New & Fresh

So it's been a little while. I've been wanting to post about life and give my blog a makeover but just never took the time. I'm way too picky when it comes to this sort of thing. I have a vision in my head of what I'd like it to look like but it takes me forever to make it work. It's good for now. :) At least it's something new and exciting!

2012 is coming to a close and I'm still not sure where the last six months went (or the entire year for that matter). Life has kept me busy and I'm looking forward to hopefully a bit of a slower paced winter. We had a white Christmas and it's finally been consistently cold so I guess winter finally decided to show up. I'm looking forward to 2013 with anticipation of hopes and dreams waiting to be fulfilled. This past year has been a challenge for me in many ways and I'm praying for a different direction for my new year's adventures. God is teaching me much about patience and faith and I'm doing my best to hang on for the wild ride that life takes me on at times.

Will I be back more faithfully to my blog in the coming year? I'm going to try. I was never big on new year's resolutions so I don't think I'll make that one of them but we'll see. :)

My "Acting" Debut

A week and a half ago as Chris and I were leaving his parent's house, I was walking out the front concrete steps and thought I was stepping onto the middle of one of the steps when in reality I was on the edge of it. Chad was walking towards me and in a random moment of trying to be funny I threw out my arms and said to him....."YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!" (Lord of the Rings reference) Apparently I'm not able to act and walk at the same time because that is the same moment I was on the edge of the step planting my foot forcefully. This miscalculation threw me forward to the ground with a popping sound in my ankle. When I got back up it became obvious to me that I was in some pain and that my ankle twisted to the side and back in a way it's not supposed to move! I hobbled to the car and Chris and I checked it out when we got home. I've never broken a bone in my life, nor have I really injured myself with sprains or anything else of the sort. Yes, I'm thankful although it provides a disadvantage when you have no idea what you are dealing with when you hurt yourself. :) We quickly came to the realization that with the movement I had in my ankle, it most likely wasn't broken. I've been told that sprains can be worse than breaks and I was determined that this wouldn't plague me for months to come. I spent last week hopping around and taking it easy so that it had a good head start on healing properly. While I still have some discomfort when I turn my ankle side to side, it's feeling stronger each day and I'm very thankful for a family who prayed for me to heal quickly! I'm still being careful that I don't overdo it or twist it funny ways and re injure things. I guess the moral of the story is that God thought I needed to slow down a bit. It sure did take a lot of patience to lay around inside when Spring had DEFINITELY sprung outside. If you look closely you can see some yellowish bruising and swelling around my ankle area taken a few days after the fall.

With the rental project taking up most of the winter months and the mild weather we had, it feels like we've gone right from Fall to Spring. The ground never really froze consistently enough for the weeds to die and our garden was proof of that!! My amazing husband spent practically his entire Saturday tilling our garden mass of weeds. :( I was beginning to think I'd never see freshly tilled brown dirt. He still has the one end to tackle but at least he got a head start on things. Monday night we were able to get out before the rain and plant red onions, carrots, and peas. Soon after we got things planted and came inside to clean up, the rains came! Perfect timing. :)

The garden BEFORE Chris worked his awesome-ness:

The top half of the garden tilled and ready to plant:

Our basement project is continuing to show signs of progress here and there. We are trying to complete half of it and then move furniture into place and finish the other side as a second phase of the project. I'm so excited at how it's coming together that I can barely stand still and be patient for things to finish up. There's that patience issue again. Okay God, I'm trying. :) The new flooring is going in as Chris and I have time. Soon we'll have furniture in this "new" space!

Fast Forward 3 Months

Has it really been over 3 months since I last blogged? Oh dear. I'm fired.


On October 30th, Chris and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. What an amazing, wild ride it has been so far! I'm so blessed to be married to my best friend. I'm excited to see what the next 7 years and beyond will hold for us. God has blessed us greatly.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I won a 2 night cabin stay in Tennessee early on in 2011. We were able to take advantage of this getaway in the middle of November. Over my epic 11-11-11 birthday even!! We had a wonderful time away making new, fun memories in a place that we both enjoy so much. Some highlights included Krispy Kreme doughnuts, amazing mountain views (including watching the sun come up from behind those mountains the morning of my 27th birthday), hiking to Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in Tennessee (6,643 Feet), and shopping!!!! :)

At the end of September, one of our tenants informed us that he was in the process of purchasing a house and would be moving out at the end of November. This tenant had been living in half of our duplex since before we bought the property in 2005 so we were sad to see him go. With his upcoming departure, we knew we'd have to bite the bullet and do some fixing up. Our plans were to give it a good cleaning, fix up the major issues, and repaint everything so that it looked more presentable. Did I mention we wanted to have it done in a month? Sadly, that one month turned into two and our December/January months were insanely chaotic. With the exception of a few, we spent every evening and every Saturday working at the rental. We still haven't found a new tenant and we just have a few things to finish up tomorrow morning. We will be SO very glad to call it DONE and get a new (hopefully decent) tenant. What a wild journey. Now that both sides of the duplex are remodeled, we can hopefully rest easy for awhile in that aspect of our lives. While it's a lot of work, I am very thankful that Chris and I are able to work together to complete the tasks and for the income it provides. Maybe someday I'll post pictures of the transformation for those of you that don't have access to them on Facebook.


Somewhere in all that chaos we celebrated Christmas! It all just seems like a blur to me now. There hasn't been much snow this winter at all and we've been having an abnormally large amount of rain. The ground is so moist that I wonder if it will ever dry out for Spring garden planting! I know it's only the beginning of February (and there is currently a little bit of snow on the ground) but I find myself getting excited about planting things and warmer/longer days ahead. I still love snow and I'm hoping for at least a whopper that keeps Chris home a day or two yet. :) We shall see!


Now that the rental remodel is nearly complete, our energies will get back on task with our basement project. I've been slowly working on things during the day while I have some free time here at home. Major items left for the project include refinishing the steps, painting trim/walls, and putting down the new floor. So excited to see our basement transformed into the space we've been dreaming about since we moved here almost 4 years ago. I will end with a picture of the wood stove area progress. Nothing around the area is finished but at least the new stone and wood stove look great. My husband really outdid himself this time!!! :) LOVE this "new" space!