260/365

LIVING ROOM (and dining room)...

This room is probably my favorite to look back over. I will try to find a true before picture to post, but I didn't get to see the room in its rawest form.

Little Katie Lou was a big help in this remodeling process. :)
If you notice the wall behind her looks patchy-brown. The previous owners had put PAPER BAGS all over the walls in the living room and were going to paint a "leather look" on the wall (blah! TERRIBLE idea for this room!), but fortunately they didn't get to the painting part before they got rid of the house. The Wilsons spent hours removing the paper bags from the walls! I will try to find a picture!

Before of the living/dining room (obviously :))

Before of the Living Room

The guys bringing the furniture in (and despite some of your clever comments on facebook, the furniture DID have to come in sideways :). BUT, we did not bolt the furniture sideways on the wall. *Ahem* Pam Jose :))

Matt brought a load of furniture from ALPINE. The truck was LOADED!

... and when I say loaded, the truck was LOADED!

After of the dining room

Beautiful furniture they found from a family in town... off of Craigslist! Still have to hang pictures (this is a common theme...) but the bulk of the work is done! And the guys are going to put of crown moulding in the living room and dining room, so that will be a nice finishing touch! (plus blinds and window treatments :))

WHAT A FUN DAY! We are starting to see progress, and this is exciting!

ALSO, tonight Stuart and Rachel Noggle and CO. came to visit! It was so much fun to see them and catch up- they even let me take pictures of their beautiful family! I have to say Rachel set the camera and did all of the editing, so I really can't take credit for the pictures I took, but it was a TON of fun! Check out her pictures... they are great!( http://www.facebook.com/notes/rachel-zahn-noggle/a-few-more/10150281229217752)

259/365

Dining room/Family room....

This is in the middle of the process... so, no true before picture here. But, you get the idea :)

After of the eating area

Gigi didn't stop too often this week... she is a hard worker! BUT, she did occasionally have to perform her grandmotherly duty of hanging out with little Katie Lou. :)

After

After

NOTE: Matt and Rach are having white blinds (wooden... beautiful!) put on all of the windows. It's going to look GREAT!

258/365

Day 2 of the slavery... painting, painting and painting some more. Matt spent alot of time changing out the outlets from cream and nasty to beautiful white. :)

We spent alot of time today in little Kathryn's room... here are some before and after pictures!

BEST before picture I got on my camera. 

During the process...

After minus some pictures on the wall... and a little KATHRYN doodle that's going to go above the crib :)

I LOVE this bow holder that Tali Wilson made for Kathryn... SUCH a great idea!!!

Thankful we are making progress!!!

257/365

Before and after...

These are not true BEFORE pictures because I didn't see all of the actual BEFORE (the Wilson's did a ton of work before we even got to AZ). So, I'll do my best to show you a little before and after action.

Tuesday we started painting and started little Benton's room...

Mom and Matt starting the painting process

Benton was excited once we got his big-boy bed semi-constructed!

Mid-process... starting to look like a little boy lives here!

minus the doors and a few extra pictures that need to be hung, here is the finished product!

Complete with the lighting Mcqueen lamp from the Bundricks :)

256/365

On Monday we made the happy little drive from Denver to Eager, Arizona where Matt and Rach just bought a house. We stopped on our way at Home Depot and purchased a few needed home items. We didn't realize how much we had picked up until it was too late.... but since the drive from Eager to Home Depot is an hour long, we weren't about to leave anything behind!!!

You can see the many, many, MANY boxes and bags we needed to fit into the car. Matt did a GREAT job packing and re-packing.

Believe it or not, everything fit! 

Thankful for funny trips like this.... and for Matt's incredible packing skills!!

255/365

Colorado, here we are!

Had the privilege of seeing our dear friends the Durrill's today. I was so happy to be able to see Morgan- she's grown up so much into such a beautiful lady! It was fun catching up with the rest of the family also, and then meeting their cousins.

We enjoyed so much being with them at Valley Community church (http://www.valleycommunityco.org/) in Colorado. The Durrill's have headed up a church plant from Tri City Baptist in Westminster, Colorado, which is where my pastor from childhood is now the pastor. It was such an encouragement worshiping with the people there, and then hearing Matt's (Wilson) update on the camp.

