the vampires made me do it

they made me stay up. all. night. long.
Do I like vampires? Nope. Werewolves? Nope.

...movies?! not really.

BUT, I do love the excitement, the hype, the fellowship, and even the mile long line of teenage girls anxiously waiting to support their "team". Kind of gives you that "day after Thanksgiving early bird special sale" rush. Fun to be out with all the crazies! I'm proud to call some of these crazies my dear friends.

Plus, who could pass up the opportunity for some teen beat worthy paper goods?!

Apparently, not me.

He cares.

He is in control.

He is the provider.

I have a great big god who is in the business of details.

I want to share a little story, not to boast or broadcast details of our finances, but instead share what I believe to be another little detail He provides to let us know how much we are loved.

John and I have been expecting a check out side of our monthly earnings. My wheels have been spinning like crazy as to the best use of this money. Now, I have NO trouble at all spending money, but there are several different directions that would be beneficial, productive, or necessary for the money to be allocated.

We are not talking about a huge sum by any means. Again, this is about the details.

As I waited on the check, honestly I started to get stressed. Naturally, I think I can control. That I must account for everything on my list for it to all balance in the end. That I have provided this money. Did I pray about how He would have us use the money? Sadly, I only found myself praying for it to arrive!

So wrong.

Life happens and stuff is not always as we plan. Not always an earth shattering detour, sometimes as simple as dead car batteries and extra bills, but "the list" does not always balance.

John and I finally made our game plan as to what we thought would be best to do with our check. I made the deposit, took out cash set aside to complete our project, transferred money a few places. Still stressed forgetting that I am not in control. I was stressed I wasn't getting to "mark off" as much off of my original list and resided to the fact that it did not all balance. Maybe next month. The last major thing we needed to pay was our car tags, both due at the end of this month. I felt confident that the money would have to come from some where else even though I originally hoped otherwise.

John and I discussed all the amounts of money being shifted around in cyber space and he was planning to handle car tags right after work. Flustered, I told him he would probably have to transfer other money etc etc and that after it was all said and done $224.32 would be deposited in to our checking account.

$224.32

John called with a chuckle yesterday afternoon when he processed the car tags.

Totalling $224.06

I take comfort knowing He cares about details. Details SO small as my little checking account. Not only does He provide, but He provides abundantly. No, .26 cents is not what I would call an abundance. But there is such a parallel to our lives. He knows our needs, and even when we think we are in control, how wonderful to know He fills them. perfectly. What a reminder of the great big god we serve.

bathroom before...part 1

Shortly after my last post, John and I started a little bathroom "update". This project to me is honestly kind of like playing dress up with a pig. You can fluff and add a little sparkle, but at the end of the day...it is still a pig. Meaning this isn't my dream bath and the "after bath" won't be either. We aren't dealing with dream spaces, or dream budgets, but it sure is fun putting our own little spin on the place we call home.

Sounds ungrateful. Not my intention. I love my house. I am thankful for my house. BUT it is nothing like I imagined myself living in. I'm not much of a cookie cutter "pop-up" house kind of girl, but you've got to start somewhere, and I'm very thankful I got to start here.

I need to find some pictures from when we first bought our house to give you full appreciation for our progress. Y'all know me. I am impatient and impulsive when it comes to my home (and probably everything else). Sadly, I did not photograph the native men and their palm trees (no kidding) on the wallpaper the day I painted over them with left over paint from our living room. The cabinets were builder white with your good ol' contractor special brass pulls.

SO, all that said, before these "before" pictures I haphazardly painted the wallpaper (gasp! oh the shame) with left over paint (you wouldn't want the natives watching you either!), painted the vanity and replaced the knobs to update just a t-tiny bit. Probably not my best idea to post a project that is not yet complete, but surely it will all come together and there will actually be an "after" post to share.

We don't do much entertaining in our bathroom, so odds are you've probably never seen it. Come on in and take a look. You'll be greeted with this B-E-A-U-TIFUL berber carpet. This carpet isn't my favorite (that is another post) but honestly, I just don't understand who had the grand idea of incorporating carpet in to the bathroom. It has seen its day, tattered and torn. This picture really gives it a little more credit than it deserves.

Look at the breathtaking light fixtures above our gi-normous mirror. In all its flower etched, brass glory. We were the proud owners of two of these fixtures and I am pretty sure in the almost four years we have lived here only one of the fixtures actually worked. The dark walls + lights that don't work = not ideal.

disclaimer: this picture wasn't taken until after the demo was well under way = LOTS of dust

Now, to give you a feel for the space this is looking down the room with the vanity now behind you. You entered to the left and the bathtub is to your right. The doors painted the same as the vanity and the lone brass knob. Again. Years. One knob. Easy fix..but SO easy to put off replacing.

The most annoying part of this bathroom is the TILE. Yes I sell tile. I enjoy pretty things, but anyone could tell you this wasn't quite right. Again, builder grade. White matte 6"x6". We can deal. We knew what we were getting in to buying our house...but I would like to shake the hand of the man that grouted our tile. Maybe he ran out of grout and opted for the near by toothpaste? Annoying. BOTH of our bathrooms look this good. Jealous? And, you would think I would be just the one to tell you how to get your grout clean. (enter "get grout clean" joke here) but no luck. It always looked yucky.

NOW, for the real reason this project transformed from a "want" to a "need". The darling hubs fell while showering one morning. Funny. You can laugh. Only now that we know he is okay. Seriously, I thought he died. Not kidding. But thank God he did not. He fought the faucet and he won. The faucet (and the tile around it) were now crooked and broken. Livable yes. But we just knew water was pouring down the wall when this lovely spot started to appear.

There you have it. Vanity, carpet, tile, damaged wall. Our luxurious master bath in a nut shell. So, we did one any impatient and impulsive person would do, and got out our tools. Should have taken a picture of us in our his and hers safety goggles, earplugs and gloves.

Step one! NO MORE CARPET!

Step 2: No more tile! (fear the man feet that destroyed lots of it!)

Sweet Atticus Essig had the honor of being a house guest during all the noise, destruction and chaos. I'm sure he went home and told his mom and dad about how crazy we are. We tried to put him to work, but he just cheered us on from the cold concrete slab.

To be continued... I sure do hope there is progress to show you soon!!