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.

Evaluate My Plate

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. If I'm not "momming" (which--come on--should really be an action verb) I'm working or trying to keep the house picked up and the floor decently clean enough for a crawler, then I'm trying to keep getting things how I like them in the house bit by bit with all these projects being pushed to the side.

Last Monday I did a lot of work-work (the kind I get paid for) and by Tuesday morning I was beat. I did something I don't think I've done since last November.

I put a movie on in the morning.

And sat on the floor with Tatum playing and actually watched most of it. And drank my coffee.

While it was hot.

It was a nice break.

I normally don't have the TV on during the day, and only put on a Praise Baby when someone who's short is rather fussy and I need to get something done. I don't like the idea of the TV being a babysitter and don't buy into that "it's an educational program" bull for one minute, but sometimes a girl just needs a break. God bless the makers of Praise Baby.

So what did I watch?

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman

Aaaaaand I realized that my life's not so busy as I think.

If you've never watched this movie, its a great one. Yes, men, it's even in color!

Its about the missionary Gladys Aylward, whom I read about when I was in 5th grade and that made me want to be a missionary in China.

That's not looking like it's going to be the plan, but it raised the bar in my mind of what one person is capable of.

This woman was deemed "unqualified" to go to China as a missionary.

So she saved up, week by week, and paid for her own ticket to take her. By train. Through Siberia. During political unrest.

Alone.

Once there she and her mentor opened an inn where they would tell the traveling mule teams stories during mealtime. Stories about Noah's ark and baby Jesus.

Through a course of events she becomes the foot inspector for the region, unbinding the feet of little girls. She began taking in children, adopting them into her life and heart. 

She walked into a prison riot unarmed and stopped it by talking to the prisoners.

And when the Japanese invaded she led over 100 kids through the mountains to safety.

One part they left out in the movie happened when she faced a fork in the road. The Japanese were coming one way, but she didn't know which road they were coming on.  It was cold, the kids were starving and she had to make a choice.

She prayed, spun around, and took the road she was pointed at. It was the higher road, and later they looked down and saw the Japanese troops on the lower road.

This gal had a lot going on.

It's a great movie and actually stays relatively close to the true life story of this remarkable woman...its on Netflix if you care to watch it.

All that to say that my plate didn't look quite as full as it did before. There was always room for one more kid in her house and one more story to tell and one more person to love on. 

So I evaluate my plate. Figure out how I can love more, do more, give more.  I've been blessed with so much, and know that because much has been given, much will be required (Luke 12:48).

But it was nice to stop for a minute and watch a movie in the middle of the day :-)

These two know how to stop and enjoy something. Like a family of mockingbirds flitting around the backyard.

Yes, Roy has paint on him.

That's fallen off my priority list...just making more room on my plate...

Mobility, Mamas and Mud

After too long a hiatus here is the return of the weekly pic!

41 Weeks old!!!

This picture was before this face:

She is so mobile now! She gets where she want to FAST! And she's standing for 5-6 seconds at a time and lowering herself to sitting from there...it won't be long before she's walking!

We here in Okie Homie had a great Mother's Day.  I was assured Matt would be on baby duty so I could sleep, but he thought I'd want to greet Tatum first thing in the morning...it being Mother's Day and all...

We went to the zoo and enjoyed the baby elephant and the tiger cubs and each other.

And yesterday...oh, yesterday was a D.A.Y.  Well let me back up...last week while driving to work Matt's tire tread peeled off on the freeway, and we ended up having to get him all four new tires.

Two weeks ago we backed into an old, beat up parked car and made a 2" dent.  We could have driven away, but we stopped, knocked on their door, gave them our info and prayed they wouldn't worry about it. 

Not so much.

That, plus our address change (we moved 4 miles!) raised our insurance $30 a month.

Then yesterday morning, Matt noticed a small stream coming from our side yard. 

I called the City's emergency dispatch at noon, explained where the leak was, and waited.

I also called our Home Warranty, and found out that because the  leak was outside the walls of the home, they didn't cover it. 

Fast forward to 7 and Matt and my Dad are starting to dig to find the leak.  The City shows up at EIGHT (after 3 more phone calls), looks at it and basically says its not their problem since its above the water meter.

Thanks.

We can't shut the water off inside the house because the inspector forgot to put that on his report and it's rusted tight, so my Dad and Matt open the water main and shut off the water (without telling me...while I was making dinner...and kneading bread...).

So we're stuck with this leak that is in this small area that neither the city nor our warranty covers...it's up to us.

So Matt digs, and my brother digs a bit and my dad digs a bit and our neighbors show up and dig a bit.

And I'm making focaccia bread inside, thinking I'll give the loaves to my parents and neighbors as a thank you.

Right before I pop the bread in the oven I feed Roy and step outside to check the progress. Coming back inside...BOTH loaves are gone.

That dog ate both of them.

Don't worry, he's paying for it today (as am I) with uncontrollable flatulence.

BUT...

the men fixed it.

It was a muddy, wet, dirty, stinky job but they did it and saved us $400!!! I am so proud of my hubby!!! 

And that night we got to take showers and run our dishwasher, thankful for the gift of flowing hot water.

Dave Ramsey says Murphy comes in threes...insurance, tires, water main busting...I hope we're done!!!

OH, and did I mention that I was stressed and all I wanted was a warm cookie but didn't want to do the dishes from it, and talked myself out of going to the store for them...only to get home and find our neighbors had brought us a plate of the BEST chocolate cookies I have EVER tasted. WARM.

God is good...all the time.

Week 38...39...Where Did The Time Go?

Since we bought our house we've been working nearly around the clock. I've been pulling 18-19 hour days at first painting and then unpacking and now just keeping up with a baby that crawls faster than you can believe! On top of working, and cleaning, and budgeting around this new-found thing called a mortgage!

I really think God should have just rounded that 24-hour day up to 30.

I did take pictures of Tatum's 38th week!

She is crawling all over the place! Once she got the hang of it she was off!

Then we had a series of expressions:

And then we had a little photo session a few days later so I guess this sort of counts as Week 39?

Mama got a little happy with the actions in Photoshop...

Other than that, the big news for us was my parents graduated from college last Saturday!!!

My mom was honored for her research project and my dad became a member of Phi Beta Kappa (correct me if I'm wrong on the name, Dad)! And I'd like to point out my mom would have too if not for her grades from college 30 years ago...so see kids? You never know when  flaking off in school will come back to bite you!

I'm so proud of them!