Waiting on my toenails to dry...

Hey I successfully found my way back to my blog within the same month of my previous post! This is a great accomplishment for me. :) I've been wanting to paint my toenails for what seems like the entire summer now and just haven't taken the time to do it. This morning I decided today would be the day and I would just sit down and do it (hence the title of this blog post). 


In my last post I was drowning in zucchini which has since slowed down but still slowly producing a few last pieces I believe. I ended up making a few pint of zucchini relish along with several loaves of zucchini bread that I put in the freezer. The tomato/hot pepper patch continues to do well and I've canned several batches of salsa and pizza sauce.

-- Time for a second coat of nail polish........--


On Tuesday while Pyro and I were at my mom's house canning pizza sauce, I experienced my first ever earthquake. How weird. That's a day I won't soon forget! The funniest part was that my mom and I both just stared at each other for awhile in complete confusion as to why in the world her house was moving back and forth. That's certainly a one of a kind feeling.


The basement bathroom has been completed!! What a great feeling it was to get that painted blue and finish up getting the new sink and toilet into place. We still need to find a mirror and I need to finish painting the door to the room but other than that it is basically complete! Here are some before and after shots for your entertainment...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Once we got the basement bathroom back together, our attention was diverted to our massive out of control wood pile. We still had a bunch of wood that we never got split in the spring so Chris faithfully worked at that to see it to completion. Now we just have some stacking to finish up and we're ready for winter. What a process!

Well I guess my toes are plenty dry enough to get back to some laundry and other household tasks awaiting my attention. :)

Goodbye July, Hello August!

Okay, so where did July go? I've been meaning to post here but sadly, it just never happened. Excuses aside, here I am! What a busy month it was. A summary would go something like this....

Several family times...Seeing The Isaacs in concert...Taking pictures of VBS at church...Getting a much needed hair cut...Putting away lots of green beans & lima beans...Getting a dog...AND working on the basement bathroom project!

We've been seriously lacking in the rain department here and I'm ready to be done keeping up with all the watering outside. While I'm thankful for the long days and the warm temperatures I think I'll be glad to see Fall arrive in a month or so. Thankfully the summer hasn't been incredibly humid so the high temperatures seem somewhat bearable. Our green beans are done for the year and the lima beans are nearing the same fate. I was keeping up with the zucchini until yesterday and now I'm afraid I've lost the game. :) I've made zucchini cookies, zucchini bread, stir fry with zucchini, and zucchini quiche. It's so funny how one plant that does even remotely well can produce SO quickly. The funniest thing is when you think you have them all and a few days later you find a ginormous zucchini that had been hiding from you. Oops. The pumpkin plant is quickly spreading to the open areas of the garden that once held the onions and green beans. The hot pepper/tomato plants are doing well and very soon I'll be head over heels in salsa and pizza sauce.

As I stated above, we are now the proud owners of a purebred blue merle border collie named Pyro! About 3.5 weeks ago I was having a phone conversation with my old boss, Terry, whom I hadn't spoken to in about a year. Upon mentioning that Chris has been begging me to consent to getting a border collie, she immediately chimed in and offered to give us her beloved Pyro. I have known him since he was a puppy and used to dog sit many, many times while working for her. Terry trains border collies to run agility courses and already has another border collie with a new puppy to train on the horizon. Unsure of how Pyro would do with the new puppy addition, she decided that sending him to live somewhere else might be a bit easier on him. Three weeks ago we went to pick him up and give it a trial run as we weren't sure how our cats would adjust. Slowly but surely all three are getting to know each other and we're at least at the tolerating stage. Meet, Pyro!

The basement bathroom is nearing the finishing stages as we just got the new flooring put down on Saturday. Chris is seriously nothing short of amazing. I'm continually amazed at how he makes my dreams become reality time and time again. We are loving the new floor and I just finished painting the baseboard today. TOMORROW is a long awaited day for me. I FINALLY get to paint the walls! My favorite part of all these projects is getting to the point where I'm able to make the walls come alive with the paint colors I've agonized over until finally coming to a final conclusion! Once I finish the walls tomorrow we will be able to put everything back as it was except with new accessories. New toilet, new counter, new sink, new faucet, new mirror. More pictures to come.....:)

Summer

Oh sweet summer is definitely here. I'm not a huge fan of hot weather but I do enjoy the special things that summer brings with it - lightning bugs, campfires, green grass, beautiful flowers, and long days. Sometimes I dream of what it would be like to live in another place in the world but I'm very thankful for the order/length of seasons I get to experience here in south central Pennsylvania.

