Rome Was Not Built In A Day aka Our New Bedroom Is Taking Forever

When we decided to move our bedroom from the master at the back of the house to one of the rooms in the front of the house, in order to not be ten miles away from children's rooms, we decided to really put in the time and money to make it our own, a space we would really enjoy.   For the first time, I've really gotten to see some of my DIY ideas come to life from scratch.  We began the overhaul of this room in May and moved into it a couple weeks ago.  It's functional, but not quite finished.   In order to get my current blog post drafts list under 30 and also avoid a loooooong update post from scratch to finished when we dub the room complete, I have decided to do an interim progress post. 

So.

Here is what this room looked like on the day we moved into our house:

Nice sized room, pretty hardwood floor, ok sized closet and amazing natural light from three big box windows, but also a tiny ceiling fan, non-color walls and an ugly wallpaper border around the top of the room.   It served as our junk room for longer than I want to admit, but after I passed the CPA exam, I cleaned it up and turned it into a craft room.

The first step in this overhaul was paint.  We decided on a buttery yellow color called Lemon Drops from Home Depot to paint over the blah off-white that was already there.   The yellow seems to change shades in these pictures depending on the lighting from various times of day and also different cameras.  But it's just a nice soft yellow.  Not too in yo face.  

Next step was taking down the old, slim trim around the top of the walls.  I called in a pro for that part, aka my husband. 

Now, let's take a closer look at this wallpaper, shall we?  

Yeah...not super beautiful.  Rather than trying to remove it or dealing with the difference in texture if we just painted over it, we hatched a plan to simply cover it up.   This involved lots of really long, wide boards, lots of white paint...

...two people, a ladder, and a nail gun...

Bu-bye wallpaper!  Have a nice dark nap under there for all of eternity...

We later added quarter round along the very top to cover up the gaps caused by our 1948 ceiling, then caulked, spackled and touched up paint on all cracks and nail holes for a clean, seamless, beefy trim piece.

Next I set to painting everything else in the room white: baseboards, inside the window boxes, door trim, the closet doors and the back of the bedroom door (so it would match the inside of the room when closed).

See what a difference there is on the closet doors between off white and actual white?   And that was only one coat.

I love these crisp lines so much I wish I could take them out for ice cream.  

After a ceiling fan switcheroo...

...and installing nice new faux wood window blinds, we were able to move in.  We have since added new bedding, new nightstands and a new desk and are just lacking a few finishing touches before we can declare this room officially complete.   Let me just say that if everything turns out as planned, I will consider getting a Pinterest account for the sole purpose of pinning some pictures of this room.   JK, I'm still not Pinterested, but this room is gonna look fiiiiiiine.

Trent's 19th First Day Of School

Today was a big day for our little family.   This morning, Trent began classes at Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, in pursuit of his Master of Divinity degree. 

Here's to a new chapter of our lives.

Here's to textbooks, homework, papers, exams and late nights.

Here's to a wealth of knowledge waiting to be cracked open.

Here's to new friends and new mentors.

Here's to pursuing a calling.

We appreciate your prayers as we embark on this new adventure.  

Musical Ceiling Fans

We recently played a game at our house that I named Musical Ceiling Fans. You know, like Musical Chairs...  It involved a decent amount of time, some frustration, getting our money back at the blue home improvement store and promptly taking said returned money over to the orange home improvement store.  But anyway.  We needed to tweak some ceiling fan situations in various rooms in our house, so we did.  Er...Trent did and I cheered him on and handed him tools...and took pictures.  

Three rooms got a new fan, even though we only purchased one new fan.

Our new room:

Future kid room:

Den:

In case you couldn't figure it out from that stack of photos, we bought a new fan for our new room, moved that original fan to the kid room, and moved the original kid room fan to the den.  And as for this dusty, musty, junky, clunky ole monster that weighs about 100 pounds...

Well, it lost the game of Musical Ceiling Fans and is headed to the Habitat Restore.  Whop whop.

