michelle's blog

new blog

2011-06-18T20:51:00.001-07:00

Hi!

I have a new blog. Please come visit me there!!!

www.lifebygrace.com

random

2011-01-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

So. . . I can't find the camera cord again. Kind of a common occurrence. . . and I don't usually lose things. Just have a problem with the camera cord. I even gave it a designated home. . . but it's not there. Not that you care, but you'll know when I find it because I'll post pictures. We've got some dang cute ones in the camera to share.

Started back at work last week. Jonathan's daddy experience is going well. Evie has figured out when I am at home and gets up ever two hours or so in the night again (she was nearly sleeping through the night before). Bummer. Work is crazy busy which I think is a blessing- I hardly have time to miss her until I get home. I like retail because of the cycles. . .and January/February is a great time in the cycle (I think).

I am itching to paint our family room. And get new carpet. And buy furniture. And. . . what's with me? I don't have time or money for all that.

We got netflix this past week. Talk about a time sucker. Maybe it's because I have no self control and am re-watching the first season of Grey's. Yup. . . that's more likely the problem.

Evie talks all the time. Sooo cute. Amazingly cute. Being her mom is pretty great.

Paper Red Shoes

2011-01-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

My friend Sam has a shop on etsy and sells her beautiful paper collages and paper boxes. I have one of her collages hanging in the dinning room and I love it. You should check out her shop here. This picture is of one of her collages titled Remember Me. I think it's lovely.

newborn pics

2011-01-01T10:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a small selection of our favorites of Evie's newborn pictures. They were taken when she was 10 days old by meg. If you're a fan of meg's and dying to see all 50 some odd pictures you will just have to come visit us to see them :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful New Year's day. We are thankful to finally all be healthy (knock on some wood people) after a bought of the flu following Christmas at our house. I am hoping 2011 brings good health to our household because 2010 was defiantly marked by doctor's offices and hospitals. Thankfully it was also marked by the addition of the little bug pictured above which makes 2010 one of the most precious in our lives.

van winkle visit

2010-12-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

Last week Jonathan's parents and sister came to visit us and meet their first granddaughter/niece. We had a lot of fun catching up and playing a family favorite, chicken foot! We even went out to dinner (a first with Evie) and she slept the entire time-in her car-seat (which she hates being in) so I was thankful. It was a very good couple of days and we are so thankful they made the trip.

Evie and Grandma all bundled up.

Grandpa tickling Evie. . . she is trying to decide what she thinks about that.

Aunt Alisha and Evie.

4 more sleeps until Christmas!

update

2010-12-20T17:16:00.000-08:00

all word posts should happen in color. makes the no picture part more better- i'll do this from now on.

I can't believe it's December 20th. The past couple of weeks have flown by. My dear friends Sam and Andy stayed at our house while they were here for her brother's wedding, Jonathan's parents and little sister visited, my Dad and Julie visited and I had a stay at the hospital and surgery today. Lots going on and 5 days until Christmas. I feel like yesterday was the first day of December.

If you don't know about the surgery. . . I will write about that first so their are no worries. I had surgery at noon today and was home at 4:30- seriously awesome. I feel fine (might be because I am a bit high right now from all the meds, but really I think I would feel okayish without them). So here's what happened. Remember how during my pregnancy I had 'heartburn' from hell-seriously. Well it turns out that 'heartburn' that responds to no medicines, lasts for 10+ hours, makes you vomit every 10 minutes, and makes you think maybe you can't handle having another baby isn't so much heartburn at all. It's gallstones. And you need surgery. Yup- I'm not crazy (I thought I was, like how could this hurt so much). So. . . on Wednesday this week I had 'heartburn' that was so awful I couldn't breath so I decided to pay my doctor a visit in the middle of heartburn. He had never seen me when I was having a gallbladder attack so when I said I had heartburn he took my word for it. Me sobbing and vomiting into his trash can caused him to ask some extra questions and then tell me I needed surgery. So we scheduled an ultrasound to double check the next day. In the meantime I went home (after a shot to make me stop vomiting) and was okay for about 3 hours. Then I got sick, very sick, again. After calling my doctor I ended up being admitted to the hospital that night. Turns out I was passing a stone into my Pancreas which gave me Pancreatitis. YESSSSS. Not so much. I spend a few days at the hospital. . . came home for a day . . . and had surgery today. I hadn't eaten solid food since for 6 days until dinner tonight. Food has never been so good. So that's the story.

I don't usually post things in detail like that, but I have a lot of people to call and tell that story to and it just seems a lot easier to tell the story all at once. Sorry if you didn't want to read that. I promise I left out all the not fun to hear details (except the vomit b/c that was kind of an important part of the story).

I will do some posts with pictures about all the visits this week. They are much more fun kind of posts!

Love you all and thank you to those who were praying for me today and this past week. God is good.

Disclaimer: if any of this doesn't make sense, i am on drugs as i write (as previously mentioned). i have no excuse for other posts not making sense, that's all me.

whatever

2010-12-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

Evie had newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago (they are adorable. . . I will post some favorites soon). For a sneak peak head over to whatever today (evie is the baby with all the hair).

baby bear

2010-12-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

This is by far our favorite picture of Evie thus far. . . so funny. She is yawning. . .but with the bear ears she looks like a roaring bear.

I gave Jonathan this onesie when we found out we were pregnant. . . it looked so small then.

And a couple of pictures with her eyes wide open. She spends a lot more time looking around now.

Jonathan is re-designing my blog (fun!) so I am looking forward to sharing my new blogs space and hopefully being a much more consistent blogger in 2011.

thankful 2010

2010-11-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

Better late than never (the mommy world has me behind on pretty much everything). . . this year's list.

In no particular order. . . and a totally incomplete list. . .

I am thankful for. . .

our healthy and beautiful baby girl. So much joy.

sunshine on cold days.

a house that has really become our home.

my Savior.

Jonathan not working outside our home during this season- such a blessing to both be home with our little girl for a while.

supportive friends who 'get' me . . . and love me anyways.

my husband and this season of our marriage.

family. Both our family of 3 and our extended family. . . we really are blessed with great family.

every moment between 11pm and 7am in which my daughter is sleeping.

God's constant provision for our needs.

Evie's smiles.

all of the pregnancy scares that stayed just scares. . . that although I spent 9 months of this year enduring a less than great pregnancy. . . the end result is so worth it.

kind neighbors.

one week old and a little bit random

2010-11-13T08:39:00.000-08:00

Check out the cute onsie Miss Allison F. made for me.

On my first walk with my Nana. Now that I feel up to taking her on a walk it's too stinkin' cold outside.

A not in the hospital family picture. Jonathan cracks me up in this picture. . . hand on his hip looking all GQ.

And here is an example of how the fashion police would usually take issue with Evie's outfits. Right now it's all about what fits and the ballet socks stay on so for now they go with everything.

Last night Evie blessed her parents with 5 hours straight of sleep. After a few very rough nights. . . it was AMAZING.

Genevieve

2010-11-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

Genevieve Tigh Van Winkle was born November 6 at 5:12 pm. She weighed 8lbs 5 ozs and was 20.5 inches long. We are so blessed and happy and excited to have her home. More pictures to come . . . I haven't been spending much time on the computer :)

Believe it or not, this is still the only picture we have of the three of us. We will get on the ball of taking more soon!

My first time holding her. So in love with this baby girl.