Our garden is doing well and I'm so thankful for the health and strength to have such a large garden. We have been blessed with a great property and a head start on the garden plot since Chris' parents had one here before us. Thanks Dad & Mom Coblentz! :) Our peas are done and ripped out and the onions, green beans, lima beans, carrots, tomatoes, and hot peppers seem to be growing pretty well. The hot peppers don't seem to be taking off as well as previous years but we'll at least get some I'm sure. I didn't really want to plant any corn this year and I hated to waste the space that the peas occupied so we bought a pumpkin plant and a zucchini plant from Lowe's that are already well on their way to maturity. Hopefully they have enough time to get bigger and produce yummy things!

It seems as though weeks are flying by as my days are spent watering, weeding, mulching, mowing, cleaning, and painting. I finished painting another bedroom door today. I have one more to paint from the main floor but sadly it's a dreaded one. A slatted bi-fold closet door. Ugh. Sigh. Once it's completed a party may be in order. I'm looking forward to having all the doors painted from the main floor as we're already tearing into the basement project where I have 6 more doors to paint. Who knew a house this size could have SO many doors? What an adventure.


The Basement :: It's coming along nicely but naturally not near fast enough for my excitement levels. :) Memorial day weekend we were able to tackle the large pex/plumbing switch over and move the water heater/water softener out of the basement bathroom. What a process!! We tore out all the copper pipes and are pleased with the new pex lines so far. Chris is nothing short of amazing. I'm continually amazed at the projects he tackles even when they seem daunting and impossible. Last Saturday his Dad came over and helped him put in a new faucet/drain in the main bathroom shower. Now with the new plumbing, we're able to use BOTH showers at the same time without noticing any pressure/temperature differences! This may not be a big deal to some people but to me, it's super cool! After all, what's the point of having more than one shower if you can't use them at the same time?? 


My adorable niece, Chloe, turned one earlier this month. Yesterday I spent the day with Shannon and the kids catching up and taking some pictures of Chloe. I enjoy taking pictures but Shannon and I agreed that neither of us are going to be signing up to take toddler pictures anytime soon. :) What a job!!

Spring is definitely here!

I can't believe May is half over already. Where does time go anyways? Such a mystery. With the warmer temperatures, I spend most of my days outdoors. I've been creating some new landscaping spaces as well as trying to get ahead/keep up of the existing ones. What a chore! I still have a good bit of edging to do but most of the weeds in my current flower beds are under control. The garden on the other hand is a different story. I'm pretty sure the annoying, hard to pull, clover type weeds mated with some other annoying weed and had a bazillion kids all within the inside parameters of our new garden fence. Thankfully I've been able to put the grass clippings down between most of the rows but right up next to the each of the plants is out of control!! Someday I'll catch up. I hope. :)


Chris and I have been busy dreaming up fun ideas for projects we'd like to do in the future. I'm so thankful for a husband who dreams with me and takes time to listen to my wild and crazy ideas. Not only does he listen but he throws in a few of his own at times! We are working on creating some new spaces outdoors but our main focus this summer is the basement project. Our deck needs replaced badly but that will have to wait until next summer or the next. :) On Saturday, I helped Chris start the beginning stages of the plumbing project that will enable the basement process to move forward. There is a half bath down there that also houses the water heater/water softener which makes for a very cramped room. His plan is to redo some of the plumbing so that he can move the water heater and water softener to the corner of the garage. I'm so excited to see how "big" that bathroom feels once they are moved!


