Plant flowers...check!

Since I really needed to mow on Monday, I decided to just spend the whole day outside and also plant all the cool plants Judy had gotten us for the new planter. It was a beautiful day outside so I didn't mind "having" to be outside all day. I also put some weed and feed on the lawn and got caught watering it all in in the dark because I had already forgotten that it got dark so much earlier. Evan was a sweetie and made dinner for us and it was waiting for me when I came inside from all the yard work. It was a very productive day!

Evan took this picture of me with my new gardening gloves. I think he was just jealous :)

The finished planter...all cleaned up and new plants! Thanks again John and Judy for all your help!

As you can kind of see in the picture, I ended up with a few extra plants and I think I am going to plant them right by the entrance to our gate. Hopefully, I can do that this week sometime.

Great weekend!

This past weekend we were blessed with a visit from Evan's parents to come help us with the work we have left to do on the house. The main objective was to finish a planter we had started building the last time they came to visit. Whatever else we were able to got done was going to be a bonus. We were very successful because not only did we finish the planter but we finished repairing our back fence (from Ike), repaired a gutter, repaired a piece of siding that was no longer holding up a different piece of gutter, filled in all the holes in the back yard that our dogs had dug over the last couple of years, bought plants for the planter, cleaned our a big part of the garage, and installed some baseboards in the bathroom. We got all of this accomplished on Saturday. I made dinner for everyone that evening as a way to attempt to say thank you for all they had helped us with and so we could stay home and watch the UT vs. Tech game. Well the dinner went great but as many of you know, the game was not so great. While I was the only UT fan (Evan and his parents are big Aggies), we all could agree to root against Tech. Oh well! At least we got a lot accomplished during the day :) Here are some pictures:

This is what the planter looked like when we started this weekend. As you can see, we go a good amount done on it the last time but it was not quite finished.

Judy and I pulled up all the weeds while Evan and John worked to add the last row of wood.

Evan and John putting in the drain pipe we connected to the gutter and then buried.

The finished planter! Well, almost....flowers to come soon.

The next day we had a picnic with our Sunday school class for lunch. It was a lot of fun and Evan and I were really glad that we got to go, especially since we were not able to go to the last one they had in the spring. We ate, played games, and just hung out. The new missions/outreach pastor, Greg Despres, at our church also came to the picnic with his wife and kids. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the kids and get to know both Greg and Allison a little better. Here are some pictures:

Claire, Jordan, and Carissa hanging out.

The boys playing a game of bean bag toss.

More bean bag toss.

The rest of us enjoying watching the bean bag toss.

Evan riding the mini bike. He was going too fast to get a good picture!

My new friend Sawyer. He is the son of our Missions/Outreach pastor. He and his sister Sophie shared Doritos and fruit snacks with me (since we brought too much food!) and we got to go feed the fish in the pond together. He is SO cute. All of the Despres kids were great fun!

After the picnic, we came home and both fell asleep. We had a great weekend but it was a little exhausting. I had originally thought that I would be able to plant the flowers we bought on Saturday when we got home from the picnic, but that didn't happen. By the time I woke up from our nap, it was dark outside...thank you daylight savings time :)

Candy Corn Anyone??

I got some candy corn at the store today and Evan decided to play a little game with Baxter...I thought it was pretty cute.

The Bathroom is ALMOST done!

Tonight Evan finished cutting all the baseboards (after a geometry lesson) and I got the first coat of paint on them. We also installed the trim around the mirror. There was only one minor issue with the mirror trim...one of the pieces of wood we nailed to the wall to then nail the trim into is too wide and can be seen poking out from behind the trim. We measured it but for whatever reason, it is too wide. We didn't realize it was too wide until it was nailed into the wall so we decided to go ahead and put the trim up and see how bad it really looked. If you are shorter than the average person (me) it is noticeable but not too bad, but if you are average height or taller (Evan), it looks pretty bad. After discussing our options, we decided Evan would try and chisel off the excess wood. I really didn't want to rip everything down because of all the extra work we would have to do if something was damaged in the process (the wall, the trim, the mirror, etc.). I know that the chisel idea sounds risky but it was the best option we could come up with. Thankfully, Evan is very skilled and the part he has done so far looks great. Here are some pictures:

All of the baseboards with their first coat of paint.