And for all the inquiring eyes who have heard about the incredible amount of hair our daughter has. . . . here you go. Lots and lots of dark hair like her daddy.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. . . we thank God for such a beautiful little girl.

comic relief

2010-11-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

Right now, it feels like when you are watching a movie, and just when you get to the end, just when you are about to find out who the bad guy is or the couple is about to kiss or whatever. . . the DVD skips and you don't get to see the end. It's annoying. It makes me grouchy. I thought I would be a gracious at the end of my pregnancy and not one of those women who complains about not going into labor. I was delusional. Just ask my husband. My body has done everything it needs to do and all signs point to labor any moment. . . problem is it's been that way for over a week. Watching Brian Regan makes me laugh and not be so grouchy. So I thought I would share. Especially love the phone company. . . it's how I feel- "can you flip it right now?"

first quilt

2010-10-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is my first quilt. It's for Genevieve and was a lot of fun to make, the crazy mix of patterns and colors is very me. . . hopefully it is stimulating instead of overwhelming for my daughter. It is very far from perfect, lots of mistakes-- but I don't really care, it's my first try and I did it by myself and that's what counts, right? Anywhoo. . . I have started on my next quilt, much larger for our bed. It's kind of scary to make a bigger quilt. I made this one in a few days start to finish so it was very gratifying and I didn't get bored of the project. Hopefully I don't get bored during my next one!

doily runner

2010-10-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

This project was about a year in the making. Mostly because I refused to spend more than a dollar on a doily and it took me a long time to find enough that I liked cheaply enough. I first saw this idea here (I love her whole kitchen) and copied her idea for a table runner. Somewhere on Ashley's site there is a tutorial on making this. . . I didn't follow it but sort of made it up as I went, but it's there if you want it.

what i've been up to

2010-10-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Okay people. . . I am a bad blogger. I have been waiting to blog because I am working on a blog makeover, but in the meantime lots of things have happened so I figure I will just suck it up and start sharing. I knew you would approve.

So, in case you don't know I am now on leave from work. For several different reasons working on my feet was too much for my pregnancy this late in the game so I have been home for almost a month now and will be until after I have the baby. I have been keeping busy (on the days not taken over by heartburn) by sewing, crafting, cooking, washing baby clothes, ect. I have to take it easy (I am not on bed rest or anything, I am just supposed to limit my activity) so sewing especially has become a big past time. Lots to share in the coming weeks of my projects.

In the picture you can see the cute pillow I made for the rocking chair in Evie's room (selfishly so my back doesn't hurt when I rock baby girl) and on the floor you might notice my boppy-- I don't like the covers at the store so I decided to make those too.

I have been cooking things I can freeze. This is chicken noodle soup day. Our freezer is literally about to explode though and I am going to have to back off of this endeavor because I have no more space to keep anything else. I seriously considered throwing out ice cream the other day (gasp) in order to make room for some of this soup.

And for the folks with out facebook- here is a picture of my belly this week. Getting pretty huge. Genevieve is officially out of room in there, her feet have taken up residence in my ribcage, getting myself up from a laying position has become a feat worthy of the olympics, and people at the post office politely tell me "it must be any day now as big as you are". Really though, we have spent this week praising God for the health of our baby girl after we got some test results back and are very ready to welcome her into the world.

evie's room part 2

2010-09-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a sneak peak at the latest project in Evie's room. I hung lanterns above her crib in fun colors instead of a mobile. I also got her window's dressed with simple roller shades I embellished with ribbons and hung white sheers.

Here is the view from her crib. I think it will be fun for her to look at.

Jonathan moved this pink vintage light fixture that came with the house- but was in the guest room- into Evie's room. It is perfect for her.

And since it's been a while since the dogs have said hello on here. . . Here is Audrey in the car sinking into a huge dog bed in the back seat.

jello

2010-09-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had my first strange late-ish night craving. At about 9pm I was craving Jello. I haven't had it in years but it sounded sooo good. So I made some and followed the quick set directions so it would be ready in a half hour. For good measure I waited until about 10:30 to pull it out and sat on the sofa next to Jonathan to eat my Jello. And then Jonathan's first "sympathy craving" set in. He got all excited... yelled JELLO... ran to the fridge to get whipped cream and proceeded to eat about 2/3 of the Jello. That's right folks-we ate it all, what is probably like 8 servings or something. Let me tell ya. . . if you haven't had Jello in a while- do it. There's a reason you liked it as a kid. It's good stuff.

new sono pics

2010-09-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

This pic is by far the best we have seen of Evie's face during her sonograms. She usually has her hands up at her face, and did again today. . . but moved them so we got to take a peek. There is video too of her blinking that I will post once I figure out how to do that.

In this picture you can see her little bit of hair where the arrow is pointing.

Evie was 5 lbs 8 oz's today. . . already a big girl considering she has 8 more weeks to put the pounds on -yikes! She is healthy and looks great.

Evie's room- post 1

2010-09-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

For about the past month we have been working on Genevieve's room. It is very much in progress. . . but some of the fun projects are complete so I thought I would share a bit at a time. My mom came a little over a month ago and painted the room a light aqua color (thanks mom!). I then painted a few animals on the walls to kick up the fun. I say I painted. . . but really I used some sketches put onto an overhead projector and more traced these animals.

The turtle is over by her crib. I think Mr. Turtle is a cutie.

Penguin over looks her dresser/changing table.

Giraffe greets you when you come into her room. The wall color is all weird in this picture. I took quite a few and couldn't get the giraffe to show up in the pic without blowing the wall color out weird. . so use some imagination. Mr. Giraffe is my favorite. Evie has a rocking giraffe (like a rocking horse) and a few giraffe toys already. . . I hope she likes them because it's kind of becoming a trend.

I will post more pics as more is done. There are other complete projects. . . but they are hidden behind ladders and cribs in the middle of the room and other project-in-project messes.

my friend elly

2010-08-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

My friend Elly is having a baby too. It is nice to be in the exact same stage of life as a friend. . . someone to call and ask 'do you feel like this too' and know she won't think I'm crazy. We have great friends who have thrown us 2 different dual baby showers. . . which has been a lot of fun. This picture is from July. . . so not so accurate of my baby belly (I am on the right). As we near our due dates I am looking forward to the next stage. . . calling each other with 'mom' questions.

3rd trimester

2010-08-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

This picture is a couple of weeks old. . . but I think we took it when I entered my 3rd trimester. Either way. . . I think I am bigger now. She is super active and kicks and squirms all the time. She likes it when Jonathan talks to her (or not even to her, but just when she hears his voice) and goes crazy moving around. Lots has been done in the nursery. . . I will post pictures soon of the work in progress. Just need to take them :)

For me, I think pregnancy is an exercise in remembering I am not in control. From pregnancy complications to Jonathan's job situation. . . I have been reminded again and again that trusting Jesus with our lives means just that (duh huh?). I forget that I wasn't promised an easy life, but a life that is full. The reality is that even when I feel like sciatic nerve pain is the worst thing ever. . . my life is pretty great. I think I struggle with looking beyond what is right in front of me. Today I worked standing on my feet for 9 hours with pain shooting down my legs. . and I know I have to do that 4 more times this week. . . and it just seems so overwhelming. If I could focus on the big picture. . . I would remember that in 2 1/2 months we will have a daughter. . . and when I think about her I feel joy not pain. My prayer tonight is that I would trust God fully and live in a spirit of thankfulness that He is entrusting to Jonathan and I the job of loving a raising this little girl.

Give and Get is Here!

2010-08-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Give and Get is Here!: "Enjoy 30% off from August 26-29 at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy and we'll donate 5% of what you spend to a non-profit."

on missing China

2010-07-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

While in NY we spent some time in China town. NY has the largest C town in the US. . .but it's still not the same. It was almost bittersweet being there. . . made both of our heart's ache. I wish we had stopped to buy some leeche. . .it looks good now that it's not in front of me to eat!

wreath fun

2010-07-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

I made this wreath a few weeks ago. It's hanging on the door in the living room that heads into the guest room right now. I like wreaths a lot. I like this one. . . fun for every day. I made it using this tutorial.

new york part 2

2010-07-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

Times Square was the end of a very long day while we were in the city. We had gone on this trip with a list of things we wanted to see and/or do and we did about 2/3 of them on this day. It was a long day. We went to China town in the morning then Washington Square park for Jonathan to play Chess, Union Station, Rockafeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, did some shopping, checked out the Lego store (which is awesome) and 3 different Banana Republics (when they were right there I just had to go inside and look at their floor sets and visuals. . couldn't help myself), saw West Side Story, and then hung out at Times Square. Add in all the walking and train time in between. . . and I was tired. It was fun though and good to get a lot of the touristy things Jonathan likes to do (and me not so much) all done at once.

