Date Night at the Fair

I have a confession to make. Before Friday night, I had never ridden a grown up ferris wheel. I've ridden a kiddie ferris wheel but that doesn't count. When I told Vaughn on Friday that I had never been on a ferris wheel before, he had to fix that.

Here we are

Awwwwwww, aren't we cute??? I am just so madly in love with this man. We'll be married two years in a couple of months!

Check out this awesome view of the sunset from the top. (Sorry about the protective plastic thing. I guess that's supposed to keep people from hangin over the edge.)

The two bright lights interrupting that gorgeous Texas sunset are lights from Dick Bivins Stadium. Palo Duro High School was having their homecoming.

Then, on our left there was a storm building, I got this picture from the top too.

My first ride on a ferris wheel was wonderful and romantic. We had an awesome night at the fair. We went to the rodeo, saw a bullrider ride a Category 5 bull who had not been ridden ever in five years. We saw Jeff Bates, Trent Willman and Mark Wills in concert, where my sweet man held me and sang sweet songs into my ear. It was so wonderful, like the rest of the world just faded away and we were all that existed.

Whether you've been married 2 days or 20 years, don't leave out date night. It's very important. Make sure to make time for the one you promised your life to.

Have a great rest of the week. If I can pray for you, please let me know.

Kitchen Floor - Getting There

Okay, so last night I sanded the outside of the room, puttied the blemishes and cleaned up a little. I thought I would go back and do some before and almost after's with you today.

Here is what the kitchen looked like before we started

And here is a better view of that floor that it had when we started. The pictures I had in that previous post had that red stuff on it. We still aren't sure what that was. Someone had spilled something on that part of the floor or something. You can see it on the floor in that first before picture.

Here's a few pictures that I took last night

As you can tell in the picture above, we removed the door on the right. The bedroom did not have a closet so we removed that pantry door and opened it to the bedroom. That wasn't a big deal, since they built me that wonderful floor to ceiling pantry on the left.

The dark marks on the floor are just still damp from where I mopped. Also, the cabinets and pantry do have doors, I promise, and we have drawers as well, they're just not installed yet.

My little kitchen is really coming along. By this time next week, I should have a table and chairs in there! Getting closer all the time!

Thanks for going through this process with me. Hopefully, someone has gotten an idea or two, maybe I've even been able to help someone decide whether or not to save their old hardwood floors.

If I can pray for you, please let me know.

Kitchen Floor - Sanding

Okay, so in my last post, I reminded you what the nasty green laminate looked like. I also showed you what the floor looked like when I finished scraping the laminate and cutback adhesive off.

But now, my friends, you get to see that floor really come to life! This next picture is my sweet husband sanding the floor with the big belt sander. You can rent this from a local hardware store. We were able to rent it by the half-day, which was great because this part only took us about an hour.

He used 60, then 80, then 100 grit sandpaper on the machine to really get down to the pretty parts of the wood. It didn't take off too terribly much. Seeing as how this is a nearly 300 square foot room and we didn't even fill up the catch bag on the machine once.

Here it is after the big sander. Already an amazing improvement. Also, I forgot to mention that we taped plastic to all of the doorways leading into the house so that sawdust didn't fill the house. We took the back door off of the hinges and left it open while we were sanding.

The next step is puttying any holes, cracks or blemishes, sanding over them, and sanding around the outside of the room with the orbital sander. I have not finished this yet. I will be working on finishing this up tonight. I will have pictures of the floor when I finish that.

After this is finished, I will be cleaning the entire room. I doubt you really want to see pictures of me cleaning, so I will skip that step. Then, with all of the dust cleaned out of the room, I will stain the floor, waking it back up. I should have pictures of that for you later this week.

Remove Laminate & Cutback From Hardwood - Done

If you remember from my first post about the floor in the kitchen, it started out as ugly, green, old, speckled laminate

Now it looks like this

I will post as each step of the refinishing process is done. By the time we get done, you will understand why the work of scraping the laminate off was worth it. If you have questions of how I removed the cutback, click the link at the beginning of this post to go back to the original post. If you try my method, please let me know how it worked for you by commenting on either post or sending an email.

Home Made Christmas - Personalized Candles

As promised, today I have a Home Made Christmas idea that you can make yourself. A very simple, inexpensive gift that most people will absolutely love. This tutorial comes from my new friend Amy at The Idea Room. The gift is Personalized candles.

