Kiera's Own Extreme Home Makeover:

I'm a pile-er...I'll admit it.  When Josh and I were first married, he sweetly and reluctantly asked if I had a "plan" for the large pile on the stairs.  I lied and said, "of course!"  Many years and many "Kiera Piles" later, the issue was still the same.  This past week, my not-so-subtle-hubby brought a dumpster to our alley.  No...I'm not joking. It was time to purge.  The whole 3 kids in 3 years thingy, an entire 3rd grade classroom in our garage, childhood memories, old family hand me downs etc were starting to take over our lives.  We never took anything out, we only added to the mess.  I recently told a friend of mine that in the last 4.5 years, I've never sat down to watch a show/movie without feeling some sort of guilt...there was always something that needed to be done.  I've always felt that if I could get everything sorted out, and start from zero again, that I would find a system to keep everything maintained and cleaned.  At least that is my hope!

So now, the dumpster has been filled, the kids' clothes have been sorted, the teaching materials have been organized, the attic has been de-cluttered, the piles have been filed, the walls have even been repainted.  Ahhhh...I can breathe a bit better now.  I still have a few things that I need to clean out (old film stuff), but for the most part, we are pile-free.  My hubby is a do-er, and I am so grateful for that.  I truly believe we marry people that will help us in the places that we are weak and encourage us to be better (even in not so subtle ways :o)  I definitely needed a kick in the pants, and I feel freer because of it.  And the more freedom we have in our lives...the more time we have to do things that we love...like take pictures of our children (see above picture)

Since I didn't have the heart to take some before and after pictures....here are some precious memories that will either make you laugh because you had them too or they bring back great memories...or you may cry, because you realize the amount of crap that I've kept all these years :o)

This was one of four that I found thank you very much. I especially love Donnie's overalls :o)

Johnny Depp...before the Oscar buzz...if you've never heard of 21 Jumpstreet, you're dead to me...

Check back to tomorrow to find out what amazingness is in this glass...I know...you can hardly contain yourself!