We spent the afternoon in Boulder, which is always an exciting adventure. We landed at a nice, quiet coffee shop, and boy did we change the atmosphere. :) Benton and Kathryn BOTH were full of energy... I am sorry to all those nice, calm, happy (and possibly high) coffee shop patrons!

Benton enjoyed the cookie from the coffee shop....

Like I said, I feel sorry for the patrons of this nice little coffee shop........

While in Boulder we also noticed the  "Most Wanted" bulletin board. We checked it out just to make sure none of our Colorado friends (or pastors from our church who have moved to CO) were listed. Fortunately, none of them were. :) (phew)

Fun day!

254/365

Well.... alllll geared up for my run this morning, dropped off the waters for our water stops, grabbed my running watch, picked up Zhixin and then met Lisa. Off we go. Of course I didn't see the massive rock ahead. (dum duh duh duuum)

The rock changed the course of the morning. Straight back to the car I went.

Hope my ankle will be OK in a week. I just didn't want to put miles on a sprained ankle. The pop... the loud pop changed my persevering mind.

On days like this I'm tempted to feel defeated and frustrated, but life isn't all about running. :) What can God teach me from a bummed ankle? To stop and not to micro manage. It's OK when the training gets off schedule. Life gets off schedule. Roll with it. (no pun intended) :) I mean, who needed a 13 mile run today, anyways.

Next week.... next week.

253/365

I am planning to go to sleep at 10pm. That is a blessing.

ps. I leave for Arizona (via Colorado) tomorrow!!!

252/365

Great day!

Spent the day in Greenville with my little Sarah Louise. She sat for the GRE this morning and did GREAT! I had been praying she would do well, and then she did. I then realized that because she did well she will probably be moving far away to go to grad school. Now I wish I had not been praying so much for her. :)

I am so so proud of her!

Spent some time this morning with Katherine Bougie, which is always something to be thankful for! Her nursery for little Calvin is just precious! It's hard to believe that my best friend from the time I was born is having a BABY!

Sarah and I went to lunch with Jon and one of my friends from high school who sat for the last section of the CPA exam at the same time Sarah took her test. It was a celebratory lunch for sure. :) Then Sarah and I spent the afternoon shopping (found an adorable dress for Luke and Sydney's wedding.... on SALE). Of course the evening ended in downtown greenville with yet another celebratory dinner.

Happy Birthday to my sweet friend Steph Richardson. We met a small group at Trio's for dinner which was deeeelicious! So much fun celebrating Steph's life-- I'm thankful for her!

What a great day. I'm thankful for my boss for requiring me to take Sarah in for her test. :) And for allowing us to galavant around Greenville for a few hours!

251/365

"Why are our churches are like museums instead of emergency rooms?" -Eric Fisher

Tonight in prayer meeting Eric challenged us to genuinely be open with one another and share our needs, burdens, and struggles. Often we feel the need to go to church, put on the smile, and be "holy". While we should be happy because of what Christ has done for us, and while we should strive to live a holy life before the Lord, these should be manifestations of the work that Christ has done in our hearts. We aren't supposed to PUT ON a show.

I think of it more like this. We are all very successful athletes, and we've all done really well on our respective teams. An all-star team is established, so the best of the best come together as a "team" (though often all-star teams are made up of individual athletes playing individually rather than as a "team"). We join this team, so we try to perform the best, be the fastest, and ultimately win.

I feel like far too often this is the picture of our churches. We do our "best" and gain success on our own. "Man, we are good at this Christian stuff. We are something!" So we get on our high horse, waltz over to church (all-star game) and put on the show. We want to look better, sing better, smile better than everybody else on our "team", though in reality we are there for the complete wrong motives. We don't really care about building the body of believers-- we just want to make a few three pointers and a slam dunk. That will get the crowd riled up and then we'll really be the hero!

This was a challenge to me. Why is our church a showcase? Why isn't it an emergency room? If we get to reality, none of us are perfect. We all struggle. We don't need to go to church and confess our deepest struggles to the entire body, but why not allow a smaller group of people keep you accountable, pray with you, and interced for you? That was the intention of the body of Christ-- functioning together to pursue Christ and bring Him the ultimate glory.

Thankful for the Word and for my pastor. Thankful for transparency-- and for people who HAVE been real with me and shared struggles, and for friends who have listend to me and prayed for me.