The next day we went on the Staten Island Ferry. If you are ever visiting the city I would recommend this. First, it's free. Second. . . you get up close to the Statue of Liberty and see all of the iconic skylines all at once. And it's Free. I figure you have all seen pics of the Statue of Liberty before. . . so here is one of us on the ferry.

My sister came in the afternoon on the last day we were in the city and it was her birthday no less. We had fun going to see the Museum of Modern Art with her. We also took her to see the Manolo Blahnik store (being the huge Sex in the City fan she is, it was on her must do list), a comedy show (something on Jonathan's list) and then back to Times Square before we headed up state for my Gramma's b-day party with family.

Just one of hundreds of pictures Jonathan took at the Museum.

The rest of the days were a bit slower. . with just a couple of activities (like go to a museum or Central Park) but were very fun and good for us to get to spend time together before this little one arrives.

baby girl

2010-07-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

Her face didn't really come out in the scan of the ultrasound pic above.

I am not going to put the 'it's a girl' photo up . . . but it was pretty clear that it's a girl. We are excited and can't wait for her to get here. She is kicking like crazy and starting to keep me up at night with her moving around. She was actually kicking in the picture of her foot. Very active little girl. . .:) She weighs about 1.5 lbs right now and is healthy and developing normally.

I have also started to gain back some of the weight I had lost during the first 4 months and am not getting sick near as often as I had been. Praise God. . . feels great to keep food down!

baby kicks update

2010-07-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

Okay. . I will be posting more fun pictures from our trip in NY. We are home now.

But the exciting news tonight is that Jonathan felt the baby kicking for the first time. It's super early for him to be able to feel it. . but the baby was kicking so hard. Yeah. . .I've been so excited to share this with him.

And speaking of exciting news. . . our ultrasounds is on Wednesday so we will soon know if this kicking baby is a boy or girl!

Hope you had a great holiday weekend.

New York part 1. . .Brooklyn

2010-06-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is my mom's Nana's house in Brooklyn. Nana was my Gramp's mom and this is the home he grew up in. It was fun to go and see it. . . although I don't think the neighborhood is the same as back then. The houses are cute with gardens on this block though. . . the pic below are of some neighbor's homes.

Yesterday evening we went to see the Brooklyn bridge and the view from the Promenade.

19 weeks

2010-06-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Okay. . . after a lot of demand from some friends. . here are some belly pics. Almost half way done!

post pregnancy

2010-06-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been to polyvore? You should check it out. I just spent time making outfits for post pregnancy b/c I am already sick of the clothes I am wearing. You can make all kinds of outfits. This outfit makes me happy. If I had to commit to a uniform. . . it would look something like this.

kicking

2010-06-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

So. . . our sweet baby is kicking. I am sure the day will come when it is more uncomfortable than wonderful. . . but right now I just think it's wonderful. Just thought I'd share.

In other news. . .the doves flew from their nest today. Before work they were there. . .after they were gone.

dove watch

2010-06-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

The baby doves are growing and I think they will probably leave the nest soon. It's been very fun watching them grow. . . I hope doves make a nest here every year because I think it would be so much fun for baby boy or girl in a couple of years.

summer time

2010-06-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Okay people. . I've been busy and my blog has taken a back seat. Plus someone hacked my blog last month and I spent a couple of days getting it back up. . sorry if you came and my blog wasn't here!

So summer. . . I wouldn't say it's my favorite season. . . but there are things that I really enjoy. Here is a run down of things I have enjoyed this summer.

Here is my bounty after visiting the farmer's market with two friends Saturday morning. Yum . . . produce shipped from Mexico just can't compete.

Jonathan napping on the porch. I sort of woke him up while taking this picture. Last summer he fell asleep out there one evening after I had already gone to bed and didn't wake up until 2 am to come inside. This incident was followed by lots of joking of what that must have looked like to the neighbors. . . Did his wife put him out on he porch?!? Let's just hope for no repeat performances this summer :)

The baby dove hatched. It was pretty incredible actually. I was ironing standing not far from the front door when I noticed the dove fly away (and that dove has not left the nest unless startled for weeks people). I started watching and the next thing I knew I saw the little baby dove head peeping out of the nest. So cute. The momma/daddy dove came right back and immediately became very protective. Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I took it through the glass door for fear of making the dove mad.

Jonathan had a birthday. We were in Dallas visiting family and all went out to eat to celebrate. Jonathan had a great birthday and we also really enjoyed spending time with my dad & Julie, Aunt Marsha & Uncle Ed, and my sister.

Here we all are before dinner. Sorry friends asking for baby bump pictures. . . I am defiantly showing in this pic. . but since the shirt is tent like and I am leaning over you can't really see much. I will take a good baby bump pic soon and post it.

birds

2010-05-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

Had to share pics of the newest inhabitant of our home. . . momma bird warming her eggs. I am afraid to get too close to the nest to take pictures of the eggs while she isn't there because I don't want her to abandon her babies. . . for now we will just wait until they hatch!

fence jumping and other adventures

2010-05-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

Our dogs used to be little. And sweet. And unable (or unaware that they could) to jump over fences. Or bust out front doors when they aren't quite latched. Ahhh. . . I miss those days. Granted they didn't have complete control over their bladders yet and peed on the floor sometimes. . . but it's all about perspective, right?

Audrey can jump over our fence. She figured it out before we even moved in. . .we would bring them over while we painted and cleaned and she jumped the fence. She just wanted to be inside with us. . . so she would go sit by the back door and wait to be let in while Jack (mad he can't jump the fence) would yelp from the back yard tattle tailing on her. Annoying. . yes. . .big deal. . no. This spring though. . . when baby bunnies abound . . . Audrey has found a reason to make a break for it. And she does. All the time. So we don't leave her out there alone anymore. But then on Wednesday Jonathan was outside WITH Audrey and Jack. . . and she jumped the fence right next to him while he stood there and he couldn't find her for over an hour. Naughty Naughty Dog! Next plan. . . I'm buying a chain to attach her to the tree in the backyard today. We'll see how that goes.

Jack realized that if a door isn't latched-- or if someone is going out or coming in the front door. . .he can barrel through. Audrey jumps on the bandwagon. And then we have 2 escaped dogs. Tuesday night this happened while I was on the phone with my friend Holli. I hung up with her to go looking for them. I was wearing pj pants and a hippy Beetles t-shirt(at 7 pm on a weeknight. . such a looser. . .but I didn't feel good. . .but my neighbors don't know that) when I arrived at a neighbor house (hadn't met them before). The two parents were outside playing catch with their three kids in the back yard. . . and there were my dogs. . . chasing their dog around their yard. And then there is me. . . demanding my dogs obey me and come and sit (ha) so I can grab their collars and drag them home while profusely apologizing and dying of embarrassment.

They are usually very good and obedient dogs. Maybe it's because I've been sick and just lay around and don't pay them enough attention. . . or maybe they just had a taste of freedom and are now obsessed. Whatever it is. . I want my sweet obedient dogs back.

baby

2010-05-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

Bad picture. . . but it's the only one that isn't super fuzzy from the morning we found out we are having a baby. We had been out of bed for literally minutes when this was taken. . . and it looks like I am eating the pregnancy test. But. . enough about the picture. We're having a baby. We've tried to tell as many people as we can ourselves. . . but in case we missed you (sorry!) I will give you the low down.

