Tuesday, June 21, 2011

#gethype

Tomorrow I leave for Long Hollow's high school camp! The phrase #gethype has taken over my twitterfeed. It's somehow been dubbed the "camp theme." I don't know... I just go with it. People are way excited.

This will be my 8th year going to this camp. I know what I'm getting myself into. It's a really intense time physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I've got to crawl and climb through a mud pit in a field that used to be a horse pasture (you've got to know what that means) that's 60 feet long and 5 feet deep and filled with all sorts of bacteria. I've got to jump off a 40 ft. high swing and ride on a 1000 ft. long zipline, being held up by some straps of fabric. I'm going to spend a crazy amount of time at the "waterpark," watching my fair skin fry before my very eyes. I've got to eat camp food. 'Nuf said about that. I've got to make up a skit, get in front of 750 other people, and act like a fool. I'll be going to sleep in the morning (you read that right) and waking up only a few hours later. I'll be hearing stuff from girls that I would never dream people really have to deal with and they expect my help.

All that is hard stuff, but you know what?

It's worth. every. single. minute.

The mudpit is ok because you automatically bond with people when you're crawling through poopy mud together. The high ropes are ok because they're fun (once you do it) and you get to help each other overcome the fear. The "waterpark" is ok because it give you hours to sit around and build real relationships with the girls. The camp food is ok because you're eating it while you talk with girls and get to know them better. The cheer is ok because you do it together and all look crazy. Little sleep is ok because you stay up having good one-on-one time with the girls and God always sustains when you don't think you can make it. And hearing hard stuff is ok because God is good and will always give you wisdom if you just ask for it.

I'm sitting here, writing this, with tears in my eyes thinking of the eternal impact God is allowing me to have.

If you think about it, please be praying for all 750 of us over the next 5 days. I can't wait to get back and tell everyone all the amazing things the Lord did!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bad News/Good News

The incredible house for an incredible deal that seemed too good to be true, was really too good to be true. Womp woooompppp. It needs a new roof by, oh I'd say... yesterday. The ceiling in a bedroom upstairs was totally ruined from water damage from a leak in the roof. We took that as a big, fat NO from God.


We looked at several other houses and found one we see A LOT of potential in. Right now there's way more wood paneling than any house ever needs to see. I can just picture it all painted with white trim to make it a light and airy space. Everything but the hallway with the bedrooms and bathroom is one open space. Well, it will be once we knock down an unneeded half wall between two spaces.

So we put an offer in on it this morning. So all these idea are contingent on the seller accepting our offer. We're just praying that the Lord will keep leading us through this process. It sure is an exciting one!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Framing Plans

Clint and I have jumped in to looking for houses. Long story short, we have a feeling we'll be here for a while and we don't want to keep renting. It feels like we're throwing our money away. Why not find something we love and actually put money towards owning it? So that's what we're doing.

We've found what appears to be an incredible house for an incredible price. We're going to look at it today and hoping it's as good as it seems. The outside needs a little lovin' on, but if the inside is as good as the pictures then it's got us hook, line and sinker.

I've been following Young House Love for a while now and a while ago they shared their framed hallway...



love.

Sad news is, I don't have 65-70 white frames laying around. I started to think it could be done another way. I searched through DesignSponge and found SO much inspiration.


The last one is actually my dream living room. I spent some time last night trying to convince Clint it's not all girly but I don't think I got anywhere.

So, anyway, if this house works out, there are a ton of walls that need to be filled. I've got a sneaking suspicion that a frame collage of some sort will sneak its way in there... :)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Fantasy Karaoke Bar

WARNING: This post is long. And there's barely any pictures to keep your interest. There's no way to sugar coat it. But, I'd like to think it's worth it. Just try and make it through... And if you know us, just picture all this happening. I swear it makes it 132904804 times better.

Clint and I got married on a Friday night because there were some conflicts with Saturday night at our venue. Luckily, it gave us an extra day for our honeymoon because our cruise didn’t leave until Sunday. We planned on seeing a bit of Los Angeles with that extra day, but we weren’t quite sure how we were going to get around. 

One of our friends has family who live in LA and he arranged for us to have a car when we got there. His present to us was a private shuttle to his mom’s apartment where a car would be waiting for us. Sounds perfect, right? I mean, after the UnCool video, Clint may’ve well been a celebrity so the treatment seemed completely appropriate... ;-)

It would’ve been neat if we had just thought it through, but Clint didn’t think I needed to know. That’s why he left out any sort of detail and just said, “Don’t worry about it. You’ve got enough to worry about,” every time I asked him what the plan was. It wasn’t until we were in LA on the curb, waiting for the shuttle, that Clint told me the whole plan. I saw a lot of holes in it, but I was hoping my analytical little brain was just over thinking it.

