We're Engaged!!

I am a very happy girl today. Rick asked me to marry him last night. Obviously I said yes. He was very inventive as usual. He asked me to come over and help him decorate for Christmas and I agreed. We had Christmas music on and we had dinner cooking in the oven. I commented on an ornament that had his name on it and then about half way through decorating the tree he said "hey look I found a Shelley ornament." I turned around to see what he was talking about and he was holding a large clear glass ornament with fake snow in it. I inspected it thinking he had an ornament made with my name on it (he is always thoughtful like that.) I noticed that there was a red glittery ribbon extending down inside the ornament in the snow. He said, "I wonder what is on the other end of that ribbon?" I was catching on and got a smle on my face. I pulled out the most beautiful engagement ring ever and he asked me to marry him.

I'm going to Hong Kong!

It's official, I bought my plane ticket last Friday. I will be traveling to Hong Kong December 19-28th to visit my friend Katie. She moved there in August and will live there for two years teaching english as a second language. I am off work for two weeks over Christmas, so I planned the trip for then. I leave from Louisville and fly to Chicago, then Los Angeles, then to Hong Kong. The trip will take a total of 24 hours. The flight from L.A. to Hong Kong is 15 hours. They are 12 hours ahead of us so I will lose a day on the way there and gain a day on the way back.

I'm pretty excited and a little nervous too. I don't like to fly more than I have to, but I took a 12 hour plane ride to London in 1994 so I know what to expect.

If .you want to read more about my friend Katie in Hong Kong, she has a blog at http://katielivinginhongkong.blogspot.com/. She has a video of her new apartment on there. It looks really cool!

I'm back!

I've really been neglecting this blog. I'm going to try and keep up a little more. I'm not even sure if anyone reads this but I like having a collection of my thoughts to refer back to occasionally.

Last night was the first night that we have had Bible Study for quite a while. It was good to see everyone again. We are studying a new book called "The Power of a Praying Woman." I think it is going to be really good.

Things have slowed down for me somewhat lately. A big reason for that is that I have quit the half-marathon training. I'm a little upset with myself because I really wanted to do it, but I am trying to just let it go for now. I have been pushing myself too hard and that is one area that could free up a lot of time. I'm so close to being done with my master's, but this next month is going to be stressful as I finish my thesis. Plus I am teaching two classes and still working my regular 40 hour web design job. It's just not the time for me to be training for a half. I kept exhausting myself to the point that I couldn't recover. The good thing is that there is always next year! I finish my degree in December, so I plan on starting to train for next year's half at that point.

Alright, back to work. I'm in the middle of reprogramming all the menus within our site. Right now the navigation is all messed up. I think that I am going to have a sore neck from staring intently at the computer screen after today. Gotta love Javascript!

Rest and resume

I was a little overwhelmed last week. I took a couple of nights off to relax and now I feel much better. Sometimes we just need that time off to reset ourselves.

I get a daily inspirational email from an organization called "God Calling". It is supposedly inspired from the Word of God delivered via two elderly women living in England. I hesitate to accept it as that, but I know that the message is very true in many ways. I especially liked one that I recieved the other day. It is as follows:

I AM your Shield. No buffets of the world can harm you. Feel that between you and all scorn and indignity is a strong shield. Practice feeling this until nothing has the power to spoil the in­ward peace. Then indeed a marvellous victory shall be won.

You wonder sometimes why you are permitted to make mistakes in your choice when you sought so truly to do My Will in the matter.

To that l say it was no mistake.... All your lessons cannot be learned without difficulty, and this was needed to teach you a lesson. Not to him who walks on, with no obstacles in his way, but to him that overcometh is the promise given.

So to attain peace quickly in your surround­ings, as well as in your hearts, learn your lesson quickly. And the overcoming is never the over­coming of the one who troubled you, but the overcoming of the weaknesses and wrong in your own nature, aroused by such a one.

