Reset.

Can you believe the weather lately? It's been absolutely gorgeous... I swear I was experiencing seasonal depression during the month of September, but these beautiful, blue-skyed, breezy days have certainly cheered me up! And we've made some real progress on the house lately - which is always helpful to my mood. I feel like the house is all I talk about here... but it really is the biggest thing in day-to-day life right now - and it's really something I've looked forward to since high school. For a while I had to check myself and make sure it wasn't becoming an idol, but honestly, it's so much fun to put my (our) hands to work and make, create something beautiful. Like our sanctification, the process is painfully slow, but I was telling a friend today (and I say it all the time) that living in this house, working on this house, is a bonafide blessing. Every single day, I think to myself - How on earth did we wind up in this place? By no stretch of the imagination have we earned or do we deserve this house - this neighborhood - this space... It doesn't make logical or financial sense that we should land here. And then I remember that the same is true of everything I "own." That every kleenex I wipe my nose with, every shoe I put on in the morning - every breath that I breathe is given to me by the Lord in heaven. I'm thankful that he would use something potentially superficial to teach me about himself and his grace. So here's an update.

Practice run for concrete countertops. Wasn't my first choice to put concrete countertops above concrete floors, but we found a kind that resembles limestone (not shown), so here's hoping. :)

Cabinets primed. Waiting to see countertop color before painting.

New bedding - verdict is still out on the pillow selection but it'll work for now.

We also went to the Mutemath show at the Palladium on Thursday. We haven't been to a concert in a venue like that in a long time, and I gotta tell ya - I've forgotten what it means to be a music enthusiast. Standing up for four hours right in front of the speakers and so close to strangers that it would be entirely inappropriate in virtually any other setting used to be at least a monthly experience for me. Now that David's not as much in the "scene," we don't venture out to Ellum as much - or any other "club" for that matter. But, while I felt a little fake hungover and temporarily deaf in my left ear, I had a great time. Mutemath always puts on a great show - and by NO means sacrifices the integrity of their music. I highly recommend.

This might be "Spotlight." I can't remember, though.

Andrea tweeted all week in hopes that they would read her posts and ask her to be their friend. She cracks me up.

This is what we felt like after the show. Totally worth it.

I've noticed the Lord lately bringing things back around again in what seems like an attempt to show me from where I've come. Examples. A friend of mine and I are going through a Beth Moore study together, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Now, the me from 05-06 would've sneered and said, "You legalist. Going through some daily study in order to feel like you've checked in with God for the day. Besides, Beth Moore is far too saccharine, and only 'cute Christian girls' go through those..." Because the me from 01-02 wanted desperately to be one of those 'cute Christian girls.' And since 'cute Christian girls' went through Beth Moore studies together, that's what I did. And God totally used it to change and refine me, but a walk through the desert left a bitter taste in my mouth for all things 'Cute Christian.' He's since, however, been leading me toward still waters where my bitterness wanes, and the thirst for genuine knowledge of and fellowship with him requires the humility to step back into a study format I unofficially swore off. And it feels really refreshing.

Part of the study encourages spending time daily with our faces physically on the ground before the Lord, praising him in prayer and thanking him for his mercy. Coincidentally, we sang a song at church a few weeks ago, "We will seek you first Lord... ... early in the morning...." A song that immediately jolted me back to freshman year at A&M, singing songs at breakaway on Tuesday nights. Another thing that "cute Christian girls" did. :) And I wept with joy as we sang at The Village, recalling what it felt like to sing it back then, and to feel what it feels like to sing it now, and to relish in the work God has done on me in between. Like hiking a mountain, reaching a peak, and looking down to find your starting point. And then the daunting, yet exciting part, is looking around the bend to see how much further you have to travel. Which is ALSO what the study has to do with... I well up even now to think about how, out of love and encouragement, He takes the time to remind us of what He can do with us - even if, sometimes, it involves kicking and screaming... or maybe even some sitting and sulking.

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude.

