Hide & Seek: The Silver Lining on a Monday

I was not overly impressed by how the work day ended. It's an ongoing plight, really; I struggle more than I'd like to admit on days like this, to convince myself that I'm not operating like someone who hasn't resigned herself to the path of someone who's blinding circling around in Einstein's definition of insanity. It just.. today was not the best day I've had recently. 

But it's okay, because ya know what? It wasn't the worst, either.

There's a silver lining in everything, I'm certain of it. Plus, I'm a firm believer that where there are valleys and unfruitful seasons, that they only exist because there are mountain tops and bountiful spans to contrast [and vice versa, obviously]. But seriously. Today was a wash; I'm letting it go.

my friends.... 

Tonight was different. I'm among the lucky to have my best friend by my side through thick, thin and days like this that otherwise make me question myself. As we continued on with the project in Sydni's room, we talked. We talked, and talked, and talked. We didn't have phones out. We just... worked and talked. It was relaxing, but above that, made me realize that I owe so much more for the gift of him and the rest of my mini clan of friends & family than I could give.

amazed by this guy!

Speaking of our quality time, this guy impresses me every day with his ability to do something he's never done before - in this case, building a loft bed fit for an almost-7-year-old and an adult or two if needed. He is patient, understanding and confident that if he doesn't know something, he will figure it out and make it work. #bragmoments♥

Tomorrow, we paint! Sydni's room is nearing completion, and I can't wait. In time.. in time. We're on a roll though and I see no signs of stopping, until it's done.

See ya next time, blogbots - it's gonna be a long day tomorrow, I'm sure.

xo | cmd

Change of Address: Home Lowkea's

Of the list of 74983269382156932 things that aren't in the You Just Bought This House Now Guess WHAT manual:

Your new secondary address will be Home Depot.
(Or Lowe's. Or Ikea)((Yes, to all the above.))

No? Am I the only one?

We moved into this place at the end of February/early March and up until a few weeks back, all things house-ish have been sidled away to the back burner, as we worked our way through family gatherings, out of town weddings & birthdays and Sydni's school/extracurricular activities. 

But NOW... after my experience yesterday painting the office, and how I felt when it was all said and done, I'm hooked. Poor Rob, if by nothing other than proxy, is too. Though really, for him I'm sure it started back when he backed the new mower off the trailer in our driveway and took Sydni on a joy ride around the yard to create crop circles. 

Today, it was church first, then a beeline to Ikea. Yes, on purpose. 

rollup mattress? yes, i'll take one thanks. 

^^ Syd's bedroom is going to come together this week if it kills me. I've committed to it, and there's no turning back now. 

As if Ikea wasn't enough for 2 hours, Home Depot came in at a close second just under another 2 hours: 

.... and other things paint, home, DIY [keyword,keyword,keyword...]

After a fruitless search for curtain tie backs at Home Depot, I finally hunted some down at Lowe's that would suffice for the master bedroom, and then it was back to the mothership to install, apply and otherwise use everything that came home in bags with us. 

Home Lowkea's is the only accurate way I can describe the secondary address that should go on all my formal documents until this house is complete - so like, at least the next 2 years. Can I do that, just temporarily? 

It's work it, though - check out the progress on mini-me's hideaway! 

loft bed, comin' up! 

Anyway, it's not a lot of excitement for a Sunday, I know, and I'm laughing that wry, sad laugh inwardly a little at the fact that my Sunday diatribes in my adult life reflect a day hunting down paint and curtain rods, instead of nursing random and mysterious after-effects of a Saturday night gone rogue. It's whatev', though. I'm pretty happy with the course I've found.

Ying & Yang here [aka S&S Pibble] are pretty pleased too, especially since their Big Barker has been upgraded from the living room to the bedroom. Spoiled.. 

Happy Sunday! 

xo | cmd 

Bit by Bit

We're still staying in the "old house," as it's now being called in light of the moving process. We've got stuff in boxes and are slowly moving piece by piece until the big truck comes and the bulk of what we have goes. We woke up earlier than expected this morning, which made for some calm quality time amidst the boxes piling up in each room.

sweet moments :)

After church, we made a trip to the "new house" to shuffle some things around and assemble some items from yesterday's auction. In addition to laying out a couple of area rugs, organizing portions of the kitchen cabinets and surveying a couple of the rooms for paint colors, I took to constructing the two Parson's chairs we snagged at the auction. To my disappointment, both chairs were missing front legs, which made these the first items we've received so far from the auction that were missing core pieces. No biggie though; they won't be hard to replace, and the chairs are otherwise new out of the box! #silverlining

in the box... 

what they'll look like with four legs.. haha

I mean hey, there are worse things in the world than missing chair legs. Heck, there are worse things in the process of this move so far, so if missing chair legs are one of the bigger headaches I have, then that is a-okay with me. 