No lower standard than My Standard shall be yours. “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”

I love what this says. It is so hard to do the right thing when we feel that we have been wronged. We want to lash out at that person or group or establishment. Instead we are supposed to look at the situation as a learning experience that maybe was intended to happen to teach us something about ourselves. When we are wronged something negative usually comes out of our own personality. The negative reaction evoked is what we are learn from. We grow when we learn our own weaknesses. How are we to see our own weaknesses if life is a walk in the park? Through adversity we find our true selves. Once we know our true selves we can begin to work on what is broken and become more like Christ.

Busy

This is the busiest time I have ever had in my life! I have something every night. Tonight it's working out and class. Fun fun.

This is my name in Mandarin Chinese. I think I am going to try and learn some Cantonese before my trip this winter. I ordered some CD's so we'll see how that goes. I expect it to be really difficult. (Katie, you'll have to keep me some pointers.) For instance....is it Cantonese that I want to learn?? lol. I read on the Hong Kong tourism site that Cantonese is the primary language spoken in Hong Kong as opposed to Mandarin.


I have a busy weekend coming up again, but it's fun stuff. Friday night the girls from my small group are going to the drive-in and Saturday night the Young Singles are going to the Demolition Derby.....cause nothing says fellowship like a good ol' Demolition Derby. =) I just think that is so funny..

Our Monday night small group is all about service work so I have been trying to find something to do for other people or the community. I found the perfect opportunity. There is a local horseback riding barn that has a program for special needs children. They have it every Monday night. Since I used to ride this is the perfect service work for me. I am really excited to help out and to just spend time at a barn again. I really really miss it...even the dirty work like cleaning stalls. I just love being around horses!

Hump day

I was late to arrive for training last night so I jumped in at the end of the walker's group. I tried the speed walking thing and it was kind of fun. I can walk really fast because I am tall and have a long stride. It felt really good and I got that competitive spirit. I raced ahead and finished at the head of the group. That was a good feeling. When I am in the runner's group I could care less about whether I pass people...I'm an just trying to survive without dying..lol. The walk was really too easy though...I guess I need to run. For the first time I experienced that endorphine high after the workout. I finished and stood there talking to on of my running friends and I felt great...energized..hyper almost. The whole place was buzzing with conversation so I guess I was not the only one. I really liked that feeling. That alone could keep me motivated I think.

Well it's hump day and that means that I have class tonight. My class is in Oakland City so I will work until 4 then finish my homework and go to class at 6. I won't be home until 9:30 or 10:00 tonight. Wednesdays are my least favorite day of the week. I am so close to graduation though. Just one more semester and my college career is finally over!! Gotta push on through.

too much to do

my schedule:

Monday: work 8-4, small group 7:00-8:30
Tuesday: work 8-4, training 6:00-7:00
Wednesday: work 8-4, Master's classes 6:00-9:30
Thursday: work 8-4, training 5:00-6:00, small group 7:00-9:00
Friday: grass cutting night
Saturday: training 7:00am-8:30am, house work and yard work
Sunday: church 10:40-12:00.....REST!

So YEAH.....I'm a little stressed lately. I feel like I am either busy doing something or in my car driving. The Monday night small group is only for 4 weeks, so that will help lighten things up when it is over. Training lasts for another 12 weeks though..

Love me some Fridays

Yay, it is finally Friday! It's the 13th also so hopefully no bad luck befalls me. I don't really believe in that junk, but I always think of it on Friday the 13th.

Last night was another tough training night. I decided to go to the YMCA and get on the treadmill instead of going to the meetup at Wesselman Park. I did this for two reasons: 1. to get done earlier (the meetup is right in the middle of my evening) 2. to see what my time looks like on the treamill and try it in air conditioning.

