Happy Valentine's Day

Jon and I have known each other for 10 years (though we can't agree on exactly when we met). We were friends for a year, dated for 6 months or so, engaged for 10 months (9 years ago tomorrow), and married for 8 years! We've taught Sunday School together, led worship in nursing homes, gone on mission trips with groups and by ourselves, gone camping, enjoyed road trips, written letters, been silly, been serious, had fights, made up, grown up. We've had two beautiful boys together, learned that parenting is hard, leaned on each other, depended on God, prayed together, worshiped together.

Every big event that warrants a post like this,  I cringe to write it. When I think of how much I love Jon, and *how much* he loves me, there are no words. I can't describe to you the daily self-sacrifice that Jon does for me, and how he shows me that he loves me every day. I can't describe to you what security he gives me, how much I lean upon his steadfastness. Besides some killer eyes and that whole tall/dark/handsome combination, Jon's love for the Lord is what attracted me to him in the first place, and it has never faltered.

Jon, you are my sexy man of God, and I love you! Happy Valentine's Day.

Clyde

I love how kitties drape their tails over their feet. Isn't Clyde handsome?

In case you're wondering, this was a photo from the archives, taken when we were packing up our old house getting ready to move here.

Best Friends

My best friend took this picture of me:

But then I got her back by taking this picture of her:

(You know, maybe these things wouldn't happen if we weren't such hams in front of the camera....)

But because I love her, I suppose I'll put this photo up of her beautiful family.

Home Tour: Boys' Room

You've seen a little peek at the boys room from my recent post about Caleb's big boy bed. This room might be my favorite, for several reasons.

I love the colors. It's colorful, but because it's mostly greens and almost no reds, it's not your typical primary-colored kids room. The use of orange instead of red really makes a difference, I think. And the colors are sort of muted, so it doesn't hit you in the face when you come in.

I love the decor! I know, maybe it's vain to say that, but it really was a mod-podge of things we already had or could rig up, and it's vintage-y feel makes it very happy, without feeling so "antique" that it's not fun to play in.

It's very functional. Lots of dresser drawers, shelving for books and closet shelving for storage and linens, under-crib baskets for blankets, and--my favorite--toy bins that make picking up at the end of the day a snap. Everything has its place, and nothing is too fussy or organized that it takes time to put things away. Crayons and paper back on the shelf, cars in the bins, books on the shelves, blocks back in their spot, and the inevitable clean laundry hung back in the closet, and voila! The room goes from messy to clean within the time that Jon's giving Caleb his bath.

It has a play area! When my mom first pulled this play area out of thin air, I was delighted! (That's an old word, isn't it? Well, it's still true. I was delighted.) I had thought for sure the room would be too small for something like that. And when we rearranged to accommodate a second bed, I was so happy to realize that removing the glider had allowed even more room for playtime. Caleb LOVES this area and spends lots of time here.

I love the reminders. Most everything in this room has been touched by some loved one's hands. The songs were put together by my mom. My dad painted the orange door for me, and Caleb loves pointing out each family member in the photos. My best friend's mother-in-law painted the bunny. My grandmother embroidered and sewed the quilt, sheets, and pillows for both beds. I painted the bed frame. Caleb's Aunt Karen painted the letters over his bed. There are memories and faces that go with almost everything!

Home Tour: Living and Dining Revisited

Last weekend we had an Open House for all the members of our church. Our home is 45 years old and feels brand new because of all the hard work that the church put in before we even moved here. Every day Jon and I enjoy our home (and really have trouble picking our "favorite" room) because of what the church did. I found out at the Open House that the church built the house, so the members (many of whom remember when it was built) have seen it transform as ministers come and go. As my mom put it, it's like a Tour of Homes that comes to them, instead of them having to go to it!

So, the Open House was a chance to offer our part of the Tour of Homes. It was a chance to thank our friends and say, "Now you've seen it; feel welcome to come any time!"

It was a fun day, and many people loved the yellow walls (which had been a bit of a sticking point when we first moved here). I loved showing them the many handmade things around the home, some by me and many by friends and family. There isn't much in our home that can be found at Kirklands or someplace like that. Most of our decor has a story and a face behind it, which I love.

As a bonus, I just managed to snap a few pictures of every room before the first guest arrived, so the Home Tour blog posts can continue!

Before I start on any new rooms, I wanted to update the post about the living and dining area. Since then, I have framed some of my student artwork and put it in the dining room. We've also moved our baby swing out of the boys' room. I'm not sure it'll stay where it is, but it is the most convenient spot at the moment.

Here's the update!

Home Tour: Outdoors

The outdoor world we live in!

Our garden and the view of the back neighbor's storage sheds (you can see the corner of our own shed on the left-hand side of the picture)

The great patio. Jon can even grill in the rain, and has a few times! You can see the church across the street. Caleb and I enjoy walking over there to tell everyone hi. You can also see the neighbor's large oak tree.

Jon enjoying a book. This spot has so far gotten a nice breeze, which makes the summer heat more bearable. We moved our old office desk to the back patio to house gardening things. There's also a basket of Caleb's blocks, birdseed, and various pots and things. We enjoy playing on this patio even if it's hot and sunny outside. Or wet and rainy. It gets a lot of use.

