New House Photos!

So I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of our new house. These are taken before we had moved in or touched anything! So here you go :)

This is the garage that was closed in because when the Trail Ridge neighborhood was first being started this home was the show home. Why the french doors that don't open and the weird/small garage door, I don't know! It's all going to go! We will eventually turn this back into a garage.

Another view of the "garage" and the laundry room (that pantry on the right is awesome. Love it!)

Kitchen

Kitchen view #2

Dining room - this is the view from the laundry room doorway. The fireplace is on the living room side also. The whole house is 10ft ceilings which makes it feel so open! The door on the left goes into the master bedroom.

A second view of the dining room

Dining room fireplace

Master bedroom with a raised ceiling. There is a door to the right that leads out onto the back porch.

Master closet - nice and big!

Master bathroom - yes, the wallpaper is hideous. And no, the toilet does not go there. There is a little room on the left where it is suppose to be. They were in the middle of tiling this room. All the tile is laid, there is just no grout. And we don't like the color anyway, so it will all be coming up!

Master bathroom - there is a second sink to the right. The master closet is also to the right.

View #3 of master bathroom. Formal dining room (right by the front door)

Living room. Kitchen and dining are to the left, formal dining is right behind me, front door is to the right.

Living room #2

Formal dining room, front door.

Back bedroom (all three bedrooms have a raised or vaulted ceiling)

Hallway (love the bookshelves and linen cabinets!). Front bedroom.

Front bedroom view #2

Guest bathroom (there is also a door that connects this bathroom to the front bedroom)

Outdoor patio that has electricity run out to it. We love this!

Back of the house

Fence and barn will both eventually go.

Driveway that goes along the side of the house.

Front of the house!

Another view!

So that's it! Our new home :) There is a lot of work and remodeling to do, but we are excited about learning how to do things and making it our own. We feel very blessed and are so grateful to the Lord for allowing us to get this home (and for a good deal too!) Now back to pulling off wallpaper.... ;)

The Last Few Days

This week has been full and fabulous! Friday I helped some with painting at Josh and Kelsie's new house (my brother and sis-in-law). It is such a cute home! Perfect for them. Friday night I got together with my Quito girls (14 women from McKinney Bible Church went on a missions trip to Quito, Ecuador last July) I LOVE THEM! We stayed up late talking, watching a movie, and eating of course.

All of us together! Thanks for the photo Dianne!

Saturday morning I was back over at Josh & Kelsie's house to do some more painting. Then Saturday afternoon Mom Driggers and I went and picked up Callie (Mom's girl she mentors) and Mahaley (the 9yo I mentor) to go play some putt putt golf at Mountasia! Thanks Aubrey for the coupons!

Mahaley left, Callie right

The cave!

Mahaley, myself, and Callie. I didn't get the pink memo!

Mahaley, Callie, and Mom

Sunday afternoon a little before 3pm, Josh and Kelsie brought over my two adorable nieces so that we could have a play date and they could have a date night. I LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Rebekah went down for nap time right away so Abigail and I decided to paint our nails. She is a girly girl and when Josh & Kelsie pulled up to drop the girls off the first words out of Abby's mouth were, "Are you going to paint my nails?!?" We sat in the entryway with the door open so we could watch the rain.

Abigail painting my nails PINK of course! (her favorite color) Bekah woke up from her nap. Here the little cutie is trying on big sister Abby's shoes. What an adorable smile!!

I pulled out all of my old Felicity doll clothes and furniture. Abby had such a fun time changing the "baby's" outfits :)

Are these two pictures not hilarious?! Rebekah is sitting in one of the doll chairs looking at the classical music that was playing on the TV. She loved those chairs and carted them around everywhere! Abigail wanted to try on some of my make-up. Here she is holding the doll, wearing the dolls skirt, and putting on blush! Did I say how much I love these girls??

Dinner time! When I asked what they wanted Abby said, "Pancakes and salad fruit!" So that is what we had! Plus some scrambled eggs :) We make a not so quick run to Albertsons to get fruit and eggs. It takes a lot of work to get two girls in and out of the car, especially since when we came out of the store it was raining! I just told them we would have so much fun getting wet, and we ran to the car! haha Here is Bekah "having a picnic on the floor" since I don't have a high chair. Because we are remodeling everything, our bedroom furniture isn't up yet, hence the mirror in the dining room.

The girls did so well. They are very well behaved and I just loved getting to watch them. Think we need to do it again soon!

Sunday night we had planned a girls night at the Driggers house. Dad Driggers, David, Mark, Adam, and Noah are all gone hunting in Kansas City so we decided to party! We talked, watched the movie UP, slept in the next morning, talked some more by the fire, and had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. Yummy!

Monday I did several things around the house. Laundry, dishes, picked up, unpacked a few more boxes, took down the rest of the old, nasty curtains in the house, and started pulling down wallpaper!

Taking down old curtains in the formal dining room....I'm wearing a mask because of all the dust on them, ugh!

Taking down more curtains in the master bedroom. We've gotten a few paint samples to try and find what color of blue we want.