I am due November 12 which makes me 13 weeks right now. We are very excited! Hmmm. . other commonly asked questions: we don't care if it's a boy or girl. . . yes I have morning sickness and it should be called all day sickness and it's still here. . . . I am starting to show a little bit-depends on the day some. . . no weird cravings- just eat what sounds like I can keep down.

We are just so thankful that God has blessed us with this pregnancy and are excited to experience this journey until the baby is born because while we don't know what it's like to be parents, we know our lives will never be the same.

lamp posts and rain barrels

2010-05-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Spring time at our house has brought us outside. . . Jonathan working on the lawn (see how much it's filled in!), planting bushes. . . and together we gave our previously rusty and ugly lamp post a makeover. Now it has glass instead of a bare light bulb hanging out and is black instead of white covered in rust. Looks a ton better huh? Sorry if you've never been to our house or noticed the eye-sore lamp post I don't have a before pic up close. . didn't think ahead.

If you know my husband well. . . you know that he gets on kicks. . . or near obsessive about a project or computer game for a month or so at a time. Recently he has been on a rain barrel kick. So here it is. . the fruit of his labor. A Pepsi barrel his co-worker gave him that he has converted to collect the rain water from our roof to use to water the lawn. Impressive huh? Now Jonathan waters the lawn and bushes with rain water. . . good for the earth and out water bill.

spring

2010-04-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

After all the whining I did about winter lasting FOREVER-- and I am not being dramatic-- I have been enjoying spring instead of blogging. . sorry :) We have also had a slew of visitors in the past month and a half. . . that has been wonderful. Unfortunately. . .I'm not so great at taking pictures of when people visit. . . again. . sorry. We did have a great time with my mom, brother, Jonathan's sisters Kelley & Sadie, the Olinger family, a young man going overseas this summer who stayed her for a weekend. . . and my friend Sam comes tonight. Our guest bed has been used more in a 6 week period that it is usually used in a year. It's been great.

On another note. . . we are really loving our home in the spring. The tree's are blooming and are beautiful. I am beginning a raised vegetable bed in the back yard (pictures to come) and Jonathan is growing grass. When you have as many trees as we do the shade makes it near impossible to grow grass. . . but as you will see in the pictures below. . he has successfully grown some grass in the mud pit we call our yard. After all his hard work. . . I am sure we will have a beautiful plush yard to show for it this summer. Look closely. . you can see the new baby grass. Jonathan comes home on his lunch every day to water and check on his baby grass. So cute.

tee pee

2010-03-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while. . . I lost the camera cord thing again. . . you'd think I would designate a space for that thing or something. Anywhoo. . . My mom and Kevin came to visit us a couple of weekends ago and on Sunday morning we woke up to this . . .

Oh yes. . . it happened. Apparently it was a random prank. . . we had neighbors stopping as they drove by to ask if we knew who did it because they were tee pee'd the weekend before and others were tee pee'd the same night blocks away from us. Most of our neighbors were mad. . but Jonathan and I threw plenty of toilet paper rolls in the not quite as distant past so we just laughed. Jonathan and Kevin cleaned it up out of our trees/yard and our two neighbors who got it too.

It made me nervous when Kevin got that high just to get down the last pieces in the tree. I think he had fun though. While Jonathan was cleaning it out of our neighbors trees he met our grouchy neighbor a few doors down. We hadn't met her yet, but had heard she wasn't usually pleasant. Well. . .she lived up to her reputation and yelled at Jonathan while he cleaned the tee pee out of her tree. . . she accused him of having put the toilet paper there in the first place, and when he explained that he is her neighbor and was just trying to be kind by cleaning up her yard, she told him it must be our fault because young people always bring trouble. geesh. I think it's sad when people are that unhappy.

onesie

2010-02-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

Check out this sweet onesie (I got two) for the new boys in my life. . . Dillon (nephew) and Luke (good friend's son). My friend Kendra makes them (among lots of other cute things) to raise money for orphans. You should check out her blog here and her etsy shop here.

tuesday

2010-02-23T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here's for you Amanda:

off to paint. . . hope you have a great tuesday too!

our kitchen has multiple personality disorder

2010-02-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

I made these curtains last week for the kitchen. They make me happy. Renovating/decorating a house in stages is a funny thing. I might be crazy eclectic and put things together on purpose all the time that don't 'go' . . . but I love the things I put together and that makes them work (I think). However. . . our kitchen. . . with it's powder blue tile and counter top, crazy country knobs on the light oak cabinets. . . combined with the things I actually like. . . looks like a hot mess. Oh well. . . I don't see any point in hanging curtains to MATCH the powder blue travesty just to take them down and throw them out in a year . . . so a crazy kitchen we have. It motivates me to keep working on projects so we will get to the kitchen sooner than later. Off to sand the third bedroom. . . I might even paint it this week!

Notice how bleak and grey it is in all my pictures lately??? It's like that EVERY DAY (not really, I exaggerate. . .a lot . . . there was sun yesterday . . . but it feels like it's grey every day) so I can't get good light to take a good photo. . . soooooo ready for spring. This weekend my mom and brother were supposed to visit. . . but because of an impending snow storm that will hit on their drive home they had to cancel. How about you. . . is this crazy long winter getting to you too?

i love you

2010-02-14T16:00:00.000-08:00

Check out the super sweet banner my friend Amanda sent me. If you can't read it. . .it says i love you. You can also see the origami rose my hubby gave me today. We are actually celebrating v-day on Thursday because we are in the midst of work craziness today, but are looking forward to celebrating love. I hope you had or will have a chance this week to celebrate love with someone special!

chair love

2010-02-09T17:17:00.000-08:00

Okay. . . if you're one of the friends who have been waiting to see this. . .here it is. My chair choice. I will be getting the rest sometimeish. . . ya know. . . whenever that is :) But in the meantime. . . I love this one I brought home for a test drive. I love marrying the modern lines of the chair with the uber-traditional lines in the table. I love the skinny chrome legs that let you see around the chair and are not bulky and don't block the view of the table Jonathan loves so much. AND it's comfy. . . a Jonathan must. So there it is. My new chair. I hope you like it too.
p.s. the chair is really dark brown. . . not black. just so ya know.

why mondays are the best day for blogging

2010-02-08T16:06:00.000-08:00

source

On Mondays. . . most bloggers blog. It's a sure day. . . it's a rare Monday when I don't get sucked into blogland and just live there for at least an hour. I'm usually tired on Mondays. . . so it's a good day for blogging. And. . if you don't love Design*Sponge . . . you do and just don't know it. . . . their sneak peaks are on Monday. Another reason why Monday is a good day for blogging.

gray skies

2010-02-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

source

So we are getting more snow. Just watched the news. . . it's a true story. I think this weather is depressing. Bahhh . . . I am so ready for spring. . . how about you?

kitchen inspiration

2010-02-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

light

2010-02-02T08:43:00.001-08:00

When we were in Texas we took a trip to Ikea to pick up some things I'd picked out. . . and among them were some new light fixtures. Jonathan picked out the dinning room light. It was a good compromise. . . you can't tell in the picture, but it really looks great in the room . . . pulls together a lot of my eclectic crazy :) I can't wait until I finish a few more things in there and then posting before and after pics. . . so fun. We've come a long way.

Here are the kitchen light(s). Again. . . I think it's hard to tell in pictures how things really look/feel in a room. Jonathan shocked me when he liked these. . . I thought I was going too far for his semi-traditional taste. . . but he likes them!