"...that we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream..."
(I'm pretty sure I've used that one before, but it's fitting.) :)

I can't do without my kitchen man.

Two months, good heavens... I'd say that we've been terribly busy, and that's why I haven't posted anything recently. But mostly it's because I haven't been taking many pictures, and I couldn't bear to submit one more blog without any photos. I still don't have any pictures of the rooms we've actually finished, (and by finished, I mean construction-wise. Still no decorating aside from a few new pillows...) but I've got some photos of our current enterprise: the kitchen. I mean, we've textured and painted the walls and finished the floors. But we've actually gotten to the functioning parts of the kitchen - and right now, the focus is our cabinets.


I wish I had some better before pictures, but here's what I got:


So you can barely see that the microwave used to live on the countertop -- where this built-in butcher block from 1979 also lives -- with all of the germs accumulated since 1979..... blechk!!!

Now, however, you can see that the microwave has its own little home where there used to be a miniature wall oven. (Courtesy of my husband and his brother.)


You can also see in the before pics that there used to be a few cabinets hanging over the peninsula that really closed off the space. Those were one of the first things to go - thank goodness. It limits our storage space even more than before, but it's worth it for the room to feel twice a big. Plus, it's the perfect place for some pretty pendants - eventually.

This weekend, we removed and sanded down all the cabinet doors and drawers. David also cut out the section where the new range will go. As of right now, it's sitting in our garage. But here's what it looks like as of right now.



And while all the cool people of the world rocked out to Muse and U2, David and did the last bits of demo and started sanding the skeleton.


We're trucking along. This is the really messy part where we're limited to crock pot and microwave meals for - hopefully - just a few weeks. We'll hopefully finish priming this weekend, and there's a bit more construction to do around the range area, but we're making real progress. And that makes me happy. I've really been amazed at the things we've been able to accomplish. And while the whole thing has taken waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than I ever hoped, little by little, I start to see things come together.

For example, the aforementioned pillows have brought a little more life to the living room.

There's still random furniture hanging around the room, as well as the vacuum cleaner, but like I said - progress. :)

And I can't remember if I've posted any pics of Fleck yet...




He's not the brightest dog on the planet, but I grow more and more fond of him all the time. Plus, he can curl himself impressively into a tiny ball that fits on the case of one of our couch pillows.

Not much else has happened since August, and I haven't felt all that insightful. But we've found ourselves with a bit more free time than previously, so I have hope that my brain will start to kick in again. Maybe then I'll have more substantial things to write about than renovations. But until then, happy home-owning!

"It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song..."

The good, the bad, and the sweaty.

A few entries ago, I wrote about how I'm learning more and more that my adult life consists of simultaneously happy and unhappy events. This weekend was no exception to that lovely life lesson.

Here's a recap: (Again, with no pictures - yikes!)

Yesterday, David and I painted our kitchen ceiling and walls: Good.
This morning, I was terribly, terribly sore because of said painting. (I have zero upper body strength...): Bad.
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon home decor shopping with Andrea. Good.
Crate and Barrel Outlet wasn't all that I wanted it to be, and we didn't wind up buying anything: Bad. (Or good, if your my budget-watching husband. :) )
Last night, David and I went to the movies for the first time in forever. (I think the last flick we saw was 'Juno.' Seriously.) We saw '500 Days of Summer.' In my personal opinion: Good, really good.
We tried to go eat at a random little restaurant around the corner, but they were closed by the time the movie was out: Bad. But really not that big of a deal.
This morning I got to sleep in my cozy comfy bed while David went to play at church: Good.
After I got up and decided to wash the sheets, I unwittingly included my ONE-MONTH-OLD PHONE in the laundry....!!! :( Bad. Very, very bad.
We took the dogs down to the lake to play in the water -- SO cute... :) Good.
Jetta found a few dead fish on the shore and SWALLOWED them whole!! Ugh - bad. And just plain gross.
The afternoon afforded a cat-nap and a shower. Mmmmmm... Good.
When I got out of the shower, I noticed a large puddle of water in our master bedroom... coming from the CEILING!! Our air conditioner leaked and dripped through our freshly textured, primed, and painted ceilings.... Ugh - so VERY very bad. SO very bad....