Below is a picture of the ones that the kids and I made for Vaughn last Christmas. We simply printed the photos out on regular computer paper and wrote a message on some tissue paper and used a hair dryer to melt the picture and message onto the candle.Vaughn loved these candles and the kids and I had so much fun making them.

I also had fun making these candlesand one lucky reader will win them for their very own. Leave a comment and you will be automatically entered to win. I will draw a random name and post it in next week's Home Made Christmas post. You can keep them and place them somewhere where they will be lovely, or you can give them as a gift to someone.

Amy asks on her blog if you can maybe use a hair dryer. That's what I did. I had read somewhere else about this same project and if you wrap that candle in wax paper, use the ends to hold the candleit melts the wax more evenly than just the hair dryer without the wax paper. (In this picture, I used the plastic that the candle came wrapped in. I made the giveaway candles at lunch and didn't realize until I got home that we were out of wax paper.)

Have fun making these candles and be sure to send me pictures if you make one. If I can Pray for you, please let me know.

Kitchen Floor - Almost Done!!

Okay, I would love to find the person who laid this laminate floor 50 years ago or whatever and smear bubblegum in their hair. Not really, there's nothing worse than bubblegum in your hair, except maybe cutback adhesive.

So here are a couple of pictures from last night

I'm almost done!! I am actually farther along now than I was when I took the pictures.

If I say I've been working on this for two weeks, then it seems hardly worth it. But seriously, I've only been working on it a few hours a night for two weeks. I figure it should take me about 3 hours to finish tonight and when I do, that will total about 24 hours total work time on that. That's nearly 300 sq foot of floor though.

If you have cutback laminate you would like to get rid of and save the wood flooring underneath, this is work, not hard work, but tedious work. But to me, oh, so worth it! I mean just look at that wood!!! Plus, I only spent maybe $150 on the rental, compared to the $500 (at least) that I would have had to spend on new flooring.

I will take pictures of the floor when I'm done scraping it. Then I will take pictures of the refinishing process if I can. You can do this, seriously, if I can do this, anyone can. Save the money, save the wood, its so beautiful!!

If you have any questions, I will try to answer them. If you try this, please leave me some comments!!!

Monday Monday

Good morning to you!! I pray you had a wonderful, rested weekend. My weekend was great. My sweet sweet husband got home on Friday. We took a break from the work on the house and spent some wonderful time together. We went to the football game, we visited one of our college kids, and snuggled on the sofa.

Now, he's gone back to work. This will be his last full week out of town, Praise God! I'm back to work on the house. For those of you wondering why I am doing this work on the floor instead of him, that's my choice. I feel like he has done so much at the house that I need to contribute something.

The floor is really coming along nicely. Just remember that the only time I have had to work on it is in the evenings. A few hours a night a few nights a week. So it seems to just draaaaaaaaaaaaaaag out. It seems like it is taking for-stinkin-ever. But really, when you look at the actual hours I have on that floor, its not bad at all. Its a 14 x 21 foot floor, which is nearly 300 sq foot. So to have less than 16 hours on that floor and to be as far along as I am is not bad at all. Also included in that is taking care of two households and my mother-in-law.

Also on my agenda this week is the flower bed. Grass has totally taken over. To the point of overwhelming me. We took a friend's advice in grass prevention and learned that we should have spent the money and used weed stop. Lesson learned. Also, that you must take time each week to pull grass from a new garden. But I got busy, I let it go and now its a big ugly monster that I have been procrastinating on doing and overwhelms me every time I look at it. But it needs to get done.

All of this just reminds me of our walk with God, we can't do everything on our own or all at once. Sometimes we get in over our heads, sometimes things don't go our way. But if we call on God, He knows what we need. He knows when it will get done and His plan is better than ours. He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

We just have to trust in Him. We sometimes have to ask for help. We must depend on His strength, His time and His plan and not our own.

So here I am, asking for help. If you have some time tonight or tomorrow and don't have any other plans. I would love to have some friends help me out. You can help scrape the floor, you can help by pulling a section of the grass out of my mother-in-law's garden, you can help by sitting with me and talking to me while I scrape this floor if you can't do anything else. At the very least, you can pray for me. Pray that I remember to put this, and all things, in His hands and trust on His timing.

Thank you, and if I can pray for you, if I can help you, please let me know.

Home Made Christmas - Military Purses

Okay, for today's episode of Home Made Christmas, I had to start with my little sister. My next post will be something you can make yourself at home.

