new look

Like it?



:)

Happy Sunday!

p.s. IKEA was a bit disappointing {i.e., crowded!}
However, my ice cream cone was not ;)

IKEA love

True life confession: I love IKEA.

We've currently got some major renovation work going on at our house. And since I'm totally useless when it comes to sledgehammers and drywall, I've turned my focus towards obviously more important things: paint colors, furniture configuration, and kitchen cabinets.

Marty and I have lived in a 400 square foot apartment for the last year and a half. Cute? Yes. Cozy? Sure. But the only substantial pieces of furniture we own are a small couch and a queen-size bed. Which means that when it comes to furnishing a house, we've got about half of our smallest bedroom covered. Fantastic.

Enter IKEA, home-decorating-and-furnishing-on-a-budget-store extraordinnaire.

I love the giant blue warehouses, the cart escalators, the maze-like floor plan (does anyone else always get lost there? I carry around a silly map, and still can't figure out where I am), the beautiful fabrics, the decorating possibilities... but most of all, I love that you can grab a vanilla ice cream cone for 99 cents on your way out the door. Seriously, how genius is that?

This weekend, I'll be vacuuming up plaster at the house for an hour or two... and then my sister and I are making the trip to IKEA for a peek at floor rugs, armchairs, textured curtains, and 99 cent ice cream cones.

I hope your weekend is equally blissful ;)

boy scout

When my soon-to-be husband told me that he was an Eagle Scout, I blanked. Shoot... does that mean he's a cub scout? A tree-hugger? A bird-watcher? I didn't grow up around boy scouts, and the only thing I knew about them was that people called them in to do nasty jobs like clean out gross, garbage-filled basements in condemned houses. They wore goofy-looking neckerchiefs and uniforms with weird patches sewn on the front. I also knew that boy scouts pulled out tree stumps behind VFW's and held pancake breakfasts on Saturday mornings. Whoopie.

My opinion quickly changed, however, when Marty patiently explained to me what being a boy scout is all about: character, respect, discipline, leadership, and honesty. Marty and his two brothers are all Eagle Scouts, the highest and most prestigious rank that a boy scout can achieve. I still don't really understand the amount of work that goes into something like that, but I'm told they spend years and years working towards it. Years and years. Crazy.

Here are a few statistics that blew my suspender-wearing, nerd-glasses-toting stereotype out of the water: boy scouts make up 64% of Air Force Academey graduates, 72% of Rhodes Scholars, 26% of astronauts, and 85% of FBI Agents. For real? Eighty-five percent of FBI agents were BOY SCOUTS? I was shocked. Boy scouts rock, apparently.

So this past weekend, when we went to a Court of Honor that recognized my two brother-in-laws' achievements as Eagle Scouts, I proudly sat in the front row. A sweet lady read letters of congratulations, sent from police departments, firefighters, senators, congressmen, and past presidents. And although I had absolutely no idea what was going on at times (Wait--what are the roses for? Why the crazy-looking pins? And why the heck are they burning that neckerchief?), I got the gist of it.

And I was proud of the boy scouts... Neckerchiefs and all ;)

summertime

True story: every day, I face the same dilemma. Blog more pictures?Or go outside? And, given my recent love-affair with 80 degree weather, the latter usually wins. Which I think, in summertime, is an ok thing. Because anyone who reads my little blog is probably outside too.

Or at least wishing they were :)

Friend me!

So it may seem as if I've abandoned this blog, but I promise, my leave of absence is temporary! This summer has been absolutely nuts (weddings, church events, doctor's appointments, and yes, the house), and I'm excited to get back into the swing of things. What's up for the future? A blog redesign, some up and coming shoots, and exciting news from Marty and I are all on the horizon. Stay tuned :)

For updates on the status of our house-in-progress (along with fun pictures of ripped-up floors and Marty wielding deadly machinery), friend me on Facebook!

(You can also check my FB status updates for exciting news on the rising cost of drywall, how many sheets of plywood it takes to lay new subflooring, and what we plan to do with the dead cats we found under the house... seriously...)

Enjoy the sunshine :)