Water Joy

Yesterday while taking out the trash, I decided to make sure the side gate was locked and squish. My foot sunk into a mud puddle.

Remember this?

Well the place the men fixed is still fine.  This was/is a new location.

Oh joy.

This afternoon, when our backyard was shaded by the house and Tatum was covered in banana and melon, we headed outside to the little splash pool to cool off and have some fun.

Tatum feeling the water coming out of the hose...it was pretty funny.

Then I took the hose and moved it over her head. 

Like the appalled look she's got going on here? 

How could you, Mother???

Here she's rehearsing to play the first female Oliver.

Please, sir, may I have some more?

Roy was close by as usual.

Gettin' a little gray there, dog.

Then Tatum had some more fun with the hose...

And then we moved on to playing with chalk.

Look Mama!

Can I eat it?

I'll just scootch around and get my cute butt really dirty instead...

Tatum has learned to push her truck around and that trucks go "brrrroooooom." So the chalk was a truck, in this scenario.

This is her favorite way to sit...and bounce...

And maybe I have way too many pictures, but I don't want to forget the sweet shape of her head,  the fullness of her cheeks, or the way her fine hair curls at the nape of her neck.

After splashing and squirting and dunking and playing in water for nearly an hour, we headed inside for a warm bath.

Later on, I filled a few bottles and the sun tea jar with water to get us through the water going off while my and Matt fixed the pipe again.

Only its a different pipe. And they (and the guys at Lowe's) don't know how to fix it.

And when Matt left to take a shower at my parents I walked into the garage to discover a pool of water coming from under the base of the inside AC unit. It might be a slab leak, and we put in a call to our home warranty...but we won't know anything until tomorrow.

And so we're still without water.

Thinking back to earlier today I'm grateful I bathed Tatum when I did, left the pool full since Roy's drinking out of that, and I'm thankful that on a regular basis we do have running water. I've turned the faucet on so many times by force of habit...I don't realize how often I do it to clean something sticky off my hands or rinse the toothpaste down the drain or get a glass of water before bed. 

So if you think of it, say a little prayer our plumbing issues will be resolved quickly and as painlessly (financially speaking) as possible. By tomorrow I will be very, very thankful for water.

Stop This Train

Stop this train

I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

In case you don't recognize it, this is a John Mayer song that mirrors how I feel life is right now. 

Last week I swear I was playing with my dolls in my upstairs room, then all of the sudden I was living in a dorm and taking off on overseas adventures. Last Friday I met this great guy and got married. And yesterday we had a baby.

Sometimes, like I think we all do, I wish I could close my eyes for a few hours and go back to that idyllic childhood time of make believe and adventures stored up in our heads.

But then I open my eyes and find different adventures.

I'm the dragon growling and crawling on my hands and knees chasing the princess instead of fighting the dragon (I was never waiting to be rescued in my daydreams). We explore new and exciting places like...under the bed! And splitting a shrimp platter with the love of my life in an empty Red Robin is a perfect date.

I know everyone feels like this at some point. All I can do is take massive amounts of pictures and write these thoughts down and try to treasure them as much as possible.

Two weeks ago Matt's parents drove out here from Northern California and got to spend almost two weeks with us (and Tatum. OK, mostly Tatum).  We so enjoyed them being here, and Tatum recognized them instantly and was so comfortable with them quickly from all the Skype dates.

We went to the zoo the day before Father's Day...and what may be the last cloudy day in awhile!

Tatum was definitely a Daddy's girl that weekend...

Much to Daddy's delight...

On Father's Day we managed to get one picture where we were all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. We headed to church...but Tatum only made it through worship in the nursery and then her name flashed on the big screen to the right of the stage. I think she's only made it through two church services without having a meltdown in the nursery...

After getting kicked out of nursery we girls headed home and let the rest enjoy the service. We had work to do. I whipped out some blank cards and ink and after a lot of trial and error (and blue ink EVERYWHERE) we managed to finish our Father's Day cards for Daddy, Poppie and Grandpa.

Yes I stole the idea from Pinterest.

Grandma did bath duty while she was here. (I don't think she minded)

Tatum and Grandpa were basically wrapped around each other's little fingers.

And I thought I'd show you were we are with the living room by now.

Here's the BEFORE

What these pictures fail to convey is the pink undertone of the room. It used to be...wait for it...burnt sienna. Yup, durn near ORANGE. We could see bits of it behind outlet covers and the like. So I think the last owners wanted to go tan...but maybe only did one coat. So the whole think has this pinkish muddy hue that was quite depressing.

A little work...

Okay, a LOT of work...