It was still difficult even in the air conditioning. I really pushed myself to run. I still had to stop short on two of my running intervals, but I did better than the first night. My body feels like it could keep going, but I just can't breathe. I have athsma so this is going to be harder for me than other people, but I really want to do this. The scary thing is that Saturday we add another mile to our training. The intervals stay the same though. Next week, we add more distance and do longer running intervals. It's going to be a major struggle every week. It only gets more difficult and there will not be a time when i can do this comfortably...ever. That's the thing about running. You think that you just get into good shape and you can comfortably run, but that is never really the case. It's always a struggle to run farther, run faster, etc. Then if you stop your routine you lose endurance quickly. I was up to running two miles at one time, but when I quit I lost all that work I did. What I want to do it make sure that I keep this up even after the race. Runners do not quit. They are a very determined bunch...I want to be part of that! I just have to remember that each week I will get a little stronger and by the end I will be in much better shape than I started out in regardless of my finish time.

Today is another busy day. I have to go home, do some housework, go to training, and then come home and cut the grass before it gets dark. I'm not really looking forward to any of this, but it has to be done.

I've been reading a book called "Intoxicated with Babylon" which is about how removed Americans are from Christianity. It is really interesting and I was reading some websites about it today too. Our morals have been so degraded. I could go on for hours about this, but basicaly we have lost all sense of right and wrong. Take a look at some of your friend's myspace pages. There is vulgarity, cursing, blatent sexual imorality, idolatry, perversion, and the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, I am far from perfect. I was the same or maybe worse at one time. Since I have come to Christ everything is different. Yes, I still make mistakes and do things I shouldn't from time to time, but the difference is those things convict me now. I can't see any of that as acceptable. These things stand out to me now. I just don't think that people even think about what they are doing anymore. We are so polluted by the media. This is really distressing me today.

Training is not fun.

I got my rear kicked last night at the first training session. Apparently there was "pre-training" training too. lol. I did not hear about that. It was obvious who had started training early and who hadn't. I was in the back with the others who hadn't done any pre-training. =) I survived it, but it was painful. I made it through the first running interval fine, but when the second interval came up I got a sharp pain in my right side early on and had to return to a brisk walk. I did not even attempt to run the third interval since my side still hurt and I made it part of the way through the fourth. I was really loading up on water all day before the run and I think that was my mistake. Tomorrow I will just drink a normal amount. I'm a little sore today...mostly my obliques. I thought for a few minutes about dropping back to the walkers group, but thought better of it. My goal is to stay in the run/walk group through all of the training. Even if I am dead last I want to stay in that group. There were people still behind me yesterday, but I have a feeling some of them will drop back to the walkers group. I just need to remember that it's going to take some time to get my endurance up. I want to be up in the front, but I have to remember that those people started somewhere too. To get where they are I have to do the work they did. The hot, humid weather is only going to make it more difficult. Perserverance is the key!

Nervous!

I'm really nervous about training for this half marathon. The first training day is tomorrow. I keep getting butterflies in my stomach when I think about it. I know it is going to be a rough the first month or so as my body gets acclimated to running outside in this hot weather. Today I am going to make sure that I drink LOTS of water and get to bed early in preparation for tomorrow night.

People keep asking me why I am doing this and the only reason I can give is that it has been a goal of mine. I've been setting goals for myself since middle school. I remember the first one that I set was to get straight A's in 8th grade. I did it and it felt really good. When I was younger I also had a bad habit of chewing my nails. That was the next goal I set for myself. I was successful and grew beautiful nails, which I had long dreamed of. Throughout college my goals were just to finish my degrees. I ended up with two associate degrees in the field of computer information, a degree in business and I'll finish my master's Nov. 28. Another goal I had set for myself was to buy a house, I did that last October. I kept thinking about what i was going to do after my master's degree. I had though about going for the doctorate, but it just seems pointless. It really won't help me getter a better job in my field, in fact, it might overqualify me. So this half-marathon is my next goal.