I asked Clint to call TJ’s mom to figure out how we were going to get the car back to her apartment, but he just kept telling me not to worry about it. He finally called her once we were in the shuttle. In is an important word here. No. Turning. Back. TJ’s mom said, “Oh, you can take the car for the night and then just drop it off the next morning and take a taxi to the port.” My wheels started turning, but Clint mind was still parked in the it’s-all-perfect-spot.

We casually asked our driver, Franklin (the best driver in the whole wide world), how far away the apartment was. He said casually, “Oh, Beverly Hills... it’s about 30 or 45 minutes away.” Then I asked how far we were from Long Beach/our hotel. Franklin said, “Oh, gosh. That’s about 30 or 45 minutes the other direction.”

That’s right, folks. We were going to end up an hour and a half away from our hotel without accounting for LA traffic. That meant we were going to have to drive ourselves through the heartless traffic of LA down to our hotel, eat dinner, go to sleep, drive an hour and a half back to the apartment, and pay over $100 for a taxi to take us 2 miles from our hotel.

I cried. A lot. I was angry because I was wiped out from the wedding and just wanted to rest. And let’s be honest. I’m a tad bit of a control freak so I didn’t like that my plans were messed up. So as I cried, Franklin turned up the radio a bit, like any man would in an awkwardly emotional situation, so Clint and I could talk. We went through every single scenario we could think of to solve the problem. I wanted to just scream, “TURN THE CAR AROUND AND TAKE US TO THE HOTEL!!!!!,” but Clint wouldn’t let me. TJ had gone through the trouble of booking this shuttle for us and we needed to use the car for at least a little bit.

We thought about just sucking it up and going through with everything, but I just couldn’t do it. Then we said we would take the car out and around Beverly Hills for a little bit and then take a taxi back. We asked how far away all the touristy stuff was from the apartments and Franklin said, “It’s really close. It’s only about 20 minutes away.” What is it with LA people and their sense of time? Twenty minutes away is NOT considered really close in my books. So that nixed that idea.

After hitting dead end after dead end, we finally settled on the fact we just couldn’t take the car. Franklin cleared his schedule for the afternoon and said he would take us around LA on our way back to Long Beach for no extra charge so we could still see all the sites. I told you he was the best driver ever... or he just didn’t want me to cry anymore. Regardless, he rocks in our book. Our plan was to get the keys from the security guard, stick them in the car (it had a keypad lock), and leaving with Franklin.

We called TJ’s mom when we got there and she told us John would be waiting to give us the keys. Clint and I got out of the car and were chatting by the apartment door when we heard:

(sing to the tune of Happy Birthday)
“Happy honeymoon to yooouuuu. Happy honeymoon to yooouu. I bet you really want me to stop now... Happy honeymoon to youuuu.”

We turned around and saw a man straight out of a bad comedy movie walking toward us. He walked like a zombie. He had a horribly out of control comb over. He wore Dwight-Schrute-esque coke bottle glasses. He was wearing a horrendously bright Hawaiian shirt with neon salmon shorts, knee high white socks, and royal blue and yellow puma sneakers. If that doesn’t give you a good visual, I don’t know what will.

He was clearly not a security guard, but Clint managed a courtesy laugh and introduced the two of us. He said, “Yea, I figured,” and moved on in conversation. No introduction. He let us into the apartment, and Clint went directly into the bathroom, leaving me with alone with John (he finally told us his name). I had absolutely nothing to talk about, so I went to look out the window and took this picture.



I wish so badly that I had thought to take pictures of the apartment to get John in a few shots.

Turns out John is just a friendly neighbor who checks on a lot of the residents cars and apartments while they’re out of town so he was responsible for giving us the keys.

So we’re in the kitchen, waiting for John to finish rambling about who knows what and just give us the keys to the car so we can get on our way.  He kept talking and talking, giving us all sorts of phone numbers and peoples names, none of which we understood. He wrote these all on his business card. As we were walking out to the car Clint asked what he did in LA. He said he owned a Fantasy Karaoke Bar. I don’t know what that is, and I really don’t want to... but check out his business card.



Weird.

So we get to the car and say goodbye. That’s when John tells us that he’s going to ride with us to make sure we get out of the complex.

Seriously, could this afternoon get any worse? We felt like we were in a bad comedy like Meet the Parents where nothing ever goes right.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but we were in one of the biggest apartment complexes in the world. That’s not a scientific statement, but it literally took us driving 5-7 minutes to get from the gate to the apartment. So his offer would’ve made sense had we actually been leaving. Clint and I locked eyes and we officially started flying by the seat of our pants.

