Ugh.

Apologies to anyone who came here looking for entertainment. Tonight isn't the night. I'm feeling very down this evening. I'm having one of those weeks where there is just a lot of "yuck" in the world and it's overwhelming. I'm dealing with some issues personally that I'm just not sure how to deal with. I thought I was finished with it but I'm apparently not. I thought I had forgiven someone but I still have weird/angry/frustrated feelings toward them and I really don't know what to do.

Then there's all the other yuckiness that's going on that isn't necessarily directly impacting me but it's impacting people I know, or even people I don't. In the past week I've learned of two little girls, Tatum and Kate, (you can read about them here and here) who are fighting cancer. It's eerie how similar the situations are - how the parents in both situations are expressing the same emotions, how they both know that nothing will ever be the same in their lives again. And one of the moms has said how all she can think sometimes is "come Lord Jesus".

I know we're supposed to want that all the time but sometimes (or most times if I'm honest) I have my own agenda of things I want to do before that time comes. I want to have kids of my own, I want to grow old with my husband, the list goes on...for some reason I can't get it through my thick head that Heaven is like a gazillion times better than this place here...or any place on earth I might ever be. This week though, I'm wishing for it a little more. And then that makes me wonder, am I really ready? Should my "list" include more things like "forgive that person over and over and over and keep on forgiving them until Jesus comes back", "have a better attitude about teaching five 2-4 year old boys on Wed. nights because I may be the only person in their lives that shows them Jesus?", and "give more to others instead of worrying about what/how much I have?". Of course it should, but it's so hard. I'm very selfish (which I'm sure is why I'm still hanging on to that hurt I thought I let go of).

I feel like this doesn't make much sense but I feel SLIGHTLY better having gotten it out. Now I'm going to sign off of here before the lightning zaps the computer.

Extreme Home Makeover: Part 1

As promised, here are the pics of our most recent project. We decided that we didn't like the upstairs bathroom. So, we painted it. The way it was before:

The floor seemed to stand out too much. It's got more browns and tans in it and the walls were definitely gold. It was a fine color, just not what we really wanted, besides the fact that all of our towels are brown and blue. :) The good news is that there is beadboard around most of the room so we didn't actually have all that much to paint (and by "we" I mean Nathan):


We decided to go with the same dark brown that is on 2 of the walls in our room. After paint, a new rug, "new" accessories (from our bedroom), here's the final result (please note that Kona was a HUGE help...you'll see him in a couple of these pics...):





Next up - the guest room. It's not done so no pics yet, but here's a little teaser:

LOVE this!

Being the good C of C girl that I am, there is no way on earth we would have gotten away with something like this at our wedding (besides the fact that neither of us are particularly interested in being the center of attention). But, this is so great. Watch it twice so you can see everyone in the wedding party but then so you can see the reactions of the wedding guests.

If you go down and read the comments you'll see a negative one right at first. And while I personally wouldn't have done this in a church building, I also agree with the person who said that a lot of people forget these days that a wedding is a celebration! I only wish I could be so uninhibited sometimes...I'm well aware that I take myself too seriously most of the time!

Enjoy!

Family Tradition

Since we were born (or maybe before) our family has been going to Beaver's Bend a minimum of once a year, usually two or three times. Pretty much any time we got out of school for any period of time, even if our parents couldn't go, Mema and Pepa would load us up in the van and we'd head for Broken Bow. That is one place where you're still in Oklahoma but it doesn't feel (or look) like Oklahoma! It's so pretty there and there are TONS of things to do. A couple of weeks ago we went with my parents, my sisters, and my nieces for a quick weekend trip. I didn't take a ton of pics but here's what I have (with a couple of REALLY unflattering ones of me that Nathan took w/out my knowledge conveniently omitted).

The cabin we stayed in had all king sized beds so Ains slept w/my sisters, Abbs slept w/my parents, and A-liv slept in the Pack'n Play in my parents' room. Here they are enjoying all the comforts of home...the Bernstein Bears on DVD.

We decided to hike (more like a short walk, or ride if you're A-liv) to "the swinging bridge". It's actually the beginning of a hiking trail and about 100 yards in, there's a river. There used to be a swinging bridge that crossed it but it kept washing out so they replaced it w/a concrete one. We still (and will forever) call it the swinging bridge. (As an aside, I was TERRIFIED of the swinging bridge when I was little. By the time I was old enough to appreciate/enjoy it, it was gone.)

