Did I Tell You My Laptop is Still Out of Commission?

'Cause it is - hence no crafty things and no recipes for awhile now.   It will happen again - at some point. Though I don't know when. Right now A and I are currently sharing a laptop because he has the good fast one that works.... So I've hi-jacked it for a moment to share some pictures with you that I said I would get to (eventually).
Here we go!



Faux Wall in the Living/Family Room - the dark spot is a spot on the inside of lens of the camera...it's in all the pictures.

 

Closer up faux wall - ignore the spot it's not really there



"Chai Latte" in the down stairs bathroom - it's like a muted pale orangey color

With our fun Pier 1 decoartions thanks to Jon & Katie and wedding giftcards :)

I repositioned one of the Scripture signs. As cute as I thought it was before, you could only see the Corinthians one when you were sitting at the table.

And the Bunny Gate so they don't go where they shouldn't! So far it's working!!!!

We have finally put together our room & put up pictures :)

We finally put up the guest bathroom picture instead of just having it leaned up against the wall.


Yay! Things are coming together...now if only we could just finish painting upstairs. hahaha

 

Life Lesson (and I promise I'll post painting progress pictures soon)

I'm learning a lesson in life right now and God is revealing to me my fear of man. That's lame. The fear of man thing, not the learning thing. I'm realizing how much I'm afraid to do certain things or be responsible for certain things because they aren't what other people want for me. And that's just ridiculous - because other people can't possibly know me better than God does. I was discussing this with a friend the other day and she, in her wisdom, told me that I can't let people affect me that way. Fast forward to later in the week, I was talking about the same thing with A and he told me that

If I am more concerned about what other people want for me, then I won't be able to find joy in the things that do happen.

 

I think God is trying to get a message through my head. And it's true. Things in life happen and you hae to make a choice - however, DON'T let someone else determine how you react or what you decide to do UNLESS that person is God. We should be more concerned with how God wants us to react than we are with how others will react.

 

 

In other "news" (because it's not really "newsworthy") - we've taken a LONG break from painting. It's half way driving me nuts, but I haven't been feeling 100% so I need to work on getting the house back in order than painting. BUT our faux wall in the living/family room (because I don't know the difference) is DONE and part of upstairs is painted, but then we ran out of paint.

 

We got our kitchen table and I love it! It was very exciting. It can be a very skinny accent table, a table that seats 4 or a table that seats 6! It's pretty rad and we got a good deal on chairs for it since it originally came with 2. They're slightly different, but I love the effect.

 

We hung our first picture the other day. It was our caricature from Valentine's weekend a couple years ago. hhehehehe.

 

AND I think we've finally outsmarted the bunnies with the additional of a "bunny" (baby) gate. They, so far, have not figured out how to get through it. BUT I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they get through the bars and we have to put up screening.

We are currently trying to organize a BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) get together with one of our small groups. I'm hoping it'll be as fun as it was when we did it in Cali :)

 

We planted a tree and some flowers in our backyard yesterday - and by we, I mean Anthony. It looks nice and I'm excited to be getting to the front of the house at some point.

 

BUT - now I've wasted more time rambling and really need to get to cleaning the house and putting away laundry and fun stuff like that. SO I hope that you have a wonderful Monday that is full of happiness and joy!

xo

S

My heart

Sometimes -- but in all reality frequently -- I wonder why God created my heart the way he did. I wonder why He created my heart to be so fragile. I hope I remember to ask Him this when I see Him face to face.

encouragement and other stuff

It's been awhile since I've posted on either of my blogs. My laptop is still getting worked on - so I'm left with my phone which is a little frustrating to write with - and I haven't located the Kindle charger which would totally be easier than this. New goal - find the charger.

Anyways, I'm now back to working full-time which is good, but last night it hot me that I'm not doing great with the transition. Prayers would be appreciated . :)

On top of all that, I've been frustrates with my lack of time in God's word. I've been reading, but it's been distracted reading. God has made it clear that a big part of the issue is my prayer life, so I've been reading some books to help me get back into a routine and to remember how important a strong prayer life is and hoe beneficial a strong prayer life is.  It's definitely helping and I'm seeing God more in the little this than before. Praise Him for that!
As I was reading Power Prayers for women this morning, I came across a description of the Bible that brought more excitement in me than I've felt in a long time - so I felt the need to share.

"Adventure, danger, romance - just a few story themes from the beat-selling book of all time. Undoubtedly, billions of copies have been printed and distributed.
Unlike fairytales, this book us true and starts with 'In the beginning.' here you learn of kings and conquerors, love and loss, rebellion and redemption. Turn the pages to discover where you came from, why you are here, and where you are going. You'll find out how to handle money and have better relationships. Most important, you can learn who God is and how you can live with Him forever.
What is this astonishing book? The Bible. Inspired by God, this sixty-six-book compilation is the true story of God's love for all people, including you and me. It's the explanation of a promised deliverance, and freedom for all who obey." -Jackie M. Johnson

I encourage anyone reading this to get a Bible - buy one, borrow one - and open it up. Pray that God will show you who He really is and who you really are through His book,-through His words. Meet God and allow Him to transform your life. It won't be easy and it may not always seem like it's getting better - but its worth it. And when you struggle with how it appears your life is going, take a moment to look back and who you were and where your life was heading, meditate on His promises, and look ahead to where you're going. Look to His glorious Kingdom that is waiting His beautiful children - be faithful and steadfast and cling to the hope that is in the Cross.

