Bathrooms and Pup

Another update on the house! We've been working hard on the bathroom (well mostly Bryan has been working hard) and it's coming along. My family came up last weekend and my dad and Bryan went after the bathroom again and now almost all the walls are actually walls with drywall/cement board up! It's really cool to see the room come together and start to look like a room, not just studs. Here are some pictures of the progress!

 Along with updating the house we are also raising the pup! She is getting so big, I feel like she grows overnight sometimes. We're working on basic commands right now and she's learning them, even though she doesn't always want to listen/do what we tell her :) Here are some pics of the pup!

Weekend Project: Window Treatments

This Memorial Day weekend we tackled some house projects. Bryan and my dad worked hard on the bathroom, getting the electrical all set up and knocking down some more plaster.  Meanwhile, my mom and I worked on window treatments for the front part of our living room. We got some new bamboo shades and also made our own curtains! (Thankfully I had a 50% off coupon for Joann's otherwise our curtains would have been super expensive...) My mom's expert sewing skills were put to good use making these awesome curtains! We are so thankful for parents that can help out around the house, we wouldn't be any where near as far along without them. Enjoy the updates, next stop: window treatments for the kitchen and finishing the guest room shade :)

 Before....

 AFTER!!

The work on the house continues! Thanks to my dad, we were able to get crown molding up in the living room and kitchen this weekend. It looks AWESOME! It's not finished yet, still need to paint and such, but it makes such a big difference and makes the room feel finished.  Also, you will find pictures of our "seascape" bathroom upstairs, lovingly dubbed this as we had sand paint on the walls w/a tan/blue mix of colors. The best part is that our bathroom was REDONE at some point so people CHOSE sand paint! Blech....anyway, Bryan is tearing all that out now so we're underway on that major project as well. We've really enjoyed all our projects so far - let's hope we stay here long enough to keep going!

Living Room

Living room again

 Dining Area/Kitchen

 Dining Area

 Looking into the Kitcehn

 Yay! Crown Molding is up!

 WoW!

 Check out that caulking job (oh yeah, I did that)

 Seriously, what a big difference!

 You can't really see the crown molding in this pic but it does show off our above cabinet lighting!

 Ahhh...almost complete!

 Ewww, ugly bathroom

 Blech! SAND PAINT!

 Notice the waves of blue/gray throughout the tan sand paint

 Gross peel and stick tiles

Old, outdated fixtures plus icky plastic covering on the shower means time for a make over!



This is our little house :)

So I thought since it's been a couple months since we moved into the house I would post some pictures of the house and some projects we've accomplished (thanks to the help of my parents!)

This is the Kitcen, the cabinets were all updated, so we just had to paint!

Our breakfast nook on the other side of the kitcen. It looks out onto our front yard - also pictured, the beautiful birthday flowers Bryan bought for me!



Living Room - this is off the kitchen, you can see Bryan's clock wall!  Eww look at that fan!

Living Room looking out towards the front of the house. Notice the ugly ceiling fan...




Bryan's study - Our Buckeye room! Also a guest room.

Downstairs bathroom



Other guest room



Our master bedroom upstairs

The whole upstairs is our bedroom and it has a bathroom, too! We have a lot of work to do up there, but it's going to be awesome when we're done!

Excuse the mess, but this is still upstairs! And there are built in drawers so no need for dressers upstairs!

Big ugly black fan in the kitchen....

Replaced with beautiful, sleek, modern light fixture! What a difference!

Ugly black ceiling fan in the front room...



Replaced with cool spot light fixture!





So that's the house so far! It's amazing what a few small changes can do to a home! We're really enjoying fixing things up and making it our own. can't wait to start on our next project...

New House!

