guess when you hit puberty and your face goes to the pits)!
Anyway--I've always been a lucky and blessed gal that's been pampered with facials, massages and spa treatments at a young age.
I don't tell you this to make you roll your eyes and stop reading my blog...
You see, my dad wasn't the BEST at saying "I love you" or "I'm sorry"---nor was he good with girls.

He comes from a family of 5 boys and ONE girl.

So he was a bit clueless about making a little girl happy.
However he did know my MOM loved getting massages and facials...so he would also treat me while he treated mom.
So I got spoiled early.  (Early as in 14 years old or so).
And I LOVED how these women would make me feel.
I would always feel so relaxed, happy and great about my skin after a facial or a treatment.

Anyways--fast forward a few years later and I finished up my bachelor's in my dream field of radio-television and film.

I felt as though the world was my playground!
I had worked for a huge NBC sitcom for a few years--
also worked as a television host on a series that ran in Austin--
I worked for ESPN radio for awhile
and I also got to venture in the marketing and promotional world of SPORTS.
I had a blast at my jobs--and life was great and it was fast paced!

I had to work late nights-LONG hours--and I had to mix and mingle and rub elbows with everyone.
Now fast forward to now--
I'm married with a sweet, loving baby boy.

Needless to say, my world changed.
I don't want to be going out on the town.
I don't want to be working LONG hours (days or nights).
I don't care to rub elbows or brown nose.
I don't care about climbing the career ladder.

But what I DO care about is,
having an open and flexible schedule.
I want to be able to make time for family and t-ball games.
I want family first....instead of career.

Luckily I'm BLESSED to be a stay at home mom---yet one day I would like to to return to work and help out with the finances.
This would be when Kie is in school.
(Or when our last child starts schools.)

Originally I wanted to get my teaching certification and teach kindergarten (just like my sweet mom).
I love children and I wanted the summers off. 
But then TEXAS had the worse year for teachers.
Budgets were slashed all across the state and THOUSANDS of teachers lost their jobs.
Finding a teaching job would be IMPOSSIBLE around Austin.
Maybe not impossible but it would be extremely hard with all the budget cuts.


THEN I thought...
What else do I love?
Because I don't want to just GO to work to pay bills.
I want to ENJOY what I do.
I want to love it.
I want to be in a stress-reducing environment (is any place besides the beach and home stress free?!)
I want to make other's happy
(I want to save lives but I don't have the stomach for the medical field).
I want to be happy....


Maybe a massage therapist?
I talked to my own massage therapist very seriously about his career.
He reminded me how hard it is PHYSICALLY to give massages.
And that there's a chance I could possible get a client I may not want to touch.

TRUE!
Thanks for the reminder.
Now to think again...

And then it hit me!
Helloooooo skin care?!
I love skin products, I love learning (I wouldn't of ever left college if I could of helped it).
I LOVE SPAS....
WHERE DO I SIGN UP!?


If I really wanted to go into the medical field I could get my license in that as well...and do botox and that sort of thing. (Yet needles aren't really my cup of tea.)

So here I am.
I want to go to SKIN CARE SCHOOL.

Luckily I live in a city that has tons of great schools.
A lot of the schools offer part time classes--at evenings and weekends.
--to get my esthetician certification I'd be in school roughly a year.
(this is part time).

I think it would be a great career because I could schedule my own clients--
so if there's a t-ball game or soccer game or band concert or whatever that I need to make it to--I want to know I WILL BE THERE!

I also think working in a spa environment--where people come to relax and de-stress is a great place to go to work everyday.
No cubicles, no harsh fluorescent lights...

Ahhhhh I'm relaxing already :)

I'm not looking to start school anytime SOON--
but I have been looking and touring schools around here.

Ideally I would be a stay at home mom and get paid for it.
(And not just by my husband).
But I know one day I'll have to get back out in the job world.
And I know there's a time and a place and a season for all that...
So I've been prepping myself and we started saving for tuition for me.

I'm excited but I'm not wishing away time.
Because in this moment and season of my life 
I'm very, very happy being a SAHM.

I feel blessed to be with Kie everyday--to teach and show him things.
And to watch him learn.
But I thought I'd share what I have on the horizon---be it 5 years from now or more.

Alright--I hear my husband with the power tools in the living room.
I gotta get to work.

I'll post pictures of what we've been up to in the Knuth household on the next blog!!

Until next time,

-HK-

Beach Vacation Picture Overload!!!

And that's just a FRACTION of the pictures I have!

UPDATE POST COMING SOON!

-HK-