If you cant remember the before lights/fan from pics. . . trust me, it was bad. Miss-matched and black with gold trim. . . very circa 1982. I like how these feel unified and are just as pretty when not lit up too.

snow day

2010-01-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

Lots of snow today. Lots. I generally like snow, when I don't have to work :) I've been calling today a snow day, except I wasn't scheduled to work so it's less like a snow day and more like just a normal day off. But that's okay. . . I like snow. The doggies like the snow. Jack eats it. He doesn't lick it like other dogs, he bites at it. He loves snow. He doesn't love shots. . . and he got shots today. I'm thinking though that his love of snow and hate of shots balanced each-other out today so his day didn't totally stink. The doggies spend their whole day looking out the windows, especially on snow days. I think it's weird. . . what are they looking at? It's funny when they do see something though. . . like on the movie UP. . . 'squirrel'. So funny.

Yes . . . I am one of those people who writes blog posts about their dogs . . . and I'm okay with that.

p.s. I am working on my computer skills . . . because they stink. Jonathan is helping me learn photo shop. . . hence the fancy picture above. Bear with me people . . . I'm trying.

gifts

2010-01-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

You may have heard of all the 'love language' stuff after a book by Gary Chapman became very popular both in churches and out. In some of the circles I am in, it was common (and still is) to be asked what your love language is during a get-to-know you type conversation. . . and I've always felt uneasy answering. If you say my primary love language is gifts, especially to someone who's love language isn't gifts. . . it sounds selfish or materialistic (at least to my ears). I don't want people to feel like I'll only feel loved by you if you give me stuff. And truth be told. . . there are other love languages, and we all feel loved by all of them. My husband is not a big gifter. . . giving or receiving . . . but I sure as heck feel loved by him. :)

I think it comes from my mom. My mom is a great gift giver. She loves LOVES thinking of things to give. She is creative in her gift giving and gives things you didn't remember or realize you wanted but when you receive her gift you feel known. I have other people in my life who are the same way, from close friends to my step-mom too. . . I have a lot of gifters in my life. I'm one too.

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I received some great gifts from family and friends. Some really great gifts. None huge or super flashy expensive or anything like that, but as I opened them each on different occasions. . . I felt known. When you receive a gift you didn't ask for, that so perfectly meets a need or fits inside of your taste you feel known. And that, I decided, is why my love language is gifts. Because giving a gift that makes someone else feel known, is a priceless feeling. It's not about stuff.

on work

2010-01-25T16:54:00.000-08:00

My small group is doing a study about the book of John. It's called John, and is from the Life Changes Series. It's a good study. . . This week the below text was one of the side notes:

"Jesus speaks often of "work" and "works." He is usually referring to the Father's work(s) that He, Jesus, is doing. These works include the miraculous "signs" of transforming things, healing, and raising the dead. but they also include Jesus' teaching and all His other actions day to day as the manifestation of God. Indeed, His very presence in the world is His mission, His work.

Whereas John usually calls Jesus' miracles "signs," Jesus calls them and everything else He does "work(s)." Unlike "sign" and "miracle," "work" is a mundane word. It implies that both Jesus' natural and His supernatural actions are simply His work, His job, just as other men have their jobs. But Jesus' work comes from the Father and points to the Father; in the Old Testament, God's "works" are involved with creating and delivering His people from slavery. "

mmm. . . good stuff. I've been thinking about it all week. . . so I thought I'd share. Is doing the Father's work such a normal part of my life that it's my work, my second nature, just like the job I take a paycheck home for?

kitchen cart and a recipe

2010-01-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

We were just in Texas visiting my Dad & Julie & Stephanie. We hadn't seen them for Christmas so we exchanged gifts and I got this new beautiful island for the kitchen. Pretend the rest of the kitchen isn't ugly. . .use your imagination people. I love it. . . and especially love how it looks in my head with my pretty kitchen.

spiced nuts

2 cups pecan halves (or a big huge bag works too)

1 cup sugar

2 T cinnamon

1/2 t ginger

1/2 t nutmeg

1/4 t cloves

1 egg white

Beat egg white with 1 T of cold water. Pour over nuts and toss to coat evenly. Mix sugar and spices in large bowl or pan. Pour in nuts and toss. Spread evenly on cookie sheet or cake pan. Bake at 250 for 1 hour turning over every 15 minutes until nuts are dry.

can't call the maintenance man

2010-01-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

We love our house. We love our house because it is old. A lot of life has been lived in this house. It's beautiful in a lot of ways. I realize I say our house is beautiful and post pictures of the uber-ugly kitchen down below. . but never fear. We will restore it and make it beautiful too someday. But back to my point. . . our house is old. So things happen. Like dishwashers breaking and spewing out nasty brown water while I am cleaning the kitchen floor. Ugh. Never fear. . . Jonathan to the rescue. Turns out there is a spring missing and the water was only brown because of some rusty screws and the leaking was solved with weather-stripping. Just have to say. . . the upside to renting is the maintenance hotline. I miss those.

And just because this picture makes me laugh. . . behold Jonathan & Austin putting away our Christmas tree. This is during the "smooshing so it will fit in the box" phase of taking it down.

tote

2010-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

I made this tote to carry my binder from work home in. . .cute huh? I also made some as gifts. I followed the instructions from a tutorial on one of my favorite blogs here. You should check out Ashley's blog. . she's awesome!

chap-stick and hair dye

2010-01-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of the holiday season is having good friends visit Kansas to see their families. . .and US! I am so thankful for the time we got to spend with friends during the past few weeks.

During Amanda's stay in Kansas I dyed her hair. Just to her natural color. . it was beautiful. However, much to Amanda's disappointment. . .I didn't have Vaseline to use to keep her face from getting dye on it. So I made her use chap-stick. Ha.

I hope you got to hang out with some of your besties during the past month too!

our christmas view

2010-01-05T20:20:00.000-08:00

Found the camera cord after a lot of looking (turns out in was in a drawer I had looked in like 5 times. Seems it helps to lift the book in the drawer up in order to fully look through the drawer).

This was our view as we set out for Christmas. As a huge snow storm hit the midwest. . . we got on the road. Smart huh? We made it. And Christmas was great. Jonathan had a headache and it took much longer than normal. . . but it was fun too.

Jack slept sitting up like that the whole way to my mom's . . . it took 3 1/2 hours to get there and he just slept sitting up. Weird dog.

coming soon. . .

2009-12-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

So. . lots has happened in the past few weeks. . just like I am sure it has at your house too. . . it's a busy crazy fun time of year! I will post pictures and stories soon. . . . but first need to find that cord that puts my pictures from the camera into the computer (yes, I just said that. no, I don't know what that cord is called). Jonathan miiiight know where the cord is. Let's hope so.

Let's just say. . . I hope your Christmas was filled with love and joy. Mine was. It was short, but filled with love.

saturday night

2009-12-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

We're watching elf. It's a great movie . . . and we need to rest. Jonathan loves watching Christmas movies. . . so we do. A lot. Hope you're having a relaxing weekend before Christmas!

something to think about . . .

2009-12-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

nativity

2009-12-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

Here are two of my favorites. I really love Christmas. Every year I think I should leave my Christmas stuff out all year. . . because it makes me happy. But then I remember that I love the fall and getting to be outside in the spring (hard to find an upside to the crazy high temps of the summer though, but that's just me). Everything has it's season and seasons are what make it fun, right?

Today. . .I'm off work. And I need to get stuff done. But so far I've been lazy. Like really lazy. Need to get off my behind and clean, and wrap presents, and clean. The house is a wreck. Still have the box from the Christmas tree in a corner in the dinning room. That's embarrassing. . . anywhoo. . . off to clean. I hope.

Wednesday

2009-12-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

It's cold. Like really cold. We didn't get the snow like everyone else. . . just ice while I drove to work yesterday. But it's cold. So I'm inside. I ventured out for a dentist appointment today, but that's it. All cuddled up on the sofa in a sweater and with a blanket. I like the cold. Hot cocoa and movies. . . it feels like winter. . . finally.