My sister is a soldier's wife and she is so darn talented. When her husband went to Iraq, she started making purses for herself and her daughters out of his uniforms. Ultimately, this turned into purses for other wives and now even more items, such as keychains, stockings and diaper bags.

She makes all of the orders from her personal sewing machine in her home, surrounded by her four children. You can visit her site and check out her ACU and BDU purses, diaper bags and more.
This is a picture of just one of the many purses she has made to order. I got mine for Christmas last year and I love it!! If you know a military wife, this would be a great gift idea this year!!

Home Made Christmas

Christmas is already everywhere! Seriously, I think it comes sooner every year. Anyway, with everyone talking about the recession and all, I thought I would do something here on my blog to help everyone out. At least once a week, from now until Christmas, I will be reviewing a home made Christmas gift and featuring it here on my blog.

It will be something that you can either make yourself to give or purchase it from someone who made it themselves. No large corporations, mostly just stay-at-home-moms trying to make a little side money to help out in these uncertain times. The gifts will be something either I, myself, have made or received to review. Not something I have never seen before. If I don't like it, I won't write about it, period.

If you have a gift idea, maybe an etsy store or personal blog and/or store, and would like to be featured, please send me an email and I will let you know how to send us a sample of your product to be reviewed. Samples, when possible, will be given away after review to one lucky reader. Samples must be family friendly and pertain to family, decorating, home, pets or inspirational gifts.

Thanks so very much for all of your participation, for all of you who read my blog and for all of your prayers and support. I pray that you will get some wonderful gift giving ideas!

Have a great day and if I can pray for you, please let me know.

Puppy Hoodie

Oh my goodness, before I start with my latest craft project, I guess I should introduce the newest member of our family, Missy.

Missy's mother was adopted by some local friends of mine. She was supposed to be too young to become pregnant, much to their surprise, she had babies not long after. They kept one puppy, Missy, but with a house full of children, they didn't feel like she was being treated fairly. She is about 10 weeks old and is a mixed breed. The most obvious traits appear to be Shih Tzu.

They knew I liked her so they called and asked if I wanted her. The rest is history.

Okay, so yesterday she went and had her first haircut

Isn't she precious?? Anyway, the puppy clothes in there were EXPENSIVE! So I thought, "I can do that!" So I gave it a shot. I found an online pattern for a puppy hoodie. Wouldn't that be cute for Friday night football games?? So I fashioned it after the one I bought for myself Friday night, here it is

Leave comments, let me know what you think of my first try??

Canvas Drawer

My dear decorating, sewing, crafty type friends;

My attempt at making a canvas drawer FAILED miserably. If you have come here from patternreview.com, you're looking for my tutorial. Well, I couldn't do it, it didn't work out how I planned. You know what? That's okay. It's just not my thing. There are lots of other things I'm good at, that is just how God made me. So stick around and look through the topics on the left, you might learn how to make something fun anyway.

If not, there is a great pattern for canvas drawers at Crazy Mom Quilts and there are others out there on ther internet.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Paint or Stain?

After seeing what real stained wood looks like, I don't think I will ever paint a piece of wood again.

As I stood in my driveway last weekend, staining trim for my bathroom, I realized a wonderful analogy.

We start out in life, like a brand new, plain piece of wood. We have so much potential, just can't see it yet. There are so many possibilities. So many choices. So many different things we can become.

We can choose to sit and be nothing. We can choose the one who will use paint, the world - or we can choose the One who will use stain, God. Each one will appear to improve the wood, but in what way, and where will glory be found?

Let's say you choose the world. The world likes paint. The world will sand and prime and pick a beautiful color.

Then the world will put on coat after coat of paint. The paint will hide the grain. It will hide the beauty. The paint will make this fresh, beautiful piece of wood into a uniform piece of trim. A piece that matches everything else and has no unique value of its own.

You can't see the individual grain. You can't see the personality that this particular piece of wood has that makes it different from every other piece. It simply matches all the others.

If it is hurt or damaged inside, under the paint, no one can tell. You see, the paint serves as a beautiful mask. Makes everything on the outside look all pretty, even if the inside has a knothole or two.

God, however, He likes to stain. You see, He made you to be a beautiful creation and He wants that to show through.

God said that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139:14. He made all the grain in that wood and He wants it to show through. He lovingly and tenderly wipes stain on, bringing out every mark, every line, every curve in the personality that He created.

