A Big Night

Last night was a full night. I hosted a freedom party at my house with a friend. A freedom party is a party where the guests learn about human trafficking and then are given the opportunity to purchase things (jewelry, pajamas, bags, scarves, books, etc) made by former slaves from around the world. I was a great night and I am so excited about how it all went.

Last night was also the last night of John and Kate Plus 8. This is the one show that I truly watch. I will work to be able to see it. Last night, I said up way late past my party to be able to record it (I was using the TV during the party so I couldn't record then). I can't believe it is over. I know there are a lot of opinions about this family, but I loved watching the kids. I am very sad to see it go. I hope to hear updates down the road as to how they are doing.

101 Bulbs in the Ground

I am so happy to announce that we now have 101 daffodil bulbs lining our driveway. Zach gave me 100 (ended up being 101) daffodil bulbs for my birthday/anniversary. Over the last 2 weeks, Zach and I have put 101 bulbs in the ground. Right now, I have a broken trowel and very sore hands to show for it. Hopefully in the Spring, we will have a yard of flowers (my favorite flowers) to show for it.

This is not all that has happened in our yard over the past 2 weeks. Zach has been very busy saving multiple trees and destroying one small tree. As you see in the picture below, he has pulled endless vines off of trees. Notice the tree on the right vs the tree on the left. The pile on the ground is from the tree on the right only. The tree he took out of the ground was one that was growing out of another tree and looked a little ugly. The 60-70 degree weather has made this work a little easier to do.

Quelf

For my birthday, I got the game Quelf. I had heard from a friend how fun of a game it was. It is a difficult game to describe, but I will try. Imagine Cranium on crack. There are 6 different types of cards you draw from. You might have to act, answer a trivia question, be given a strange action you will have to continue to do through out the game, etc. None of these are what you think they would be though. You might have to sing "I'm a Little Tea Pot". No one else has to guess anything, you just have to act it out. Other times, you might need people to guess what you are doing but you can't tell them that. On some cards, other players get to move ahead if they assist you in your act. Once again, you don't know when that will be. The trivia questions are more like brain teasers than trivia. Such as, "what was the tallest mountain before Mt. Everest was discovered?" After much guessing, the answer is Mt. Everest. Are you getting the idea. It was really fun and really crazy. What a game!

Zach had to put the game box under his shirt for the rest of the game.

Lisa let everyone play with her hair to move forward on the game board.

Grocery Game

I have become a value grocery shopper. I have always loved grocery shopping until I had a budget to hit every month. Then I became a half excited and half frustrated grocery shopping. That is until I discovered how to use coupons. Now it has become a game or a challenge for me.

I now stock pile a lot of foods and only buy certain foods when I can get them on a good sale. Currently, all our kitchen cabinets are full and this is our extra pantry.

I dream of having an extra freezer out in the garage one day to be able to stock pile more refrigerated/frozen items.

An example of my current ability to save is that I paid $8.95 for $39.62 worth of food. That is a 78% savings! Here is what I got.

You can't really see, but that is 4 boxes of graham crackers (a regular in my lunch), 7 boxes of potatoes (2 servings each), OJ, cookie dough, and 3 things of Dr. Pepper (a major rarity but for 55 cents each, I thought Zach would be so excited...he was:D). That makes 16 items for $9.

For those who are worried, that is just what was on sale this week. This week I will be stocking up on frozen veggies (mostly for Zach).

Four Eyes

So, for 6 weeks or so, I have been four eyed. I have done everything in glasses. This was hard to begin with, but then I became more used to it. There were some negatives and some positives.

The times that I really missed my contacts were when driving in the sun, which I coped with by wearing sunglasses over my glasses, and exercising. The sunglasses was difficult because I would forget that I had both on and end up with sunglasses on my head and glasses on as well. Not really a big deal, more just funny. But exercising on the other hand, was little more difficult to tolerate. I would end up taking them on and off throughout my exercises. Another little annoyance was wearing glasses in the rain. If you have done this, you understand what I am talking about.

The major positive is that my eyes did not hurt every day. I have quickly been reminded of the regular pain that contacts cause me. Another positive of wearing glasses is simply not having the take the time to put them in, take them out, clean them, etc.

The Halloween Mess Up

So, I saw this picture on the front of a magazine in my grandmother's room when I was visiting her and decided I could do it.