The view from the church. You can see our storage building, the shade we get from the neighbor's beautiful oak tree, and our small plum tree that will one day actually produce plums.

Can you find Caleb in this picture?





The front of the house


The garage. It's too narrow to fit both vehicles, but has great storage areas. The bikes are on the wall of a storage closet. Our deep freeze is located right in front of the van. I'm so thankful for covered parking for our van!
This wall of the garage has another storage closet and a water closet, as well as the entrance to the utility room. Because there is no garage door, and the garage faces the church, this entrance is the one everyone uses to come in our house.
Coming up next, the utility room!

More Garden Harvest

Here are a few mores photos of some recent garden harvest.




And what better to do with squash and zucchini than saute with onions! Sometime soon we'll have onions from our garden, but until then, these are store-bought.

Home Tour: Living and Dining

I've put this series of posts off for far too long. I was waiting for things to be "just so" in the house, but I don't think that will ever happen! So I'm starting with a tour of the living and dining areas. They're at the front of the house, so the plan was that they would stay nice and clean and ready to entertain should people come over. And actually, that has been pretty true! The problem is that no one comes through our front door; they come through the garage (no garage door to inhibit them) into the kitchen, which is notoriously the messiest room in every house we've ever lived in. So oh, well. Nonetheless, the living and the dining were the easiest to clean up and take pictures of, and we'll work on the rest later.


The placemats on the table are usually orange to match the rest of the room, but those got washed and really wrinkly, so it'll probably be awhile before I get around to ironing them.

The large blank wall behind the table will be filled with framed art from my college and high school years. I'm really excited about them, because I have never put up my art before.* These are 5 black and white drawings, framed in black frames. I took them to the framer when I was in DFW, so it'll be awhile before I get a chance to get back down there to pick them up.


This last picture is Jon's "Daddy Chair" that rocks and reclines, with Caleb's chair next to it. They both love their chairs! The large doorway behind opens into the "family room" with our computers and a love seat that we use for watching movies and such on our computers. We got rid of the tv when we moved, and now rely on netflix and hulu for our boob tube entertainment. It's saved us a ton of space to not have the entertainment center, and it helps us be more discerning about what we watch.

You can also see the breakfast bar (which we use to put Caleb's play stuff underneath) that leads to the kitchen...which will most likely be the last part of this home tour you'll ever see, if I wait on it to be spic and span before taking pictures!

I'm really happy with this area of the house (as I am with most areas, actually!). It's my first time to have coordinating furniture that I picked out myself, and I think it's comfortable and casual and homey, with enough modern touches to make me happy.

* I do remember a time when I put up some of my art in a particular college apartment, and no, Hill, you don't have to worry. I'm not putting up the black and white drawing of the toilet. Maybe I'll save that for a housewarming gift for you someday.

Roomie Reunion 2009!

Every year my college roommates get together. Well, it's really my roommate (who happens to also be my best friend) and her roommates that she had after I ran off and got married. We've had varying levels of success getting the roommates together, and this year it included myself, Leanna, and Karen (who happens to be my sis-in-law), and then my nephew Ian, and of course, Caleb!

I got to host this year. I was so excited, because I love Fort Worth and have always wanted to spend an evening downtown with my favorite roomies. And that's exactly what we did!

We got all gussied up, because what is getting together with girls without a makeover?

We were silly....

We took lots of pictures....

ate ice cream....


and to top it all off, went to a comedy club and got to participate on stage!

It was a great night. Jon, who was home with Caleb (Ian's grandparents were watching him that night), predicted that we would be home by ten. Well, we did leave downtown by ten, but only because it was the middle of the week and nothing stayed open later than that! I, for one, really enjoyed my girl time with no baby. It was a blast to hang out and have fun.

As for the rest of the reunion, it was spent with Caleb and Ian, so I'll put those posts up on Caleb's blog. Eventually.

The end is near!

This was the sky overhead the other day, right before a rain. I love Texas skies and their sometimes apocalyptic panoramas.

These newfangled cameras

There are several of you who have recently upgraded to digital SLRs, so I thought I'd pass on an article I ran across yesterday. It's got a lot of good, basic information about SLRs.

Photog Fun

A couple weeks back, Leanna and I went on a photogging adventure downtown. She's the proud new owner of a Canon Rebel Xsi (the upgrade from my Xti), so we were going out together to try it out. I'm part of a photography Meetup group here in the area--we post stuff online and get together for stuff every month--and our meetup was to shoot architecture downtown, so Lea and I decided to do just that. We had a blast!

Lea working on her skillz

I'm jealous of how cute she looked that day!

We found a great spot for photos!

This was my favorite photo of the day

I think this would be a perfect spot for couples portraits! We tried out a few poses....

We headed to another spot downtown where I got this shot.
The photos with the black borders are the ones I submitted to the Meetup group for comments and critique. Overall I got a good response. I got a few suggestions that would help them out. I, myself, was very happy with the photos. When I look at them, they look like something I'd like and wish I could do...and I did!