It's Like Lotion...For Your Floor

In an effort to declutter, organize, rearrange rooms and generally get our house ready for foster care, we have completely torn it apart, sideways and upside down.  Some folks have heard me say in person that we are living in chaos and they have said "Eh Anna, it can't be that bad."   Well, it is.   We are slowing making headway and it is exciting.  But...

As of a few days ago, our den looked like this:

 Our baby room looked like this:

Our old bedroom at the back of the house looked like this:

And our new bedroom at the front of the house looked like this:

Aaaaah, what a breath of fresh floor.  We decided to take advantage of the fact that this room was totally cleared out and do a spa treatment for our lovely ole hardwoods.  In one of our many, many trips to Lowes over the past couple weeks, Trent picked out this stuff:  

I don't have many comments about it other than it was easy for me to slap down with a painters pad one evening while Trent was at church camp roofing a building by himself.  This is not any kind of refinisher or wax, it's basically like lotion...for your floor.  Brings some life and shine back into hardwoods to schmexy them up a bit. And we were quite pleased.  Granted, this picture was taken a bit earlier in the day than the before picture with a little more natural light but still...you can see the entire reflection of the box windows...in the floor...

So, three cheers for floor lotion.   Now back to our chaos...

The Magical Life Of A Starbucks Chair

Have you ever thought about the chairs at Starbucks?

They have held wedding planners and marriage counselors.

They have heard prayer, scriptures and gossip.

They have held me up as I talked to a young friend who was in tears.

They have held up a friend as she talked to me who was in tears.

They have studied accounting, literature, biology and theology, to name a few.

They have wondered why the stickers on a man's computer entirely contradict the fact that he is a pastor.

They have heard the same Starbucks songs over and over and over and over.

They work very long hours, from early morning to late at night.

They know my "usual" is a tall vanilla latte and my husband's is a grande bold coffee.

They have been our spot for discussions and computer research about adoption, foster care and, I'd like to think, have cheered us on.

This Isn't Goodbye, Just See Ya Around

It is with many emotions that I write this post.  We are officially no longer the youth ministry couple and haven't been for three weeks now.  It's really weird and is taking some getting used to.  For three years, these kids have been our life, so it kind of feels like there's a hole now.  But now it's time for a new chapter, a new calling.  

But this isn't goodbye...it's just see ya around.  Even though we won't see them at church, we'll still be around town.  We'll still see them from time to time, here and there.  They will always be "our" kids.

 See ya around kids.  We love you.

Visible Blessings In Our Kids' Rooms

You may remember the hidden blessings that we put in each of our future kids' rooms.   Well, we wanted to do a visible blessing as well.   I wanted to track down some cool wall hangings that showed my favorite scripture, Numbers 6:24-26.  This blessing was showered upon me as a child and I wanted to do the same for our children.  I hunted on Etsy and found a shop called To Such As These Designs that had some fun wall hangings for sale, including one with this scripture.  I purchased two of them, then paused to read the shop's profile.  This lady named Cindi started this Etsy shop to pay off debt from their recent adoption of their youngest son from Ethiopia.  Wow.  Hi God.  I messaged her that we are headed into foster care and hopefully adoption and told her these scriptures would be in our kids' rooms.   She has a wonderful Etsy shop and I encourage you to click here to check out her items and buy some to support their adoption!

Anyway, the wall hangings I purchased were printed on matte board, so I needed to get some frames for them.  I needed 11 x 14 frames, but with no glass.  I found some unfinished frames at Hobby Lobby and bought some white paint and wall hanger pieces and set to work.  

I hammered the hangers onto the backs of them with itty-bitty terribly hard to work with nails, then I cut some thin strips from 3M squares to adhere the matte board to the frames.   They turned out great!