Scott, Tess, Aud and Ains walking towards the bridge. I suspect the serious looks are because Ains has asked for only the 10th or 11th time "Are there any sharks or nice fish in that water?" and the adults in the group are reassuring her that there are not, all the while remembering the same exhibit that I saw at the aquarium - because they've all seen it too - and wondering if they're lying to the four-year-old.

And there's the....wait a minute. It appears that the permanent bridge is gone as well. If you look over to the left side of the pic, about a third of the way up, you'll see one of the piers (or what's left of it) that the bridge was built on. Unfortunately I didn't get it in the picture but if you could see even further on to the left, you'd see the other pier - in the middle of the river. I say bring back the swinging bridge! It's gotta be cheaper and easier to replace than a permanent one!

One important thing to note here is that this water is FRIGID. No, really, it's probably just above ICE on the thermometer. It comes straight from the bottom of the lake so it hasn't seen the sun in a while. Lucky for us, it was quite warm and humid that day so the water (after you get used to it) was quite enjoyable. Despite the reassurances of the adults, Ains didn't want any part of being in the water. She was quite content to stand at the edge and throw rocks which, it turns out, is an acceptable past time at this place. Abbs obviously was not so timid. She wanted her shorts off so she could really get in there and play. She was also throwing rocks, but from about thigh deep in the water. She LOVED it. A-liv took a little while but she finally decided the water was OK.

And finally, the obligatory "group photo" at the low water bridge. At least that's what Pepa called it. I have no idea what it really is. In case anyone is wondering where my brother-in-law is in this pic, no, he's not taking the picture, he's on a mission trip trying to save the youth of America. And trying to mend his broken heart after the passing of his all-time favorite artist...Michael Jackson.

Another funny note about this trip: the rest of the fam actually got to go down on Friday night. Nathan had to work on Friday so we went down afterwards but Friday morning Ains called me and we had the following conversation:

Ains: Do you know where we are?
Me: No, where are you?
Ains: We're at Beaver's Bend! And tonight we are gonna make a fire and put marshmallows on sticks and stick 'em in the fire and COOK 'EM!
Me: Wow! That sounds like fun! Did you know that we're going to be there tonight too?
Ains: Yeah. Nathan has to work all day. That won't be very much fun will it?

Wise beyond her years. Oh, also Scott (or "Cotts" as the girls call him) picked up a crawdad out of the creek. That led to the following conversation between Abbs and me:

Abbs: When I am a big girl I am going to pick up a crawdad like Cotts did. And we saw some fish but that tomorrow they will be frogs.
Me: Did you see some tadpoles?
Abbs: No, they were DADpoles.

Apparently "dadpoles" morph overnight.

Good times.

Lana has created a monster!

My friend Lana got me started crafting back in the spring. At first I thought - there is NO WAY I'm creative enough to do this...and that may be true, but I've been having fun anyway! Here are some of my creations to this point.

Card for a friend's baby shower.

Card for another friend's baby shower.

Thank you card.

Made this for a friend's baby's room.

Mother's Day card for my mom.

Thank you card.

Mother's Day card for my m-i-l.

Birthday card for a friend.

I made these for my nieces for Easter. Those are crazy straws and glow sticks (15 for $1 at Michael's!). The glow sticks were a HUGE hit w/the girls.

Some of the projects were based off of ideas in crafting magazines/books, some were my ideas. Can you guess which are which?

"And what is this" you may be asking...I know it looks like a toilet paper holder...

But if you punch some holes and add some brads and wheels, a pipe cleaner for reigns, and some cutouts from a teacher's handbook...

Turns out it's actually a chariot! This is Philip and the Ethiopian.

We are teaching the 2-3 year old class at church on Wednesday nights. We're doing all kinds of crazy crafts. None of them my original ideas of course...thank goodness for the curriculum that tells us exactly what to do!


With that, I'm off to get ready for work. More to come!

Thanks...I think

A break from the picture updates for a poll.

Twice in the last week, I have had something happen that was a bit confusing. I thought maybe some of you have encountered this and have thought it through more than me. It's really no big deal, but for some reason it bugged me when it happened.