Soooo it's been forever since I posted, but we are finally in our house!! We've moved in and most of the boxes are unpacked! It feels great to be in a home that is all ours and that we can set up and decorate any way we want to. We got the whole downstairs painted and I think it looks awesome! It's amazing how a few coats of paint can change the look of a room.  We did have some weird things happen, like the first night we were in the house the upstairs lights weren't working. So we had to find everything with our flashlight - that made things interesting when I was trying to get dressed the next morning.  Our house also makes some weird noises that we can't quite figure out, but I think we're mostly used to them now. We're also realizing that there are a lot of things we want to accomplish in the house and we're undecided as to what project to take on first. The list includes: new floors on the first floor, pulling down the ceiling upstairs and redrywalling that, redoing the upstairs bathroom (very needed), putting up crown molding pretty much every where, and finishing the basement. Of course, there are some necessary repairs that need to be made, like we really need to redo our driveway and put a new roof on the garage, but those aren't fun things so I don't count those on the list. The neighbors are great, too! They have all been very welcoming and kind, so it's great to know that we have friendly neighbors. All in all, the house is great and we love having our own space. 
Bryan started classes a couple weeks ago and that is going well. He is doing great! He got a 99% on his first exams!!!! WOOHOO! Go Bryan! He's very pleased and he's enjoying the classes as much as class can be enjoyed.
We also have been attending a great church up here, Grace Ann Arbor. We're really enjoying the church and we also joined a community group which has been equally awesome! The group is all young couples, either engaged or married, some with children.  They are a great group of people and we've really been enjoying getting to know them.  It's great to have a group that you can grow spiritually with and be challenged by weekly.
So far so good up here in A2! We're enjoying the city and soon we'll be exploring Ypsilanti as well - we hear there are some great restaurants in Depot Town! Hopefully I will be better about updating, but let's be real, probably not. So just soak it up while you can! Cheers!

Love is Patient

Today I started reading The Love Dare, from the movie Fire Proof. My friend and former manager, Julie, brought up going through the book together over the summer and I was thrilled to begin! I received the book from a dear friend and mentor before the wedding(Thanks Jess Seed!),  but hadn't given it much thought over the past few years. So when Julie asked if I wanted to go through the book with her, I was very excited. She also suggested that we adapt the lessons in the book to work and office situations to apply it in different ways. I thought this was another wonderful idea and as I am sitting here reflecting on the book, I thought I would share my journey through the book and the changes that I experience while focusing on the lessons.
Today's lesson is 'Love is Patient' and the focus is clearly patience.  The book had several good quotes that I wanted to share:
- "When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation."
- "Patience brings internal calm during an external storm."
- "It doesn't rush to judgement but listens to what the other person is saying."
I appreciate all these quotes because I am so often impatient. I have to concentrate very hard on being patient, not rushing to conclusions, not lashing out with my words, and trying to see where the other person is coming from.  In marriage, it seems especially easy to be impatient in marriage. You assume that  your spouse knows everything that's going on in your mind and that they MUST know you had an awful day at work, an even worse drive home, and that you're just hungry and tired and want a big hug when you walk in the door. So when those things don't happen the minute you step into your home, you become frustrated and angry instead of realizing that hubby dearest isn't a mind reader. Somehow when you live with someone it becomes easier to be upset about small issues and dismiss the wonderful sacrifices that the other makes. So, instead of having these emotions flood through me every time B doesn't live up to my (very) high expectations, I should be patient, realize that he doesn't read minds and that he had his own very long day to live through, and offer him a hug instead.  Further, that when I am hurt, angry, upset, or in need of something more/different than what I current have, I need to communicate this to B in a positive and constructive way.
The challenge for today was to saying nothing negative to your spouse at all, and if you were tempted to say something negative, the challenge was to say nothing at all. Thankfully, both B and I worked today so there wasn't much chance to mess this challenge up with him - but when I think about applying this to the office setting there was much more opprotunity to botch this "no negative" pact.
This morning I shared a few quotes and the challenge with my fellow managers and our challenge for the day was to say nothing negative to anyone else - this proved to be extremely difficult as it seems that you can always find something to complain about at work.  I also know that I can be impatient with others at work - I expect people to do things the way that I would do them and I also can be impatient when other's are asking questions or trying to explain a situation to me. So, I am doing my best to be patient with all my coworkers while answering questions, discussing files, etc. A lofty challenge indeed. But, a good way to start is to say nothing negative and I would venture to say that my tone needs to be positive at all times as well.
The Bible verse that I found espeically helpful is from Proverbs 14:29: "He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick tempered exalts folly."
So, my prayer today is that the Lord would help me to be slow to anger and improve my patience and understanding of others to better demonstrate love to everyone I encounter on a daily basis. Lord, let it be so!
only 39 more days to go! More updates to come!
Cheers Love!
(Also, this is the first blog post EVER that I haven't had any misspelled words - wow!)

