Progress

We have been working very hard on the house for the last 2 months and I finally feel like real progress is being made. Projects are getting done, and when I look around I don't see as many things that bother me or still need to be worked on. For example this is what our hall bath looked like when we moved in:





This is what it looks like now:




This is what our entry way looked like when we moved in:






This is what it looks like now:
I know that you can't really see in the pictures, but when we moved in the grout in the tile was black, after having it professionally cleaned it matches the tile and is a much lighter color. It's kinda makes me sick to think that the floor could be that dirty.





I'm so happy with all the things that are being done, I'm also really happy that we have moved and have space to move around in. I should also take a moment to mention that non of these wonderful things would be getting done with out Luke. He has worked so hard to make everything around the house just as I would like it. He has even had to repaint a few things, because I just didn't like the color I chose once it was on the wall. I love my Husband very much, and am so glad that he has put all the work into the house to make it feel like home.

Christmas Pictures

We have had a wonderful and busy week so far. I'm just going to put up a few new pictures, seeing as thats about all I have time for today. Hopefully I can fill in details soon! Olivia really didn't want to have her picture taken so this is the only one I have with her not in tears.

Will everything get done????

So too many of you out there 8 weeks may seem like a long time, but to me 8 weeks seems like a very short amount of time. Why you might ask, well in 8 weeks we will be welcoming Isaac. With December almost over and January being a very full month, Olivia's Surgery, Care Group Weekend Away, Our Wedding Anniversary, And Normal Activity's, I'm sure time will fly by. Then in February we have Luke, and Morgan’s birthdays and before you know it my 8 weeks are all done. Now if I could just figure out were we are going to fit in taking down the wall paper and getting our bedroom painted so that we can finally set up our furniture, oh yes and lets not forget getting Isaac's room ready. Do any of you out there ever feel like you are taking 2 steps forward and then 10 steps back? This is how I have been feeling a lot lately, maybe its hormones, or the rush of the holiday season. I'm guessing though I'm not the only person who ever feels this way. Why do we feel the need to have life organized? For me I know that I'm a happier person when I feel like things are getting done, but dose it go deeper than that? Is it a way of keeping control? Is it my way of not handing everything over to God, and knowing that he will help me accomplish things in his timing? I know that this has been a very random post, but tonight I feel random. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend, and have a Merry Christmas.

Care Group Christmas Party

Last night we enjoyed celebrating Christmas with our friends, it was so much fun to get together for the holiday season. Thank you so much to Ryan and Jeanie for hosting! Hope you all enjoy the rest of our holiday season.

Not a word of complaint

Yesterday I opened an e-mail from a friend who I have been thinking/praying about over the last few day of heavy rain. As soon as I read the first few words my heart sank and I started to cry. They live in Vernoina and have lost everything inside their home. They have 3 kids one who is only weeks old. As I read about their home being under 7 feet of water on the outside and 4 feet of water on the inside I could hardly imagine being in her position. But that is not why I'm posting this; I wanted to post about this because of her amazing attitude about things. She could have complained about losing everything, the fact that they have just finished remodeling the entire house, that her family will not be home for Christmas, but she didn't mention any of those things. She said we have lost everything, but I'm thankful that we have family we can stay with and we are all safe, and healthy.

As I head into the Christmas holiday, I have so much to be thankful for. I have no reasons to complain, so what if I can't find the right gift or I have a lot going on. That is not what this season is about. It's about Celebrating Jesus’ Birth. Spending time with love ones and being together as a family. My friend’s attitude made me think, it's never those who have hardly anything or who are asking for help that complain about life's situations. It’s those of us who have so much we have forgotten how little we really go with out, and decide to complain about the mundane things in life.

Bouncy Potato

I thought that this would be a great little thing to post right before thanksgiving. Tonight when dinner was done, both Olivia and Morgan got into the cupboards and each got one red skin potato. Odd I know, but they are my kids and I love them. After about 30 minutes of laughing a playing nicely with each other, I finally decided to interrupt and ask Morgan what they were doing the answer, we are just playing a game called bouncy potato. Okay then I hope that you two enjoy the rest of your game because mommy is really enjoying cleaning up the kitchen and talking to Daddy! I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with you family and find time to truly enjoy the little things we have to be thankful for.

Cleanliness what is the definition?

I know that I said I was taking a posting break, but I had to blog about this. I don't want to offend anyone who reads this so know that my definition of cleanliness is just that my definition. Also know that I think there is a very large difference between houses cleanliness and a house being picked up.

So any of you who read my blog know that we are moving next week to a house that needs a little work, so Luke took a few days off of work this week, my Mom took the kids and our plan was to work, work, work, and we did just that. Thursday my new appliances were being delivered so I worked very hard Wednesday, and Thursday morning to get the laundry room ready. After scrubbing every wall and wiping every surface, I moved on to painting all of the walls. Next I shined up the cabinets with pledge, and mopped the floor for a second time. Ahh yes the laundry room in my definition was clean, but for some reason it smelled just awful. So after running through everything that I had done in my head it hit me I never vacuumed out the heating vent, but this smell couldn't be coming from the heating vent, or could it? So I went out to the garage grabbed the shop vac. a was going to clean it out, but I decided I didn't want to because it might be really gross so I asked Luke to do it for me. He pulled off the heating vent and I head, "you have got to be kidding me, what's wrong with people." Curious I walked into the laundry room and asked what he had found, his response was not something that I can post, but we had identified the smell. Yes the people who had lived in our house before us had been using the heating vent as a place to put what they had scoped out of their cats litter box! At this point I left the room feeling very sick to my stomach, but this is what crosses my mind:
1-I'm so glad that Luke is cleaning that and I'm not.
2-It's a really good thing that the gas has been, and still is turned off and the heat hasn't been on.
3-I can't believe that anyone in their right mind would do something like that.
4-I'm so glad that Luke is cleaning up that mess.
5-I love my husband, he's not complaining about the mess as much as I would.

So the mess has been taken care of, and every vent in the house has been cleaned. My laundry room smells just fine, and I still am very excited to move in to the new house. After this experience though, it got me thinking, I had been told that the house was clean. I have been working on getting the house to my standards of clean for almost a week now, and I still have work to do. So what makes people decide to live in filth? Is it lack of motivation in life, or that the standards were never set, and as an adult they don't really know what clean is? I'm interested to hear what others have to say on this subject. Were do you think each individual persons standards of cleanliness come from?