Shower Transformation

Well, we've been at it again!  We decided to transform the old shower in our master bath.  The old shower was fine, but it had one of those horrible1990's shower doors with the metal tracking and the frosted doors.  Yes, you know what I'm talking about!  Those doors make me crazy because they are so hard to clean!  It's a home for all kinds of mold and mildew.  There is no amount of bleach that can get all of that gross stuff out!  So away it went!

Tim removed the old shower doors while I was away picking out a new curtain and hooks.  He had to caulk the holes that were left behind, and I will say that my hubs is getting quite handy!  You can hardly see the holes this morning!  This entire project cost a whole 34.00.  I bought a good quality curtain so it can be washed and reused, and splurged on cute hooks that we can re-use later if we decide to change things out.  We had to buy the white caulk as well, but now we'll have it when we get around to re-caulking the tub.  :)

Here are before and after pictures for your viewing!  

See, it was pretty nasty and very old school.

The picture is a little dark, but the new curtain really brightens things up in there!  It makes the bathroom a happier place!  Eventually I want to paint in there.  A natural color, but something darker than off white.  There is too much white in there!  White tile, white back splash, white cabinets, white trim, off white walls.  BLECK!  I am loving these little make overs that make the house our home.  

New (Old) Chairs

My mom came up on Wednesday which means we were DIY'ing.  :)  Yes, I just created that word!  Anyway, we worked on transforming my husbands, papaw's old dining room table and chairs into something that looked not so raggedy.  The table set was in good condition, just old.  The cushions were in horrible condition, also because they were old.  So we redid them! 

As always, here is a photo diary of the progress.

This is a chair that has been restained next to a chair in its original form.  They are still old, but the polish brought the wood back to life.  Honestly, the picture doesn't do it justice.   

Three generations of cushions.  5 of the 6 chairs had the green vynol on them.  Yes, vynol!  One chair had that nasty yellow fabric.  I'm sure it was beautiful when it was new, but it was quite out of date!  I chose the swirly!  The picture isn't loading well, boo!  I've tried three times ad this is the best I'm gettig.  Excuse the line!

Here is a before and after shot!  Amazing! 

Transformation

I decided about a week ago that I was over my long hair.  This has been coming.  I really hate my hair  long, but I had grown it out for my sister-in-laws wedding.  Anyway, if you know me you know I like my hair medium/short length.  Today I fixed it!  I hacked it all off!  8 inches off!  Here are pictures so you can see what you think!

This is the "before" shot.

This is a pile of hair on the floor.  Yes, it's gross!  That's only about half of what she actually cut.

And this is the after.  That's Kate!  She's so beautiful!  She's also a great stylist!  I would tell anyone to go to her!  Posh Salon and Spa in Lexington, ask for Kate!

Ladies Night

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to spend the evening with 4 of the most wonderful ladies I have ever met!  It all started 10 years ago (AHHH!) when we met in our freshman dorm room.  I remember moving day well.  I was a nervous wreck about attending a college a whoppin 30 miles from home (It's ok, I'm laughing too!).  My roommate was from my home town and I had known her for years.  That part wasn't scary.  What was scary was the large hoppy spiders we encountered, sharing a bathroom with people I didn't know, generators that would jackhammer the walls in the middle of the night, brown recluse spiders, and a ghetto rat.  But, we survived! 

Seriously, I have wonderful memories with these girls!  Some of them transferred to other schools after our second year, but I must say we have become quite successful in life!  We've made a nice contribution to society.  Two of us have gone on to become mothers, we have a nurses, teachers, doctorate students, chemist, homeschoolers, wives, adoption counselors, but most of all we have a group of ladies who laugh together and supports each other even after all these years of being apart. 

We decided to make this a annual event, getting together once a year to remember the wonderful college years and the memories we made while eating ramen noodles from paper bowls because the cafe was far to "gross" that day!  I've said it before: I am blessed!  I am so blessed to have these ladies in my life! 

 

Getting things done around here!

I've had quite a productive Sunday! 

