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!

No Matter What

This song has been on my heart for several months now and each time I hear it I am pleasantly reminded of God's faithfulness and His promise that He's always with us. Often times when I throw a little pitty party for myself when life trials come my way, I forget that God already knew way in advance that I'd be faced with each and every one of them. As this song states - "Before a heartache can ever touch my life it has to go through Your hands..." How encouraging to be reminded that God already knows what's coming and He promises to enable me with what I need to go through each and every circumstance that I face with His help if I'm willing to let go and let God. Why can't I just rest in that when life drama seems completely overwhelming? This song also says - "I know that You can find a way to keep me from the pain, But if not, if not - I’ll trust You..." It would be nice if everything turned out fine like we want it to, WHEN we want it but God certainly knows way better than we do or ever will. His timing is perfect. Even though the pains may come, I am praying that I can continue on this journey of life being reminded that God is in complete control of my life and all the circumstances that surround me on a daily basis. I'm so glad I don't have to carry the weight of all those burdens and cares on my own! Thank you, Jesus! :)

Painful Primer Particles...Precariously Positioned

Chris does a fine job painting but it's not his favorite thing to do and I enjoy it so I've done most of the painting in all our home remodeling projects. The last several weeks we've been working every spare moment to remodel the hallway that goes down the basement stairway. What a job! I hope to never, ever fix up or change another stairway again. One evening after we had rolled on the primer, Chris was trying to clean the millions of little white paint spots off his arms. He lamented with the following sentence in slow motion as he tried to make everything match..... "Painful.... primer...... particles..." and as I laughed at him he continued with "precariously positioned.....". It struck me funny and also makes for an entertaining blog entry title. :)


Hooray for October and beautiful fall leaves!! I love the vibrant colors that this time of year brings to our area. The pin oak tree in our side yard is particularly colorful this year. It's been so fun watching it morph through all the different shades. 

At the end of September we had the privilege of having Tanya (Chris's youngest sister) stay with us for a week. We are blessed to live very close to all of our families but with the busy routines of life, it seems we're coming and going faster than we can think. It was a fun week filled with lots of laughs and spider killing (poor Tanya). We love you, Tanya! :)

As I stated, we've been working our butts off to try and get the basement progressing in the completed direction. There is still so much left to do but we feel like we're making good progress. I think. :) The hallway down the basement steps was a pretty big project filled with lots of unsafe, precarious ladder/plank balancing acts but thankfully Chris and I both still have all our bones intact and are VERY glad to be on the other side of that job. The ceiling is de-popcorned and painted and the walls are painted as well. We put up a new light at the top of the steps also. As soon as we finally find a wood stain color that we both like we'll be moving ahead to finish the handrail and refinish the steps. Chris has been also working to hang/lay stone over the old brick wood stove surround area. I'm so excited to see that project completed. It's coming together so nicely.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with my family tomorrow evening as we celebrate my Mom's birthday which is next Friday. It's been too long since I've seen my niece and nephews!!!!! Caleb is probably taller than me now. :) Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration but someday it won't be I'm afraid!

I'm ready.

Woohoo! Chilly weather is around the corner! I'm so excited! Fall is probably my favorite time of year. I love being able to drink hot tea, wear comfy clothes and snuggle up with a blanket on the couch. Last night Chris and I looked at the 10 day forecast and decided we could take the window AC units out. Last year we had a few days in the 90's at the very end of September but we're hoping heat waves like that stay away this year. So far the stink bug quotient has been pretty mild compared to previous years but I imagine in the next week or two we'll start seeing more. I'm just glad we could get the window AC out before they started using them as a super highway into our bedroom like last year.


The garden just has a few things left in it...carrots, pumpkins, some tomatoes, and the hot peppers. I'm done all the canning I'm going to do so that's a good feeling! I want to freeze the pumpkin after I'm done using them for decorations and freeze some applesauce in October. By the time cold weather hits, I'll appreciate the break from yard/garden work and anything related to canning or freezing!


Chris and I have been working at the basement remodel as we've had time but it's been a wild and crazy summer. All this time I've been thinking that we can just wait until the weather starts to get colder and hopefully we'll have time to focus on the basement since we won't have as much outdoor work to do, etc. Last week I had a startling revelation. We will need to start burning the wood stove in less than 1.5 months. Chris plans to hang stone over the brick area (under and surrounding the wood stove) but in order to do that process the wood stove has to be moved. And in order to do the stone process, allllllllllll the walls have to be patched/sanded so that the drywall dust doesn't mess up the new stone! Oh boy do we have a lot of work to do in 1.5 months. I'm not sure what I've been thinking but apparently my brain has been out to lunch! I just finished painting the basement bathroom door this morning so hopefully we can get that put up tonight and seal off the bathroom from getting so much drywall dust in there. Since that door is finished, I only have 5 more to paint! lol......how depressing. :-P


Labor Day weekend we were blessed to make the annual trip to Fredericksburg, Ohio for Coblentz Camping! Most of Chris's Dad's family lives in the Ohio area and we look forward to the get together each year. It's always so hard to leave and come home as we don't get to see all of them very often. The Coblentz families are amazing and I'm thankful to have married into such a great heritage. I have been richly blessed with an awesome birth family and an awesome in-law family.

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!!