I love you all and am praying,
S

Tuesday Night Ramblings

I'm sitting here on the couch next to a mountain of clothing waiting for the monster of a washing machine to yell at me again. I should be folding, but I'm tired. If there's one thing I've learned about owning a house - it's a LOT of work...and this is still the fun stage.

I had great ambitions today - REALLY great ambitions today:

...there's a backside too.

Sometimes I think there just aren't enough hours in a day - other times I realize that I have a horrible sense of time and there's just NO way that I can paint a laundry room in 30 minutes. Apparently, I can't even paint it in an hour - apparently it took about 5ish hours. My feet our swollen, I'm covered in paint from head to toe, and I ran out of paint with a few necessary touch ups needed; but I bet you can't tell.

Ta Da!

Well, that's gonna be there forever

Spiderman's got nothin' on me! Booya.

I love that we're FINALLY getting to the point of putting up our decorative things.

We've been hard at work getting things painted - because a couple of days in a house painted white drove me nuts. I have NO idea how people tolerate that & sometimes I wish I had the ability to...I just need color. The hubster does too and that is just wonderful.

Here's our yellow kitchen - that is waiting for a table & chairs, bar stools, a new refrigerator, a new trash can (we have, we just have to re-mount it under the sink), the removal of the wonderful HD bucket, and some fall decorations ;)

The monster washing machine is calling me again, so I best be going before it breaks or ruins the new paint job in the laundry room.

Until next time,
S

I've been intending on posting pictures and updating on how the house is coming along - it's finally starting to come together (at least downstairs), but the computer has gone unpredictable on me - so I'm left to the phone which isn't much fun to blog on.

But - the downstairs is almost ALL painted - we have a grey living room and dibig room, a yellow kitchen, white trim, doors and ceilings and we've chosen a color for ge laundry room (an aqua type color!). All thats left for downstairs is to decide what color to paint the bathroom and then paint the bathroom and living room - and then the real decorating can start!

So here's to hoping the laptop cooperates tomorrow :D

House work!

Hi Friends!
Things have been crazy busy over the past month and we have taken up ANOTHER residence - this time at Home Depot. My goodness we're there a lot, although I don't think we went yesterday which would be a first since we got into the house. I could be wrong about that though. The employees know us and are waiting for us to bring us pictures of what we've been doing to the house.

So what have we been doing? Painting. LOTS and LOTS of painting.
Thankfully we started with white walls, so it was super easy to cover.
We have almost the entire downstairs painted - I just need to paint the hallway (my job for today) and the kitchen and then the ceilings. So by almost, I mean we have like half of the walls done. Oh and we need to paint the doors too.

We've changed out all the downstairs door knobs so they look pretty & not brass.
Most of the walls are grey.
1 wall is textured that my AMAZING husband spent a LOT of hard work doing.
We've picked out the kitchen color.
I built our extra kitchen storage (it was rather difficult).
We've rearranged the living room.
We've acquired a fun brightly colored canvas painting and a really pretty mirror that goes with the safari theme in our master thanks to Katie & Jon.
We've balanced the pool (finally).
Had to get the AC fixed.
Anthony made the outlets in the master bathroom work again.
AND We've spent a lot of time at Home Depot.

But things are coming along and I can see the downstairs coming together slowly but surely.
Now to figure out what we want to do with the accent wall & locate an affordable sectional...

love until later,
S

Where Have We Been?!

Hi Bloggy & Bloggy Friends!
It's been awhile now, hasn't it? Well, we sure do have some good & exciting news!

We are NOW officially OFFICIALLY homeowners of the most wonderful house we ever could imagine (after a LOT of house drama - you can read about some of it by clicking on the "house hunting" tab at the top of the page)!

BUT - first we went on vacation to Bass Lake and it was glorious and wondering and I'm STILL recovering from injuries sustained on the trip - haha! Yes - I hurt myself. No this isn't a surprise. My boss informed me my first day back that I am accident prone... I think everyone would agree with that. :)

While at Bass Lake, I managed to smack my knee pretty hard on the intertube. And for someone who isn't supposed to smack her knees ever, it felt like I shattered my knee cap. I didn't. But it was painful. This was on day 2 or 3 of the trip. The trip was 10 days long. We've been back for almost a week. I still have a bruise. I also jumped out of a boat, landed on my ankle wrong and ended up spraining it. I've been walking on it, so it's still not healed. This was the same day as the intertube incident. I then insisted on learning to wake board.

And then we moved. We moved all our stuff into our first home and I have never been more exhausted and my body has not hurt so much (at least not in a LONG time). It's a good hurt and a good exhaustion because we're being productive and VERY active. We haven't stopped moving. Wake up, unpack, put things away, go to work, come home, work on the house, figure out dinner, eat, work on the house, go to sleep. Repeat. It's a ton of work, but it's good. We have a LONG way to go, lots of empty bedrooms, lots of empty space, but it's going to be good & we can't wait to see how God is going to use our home for His work!