It's beginning to feel a lot like. . .

2009-12-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

. . . well. . .let's be honest. It's felt like Christmas since November 1 when the music started at the store. I love Christmas. . . I'm not someone who is bothered by Christmas starting the 1st of November. I love decorating for Christmas. . . it was always a lot of fun growing up and this year it is super fun to decorate our own HOUSE for Christmas. Even Jonathan has enjoyed it. I'm not big on collections. . . however. . . I do collect a few things like nativity sets and these beautiful ornaments my mom buys us every year for Christmas. They are by Jay Strongwater. Beautiful no?

plates

2009-12-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

I decided even though I don't have enough plates yet to have them curve over the archway in the dinning room like I want. . . I might as well put up the ones I have and start enjoying them. So here they are.

lots of dogs

2009-11-27T19:25:00.001-08:00

John and Kelley's dog Roxy came to visit. Jack and Audrey LOVE her. Especially Jack. Because Roxy likes to play all the time. So they play.

Isn't he cute. You don't have to think so. But we do.

Yes. I put up our Christmas tree. It's not worth the work if I don't enjoy it for at least 5 weeks. That's what I think.

thankful

2009-11-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

This is cheesy, but I don’t care.

In no particular order. . . .

And in color. . . because it makes me happy.

I have parents who love me well. They ‘made’ me say what I was thankful for every year growing up. I’m happy they did that (even if my answers were lame).

I actually think working on Black Friday is fun (which is a gooood thing.)

We have a new (to us) home and it is slowly growing to feel more like home.

Christmas is coming. It’s great.

I have a husband whom I love and genuinely like being married to.

After nearly 2 years in Wichita, I finally feel like this city is becoming home-ish.

I have two dogs who are a handful, but love me unconditionally & bark to scare off ‘bad guys’ when I hear weird noises.

Blogs. They’re kind of like the best thing ever.

God not only knows my heart and loves me anyways, but he invites me to join him in his work.

There’s this thing . . . it’s called ice cream.

I have a job (when a lot of people don’t) that I enjoy more days than I don’t.

Jonathan let me paint the dinning room orange even though he hates it.

That paint comes off of wood floors and out of denim.

For friends who love like sisters.

Porch furniture and a ceiling fan to keep the mosquitoes away.

My husband does the laundry because I HATE it.

Life isn’t boring. God pushes and challenges me out of my comfort zones so I keep growing. I like that.

I haven’t had a migraine in 2 weeks.

This list isn’t complete, but it is what is on my mind tonight. What are you thankful for? Be cheesy. It's fun.

fiasco

2009-11-17T14:40:00.000-08:00

So. . . I've been working on our closet remodel. It hasn't gone exactly as planned. First you might ask, why was I using orange paint? It's primer left over from the dinning room and I wanted to use it up. I thought it wouldn't hurt. And it didn't. . .hurt the walls. But when the paint tray decided to jump off the ledge on the ladder I was on. . . that did hurt. We got it up, thankfully. Lots of hot water and towels and scraping it out of the cracks in the floor. But it's out. . . thankfully.

I don't have pictures of the next paint fiasco. . . but there was another. During the whole 'orange paint on the floor' incident I managed to not get any paint on myself. Nor did I get paint on myself while I painted the closet grey over the primer. I had worn paint clothes both of these times, but since I hadn't gotten them dirty. . . when it came to painting the inside of the door trim (like a 10 min job at most) I thought it would be fine to keep my FAVORITE JEANS on. Big mistake. I somehow managed to get white paint in like 5 different places. Thankfully I noticed right away, put them in water. . .and headed to google to find out how to get it out. Rubbing alcohol people and a tooth brush. . . it will come out!

happy friday

2009-11-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

happy birthday

2009-11-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

Two of my bff's birthdays are a week apart. Sam's is today and Amanda's was last week. If you love these ladies. . .go to their blogs and tell them!

scarecrows

2009-11-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

Can you guess which one is Jonathan? Yeah. . in the light it's easier to tell. . . but on our dark porch. . he got a few good jumps out of some teenaged boys last night. My mom or I would sit and chat with the teenaged trick-or-treaters and ask them if they thought the scarecrows were real. . . . and when they were convinced they were fake, Jonathan would jump up or yell and they would screeeeem. My mom even convinced one smarty-pants young man (I'm guessing he was about 13) to TOUCH Jonathan. . . and then Jonathan jumped. . .he he. It was fun.

Here is sweet Iris, my mom's dog. She was a giraffe for halloween. CUTE! My dogs were nothing. Personally, I think big dogs look silly in costumes (plus, like I've said, our dogs are not people).

Jonathan and my mom decorated the porch. He even put orange paper in the lantern in the yard to make it look spooky. The picture doesn't do it justice. . .. it was a little spooky.

How was your halloween???

spicy shrimp pasta

2009-10-27T19:46:00.001-07:00

Jonathan thinks this picture looks like mush. . . but it tastes good! This is SUPER easy and SUPER fast! And yummy. . . I think I originally got the recipe from a magazine, and should credit them, but I don't remember which magazine, and have probably changed it along the way anyways :)

Spicy Shrimp Angel Hair Pasta

Shrimp (I buy it frozen and on sale in the bags and then pour the frozen shrimps in a bowl and run cold water over it for about 3 minutes to thaw and then peel them)
Angel Hair Pasta (I use whole-wheat . . Jonathan can't even tell anymore)
1 T Red Pepper flakes
Olive Oil
Garlic- as much as you like. I use LOTS!
1/2 c White Wine
1/3 sticks Butter

Cook pasta :)
Saute garlic for about one minute then add the shrimp.
Once shrimp is pink, add red pepper flakes, butter and wine.
Dump drained pasta in with shrimp and sauce and mix around.

Date Night

2009-10-27T19:38:00.001-07:00

So. . . about 2 months ago. . . Jonathan asked me on a date for October 25th. Since planning isn't jav's fav . . . this was a BIG deal. So I've waited and waited. . . and thought maybe he was taking me to see Wicked. . . but what he took me to was even better.

Please excuse the kinda crappy pic. . . it's hard to take pictures of an egg-like stage that keeps being lit in bright neon colors :) Ben Folds is awesome. . . and for the encore, he sang The Luckiest. Defiantly made my top five dates list.

window coverings and what's next

2009-10-20T09:11:00.001-07:00

We finally finished painting the trim and windows in our bedroom. It took forever. . . if you haven't heard me complain about this project you are among the few :) Thanks Holli and Sam for your help painting! So. . once the painting was done up went the shades! Mmmmm. . .I love them! I am so excited to finally have some privacy. . . as well as a buffer between us and the morning sun!

And here is the next project........ the much dreaded closet remodel. I am going to work on the 'demo' today and tomorrow so Jonathan can start repairing the walls. So here's the before so you can look forward to the after! I sure do!

Yuck!

I also put up drapes in the living room. It's gotten cold and I could feel the wind coming in! It was time. We still want to put up blinds, but for now, drapes will do!

Hope you are having a good week. I have two days off in a row this week so I am having a great week!!!! I might even hang plates in the dinning room!

kansas city plaza art fair

2009-10-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

We went a few weeks ago to the Plaza Art Fair in Kansas City with my mom. It was fun to walk around and just take it in. We bought no art, but I did buy some plates at different stores for my collection. Pictures of those coming soon!

friday's finds

2009-10-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

No dresser, but check out this sweet bunch of vintage fabric for my quilt! I found it in a box at an estate sale. The sweet lady let me have it all for $10. . . including the pillow cases in the next pic that I will cut up for the quilt too.

