Heaven Stands

Our pastor gave a sermon a few weeks ago about Rejoicing, we were in Philippians, and we go to the oh-so-famous verse, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice (4:4).
It became a running joke in our house every time one of us complained about something, we would remind the other that they should rejoice in the Lord, it was normally followed by a smirk and rolling of the eyes =)

But seriously, it's changed my life in the last month.  I think I know one person who reads my blog, but we found out on May 4th that we had lost our baby at 12 weeks.  It's been harder than I could ever have imagined.  Just figuring out how I feel is exhausting, let alone dealing with my totally screwed up hormones, and how other people feel.  I think that I didn't really even allow myself to grieve until the last week.  Some might think of miscarrying as the end of a pregnancy, but it's so much more than that.  It was our baby!  We lost our child, and maybe we hadn't held that baby yet or named him or her, but he was our first child, and we'll never forget that.

But overall, I've been able to dig deep inside and still rejoice in Lord.  Even when it's hard, I have been able to grasp at the reality that God lost his only child too.  We always say that God always knows how we feel because Jesus was human and experienced the fallen world, just like we do.  But it really is true, God has experienced it all, he loves us so much that he put himself through everything that we are going to experience in our lives, it might not be exactly as we picture the situation-but if you look hard enough it's obvious.

So in this truth, I can rejoice.  And it's still hard to see pregnant mom's doing all of the things I should be doing.  But I rejoice in the life that God has given that child, and the gift he's given the parents.  And I pray for every pregnant woman I know that she would never have to experience the pain that comes with losing a child.  And I pray for those who have lost a child previously, that there joy would not be robbed from them with the memories of the past, but that they would rejoice in the Lord, always!

Basement Surprise

The weekend after Greg and I found out we had lost our baby, we decided that destroying our basement could possibly fill the void we were experiencing...

Seriously, who has ideas like this?

I've never wielded a power tool before, and I definitely felt awesome as we removed a terribly out of date black box that housed some lights from the ceiling, and tin from the walls.  Under which we discovered wood paneling (what were people thinking in the 80's!?!?!)  Greg was pulling all sorts of things off of the wall and then BAM... we found mold on the north facing wall.

I mean, are you kidding me?
We were barely holding it together after our experience at the doctor's office, and then we find out that our house has turned against us and has been harboring a fugitive!  It didn't look particularly fresh, but I called the mold specialists right away and they came out on Monday and gave us an estimate.

Once I woke up from the price induced stupor, we invited the fine folks from Mold Blasters to de-mold our basement.  And I must say, they did an awesome job, so next step.. finish pulling down the drywall and put up new insulation/drywall/paint and trim.

can we say... GROSS?

the after photo:

Oh home improvement...

Big Changes!

I'm pretty sure no one reads this, but just in case someone out there does, I'm pregnant!  I definitely don't look pregnant, but I definitely feel oh so different.  Besides the nausea and the absolute exhaustion.. who knew getting out of bed would be so tiring?!  But I can't help but flip-flop every second about the new addition to our family.  Greg and I feel so honored that God would allow us to raise a child, one of his children as a matter of fact, that it's overwhelming sometimes.. but I still have the fear of how much it's going to change our lives.  I know it will be for the better, I've yet to hear parents wish they hadn't embarked the on the journey of Parenthood.  Needless to say that we're super excited, and I'm so glad I have had the opportunity to spend time with some amazing parents, and can't wait to give it a try!

who doesn't love yellow

I've never painted a room before, I know, insane.  I've been on multiple mission trips, and I did paint the outside of a house, but I always opted out of being confined in a room with paint, I hate the smell.  But Greg and I decided to do it anyway.  Yellow is my favorite color, and our house is filled with lovely fall colors, so it seemed to fit as a new color for one of our guest rooms.  

Unfortunately the room in question was the go to room for ALL of our junk, so we've spent the last 2 weeks finding homes for everything (and stuffing some of those things in other small spaces).  There are always bumps in the road, and ours was taking down shelves in the bedroom, the old owners painted the hardware onto the wall, which in turn pulled off some drywall, etc.  But after applying some spackle we had a nice smooth finish to paint.  

I'd read about a new type of painters tape, called Frogger Tape, that when painted on, the water from the latex paint creates a barrier with the tape, getting rid of the leakage found with regular painters tape for nice crisp lines... so we were hopeful that it would work.  