Most of our afternoon was spent shuffling things into their tentatively permanent places at the new place and filling the garage closer and closer to full capacity with things that won't have a home for at least the next month, I'm sure. The joys of moving! 

This will be a slow but certainly sure process. It's coming together bit by bit and I'm doing what I can to control those moments of over-zealous thought strands that convince me I can and will paint the entire downstairs level in the matter of 8 hours. It's not that I truly believe it's impossible, but I've also vowed to let myself actually enjoy the process, too ;). 

Stay tuned.... 

xo | cmd

Oh HAAAA... HAAA. :P

It's funny how, even though I'm technically settled now, things are still spinning. It's always busy [I'm not complaining], so it seems like there's never a dull moment.

In the midst of the chaos, I nearly had a mini stroke from a conversation over text with Becky earlier today:


turd. haha..

Suuure, I would've been thrilled for her and any new job opportunity, but I seriously would've faced much dismay had she been serious. This all stemmed from the earlier messages of my asking what her evening plans were, and her telling me, "farewell dinner." As it turned out, it was a dinner for someone else; she and I are river-bound tomorrow and I will guarantee you we'll both have at least one welt each for me punching her and her returning the gesture. [P.S. - she's not leaving.] Don't DO these things to me! hahaha...

To combat any leftover doubt I may have had from earlier in the day, I planned a solo mission to IKEA after work. This could've gone either way: me either getting exactly what I needed and not a thing more, or me being lured into the jungle with nobody to help me.

Got news for ya: I made it out alive! [I know you were all concerned.. haha.. just kidding...] Seriously though, I intended to pick up a cheap coffee table to replace the one I have now. There's not enough space for the table I already had, so I was on a mission to find something smaller. The glass top table now has a home [along with the owl lamp, thanks Mom :)] on top of the otherwise unused ledge that protudes into the living room.


.. and don't ask me how i got that sucker up there... it wasn't pretty.. haha..

And...


thanks again, ikea (:

Oh yeah, I got a cute little rug for under the table, too.. all for under $40, and less than 20 minutes to assemble [gotta love particle board]. This place is coming together one stitch at a time, and I can't complain one bit. This is gonna be a good little place for me; I can tell.

Sooo....

Kalyn moves back this weekend.. & Keifer too!

Rob's visiting [still tentative, but I'm really hoping!] this weekend.

Becky & I [& maybe Mike, too?] are kayaking tomorrow.

Trish is lending me her lawn mower to take care of this mess out front.

Ali is visiting in 2 weeks.

Brittany's housewarming party is in 3 weeks.

Heidi just sent me another picture of my family from this past weekend.

Julie just sent me a mega-encouraging message to help uplift & motivate me (:

Jamie just sent me pictures of the mountains in Kurdistan.

Kim & I are hanging out on Thursday.

Catie & I are scheduling a date when she gets back from Chi.

GOD is GOOD.. ALL the time... & ALL the time, GOD... IS.. GOOD.

....Look at all these incredible people in my life! How could I not feel blessed?!

Tomorrow's midweek.
See you then!

xo | cmd

Ikea Part One: BUILT!

Remember when I mentioned the little outing Rob and I took to Ikea a few weekends back? Well, those boxes have been parked smack dab in the middle of his basement floor since we got them in the house. Tonight he decided he was going to break into the TV stand boxes and put that sucker together. I had offered my assistance back when we bought the stuff, but ended up just laying idly by nursing my migraine as he went to work and had the stinkin' thing put together in no time at all. It's amazing how having a handy guy around changes things; it's kinda nice not having to build all the furniture myself.. haha. Really, though, this thing looks nice! Stupid me didn't take a before shot of the set up, but this new stand is definitely sharp looking (:

yay, ikea!