Side Note: There is a Halloween party at our house every year. We were told when buying the house that our yard (fire pit) is used for the Halloween party. It is pretty fun. We just provide the space and the party shows up. We are talking food, table, chairs, candy, etc. Perfect occasion for the cake.

Because of my crazy life, I did not begin to attempt this cake until Halloween day. I went on a shopping spree to try to find the perfect bowl to make the cake in, candy, sprinkles (because I didn't think I had time for that many Reese's Pieces), and who knows what else.

I got home and started baking. Things were going fairly well. I had two nice half globes come out of the oven. And then everything quickly went down hill. I wanted to have plenty of icing on the cake since that is the best part of the cake. I didn't see the point in having a pretty cake that didn't taste amazing. Little did I know this was a bad mistake. The cake quickly began crumble before my eyes. I later figured out that all the icing and many layers weakened the structure of the cake. It ended up looking like this.

I decided that I could rescue it and I turned it into this. Definitely not what I had in mind, but it did taste amazing thankfully.

Attempt to Fix Up the House

The guest bathroom in our home is a mess. I am not sure who designed it and/or added some special details, but I am pretty sure they did not know what they were doing. First off, the bathroom is VERY small. There is just enough room for a bathtub, toilet and sink. When you sit on the toilet, your knees touch the tub. In addition, someone decided to come back and add plastic tile to the walls and ceiling that did not really match the existing tile. Another nice quirky thing about the bathroom is that the light switch is inside the cabinet. I could keep going but I am going to stop.

Every time I think about the things I want to do in there, I get overwhelmed and just really want to gut the thing and start over. Until that day comes, I decided that it was time to fix the light fixture. The light in there was a fluorescent light hung over the mirror over the sink. It looked horrible, it buzzed, and it gave off ugly light.

I bought a very cheap light fixture at the Habitat for Humanity home store that I felt was vintage enough to fit the bathroom. I got home and just went for it. I took down the light to find discolored and missing tiles behind the old light fixture. Oh well, I had gotten this far. I got the new light fixture set up and actually working.

In the end, I am not really sure it would be considered an improvement. The light fixture is better looking (I think), the light is better, and it does not buzz. But, there are now discolored and missing tiles surrounding it and it is located a little higher than it should be. Oh well, I tried.

Celebrating 2 Years

That is right folks, Zach and I have been married for 2 incredible years as of yesterday. We celebrated with a dinner at an amazing find of a steak house for dinner and cake to follow. The steak house was definitely a find by Zach. It is located on the edge of Madison and has been around for like 60 years. We had no idea what to expect, but it was a great dinner. There were many regulars, 2 for 1 delicious filet mignon (hence the regulars), a piano bar, white linens and candlelight at the tables, and Halloween lights. Are you getting the vibe? We do plan on going back.

After dinner, we came home to enjoy our yearly cake. I am attempting to start a tradition. We did not save any of our wedding cake and said that we would just buy a cake last year to enjoy. Now, I plan on having a cake from a different bakery every year. Our wedding cake was from Darlene's, last year was from Sweet n' Sassy, and this year the cake was from A Piece of Cake. I think this one has been my favorite so far. Still many more to go:D

A Tree Growing in Our Living Room

I reveal to you our dining room finished (at least for now:D)

The above 2 pictures are the two walls that have been finished since my last post on the progress of this room. If you would like to see the rest of the room, you can go here and here to previous posts.

To see the before, go here.

The In-Laws Visit

Zach's parents came to visit us this weekend. It was a lot of fun to have a weekend with them. We did a lot and had a lot of fun. There was a lot of food involved, which you have to love. On Saturday we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was good, but I must say that my attention span ran out about half way through, but still good. We also had a good time playing Scattergories, listening to live music, and eating together.

On the fixing end of things...Zach and Dr. Bob fixed the curtain rod, toilet, and began fixing our front lights to be on a light sensor. In addition, they gifted us with a pole that extends out with a saw and clippers on the end to cut dead branches of tress. Zach had fun with that today. What a weekend!

Zach fixing the toilet. Might I mention that it was a timely break since we had experience in the form of Dr. Bob to help.

Zach using the new tool to cut down dead limbs.

