House Projects

For those of you who aren’t familiar…we bought a fixer-upper for our first house…and have slowly made it into our home. I knew the minute I stepped into the house the first time that I wanted to call that place home. I just had that feeling. This was the one. It has its issues. Leaky basement, funky guttering, stuff like that. But it also has its charms. A huge backyard, beautiful window and door framing, archways between some of the rooms (one of my favorite features). The original glass doorknobs. Plus lots of potential. So for us it fit the bill. Each room has gone through some major transformations. And last weekend we began yet another major transformation in our breezeway. I wanted to share the before and after’s here. This room will have projects within projects…so I’m not sure how each post will work out…but there will surely be more than one!

Here are some photos of the room the day we closed!  SCARY!  We bought the house from a woman's family who had passed away. They were located in Atlanta and didn't have any interest in making improvements.  They just wanted it sold.  So the house was sold as is.  This was by far the worst room in the house.  I must admit looking back makes me think we were crazy!

Here is our first before.  Some paint, furniture and a rug.  It was lovely! 

Most recently we realized we never used the space for sitting.  So we began making it a useful space by deeming it a “mudroom” for ourselves. We (well…Jer) built us some shelving and placed hooks for coats. It wasn’t too long before we decided it needed a paint update and a few other changes.

The beginning of the painting process!

All finished with the main painting!  We put a warmer cream on the walls. This time we used exterior paint. This room is the main thorough-fair for us between the garage and driveway into the house.  It's also exposed to the elements.  Cold in the winter. Warm in the summer. We also used a warm tan colored porch and floor paint with skid-not in it on the concrete floor.  It's this cool gritty sand that makes the floor less slippery and helps prevent chipping!  Our previous floor got chipped up from a few years of abuse.  I hope this one will withstand a bit more.

BUT...as I said there are few projects still in the works. So still to come...

*Benches with mats. We’re putting those under the coat hooks for seating so you take shoes on and off there. I'm envisioning creating some cushions for the tops.  Hey...I've watched HGTV enough times!
*A table and organization center for our things…we need a better drop zone for keys, phones, papers and everything else. So we’re (again…Jer) is building a table…with room for storage
*Above the table we'll be putting up a board which we will paint and frame. I want to make it magnetic and have chalkboard overlay painted on it…I’ll explain the project once it’s in work and complete.
*Updating our basket/tote storage
*Ceiling Fan

*And a few other homey touches that say Welcome to Casa De Linley!

Stay tuned…much more to come as we continue this fun spring project!!

Thankful Thursday

It's so funny this things we say.  And how sometimes...we have to eat our very own words...even if it's hard to do.

So two weeks ago I mentioned here that I was hoping to be better with these posts. 

Last week life got in the way a bit.  Nothing more than a procrastination of actually posting the blog.  I kept track and keeping track was the important part.  I was motivated to once again begin posting this week. And I was very excited b/c I had the amazing news to share that Mike was coming home!  He is now out of the Rehabilitation Center and back with us.  And that was amazing news! 

However, now comes the part when I have to eat my words. I said I'd post no matter what was going on in my life.  Cue the irony.  Because before I could even celebrate the happy news about Mike my heart was broken as I received news of a different kind.  Because this Thursday, this post will come out and I'll be attending a funeral for my cousin Clark.  His death was sudden and untimely and very tragic.  He was much too young at only 56 years of age.  I'm blessed for knowing him.  And he will be greatly missed.  He had one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know.  And he touched everyone he met with his humor and the special touches he did in everything.  Owen's birthday present from him was just absolutely beautiful.  In fact Jeremy and I knew who it was from even without opening the card.  It just had the Clark touch.  Every detail of everything he did was just a little bit more thoughtful than the one before. And he never ceased to amaze me.  He was resilent and unfailingly kind.  So I'm very sad to say goodbye. In fact I'm not even sure it's hit me yet.  So in light of this, it makes it really hard to find good about the week.  At all.  But...I said that I would find the good even though the good may be hard to find.  The amazing thing is when I force myself to think about it, I was able to find it.  It was there.  In between.