And uhhh, yeah. Other than getting out for dinner with both Kelly & Mike, this was the highlight of the evening. We're exciting, I know.

Oh, and I may or may not have.... but probably MAY.. in fact DID... snag this today. Ali got the same one. We won't be hanging out on July 4th together [sad, sad face...], so it's okay (:

trueeeeee story.
... except kansas.
make that 49 states of awesome ... and kansas.
jk. :)

So uhhh.. yeah :) Not a bad little day, even in my current phase of sinusitis [okay, I don't really have sinusitis, but it feels like it....]. Time to call it a day and SLEEP [aka, poor man's remedy]. GO AWAY, SINUS PAIN!

xo | cmd

Handy[wo]man!

That’s right, I’m on fire now!

Not literally, of course, but this building streak I’m on is pretty solid.

Today I conquered another TV stand to complete the living room ensemble, installed a curved shower rod, corner shower tension rod, and hung a half dozen picture frames throughout the house. The pictures need updated, but having a visual helps me decipher just which ones… and you’d better believe they’ll be gems J haha.

Sydni’s been a huge help, too. I actually don’t think I would’ve completed any of these projects without her constant darting in and out of … well, my way. Haha. I can’t help but love it.

The Airman’s Attic is on base, but because it’s run by volunteers, it has these funky hours [Tues & Thurs 9AM-11AM only]. Needless to say, my plans of dropping off all our intended-to-donate boxes were thwarted by both time and my relentless intensity when it comes to finishing any task at hand. So we missed the 2-hour window at the Attic, but no worries; one of my top to-do’s here was to locate a thrift store, for no other reason than to find one. [<3 thrifting!]. I GPS’d a Salvation Army down the street and loaded up for a trip there. Since I had Joe’s Accord for the day, that meant less space for hauling, which meant three trips to and from. The well-humored guy manning the donation truck laughed when I showed up the third time and asked if I planned on filling the entire truck today. I told him I juuuust might J.

Anyway, the week’s almost over, I think: not working really distorts my grasp on time! This weekend will absolutely be a welcome breather from the settling-in process.

*yawn.

Until tomorrow…. <3

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Nicki!

Joe’s sister, my sister-in-law, turns 30 today!

Happy Birthday!!



happy birthday, nicki!



Today also marks Joe’s 1-year anniversary in the Air Force. We are so very proud of him, and am excited to finally be living under the same roof again, as a family. Joe left for basic [BMT] on June 1, 2010, and this would mark our 1-year date of living apart.

So today = more chipping away at the crazy piles of stuff outlining every room. Sydni and I took a break to meet Daddy for lunch at the golf course on base. It’s beautifully serene, and I’m planning a definite visit to the 6-mile running trail that leads through it.



first family lunch on base



After lunch it was back home to build a bookshelf & TV stand, providing homes for four more boxes of books and DVD’s.  I’m making a small but noticeable dent, I think.

Another day, and I’m spent!

G’nite, ya’ll.

xo | cmd

Where to Start?!

Oooookay.

So Joe had to go back to work today, and that meant Sydni and I were left to our own devices for the larger portion of the day. That meant beginning the task of tackling box.. after box .. after box of packed house.

Where in the world to start. Every room is stacked with bins and boxes, and climbing over clutter to get from space to space is the current mode of transitioning throughout our house.

Sweet.

Long story short, today consisted of my hunting down clothing bins and slowly piecing together our closet. Let me preface with the fact that I, over the years, have become quite the shoe fanatic. It didn’t help that my first two retail gigs in college were for Aldo and Journey’s. So, today was a monumental day for me in the fact that I loaded a bin with 67 pairs of mostly mint-condition shoes to donate to the Airman’s Attic. Thirteen of those were Chuck Taylor’s, with which I found hardest to part. It was tough, but I’m sure in a week I won’t think a thing of it. Along with the shoes are going half a closet of clothes, and everything from socks to heavy coats. I must say, it feels good.

Today also included my assembly of our bedframe. It was a chaotic event, but I somehow managed to balance head & foot boards, sideboards, and finally crawling underneath to secure support rails. King size bed, meet Cori. Boo yah. Ha.

Joe came home and made dinner, which we proudly ate on our 30-gal Rubbermaid coffee table substitute. Don’t be jealous ;)

It’s late, and I am exhausted!

Good day, though. Good day.

 xo | cmd