Halloween is Taking Over

I LOVE fall. For me, Halloween is the ultimate celebration of fall. I love Halloween so much. I love little kids dressed up coming to my door to get free candy with a chill in the air. I love the jack-o-lanterns. This is all to Zach's chagrin. He does not love fall like I do and he definitely doesn't love Halloween like I do. So, he is somewhat appalled by the decor that I have put up, mostly outside of the house. Take a look...

The look at night.

The large pumpkins to the left is what is Zach's least favorite.

My favorite part.

Today, Zach was cleaning spiderwebs off the windows, etc. When I came home, he said, "I am not sure why I am cleaning spider webs off the windows so that you can replace them with fake ones." Thank you honey for making room for my spider web:D

No Need to Cry Over Spilled Paint

I have been painting in the dining room over the past week or so. I have spent hours in there painting. Well, today something new happened. I dropped the quart of paint. Yep, that is right. There was now about 1/2 a quart of very red paint all over our dining room floor. I grabbed a spoon and spatula to try to get up as much as I could. Then it was paper towels and a putty knife to try to get paint out of the spaces in our hardwoods. I am sure I missed some, but I did my best. There was definitely no time to take a picture or to cry over it.

Just Who Do You Think You Are?

Yesterday, I went to the Y to exercise after work. I went and "ran" on the elliptical. After that, I headed to the weight room to do some ab and glut work. I was in there for about 5-10 minutes doing some different things. Then I was out.

As I was walking out the front doors, a guy walking out behind me said, "That was quick."

I gave him a confused look and said "What?"

Guy: "Oh, I must have the wrong person."

He continued to look at me as we went different directions in the parking lot.

Guy: "Weren't you just in the weight room?"

Me: "yes"

Guy: "You weren't in there for very long"

Me: "No, I wasn't. I did cardio first and was just doing some things in the weight room before leaving."

Guy: "You might not want to make a habit of that."

Well, thank you Mr. As a matter of fact, I didn't make a habit of it. Today, I didn't exercise at all. That means zero time in the weight room. I am sure that is what he would have wanted.

There has to be an Explanation

So, not a week after my story of locking myself out of my house, I have another story for you.

This past Friday night, The Farewell Drifters were asked to play the Full Moon Pickin Party at Percy Warner Park. Later that night, they had their last showcase of the week at IBMA. We piled into the van and headed to the park. Because of crazy traffic, we got to the park a little after 7pm which is when they were supposed to begin playing. To say the least, things were hectic.

The boys piled out of the band and threw things together on stage. I was trying to figure out merch stuff when Zach asked me to get his water bottle out of the band. When I bringing it back to him, a lady stopped me to tell me about merch stuff. I dropped off the water bottle and then got working on setting up merch. After I finished this, I sat down to watch the show. I few songs in, I put my hands in my pocket to realize I didn't feel the keys. I started retracing everything I did. I was pretty sure that I didn't lock them in the car. I was pretty sure, but not at all positive that I didn't hand them to Zach with his water bottle. But where could they be? I had to have given them to Zach. When the boys finished, Zach came back to the merch tent and asked me for the keys. Uh oh.

So the search began. I forgot to mention that we parked behind the stage, so I was trying not to cause a scene as I searched. After 15 minutes of searching, I found them under someone's camping chair cover.

The sad part is that it is not shocking that I lost the keys. As noted by to incidents in the past week, this is not uncommon for me. Since I have been driving, I have had this problem. The house ordeal is a newer one. I must have some genetic defect that involves keys. Anyone know of anything like that?

What a Night!

So, yesterday was one crazy day. I woke up early to go on a walk with the women's ministry from my church. Come to find out it was cancelled because of rain (not too much a surprise since it has rained for 2 weeks straight and all the night before). Back to bed for a bit. Then it was on to borrowing a projector to do a home project (more to come on that). Little did I know that would be a little harder than anticipated, but I got it done. Then to several hours of grocery shopping at 4 different stores (price shopping requires a lot of stores sometimes). Home again to clean, paint a mirror, and bake cookies. Then friends came over to hang out. This is where it gets interesting...

After a few hours of hanging out, we decided to take some cookies to another friend who does not currently have a car and was stuck at home on a Saturday night (no fun at all). So out the door. We climbed into the Blazer. This is when I decided to get the map out of Focus since I had never been to this friend's house before. At that moment, I realized I had locked my keys in the house. This meant, no map and no way to get back into the house (our friends lost their spare key and Zach was out of town). Oops. After returning from the cookie drop off, we attempted to break into the house. We tried the credit card deal, we tried popping the cover off the kitty door. No luck at all. Then my friend realized that we could completely take the kitty door off by undoing some screws. It worked!!!

