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The New Deadline

Today makes three weeks of constant attention to our home renovation. The original date of December 1st was unrealistic, but I really believed that plan B would take off and we would be done by December 10th, but here I am in an unfinished house that is not ready to sell. Our new projected date of completion is this Tuesday December 13 because we have scheduled for a realtor to come out that day and hopefully put it on the market. I hate to be the whiny gripey type but the words “it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to… You would cry too if it happened to you” come to mind.

I feel like I have been fighting a battle trying to make this thing happen, and my weapons are construction materials that I feel completely inadequate using. I am tired of asking for help, I am tired of considering 6 hours of sleep a really good night. I am tired of watching thirsty wood drink up paint, and smelling nauseating fumes that have little room to escape into the cold.
It’s been tough. I have as many stories as their are swatches at the Home Depot to give you a sample of just how tough it has been, but I will just share a couple.
The day after Thanksgiving I felt sick to my stomach and took a break from working on shutters to go to bathroom. The hallway was dark and the entrance with the light switch was blocked with furniture that was stacked up. I steadily made my way through the maze of construction when in a split second I found myself in a 4 foot hole.

This hole was an air vent that had no grate on it and I walked right into it. At first I only felt a small sting and getting out of the duct work and to the bathroom was still a priority, so I climbed out to make it just in time to throw up. I was determined to not be a baby about and originally I wasn’t even going to tell anyone (all the my jeans being shredded to pieces might have been a clue to what happened). Eventually the adrenaline wore off and I was left with an achy scrape/bruise that ran from the top of my thigh to my knee. It’s almost completely healed know, but it’s gone through a lot of stages from causing my to limp, to swelling, scabbing, and itching.
Then last night we actually took a RARE break from our manual labor to get cleaned up and go see one of our best friends perform as the lead in White Christmas at a theater in Wichita Falls. It was a long drive on dark windy roads so I took the opportunity to sleep in the backseat when suddenly I was awakened by an alarming WHAP! We were all wondering the same thing. Something flew into our windshield, but what. Some speculate it was an owl and I tend to think it might have been a bowling ball. Okay, maybe not a bowling ball, but whatever it was it SHATTERED J’s windshield from corner to corner. It didn’t break through the glass, but the entire driver side is covered in a giant spider web pattern of glass smeared with feathers and guts. Here we are just trying to have a break from all the break downs and this happens. It didn’t spoil the evening, but it’s just one more dent in our budget, one more thing to fix.
I am hoping that the next time I do an update on this blog there will be good news and gorgeous pictures of all the work we have done on the house. I am ready to go from breakdown to break through, and I know it will happen even if it isn’t in my timing.
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00December 11, 2011|Uncategorized|3 Comments
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One Week To Go???

Okay, I will try not to allow my emotional roller coaster to fly off the tracks and crash land onto this blog right now, but I do want to give a brief update. J and I, along with the help of friends and family, have been working around the clock for the past 2 weeks trying to finish the house. It started with having the college crew from the church pull together to help us move all of our furniture off of the hardwood floors so we could refinish them.
Our entire 1800 square foot house is hardwood flooring other than the 2 bathrooms and kitchen so we had to cram all of our belongings into those 3 tiny spaces which is where it stayed for an entire week.

My dad, brother, and sister-in-law showed up the day before thanksgiving to help and they were quite the workforce.

We fixed the awning, took off the storm windows, removed dead trees, stripped the shutters, painted 5 rooms, and I will not bore you with the rest of the hours upon hours of work that was done. After they left one of our dear friends who is a professional painter came and painted the exterior.

This was a long overdue project that transforms our curb appeal like no ones business! Even with all that we’ve done there is still a lot left to do before it’s complete, so unfortunately we missed our original deadline of December 1st, and now we are aiming to have the house on the market by the 10th. I have been in complete panic mode most of the time. On the one hand it’s been exciting to see our 7 year dream our home finally be fulfilled, but on the other hand I am completely overwhelmed with the stress of knowing J will be unemployed in less than a month and our ticket to paying our bills isn’t even on the market yet! All I can say is that I am operating out of a level of adrenaline I didn’t even know existed. Eventually there will be a time to process it all I am sure, but for now I just have to keep going.
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00December 2, 2011|Uncategorized|2 Comments
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The Most Difficult Decision We’ve Ever Made

November is just about over and I’ve written 3 blog posts total, which is ridiculously scarce for me. I have good reason though, I just haven’t been able to spread it all over the world wide web just yet. Even now might be a little soon, but I can’t take it anymore. I have to be able to get this off my chest.