Mirror trim installed!

Here you can where the backing is showing (left) and where it is no longer showing because Evan chiseled it away (right). Most importantly, he successfully chiseled away the excess backing without damaging the trim or the wall! Great job babe!

Hustle, Bustle, and Scrapbooking...

So, I mentioned two posts ago that I would "explain later" why things would not be slowing down anytime soon....so here it goes. We are going to be moving. Not real soon, but it is going to happen. Basically, Evan is probably going to be taking a job in the near future that will require us to move. The details, at this point, are a little fuzzy, but the odds are by Spring 2009, we will be moving. There are a lot of issues to be worked out and it is not a sure thing yet, but it will most likely happen, we're just not sure when. We are confident enough that this opportunity will work out for Evan to go ahead and put the house on the market. That is why we have been working so hard to finish all the remodeling projects around the house. Because of the current housing market and the great likelihood that we need to sell our house eventually, we are trying to put our house on the market sooner rather than later. Thankfully, since Evan currently works from home, if the house were to sell before we know we are moving, we could just go stay with our parents and he could continue working from there. We will just have to wait and see what God has in-store for us. As you can imagine, we are very excited. God has really brought me a long way when it comes to anxiety. I used to be controlled by it, but now, while all this is stressful for me at times, He has really helped me enjoy all of it instead of focusing on the unknown aspects that we can't control.

So there you have it. All this stuff with Evan's job has also been why I haven't blogged much in the last couple of months. There have been a lot of things happening but we were waiting to blog about them until more people at Evan's current job knew. Also, some of it is just stuff we wanted to keep private. It had been hard to not include some of the exciting stuff that has happened recently since I see this blog as a kind of scrapbook for us. Although, I guess that is also part of having a blog, instead of an actual scrapbook. We have to make decisions about how much we want to share with the world. When we started the blog, we decided that we wouldn't be sharing all of the details of our lives but that it would be a way to keep family and friends up to date with us. Since I took over writing I have continued this philosophy and added a "scrapbook-like" element to it. While I know we aren't planning on changing the original philosophy of the blog anytime soon, I am still looking forward to the future and getting to blog about most of it :) I guess I could start scrap-booking to capture the more personal moments in our lives, but I don't really see myself keeping up with it. I like the idea of scrap-booking but I don't know...it just seems like a lot of work. Although, I was definitely eyeing all the cute scrap-booking stuff the lady in front of me at Hobby Lobby was purchasing this morning.

Another Shower in SA

My Mom, sister Lisa, and I gave one more shower for Kim in San Antonio this past weekend. It was a Lingerie shower. We had a great time and it went really well. The last shower we hosted went well too but this one went smoother than the last. It was A LOT of fun. Thanks to my friend Ashley who sent me the recipe for one of the appetizers that she always makes at the showers she hosts and for a super cute decoration idea. The baked brie was a hit (not to mention I finally have the recipe for my favorite appetizer of all time) and the decorations were perfect! While there was a lot of leg work that went into preparing for the shower last week, it was all worth it. I hope I get to host another one in the future. Here are some pictures:

Baked brie...yummmmmm!

Cute decorations. Good job putting them up Lisa!

Kim with her cake.

My Mom, Kim, and her mother, Rebecca.

Me, Lisa, Kim, and her sister, Jenna.

Only one more month until the wedding!!! I still can't believe sometimes that my baby brother is going to be married! Eric and Kim, we are really excited for both of you :)

Where have you been???

I know that all those faithful readers out there are wondering what we have been up to the last couple of weeks and are anxiously awaiting a new post. I first want to apologize for leaving you in the dark for almost three weeks. Next, I want to do a quick catch up post so we can all get back on track with our lives.