I have now put the head of the screws on the inside of the door, so no luck in the future. I need to get someone a spare key. I go to put up some tools in the garage to find 3 cats in the garage. I try to chase them out, but I can't figure out if they are out or not. I would think they were out and then after a few minutes I would see them lurking around again. Eventually I gave up and just closed the garage door. I put some treats on the inside, so that I would know if they were in there.

This morning when I woke up and opened the door, the treats were gone. I looked around and found no cats. So, off to church. When I returned, I opened my car door to meows. I found the cat, which ran off and out of the garage. There are still possibly more cats in the garage. We shall see.

What didn't I do this week?

What a crazy life I have created for myself. This past week included:

Work, exercise, making of 3 desserts, Not For Sale TN meeting, Zumba, home group potluck, dinner party for 6 (I had difficulty figuring out amts for 6 people so we are still eating that dinner), midnight Farewell Drifters show, up next morning at 9am to KY for street festival, movie, church, Settlers of Catan with friends, and neighborhood board meeting. Whew.

Somewhere in there, we went to pull up our tomato cages from the garden and Zach decided to check out the carrots just for fun. And what do you know, we had some carrots. Perhaps a bit deformed, but carrots just the same:D

Oh, my eyes

For a few weeks, I have been cursing my eyes. I have had days where I had to come home and lay down because they hurt so bad. It is not unusual for me to only be able to wear my contacts until dusk and then they start bothering. I guess I asked for it...

On Friday morning, I woke up and my left eye hurt a little. Not alarming to me because of the above mentioned. I put in my contacts and went about my day. After an hour of work, I knew that I needed to take my contacts out that something was uncomfortable, but once again, not too unusual. I didn't have time to go home, so I just dealt with the discomfort. When I got home, I immediately took out my contacts and put on my glasses. I tried rinsing my eyes out with eye solution and tried resting them for a bit. Then it was off to the state fair. As the evening progressed, my eye began to get very pink and began to hurt. By 9pm, I was in a lot of pain and knew something was up. I called Dr. Bob, my father in law, to get his opinion. He instructed me to cover my eye with a patch to keep the eye closed. His prediction was a corneal abrasion.

The next morning, things were even worse. I was not able to open my left eye at all and barely could open my right eye. Any light really made my left eye hurt. I consulted back with Dr. Bob and he told me to go see someone that it sounded like I had iritis. Through series of phone calls, I was able to find an on call eye doctor willing to come in to look at my eye. Thankfully I had a friend willing to drive me since I still had one eye at best. He confirmed that I had a corneal abrasion AND iritis. He gave me some drops and sent me home.

After a few hours, I was finally able to watch TV (that light prevented me from doing so earlier). This was huge since I had spent about 16 hours unable to do anything. That night I decided that I really wanted to go to Shakespeare in the Park since it was my last chance this year to go. So, I sat through the show with a hoodie draped over my left eye. Thankfully people weren't looking at me, or else they would probably think I was nuts. I am really glad I went, but the lights and wind definitely bothered my eye.

Today, everything was so much better. I have been able to use the computer and watch TV. I still wasn't able to drive or go outside without the light bothering my eye. I am hopeful that I will be able to drive tomorrow and work! I don't really have a choice.

Busy as a Bee

Sorry updates have been lacking...

For the past two weeks, I don't believe that Zach and I have had a single day without something planned. From house warming parties to music videos. That's right, music videos. Josh and Dean from The Farewell Drifters were playing with one of our friends and he wanted them in the music video. The band needed an audience and so Zach and I went along to be a part of the audience. At the last minute, The Farewell Drifters ended up recording a music video as well since everything was already set up. I am a little worried about being in both videos. In general, I don't like video cameras capturing me. At the same time, I am really excited to see what it looks like. Hopefully it won't be too long. I will be sure to post it when it comes out.

We also had the pleasure of going home to see my family. We do not go home enough. I got to see a lot of my family. I got to spend some time with my grandparents which is such precious moments to me. They mean more than they will ever know to me. I consider my grandparents a part of my immediate family (mom, dad, sister, brother and grandparents). I saw them every week growing up and they went with us on most vacations. My grandfather is the most humble, gentle, wise, loving, etc man I know. I look up to him beyond words can describe.