The rest of the cast of characters... paint roller, 2 brushes, rolling pan (made from all recycled materials, and recyclable) and small paint trays ( made from 100% biodegradable plastic).  And we found a roller made with Teflon, so in support of Greg's job at DuPont, we of course had to buy it!  

I taped the room while Greg was at work, which was super easy.  And when we got home we got to painting.  And within 2 hours we were terrified that we'd made a big mistake.  It didn't look even and I was worried we turned our room into a taxi cab.  But after a few hours of drying, the room is beautiful!  It leaves you feeling cheery, and I'm super excited to say that the frogger tape was a success, no leaking and our trim is still beautifully white.  

Little changes

One of the things we love about our house are the french doors leading into the master bedroom.  They help make the house feel open.  And they're a great accountability for making the bed, if you asked my mom I bet she'd say I never made my bed growing up, she should have given me a door with windows!  Because now, I do it everyday because I hate seeing it up there all messy.  Except on Saturdays as you can tell from the picture...

But, the drawback-no privacy.  When my best friend and her husband came to visit, it was quite comical to say hello through our door while one of them would go to the bathroom to brush their teeth.
We wanted to add curtains, and found them quite easily at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  But I had the hardest time trying to find curtain rods that were only 16-25 inches.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching online to only find magnetic ones.  Well, on my next trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond to return something, I figured that I bought the curtains there why don't I just check (even though online they did not have anything).  And to my luck, I found them!  Nice and plain curtain rods, and the best part, they were only $4.99 a piece!  You can't beat that my friends... And isn't my husband so handsome with his bed head (i love him).

This past weekend we added the opaque curtains to the doors, to maintain the airiness but to give a little mystery.  I think it looks great, and it only took a few minutes.

Serious Comfort Food

As I mentioned before, it's very cold here in Normal, IL.  I never even know the temperature, but I can always count on my dad to have looked it up and let me know just how freezing the windchill is all the way from Delaware.  He seems to know what's going on here long before I have any clue, it's like my own personal weather man (thanks Dad!).
Maybe it's the cold, or maybe it's because we're Americans, but I just can't get away from pizza.  We both love it.  While we were living in Spain, I would try to make homemade pizza whenever we had Spanish class, so we could come home to some awesome food after having our brains picked by our Spanish teacher.  But to be honest, I hate dough!  Any kind, pie dough, sugar cookie dough, scones, pizza, bread... it is all sticky!  And I have definitely not perfected the art of rolling out dough.
So this time around I decided to use my kitchen-aid, there is a recipe in the little instruction manuel, and it even said that the machine would knead the dough for me... amazing? yes.  I love being in control of the ingredients, which is why I tend not to go the easy route and buy dough from the store (plus, we did not have that luxury in Spain, so now I'm just used to it).  In an attempt to better our diet, I used whole wheat flour for half of the flour content in the dough, and then I let the machine do all the work =)

After 2 hours, I was really disappointed by how little the dough had risen, but I made the pizza anyway....

it was FANTASTIC!  Seriously the best pizza I've ever had, the dough had the perfect amount of crispness and fluffiness, and you can't beat pepperoni and green peppers!  Greg and I loved it, and the second day it was even better!  No more ordering out for us!

Seriously?

Wallpaper?  It's ridiculous... I mean I guess if you're into ridiculous flower prints and intricate pictures, it's the only option.  But who designed it so it would be SO incredibly difficult to remove?  A friend of mine wanted to take down the wallpaper that the builder put up in the bathroom, so I asked my father-in-law about how to do it when we went to St. Louis, and I asked my mom... both warned me that it's harder than it looks.. but I was sure it couldn't be so bad.  I was wrong.

We went to the home improvement store to buy the right materials (Diff, a scraper, and a little wall scourer thing that puts little holes in the wallpaper).  Well our first mistake was forgetting to buy the little scourer thing.  So, Chelsey had to run back out (and I got to play with her super adorable baby, Mady).

But eventually we got to work, and my arm is still tired!  Just kidding, but seriously, it was really hard, and one of the walls was so stubborn, it was insane, like it was part of the structural integrity of the house or something.  We finished 3 of the 4 walls in a couple of hours, and had to leave the fourth wall (they were going to have to remove the mirror, etc).  I guess we're just lucky we didn't put any gouges in the wall.

this wall was my arch enemy...

Overall, it was fun to spend the afternoon with a friend, but it was slimier and harder than I thought it would be, I can't imagine having to do a whole room.  But I do know that I will NEVER put up wall paper.

the almost finished product, i was so proud