a policeman, a professor, and the president

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check this out! Happy 4th!