Old Soul, Young Heart

Ever since pleasant outdoor weather started this year, I've had our back deck on my brain. It is a great size deck, but it was in need of some serious tender, loving care. There were two boards that had big holes in them; we're thinking from the huge dog that the previous homeowners had. My dad, being the good sport that he is, helped me get two new boards from Menards. They ended up being the wrong size (too thick), but my uncle, being the woodworking wizard that he is, notched them out so that they would fit correctly. I'm so glad that I have men in my life that are handy! It had obviously been a few years since the last homeowners had cleaned and/or stained the deck. The areas that are mostly in the shade throughout the year, if you looked closely, had a small whisper of color to them, hinting that the deck used to look decent. The areas in the shade had a nice green mildew tint, as well. Just lovely! New boards and green mildew tint. Pre-power wash. With the

I actually am liking this conference more than I thought I would. I had no idea really what to expect. I applied for the scholarship in February; I had randomly come across it from the AAWCC website, an organization that I am the chapter president of at Heartland this year. I thought, "Hey, why not? Free trip to SLC and I've never been there." Besides that, I believe in the mission of AAWCC and the conference sounded like a great thing, even though I didn't know much about it. I put heart into my application. And I couldn't believe that I actually got chosen! I am the youngest one here (from what I can tell) and I feel a bit out of my element. My "I don't know why I'm here" and "I don't feel like a leader" mentality has been met with a lot of the women saying to me, "Everyone's a leader in their own way," or "You just don't realize the potential you have," or "You never know what opportunities mig

The kitchen was deee-sgusting when we moved in. The fridge was the first thing I started cleaning when the house become ours and it took me like 2 hours to get it livable. And then I wiped down the cabinets, which didn't even really help because they are just so grease covered. We think they must be original (which means they are from 1969). Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures of the kitchen (what the heck?!). It's like the one room that I missed, I guess! I think maybe I didn't take before pics because the cabinets are still the same and they'll be the same for probably years. If we ever get new ones, the kitchen will be so much better. But here's a pic of us before we painted in there, though! It's a door knocker with our last name on it (thanks, Joy and Phil!) and a giant "new home" cookie (thanks, Aunt Peggy)! In December, we decided to paint the kitchen. We had friends coming in from Florida and so we thought it would

My mom was diagnosed with leukemia either in December 2003 or January 2004. I found out about it, though, in January 2004. Mom was really tired around Christmas 2003, but she still did as much for us as she had in past years. She didn't have as much energy and I remember taking some of the Christmas morning pictures that she normally would've taken. I took some pictures of her opening her gifts, which, if you look through past albums, there are of course hardly any photos of her since she was always the one behind the camera. A few days after New Year's 2004, I was at my boyfriend Philip's house with plans of spending the night there, which wasn't an uncommon occurence for me even though we were only a few months into our relationship. My mom called my cell phone, I guess to check up on my plans for the evening, and had asked me to just come home for the night instead of staying. She said that she had something to talk to me about, but I insisted on not coming

The dining room was the first room that we painted. It was this weird purple/lavender/gray color that I might've otherwise kind of liked... but not for a dining room.   Before: Testing out our two neutral tan colors. There's that god-awful carpet and curtain situation again. The only good thing about the dining room was the light fixture. Glad we didn't need to change that! Awe! But there's that nasty brown trim again! After: Don't mind the wrinkly curtains. After This dining room table and hutch came from my dad's. He and I together carried those pieces from our dining room at his house to our new house (with some help from his pick-up truck on the way). It was so heavy! The set is what my mom picked out years ago and it's not the most modern furniture ever, but I wanted to have it because it's high quality and sort of sentimental for a few reasons.  The dining room is the only room where I have Precious Moment

The front room is the room that's right off the foyer. It was this terra cotta color when we moved in. The walls were in pretty good shape and we didn't hate the color, so instead of trying to paint another room, we decided to just keep it. We still had to paint all the baseboards and trim around the windows, though! We took down those hideous curtains god-awful curtain rods. The new carpet makes a huge difference. Before Before After After After Right now I think the front room is the coziest. It's nice because the sun shines right in and I can see the sunset through the windows if I happen to catch it. The front room is kind of "my room." I'm struggling with decor because I don't the house to be too matchy-matchy, but also not hodge-podge. #firstworldproblems

It's been quite a while since I wrote a real blog. The fall semester at work felt a little crazy. I taught for the first time and some of the volunteer roles that I took on had a lot happening. And most importantly, we closed on the house and moved in! 203 West Monroe We did work on it for about 4 weeks before actually moving in. It was a lot of cleaning and painting with some small renovation projects. (I can say small projects because the boys did them and I wasn't really involved. I'm sure Philip would say they weren't all that small.) We had so much help from our families and for that, we are so grateful! I want to start sharing some of the pics that show you all of the work we've been doing! So to start... what we'll call... the foyer! Before After Any trim in the house that is now white was that nasty brown color before. We also got all new carpet (thanks to our negotiated carpet allowance from our offer on the house). The wall color i

I'm kind of having body image issues lately and this might be why. This is Robyn Lawley. She is a plus size model. Plus size. I bet this woman is like a size 9, because she's about the same size as me (maybe a little taller?) and I wear an 11 in jeans so that my love handles don't pour over the sides of my pants. (And sometimes on a bad day, they do anyway!) If I can say so myself... I think this woman is fucking hot. I wish everyone agreed with me.