Tearing down wallpaper in the master bedroom. Lola, hello! Camera is the other way! That one strip looks tiny, but it was so time consuming. I had to rip off the top layer, spray the under layer with water/Dawn soap (you can see the wet part right above me) and then peel that off. Plus, first they had put the wall paper up, then painted the trim on top and bottom. So I had to scrape the paint to make sure it was all straight for when I painted it (hard to really explain)....And it doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist!

After finished the master I started on the bathroom....wow, that's a big project! I worked until 7, jumped in the shower, then headed over for girls night #2 at the Driggers! We watched some birth videos (laughed our heads off at one CRAZY one!), watched home movies, and stayed up until midnight. It was fabulous :) Today has just been full of running errands and doing small projects. I was also able to spend some time organizing my schedule and planning for the upcoming weeks and holidays. I love planning stuff like that out, now to just DO it!

Well, it's time for bed. I've had so much to be grateful for this week, and each and every day. Lord I'm amazed by You!

Moving Day!

October 31st was our moving day...easy to remember when we look back and think, "how long have we been here?" haha. Some of my family came to help (Mom, Jennifer, Jonathan) and some of Mark's family (Adam, Noah, Mom D) It was awesome to have their help and we got everything moved over in 5hrs! Seeing as how the garage wasn't packed up at all yet, I was quite impressed with that time.

We are so glad Jonathan came to help! He was there bright and early and was our only other guy for the first few hours. (Adam was sick and Noah had class)

Mom using the dolly Grandma let us borrow. Thanks Grandma! Adam unloading my parents big van. You can fit so much stuff in that van!

Loading up the lawn trailer. So nice to not have to rent a U-Haul.

Our almost empty old house :)

Unloading the kitchen at the new place! Mom Driggers came after her jail ministry she does and unloaded almost everything into my kitchen by herself. So nice to have done!

Taking a quick break. Love my mom and sister!

More kitchen

Unloading all our mattresses. Adam is taking safety precautions and wearing my bike helmet ;)

Scrubbing the kitchen floor one night Mark was working. It took me 40 minutes!!

Until we get the master bed and bath remodeled we are staying in the guest bedroom and bathroom. The owners before us were in the middle of a tile job, so there was still carpet around the toilet. So nasty! That was one of the first things to go!

This morning Mark fixed our washer. He is awesome figuring out all that stuff so we don't have to hire someone. I'm so excited to be finally washing clothes for the first time in over a week! Speaking of, I have so much to accomplish today....so much cleaning to do. I'd better get started and stop typing. More pix later! Think the next post I'll do some of the new house.

We've Moved!!

Ok, March. Yup. I'm pretty much the worst blogger :) But Michelle, you have me motivated so this is for you girl! Since you can't live in Texas then I'd better learn to blog!

So many things have happened in the last few months. And I'm thrilled with all that God is doing!

On October 31st we moved out of our first home, which was definitely bittersweet! There is just nothing like that first home. So many memories and our first place as a couple....I absolutely LOVED that first house. But moving to something a little bigger and opening a new chapter is always fun. I love change so it has been wonderful!

First day of packing! Lots of boxes and tape!

One of my stacks of boxes

Our new home is a foreclosure so it was great that we got such a good deal, but we have lots to do. We are excited to learn and to make it just how we want though! Mom Driggers came and helped me clean the house the Tuesday before the move. We worked several hours and got the main areas ready. Lots more left to clean though for sure!

Trying not to breath in the really strong cleaner I was using to scrub the bathtub! Lets see, so far I've used up 1 1/2 bottles of Windex, 1/2 bottle of toilet bowl cleaner, 2 bottles of 409, 1 bottle of scrubbing bubbles, and 1 bottle of some natural green cleaner I had.

So I thought I'd post some pictures of our first house just because I love it so much and I want to remember it. Here you go! The tour of our first home together :)

This is before we fixed it up. Mark worked on it so hard in the four months we were engaged! And David (Leah's husband) did an amazing job on the tile! But this are the before pix.

Living room

Kitchen

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

Guest bathroom-nice toilet seat huh? haha

We moved into our first home in August of 2007 right after we got married. Here are some pictures of the house right before we moved out in October of 2009.

Middle bedroom-as you can tell I wasn't gifted in the way of decorating! haha

Front bedroom-At least I got a few things on the walls in this room. Those are Mark's plaques he earned in the fire training academy. He was first in his whole class for academics and physical fitness! Yup, he's awesome. Love him.

Guest bathroom-Mark painted the cabinets and put new countertops and fixtures in both bathrooms!

Master bathroom-yes, the blue is overwhelming! Let's just say it was a little different color than what we thought!

Our master bedroom-I love this green with the dark wood. I think we are going to go blue in our new bedroom though. Time for a change!

Master closet-Container Store I love you.

Entry way and hallway to the living room/kitchen.

The kitchen-I really liked the open plan of the kitchen and living room.

Living room-Lola cracks me up! :)

I had a lot of good quiet times on this back porch. We had that little barn constructed and Mark painted it. I think it's super cute!

Back of the house. Loved the huge backyard!