Needless to say, the evening has been a little sweaty (eww!) while David's been fixing the A/C, but he seems to have solved any problems we were having. Here's hoping. So here I sit on our big, comfy couch (hey, wasn't that a kids' show back in the day....?) blogging and watching 'Dear Genevieve' on hulu while David has the dogs out on the bike. And remembering, especially in light of the sermon this weekend, that life isn't always easy - and thank God that it isn't.

"it may not be the way I would've chosen when you lead me through a world that's not my home. but you never said it would be easy. you only said i'd never go alone."

Day to day things

No new pics at the moment. Just a quick update.

I'm covered in decorator white, semi-gloss paint. Baseboards and closet shelves. Call me a perfectionist, but I can't stand to paint all the trim all over our house pretty new white and then leave our closet shelves dingy dirty white. Besides, I figure I have to look at my closet just about every day, so why not make it pretty too? We're doing a deep espresso in the master bath area, so I'm probably gonna carry that into the closets. And pretty brown walls need pretty white shelves. :)

David's working in the kitchen. We're not completely replacing all of our cabinets, but we're changing the layout a little and giving them a facelift. We're taking out the old oven (the one that doesn't fit my cookie sheets....) and putting in an oven/range. We're cutting out some shelves in some wasted space and putting in cabinets in on the peninsula -- which I think might turn out to be a pretty blue -- eeek! Quite the project, but we're trucking along quite nicely.

We got another dog. His name is Fleck. He's a German Shorthaired Pointer just like Jetta, but we think he's full-bred. He's bigger and brown instead of black. He has a big brown spot on his butt -- Fleck means 'spot' in German -- so there ya go. I like it. :) And I like him. Although, Jetta is a bit jealous of our attention towards him. But she was a little crazy to begin with. A little inferiority complex shouldn't make things too much worse. I hope. :)

And I played Macgyver this morning when I woke up. I went to open the door - and I was locked inside my bedroom. Well, not technically. The doorknob had broken on the inside - where I was conveniently located. Normally, I would freak out at a time like this, but I pulled it together, assessed the situation, and gathered potentially usable tools. Tweezers, nail clippers, and a paperclip were about all I could find. I tried jiggling the knob, unscrewing the knob, tweezing the latch. No luck. After about 20 minutes of fruitless attempts, I called David. "Have you tried using a credit card?" Duh.... One swipe, and I was free. Hey, I was just proud of myself for not hyperventilating or going all claustrophobic. I was a little late for work, but my usually intimidating director just made a little fun of me and didn't scold me for being tardy. Ah, c'est la vie....

"The future is no place to place your better days...."

Home Ownership, part, eh... who's counting anymore...?

So last weekend, I gave up.
Since we moved into this house, I kept thinking that our renovations would take much less time than they have in reality. When we bought the house in February, I thought - surely we can get everything done in a month. If we just work work work, we'll get it done. But after two months, I kinda had a breakdown, and cried for like a full weekend because our house was still such a mess. Then, after March had passed, I thought - okay. Three more months, and surely we'll be finished. Not as quick as I thought it would be, but hey, what can ya do? Sure enough, two weeks ago, I had a similar breakdown as the one in March. There was a some crying involved, and a whole lotta, "I can't LIVE like this anymore!!!" Which can be at least somewhat understood, because THIS:



is what my livingroom looks like right now....!! (Notice the dust under the side table and sofa... Even after putting up protective plastic, the dust carried to EVERY single part of the house.... Aye aye aye...)

