Tangled Thoughts

Psalm 23

Christina

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September 18, 2010

{Day 18}

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

*Pictures from our trip to Wales*

Remodeling explosions

Christina

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September 17, 2010

{Day 17}

Let me try first to paint you a picture.

Yesterday was one of those days that ended with a loud bang. No pun intended.

I heard a quote, when we first started this remodeling project that any family that can survive a remodel can survive anything. Im beginning to really see the truth in that. When we started out, We knew it would take long, and cost more than we had originally planned. The costs would atleast double, and the time would double as well – it was ok – we were prepared.

But were coming upon close to a month, and were leaving town in less than a week, and well…

Were all kind of stressing. getting last minute freak out syndrome!

The bathroom is not finished. The counter is rotten. There are random holes everywhere. The dining room is painted, and mostly finished, except for the accent wall, and the trim. And and and…

And nothing is moving, and were crowded out, and things are out of place, and were low on money, and time…people, is running out. Its like the end of those TV shows where everyone is rushing around yelling and screaming while accomplishing NOTHING.

That’s been the day. Well, yesterdays day.

Last night after Bible study – I got dropped off at home to start dinner. Halibut that someone had given us. I got it all ready, put it in the over with a pan of home made fries and walked off. I came back about 15 minutes later, and realized the oven, was pretty cool. I turned it up, and walked off. Our over is about 50 degrees ahead, and when I came back to an oven on 400 and I could touch the pan, I knew something was wrong. So, I turned it over to broil, to see if I had any success or if the oven was completely broken.

And we had a winner. The oven was heating up, and heating up fast.

I was in the other room, when I heard something along the lines of – someone rattling the over racks. Thinking my dad was in there messing around, I muttered a few words, and went back to what I was doing – when I heard him come out of his room saying “What was that” and then I had no idea.

Had the cat jumped on the oven? Was really all that came to mind.

But no.

The pan? The glass pan? That held the prize halibut? Was no longer.

I would have laughed, except it just wasn’t funny…and instead I cried.

Because that’s just been the day.

Full of explosions. Full of hot tempers. Just. The all around bad kind of day that ends in explosions.

Its not the first pan Ive exploded – I have a track record – The first time I put moms-moms-moms pan on a hot stove. Yep. Shattered. Im always shattering, exploding, burning, something. Im dangerous in the kitchen…and last night was no exception.

Had things been going smoother? I probably would have laughed. And maybe even tried to salvage the halibut. But since the day had already gone to pot, it was 9:30 at night, and I just exploded what was suppose to be dinner in an over that didn’t work in a house that is torn up – and yep.

If we survive this remodel, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

But hey – atleast I got a post from it, yes?

“Whenever you’re doing a significant remodel, it makes sense to contact an insurance company and ask what sort of coverage you need.” – Unknown

Q. Can you use a glass pan to broil? A. No — it is likely to crack into pieces, ruining your meat and messing up your oven.

You Capture: Photographers Choice

Christina

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September 16, 2010

{Day 16}

This weeks “You Capture” is/was photographers choice. That left the door wide open.

Tuesday I was thinking that it had been an awful long time since I had picked up my camera and actually took some pictures that I enjoyed. Its something I like to do – photography. But Tuesday I was thinking that it was going to be the end of the week – and I wouldnt have picked up the camera once.

But then, while walking back to the shop after walking a friend home, my sister and I spotted a fuzzy caterpillar in the middle of the road, and instinctively scooped it up. Then we saw another. And another. And by the time we got back to the shop, we had three of the cute fuzzies – as we call them.

I wanted to take their pictures, so I posed them on our Christmas cactus – which didnt work quite how I was hoping, and then eventually decided to take them outside to let them go.

But I wasnt done, apparently – because I took 97 pictures of the silly things – and was somewhat impressed with them.

And you know what? If was actually a lot of fun.

These are all SOOC, aside from the rounded edges and name.

There are two of them in these next few pictures – the one was in a big hurry to get moving – and crawled over the other:

Who knew?

These guys come out in the fall – usually when its crisp and cold. But this week has and is suppose to be, in the 70’s. Thats ok. We will take what we can get!

Happy Summer Fall.

Reno Wednesday: Let there be color!

Christina

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September 15, 2010

{Day 15 – seriously! 1/2 way there!}

Its been a real fun week as far as the project is concerned. Unfortunately weve reached the point where there are a bunch of loose ends that need tied up and finished – and we leave in…well…one week (gah!), but more on that later.

This weekend we painted.

Saturday we put primer on, and I didnt take pictures. And Sunday we put the official coat on!

A workout if I dont know what. They were just smaller rooms, but painting ceilings always gets us! We didnt have the sticks to use so we were on the ladder, chairs, and anything else while bending backwards painting ceilings. Plus we were watching Parker (whos four) and really wanted needed to help because hes a “Professional painter”- so he was slopping paint all over the walls, himself, the floor and anything else while we hurried to smooth it out before it dried.

But! It looks SO NICE!! Cant wait until it is ACTUALLY finished.

So close, yet so far.

Bathroom paint color:

You cant really tell, but the color was a version of white…on the blue scale. A real nice color for a bathroom, nice and fresh. You can sort of see the contrast between the white tub kit, and the white/blue walls.

You can sort of see, if you look hard enough – the green dry wall, then the white primer, and then the official color:

And this is the floor:

Hopefully it wont look so crappy when its finished, its just the floor sample pushed into the corner to see how it would look! The counter top hasnt been done yet – dad said the counter itself is rotten so it is going to take a little more work, but its a marbled blue. Also – the bright blue on the side wall is just a camera malfunction, not the actual color!

A little story that I dont know if I told or not. The counter top we got for the bathroom, the owners of the shop, gave it to us for free. Apparently, the people they originally bought it for mishandled it and broke it, then started causing a problem. The shop owners said they had no use for it, and since it was broke they couldnt resell it and said if we could get it out of their garage we could have it. Its supposedly going to fit out bathroom counter PERFECTLY. Plus the blue tint in the paint we got will go with the blue counter! Talk about great timing!!

Dining room accent wall color, its a gray color – dont you just love the names?:

Dining room accent wall – that hasnt been painted yet, but will be gray eventually, or after we sand – ugh:

Excuse the mess, things have been HECTIC:

Anyways…thats where we are for now. This next week will be a whirlwind – we leave on the ferry next Wednesday night for two weeks – plus AWANA starts, and we need to get everything finished!!

Happiness Project: Shoes!

Christina

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September 14, 2010

{Day 14}

I had sort of a bummer of a week last week – hopefully this week will go better. With trying to plan a road trip, and get all the bills paid ahead, and redoing the house – and the shop being kind of slow = more money going out than there is coming in.

But Happiness showed up in the mail Friday – and it couldnt have come at a better time!

NEW SHOES!

Nothing like a new pair of shoes. Im not a shoeaholic, I just need my one pair of shoes. But my sister and I go through shoes about every 6 months. This last pair lasted me about 8 or 9 months before they started falling apart. And the traction was the last thing to go, while they started peeling apart in layers.

I hate spending money buying something like shoes for myself, but nothing has made me this happy for a while. Something about nice, new, warm, dry shoes…ahhh.