Actually I will accomplish my half marathon goal before I finish my degree, but this is only a stepping stone for me. This year I plan to run and walk in the half. I will continue training and I want to run the whole thing next year. That's 13.1 miles of straight running!!! I'll see what happens after that, but I might see about a full marathon (26 miles). Of course, I will have to start that with a walk/run and then train for a couple of years to run the whole thing. AHHH...that scares me. I am going to try to just focus on the half for now. Actually even that is overwhelming. I will just focus on my 2 mile training run on Tuesday for now. One day at a time!!

On the side, my mom had a garage sale this weekend and what fun! I made $120.00 and my parents made over $500.00. Quite impressive! That was Saturday morning and I had to leave for a while to go to the half-marathon meeting at Wesselman Park. I was up at 4:30am to help with the sale. Then afterwards I got cleaned up and went to the 5:30 service at church, then to dinner with some girls from my small group. After dinner we went out for a couple of drinks. I try to stay away from bars, but I knew it would be okay since I would be with good people who don't get wild and crazy. We had a nice time and I was at home and in bed by 12:00.

Nathan came in town Sunday and we had dinner at the Black Buggy. He didn't get too stay long, but it was good to see him.

Evansville Half Marathon

Bible study last night was fun. We had it at a house with a pool and hot tub, so we sat in the hot tub and talked about things that are going on in out lives and had a prayer session. We were in there for probably and hour and a half and I was feeling a little prunish as the end. We also had pizza, salad, fruit and cookies. It was nice change from our normal Bible study.

We talked a lot about our goals and one of the girls mentioned that she was going to participate in the Evansville half-marathon in October. Training starts next week and I decided to sign up. It has always been a goal of mine and I guess no time is better than the present!! I am pretty nervous about it, but I know with perserverance I can do it. I don't expect to run the entire time since this will be my first half marathon, but I want to at least run half of the distance. My goal is to run 6.5 out of 13 miles. I have done some training before and I know that as long as you stick with it and start slow you can build up your endurance quickly. Wish me luck!

Back to work!

I'm kind of glad to be back to work. I'm not a big fan of the 4th of July. It never seems to be a good time for me. For the last 8-10 years I have always had a bad 4th, so I have gotten to the point that i just avoid the holiday all together. It was nice having the day off yesterday, but I just worked in the yard and stayed close to home. I stopped going to the fireworks a few years ago and I usually avoid cookouts too. There was actually a pretty good show in my neighborhood that I could see from my house.

I have Bible study tonight and I'm looking forward to it. We have changed it from once a week to bi-weekly for the summer and I am starting to miss it. I used to meet with a couple of girls on Sunday at Starbucks and we have stopped doing that months ago. There hasn't been much going on with the young adult group either it seems. All those things help keep me accountable and keep my thinking on track. Without them I have been slacking off on my own quiet time and Bible study. I just realized that it felt like something was missing in my life and I think that is probably what I am missing. I am making a promise to myself to get back into the habit of Bible study and quiet time every night before bed. It fills me with such a sense of peace and contentment. It's so easy to get busy with life and stop taking time to slow down and really think about the important things in life.

Feels like a Friday!

It's weird having a day off in the middle of the week. I'd rather the 4th of July always fall on a weekend. I think I'm going to just hang out and do some yeard work tomorrow. My flower beds need attention. They're looking rough. was going to work on them last night, but Jake really really wanted to go on a walk. He kept going back and forth from me to the front door and whining. The neighborhood was hopping yesterday. Jake had a blast barking at all the little dogs in the neighborhood and swerving back and forth in front of me cutting me off. He was quite a sight yesterday. He was on full alert and prancing around proudly. He is so beautiful when he gets hyper like that. He stands tall with his head high in the air, his tail held high and he lifts each foot up really high when he takes a step. If you have ever seen a saddlebred, that is what he looks like when we go on a walk. I usually have a choke chain on for backup and a prong collar for control. That combined with the white froth around his mouth from excitement create a fierce looking dog. People say "What a beautiful dog" as they slowly step back to evaluate the situation. lol. Little do they know, he is afraid of his own shadow. I had a couple of "Are you walking him or is he walking you" remarks. People are so very clever...

