Before and After!

Finally after four months we are finished with the living room. It has been a long four months. We decided to do some of the work ourselves to save money on the deductible. So Jonathan and I scrapped the popcorn ceilings. It turned out to be a huge mess and so much hard work. We also painted and shampooed the carpet. While we were working we decided to replace the outdated light fixtures in the hall and the entry. We are very proud of the work we did. Now only about 2000 more square feet of scrapping to go for the entire house. I think we will wait a while on that! We also had them move the fan to the middle of the room. It looks so much better there. We can't wait to have everyone over to see it.

Safari Diaper Cake

Some pictures of my sweet kids.

New Outlook

My family suffered another blow this past week. My second cousin Karla suffered a stroke and passed away at the young age of 35. She was a diabetic who had a kidney and pancreas transplant about five years ago and was doing well. This came as a shock to her sweet family. They need prayers. She leaves behind a three year old named Raya. She was a wonderful Christian woman who will be greatly missed.


Karla's death was an eye opener for me. It made me realize how precious life is and how much I need to enjoy every minute I have until the Lord returns. This has been on my mind lately even before the sad news about Karla. A friend of mine invited me to start going to a women's Bible study (thanks Lita) and they were studying Matthew where it talks about the Lord's return and how we need to be prepared for that. Most of the time when I am reading that the only thing that sticks out to me is that we won't know the exact day or time of His return. Some of the notes that I have just keep running through my head. That we are to be working, watching, and eagerly expecting our Lord to return. That has been on my mind the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I feel like I am just tired and in a rut and just rushing through life. Now I feel as if I need to slow down and take pride in all I am doing here on earth. I think it makes it much easier to work when I have my sight set on things above. Even if it is just my daily routine. I have tried this the past week or so to think of things this way and I think everything seems a little sweeter. Just getting my kids up and ready for school in the mornings seems like a gift.


On the long car ride home from Houston this weekend Jonathan and I were listening to a Josh Groban song Thankful it really summed up the way I have been feeling so here it is. I hope I can get it to play. I don't usually like to put things this personal on here but just really felt like I needed to share.

April Fools

Jonathan had his annual employee appreciation banquet Tuesday, April 1st. He has never been lucky in his life except for his work events. Two years ago at the Christmas party he won $250, the grand prize. This past Christmas he won a $50 gift card. These winnings are very rare for us, we aren't usually lucky people. So when this dinner rolled around we knew he had to be there because he had been so lucky in the past at work parties. Spouses were not invited so I didn't get to go with him. He told me they would be done by 9:00. So 9:15 rolled around and Jonathan hadn't called. I knew if he had won something he would have called right at 9:00. Finally at 9:20 he called and asked if he could drive my car the next day. Automatically I thought something was wrong with his car. I said "oh no what's wrong". He said, "I don't think the 42" flat hdtv will fit in the back of my car!" What! I couldn't believe it. I asked if he was serious. He then said "April Fools". I told him that wasn't nice and continued our conversation for a while and he said "no, April Fools to that April Fools" by this point I don't know what to believe. He came home with no proof of the win but still swore he had won it. I needed proof. Wednesday morning he brought it home! I can't wait to see it in our remodeled living room. Now all we need is new furniture to go with the new tv and new living room!