Baby room:

Kid room:

Things are movin' right along in our quest to get ready for foster care.  Our house is currently topsy turvy from rearranging and decluttering.  I've lost count of how many times we have been to Lowe's in the past week...  But we received our next batch of paperwork yesterday and our official invitation to our training classes, so we're about to get this show on the road!

Dear Young Women, Don't Be The Crazy People

Dear Young Women,

I've never been one to think that stellar role models can be found in pop music stars, but goodness gracious, some of the lyrics and ideas that are being played on the radio these days are just...crazy.   These songs promote total disregard for others, rules, health, self, safety, sanity, authority, normalcy, care and calm, not to mention grammar.   

A few examples, from the ongoing stream of craziness that is making me appreciate my country radio pre-set buttons more and more every day:

And we can't stop

And we won't stop

Can't you see it's we who own the night?

Can't you see it's we who 'bout that life?

We run things, things don't run we

Don't take nothing from nobody

Miley Cyrus

I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone.

I crashed my car into a bridge. I watched, I let it burn.

I through your **** into a bag and pushed it down the stairs.

I crashed my car into a bridge.

I don't care. I love it.

I don't care.

Icona Pop

Hello, wherever you are

Are you dancing on the dance floor, or drinking by the bar?

Tonight we do it big, and shine like stars

And we don't give a **** cause that's just how we are

We are the crazy kids, them crazy, crazy kids

We are the crazy people

Ke$ha

Young women, please please please please....don't be the crazy people.   I understand that in the years of your youth there is pressure and expectation to throw all care to the wind, defy authority and be your own boss.  I get that.  But I want to share a few things with you...

Don't write off the adults in your life.  They've lived more of it than you.  They know stuff.  Give them a chance.

Respect your body.  You are a beautiful, wonderful child of God who created you in his image and you are the only one of you on this planet.  So take good care of you, demand respect from others and don't tolerate a lack of it. 

Sleep.  Going to bed before midnight does not make you lame.

Don't just live for today.   Live for tomorrow too and many, many more tomorrows after that.  Don't do something while living for today that will ruin all your tomorrows.

There is a time and place for calm and quiet. Every minute of every day doesn't have to be lived in party mode. Take out the headphones. Be still. Be quiet. Be by yourself.

Don't do things that are illegal.  Just don't.

Also, don't crash your car into a bridge and watch and let it burn.  I hope that goes without saying.

You've got so much to live for, do, see, accomplish and experience. Please, don't be the crazy people.

Sincerely,
Anna

Dear Men, Sometimes We Actually Don't Know What's Wrong

Dear Men,

Recently Trent and I hung out with one of Mission Waco's summer interns for an evening.  Her name is Rebecca and she is so sweet and intent on soaking up every bit of life she can.  At one point, over some delish sandwiches, she asked us to tell her something we have learned from being married.  Trent thought for a minute and said the following:

"Sometimes women actually don't know what's wrong, when you ask them. It took me about four and a half years of marriage to learn that."

I sat back in my chair and beamed at my husband.

You see, men, it's true.  When your wife or girlfriend is being kind of quiet, mopey or blah, you ask her what's wrong, and she says "I don't really know"...sometimes it's true.  Sometimes we don't have a flippin' clue what's wrong.   We may be tired, hungry, pms-ing, or missing our mom, but we may not realize it.  Yes, yes, I admit there are times when we know exactly what is wrong, but for whatever reason we are withholding that information...probably because we are mad at you for some reason.  Not nice of us, I know.  But I promise, there are times when we are just quiet, just mopey or just blah and we have no idea why.

So, what can you do in times like these, when the woman in your life is not herself but doesn't know what's wrong?  First, quit asking incessantly what's wrong. That'll only make things worse and suddenly what's wrong with her is you. Instead, ask if you can do anything for her or maybe, just give her a good hug, tell her you love her and let her be blah or quiet for a little while.  

The woman in your life is a human being, and a complex one at that.  When you commit to someone, you commit to their highs and their lows.  The low spots happen sometimes and it's ok to just let them be.

Sincerely,
Anna