Grateful Sunday

photos from the weekend

Today, I'm grateful for:

• the fact that our lease isn't up until the end of December. Although I plan on us moving in this Saturday, I have a feeling we're going to need a couple more weeks to get the house completely empty. Our timing worked out great.
• our family who came to see us this weekend. Neal's brothers, Shelby and Jeff, came with their families. Fourteen people was much more doable than 29, like we had last year. But that was fun, too!
• the forced organization/purging that moving requires. I have about 13 bags sitting by my front door waiting to be donated tomorrow. And that's post-garage-sale cleanout. We are, unfortunately, not organized people by nature, so we need a move now and then to keep us on our toes as far as clutter goes.
• going back to the grind tomorrow morning. Although a week off was nice, I kind of need the kids to go back to school so I can get some things done!

details

This is a close up of the floor texture, for those of you who were wondering what "scraped" floors look like. Despite everyone's comments otherwise, we decided to scrape. Our floor stain is one part coffee, two parts ebony. Super dark and pretty. Obviously, the baseboards aren't done yet.

And how pretty is our white marble subway backsplash tile!! We are completely thrilled with our choices so far, hooray!

the floor scrapers

Apparently floor scraping is more of an ancient trade than I thought. The minute I walked into our house this afternoon, I thought of this Caillebotte painting from 1875. I've had a magnet of it on my fridge for years! All I can say is, floor scraping is some hard work (and makes a terrible noise). These dudes looked real tired by the time I left around 4:30.

countertop preview

One of the things we're most excited about in our remodel is the black honed granite countertops we put in the kitchen. Honed granite doesn't have the glossy sheen of polished, they almost look like soapstone, which is our dream material. They went in yesterday, and we love them! The before shot of the kitchen is quite hideous, as you will soon see. This is already such a major improvement! Everything else is moving along. Today they're finishing the floors. In case you are curious, we decided to go with a very light scraping and a very dark stain. I think it will be beautiful. Perhaps I'll post a picture tomorrow as they're drying . . . until then, Happy Cooking!

to scrape or not to scrape

I need to make a decision today. I don't even know if "hand scraped" floors are a "thing" anywhere besides here, but we're trying to determine if we want a light scrape to our new red oak 3 1/4" floor planks or no scrape at all. Thoughts? Opinions? We'll be staining the floor quite dark, just can't decide about the texture . . . We're leaning toward unscraped . . .

Grateful Sunday

This week is Thanksgiving, so gratefulness is in the air! I love that. Today, I'm grateful for:

• this great video put out by the church. These Mormon Messages are really fabulous!
• family coming in for dinner this week. I'm grateful in advance for their patience, they're going to need it. Packing has begun!
• a great bishop, who, at tithing settlement today, directed almost his whole conversation to our children. He is a wonderful teacher, and I'm grateful that he is a part of our lives.
• my eleven years with Neal. We have created a wonderful life for ourselves and have been blessed immeasurably. I'm grateful that I get to be with him forever.
• sugar cookies. I can't get enough.
• a week off of school. I love not waking up my kids!

lucky me

With baby Audrey, on the porch swing in Tyler, Texas, where we were engaged. This was taken in 2002, before Neal's parents moved away from this house.

Today Neal and I are celebrating 11 years of being married. I'm so incredibly blessed to have met Neal that one magical fall evening in Provo in 1997. Little did I know how much that night would change my life! Our wedding day in Los Angeles is thankfully still very fresh in my mind. It was perfectly perfect and we are still so happy. There's no greater feeling than knowing we made the right choice.

Today, we've celebrated by taking a mongo trip to Lowe's (hello, new lighting fixtures!) and admiring the painting that is going on at our new house. It all looks so good (and WHITE)! Tonight, we'll grab some seafood from a fancy restaurant, just the two of us.

Happy 11 years, Neal!

See our tenth anniversary post here

our ninth here

our eighth here

i love blogging! how fun to have all these posts about this one day!

we're grown ups.

Since we're in our thirties (Neal's almost to the midway point!), I have decided it is high time we go on some grown up dates. So I talked a few friends (and their reluctant husbands) into attending a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Dallas last weekend. Lobster fajitas helped bribe the men out on the town, but in the end, we all had a great time. We were able to visit a fabulous new modern theater venue in the city and rather than having a traditional clap session for each actor, the hilarious production ended in a dance party with the whole audience. The cast performed top 40 hits and we danced and danced. Until the men had enough.

Great times, y'all! I'm thinking it's time for another grown up date soon!

hugs for lunch

Another lunch date with my favorite blue-eyed dude. On Mondays, we usually hit up a quaint little bakery near TCU before Miles' little preschool class starts. Soup, fruit and cookies, some hugs in the sunny window, and we are a happy pair.

Grateful Sunday

This week was crazy, but all good things, thankfully. Today, I'm grateful for:

• mini paint samples. The process of us trying to choose paint colors for our new house is utterly ridiculous. I'm sure it won't matter to anyone but us in the end, but we've tried at least a dozen colors out for size. This is one of our sample walls in the family room. I thought this was so funny that I had to take a picture of it. We are dorks and can't decide. I think we're going with the last one on the bottom right, Benjamin Moore's Paper White. I think.
• Neal, who turned the car around for me, when on the way to church this morning, I realized that I had inadvertently skipped mascara. For a blonde like me (whose eyelashes are invisible), this was not acceptable. "Look at me! I can't go like this!" I said. He just smiled and turned around, thanks baby.
• swine flu vaccines. Sounds like in some places the vaccine is rather hard to come by, but we were grateful to have ours quite accessible. We were just sure that if we didn't get the shots, that we'd get the flu over Christmas. Just a hunch we had. So now we're good to go!
• my parents, who are coming to visit this week. Neal and I are taking a night out for our eleventh anniversary, and Brama and Pa are the best babysitters. (Hope you guys don't mind!)

Grateful Sunday

I have taken no pictures of my life lately. It's all house and no play around here! So, an old picture of Miles will have to do.

This week has been busy but good. Tonight, I'm grateful for:

• my family
• my faith, the strengthening of my testimony that I experience each Sunday at church.
• my calling in the Primary. I feel lucky to have such a rewarding assignment.
• progress on our house. Although it is nearing, I really dread the moving process, but hopefully after this Saturday's yard sale, it will seem a lot less daunting.

sneak peek

five days into the remodel. i'm really glad we're not living here right now.

Grateful Sunday

I thought this picture was so funny. Neal, in his church clothes & work crocs, collecting chickens during their time outside today. The custom coop is forthcoming.

This was a good week! Today I'm grateful for:

• our new house! We drove by tonight and saw the sellers moving their final truckloads out. Felt bad for them, moving at night as they were, but we're excited to start demo tomorrow!
• our fun ward. During our Trunk-or-Treat the other night, there was a surprise group Thriller dance, which had been prepared for and rehearsed for days. It was awesome. (If you want to see the video, I'll send you the link.) I love the people with whom we get to associate here.
• an understanding husband. I feel like I am in a constant tornado of activity, both at home and elsewhere. But Neal is always so calm and accepting of me, despite my frazzled state.