We are moving. We are leaving our jobs, church, loved ones, house, and the life we’ve known our entire marriage. We are moving to northern Kentucky where my family lives. Long story short we feel like that is what God is calling us to do. It’s the most difficult decision we’ve ever made. Getting married at 18 was a big risk and a huge decision, but I was so in love I felt more like it was a no brainer. Buying our first home was another major milestone, but it didn’t affect our location that much. J quitting his job for full time ministry was another big choice we’ve had to make, but we still had a steady income either way. Even when we had our kids it felt like we were stepping out of the boat, but we had made a lot of plans and provisions over 7 years of marriage before we became parents. This move however changes EVERYTHING. We don’t know what we are going to do when we get there other than live with my parents for a while. It’s a big risk, but it’s one we feel like we need to take.
There is so much more to share and now that the cat is out of the bag I can pop online every once in a while to give updates, but I still probably won’t be able to really blog again, in the way that I like to, until next year.
So that is the deal, please keep us in your prayers. And if you want to be really specific you can pray that
1. We complete the home renovation project and that it doesn’t cost too much, take too long, or destroy our marriage (just kidding, although it does put a strain on both of us).
2. We sell the house quickly and for the right amount. J’s last day is December 31 and would be great if he didn’t have to get another job before we move.
3. That there would be peace in our home and strength for our family during this stressful season, and that we would have closure and fond parting memories.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will certainly post more details in the weeks ahead. It’s going to be quite the adventure.
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

-Andre Gide
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00November 27, 2011|Uncategorized|4 Comments
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My Crafty Posse

I consider myself artsy, but not necessarily crafty. Although I always excelled in my art classes and even won awards, I distinctly remember a rare low score on a project that I did my freshman year. We had to create an intricate snowflake type design using an x-acto knife on some layers of white poster board. I don’t remember my grade but I can still envision the words my teacher wrote in red pen with her beautiful cursive handwriting, “Poor Craftsmanship”. Fortunately I am surrounded by people that have AMAZING skills in all areas of craftsmanship.
For starters, my mom works for Delta and the employees all dress up on Halloween day. Last year she decided to go to work as the Travelosity gnome. I figured since she had already created one gnome costume it should be easy enough to make one for SJ this year and the results were too cute for words!

and here is a little picture I created of SJ beside Juliet from the movie Gnomeo and Juliet
My mom ordered Z’s Mr. Incredible costume on line, but it still had to be altered because it was too big. The mask didn’t fit right either so we made a new one with left over material from “Julia’s” dress along with a removable black bra strap. Thank goodness he’s too young to be embarrassed by me!

and of course here is Z next Dash and the other Incredibles.

Along the lines of sewing and creating, SJ has been in desperate need of new hair clips because her hair is always in her face. Thank goodness for my two friends who volunteered to make some adorable bows for her! I even wore one and when my friend spotted it she said “That looks great. I think I might make some bows for myself”. It might sound strange wearing a little girls hair accessory, but bows are hot right now, and besides it was a flower. Who knew I would start raiding my daughters closet so early on.

I don’t have any close up photos of the bows, but they are all unique and super cute.
Lastly I told my husband that he never ceases to amaze and he begged to differ so I elaborated by saying your carpentry skills never cease to amaze me. When the coffee shop needed a stage and outdoor seating area for the art festival they had a non existent budget and very little time to work, but J took the bull by the horns and built these benches and chairs using entirely freecycled wood from Craig’s list.


This idea was inspired by something he found on pinterest, (Yes, he has a pinterest, I don’t. Yes, that is sad) but he designed and executed all of this from that genius mind of his, and I am wondering why I don’t have some of this furniture in my yard! We are talking F-R-E-E here.