What a beautiful day!

It was so nice outside when I left for work this morning. I love cool sunny mornings. I wish I would have gotten up early enough to walk before getting ready. Tomorrow I am making a point to do that.

I am in so much pain today. I did my Tony Little workout Saturday for the first time in a long time and I can barely walk today. I have been doing Pilates for a while and I now realize how ineffective they are. One weight lifting session with Tony and I am feeling the burn. I used to workout with Tony religiously and it really does work. The resistence training is great. I am hurting most from the squats, but no pain...no gain! I am trying to get back into my every other day routine, but I am not sure that i can do it tonight unless this soreness goes away.

(I love this pic, Jake has bad breath after he eats Puperoni's.)

Well, my dog Jake had a little excitement this weekend. I went out to eat with a friend on Saturday and afterwards I just came home and watched a movie. (BTW, I watched a movie called Delovely about Cole Porter's life...very good!!) Anyway, a june bug had gotten in when i let Jake out and it was dive bombing my head. I finally got fed up and tried to get it to fly out the door. I wasn't even paying attention to Jake and he just ran right out the door while I had it open! This has happened a couple of times before and he just runs around the neighbors yard and comes back when called. This time he was off and I couldn't see where he went becasue it was dark. I had to throw some shoes on and drive around the neighborhood looking for him. I was so scared that he was going to run out in front of a car off Burkhardt. Thank goodness i finally found him standing in a someone's driveway in my neighborhood. I called him and he came running and jumped in the car. Now that he has had a taste of freedom I guess I will have to be more careful about watching the doors. He is so oblivious to cars that I am afraid he will get hit. I felt like a mother while he was missing wondering how I could ever go back to my house and carry on like normal if I didn't find him. I took him on a walk Sunday so he could see the neighborhood on a leash. =) There were a lot of neighborhood fireworks this weekend too so I think he is a little tramatized. Poor baby...

Motivation issues

I have so much to do today, but I can't seem to get on track. It's driving me crazy! You know what else is driving me crazy? Why does this blog only load half of the time?? I have noticed that with my friends blogs too. About half of the time I get a "page cannot load" error. It's very annoying. C'mon blogger, upgrade your servers. They can't handle the traffic.

Lazy weekend

I had a pretty lazy weekend, but I think I deserved it. I have been so busy lately that I have not taken any time to relax. This weekend I made an exception. I did mop my floors, cut the grass, and go to church, but other than that I just relaxed and watched movies. It was really the perfect weekend for it with all the rain. Jake and I just laid back, relaxed and grilled out. =)

I didn't work out all weekend and the funny thing is that I lost four lbs!! Can't beat that!

Other than that, no exciting news. I live a pretty uneventful life these days, but I love it. I am happier than I have ever been just living the domestic life! I never thought I'd say that...

Rain!!

Yes....so happy we finally got a significant rainfall. My lawn and flower beds really needed it. Unfortunately i was planning on cutting grass tonight and I'm not sure it will dry up enough to allow that. It's a little overdue. I didn't cut it Mon or Tues because of rain, Wed I had class all night, and last night I had Bible study. Guess I will have to wait until tomorrow. The problem is that I have a really anal neighbor and I had a nightmare about him coming over and telling me to cut my grass!! lol. I shouldn't be worried about him, but he has made several comments about other things he would like me to do with my house. lol. Such as he said so are you going to get a storm door for the door on the side of your house. I said "no becasue i plan on building a garage next summer. " Then he said,"Are you going to repaint the bricks on your house?" I said,"No, it is supposed to look like that, a little antiqish." He said, "Well, it sure would look different if you painted it." He is a nice guy, just kinda different, but never-the-less I am havinghightmares about him. Funny.

I love my new cabinets!!!