It's Tuesday night and Chris is golfing with his Dad. They play in a league every Tuesday for the rest of the summer. While I'm glad he's able to enjoy the sport and the time with his Dad, I do miss him not being here. It's a good time for me to do fun things though so I guess I won't complain. I considered scrapbooking some tonight but Zeus (the cat) is sleeping in my scrapbooking chair. I opted to at least update my blog before I moved him. :)


Our house is brick and partially wood siding which needs painted very soon. Hopefully next summer. We are hoping to paint it some sort of darker tan color. In the meantime, I'd very much like to paint the doors since they're all white. Normally I don't have a hard time picking paint colors but for some reason I'm having a hard time deciding what I want to paint the doors/trim. Someday I'd like to have shutters on the front windows which I was envisioning a sage green. I was thinking of painting the doors some sort of deep red but once we get shutters if we do go the green route, I don't want our house looking like Christmas all year round. HA! Maybe I'll just do eeny meeny miny moe?? SIGH.


Enough of my rambling. The end.

10 Years

April 30, 2001 -- 4 P.M.

Chris dawned the steps of my current home with my parents to meet with my Dad in order to ask his permission to date me. I remember hiding out in my room nervously awaiting the "results" of their time together. Several minutes went by (which seemed like years to me at the time) and my Dad knocked on my bedroom door. Upon opening the door, he informed me that there was a young man downstairs waiting to see me. :) Chris stayed for supper and we spent the evening outside sitting at the picnic table talking as if time stood still. While we had some rules we had to follow and our initial dates were few and far between, it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship that I'm thankful to have today!

For anyone that knows my Dad at all know that I have always been referred to by him as "Littleone" and he was a stickler for the ever popular...."10 Rules for Dating my Daughter". For those of you that haven't had the wonderful opportunity of ever reading these -- let me enlighten you!! I'm pretty sure I had them memorized by age 5??

Rule One: 

If you pull into my driveway and honk you’d better be delivering a package, because you’re sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two: 

You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter’s body, I will remove them.

Rule Three: 

I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don’t take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, In order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric (I believe my Dad's version was customized to say pneumatic instead of electric) nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

Rule Four: 

I’m sure you’ve been told that in today’s world, sex without utilizing a “barrier method” of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate: when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five: 

In order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is “early”.

Rule Six: 

I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven: 

As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don’t you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?

Rule Eight: 

The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter:

- Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool.

- Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight.

- Places where there is darkness.

- Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness.

- Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat.

- Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which feature chainsaws are okay.

- Hockey games are okay.

- Old folks homes are better.

Rule Nine: 

Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.

Rule Ten: 

Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy outside of Hanoi. When my Agent Orange starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car-there is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.

After reading through those again for the first time in several years, I can look back and laugh again at the memories they created in my early to late teen years. I dedicate this post is to my Dad for putting such a high value on my life/purity and to Chris for stepping up to the plate to be the man God created for me. :) I am thankful to both of these men in my life who are my heroes and whom I love dearly!

The following two pictures are from "the early years". They make me smile.

Wrapping up April

Chad & Elana's wedding has come and gone already. What a whirlwind that weekend was! It was a fun but busy time and it was exciting to see their faces light up with joy as they made a lifetime commitment to one another. I'm still trying to grapple with the fact that my cousin is now my brother in law but I suppose stranger things have happened. :) The wedding was beautiful and it was such a blessing to be a part of their special day and watch everything unfold from the front of the church as a bridesmaid instead of sitting in the pews. And of course it was fun to walk back the aisle with Chris arm in arm again just like 6.5 years ago. Thanks Chad & Elana for allowing us to participate in your wedding day in such a special/meaningful way! Since I was too busy to get a shot of the happy couple together, you're all stuck looking at a picture of Chris & I.....

I finished my sweater!! It was a process and I'm very thankful for my Mom's all knowing knitting wisdom to see me through the project. :) Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and how it fits me. I finished it on Good Friday so I was able to wear it Easter Sunday with my sundress that I fell in love with the moment I saw it in the store about a year ago. Chris was a good sport after church and took some pictures of me "modeling" my recent accomplishment.

Finished Front & Back Shots:

The basement remodel hasn't really progressed any further as life has been keeping us busy these days. With the weather getting warmer the garden and a few outdoor projects have taken precedence. The next major part of the basement project is Chris redoing most of the plumbing that runs in the suspended ceiling. He wants to replace the old copper lines with pex and move some things around. This week we put a piece of plywood up on the garage wall that the pex manifold and some other things will mount to. The following pictures show the transformation that took place this week as I primed and painted two coats on the board so it now blends in with the wall.