So some things I'm thankful for from the past week and a half or so are:

Finishing a successful Administrative Professionals Week at work.  We had a week packed full of awesome events for our Admins
Attending a very fun happy hour at Little Hills Winery with the APW Committee
Spending Saturday afternoon with Jeremy's Grandparents
Lunch at The Boathouse in Forest Park
Time with Jer to paint our breezeway, listen to music and spend a time together working on our house
Going to my cousin Devon's Bridal Shower. I'm so excited for her and Matt!
Finding a new place I can't wait to go back to The Wine Tap while at Devon's shower
Seeing my Uncle Doug, Deb and Bethany
Spending an afternoon with my Mom and Grandma
A Monday night at home
Reading to Owen
Having Owen show me that he wanted to be tossed into our pillows (a game me and Jeremy have taught him that he apparently really likes!)...then screaming and clapping after each toss!
Extra phone calls with my Mom, Grandma and my brother
The way family pulls together
That I've been praying more every day and asking for strength for whatever comes...and some how that has brought me peace through our loss

God please keep the strength coming.  2010 has been a challenging year so far for the Linley's. 

Swing Set Envy

I’d like to share a photo with you of the swing set we are going to get for Owen.

We are going to put it in our backyard. Surround it with a pretty fence, mulch the area, put a few planters with flowers and I even imagined attaching some of the pot hangers along the fence for flowers...something like this one.

We also talked about putting a little garden in for us to plant some fun kid friendly foods and for Owen to have fun with. (If any of you watch Tori and Dean on Oxygen they have a garden that I LOVE and was the inspiration for a garden for Owen) As well as make a space for our fire pit, table and chairs and an umbrella. I cannot wait to transform our space. It’s been a long time coming and now is as good a time as any to transform the space into something usable!!

Well I happily got online the other day and began looking at the various options for the set we had picked out. Jeremy and I were browsing and debating etc. Feeling great! Excited even about this purchase. After we finalized a few things we decided to do some comparison shopping for deals. Maybe we’d find one for a cheaper price? Or one we liked better through another retailer? Who knows? Well…what we found left us with our jaws on the floor. I now want to share with you a photo of the monstrous play set called the Metropolis.

A swing set so big you could loose a child for days never to be heard from again. Hi. My Name is Jessie. We lost our son 4 days ago. He was last spotted at the north west tube slide.  He was wearing jean shorts and red striped t-shirt. Have you seen him?  Jeremy and I seriously laughed for 45 minutes at ourselves as we scrolled through the website.  The further down the page you went, the bigger they got!  I’m sure some of these are not for personal home use, but parks, churches and the like. Even still…I was in aww at the options. One of my favorites was one with 4 tube slides. It’s called the Tarantula! Crazy!

For a full idea of what they offer and how crazy huge even the basic sets can get, you can look at their website!  As an aside, Jer did ask for a quote on one of the smaller sets and the prices are not bad.  So while I joke about Rainbow Play Systems, I think they have great equipment!  And the sets come with a lifetime warranty which I think is worth the money!  Maybe when we are in our forever house we'll make that purchase.  For now, our Adventurer set will be perfect!

What Happens...

When Owen gets ahold of his diaper tote and I'm out of the room!

One Year Photos!!

We took Owen for his first and only professional photo shoot at a portrait studio the weekend before he turned one. I am generally not a huge fan of the portrait type setting, because with snapshots and some creativity I’ve really enjoyed the pictures we’ve taken on our own. But I also knew I wouldn’t mind having a few seriously professional, controlled environment, sure-to-be-good shots to have around to commemorate his first birthday. We took him to JCPenny’s.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but I loved it. Truly!  He smiled a lot, enjoyed showing off and laughing with the ladies (who were awesome!) and we left with a CD and the rights to our pictures. Below you will find our favorites from the shoot!!

The Twilight Series

Well folks...I finally finished.  All four books.

I'm what some call a late bloomer when it comes to Twilight.  But you can't help when you discover certain things right??  So late bloomer or not, I'm finally done!  I haven't officially decided on my favorite book yet, but I'm leanign towards Eclipse for various reasons I won't go into because I don't want to spoil anything for those who may be thinking about reading them.

At it's core for me, the series was about love.  And there is a lot about friendship and family in there as well.  So yes there were parts about drinking blood, lots vampire lore (in this...they sparkle!), werewolf lore (for awhile I was Team Jacob without a doubt) and all kinds of adventure.  But what I found when I read it was that is was so much more.  It was romantic. It kept me guessing.  It had me scared to turn out my light in a few parts.  It made me cry.  It made me laugh out loud.  And totally in all honest swept me away!

So even if vampires aren't your thing, I'd say if you haven't, you might give it a try!  You may suprise yourself.  I know I certainly did!

