coming soon. . .

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

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 . . .

nativity

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

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. . .

. . . 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

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

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

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

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

happy birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....

...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

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

f

time capsule

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

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!