I have my own strengths don’t get me wrong, but for all the crafty shortcomings I am thankful for an entourage of craftsmen by my side.
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00November 17, 2011|Uncategorized|2 Comments
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The Madness Continues

Yesterday, in the midst of preparing dinner and caring for a child that had decided to disrupt an ant colony, my phone rang and I answered it, a knee jerk reaction I guess. “Hello, this is Natalie” I said in my professional voice because when I don’t recognize the number it’s usually business related. They said “Hi, this is Staci, are you busy?” I have been in this position before where I can’t really talk, but then I have to ask myself why I answered the phone if I can’t talk, so I replied “Uhhh… kind of, but I have a second.” So she went right into it about her husbands schedule and when we would meet and I thought it was a lady I had just talked about a photo session so I was making plans for a shoot and in the end our conversations didn’t match up and she said “I think you are talking about something else. I am calling about the chickens”. She laughed and I hit myself on the head a few times.
2 weeks ago in my last blog post I briefly mentioned tripling my work load. I had to send my kids off to grandmas so that I could work, have a yard sale, and use a groupon we got for our anniversary. The juggling act has been somewhat of a success, but not without a few meltdowns on my part. It’s only for a season though. When I accepted this work it was because another photographer at the magazine had a family emergency come up and she had to abandon all of her assignments. There is no way I could keep up this pace long term. I just keep thinking “Gazelle Intensity” (you Dave Ramsey people know what I am talking about). So that is where I’ve been.

Hopefully things will start to slow down soon, although with Thanksgiving being next week I know that is probably wishful thinking. None the less EVENTUALLY I will check back in so I can explain why someone was calling me about the chickens. And then I can to tell you a little more about trick or treating and how the last two houses we went to Z went up to the door and when they offered candy he said “No thanks, I have enough already”.

I also have lots of tales from the sales, yard sales that is, both shopping and having.

Then of course I did celebrate 11 years of marriage with J and I have a few photos from the Villas that we went to in Austin.

You’ve been missed little blog, but for now I’ve got to get back to work.
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00November 15, 2011|Uncategorized|2 Comments
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Dash and Juliet

I have too many irons in the fire. I’d go as far as to say my whole schedule is on fire right now. My work load has currently tripled, plus I have a yard sale and my anniversary this weekend. This is why I am forced to take a blogging break. I will resume sometime in the future? Seriously though, I won’t be gone too long and I’ll get back to writing as soon as I get a chance, but before I go here is the outcome of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

More photos of all this cuteness and some stories when I return!
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00November 2, 2011|Uncategorized|3 Comments
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The Bike Family

When I took the above photo J said “you can’t sell that bike!”. I guess I’ve been so crazy about making some extra dough on Craig’s list lately that he assumes anything I photograph is going to be up for grabs online. Not in this case. I just wanted to document our latest family activity which is going for bike rides.

We all happen to love it and as long as we take the low traffic back roads there are plenty of places to ride to, such as the barbecue place downtown where you can get a chopped beef sandwich for two bucks or the nearest subway which currently has $5 foot longs.

Then when we are not eating there are TWO different parks nearby, a library, and of course family video. Z isn’t too confident on his big boy bike so he usually rides the tricycle.

Once we get going we travel in a train formation. J is the leader of the pack, SJ rides in the bike trailer behind him.

Z’s bike is being pulled by a bungee cord attached to the trailer, and I follow behind to make sure we don’t loose anybody! Once the little guy gets tired he can easily ride along in the trailer with his sister.

My favorite part of this tradition is the horn. The kids like me to honk this old rusty horn before we start.

If we stop for any reason Z won’t let us get away with starting up again until I honk the horn. I am pretty sure everyone in the neighborhood probably hears that squeaky horn and thinks here comes the crazy bike family. It’s a fair warning. HONK! HONK!
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00October 28, 2011|Uncategorized|2 Comments
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Family Video

One of my favorite activities to do with the kids is walk to the Family video store that is just a couple blocks from our house. They have a section for free kids movie rentals and we use it A LOT. The walk there gives us some exercise and it’s free family fun. I feel kind of guilty because I never spend any money there, but the employees are always extremely welcoming, and they even clean up the scratched discs for us.This is my way of saying THANK YOU Waxahachie Family Video. You guys are the best!
My mom is in town right now so tonight she took the stroll with us so that we could return some rentals and check out the Incredibles. We’ve seen the Incredibles several times, and Z thinks he is one of the Incredibles and so that is what he is going to be for Halloween this year.

