God is Watching

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Easter 2011

Easter goodies:  We made the cupcakes and bought the special petit fours and cake eggs.

They were all really delicious.

A really bad up-close shot of the Easter Basket contents.

The Easter Bunny still comes around here just for fun!

The two baskets sitting out!

Isabelle on Easter Morning

Me on Easter Morning

Brendon and the children

The family

Mimi and the children



We enjoyed the morning.  Although I believe future Easter mornings may not see "us" eating very much chocolate before church!  Thankfully our church is festive on Easter Sunday, because my little man was sugared up for real! 

Love my family!

Isabelle's Birthday

Isabelle celebrated 11 years on April 10th!  She is growing into a little lady these days!

She's a honey and a talker!  Plus, look at her she even look beautiful at 6:30 in the morning!



 Rising very early to open gifts is a time honored tradition in our family!

 Isabelle just adored this hat and had been really wanting to have one to play around with!

 We had a combined birthday party at Aunt Becky and Uncle Tony's.  Here the birthday kids are looking at the cake while all those candles are being lit.

 Here are the assembled cousins who were somehow herded into a photo!

It's a little difficult to get that many little one lined up!

 Here's a special photo of Papaw and Granny!

 On her actual birthday we made her cake of choice: Molten chocolate cakes!

Yum..she has good taste!

 Blowing out the candles!

Ooops..here's one I missed from the family party!

A silly string fight!

Joseph's Birthday

Joseph's and Isabelle have birthdays that are just two days apart, so we combined a few fun things.  However, this is a post about Joseph's 9 year old birthday!  He's grown to be quite the big boy this year!  He's wonderful and we love his precious self!

 Very early on April 8th, we got up and ran to find our gifts!

 Special gift from the Deally's!

 We combined a restaurant outing in celebration of Isabelle and Joseph's birthdays.

We headed to Ippolito's which was their choice. 

Here's an aside for shorter ladies..their booths are HUGE and very uncomfortable.  I could not touch the floor or the back of the bench. 

However, we had a blast!

 This is my honey girl! Totally enjoying the fun and food!

 Brendon and Joseph

 Mommy (Tamara) and Isabelle

 We came home and had the cake of Joseph's choice: Blue Velvet Cake!

I explained to him that red velvet cake was chocolate cake with red dye and that is how he came up with blue velvet cake, and yes there are lots of recipe's on-line believe it or not!

 Blowing out NINE candles!

I'll be honest eating blue cake was somewhat hard to do for this Mom!

Look at that!  

Travel Snapshot

Every now and again I am going to write about some of the traveling experiences I've had.  Memories pop into my head when I'm driving places, doing a mundane chore or have the occasional spare moment (I'm a daydreamer!) and I thought it would be fun to document and share some of them.  Traveling around with a backpack, I had a rather interesting time when I was young and single.  Brendon and I share that experience.  We traveled to a lot of the same places, as well as various different places, and it's something we have in common.  We grew up in different countries and met in another country entirely, which has caused us to have a combination of ideas and experiences that are perhaps uniquely our own.  We are used to the way we are, but have realized sometimes our mixture of ideas bring a different vibe to the the table so to speak.  While we have become comfortable with the way we are, it may be confusing or disorienting when we don't fit the status quo, because in many ways we are the regular couple with children.  I may have to scan some old photo's before I get started, but look for a post in a few weeks or so!

The Tub

Brendon found a claw foot tub online that a farmer near us was selling.  It also included a sink which we will use as well.  The inside of the tub is in fairly good condition, however the outside is a little rough as you can see.  We probably won't get it perfectly finished, but for now that will be a-okay!  Don't you just love sometimes when things are ok (not perfect) and you're ok with that too?  I like certain things just so alot of the time, but sometimes it's easier if you don't worry about every little thing!

My handsom husband working hard!