I have been saving for comfy brown shoes for work. I bought black ones last year. . . I have to say folks, if you spend your work week on your feet Nurture brand shoes are the way to go. They are the only company I have found that makes shoes I would actually wear (aka not super ugly) and are good for my feet. I heart them.

Jonathan took his lunch break and we went to Planet Sub for lunch. The planet veggie is the best ever.

tgif

2009-10-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

So far, I love today. I am off work today and after an unexpected wake up call. . . I picked up my fav coffee drink and have sit curled up on the couch checking my favorite blogs and watching President Obama accept his Nobel Peace Prize. Now I am going to get dressed and go check out some garage sales . . . hoping I find a great dresser to make over. I hope you all do some of your favorite things today.

Last night I made this for dinner:

It might not look yummy, but it has great flavor. The recipe is from Real Simple Magazine. Here it is:

gingery pork and cucumber pitas

1/4 c rice vinegar

2 t sugar

kosher salt

2 cucumbers thinly sliced (if this is just for the 2 of us, i only use 1 cucumber)

1 jalepeno thinly sliced

olive oil

1 lb ground pork

1/4 c hoisin sauce

1 T grated ginger

4 pitas, halved

In a medium bowl, combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add the cucumbers and jalapeno and let sit.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Cook the pork, break up with a spoon until no longer pink, 5-6 min. Stir in the hosin, ginger, and 2 T water.
Fill the pita halves with the pork and cucumber salad.

annie

2009-10-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

My sweet friend Holli gave me an orchid. . . and I really hope I don't kill it. I am pretty confident when it comes to house plants and most things like that. . . except orchids. Jonathan gave me an orchid for Valentines Day in 2007. . . and in attempts to 'take care of it' I killed it. Jonathan wasn't excited. So I am afraid of the orchid. Holli is going to teach me how to take care of it. I would expect myself to fail because of the fear of killing the orchids thing. . . except that Holli was telling me how to get it to bloom . . . and I have 2 new blooms since she gave it to me.

My friend Sam has an orchid and she named it Amelia (you can see Amelia here). So I think I should name mine. So I am going to call my orchid Annie. Here's to hoping I don't kill Annie!

Walk for MS

2009-10-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago Jonathan and Jack went to Oklahoma to walk for MS (I was working). I thought Jonathan was CRaZy for taking Jack--but I was wrong. Jack did great. Here are some fun pictures from their day trip.

I wish I were perfect....

2009-09-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

...but I'm not. I was reminded of my imperfection this morning as I walked down the stairs and was greeted by this mess:

Hmmm. . . I had planned on spending my day off today cleaning so the house wouldn't fall down as I work for the next 9 days straight. I started to walk around the house, making a mental list of to-do's . . . and a thought struck me. . . this is the inside of my cup.

Let me explain. . . Since I was little. . .I knew it was "important" that the house was always clean. I want to feel like someone could stop by any time and I wouldn't be embarrassed by our mess. In Mathew 23:25, Jesus says "You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something."

So as I walked around our house this morning. . . I thought . . this is the inside of my cup. I can pick up the rooms, clean the floors, dust the furniture, do the dishes, wash the kitchen floor and two bathrooms . . . and I will still be a mess inside of my cup. It's not often that I am listening well enough that I hear the Lord call me out on my own junk. . but this morning. . . I was humbly reminded that I spend way too much time and energy making the outside of me sparkle. It's the inside that needs a good cleaning.

a great Saturday

2009-09-12T18:26:00.001-07:00

Today was great. I was exhausted so we decided to scrap our plan full of painting and going to the gym after I got home from work this afternoon. . . and we reeeeelaxed. Like I said. Great. I took a quick nap on the couch and then decided to cook. . . because I like cooking. I made an apple pie, Joe my father-in-law's chili, and cinnamon rolls from scratch like my Grandma used to. It was great to have time to cook. Like I said. . I like it. Then. . . we had a surprise and our friends Dan, Jamie, and Caden came to visit. GREAT. We like them. Now we are going to watch Braveheart. . . and pretend I don't have to work tomorrow. Hope you all are having a good weekend too!

Jonathan is FAMOUS

2009-09-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

time capsule

2009-09-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

The night we got the keys to our house, Jonathan and I started opening drawers and closets as we were figuring out our plan of attack and found this.........

It is the Wichita Eagle from November 13, 1960. The house was built in 1925. . . so we are not sure the significance of the paper. . . but thought it was cool so we framed it to hang in the living room. It has titles such as Dixie Governor Told To Obey Court Order and Nixon to Keep hand on Reins and Advanced New "Discover" Shot into Orbit. Like I said. . . cool stuff. I was going to cut a page out of it for a mixed media painting I was working on (I'll show you that later. . not sure if it is finished or not) but Jonathan was outraged....... he was probably right. So I didn't. It's inside the frame. . all preserved.

fall

2009-09-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall. I love the warm afternoons and cold nights. I love back to school. . . even though I don't go to school anymore. I love sleeping with the windows open. I love the leaves. . . the are so beautiful. . . so imperfectly perfect. I love knowing the holidays are coming. I love starting to drink hot cocoa and making my father-in-laws chili for Jonathan. I hate ragweed. . but mostly I love fall. And I especially love that fall is here. Above is a picture of a tree just down the street from our house. It's the only one that has turned yet. . . I hope the ones in our yard are this pretty soon!

Final Friday

2009-08-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

If you have nothing to do tonight and you are in Wichita. . . you should get out and go here. Check out the local exhibits . . . we will be. Hope you have a great weekend!

The rest of the weekend. . .

2009-08-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I had a baby shower for my boss/friend. I made fun butterfly cupcakes that Elly had made before and gave me the recipe for. The sad part was they melted some on the way and were not near as cute as they were at my house. It was at our store so it was difficult to make it feel like a baby shower. . . so I hung cute things from the celling. It was a lot of fun. Check out the sock monkey I made for Tisha's baby girl. So excited for her!

ahh. . weekends

2009-08-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend my Dad and Julie came to see our visit. They were put to work. . . but we had fun too!

My Dad and I checking out his & Jonathan's trim work.

You can actually see the house from the street. They worked so hard and did a great job!

Before they left Jonathan made pizza out on the grill. It was yummy!

Things we love.

2009-08-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons Jonathan and I loved this house was the front porch. Jonathan especially looked forward to sitting out during storms. Well. . . we had our first storm on Monday and Jonathan was out there all right. I was getting soaked so I went inside. . . but he took these pictures.

One of Jonathan's new loves has been thistles. He wants to plant a thistle garden one day. His new found appreciation for these plants (weeds to some peeps) has opened my eyes to their beauty. I saw these at Dillon's today and had to snatch them up! So pretty.

Check it out.

2009-08-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Our new product is in. . . you should check it out! Click on the image below to hear about the great discount tomorrow night!

painted rooms

2009-08-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

Okay folks. . . these pics have been in high demand. . . these rooms are TOTALLY unfinished. . . lots left to do. . but there is paint on the walls! The first is the dinning room. We are going to put up a chair rail between the orange and cream. . . someday . . .

Here is our bedroom. No headboard and the windows in this picture haven't been painted yet. . the next pic shows some of the windows that have been painted next to the wall so you can tell what it will look like in the end.

Jonathan's current project is stripping all of the hardware (it had all been painted over the years) for the windows and doors in our bedroom. It will look really nice when he is done.

just figured out how to take videos on our camera

2009-08-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

I heart Sundays

2009-08-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

So. . . we had picked our furniture for our front porch before we ever moved in. . . but I wanted to wait to buy it until it was at least 50% off during the end of the season. So we have gone to the store it was at a couple of times a week (retail's worst nightmare. . . oops) to 'visit' the furniture and check and see if it was marked down yet. It has been on sale, but just today it went about 55% off and it was the last set so we bought it! Two trips later to get it all home and we officially have porch furniture. We spent a good portion of our day out there. . . here are a few pics.