The front of our first home. I'm gonna miss this place even though I love our new one so much!

Well, I guess I've blogged enough for today for sure :) Maybe next post I can put up pictures of our new house and of moving day. Right now I need to go do some cleaning!

I'm blessed....

It's late....I should be in bed, especially with an early morning workout planned. But my thoughts are wandering and I'm humbled, amazed, and saddened. The book I mentioned that I'm reading, Last Chance in Texas, has some pretty tough things in it. I'm reading about some of the boys and girls that are spending time at the Giddings State School in TX for crimes they have committed....they are all juveniles. They grew up in homes filled with sexual and physical abuse, drugs, gangs, alcohol, no mom or no dad, or ones that were only drunk and high....horrible childhoods. No normal memories like going to the park, or having a birthday party at the zoo, or family photos or family dinners...nothing. They try beers at 5 and 6 because that is what they see...they try drugs at 8 or 9, because they see that too. Besides, it takes away some of the pain. All they know is abuse, hate, emptiness, pain. So that is what they do. He was fifteen when he shot his girlfriend and killed her. He was twelve when he got caught for dealing drugs. She was sixteen when she strangled her two year old nephew and six month old niece. He was fourteen when he stole his grandparents car and drove two other gang members (who he was trying to gain approval from) by a house where they shot and killed a college student through a window. And that same boy was five when his aunt beat him horribly out of anger then filled a bathtub with scalding hot water and dropped him in. She was just six when her dad started visiting her room every night and molesting her. He was five when his mom took him with her to a party....a man got stabbed, his insides hanging out. His mom never came to comfort him, he sat curled up in a corner until someone else took him home. He was eight when his uncle would chain him to the table all day while he was out drinking and doing drugs. When he came home to find urine on the floor, he beat him.

Ugly and horrible? Yes. And we need to be aware that it is out there. I was raised in a Christian family where I had all those good childhood memories. I had a dad that loved me and a mom that comforted me. I grew up knowing the light, the truth. I've never known the kind of pain and emptiness those kids have known. I was never scared to fall asleep or to wake up. I never questioned that I was loved. Lord why me? Why have I been blessed so much, known so much love, given above and beyond what I deserve...and these children didn't. I'm no better than they are, I didn't deserve a happy life any more than they did. Yet I had it and they didn't. And Lord, I don't ever think I'll ever know the answer to that question. But this is what I do know. I have to tell them. I have to tell them they are loved beyond what they can imagine. That YOU care, YOU love them, YOU created them. Lord show me how to tell them! They are not too ugly or sinful for the BLOOD OF JESUS. Because it washes away ALL sin. All of it...It can take away ALL the emptiness. It can heal ALL the pain.

Oh Lord Jesus, may I never forget who You are and what You have done for me. I am overwhelmed. Lord give me a passion for You, give me a heart like Yours, mold me, break me, show me who You are! I want to be Christ to such a sad and hurting world! I want them to know You and may You use me! Give me boldness and humility...Thank you for saving me, thank you, thank you....

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13

Home Decor

There are so many things I could post about, but at the moment I'm on a decorating kick....uh, or should I say I'm on a researching decorating kick :) I've pulled out all of my Pottery Barn and Crate&Barrel catalogs to gain brilliant ideas. There are so many things to consider. Color scheme, flow from room to room, style, minor details, adding personal touches...the list goes on and on. It is quite difficult! This morning Mark and I went and looked at granite countertops. I went knowing exactly what I wanted....and came out completely clueless as to what I wanted! There are so many options! Decorating is a slow process that takes lots of thought...

So since I love Pottery Barn so much I decided to browse the clearance section to see what I might find....And this is what I found.

Click here

Yes, a twig....a twig?? For $19.99?? On sale from $39?? I am reminded why I only gain ideas from these stores and don't buy from them. Think I'll stick to garage sales, craigslist, ebay, and amazon....

Yet another day to serve Him...

I can't exactly explain it, but lately Jesus has been doing such a work in my heart. My simple pleas and cries to Him have been answered in such an amazing way. I'm not even quite sure where to begin on what He has taught me, where He has pulled my heart, what new desires He has placed inside of me. Starting out this year my main goal was to be more like Christ. Satan has tried his best to defeat me, throwing obstacles in my way, presenting thoughts of failure, bringing up old hurts. But the more I take those before my King the less of a grip they have on me, and the more I can become like Him.

This year so far I have read some fabulous books:

Death by Love: Letters from the Cross by Mark Discoll & Gerry Breshears
The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes
and I'm currently in the middle of Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth by John Hubner

All four of these books have made a profound impact on me. God has used each of them in a different way. I'm so excited about how He is changing my heart and my desires! He has used these books as well as His Word to open my eyes to a hurting world and a need for the Love of God. Lord may I never turn away from the pain I see all around me, but seek to shine Your light in a dark, dark world...

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." Isaiah 6:8


A photo of Mark and me in Vail this January. Here is the man who daily encourages me to follow Jesus. He is my rock and I still can't believe I'm the girl that got to marry him....love him more and more each day!