Track 2011

Our homeschool group has a track team and it seems like it has quite an enthusiastic following!  We had our first practice this past Friday.  One thing I like about track is that it is very easy to practice at home.  I'm really looking forward to this experience.

Isabelle

Joseph

Garden 2011

Isabelle and Joseph planting seeds.

Just before track practice on Friday the kids enthusiasticly planted our vegetable seeds in starter trays.  We like to have an organic garden, so we ordered our seed trays and packets from Gardens Alive all of which arrived a few days ago via the big brown UPS truck. Yours truly made an orderly little chart documenting the columns and rows of each tray and it's contents. We all really love our garden, and my mouth is watering just thinking of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes plucked from the garden in the morning and eaten for lunch!

Counter Top

 Two things we needed for the house were found here!

Isnt' is a treat to wander through Ikea?

And, we had some Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce for lunch..of course!

I will post some house photo updates soon.

Ashes and Ashes

We finally had to quit avoiding the fireplaces and got down and cleaned out the chimney's otherwise we coulnd't go forward with some other work.  There were six of the buckets full of ashes in this particular chimney (and a bird head! YUCK!!!).  I'm so very glad Brendon was cleaning that one out!  I would love to take a hose pipe and spray up into the chimney. I have to say they are pretty cool chimney's when you look up into them.  There are two fireplaces per chimney and they have a convex curve of brick protuding out one side and arching up so that the smoke is drawn upwards and not drawn into the other room. (It does have a slight ledge though and that's were the ashes built up.)  That might be boring for you, but I think it's pretty neat, plus the old brick is quite pretty inside. 

Forever Sanding

Last month it felt as if I peeled wallpaper for eons!

This month that same feeling was applied to sanding our walls.

Each and every wall downstairs has gorgeous hardwood planking and I love the way it looks!

However, all those pretty little boards needed to be sanded!

Honestly, I was a little scared climbing up so high on the ladder, but I have to say it was a great workout so I took courage and went for it.

I had no idea it was such a great core workout balancing at the top of a ladder when I first started, but I found out the next morning as I rolled out of bed!

You should see what we did in that room yesterday!

Stay tuned!

Father Daughter Dance

Isabelle and Brendon had a date night!

It was a spectacular Father Daughter dance hosted by our homeschool group.

This year I decided to join the biggest homeschool group closest to our area and it has been really fabulous!

Brendon raved about the dinner they had catered!

I also hear the girls had an absolutly delightful evening full of fun and dancing! In fact I heard that it's such a hit that it's a yearly must do!

It was listed as dressy to semi-formal. We had a dressy dress in the closet and that's what we went with this year!

Isn't she such a honey!?!?

The paint and the chimney

Remember the Chimney sweep dropped by the house. We are in LUCK! They Chimney's are in awesome shape! There was just a bunch of ash and coal dust piled on top of those boards. We do need to do a few small cleaning things plus add a damper to the top of the chimney. The chimney's are probably 100 years old and still in good condition. However with chimney's that old the damper has to go on top of the chimney and a chain hangs down that we can pull to open and close it.

The Paint! I did go check on some light paint colors and came away with a color called icy waterfall. It's a white with a blue tint and we are going to use it in the living room, and down the hallway and to the upstairs!

I have also picked out some outdoor paint. In time we will change the siding of the house and probably the door color, but for now we are having a red door and dark green shutters. I was going to use a black paint on the shutters called broadway. It had some brownish/greenish undertones, but then Brendon found a very dark green and I like it better. I think it's called Charleston green. The one thing that will probably change when we get better siding is perhaps the door will become a more neutral color, but for now I hope it will make the house look cute!

We found the original front door and it was red the same shade as the shutters. I have sanded it andd it's ready for paint. We also need to paint the front porch floor gray and the ceilng blue.

The Bathroom: We found a claw foot tub on Craigslist that a farmer was selling. It also came with an old sink that we will sit on top of a vanity. The tub is not in perfect condition, but it is not terrible either. We will sand it and paint the outside of it. The inside of the tub only has a few nicks, so we will figure out what to do about that.