Tim and I have a large list of projects that need to be accomplished around our new home.  Some of these tasks are easy, like changing out a light switch cover, while others are more involved, like needing new grout in the master bath.  Either way, I decided to get a few things done while Tim was mowing our lawn.  (Better word would be weed garden!  There's not much grass growing, but the weeds were getting rather tall!  Another project is to get grass to grow  but it has to rain for that to happen!) 

Anyway, while Tim mowed down the weeds I decided to tackle the garage.  Right after we moved in Tim cleared out enough room for my car to be parked inside.  But there was no way his car would fit.  So, today I organized and swept.  I put loose items into storage bins, and along the side I organized a few yard sale items that are left over.  Although it's still a work in progress, (I'd LOVE shelves in there!) I believe we may now be able to park two cars in the garage!!! 

Tim's mom had also given me a bird feeder as a house warming gift.  For those of you who don't know me well, you don't understand why this was a perfect gift.  My nana and I always watched the birds.  She loved them, and always kept them fed.  It was one of our favorite things to do before she went to the nursing home.  So, I borrowed a Shepherd's hook from my wonderful mom and hung my bird feeder today.  Next year I'm planning to put some type of flower something around it, but since it's almost August, and since it's been so hot and dry, I'm just going to go with the bird feeder for now. 

We also bought a new run to go in our living space.  Found it on SALE, which I am always a fan of!  I'm still playing with exactly where I want it, but I LOVE the rug.  The colors are perfect to tie in the reds from the kitchen, the browns from the couch, the yellow in the walls, and the greens from the curtains.  I also love the pattern, it's just funky enough without being too contemporary.  We need to get some type of table, or ottoman, or something for the center of this space, but for now we are happy with its progress. 

So there you go!  A girl can get a lot done on a Sunday afternoon! 

Joy

So thankful to have my hubs back home with me! 

Random Salesman Dude

Last night at 9:00 p.m. my doorbell rings.  Without thinking I went to the door.  (I shouldn't have gone to the door!)  This guy is at the door and he is selling security systems.  He gave me his info and then was on his way.  He was sorta pushy about me agreeing to his terms.  I told him I couldn't buy his security system because he wanted to be a TENNESSEE ORANGE SIGN IN MY YARD!  Seriously dude, know your area!  You're not going to sale Tennessee orange signs to the Big Blue Nation!

I'm not typically one to be paranoid, but don't you think 9:00 p.m. is too late for a salesman to be going door to door?  It made me feel really creepy!  I did not let him enter our home.  I made him stand out on the front step so anyone driving by could see, but it still creeped me out!  Maybe they had planned to come earlier but the hurricane kept him away until it cleared out.  (Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was scary!)

Has anyone else ever had a salesman come at 9:00 p.m.?  Does anyone else think that's weird?  Do any of you hide in your home when you hear your doorbell ring at night?  I'm I over thinking this? 

List

I like to make lists, it helps me focus my life.  It helps me accomplish things.  Sometimes it helps me review/remember things.  Tonight I need to make a list. 

• I hate storms!
• I know we really needed that inch and a half of rain, but did it have to come in 30 min.? 
• The ant guy is coming tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
• I've never been so excited about an ant guy in my life!
• I've got some big decisions to make in my near future.  I'd appreciate prayers.  God knows what they are.
• Terro is great, but it draws more ants in before it kills them.  This grosses me out!
• I hung out with an "old" friend last night and it was nice to have company. 
• I will be very happy when my hubs comes home!  I've missed him. 
• My professor didn't require a text for our class.  :-)
• To make up for it he sent 22 videos for us to watch, 3 websites to view, and a speech to listen to.  :-( 
• I'd rather pay 100.00 for a text book! 
• I'm going to eat a bowl of Oreo ice-cream and not feel guilty for doing so! 

