Life Lately

Yes, we're still alive.  Nope, I haven't forgotten about the blog.  Yup, I've felt bad about not posting pictures of our beautiful, partially decorated house.  

We've simply been slammed with real life!  We have also been taking time to have fun... together and with friends!  The past seven months of house renovations really took a toll on our social life and our down time.  We have been trying to play catch up!

One more excuse.  We just got our Internet service connected this week.  It's hard to blog without the Internet!  

 

All that being said, I still don't have many "house" pictures to share.  But what I have is better! Real life pictures.  It's a good life, and I feel blessed to be living it!

I went to JC Penny's to look for window coverings for our master bedroom.  I didn't leave with any window coverings; however I did leave with this beautiful coffee table for our family room!  We just love it.  Plus, it was on clearance and it was a total steal!  

Confession: This photo was taken at JC Penny's because I wanted to text a picture to Nick in order get his opinion.  My smart husband replied back to me: "Do you like it? Can we afford it?  If you like it, go for it."  What a catch!

 We went to Redding for a quick weekend getaway.  We went to visit family and friends.  We stayed with my aunt and uncle and had a ball.  The photo above is the Sundial Bridge.  It was a glorious 74 degrees; we were both thankful for the Vitamin D boost!

 We checked out the new pub in downtown Redding.  Nick loved the "beer sampler".  He tried four different beers.  My favorite part was listening to all the hilarious beer names, for example, "The Kilt Lifter!"

 I've been coming home to sweet surprises.  Sometimes, Nick gets home earlier from work than I do and I find sweet things like in the photo above!  

I had been parking my car in the driveway because we still have "stuff" in our garage.  He knew that I dreaded scraping the ice off my car in the morning.  One afternoon, I came home to this cute note written on a scrap of linoleum.  He had cleared out my side of the garage so that I didn't have to fight with the ice anymore! 

 We are trying to decide what to do with our bedroom window.  Currently, there are no shades.  It backs up to our backyard so it isn't really a privacy issue.  However, it is a temperature issue!  The house has single-paned windows, and let me tell you.... it's COLD!!  We in the process of looking for curtains.  It's a bummer that I am so picky though... because as a result, we still don't have curtains!

Did I mention that our house is freezing?  We are putting "dual-paned" windows at the top of our priority list now.  Forget the guest bathroom; windows have become much more important!  

Since we are newly living here, we don't have any idea what our PG&E bill will be.  We have been pretty careful about running the heat because the bill could be horrifying!  So, we have a space heater that works wonders.  Our room stays nice and toasty as we sleep.  The rest of the house... not so much!  46 degrees... that'll wake ya up real nice and quick!

 The flu bug finally caught me.  It broke through my killer-teacher-germs-can't-touch-me-immune system.  Want to hear the reader's digest?  It's actually pretty funny.  

I felt sick.  I mean, really, ridiculously nauseous sick.  The worst part was that it was 1:05p.m. on a Wednesday.  21 students, reading centers in progress, and a teacher on the verge of puking (for lack of better terms).  The room got hot, I started feeling that horrible salivating, right before your lose it feeling.  I ran next door and told my fabulous teaching partner, Jaime, that I needed help.  She called my principal who graciously came over and took over centers.  

I went to the bathroom, cleaned myself up, got fresh air, and "pulled it together".  I'm pretty stubborn and convinced myself that I was fine.  I finished the last 45 minutes, released my students at 1:50 (minimum day, praise the Lord).  

At 1:54, our custodian walked in and was chatting with me... well, I wasn't really chatting back because I was sitting in front of the trash can ready to lose it.  And, I did.  Right in front of the custodian.  He was a doll and cleaned everything up.  Super embarrassing.  

Want to know the strangest part??  The DAY before this incident, one of my students RANDOMLY asked me, "What would happen if you got so sick that you couldn't teach?"  I laughed and replied, "Oh don't worry sweetie, I would drink some water and be okay!  I won't get sick!!"  Ha... ha ...ha.  Funny.

I've also been cooking in my new kitchen!  My new kick is trying to plan ahead and make 2-3 dinners out of one.  In the photo above, I was making lasagna.  I figured that if I was going through the trouble of making one lasagna, I might as well make three at the same time and freeze two of them.  Now when I have a busy night and I don't want to cook... I have a home-cooked, preservative free dinner in the freezer! 

 As you can see, life lately has been busy, fun, and eventful!  I'm pretty sure that's exactly the way it should be!

Home

It's official!  We live IN our home!  Today is day five.  We moved in on Friday, February 1st!

197 days later. With lots of hard work, sweat, hard earned money, and love.  

We did it.  

This entire process had made us feel SO incredibly blessed and taken care of by the Lord.  His provisions were so evident throughout the entire project.  Our family and friends pitched in with time, gifts, and energy.  They all helped us immensely.  We both worked hard by putting in extra hours and picking up side jobs to make sure that this entire project was 100% debt-free.  Every sacrifice, weekend, and night spent working was worth it. 

The first four days living at our house have been great.  We have spent a lot of time unpacking boxes and finding homes for our belongings.  We don't have enough furniture to fill the house... and it's okay with us.  We made the decision months ago to only spend what we have in cash.  So, that means we don't have furniture in our living room, pretty area rugs, or much decor.  It'll happen in good time!

Here are a few snapshots of the past few days.  I promise to post lots of pictures of each room once we have removed the boxes!  It's a little messy and chaotic right now!  

Getting ready to pull into the driveway on the FIRST night.  I admit... I was quite teary.  It was such a build-up... and my emotions got the best of me.  AND... to top it off... my sweetheart made me drop everything and carried me through the door to "welcome me home."  Dream man!

                                              Great friends helping us unpack!

                                                        How does it look here??

I have to start getting my domestic skills back!  I got very spoiled with my Mom's cooking over the past six months.  So, I went to Costco and started practicing this weekend!  By the way, I LOVE my kitchen.  It's perfect!

We came home from work on Monday evening to find not one, but TWO separate gifts from neighbors (or so I think it was from neighbors?!)  This sweet "Welcome Home" balloon!  No clue who it is from... but we sure felt special and welcomed!

 Fresh lemons on our doorstep from kind neighbors!  Wow! We are blown away by the sweetness of this neighborhood.  It will be fun to get to know everyone better!

That's all I have for now!  I can't wait to show you the final product... hoping this weekend will give me a nice chunk of time to finish unpacking and organizing!