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Friday, July 31, 2009

Liberty on the Lake


When my folks were up a few weeks ago we drove to Stillwater one day. This neighborhood was one of the main reasons I wanted to take them there. It's called Liberty on the Lake and every house is charming and unique!


Love all the different finishes on the exterior...stone, cedar shingles, siding. I wonder what the inside looks like??


Love
the cottage charm. Isn't that picket fence cute??


The
landscaping was really interesting too. Love those topiary trees and urns filled with red geraniums.


Oh
my...gorgeous window boxes and that porch!





Must
be garbage day...sorry and some of these are taken through my car window.



Looks
like Hansel and Gretel live here. How cute is that?


Last but not least...so lovely!!


Have a blessed day.


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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Laundry Room redo


This is my laundry room. I'm extremely proud of this space because it used to be pretty ugly. My honey and I redid it a while back and I just love it. I sooo wish I had a before picture to show, but it was pre-blog days and it didn't matter as much back then;)

Before there were no cabinets above the washer and dryer, just wire shelves, and we had indoor/outdoor carpet. The walls were a light lavendar and we had very little overhead lighting. We yanked out the carpet and put down vinyl, repainted the walls, hung cabinets and added much needed lighting. I would love some of those fancy front loading machines, but these are still perfectly functional...ugh:)



The red clock is from IKEA.

We bought generic cabinets at Home Depot and I painted them and fancied them up a bit.


I got this bucket at a flea market and we keep Fergie's food in there.



These shoe cabinets and the picture is from IKEA. You should have seen this space before. We are talking an out of control mess. On either side of these wooden drawers are walls and they have hooks on them for our coats. You can see part of a hook on the left side.



All the letters and hooks came from Anthropologie. Don't ya just love??



Last
but not least, my cutsy Laundry Room sign. I have this hanging over the door that leads into the kitchen. I got it at my favorite Country Junction store back in Illinois. Hope you enjoyed my tour.


Have a blessed day.



I just want to say thank you ladies for all of the kind words and prayers you offered up for my friend Marylynn yesterday. It is such a comfort to know that I can post something important and you listen and respond with such words of encouragement and support. What an absolute blessing you all are to me!
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Sudden loss

My dear friend Marylynn's mom passed away yesterday. She had surgery last week and developed an infection and suddenly died. I am in shock. When I talked to Marylynn yesterday she had no emotion whatsoever in her voice...she was numb. As I woke up this morning I put myself in her place, knowing that when she woke up it would all come back to her and she would realize that it wasn't a bad dream that it really happened.


I know the pain of grief first hand when my husband's dad passed away a little over a year ago. It's beyond excruciating. I'm calling on all my prayer warrior friends out there. Please lift her up right now. Let's agree together that God would pour his peace and comfort on her and her family, that despite this loss they would feel God's presence and love surround them giving them the strength to endure the days to come.



Thanks for listening.



Photo credit: Flickr, supermummmy

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Phil & Karen's house


My mom drove me by my Uncle Phil and Aunt Karen's house when we were home a few weeks ago. She wanted to show me their "new development". The old house pictured above is really cool, but very dilapidated. So they are building their...

Dream Home!!

I promise to come back after it's finished to show you the inside. It's going to be really beautiful. It sits on such a pretty spot.

This will be the view from the front door.


The t.v. room has a beautiful view of the countryside.


My Uncle Phil and his faithful "51 Blu".


While
were there my Uncle Phil had to show off his 51 Ford pick-up. You know how much I love old trucks. I couldn't wait to take pictures of this beauty.


The old interior. My Uncle Phil couldn't wait to start it up for me. It doesn't have a muffler and is a "flattop"?? I guess that has something to do with the desired rumble sound you want from an old truck. It definitely was loud.


He
was so proud;)



Have a blessed day.


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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Competing against the World


My friend's husband Aaron is a marathon runner. He told me a statistic that I found very interesting. Apparently 80% of the world's population cannot run 3 miles without stopping. Now to the average person this stat would not be that exciting, but to me I was ecstatic. You see I can RUN 3 miles without stopping. I am in the 20%...wow!! What incredible motivation to get on the treadmill and kick butt:)

Whether you can run 5 miles or just run to the mailbox...I encourage you to push yourself. We can do more than we think we can. It's great to have a goal to stretch for. Now I wonder what other little statistics out there would be a self esteem booster??

Have a blessed day.


Photo credit - (photo #1) elvso, Flickr, (photo #2) alicepalice, Flickr
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Monday, July 27, 2009

Baby Boom!


One of the highlights of our Illinois trip was my cousin Tammy's son getting baptised.

The pictures above represent the baby boom my family has had over the last few months. I come from a really large family. My dad is one of eight, so you can imagine all the cousins and their babies. I have completely lost track of who belongs to whom and their names. I can barely remember all of my cousins names...isn't that horrible!!

This is my Grandma June's church. It's in a tiny little town in Central Illinois and has maybe 30 members on a good Sunday. The whole left side is just some of our family:)

It is very old fashioned and charming in a way. My favorite part was when the minister passed around a microphone and had people share prayer requests and praise from the week. That would never happen in the large church I attend. We would be there all day. Gotta love that intimate feeling that a small church provides.


During the baptism...William trying to make his escape:)


William looking a little frightened, but safe in his momma's arms.

Afterwards with my cousin Tammy and my niece Annette (remember her house...from last week?).

My big brother Jim.

My "peeps".


Grandma June with some of the new additions to the family tree. The first set of twins so far...

William, with his daddy Omer...the star of the show:)


Finally a rare shot of me and my folks. Aren't they adorable? Thanks for indulging me with this family photo album. You know how much I love my family:) It was a special day.


I'm curious about you too...
if you go...what is your church like and do you baptise as babies or adults??



Have a blessed day.

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Lifelong friends...priceless!

My absolute favorite part of going home is getting to spend time with these lovely ladies. Marylynn and Lori have been in my life for quite a while. We met when I had just had Big chick. I was a lonely stay at home mom and God changed my life by bringing these two wonderful ladies into it!


I "met" Lori at Wal-mart. She was in the grocery section and I seriously stalked her down and introduced myself. How desperate is that? To be honest...God told me to do it. How do I know that? Because I didn't want to do it and my heart was racing, and I thought she was going to think I was crazy, but I had to because I was being prompted. So glad I was obedient. We have been best of friends ever since:)

I met Marylynn through a Mommies group. She was just the kind of person that I needed to identify with to embrace motherhood to the fullest. She struggled with many of the same issues I did and made it seem okay to be that way. We are very different in a lot of ways, but those similar experiences have given us such a special bond.


This is my momma and her friend Linda. They used to live in the same neighborhood and were friends before I was even born. I always looked at "Aunt Linda" as a sort of second mom to me. I have so many memories of going over to her house when I was little. She always called me Lou for some reason:)

Friends are simply a gift. We need them like air. I have been blessed with so many unique special friends in my life...they are all different and all of them fill a space in my heart. I'm beyond grateful for them and for all of my "blogging friends", because of you my days are full and worthwhile. It's definitely worth the investment...the payback is ten-fold:)



Have a blessed day.




BTW...My blogging friend Katie Lane just started a new blog called Traveling the Blogosphere and she featured Farmgirl Paints!! Check out her amazing new site.
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