In addition to my grandparents, I also got to spend time with my aunt, cousin, and second cousin. They all are so much fun to be around and I wish that I could see them more often than I. I have such an amazing family.

Life has come to a sudden halt for me over the past 2 days, as I am sick. Zach is out listening to a band and I am semi-babysitting (I am just here while she is sleeping as I sick and should not really be around her much). I hope I get well soon though because I would like to go the state fair and the Shakespeare in the Park this weekend. We shall see.

The Boys

We had a packed full weekend.

We began the weekend with a game night at some friends' house. It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday, I spoke at a school (John School) for first time offenders of soliciting prostitutes. I spoke about how their actions cause the demand for human trafficking. I educated them in general on human trafficking. It was a really interesting experience that I am glad I did. I had not spoken in public in quite a while and I was visibly nervous. I am hoping my nerves will be a little calmer next time.

Once I got home, it was off to TPAC for Say You! Say You! is a NPR show that I would describe as an improv word game show. The Farewell Drifters were the house band for the show. It was a lot of fun to be there for the taping. I had no idea anything about the show, but I was laughing a lot. If you want to listen out for it, it should be airing in early October. Exact dates depend on your area.

Sunday was church and then off to Bowling Green for the Newgrass Music Festival. The boys did a great job! And the weather was beautiful.

We ended the weekend with a neighborhood board meeting for which we are both now board members of. Zach is treasurer and I am secretary.

Updates Around the Home

The other day when I closed my cell phone, I heard an interesting noise. I opened and closed it several times to try to figure out what was going on. While doing this, a piece of plastic popped off and now I have to use a rubberband to keep my phone closed:D

Now, take a look at what our garden looks like....

After several trips out of town, I came home to find the garden overtaken by weeds. That was a few weeks ago now. Needless to say, I think I am done with the garden for this year.

One last update is on our dining room. Here are our newly covered chair cushions and new curtains. We are getting there, but not quite done yet.

Forgotten Tale

I forgot one story from Boyd's that I would like to share...

Zach and I slept in the corner of the main living room on a futon. At some point during the first night, I heard a familiar sound that I wanted to ignore. I tried to ignore it, hoping I was wrong. After some amount of time, Zach confirmed my fear when he grumbled "I think Smokey (the Bevill's cat) is chasing something". He turned on the light and sure enough, Smokey was chasing a mouse. Zach asked me what to do. I told him to get a towel to catch the mouse with (I had seen this done many times in my own house growing up with chipmunks our cats brought in). As he got up to get the towel, I got out of bed to check out the situation. As Zach was coming back with the towel, I mentioned, "Aww, he is kinda cute (referring to the mouse)". At this, Zach threw me the towel. Later he said it was because he thought I should be in charge of catching it if I thought it was cute. I think he just didn't want to do it. Smokey had the mouse under her paws and I made my first attempt and failed. I don't think I captured the little guy until my third attempt. I wanted Zach to take a picture of me with the mouse, but he was not amused by that idea. I took the mouse outside and released him. It took me awhile to get to sleep because I was laughing so hard at Zach throwing the towel at me without any explanation. Good memories:D

Out of Town

I keep thinking we are back for good when we decide to go out of town again. This past weekend, Zach and I ended up visiting some friends in KY. Zach played in Frankfurt, KY at an amazing little cafe. They did great job and I had some delicious dessert there.

Since we were up that way, we stayed with our friends. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend. I did a horrible job documenting the weekend. I only took 2 photos of Zach on our friend's motorcycle. Other than sitting on their motorcycle, we went out the country to some of their family's land. They have this beautiful log cabin that family members built. I loved just sitting out on the front porch. There was also some time spent playing (for me, listening to) bluegrass. We also ate good food, listened to some live music, went to the local farmer's market, etc.

What another great weekend to add to the summer:D

End of Summer

Summer is officially over for me. I began work back in the schools at the beginning of this week. It is fun to have an end and beginning of the school year. The end is always getting closer, but the beginning causes a lot of confusion and requires a lot of organization. The last hooray before starting back with school was traveling with my in-laws to WI.

Every year (I think for the past 18 years), my in-laws go up to the Northwoods of WI to spend a week in a cabin. There are many cabins in the resort area that are filled with families who have been coming as long as my in-laws, some longer. There is no TV or wireless in the cabins leaving time to spend time together. This magical place is called Boyd's.