We will post pictures when things are a bit settled down - some from vacation (maybe even a video) and some of the house...when it's a little more in order. :)



AND - my awesome in-laws moved to AZ today! Woot!

xoxo
S

Drama. Drama. Drama.

The bad news: we will not be closing on our house today and we will not be moving into our house on Wednesday. I feel defeated. I want to go home and curl up with new jammies and cookies. I want to cry. Oh wait, I already did that. My disappointment and tears are selfish though. They are present because things aren't going according to my plan.

There is good news though. We should be able to close in the next week or so and move ib shortly afterwards. Woohoo!

There is a reason for all of this, but right now I am looking forward to this being the only house we will ever buy. There has just been way to much drama and it has been way too much of a roller coaster. I am thankful for all of it, but now I'm just tired.

Saturday Shenanigans, Sunday Funday & All Its Crazy!

It's Sunday (although almost not) & my has it been crazy as we get ready to move in a few short days. This is way bigger than I think I ever expected, mainly because I don't think I expected us to be here so quickly.  Due to words said to me in my past, owning a house just never seemed like a possibility, but I am so blown away, blessed and amazed by God's provision through our entire lives, our relationship, our marriage and just everything, we will move in to our very first house before we were anticipating even starting to look. I think I have reached the denial portion of this moving into a house thing.

A month ago, I was totally accepting of the moving into a house thing. A month ago I started packing. And now, we are 1 day away from signing papers, 2 days away from receiving keys and 3 days away from moving in and I am sitting here going, there's so much to do, but we can't really be moving into a HOUSE can we? The moving thing seems normal - the house thing seems surreal. But here we are, days away from moving into our first house - the apartment in complete shambles, the bunnies a little more curious and a little more on edge because we destroyed their home with boxes they aren't allowed to play with. I bet that's how it is with kids too. Yes. Yes. I just compared our bunnies to the likeness of children. They're toddler attitudes are at least similar. The moving ability is extremely easier than that of a toddler (at least I assume because I have no real experience with that one yet and hopefully when the time comes, we won't have to move with toddlers).  Anyways...

Saturday we had our final walk through. I had no idea what to expect. Well, we pretty much walked through the house. I guess that's why they call it a "walk through". Then we spent a long time talking with the tenants, D and AM. They are seriously SO sweet. They are supposed to move out the 31st so we can move in the 1st - and even though they are having issues with the property they are moving into - they have assured us that they will be out on the 31st, even if it means staying in a hotel for a night and they are taking care of all of the cleaning for us (which I don't think is required of them as they are renters in the house), but it's great knowing that they have removed 2 hornets/wasps nests for us, sprayed for bugs, had the gardener come out, the pool guy come out, and are getting the carpets professionally cleaned for us and personally cleaning the the rest of the house. I really don't feel like that should be their responsibility as renters, but AM said that she is so excited for us and very happy that we are the ones getting the house and not an investor or another family. She even brought up which room would be best for a nursery...even though that is not happening for at least a few more years.

A also told me on Saturday that we are being gifted a pool guy for a couple months while we get into the swing of things, which is awesome - one more thing we don't have to worry about while we get used to living in and owning a house (Thanks!!).

We've ordered address announcements which should be here in the next few weeks - hopefully we ordered enough.

And did I mention the apartment is a disaster? Because it is. But Pocket is determined to climb on top of the boxes so that adds to the cuteness and entertainment around here these days. I may have already mentioned that in an earlier post, but it really is entertaining.

Today we spent mostly packing, then decided to roam around Costco, The Room Store, and Home Depot. Walked out of HD into a monsoon which was wonderful- I like to pretend we live somewhere tropical when that happens. Went to church which had an awesome and convicting message on living a life of faith daily, not just when it's convenient and then In N Out for dinner because I didn't throw the crock pot meal in the crock pot. Genius. right here. Thank you.

And lastly on this random rambling bloggy post - have I mentioned the wonderfulness of freezer meals? Totally have to utilize this and get into the habit of it before we start having munchkins. It's fantastic. I spent a couple hours on two different days preparing meals that could be frozen for up to 3 months and either tossed into a crock pot or into the oven. It has seriously been amazing! I think this was the first time that A went out of town that I actually ate a legit meal instead of some store bought freezer meal or Ramen noodles and it has kept the cost down on the restaraunts on the couple weeks before our move. I LOVE it. It's healthier, there are left overs which are great for lunches, elevensies, or midnight snack/meal.  (FYI that's probably the only LOTR reference you will get out of me - mainly because I think that's the only part I was awake for in 2 of the movies and I haven't tried the 3rd one yet, gotta actually see the entire first 2).

SO that's all that's happened. I feel like this was a very informational post. Hopefully I will be able to post a recipe or something soon. I keep forgetting to take pictures.

 Loves to you all my family and friends and random internet people who come across this!
-S

Oh - did I mention we sign tomorrow, get the keys Tuesday or Wednesday and move in on Wednesday? Cause that's what's going on. I can't wait.

And we have some paint colors picked out.