I guess I'll close this post with an updated shot of our growing garden and the current landscaping project we have begun...

Peas & Red Onions -- One of our newly planted Leyland Cypress trees didn't make it through the winter. :( We're hoping the rest continue to turn green and grow well throughout the summer.

This is under the two apple trees in our backyard. I didn't take a picture before I started but trust me when I say, it was all grass. :) We are planning to dig out all the grass that is underneath both trees and make a connecting flower bed....1. To make it look nicer; 2. To make it easier to mow. :)

When did April get here?

I'm not sure where the last few weeks went. It's been a busy spring so far. I'm so excited for the promise of warmer temperatures and days spent outside in my near future. :) We've had a lot of rain lately but with the cooler temps, everything seems to be taking its good o'le time to bloom/grow. Just Saturday morning I noticed that the peas and red onions that we planted in the garden are starting to pop out of the ground. Even though I grew up  having a garden and have seen this countless times, it's still exciting for me to watch the process unfold time and time again.


The first weekend of this month, I was blessed to be able to attend a Scrapbooking retreat at the Hobby House Retreat with my Mom and 14 other ladies. What an awesome weekend we had. Although it wasn't much fun being away from Chris and sleeping (attempting rather) with a room full of 5 other women (3 of which snored), it was a memory making time that I won't soon forget! I hadn't scrapbooked in quite some time so it was great to get back into my wedding album which I soon hope to complete. 


The sweater I'm knitting is coming along. It's been a challenging project at times but I'm hopeful that I'll at least be satisfied with the finished project, maybe even like it. :) I'm very thankful for a Mom who knows how to interpret patterns when I'm confused and the willingness/patience she has to help me learn new things!


Chris and I don't always make the best financial decisions but we have worked hard ever since we got married to watch our spending and use the "go home and ponder it first" rule before making any major purchases. We also discuss most every purchase with each other, large and small, before we proceed with whatever it is we're doing. We work hard to take care of the things God has blessed us with and Chris tries to fix anything we have that breaks before we pay to have it fixed, etc. I say all that to say that we've been hoping/praying that we'd get our $500 deductible back from the insurance company of the rental car that rear ended me last month. After not hearing much since the accident and being unsure how that would all play out since insurance matters and rental cars seem to be a pretty sticky situation, a check arrived in the mail today. While Chris and I would have been okay financially if that $500 never showed up, it is a blessing to know that God cares about the things that are important to us and He proves time and time again that He IS faithful. Now we're able to put that towards our home/rental property insurance that is due next month. We have been so blessed.


Yesterday was a bit of a thrill for me. After previously seeing details of a Facebook contest that was taking place yesterday, I decided I'd see if I had a shot at winning. Sugar Maple Cabins is the rental company that Chris and I used for our honeymoon cabin in Tennessee and yesterday they planned to post a trivia question at Noon and the winner would receive 2 free nights in one of their cabins. There I was at several minutes before Noon refreshing their Facebook page to be one of the first people to see what the trivia question would be. When it appeared, I read: "Which states border Tennessee?" My heart was racing as I opened another browser window and googled the exact question. I decided I didn't have time to search for a map so I just went with the first results that google displayed. I was so nervous I didn't even think to copy and paste the list of states that I had found. As I was wildly typing all 8 (who knew TN was surrounded by EIGHT states??), I figured surely someone would have beaten me to the punch. As I hit enter and refreshed the page to see if I was the first person, I realized that I actually had a chance at winning if I had indeed gotten the right states. Several moments went by and others answered and then the comment came....."Jessica you got it!" WOOHOO! Boy was I excited. They are supposedly sending me a certificate in the mail with further details. Chris and I are anxious to see if it's for one specific cabin or if we'll have choices. Either way, I don't care -- we're getting TWO FREE NIGHTS IN TENNESSEE!!!!!! :)


Chad and Elana are getting married THIS Saturday!! Wedding mode starts tomorrow for me. I'm going over to the farm for the day to help with the favors and any other last minute things that need done. In the evening, the bridesmaids are getting together to have a fun, relaxing (hopefully :) time with the bride! Friday is set up at the church, rehearsal in the evening, and Saturday is the big day! Chris and I have the privilege of walking down the aisle together again and I'm looking forward to that. 


Bring on the weekend!