I ran six miles today. I would have never thought I could run that far or for that long. It was the strangest thing. Sam has had a cold so I have not been able to go to the gym in a little over a week. The last time I went to the gym Emelia had been sick so I had not been for a week before that either. Last week it was really tough for me to run. I walked two laps to warm up (six laps is a mile), ran a mile, walked two laps, ran a mile etc. until I had walked one mile and run three. Today I walked my two warm up laps and started to run and figured I would try to run four miles. I got to three and said, I can do five. Then I got close to four and said I wonder if I can do six. I just sort of hit a zone. It was awesome. When I stopped I walked a lap and felt drunk. I was dizzy and weaving and tired. It was crazy, I thought man I should have just kept running. I felt like Forest Gump.
Oh, and Sam said Please. It was also awesome.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Cowboys and Princesses
I have not posted pictures for awhile so here are a few. Some are from Halloween and some are to chronicle the kitchen process. I will put updated kitchen pics up soon but this is where we started.
Our little princess... she was worried her teachers would not recognize her as Emelia since she looked so much like Princess Aurora.
They had a parade at preschool, she loved it!
So did Sam!
This is her class, the little girl dressed as Curious George was so cute, her older sister in the next class up was the Man with Yellow Hat.
Sam has loved Woody since we went to Disneyland. I actually found the costume at the Goodwill, yes it was unopened and from this year but missing the hat and boots (Target donated it!) , I just bought those separately. He was so excited and loves his boots.
Trying to get them both looking at the camera and not doing something silly at the same time is nearly impossible.
Sam wanted to take the hat on and off more than wear it so eventually I gave up.
Emelia was pretty unsure about this house but there was a sweet old man on the other side of the grim reaper.
Sam showing off his loot
This is the kitchen when we bought the fridge was huge so it really cut in to the traffic flow on that side of the room. The stove had two burners and the other side was a grill (apparently very top of the line Jenn-Air 20 years ago.) The microwave didn't work. The soffit hungover the cabinets by about a foot and was painted dark green so it felt like you were cooking in a cave.
We have gotten new appliances which was awesome! They all came from the Sears Outlet and were 40-60% below resale because they were scratched or dented in some way. I so don't care! We have been so blessed to find really good deals and really good contractors to help us. The electrician was here yesterday and it turns out he goes to our church! They took down the giant fluorescent light and the cans in the soffit were already gone so they put in two pendents and some recessed lights. When I came home from the grocery store and saw the results I literally cried. The kitchen looked so beautiful even with no cabinets or drawers and a huge hole in the wall. I can't wait to see when it is all done.
Our little princess... she was worried her teachers would not recognize her as Emelia since she looked so much like Princess Aurora.
They had a parade at preschool, she loved it!
Sam has loved Woody since we went to Disneyland. I actually found the costume at the Goodwill, yes it was unopened and from this year but missing the hat and boots (Target donated it!) , I just bought those separately. He was so excited and loves his boots.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Content
Once again I find that so much time has passed since my last post. Part of that is that we are working on the house and I think I spend every spare Internet minute looking at light fixtures or curtains or something like that. I truly have purchased (and returned) three sets of drapes for the dining room before deciding on the ones I actually hung. The sad part is once I got them up I really wished I had kept the first pair which I loved but really did not work with the room once we painted it.
We found a lovely couple who have a small business refinishing cabinets and doing some carpentry work. We have hired them to work on the kitchen. They tore out the gigantic overhanging soffit and it already feels so much more open. Currently the doors and drawers are at their shop being worked on which means you can see every sippy, every glass and every princess plate in my cabinets. It also means that my silverware is in a box, my utensils are in another box and so on. I am not complaining though, it is going to look great when we are all done and it is about 1/4 the cost of new cabinets. We are going to have to wait and do the countertops and backsplash (oh yes, I will have a glass tile backsplash) in the spring but I can't wait to see the finished product.