He knows the knotholes, the hurt, the pain and the fear. He becons us "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30.

He will take you in His loving hands and sand away the rough spots. He will finish what He started too, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Phil. 1:6.

Let Him make you into the beautiful piece of art the He created you to be?

If I can pray for you, please let me know.

9/11

Do you remember where you were that morning? I remember it vividly. I was HUGELY pregnant with Miss Bethanie. I was getting ready for work, getting Austin ready for the sitter's. I had Good Morning America on. Then it came, the first announcement. Charlie Gibson, noticeably shaken informed the world that a plane had just crashed into the first tower.

At this point there was no idea why. Maybe it was an equipment failure? Maybe it was a miscalculation? No one even mentioned hijacked planes or terrorism. Being hormonal and pregnant, I cried a little, scooped up my little boy and went on about my morning routine. I prayed for those involved, I checked the TV often and I went on.

By the time I got to work though, the word hung in the air like an sharp sword "Terrorists!" The second tower had been hit and they were sure it was an attack.

An attack? Here? Right here in the US? What!!?? No!!!

By 10:00, my boss had to send me home. They were sending home anyone who had someone there, which I didn't but I was hysterical. "I mean, how could I bring a child into a world like this? How can I subject her to such pain, such fear. such VIOLENCE??? Somebody explain this to me? Please?? I don't understand why someone would do this? What kind of mother am I??"

Wow, as I typed those thoughts, I felt them again...real as that day. I was a mess. I went home and I cried. I held my baby boy, I held my belly with my daughter in it and I cried. I put a picture of the newspaper in my son's scrapbook and I explained it to him the best I could. I cried and I cried. I prayed and I prayed.

About 3 days into the footage and a thousand times of watching the same videos over and over, I couldn't do it anymore. I finally found a flag on eBay and hug it outside and I turned off the TV. I took my son to the park. I called my sister and I cried. I called my mom and I cried. I called my grandma and we prayed.

I went back to work the next week and nothing was the same. Instead of fighting with each other, everyone was unified. Hell-bent and determined not to let the terrorists win. Trusting in God to sort it all out. Praying together. Standing together. The true meaning of United.

Remember friends, when we learned the real meaning of the "United" States? When our firemen and police officers and military came from all over the US to New York to help out? When we sent water and canned food to help out? When we held hands and prayed together? When we baked cookies and took them to the fire station? If you do, don't let it stop. If you don't, maybe its time to start.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of our service men and women and to their families! We appreciate all you do for us!!

I leave you with this verse:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chron. 7:14

Remove Laminate & Cutback From Hardwood

The house that we're fixing up has beautiful hardwood floors! The only bad thing is that the kitchen has 40-50 year old UGLY green laminate on top of the wood and it was stuck on there with cutback adhesive. How do I save the wood??? That was my question. If you've seen the pictures of the finished hardwood in the other rooms, you understand. The floors are amazing!

I searched and searched the internet, talked to flooring people and got a few hints. We tried a heat gun, didn't work. Tried Sentinel adhesive remover, that was ok, but you have to scrape off the laminate first. Flat out scraping was all we could find, and that was not fun, we did a small section, about 3"x10" in 45 min.

Then I heard that you could use an iron and wet towel to steam the stuff loose. So I tried it, it worked...kinda. So I thought, "What about a steamer?"

I rented a wallpaper steamer from our local hardware store for $30 a day and check this out it came off a whole lot easier. Don't get me wrong, its not EASY, its work, but if you want to save your floors, you have to decide if its worth it and to me, this isn't so bad. You have to work at it, but I wasn't even sweating, so it can't be that bad, right?

You just set the steamer on one section for a few minutes, then you move it a little bit and scrape where it was just sitting and it all comes off. You need a towel because the water mixes with the cutback and leaves some gummy residue that you have to wipe off, but hey, you get your wood back
One worry with cutback is that it may or may not contain asbestos. The great thing about this method is that the cutback is wet, so it doesn't become airborne, so you're not breathing it in. There are no chemicals either, like with the adhesive remover, so its a whole lot safer too!

I'll post pics of the finished floor soon!!


UPDATE 10/7/09: This floor is actually almost finished now!! YAY! So if you want to see the whole process from start to finish, just click the "Hardwood Floor" link either right here or under labels on the left and you can see every step of the way. Polyurethane next!!