The days revolve around family style meals served in the main lodge. In between meals, time is passed by napping, fishing, reading, puzzling, bike riding, washers, etc.

This year was as amazing as any with a few special memories...

Giving my father-in-law stitches after a muskie tried to bite off his thumb. He is a doctor and I attempted to follow his directions in how to use the sterile materials he always has on hand just in case someone needs stitches. It is not surprising that with 4 boys, this was not the first case of stitches at Boyd's and probably won't be the last. You might be asking, how were you chosen for such a task? Honestly, I was the only who was excited by the thought and so I was kinda self-elected:D

I got to know my grandparents-in-law much better. There is a lot more to them than what I had gotten to know at family gatherings. Much of this time together was spent on attempting to put together puzzles. I helped work on 3 different puzzles over the week (they kept seeming to get harder). One thing I learned about my grandfather-in-law is that he really likes to sing. He was always singing a new tune, most of which I had never heard before. One that I helped him remember the words to was "If You're Happy and You Know It".

I also had a great time participating in boot camp and the kid's relay races. I legitimately lost the sack race to a group of young boys:( Thankfully Zach was on my team in the blind row boat race, so that we could beat Mark, his brother, and Mark's girlfriend. No worries, we didn't race any children in that relay.

As with every year, I got to spend some great time with my in-laws. They are amazing and I feel so blessed to have in-laws that I look forward to spending a week with.

Guatemala

I am going to attempt to sum up the week for you.

First let me start with saying that this mission trip was like none that I have been on before. For one, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I was just along for the ride. Another difference is that I felt we were there to support a church that is doing great work there. We went to be servants however that happened to be. The days were very loose with many different things going on and it was up to you to find a place to be. We didn't have an agenda of things that had to be completed. We really had the opportunity to take in their culture and just love each other throughout the week.

We were involved with a construction project for which we laid rebar and then tied it together, transferred cement blocks to the second floor by heaving them up to someone on the second level, mixed concrete on the street and then shoveled it into small pales to be passed to the roof assembly line style. Construction was very different from anything I have done in the past.

We also had the opportunity to help in the kitchen preparing our meals. This included peeling vegetables (including gigantic carrots) with butcher knives, attempting to hand make tortillas, washing dishes, sweeping and mopping (mops were brooms with towels over them).

There was also playing with the children in the street. And taking care packages to the children that are sponsored by individuals in our church. This is probably what impacted me the most. The sponsored children live for notes from their sponsored families. We went into many homes where photos of their sponsored families were hanging on their cement block walls with the most recent letter. I had the privilege of being a face to represent their sponsor and to let them know how much their sponsor loves them. Some sponsors were there with us and got to meet their families for the first time. There were a lot of tears.

One of the biggest thanks about the trip was the team. The team worked great together. There was pretty much no complaining. People were sick, people got hurt or had a hard time, but just kept going without complaint and a lot of time with good spirits. Everyone found where they felt they wanted to be (kitchen, construction, playing with kids, taking a break, etc) and no one complained that someone wasn't where they were supposed to be or that too many people were in one place. Overall, a great atmosphere to work in.

The last two days, we got to participate in some adventures. One day we went to Lake Atitlan to go ziplining and on a boat ride. The boat ride was my favorite. Lake Atitlan is a lake surrounded by volcanoes and is actually a volcano that blew it's top. The water was so clear and the surroundings were amazing. I could have stayed in the middle of that lake forever. The other adventure we took was climbing a volcano to see hot lava flowing. I had no idea how hard it would be to climb a volcano. Think of trying to climb a mile high gravel pile. And, I happened to be very sick that day, so overall a rough climb, but well worth the trip to stand about 2 feet from flowing lava! For those who were not sick, they toasted sandwiches over cracks in the rocks and roasted marshmallows. An unforgettable experience.

PS Some of my favorite ways I got to experience the culture was by carrying a sack of potatoes on my head from the market and jumping onto the back of a chicken bus. Feel free to ask me more about these next time you see me:D

So Much, So Little Time

I am sorry that I have not written in a very long time. I was in Guatemala for over a week and then when I returned, I worked full days and my computer broke. There are several keys on my keyboard that are not functioning which makes it very hard to type. I want to write a post about Guatemala, but first I want to catch up on a few other things.