And it finally started feeling light and airy and homey.

Things are still in progress. I snagged the two gold chairs for $50 (for both) from a thrift store, the top of the bookcases is still a holding ground for unused decor, and there's a healthy amount of toys usually strewn about the place.

My birthday present this year is Matt got the picture he gave me last year right before Tatum's birth framed. I'm so excited to get it back and put it in its rightful place over the fireplace!

All the news for now, I've got to stop dilly-daddling and get to work!

Peacock Blue

Y'all may remember I'm Not a Neutral Gal...and here's the proof.

One room I haven't talked about much yet is the office/guest room.

When we bought the house it was dingy and dark. A teeny dim light in the middle of the room barely made a dent. The color was a green painted over bright purple, giving it a dark muddy appearance. Even the ceiling was painted green!!!

Now y'all might have seen pics of our laundry room, which is painted peacock blue.

And I love it.

Here's a quick before (blah)

And midway through (okay...)

And after (yay!)

We still need to paint that door to make the transformation complete (and touch up the ceiling), but I can definitely live with this.

I actually wanted to paint our master bedroom this color, but after the laundry room Matt thought it might be overwhelming. 

So we had two extra gallons of peacock blue.

The office Matt wanted to paint a lighter green, called "cool cucumber" or something like that.  After a coat of primer to cover the dingy green, and a coat of cucumber...it looked exactly the same.

Exactly.

So I proposed we make use of those peacock gallons!

My parents were skeptical.

My mom made a fish face and acted like she was swimming every time she walked into it.

Matt claimed he liked it.

We installed a ceiling fan (thank you Jason!) and painted the ceiling white.

The way it was left for awhile it just looked like an awkward blue room...but I had a vision.

All our funky pictures, our bright and bold accents would find a suitably funky room to live in and make the transformation complete.

With Matt's parents coming for a visit I decided it was time to get things done (or at least rolling) in this room.

A bit of rearranging, a few hours assembling the futon Matt's parents got us (they claim it was selfishly so they could sleep better, but it was very generous and all future guests can thank them!), and a bit of sewing and the room is much closer to being complete than it was.

The orange board is actually magnetic, and those are words for some creative poetry on the go. The chevron fabric I got with my Hobby Lobby coupon and just used a tension rod to hang it after hemming the edges. Jerry and Elaine were a thrift store find I couldn't live without, and they finally don't look so out of place.

It may be loud and not your style but I definitely love it. Love the graphic prints and the bold pops and the mod feel of the whole thing.

So if you're headed through OKC sometime, drop us a line--we've got a room ready for you!

A Blur

The past two weeks have been an absolute blur. Since there's no way I could sum it up I'm going to do it in bites.

Week 43

Standing on her own a LOT. Looking for that first step any day!

Loves to play

Peek-a-

BOO!!!

And peeeek-a-

BOOOO!

We do this all day...

I don't mind.

Roy gets a bit tired of it, though.

Later this same day the skies grew cloudy...and ominous...

That's from our backyard.

A few hours later we were in the bathtub, in the dark, Matt piling pillows and blankets on top of us as hail thundered down.

Matt asked above the thundering noise if I was nervous.

I said no.

Then it got very quiet.

And I said yes.

Half a block away ten power lines snapped in half, one landing on top of a gas station, one trapping a family in their home.  

A hotel in Edmond was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. 

One of our favorite restaurants along Lake Hefner was also struck and burned.

It was a bit intense, folks.

Luckily Tatum had fun playing with the weather radio and trying to get her helmet off.

That night I packed for our trip to Orange County in the dark. We left the next day, thanking the Good Sweet Lord we skirted more severe weather!

Tatum was a squirrely twirly wiggly girl on the plane.

But she didn't cry.

No one wanted to throw us off the plane.

A childhood friend got married and we were blessed to lend our hands to prepare the wedding and reception site...

My Jr High youth pastor married them...when he was my pastor he had a long ponytail and it threw me to see him a bit gray and wearing glasses! That means I'm getting older too?!

We got to see lots of friends, family, and family friends. And friendly family. All of which are good.

And I got to do the two things I wanted to before we left.

1.

In-N-Out

2.

Go to the beach.

Tatum dipping her toes in the ocean for the first time!

Twirling

My Mama#2 Charlene

Looking at sand crabs crawling off my hand

I think it was a bit chilly for Tatum as she kept drawing her legs up in oh-so-delicate a fashion.

So there you have it.

We're home, and Tatum now has an ear infection, runny nose, diaper rash and is teething on top of it all.

And life continues to be a blur, which makes me grateful for snapshots of wonderful days like this.