As I was walking out the main door of the office building I work in, there was a young man walking about 20 yards or so in front of me. He opened the door manually for himself, then reached around to the outside handicapped access button - you know, the one that makes the door stay open for a minute or so. Like I said, this happened twice in one week. It almost seems lazy to me on the part of those two people. I mean, if you want to hold the door open for me, that's nice, hold the door open. But for some reason it seems really lazy to me for them to reach around and bang the automatic door button as they're running past it. It also seems wasteful, especially here where we have such extreme temperatures and buildings like that are really hard to heat and cool effectively. Maybe I'm just being silly. Who knows. Tell me what you think - there's a poll over on the right hand side of the blog. Comments are always welcome too.

Vacation Part 2

The other part of our anniversary trip was spent in Tulsa. We went to the Philbrook and the aquarium, as well as attending my oldest niece's birthday party and Nathan's niece's birthday party. Somehow we don't have pics of the b-day parties but we do have pics of the other two events.

This is in the gardens at the Philbrook - it is beautiful there! (And before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant, I'm just putting on my "winter weight" plus about 30 lbs. a little early.)

The back of the Philbrook.

Philbrook gardens from the house. That's a fountain in the center of the pic - it runs all the way down to the bottom of the hill!

Us. :)

Ginormous fern (I was a little afraid it would fall on me while we were taking this picture).

This "tree" is actually art. There were about four of them in various places in the gardens...the trunk is some sort of metal and then the leaves are blown glass. They were so pretty - they even had little fake bird nests in them!

Our new friend at the aquarium.

Goofing off w/the bronze alligator.

A few items to note about our trip to the aquarium. First, they have an exhibit that is one big tank and it contains examples of all of the water creatures that are native to Oklahoma lakes and streams. Don't even think of asking me to get in a lake or stream anywhere now...there are some nasty things in there. I think Ains was right in asking if there were any "sharks or good fish" in every body of water we even though about approaching last weekend. Second, we saw the largest blue catfish in Oklahoma - 98 lbs. I believe but don't quote me on that. It died less than a week later. It was ENORMOUS. Which leads to the question - why on EARTH do people try to catch these things with their ARMS??!?!?!

I guess that's it for this particular post. Stay tuned for more posts about crafting, yard sales, and home makeovers.

Happy Anniversary!

My husband LOVES architecture, specifically Frank Lloyd Wright and all things "mid-century modern" (I'm learning). So, for our anniversary we went to Bartlesville to stay at the Price Tower. This particular building is the only skyscraper that FLW ever designed. And when I say designed, I mean he designed everything from the building right down to the fabrics used for the curtains and furniture and the art on the walls! You can learn more about it here if you're interested in that kind of thing but here are some pics from our adventure.

A stop at Osage Hills State Park

The building from a distance (all that brown looking stuff is actually green...copper).

The hallway outside our room. There were only 3 rooms on our floor.

Our room.

Even the lights are triangles.

Yes, this is actually the WHOLE elevator. Tiny!

Copper fireplace.

Us after our Melting Pot meal.

The remains of our Melting Pot Meal.

We also went to the aquarium, the Philbrook, and to my niece's 4th birthday party - pics of those events to follow.

Is anybody out there?

I know you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats for another post. Your wish is my command. (Actually, I don't know whether anyone besides my mom reads this so mom, this is for you.)

We've been super busy (as usual) this summer. I'll probably have to break this up into multiple posts. First of all, we planted a "garden" in some old feed tubs that we got from N's grandparents. We planted four tomato plants, three bell pepper plants (red, orange, and yellow), a jalapeno plant, some basil and some arugula. The arugula now looks like sticks because something ate it. But, the tomatoes seem to be doing alright. In fact, we picked our first one this weekend...and if I ever upload the picture, I'll post it. :)

We've been doing lots of traveling (some of which requires its own post) and as a result, the Honda had an historic day this past Wednesday. It hit 100,000 miles. See?




The second pic is the time - and that's a.m., not p.m. The song that was playing on the radio is a Jars of Clay song that says "Carry me, I'm just a dead man, lyin' on the carpet, can't find a heartbeat"...I just hope it's not prophetic for the Honda. :)

We've also been doing lots of things around the house. We got new blinds for the rest of the downstairs (so they all match now!) We're still working on the patio, but keep running out of concrete!

Also, my good friend Lana has gotten me into a new hobby - crafting/stamping/scrapping...whatever you want to call it, she's created a monster. So far I have mostly made cards for some events (see below). I've got bigger things on the agenda though. My sister got me started reading this blog called The Nesting Place - I'm going to make some window mistreatments like this (see the 6th picture down of the girl doing the Vanna White impersonation) for our bathroom.

I guess that's all for this post - I'll be posting pics from the various trips a little later.