In all seriousness, the reason there hasn't been a post since the end of September isn't because we haven't had anything blog worthy happen to us in that time. It is because it has been CRAZY the last couple weeks and there doesn't seem to be any signs of it slowing down here. I will go into more detail about this in the next post. Right now I need to do a quick catch-up:

1. My roommate and friend from college Julie got engaged on September 20th! She will be getting married sometime in Early 2009...it is looking like January! I am so excited for her and Justin (her fiance). Congratulations!!! Looks like we will finally be making it to Atlanta to visit :)

2. My sister, mom, and I hosted a shower for Kim (my soon-to-be sister-in-law) in San Antonio on September 27th. It was a lot of fun to get everyone together to celebrate their upcoming marriage. It was actually only the 3rd shower I helped plan and only the 2nd that I had a substantial amount to do with. I really enjoyed planning and giving the shower and I hope that Kim enjoyed it too! Here is a picture of us from the shower:



3. The next day we celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday. We had a family lunch over at my parent's house. Thankfully, my Grandma lives in San Antonio so we get to see her quite a bit. It was a lot of fun to spend more time with family members, including my Grandma, who were at the shower the day before but that I didn't get much of a chance to talk with because I was helping host. Here are a few pictures:

My Mom putting the candles on the cake. My Grandma is in the middle and my Great Aunt Evelyn (Grandma's sister) is on the right. Evelyn is 92!

The grandchildren that were able to be at the party with the birthday girl. Top: Eric (my brother) and Lisa (my sister) Bottom: Charlotte (cousin), Grandma, Shannon (cousin), and me.

Grandma, Evelyn, and me sitting at the table.

4. Alot has been accomplished on the master bathroom remodel since I last posted. We successfully scraped, sanded, and painted the door trim for all four doorways (this took a long time). We made some repairs to the cabinet, sanded and painted the cabinet, doors, and drawer faces. We put the cabinet doors and drawers back on and installed the new cabinet hardware. We also cut and painted the trim that will be installed around the mirror. While all these tasks took time, the biggest one that was completed was the tile floor. Evan and I spent a whole weekend tearing up the existing linoleum flooring and measuring, cutting, and laying out the new tile. Evan then finished laying all the tile the weekend I was in San Antonio for the shower and birthday party. I wished that he could have come with me but he had obligations at church he had to stay for. I am very thankful that he got so much accomplished while I was out of town. Here are some pictures:

Evan nailing new panels to the cabinet.

Floor after the old linoleum had been removed and the cabinet painted.

Where we got by the end of the first day of measuring, cutting, and lying out tiles. It definitely took a little longer doing the diagonal pattern but I think it was totally worth it.

Me at the tile saw. I was nervous to try it but with some encouragement from Evan I gave it a try. This picture is of my first cut. I went on to finish measuring and cutting the remaining tiles the second day while Evan moved on to starting to lay tiles at the other end of the bathroom.

Evan did a great job finishing laying all the tiles and grouting.

My cabinet door and mirror trim painting station.

Evan installed the cabinet doors with new hinges and I put on the new hardware.

5. After the tile was finished, it was time to replace the carpet in the two bedrooms and closets. We used a guy recommended by a friend of ours and it went very well. We got a great deal! We had to move out a lot of stuff before they came to replace the carpet so some members of our small group graciously offered to help. Two closets and two bedrooms may not sound like much but when one closet is easily the size of a small bedroom and we use it as a storage room, there was lots to move. I forgot to take a picture of them helping us move but I want to really thank Roy, Claire, Mike, and Teresa once more for all they did to help! Here are some pictures after all the stuff was moved and of the new carpet:

Evan working with a make-shift desk the day after we moved everything out but the day before they came to replace the carpet. Bye-bye old carpet!

We moved everything that could handle being outside into our garage. Where did all this stuff come from??

The new carpet!! Since Evan works from home, we moved his desk back in first.

Close-up of the new carpet. I admit, that at first, I was skeptical, but after having if for a few days, I REALLY like it!

6. The last major change that happened the day after the carpet was installed is that we had our newly purchased bedroom furniture delivered. We have been looking at (I call it stalking) this set for about a year now. The store that sold it was having a moving sale and selling all the floor models in their show room. Thankfully, the set we wanted was in really good shape and we got a great deal! The bed in the store was the wrong size so we ordered that new but it was actually on sale too. The bed is also on back order so it will be a month or two before we get it but it will be worth the wait. The furniture looks SO GOOD! I told Evan that I feel like we have a brand new house with the bathroom almost finished, new carpet, and new furniture. Here are some pictures of the new furniture:

The armoire.

The dresser.

As you can tell, it has been a very busy last couple of weeks. I will explain in the next post why all this craziness with the house and why it will probably not slow down anytime soon. And I promise, it won't be three weeks from now :)