A Thought

The last two nights I have been reminded that I have so much to be thankful for.  I have so many friends who have real "problems" they are facing.  It may be the loss of a loved one, or not being able to have children, or financial problems, marriage issues, health problems, or whatever.  I have a wonderful life, a life that has bumps along the way, but a wonderful  life.  God has blessed me beyond measure and tonight I'm choosing not to sulk in my temporary loneliness, but rather to give thanks to the one who has blessed be beyond by wildest dreams. 

Just a thought that I've been dwelling on tonight.

Cockroach

As if the ants weren't enough...

We still don't have our giant brown trash bin from our trash pick-up company, so we are having to bag all our trash into 6 32 gallon bags.  Last week we didn't have big bags so we had some left over items from the move.  One of those left over items was a grill cover that the old owners had left.  It had been left out in the weather and was all wet and slimy and gross!  As I went to put it in one of our big bags a giant cockroach crawled out and "attacked" me.  I did what any 20 something year old lady would do.  I screamed, grabbed the broom, and sent him flying across the driveway away from our house! 

Moral of this lesson: I am very thankful that the only time I have to deal with taking the trash out is when my husband is away.  I am very thankful for my husband because he does a lot of chores around the house.  I am very thankful for brooms.  And, I am very thankful that our neighbor wasn't outside to hear my scream over a cockroach!  :-) 

Ant Attack

When we had our termite inspection they guy told us that there were tons of ants around our house.  We knew ants had been bad this year because we didn't really have winter around here.  In fact, we'd had some ants at our apartment as well.  So, the guy offered to come spray once we moved in. 

Last night I came home after being away for a couple days.  I put my bags on the table and started petting the kittens.  I noticed that they weren't really paying attention to me, but kept staring at the floor.  That's when I found them...

There were hundreds, quite possibly thousands of them.  Tiny little ants.  An entire colony crawling across my kitchen floor, up the side of my beautiful white cabinets, and landing themselves in the middle of the two slices of chocolate cake remaining in the pan.  Heather was lucky enough to be on the phone with me when I found them.  She couldn't understand much of what I was saying because I was squealing in a high pitch voice.  *Sorta like that friends episode where Rachel is telling everyone goodbye before going to Paris.*  Anyway, the ants were everywhere. 

So, at ten last night I was on my way to WalMart to pick up ant sprays and I worked for two hours trying to kill as many of the little critters as I could.  I put traps outside the door where they were coming in.  I sprayed there little ant butts with multi-task cleaner and then sucked the dead bugs up the vacuum cleaner.  This morning there are still ants, but not as many.  Oh, and ant guy is coming out to spray later! 

Take that Nicholasville Ant Colony!  I can overcome you! 

Peaceful after the rain...

After nearly a month of no rain, and ridiculous temperatures, we were blessed with a full day of rain.  When the rain began I wanted to go outside and jump around in circles, but I had a busy day and had to put that aside. 

My dad had been working on a little project for Tim and I.  Our old wardrobe didn't need to be a wardrobe anymore so he transformed it to a TV stand for our master bedroom.  It turned out wonderfully so we took him out to his favorite place, Copper River, to celebrate. 

After we returned home I needed to get some grad work done.  It's hard to adjust to certain things after living in an apartment for three years.  I have to remind myself that I have my own private yard.  That yard has this really lovely deck.  And there is an incredible view of this old barn that looks like it could fall down any second.  It truly is lovely!  A small reminder of my life at home on Whitley.  (Another reason I fell in LOVE with this house!) 

As I was sitting outside I was reminded of just how blessed we are.  After three short years we've accomplished so much.  Not that it hasn't come with it's disappointments and failures!  We struggled much of our first year just to stay a float.  Our second year came with small victories of success as hard work and being very careful with our spending began to pay off.  Being faithful that the Lord would deliver us when our time was right was hard, but now we can see just how much we learned from that period of "tough times". 

Although I'm sure our tough times are not over, there are always lessons to be learned, I am thankful that we have learned how to be faithful with a little, and with what now seems like a lot.  So tonight, as I sit on my back deck and take in the peace after the rain, I am also reflecting the peace that comes from being faithful that the Lord will lead you right where you need to be in HIS time.  I pray that I can remember this moment the next time we face a trail because it is such an important principle to hold.