So. last weekend, I gave up. I came to the realization that it will probably be at the very least six more months before I really feel like this house is "done." That it's at a point where I feel like it's 'home,' and I don't have to apologize every time somebody comes over. And even then, we still probably won't have all the little projects done. And even if we do have all the little projects done -- we won't have even touched the outside..... Living in a construction zone for a year wasn't exactly what I had in mind when we bought our first place, but I just keep telling myself that when everything's finally finished, it'll be worth all the hard work and discomfort, and we'll have a home that's ten times better than it was when we found it.... Here's hoping!

The most recent project - that only took two weekends - was the flooring on the kitchen side of the house. We have a dining/kitchen/eat-in/utility/half-bath on one side of our house, and the floor extends throughout each of these spaces, so to make it feel more open and cohesive, we decided to carry the same staining/scoring treatment all the way from one end to the other. I think it turned out nicely. It's a little darker than our original plan, but I think we can work it out in combination with the other changes we're planning. Here are some before/during/after shots. All of them are taken from our utility room.

This is after ripping up the carpet in the dining room and the vinyl in the kitchen/utility/half-bath, and sanding the concrete down.

After scoring. I know the color looks different, but it's just the lighting. At this point, it was still boring old gray.

This is post-staining, pre-sealing. I loved the color after this step, and I kinda wish we could've left it like this, but since concrete is porous, it's not the best idea to leave it unsealed.

And finally, post-sealer. Again, the color looks super yellow because of the lighting (and because of my camera), but it's a little darker and browner than this. This is one of the first projects that I think David and I worked on together - just the two of us - from start to finish, so it feels really good to look at what we did as a team. :)

Yesterday, we had to clean the residue off of the floor and let it dry for eight hours before we could seal it, so we went to hang out with the Walkers for the afternoon. I gave Josh a haircut, and since I was playing beauty shop, we all decided as a group that I should straighten David's hair with Angela's Chi. David was not so happy with the result, but it makes me giggle. :)

Teeheeheeeee..... :)


"Me and you. And you and me. No matter how they tossed the dice, it's meant to be. The only one for me is you, and you for me. So happy together.....! Bum bum bum bum bum buh duh duh duh duh duh. Buh bum bum bum....."

Family Addition.

Okay, friends. So last week, David calls me at work and asks, "Hey babe, would your day be any better if there was a dog in your back yard when you came home?" David's been looking for a dog for a while now. We mourned our sweet little Derf, and we decided it was time to adopt another pooch. My day, at the time, had been just fine, so David's question left me smirking and thinking, "Yeah right, like he's really gonna bring a dog home..." But sure enough, when I pulled up to our garage, I saw the puppy paws of this:

in our backyard. To be honest, it took me a little while to warm up to the little dear. It's only been a month since Derf ran away. But it didn't take long before the sweetheart won me over. She's a 6-month-old German Shorthaired pointer with the sweetest disposition and TONS of energy. (Thank goodness we have a big backyard!) The family who previously owned her named her Paris - but we didn't like that, so we named her Jetta. Heeheee... :) Since moving into Chateau Smith, she's learned to sit, shake, and fetch. Well, okay, she really already knew how to sit and fetch, but we've perfected those skills since she got here. We love taking her out and playing - she's just the sweetest thing.

Monday night, I got home from work early, and David had to work late. I thought to myself, "I'll just take that sweet little dog for a walk." So I did. I didn't get far before I realized I didn't have my cell phone with me, and I thought David might be concerned to find his wife's car in the driveway but no wife in the house. Once I got back to the house, I didn't wanna walk anymore, so I thought to myself, "I'll just take her out on the bike. I've seen David do it a million times. Surely it's not that hard." ......... Eeesh.

Not 3 houses down our quiet little street does Jetta's leash get caught in my front tire and the back tire leap into the air, sending me straight over the handlebars.... The slow-motion freefall toward the black asphalt sent thoughts of broken teeth and scar tissue through my head, and I landed abruptly, tangled in the leash and front tire. I caught a quick breath, and shortly after, the bike landed right after me - on top of me..... (shakes head, lowers head, giggles...) Seriously, this is why I don't do anything adventurous. This is why I don't ever take risks. Inevitably something bad is going to happen. Some sort of injury is sure to wreck any hope of excitement or fun. I just need to accept this fact....