I've been sanding away, and hope to finish up with that CHORE this week! Then we can paint and move on to getting those floors sanded.

The house is actually starting to look like a place you could live!

House Update

Here are a few pictures of the living room as they currently look

Remember we have torn off fake paneling, sheetrock and wallpaper.

Now we have sanded the walls.

We also tore out fake flooring covering the hardwoods, and a dropped ceiling which hid

a 12'8" ceiling.

We have Chimney Sweep coming next week to look at the fireplaces.

I tried to clean one, and soot started pouring out of the chimney!

Back wall....what you see when you enter the house.

Front wall of living room


Side wall of living room..opposite the stairs.



The drapes I have stored to use..but now I need to add 1 foot of material to have them long enough. I will just add a contrast, because the hem is only 6 inches.

Our furniture that will go in the living room.

I'm planning to paint the walls Water Chestnut by Glidden.

I love mantles, and need at least three to go in our house. We found one in the house, and I may use it in a back room.

Here's one that I think would look awesome in our living room!

Wonder how that wall color would look????!!!

Nate Berkus Design I found on a decor blog. I think a blog called A Perfect Grey.
Edited to add: I'm going to find a swatch of that paint color!

Poem: You Tell On Yourself

Poem: You Tell On Yourself: "Author: Unknown
You tell on yourself
By the friends you seek,
By the manner in which you speak;
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of every dollar or dime.

You tell what you are
By the things you wear,
By the spirit by which your burdens you bear;
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on your phonograph.

You can tell what you are
By the way you talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat;
By so simple a thing as what you eat,

By the books you choose from a well-defined shelf.
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself.
So there is really not a particle of sense
In your efforts to keep up your false pretense"

Snow Week!

It snowed and snowed, and then snowed some more!

Has it ever snowed this much in Georgia?

I don't ever remember it.

It lasted a week this time, and little piles of it could be seen for

an additional week after that.

It was lots of fun ...for about two whole days!

We, who live in warm weather do not possess boots,

snow pants or other clothes.

Nor do our cities have snow plows, scrapers, sand or salt.

The snow still was beautiful and sparkled brightly every morning,

and we enjoyed it for a week..this one time!

The street

Isabelle sledding down on hill.

Our new house.

Joseph coming down the driveway.

The kids enjoying.

A fried computer

Last week, before the delightful snowtorm, my computer was inadvertantly fried. The electric company trucks were on the street working on something, and there must have been a wee mistake! My computer was a very sad victim of that mishap. Brendon will probably get it up and running soon, but for now I have to check from another computer, and I can't access any photo's right now. I'm just hoping nothing is gone.

We are working hard on our house right now. We need to have the stairs redone and that is taking place on Monday. We want a claw foot bathtub, and are looking for one. Then we need to sand the walls to prepare them for paint. (Oh yes, the wallpaper has been completly removed!) After we get the walls done we can finish the floors. Once all of that is completed we will be able to move in, but we do have enough projects to keep us busy for a year or two, or as I hear from my new neighbors...a life time. They are the third generation living in that house and they have done a great job with it.

House update

Here are some pictures from about the 2nd stage of rip out.

The paneling is off the walls, and we find a fireplace in the master bedroom, and plank walls.

More wallpaper too!

Master bedroom with barewalls. The wallpaper in this room, just ripped off.

The fan is gone now as well.

This fireplace, in the dining room, was the first hidden one we found.
I was ripping out the fake floors, and I saw brick underneath, and this wall backs up to the living room wall, exactly where the fireplace is. They actually covered up the fireplace with those sticks and the ashes in there!
The wallpaper in this room, was very hard to get off, but it only went up 8ft.



The living room! The wallpaper goes all 12'8".
It had a medium difficulty rating to scrap off.
My dogs are not normally inside, but while we renovate we let them in.

Can you imagine living with this? I would be so dizzy!