ummm....

my dog, paisley, had explosive diaherra last night....

enough said.

Kitchen Update

Well, things are finally starting to get rolling again at our house (we have had a few bumps, maybe more like massive-potholes-that-have-caused-flat-tires-and-then-the-AAA-truck-was late-type of problems), and things are looking up.

Over the week before Memorial Day, Pablo and I went and picked out the 2 slabs that would be used for our granite countertops, they were fabricated, and today they delivered them!!!!

While I have not been at home to inspect them myself, I am VERY pleased with the photos that Pablo emailed to me. Here are a couple:

(I absolutely LOVE my stove -- it has the 5th center burner it is fabulous!!)

Anyways, I think they look great. Originally I was scarred that they might not look the best with white cabinets, but once we paint the walls, I think they will look great!

Since the counters have bits of red in them, I am planning on painted our walls a dark green with white trim... I am going make my own backsplash out of wine corks, as well as my own drawer pulls out of champange corks... And several other ideas that will make this kitchen my masterpiece.... I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!

Next up on the renovation list: get all the electrical wired and all the MASSIVE wholes in every wall in every room finally patched so that we can actually unpack and I can finally begin to make this house a *beautiful* home!

Oh man, I'm excited to get home tonight and unpack my kitchen into the cabinets (who would have thought that that type of thing would make my week?!!)

Anyone up for painting sometime?

4650 W. Montana Street

Well, I have put this off long enough... i was wanting to wait and put up some cute photos announcing it, but alas, Pablo has not given the photos to me, and it has gone on too long.

All that to say, we are proud proud home owners (for about a month now in fact)!!!

I cannot tell you how much I am in love with our place. Yes, were without water for the first week of living there (luckily we still had access to our apartment -- so every morning i would have to hold my pee until we drove to the apartment to get ready... it was a hard week. let's just leave it at that). And yes, we have hit some pretty significant bumps, like the plumbing in our bathroom has caused us some trouble -- stories for another time -- and Pablo has had to quickly learn new skills such as plumbing. And yes, we lived off of microwave dinners and take out for about 3 weeks while we waited to buy a stove (all our big appliances were to be bough through our rehab loan -- we are doing some remodleing to the house and that is apart of our mortgage loan -- it's not nearly as complicated as it sounds. but getting the funding from the bank is!). But, now we have an AMAZING stove, the bathroom is at least functional, we have ordered our kitchen countertops, and our cabinets are being installed this week.

but let me back up a bit -- we bought a house on a quite corner. we have a double lot, which means that for city standards, we have a lot of land (yay for the dogs to have a big back yard!). It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house with a full basement. Pablo basically owns the basement -- one day it will be a great place for young life kids to hang out. I have my studio in the second floor. And we have a guest bedroom -- so there is plenty of space for you all to come and stay!

The highlight of living there so far (aside from discovering that there is a sewer cap actually on my property -- I swear, God must have just giggled to himself when setting that one! i mean seriously, the girl who loves sewer caps now owns one!!!) is when we torn up the disgusting brown carpet on the stairs and found BEAUTIFUL wood stairs underneath. Granted, there is a lot of paint and stain to be stripped off the wood, but they will be incedible when they are finished.

ok, so there is so much more i could write about being a home owner and how i go around and just hug a door jam or run my hand along a wall and say "i own you"... it is quite the feeling. but, i will leave you with that.

and i promise to upload photos of before and after of the place as it progresses.

ps. here is the address

4650 W. Montana Street
Chicago, IL 60639

Candles, Wine, Connection

After a rather eventful few days (if you haven't heard via Pablo's constant Facebook updates and picture postings, Pablo and I put a bid on a wonderful house we are hoping to purchase!!!), Valentine's Day, and then my brother and his girlfriend staying at our house Monday night, it left very little time for Pablo and I to relax and just be.

Well, I have a wonderful husband. I got home last night to find the dishes in the sink clean, the house picked up, candles lit, and 1 glasses of wine sitting out on our coffee table (or trunk I should say). We spent the next hour or so just sitting and talking -- it was wonderful. I mean, I talk to Pablo more than I talk to anyone, but it had been a while since we had actually talked WITH each other, instead of just AT each other, if that makes sense... We connected, and it was wonderful!