Anyways, once I realized I was still alive, no bones were broken, my face was unharmed, and sweet Jetta was still content, I sat on the side of our street laughing and shrugging my shoulders until my phone rang. David called to tell me he was on his way home, and of course, that sent me into weepy little girl mode. I hung up the phone, bit my lower lip and held it together until I got in the house - where the waterworks let loose. I'm telling you, the word, "Waahh," literally came out of my mouth. I heard, coming from my 26-year-old self, the same noises I heard a few weeks ago when my friend tried to put his 3-year-old to bed. I'm such a little kid....

So now I have a busted knee, a twisted ankle, a skinned elbow and a bunch of bruises. I've been wobbling around my office like an old woman for the past few days, but really I'm doing just fine. I probably won't be taking the dog for a bikeride anytime soon, but nevertheless, I'll survive. :)

By the way, apparently this whole dog bike thing is an actual sport called bikejoring. The video below is in a language foreign to me and it has pretty obnoxious music - but it shows you what I attempted and failed at miserably.




Notice the HELMETS and the PADS. Ugh...... :)

"...that we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream in abundance or in need."

Home Ownership, Part 3.

Okay, home ownership update. We've scraped our ceilings, re-textured the walls, and now - we're finally down to the floors... Eeeek!

A few weekends ago, the Walkers helped us out big-time around the house. Here's Josh with the sander we rented for the day. The boys had fun trying to control that thing. It's really powerful!!

This is kind of a before and after shot all in one. The part on the left is where David and Marc sprayed/scrubbed the stain and left it to dry -- looks gray and cloudy. The part he's scrubbing in the pic is what it looks like when all the film is washed off. The part where his feet are is what it looks like once the scrubbed part is dry.

And then THIS is what it looks like now that we have the sealer over it. It's so amazing to me -- like a science experiment that looks totally beautiful when it's finished!

This is what the other room looks like. The previous room is really a deep deep brown. This is called "cola." I just call it "pretty." :)

A few other great and not-so-great things happened this weekend as well.

While chopping onions for a tuna salad, I basically cut straight through the side of my thumb - including half of my nail. Aye aye aye - I've experienced some ouchies before, but this one would just. not. stop!! It throbbed for a good portion of the day, but thanks to my sweet sweet husband, I have a nice little bandage to protect my boo-boo.

This is my Memaw. She turned 84 last week, and we celebrated her birthday on Memorial Day. Now, this picture kinda makes her seem really frail, but she's really doing well, I think. She's pretty much the sweetest woman in the world - and I'm probably not exaggerating. I love this woman.

Ugh, and now for the part I debated about leaving out. This is a photo of Derf, David's dog, while the two of them were in Alaska. So last week I told you guys that we picked up Derf from David's dad's house in March. Well, Derf thought it was time for an adventure of his own, and he ran away on Saturday night. He dug a hole under our fence and took off on a stroll. We've called the pound, we've posted signs, we gone on Derf-hunts. He's just gone.... And I try to stay light-hearted because, in all honesty, I've been a little heart-broken. He's only been my dog for two months, but he's a great little dog... a sweet, old little dog..... And my only hope is that some sweet family rescued him off the street and just decided to keep him and not tell the pound. At least that's what I keep telling myself to keep from imagining the worst. I've been pretty torn up about Derf's disappearance, and I still have a tiny bit of hope that he'll come home. But until then, I'm trying to remember that God is big and can comfort me way more than a sweet little dog can.

It feels strange to write a post about losing my dog and staining our floors in one. But I recognize that this is life. Imperfect and ever-changing. Good and bad happens every day. And I don't mean to get all philosophical on ya. I'm just learning to thank and trust God in the small things and the big things... Not an easy task, but He's good. For sure.

"...just wanna know you're gonna hold me if I start to cry. Oh great God, be close enough to feel you now..."