'He will stay and do his work faithfully...'

     "'When will he come home, Marmee?" asked Beth, with a little quiver in her voice.
      'Not for many months, dear, unless he is sick.  He will stay and do his work faithfully as long as he can, and we won't ask for him back a minute sooner than he can be spared. Now come and hear the letter.'"
                         - Marmee, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

I recently reread Little Women by Lousia May Alcott. Every time I read it I fall more in love with Louisa's writing and the story she wove with four little women growing up during the Civil War era, and of course their loving guide, their Marmee. After finishing the book this time around I thought of doing a series on the blog with thoughts from the book.  There could probably be quotes from every page as far as I'm concerned, but I have chose several favorites that I wanted to reflect on further and share with others. So this is the first of the series, hopefully with several more to come.
In the opening of the book, Marmee comes home with a letter from Mr. March. He is camped with the army (though the exact location is not given) and is writing home to his girls. The girls gather around their mother to hear their father's words, however before Marmee begins, Beth asks the question, "When will he come home?"  I love Marmee's response, "He will stay and do his work faithfully as long as he can, and we won't ask for him back a minute sooner than he can be spared." There are two pieces of this quote that I find particularly valuable. First, Marmee's confidence in her husband that he will stay until his work is complete, that he will not leave and come home to comfort until he knows his part is finished. The second is that Marmee asserts their duty to allow their father to finish his work without selfishly asking his return before his work is complete.  When I was thinking about Marmee's response I began to think about my 'work' and if I do it faithfully. Obviously, there are many definitions of work: my career, being a wife, walking with the Lord, being a friend, a sister, a daughter, and of course those pesky chores; but what work am I to complete faithfully? How do I know when my work is complete? For me, my 'work' is my life, it is all encompassing, it is all the pieces of my life and how they fit together. The Lord put us on this Earth to work, Genesis 2:15, "The LORD God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it," further, the Lord tell us to work as if for Him at all times, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man," Colossians 3:23. So if my 'work' is my life and I must do it faithfully, then I believe that I need to live my life out for the Lord at all times. I don't always know what this looks like, nor do I know how to actually achieve it, but I know that this is how I am supposed to live my life, completing my work faithfully. The word, 'complete' throws another curve ball. Clearly nothing is complete until it is finished, and since living my life is finished until I die, I know that my work will not be completed until the good Lord calls me home. This thought can be overwhelming for me, I feel like I can't possibly be faithful for the rest of my life. Thankfully, the Lord is graceful and will grant me mercy for the many times I have not been faithful and the many more times I will not be faithful. So while Mr. March's 'work' was battling in the Civil War to save the Republic, and his duty was to serve his country faithfully, my 'work' is my life and I will be working faithfully for as long as I am here.
The second piece of the quote shows Marmee's love, devotion, selflessness, and courage. She tells her girls, "...we won't ask for him back a minute sooner than he can be spared." I think about this with my own selfishness and how I want people to stay near me, how I want to live near loved ones, how I want every one's life to work out so that we can be together and so that I can worry as little as possible about those I love.  But the Lord doesn't tell us that our lives will be easy or that we will always get to be near to those we love.  I think it can be very easy to ask people to leave their work and ask them to come home to safety and comfort instead of carrying out their task as the Lord has commanded. I am thankful that the furthest I've had to move from my family is four hours, but it may not always be that easy. Who knows what God has in store for B and I. I hope that I have the courage to move forward when the Lord calls, and I hope that I have the courage to trust in the Lord when others that I love get called to far away places. I hope that instead of asking them to stay near me for my own selfish reasons, I have the courage to let them go and trust that the Lord will provide for them.
Marmee, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy stayed home and waited for their father faithfully until he return after being wounded while fighting. They moved forward with their lives and worked hard on their character while waiting for their father's return.  So, I will work faithfully until my Father calls me home, or Christ's return and I will trust in the Lord when he calls other's to their duty.
These are my first reflections on the book, more to come at a later date. Nothing really new to report from A2 right now, but football season is under way and it will be interesting to be in enemy territory for the fall...perhaps some stories will be coming about life in wolverine territory in the next few weeks.
But, that's all for now.  Cheers loved ones!