And, to top it off, we found out that the seller of the house we bid on accepted our offer!!! so, we just have to hear back from the bank if they accept it as well... We should know by the end of the week if we are on the road to being proud homeowners... EEEEEE!!!

Shocking New Development

I like coffee...

Did you guys hear that? I like coffee -- in fact, I drink at least 1 cup a day!! This shocks me! I have hated coffee, even when I worked at a coffee shop I hated it. And now, I like it! Partly because I make it taste like coffee ice cream (so some of you might scoff at the me and say I don't actually like coffee and this is only child's play), but also because it is warm -- and living in a cold place nowadays, makes me like hot coffee all the more.

Now, if only I could grow to like tea -- it still tastes to me like I am drinking water that tastes like grass.

Anyways, I know, it's nothing profoud, just an update on a way I have changed in the last few months.

I miss my husband

As some of you know, my husband has been out of town for 2 weeks -- away on New Staff Training for Young Life. I have been gone from him (is that how you would word that statement? I don't know...) for 2 weeks -- when I was in Santa Barbara working in October -- but it felt nothing like this. Here are some reasons why I miss my husband so much:

1. making food for 1 person is really depressing (at least after being used to doing it for 2 people for a year and a half) and hard to do without wasting food
2. getting warm when I first get into bed is much harder
3. getting warm in the middle of the night is much harder
4. putting the last two factors together, that means I have put the heater up higher which means our gas bill will be higher
5. being a single parent sucks!!! Honestly, these girls are driving me crazy!!
6. The hour difference makes it really late for us to talk because when he is done with class or with playing in the ping pong competition or the basketball competition, I am already in bed which makes for some very quick and superficial conversations -- leaving me very unsatisfied!
7. I have to get up a good 20 to 25 min earlier because normally when Pablo is here, he takes care of taking the girls out to the bathroom, feeding them, and getting the car started to warm up, while I finish getting ready. Let me tell you, for those of you who know me, you know how I LOVE my sleep and how I am NOT a morning person, so this combination does not make me happy.
8. Curling up and watching TV before I go to bed just isn't as cozy and fun without him.

I know, I know, these all sound very superficial and selfish of me. I just really hate doing life without him like this. He is my favorite person to be around, and I love doing the daily meanial tasks with him.

I MISS HIM!!!!!!

Thank goodness he comes home tomorrow evening!

i'm not angry anymore!

the last few months have been pretty challenging for me -- emotionall, metally, and definitely spiritually. basically i have been really really angry with God.

i have been angry about so many things, but biggest of all was that i didn't feel like God cared about me -- not only did i feel like He wasn't listening to my prayers, but that He had forgotten about me all together.

then, as you have read in an earlier post, I heard (and more importantly i believed what i heard) that He had heard my heart's cry(ies). and even though that was a wonderful and completely uplifting and reguvinating day for me, my abilty to say "i am no longer angry" came a couple weeks later.

as some of you know, i am doing 2 beth moore bible studies (one with my church and the other with my sister and friend via skype). both are very challenging, and i feel the stings of my heart being stretch as i press deeper into him.

during one of my quite times with the bible study on faith/believing, i was filled so full with the knowledge that the LORD loves me, that it led me to have tears streaming down my face, and left me bubbling over wanting to tell pablo and the girls i do the study with, and you guys all about it.

it came from a verse in Psalm 139:17 (the whole chapter is wonderful, but primarily v. 13-17)
"How precious are your thoughts about me,
O, God.
They are innumerable."

friends, this verse was meant for me. not only did i need to know that He hadn't forgotten about me, but His thoughts about me are, in fact, innumerable! can you imagine!!!

and then beth moore wrote these words, "God... bid your heart to beat. For many days He alone know you existed. You were His secret." i read each of the phrases one tiny word at a time, and then i read them over and over again. i couldn't read them enough. i just let them soak in until i was waterlogged with them!

friends, i have never felt more loved by the LORD. as corny as it may sound, i still walk around smiling and almost crying at the thought that He bid my heart to beat; that i was, and still am, His secret.

so, i can say that i am no longer angry. i mean, afterall, i am His secret.