Wagon Rides

One of Owen’s first birthday gifts was this awesome Radio Flyer Wagon! Thank you Uncle Doug and Aunt Jenni! They left it on our patio for us and it was an awesome Sunday morning surprise!!

The day we got it, it was raining like crazy outside…so we rode it in the living room for a little bit. He was excited by it instantly!

The Wednesday after, we had a beautiful evening to be outside, so we headed up the park. I don’t think a smile left his face nearly the entire ride. He kicked his feet in excitement the whole time.  Every time since has been met with the same excitedness as before...if not more so!!  I would wager to say it’s his new favorite pastime! 

Thankful Thursday

My diligence has worn thin.  I've found it tough lately to force myself to do things...yes even the things that I know bring me the utmost satisfaction. Like Blogging...in particular my Thankful Thursday post.  I've been telling myself that I'm "letting myself off the hook." But I read a blog that talks about how not letting yourself off the hook is actually more ap to lead you to happiness than letting yourself off the hook.  If I know that I could do the dishes Thursday night... or wait and wake up to a pile of dishes on Friday morning, I'm more likely to decide to do it on Thursday night rather than let myself off the hook and do it on Friday...b/c it invariably starts my Friday off on the wrong foot! Not a good way to kick off a weekend right? 

So anyway...my whole point is this...Thankful Thursdays were/are a great way for me to keep track of what was good and blessed about my life.  And I quit the last few weeks...and I have to admit, I've noticed less goodness and blessedness around me simply for the fact that I'm not keeping track.  So in this case...letting myself off the hook didn't bring me any happiness.  If anything it brought me less!  That being said, here is this week's Thankful Thursday...and to not having another week where I don't keep track!  Regardless of what the week brings.

Dad's steaks on the grill
Visits with friends
Finding Owen's floor puzzle at Baby's R Us
Linley Family Dinner's
Watching Owen eat animal crackers with Grandpa Mike
Watching Owen play in the grass at Forest Park
Stacey's Nacho Bake
Loading Dock homemade salsa
Dinner with Steff and Bry at Toni's
My first visit to the Alton Belle Casino
Sitting out around a fire pit in a sweatshirt
Laughing and reminiscing about good times together!
Sunday breakfast with Jonnie and April
Planning for Owen's swing set
Laughing with Owen
Making dinners ahead
Cleaning House
Changing my winter clothes over to summer
Phones calls from my Mom
Watching the Blind Side for the second time...and loving it even more!

Finishing the Twilight Series!
Hosting InterACT
A promising and fun weekend ahead
 
God is good!

The Formula Milk Swap

The weekend after his first birthday we started Owen down the road of milk rather than formula. This change led us into a very trying week. Poor Owen didn’t understand why we were not only switching what was in his bottle, but taking away the bottles he very much enjoyed. I’m sure there are tons of methods for making the change. I’m also sure someone out there thinks we babied him for taking him from 4 bottles to 2 bottles a day. And still someone else out there thinks it was cruel and unusual punishment to take them away at all. However, after one week of changes, and the discovery of what we felt was a fair trade off for his bottle (Nuby makes a great sippy cup that he took to very well) we have victory! We have a son who went from refusing to eat anything we put in front of him, (we joked he was staging a boycott…no bottles…Owen no eat) to wanting a bit of everything we have in our hands. AND he is no longer drinking from bottles at all. The first few days were hard. And he was crabby for most of the week. But, by the following Sunday he drank all from sippy cups and nothing but milk. Which he has discovered he LOVES! Along with a number of foods! Eating is fun again, so much so that the other night he and I split the banana I had opened for myself. We followed it with a dinner of spaghetti and some chocolate milk.

Good or bad, right or wrong, it worked for him. And I’m 100% grateful that life is back to normal around our house!

The Big ONE!

We had so many pictures…my words wouldn’t do it justice. However, I will try to capture my favorite moments from the party below with the pictures!

The Birthday Boy!

Polka Dot cupcakes!

Some decorations

Our fabulous Honeybee Hive...custom-made by Aunt Steff and Uncle B!  It's going over Owen's reading chair in his room.

The delicious spread! Yum!

More decorations

Honeybee balloons

Opening presents!

He climbed right up on top of this one!

His Gilligan hat :)

Our guests!

Getting ready to dig into the cake!

Happy Birthday to you!  Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Owen...this was his absolute favorite part of the day!  And this face was another priceless capture!

The cake

Getting started...

Diving in...

All Done!