I don't really like the fabric on the cushions so I plan on re-covering them sometime with something more red or orange or yellow. . . colors I like.

Get ready for fur mania. . . Jonathan was in shock as to how much fur was coming off Jack. I have done this before with him so it was nothing new. . . you can keep brushing him for hours (I'm sure, never really brushed him for hours) and the fur keeps coming.

Gross.

Hope your Sunday was as enjoyable as ours!

a policeman, a professor, and the president

2009-07-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

mmmm. . . progress. I was helping. . sort of. It is taking a long time to paint the trim. . . but it's looking very nice. . so well worth the wait!

Here is a the living room. . post paint. . post furniture. It's a bit of a mess (the mess is well hidden in this picture. . . but it's a mess. . trust me) but it's ours. Nothing is up on the walls yet, which drives me crazy. My usual. . put a nail up and if it isn't right put up another I-can-do-it-by-myself method isn't going to fly with my hubby this time. . so I have to think about where I want things and let him put in screws. Little by little. . it will get done.

Here are our cute 'helpers'. I say 'helpers' because what they really are is fur-losing-machines. I never knew they shed this much! I feel like I'm in a western movie. . instead of tumbleweeds there are hair balls. . and instead of a desert there is a wood floor. We have swept every day we have lived here. . and the hair is EVERYWHERE. Jonathan thinks we should get one of those robo-vacuum's. The ones that are like a little pod and are on all the time. . just sucking away. We'll see. . I'm a sceptic.

And for those of you who know and love my husband. . . you will appreciate the conversation we just had:

Jonathan: So. . . a policeman, a professor, and the president are having a beer tonight

Me: and. . . .???

Jonathan: sounds like the beginning of a bad joke doesn't it?

Me: yup. . so what happens

Jonathan: no, for real, it is happening tonight

Me: (in an exasperated voice) just tell me the joke please

Jonathan: seriously, check the news

Me: (checks the news) Oh. They are.

If you don't know what he was talking about, you can read about it here.

take joy

2009-07-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

No pictures today. . . just me. I've been having some difficulty with my camera battery (I think I need a new one). There isn't much to see anywhoo . . . every room has random stuff all over. . yuck! Where did so much STUFF come from??? Stuff we own . . . stuff to do. . stuff our dogs dragged out . . . When we take the time to sit down and ignore the 'stuff' we are really enjoying our home. I'll post pics soon. . . promise! Our current project is painting the trim in our bedroom. . and with all those windows it's taking a while. I'll post when we finish!

Since we have moved my smart husband who serves a smart God has called me out many times for being negative. . . it stinks (but is sooo good) to hear the truth! But I have been negative. . . about the amount of work to do. . about how much plumbers cost. . about work. . . though the reality is I really love these things (well, maybe not the plumber). I think I just get bogged down and forget about joy. The truth is I love our new home. I love walking our dogs to the park. . chatting with our neighbors. . sitting with Jonathan on the porch. . . I love my job. Just yesterday I worked a split shift (went in in the morning than back that evening) so I had most of my day at home. I took 2 hours to get ready. . just doddling and enjoying washing my hair twice. . . I never do that. . it was so fun! I love my job, but don't always love the schedule. . but there are huge upsides to my work schedule being non-normal. Today I have a long list of to-do's. . . and I am going to try to take joy.

Moving

2009-07-22T18:22:00.003-07:00

Good news: We moved!

Bad news: Our house looks like this.

Thank you to our dear friends who braved the rain and heavy boxes to help; Hans, Sarah, Holli, and Stephen, you're awesome!!! I will post pics once our house is no longer full of boxes, I promise!

Our first night in our house went very well. . until the power went out during a storm. I had to work at 6am the next morning and the power still wasn't on. . . it was interesting to say the least trying to find clothes and a toothbrush!! Welcome to homeownership! Other than that. . it has been great. . . we have unpacked some, sat on the porch, met sweet neighbors who bring us cookies and left over cake from their church, our dogs have mastered jumping the fence and escaping our yard, plumbing problems abound, and we really love starting to make our life here.

p.s. if you are trying to get ahold of us, we can't find our phone chargers among the boxes so we both have dead phones. I hope we will have it together soon!

Packing

2009-07-19T14:22:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is the big day. . . moving! Tonight I am packing packing away. I'll post pics soon of the rooms. . . the house looks totally different! I'm getting excited!!!!!!

Making Progress

2009-07-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

I never before truly appreciated the worth of elbow grease. Our house is a lot of work. . . just cleaning our house is a lot of work. . . but in the end it will be so worth it. Tonight we put up our first coat of paint. . . well the first coat of paint we planned on putting up :) My mom and Kelley my sister-in-law have been here helping and we would be no where with out them. . . Thanks!! Here are a few pic's of the 'progress'.

The cabinet pics are for Kelley. . . she and my mom are the only ones who can truly appreciate how amazing this is. There was layers of contact paper, wallpaper, paint, and probably 20 plus years of grease all layered and SICK! Now they are nice and clean. . . . 3 days later!

This pic is so when I tell you all I am going to wallpaper the bedroom we are going to use as our office you all don't send me messages of outrage. There is no repairing that wall (we didn't know it looked like that until we had the wallpaper down) short of tearing out the plaster and putting up new sheet rock. Since we don't want to do that. . . wall paper to the rescue! Sometimes people wall paper for good reason. The secret is that I actually like the look of some wall paper and I am excited to have a good valid reason to use it! I'm looking forward to looking for some!

Paint

2009-07-07T07:37:00.001-07:00

So. . . as of yesterday the house is ours!! We are very excited. Last night we brought the dogs over and just spent some time walking around and planning what needs to be done. My sister-in-law and my mom are coming to help this week so we are going to get painting. I've decided we will paint the dinning room and the living room. The problem with the living room is I have no idea what color I want to paint it. Usually I make decisions very quickly so this is weird for me. It's a HUGE room and I am thinking I want to stay neutral and pull color in with other things. . . but am having a hard time deciding what direction of neutral to go. The dinning room is connected and I will be painting the room orange beneath a chair rail and a neutral on top. I am thinking maybe cream. . . but I don't know that I want the whole big living room to be cream. Hmmm. . . what are your thoughts ladies! I need your help!

Independence Day

2009-07-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

Check this out! Happy 4th!

Ready for fall

2009-06-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

So. . this isn't the best picture. . I took lots but it was hard to get a clear one but at least it shows you that the colors I am looking at are a lot more grey (I like the ones on the left better). My hubby doesn't want to go too dark. . .but I think with so many windows in that room (7 windows!) it is hard to go too dark. We had a pro come look at the floors today. He only thinks we need to refinish a few rooms. . . so I think we will just do our bedroom before we move in and wait on the rest. I am starting to get excited. . . only 6 days until we get our keys!!!

For those of you who don't live in Kansas anymore. . . I just want to say. . . it's HOT here!!! We have been under a heat advisory for a week! Today we started to transition into fall with our merchandise at work and while customer's say they are not ready to think about sweaters. . . I say BRING ON FALL!!!!!

Our room

2009-06-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

The master bedroom is upstairs. The floors are the worst in here. . . really need refinished. The windows are on 3 walls and the 4th wall has 3 doors to the bathroom, stairs, and closet. Pictures of the closet to come. . . . it's the only 'quirky' thing about the house I don't find charming.

The color I want to paint it has more grey in it than this blue. Do you like this color?

I need to get paint colors picked out this week. . so I will keep posting ideas. . . if you have any ideas for any of the rooms, leave a comment and let me know!

Oh boy

2009-06-24T09:10:00.001-07:00

Ahhh. . . leave him home alone for 10 minutes. . . . his name should be Marley!