The crazy thing is even with all this chaos going on I feel really happy right now. More than happy, I feel content. The other night I was putting Sam to bed and after we read and I sang to him I just sat rocking him in the dark for a few minutes and I thought, I want to remember this moment. At 7:33 p.m. on November 14 2010 I felt content with my world. I have not lost that extra ten pounds and I need my hair colored (badly I might add). My kitchen is a crazy mess. My bedroom curtains are being hung up by nails right now and you could feed a child with the crumbs that are in the folds of the chair I am sitting in (stinkin' graham crackers) but I am content. I am not saying that none of that stuff matters or that I wouldn't like to eventually have curtain rods and a crumb free chair, but I have finally come to terms with the fact that none of that will provide contentment because it is very temporary. My relationship with Jesus and his love for me and my love for Him is really the only thing out there that isn't temporary. I have a hard time talking about my faith with people outside of my church (or past church) circles but as I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that the nicest thing I could do for anyone is to tell them about Jesus and how He has changed my life. It is tough because you feel like maybe you will be judged by people or people will think you are weird or crazy but really even if they do so what. It is not even really about the "eternal" implications of heaven and hell, it is about making it through this world. It is about knowing that someone who knows EVERYTHING about you and where you have been and what you have done LOVES you anyway. When my mom died one of the things I struggled with most was feeling like no one would love me unconditionally. When my mom found out I was having sex at 16 she was not happy and we had some serious talks but she loved me even though I disappointed her. When I got in a car accident that was totally my fault, she loved me anyway. It took awhile for me to really come to terms with the fact that Jesus loves me unconditionally even though he knows not just the public acts, but the private ones too. This is the source of my contentment. I can't guarantee that I will never feel discontent again and I still struggle with all kinds of things (not the least of which is my desire for perfection) but I know that righting any of the "wrongs" in my life will not fill me up only Jesus can do that.
We found a lovely couple who have a small business refinishing cabinets and doing some carpentry work. We have hired them to work on the kitchen. They tore out the gigantic overhanging soffit and it already feels so much more open. Currently the doors and drawers are at their shop being worked on which means you can see every sippy, every glass and every princess plate in my cabinets. It also means that my silverware is in a box, my utensils are in another box and so on. I am not complaining though, it is going to look great when we are all done and it is about 1/4 the cost of new cabinets. We are going to have to wait and do the countertops and backsplash (oh yes, I will have a glass tile backsplash) in the spring but I can't wait to see the finished product.
The crazy thing is even with all this chaos going on I feel really happy right now. More than happy, I feel content. The other night I was putting Sam to bed and after we read and I sang to him I just sat rocking him in the dark for a few minutes and I thought, I want to remember this moment. At 7:33 p.m. on November 14 2010 I felt content with my world. I have not lost that extra ten pounds and I need my hair colored (badly I might add). My kitchen is a crazy mess. My bedroom curtains are being hung up by nails right now and you could feed a child with the crumbs that are in the folds of the chair I am sitting in (stinkin' graham crackers) but I am content. I am not saying that none of that stuff matters or that I wouldn't like to eventually have curtain rods and a crumb free chair, but I have finally come to terms with the fact that none of that will provide contentment because it is very temporary. My relationship with Jesus and his love for me and my love for Him is really the only thing out there that isn't temporary. I have a hard time talking about my faith with people outside of my church (or past church) circles but as I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that the nicest thing I could do for anyone is to tell them about Jesus and how He has changed my life. It is tough because you feel like maybe you will be judged by people or people will think you are weird or crazy but really even if they do so what. It is not even really about the "eternal" implications of heaven and hell, it is about making it through this world. It is about knowing that someone who knows EVERYTHING about you and where you have been and what you have done LOVES you anyway. When my mom died one of the things I struggled with most was feeling like no one would love me unconditionally. When my mom found out I was having sex at 16 she was not happy and we had some serious talks but she loved me even though I disappointed her. When I got in a car accident that was totally my fault, she loved me anyway. It took awhile for me to really come to terms with the fact that Jesus loves me unconditionally even though he knows not just the public acts, but the private ones too. This is the source of my contentment. I can't guarantee that I will never feel discontent again and I still struggle with all kinds of things (not the least of which is my desire for perfection) but I know that righting any of the "wrongs" in my life will not fill me up only Jesus can do that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)