Cat Attack!

We are starting to settle in to our new lives here on Shun.  After a week of sleeping in the new house we've not had any ghosts...which is always great!  No major catastrophes.  No, OMG WHY DID WE BUY THIS HOUSE moments.  With that said, our poor kittens haven't adjusted quite as well as we had hoped they would. 

We adopted Millie and Hurley just over two years ago after loosing my childhood baby, Ginger.  I'd had Ginger for just shy of 16 years, and with her old age she pretty much ate and slept.  Kittens are very different!  It was quite the adjustment to get use to running, playing, jumping, etc.  But, we love our fur babies. 

When we bought the house, I knew the transition would be hard for our kittens.  They HATE leaving the apartment and had only done so a whopping three times in the 2 years that we've had them.  So, on moving day we tried to make the transition smooth.  (And by smooth I mean locking Millie in the bathroom after Hurley freaked out and jumped behind our dryer causing the move to halt for 3o minutes while we tried to get him out!)  After we got them to the house both cats ran and hid in our walk-in closet for the rest of the day. 

But, that is not what I wanted to tell you about.  I wanted to tell you about 3:30 a.m. which is the time Hurley decides is safe to come out from under the bed and "explore" the new house.  For the last three nights Hurley has chosen this beautiful time to do his exploring.  The first night he was trying to "escape" out our bedroom window by pawing the glass to death.  Just so you know, this makes a TON of noise which wakes his masters from their beautiful sleep.  The next night Hurley decided to jump on top of the head board and try to climb in the cute little rectangle window that is above our bed.  Mind you, the cat isn't small and him being up there can only mean one thing...he's going to land on my face when he falls.  Which he did.  Last night he did a combo of the two.  Back and forth, back and forth, between the window on the floor and the window above the bed. 

So, what does he see out these windows?  As my husband pointed out, is he trying to get back to the apartment?  Maybe I judged the whole ghost thing too soon?  I don't know, but whatever it is I hope these cat attacks stop beacuse momma needs her sleep!  

I'm going to give this another try.  I use to be an expert at blogging, back when xanga was all the rage, but in my "adult" life I find that I don't have time to blog.  Sorta like I don't have time to exercise, or read, or do anything fun.  So I'm going to try and change that.  Let's start by catchig up. 

Since my last post, 3 years ago, many things have happened.  I changed jobs.  We lost my precious Ginger.  We adopted two crazy kittens, Millie and Hurley.  Tim got a great job at Lexington Rescue Mission.  We started looking for a house.  Tim graduated from Seminary.  Tim lost his job at the mission.  We ended our house search.  I started grad school.  Tim got a job at Lords Legacy.  I finished my second year at Cardinal Valley.  We started our house search back up.  We bought a house and FINALLY MOVED OUT OF OUR TINY APARTMENT!  And that about catches you up!

More on the house...

When we began looking I told our agent that I only wanted a few things:
1. 3 bedrooms and 2 baths
2. No less that 1200 sq. ft.
3. Open floor plan
4. A dishwasher

That was it.  My whole list.

Tim and I viewed several properties online and picked 5 to go look at.  I was in love with this cute little ranch that we found online and when we walked in the door I knew I was home.  It was just over 1,500 sq. ft. with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.  The "living" space was opened and inviting, and it had a dishwasher. (Refer to my list!)  I was in love, but we'd looked at so few properties that I was scared to commit.  Plus, someone had already put an offer in on the house, so I couldn't be in love...right? 

Two days later, and 8 more houses later, I was still in love.  So, we went back, and as luck would have it the financing didn't go through for the other person and we were able to put an offer in on the house. 

The process went quick!  In 30 days we had purchased the home and on the 31st day we moved in!

It's been 7 days since we signed the papers and I can honestly say that this house is home.  Tim and I feel so blessed to have a home that we are proud of.  A place that we can see a future in.

So, here's to becoming a home owner!  (And attempting to start this blog back up!)