We quickly said not to worry about it, that we could get out just fine. He insisted. So we all hop in and drive over to Franklin and get our bags. Talk about an awkward car ride. Two minutes felt like twenty. I casually said I needed to tell Franklin to move our luggage. I hopped out and whispered as fast as I could, “Wemetacrazyman. Gottapretendtomoveluggagetogethimtoleave.” Clint swung the car around and Franklin greeted him with an extra-formal, “Here, let me help you with your bags sir,” and added in a whisper, “She told me the plan.” More proof that Franklin rocked. We took all our bags out of the van and put them in the back of the truck so we could quickly move them back to the van. John said we were stupid and they’d get stolen in the city so we had to move them again to the backseat of the truck.

John finally said he was leaving after we convinced him we were fine and he walked in the complete opposite direction. As soon as he was out of sight, Clint threw the bags on the ground, sped away and parked the car. We had to put the keys back in the apartment, so Clint ran to the apartment, opened the door and...

JOHN WAS IN THE APARTMENT! I have absolutely no idea how in the world he got in there. He must’ve pulled a Harry Potter and just apparated in there. He and Clint had a stare down while they both tried to figure out what was happening. Once he got his wits about him, he said, “Hotel called. Gotta be there by 4:00. Bye,” threw the keys, and ran out.

The. End.

If you’ve stuck this far, I really hope you found that as hilarious as we did.

This was all in the first 24 hours of our marriage. Talk about relationship building.

Oh, and to top it off. We told TJ the story when we got home and he said “You could’ve just not gone. It wouldn’t have hurt my feelings one bit.” Awesome. Just. Awesome.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Our Dog-Child

Meet Capone.


He's totally mean-muggin' you.That's how he rolls. His name is Capone, after all.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

I Dream of Quilts

I like to consider myself a crafty person. I can sew a mean dog hoodie.



And and hooded towel for babies. So basically, if it involves a hood, I'm in.

Quilts don't generally have hoods... but I'd really like to make one regardless.

I actually attempted to make one for my mom when I was in college. I thought it'd be quick and easy so I cut up approximately 10,932 pieces of fabric and had this great mental image in my mind of her opening a huge package on Christmas morning and jumping up and down saying things like "You're the best daughter in the universe" and stuff like that.

I had this image pop in my head around finals week. So I started furiously sewing in my cave of a room (literally. It's in the basement with no windows) and my little ADD self just couldn't take it. I would do a row of a square and get bored and move on to something else. So by the time Christmas Eve rolls around I had completed a total of one square. That's it. I gave that one square to her and said she'd have the whole thing within the next month.

Guess where the quilt is now?

Right where it was 3 years ago in just as many pieces.

Fail.

I lost my mojo after that and hadn't touched a sewing machine in years until this year. My parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas and all I could think of was a sewing machine of my own. I was getting married in January, so I guess some part of me figured having a sewing machine would automatically make me more domestic, which I'm not. At all. So my parents pulled through and got me a great sewing machine and I've been dominating it ever since. My mojo is slowly coming back.

I'm not sure if I'm quite to quilting yet, but check out this quilt from Stitched in Color. It's magical. I look at it and start giggling because it just screams fun.



To top it off, its backing is an old tapestry from Urban Outfitters.



I'm. In. Love.

So I don't know if I'll ever get the guts up to really attempt to make a quilt... but I can dream about them, right?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

My Boo

I feel the need to brag about my sweet, sweet husband today (and no, I'm not trying to make up for anything). I'm 110% sure there's not another man on Earth better suited for me than my man, Clint.

Just look at how handsome he is!

Ow Owwwwwww! I mean, seriously. Who couldn't love him?

He's been my best friend since 8th grade. It just took us a few years to accept the inevitable (Ooo That's the name of the song we walked out of our wedding to!) and go for it.

We just got married at the beginning of this year.


Those are looks of pure joy right there, people.

Our honeymoon was a Disney Cruise and I couldn't say enough amazing things about it. Traveling around paradise with my best friend and surrounded by Disney. Hello! Things couldn't get much better.

Clint is one of the most humble, caring, spontaneous, genuine and wonderful individuals I've ever met. I wake up most mornings thinking, "How did I end up with a husband this great?" I can't wait to see what God's got in store for the two of us together!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

StePhemonenal Life Day 1

I've tossed the idea around of blogging for a while. I've made one or two in this year alone and quickly deserted them because there was too much pressure. They were all up in my face, demanding I post specifically about this or that and I don't like people all up in my bidness. So. This blog will be the opposite of that. I am going to write about whatever I feel like writing that day. I may post every day in a row for 2 weeks and then skip one. Who knows. I want this to be a no pressure zone. Just fun. Hope you enjoy the ride!
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