I put the finishing touches on my kitchen cabinets last night. I put the hardware back on, put the cabinet doors back on, lined the shelves and put all my dishes back in. It looks great. It was three weeks of hard work and my yard work has suffered in the meantime, but boy was it worth it!

Try to picture it with new countertop/sink, taupe walls, a white stove and a white fridge. =)

Another great weekend...

Well it has been another great weekend. My brother, his wife, and my nephew all came in town. We went out to eat at Wolf's on Friday night, then my mom and dad had a cookout/birthday party Saturday night at their house. It was a really nice afternoon and evening. We sat outside and talked for a while which was enjoyable.

I also continued my work on my kitchen project. I put the first and second coats of paint on my cabinets. The paint looks so good! I can't believe how smoothly it went on. I made sure to get the best paint available and used a small sponge roller. I just have to finish the second coat on the doors tonight and put the new hardware on to finish. That will complete Phase I. Phase II is replacing the countertop, sink, and faucet. Phase III is painting the walls and Phase IV is replacing the stove and fridge. Phase V is redecorating around to my new colors. Can't wait to start Phase II, but I am still trying to decide what countertop I want. I thought about granite, but now I am thinking that it might be too dark since some of the appliances are black. I just can't make up my mind.. this is the fun part though.

This week is going by so quickly! I have so much going on at work right now. Our IT Director accepted another job so I have had to take over some of his responsibilites. I'm also going through a software certification series right now. I have to complete that this week so I can develop and implement a faculty and staff training program for the university. In addition, the first draft of my master's thesis is due next wednesday. I have class tonight, my brother is in town this weekend so we have lots of family stuff planned, and I'm STILL working on my kitchen cabinets. Strangely enough I am not stressed out, but I'm staying very busy!!

Great Weekend!

What a great weekend. This weekend was the first weekend that really felt like summer. One thing that I did not do all weekend was watch television. I think that is why I enjoyed it so much. It was just very relaxing and peaceful. I finished primering my cabinets which I am so happy about! Nathan came in for the weekend. He washed, waxed, and cleaned the inside of my car for me. It looks awesome! Nothing better than a sparkling clean car...

We grilled out shish-kabobs saturday and then went to the drive in in Rockport and saw Pirates. It was pretty good, but long. The movie afterwards was Wild Hogs. It was kind of silly and we were tired of sitting there for so long so we left early. Sunday I went to church and saw the Jesus Painter. Wow, it was amazing. Then I went home and grilled bbq chicken. Yum. Unfortunately, my gas tank is empty for the grill so i have to replace that before I can grill anything else. I'm happy the chicken cooked all the way through before it died on me.

I just found out that one of the girls in my small group has accepted a job in Hong Kong. She moves in August. What a cool opportunity. We'll miss her around here though. She organizes a lot of the events and leads our Bible study. She has left an open invitation for us to come visit anytime. Congrats Katie!

alright...back to work I go.

Life is good.

I'm feeling great today! I'm looking forward to the weekend and I am getting back in shape. My rings are falling off today which I loooovvveee. =) All that clean eating is making me feel wonderful. Did you know that fast food makes you feel icky? =)

Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. LOL. My future is really looking good to me today. I have some new goals and interests that I think are going to be very beneficial. They are a secret for now, but I'm going to make it happen. I feel like I can do anything. God has given me strength and perserverence.

I'm also feeling good because I recently made up with a person that I have known for a long time. We had a falling out a while back. She is one of those people that is hard to stay mad at though. Like any relationship we have our ups and downs, but we sure have a lot of fun together during those ups!

Gotsta get to work!

What have I gotten myself in to?