First, the night before I left for Guatemala, Zach and I dressed up like cows in order to get a free meal at Chick-fil-a.

That same night, we attempted to begin to recover our dining room chairs. We only got one completed...and they haven't been touched since. Pictures to come when we finish. I better start working on it.

In addition, we hung my painting up in our bedroom.

This last week, "Birmingham" reached #1 on the XM/Sirius Bluegrass Song Charts. Way to go Farewell Drifters!

Last night, Zach put the finishing touches to the pot that was burnt many weeks ago. He did a great job!

And we have harvested all of this since returning:D

Free Farewell Drifters Music

Here's your chance to get free Farewell Drifters music. All you have to do is recommend them to 5 friends, or you can just pay whatever amount you want. The link is below. Enjoy!

Guatemala

I will be leaving for Guatemala tomorrow morning. The team will have a blog while we are there. I don't know who will be blogging and how often, but you can check it out if you want.

http://guatemala.thevillagechapel.com/

First Harvest

We picked our first harvest of 4-5 cherry tomatoes the other day.

We also thinned out the lettuce and ate some of it the other night. We have some very large cucumbers, but they are not dark green yet. No green beans yet:(

PS I pulled this buggy guy off our tomato plant. Yuck!

House on Fire

Well, just about. Zach called me today to let me know that he almost caught the house on fire. Hopefully this is one of those live and learn things and nothing like it will happen again. I had left oil out and fish ready for him to fry. I had told him to set the stove between 4 and 5 because I have already learned the hard way not to let the oil get too hot (he was there, but doesn't remember it). Well, Zach set the stove between 5 and 6 and walked away. I didn't realize that I needed to give more detail, specifically about not walking away. He smelled smoke and then saw smoke and came into a kitchen with a pot on fire. He has way more detail, but overall, Zach had caused a grease fire in our kitchen. Thankfully the fire was contained to the pot and he was able to get it outside. But this is what we are left with...

And a VERY smelly house.

Fireflies

The painting is for the bedroom. I forgot to mention that in the last blog. Assuming Zach likes it when he gets home, the plan is to hang it over the bed.

Update on Construction

Sorry I have not been able to show you this sooner, but we have been very busy and then without Internet for a while.

Wednesday I was able to finish up the dining room by putting on coat #5 of paint and patching the whole in the wall where random cords ran out of the wall and then through the floor (they were not really random, they were for surround sound which I don't care about). Oh yes, on Tuesday the electrician came out and fixed the electricity issue and he was very nice to answer all the thousands of questions I threw at him. He is the one responsible for okaying the taking out of the surround sound wires and cables:D Back to Wednesday, I spent the rest of the day (literally 6 hours) cleaning the house. I finished just in time to make cookies, cook dinner and take a shower in order to get down the the Station Inn to hear Cadillac Sky. Our house guests spent the night in a very clean house that night.

Then on Thursday, I was up and working on less than 4 hours of sleep at Vandy inpatient. Right after work, Zach and I went putt-putt golfing with a great group of friends and had a blast. And that needed to be followed up by ice cream, so it was another late night.

Needless to say, I slept in really late on Friday which is when we lost our Internet for whatever reason. So, that brings us to my photo updates.

The dining room now has a new light fixture and new paint on the walls. We are still looking for curtains, fabric for the chairs, and few more details in the room, but here it is at this point.

Last night, I was able to finish the painting (since there was no Internet to get other stuff done). It is my interpretation of fireflies in tall grass. I am still working on the frame, but you get the idea.

Under Construction

I feel that our house is a war zone right now and we are only really working on one room. I don't want to give away to much, but I will tell you some frustrations. The contents of that room are in many other rooms of the house right now. We changed paint colors after one gallon of paint. We are now through two gallons, 3-4 coats on each wall, and we still need more paint. We definitely should have primed, but I thought starting with such a neutral color we would have been fine. Somehow, we have wound up with no electricity in the guest bedroom (we are having guests on Wednesday). We tried all the circuit breakers, including the main, and that room is still dark? We are having to return the lighting that we chose and both loved due to a club like feeling in the room. Needless to say, we have gotten to know the people at Lowe's and Home Depot (yes, both) quite well. More to come, hopefully really soon.

In addition to working on the room, I am also working on a masterpiece ;) Here is a peak at it.