Refinished Sofa Table

I've always wanted to paint & refinish something so when I found this little guy all scratched up I knew it would be the perfect thing for me to try. I went ahead & added more dings & scratches to give it the look I wanted.

 

After I put in some scratches but before I started painting.

 

Originally I thought I wanted it painted off white & red, so I painted it off white first. I then decided that wasn't the look I wanted so I painted it again.

You can see some reddish color beneath the black, I thought I found the perfect red color but when I started painting it, the color was actually bright pink. I think the girl that mixed up the paint didn't get the right color made because it was more pink than red. I ended up going to the paint store & got exactly what I wanted.

I put wax all over the cracks so when I painted it red the black would show through the dings & scratches.

 

Here is the first coat of red.

 

Here is the last coat of red.

 

It turned out better than I imagined it would, Michael even liked it so much he brought it in the house this morning when he got home. I was a little shocked by that gesture :) Pics with it decorated in the foyer will follow.

 

 

 

 

Tears of sadness & tears of joy

Last weekend we took our yearly mountain bike ride, one of our stops was Maggie Valley, NC, which is a gorgeous area. When we were packing up the bike to head home there was a little older gentleman named Clint cleaning off his windshield on his suv. I noticed his tag said he was a Veteran so I went & thanked him for his service. He informed me that he had been retired for 40 years but spent 20 years in the military. He was a very humble little man.

I walked back to the bike & told Michael that he was a Veteran so Michael then walked over to the man & thanked him. He started telling us that he & his soul mate of 54 years used to come to the mountains every year but she passed away 7 years ago. He was from FL & decided to retrace their steps. Talking to him just broke my heart, the thought of him going that far by himself to retrace steps & relive past memories just made my heart ache for him.

We talked with him for a quite a while & he said he owned a bike but his wife was always too scared to ride. He told me that he was proud of me for riding with Michael because there was nothing like getting that time together that you could never do enough together & we should always enjoy each & every moment together.

I'm so thankful that God has given me such a wonderful husband but standing there talking to Clint just made me feel thankful even more. Michael was standing there telling Clint what a wonderful wife he had & how we enjoy riding because it's "our" time. There are no phones, no tv just us. If everyone loved their wife as much as Michael loves me there wouldn't be a need for divorce lawyers. I hear it all the time when Michael is talking about me & sometimes he doesn't even know I can hear him.

We notice that Clint was sitting in the rocking chairs while we were getting on the bike & once we pulled out of the parking lot he went into the hotel. As we pulled out tears just streamed down my face, sadness for Clint but joyful for Michael & myself.  I pray that I will never lose sight of the times we have whether good or bad & I'm so blessed that God gave me Michael to share my life with.

Showing Love

You can show people you love in lots of ways, some ways are really big & some ways are really small.

I've been praying that God would show me someone who needed a little "pick me up" & a few days later a friend's name popped into my head. I couldn't get her off my mind so I text her just to let her know I'm praying for her & she informed me that her husband kicked her & the kids out of the house 3 weeks ago. She was left to find somewhere to live & start all over again. This is a very sweet lady who can't seem to catch a break. So I decided to send her a thinking of you card with a gc. When she received the card she sent me this sweet little text thanking me for thinking about her. My immediate reply was this is all God, I even told her not to let anyone know that I did that because to me, it's not about getting glory, it's about knowing that it's pleasing to God.

Later during the week I decided to send another little gesture, this one being on a much smaller scale but got the same "thank you" results. Just goes to show that sometimes it can be the smallest thing in life but in return it can show someone that you love them & care for them that will make them smile.

Take time out in life to show someone that you care, you can be a huge blessing to someone whether you realize it or not.

 

 

My front door

Just because I love my front door, please ignore the blue tape lol

Flooring

We have flooring in the bathroom & utility room. Michael & I enjoyed working on it ourselves & did a pretty good job if we do say so.

utility room

bathroom

our toilet area

I don't think anyone shares the kind of love that we do, he will forever be my sweets!!

Food issues

Trying to find something to eat when you have food issues is NO FUN at all but I'm happy to say after a full week of doing without all glutens, sugars & carbs I.MADE.IT. It's hard to believe a carb junky like me can do without all these things but I have absolutely no choice in the matter.

When the dr gives you the news that you must stay away because of all the side effects well you just stay away from them. I won't lie it's been really hard a couple of times but that's when I had to make myself kick into gear & just say no.

I even went to a bday party with my favorite pizza, Little Caesars as well as bday cake but I did not cave. I ate a few gluten free, sugar free things on the way & some mixed nuts so that helped me a lot.

I'm also finding there are several things that I can eat but it's just more expensive which stinks. I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do when we go out to eat but I won't have a choice. Who knew I would get excited over finding gluten free & sugar free pasta lol It's definitely not the same but heck I will get through it & I will be much healthier for it too.

#somethingineverthoughtiwouldhavetodealwith :(

Wedding favors

Shelly asked me to make wrapped candy bars for Kimme & Luke's wedding a few months ago but I've had so much going on that I almost forgot about them until the very last minute so I kicked it into high gear & got all 216 of them done. They turned out really pretty & I hope everyone enjoyed them, the pics aren't great but you get the idea, assorted black & white background papers, with light pink trim & white tulle.

The big C stinks!

Adenocarcinoma Lung Cancer are 3 words that I never wanted to hear or even know what they mean, unfortunately we now know way more than we ever wanted to know about those words, to some they are just words but to us it's now something we are learning to deal with.

July 7th wasn't just any day, it was the day that a very special man in my life received the diagnosis we wished could just go away, dissolve as if we never knew it existed! This very special man is my daddy, while it hurts so much to think about or even type, I feel like I need to express these feelings for just me.

I know lung cancer in general is very controversial & while he has been a smoker for over 50 years it still hurts to know that he's now dealing with a disease, a disease we can't control. I have to keep reassuring him that he will get through this, thousands of people deal with "the big C" on a daily basis. He is a very strong man & through God's grace he/we will deal with this the best way we can.

If you are the praying type please pray for my precious daddy, that he will not only get through the chemo & radiation treatments and God will heal his lung of this terrible disease.

We have brick finally

Becky these pics are specifically for you because I'm pretty sure you are the only one that looks at my blog :)

Garage side

starting on the back

 

The boys side completed

The front completed :)

We have brick

The brick have arrived but the weather will not cooperate for our brick layers. We have a set awesome masonry brothers who will not lay the brick unless the weather is just right for them. They also will not put the chemical in the mortar mix, which we totally prefer, although we are excited to watch it take place we will trust their judgement. Hopefully they will be able to start on it this week though :)

We both loved the color so we can't wait to see it start taking shape.

Updated pics

We finally have tin, we've actually had it for a few weeks but I kept forgetting to put the pics on here. They are in the process of working on plumbing & electrical now.

Front view

Back view

New Year's Eve

We had a great New Year's Eve night even though it was planned the last minute. We went to Misty & Jason's wedding with Melinda & Tooter after going out to eat. Once we left the wedding we went to Sissy's house (Tooter's sister) played cards & had a great time. Triston, Tate & Levi stayed at Melinda's house playing games but I didn't get a pic of them.

My loving sweets!!