My mom got a Dash costume that I have been working on customizing and she is making a gnome costume for SJ so that she can be the girl from Gnomeo and Juliet.

I am really looking forward to seeing how the costumes turn out and hope to get a lot of use out of them this weekend and Monday!
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00October 26, 2011|Uncategorized|2 Comments
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Party Animal

I like to dance. When I photograph weddings I get jealous of the guests because they always look like they are having so much fun on the dance floor and I have to work. Lucky for me I have had a few chances to get my boogie on here lately. In fact I worry that I may be building a reputation on my face book. If you look at all the latest photos I’ve been tagged in you might be inclined to think I some kind of wild party animal.
Exhibit A: That’s me in the red dress. Tagged on August 25, 2011
Exhibit B: Here I am in a feather boa, showing off various party faces in a photo booth with the fam. Tagged on September 20, 2011

Exhibit C: You may recognize the creme dress in this scandalous photo which I was tagged in on September 27, 2011.

Exhibit D: My caption on this picture was “For the record I do not do drugs” because I look like stumbling heroin addict or something. Tagged YESTERDAY.

A cyber stalker could potentially conclude that I have some kind of wildly active social life. And believe me I could party in the PG rated sense all night long. Most of the time though the closest I am to a dance party is a decent episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. In the past 2 months I’ve been to a Latino birthday party, Oktoberfest, my ten year reunion, a 50th anniversary party, and lastly a dear friends mustache bash (long story). So WOO, there have been some fun times, but I don’t how long I can keep up with this Facebook alter ego. I wouldn’t be surprised if my tagged photos soon return to looking like this one which I was tagged in this time last year.

But that’s okay, whether it’s dancing shoes and disco balls, or sweats and an ergo baby carrier, I can’t worry too much about what pictures show up on my social networks, after all, my kids are still too young to be embarrassed.
By |2015-05-14T23:15:42+00:00October 25, 2011|Uncategorized|1 Comment
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Everybody Has a Story

We don’t have cable, but we do have instant netflix and when I saw that we could watch American Pickers online I got all kinds of excited. The show is about these guys that go all over the country, looking for old junk that they can make a buck on.

J and I LOVE this show. It’s on the history channel because all of the antiques that they find have a history of their own, and as they say in the intro, the people they meet are a breed all their own.
That’s one thing I love about the show is that they can just make a random stop on the side of the road and meet the most fascinating people. It reminds me of segment called Everybody Has a Story with CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman. Steve would throw a dart at a map and look up random subjects in the phone book of that town to do a news story on whoever answered the phone. A couple clicks on youtube about some of the stories he did just left me in tears. Like this one or this one.
What I love about these shows is also what I love about my job, I have the opportunity to meet and photograph all kinds of people from around the community and hear a little bit of their stories (or read about them when the magazine comes out).
I already shared a couple stories that were featured in this months issue, and here is one other that really intrigued me.
Don is retired, but makes knifes as a hobby.

I love the facts that uses all sorts of materials, from elk antlers to yard sale scraps, to make his knives out of. He has made 154 knives. If it were me I probably would have lost count, but not this guy, he has each knife documented in little notebooks that he doodles and makes notes on.

Eventually Don started keeping a photo album with pictures of each knife along with notes of their own.

Most of the knives he gives as gifts or donations, although some people insist on paying him, which after seeing these treasures I am sure they are worth every penny and then some.
Don and I didn’t have a ton in common although he could have talked my ear off all day and his wife warned me of that. I really connected with the scribbles and doodles he had in his notepads. They reminded me of the drawings I do when I pack for a trip or the notes that I jot down all day long, but his stuff was more organized and kept together in one place. I am reminded that everyone does have their own unique story, but in some ways we are all part of the same story.
By |2015-05-14T23:15:43+00:00October 20, 2011|Uncategorized|1 Comment
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