Wow. This whole kitchen remodeling project is a little overwhelming. I knew it was going to be hard work, but I had no idea how diffucilt and slow it would be. I spent last weekend sanding my cabinets. Some I did by hand and I used an orbitol sander on some of the doors. That took me two days. I started primering last night. I only primered a couple of cabinet doors before I had to call it a night. I was exhausted from the weekend. Tonight is reserved for yardwork unless it rains. I have posted a couple of "before" pics. There are not 100% truly "before" since I had already started tearing my kitchen apart when I took them. I had already taken down the 'country grapes' wallpaper and emptied my cabinets. You will see that my kitchen table is covered in stuff from my cabinets too.





So my plan is to paint the cabinets white, paint the walls taupe with white trim, replace that horrid butchers block counter top with granite, replace the stainless sink with a deeper white porcelin sink, replace the standard faucet with a goosneck brushed nickel faucet, and replace the old fridge and stove with newer white appliances (maybe stainless appliances). The floor will remain since I like the ceramic tile, but it is an off white so I hope that looks okay with all the white.

projects

I had a good Memorial Day weekend. I went to see my brother, his wife, and son in Chicago. My nephew Jack has grown so much. He's such an adorable kid. I know everyone thinks that their children are smarter than everyone else's, but this kid is smart. It's almost like rainman smart. lol. His symbol recognition is very odd. He can spot different makes of cars on the road. He's 2 and a half. He names car models, signs and brand names. As we drove aruond Chicago, Jack would be in the backseat spouting off store names as we drove by the signs... Menards, Jewel, Walgreens, Kohl's, etc. He's a funny kid. My favorite things that he kept saying was an exxagerated "SPIIIDDEERRMAN......(then in a little voice with a crinkled up face) oohh.. kinda scary." =)

So today this week is a week for new projects. My first and most important new project is Project Get-back-in-shape! I used to be so devoted to working out and I have gotten lazy about it over the past year. It started out when I go t anew puppy and I made the excuse that i was too busy with that and would statr once I had the puppy trained. Then I bought a new house and that was a busy time. The list of excuses goes on and on, but it's time to get back on track. I was much more content and felt much better when I exercised regularly. This week I have started my pilates routine again and I've started walking/jogging again.

My other project is my kitchen. I'm redesigning it. It was one of the things I did not like about my house when I moved in. I had planned to remodel it much earlier than now, but once again, got busy with other things. It has wooden cabinets with antique looking hardware and butcher block countertops. Ugh!! PLus the person tha lived there before me put up grape wallpaper. it lokks like a "country" disaster. I'm taking down the wallpaper and painting the walls taupe with white trim. I'm painting the cabinets white and I have brushed nickel hardware to replace the old hardware. I have also picked out a granite countertop which will look nice. I already have a nice ceramic floor and a new dining room table that I love. Plus the lighting is new and looks really modern so I think it's going to look great in there. Can't wait. I am going to go home and take a "before" picture before I start removing the wallpaper tonight.

That's all I've got. Try to contain your excitement.

May 21 - busy, busy, busy

I had a fun weekend, but it was pretty busy. I had a lot to do in the yard and my parents came over and helped out as usual. I am lucky to have the kind of parents that I do. They're hard workers and they never do anything half way. Their house and yard are always perfect. I have to be careful about what I say I need to do, because they will go out of their way to help without me asking. They do so much for other people too and I don't want them spending time helping me when I can do it myself.

I have a four day week this week because the university president declared Friday a holiday since he is retiring soon. I'm going to Chicago with my parents to visit my brother, his wife and my nephew. I can't wait to see my nephew, Jack. We haven't seen him since Thanksgiving. He's 2 and a half, so in that time he has changed so much. The most recent pictures I have seen of him look like a little boy rather than a toddler like I remember. My brother is the vice president of a nation wide security company, IPC International. They do mall security. He manages the mall security in the western half of the united states including Puerto Rico, so he has to travel about 80% of the time. That combined with long work hours makes if hard for him to come visit and for him to have a weekend free for us to visit. This time has really been too long though. The last time I saw my nephew he was just starting to put words together and now he is really talking and he has learned to say my name in the meantime also. He pronounces it "shelwey". =)