Our House [update]

"It's so nice because our house isn't the ugly house on the street anymore."

we used to refer to our house in several different ways:

ghetto

haunted

ugly

basically it was the most run-down looking house on our street.

trust me, it was scary.

[remember my post about our mailbox? Ghetto Fabulous - even our mailbox was scary o.O]

well, no more.

one of the pre-requisites to getting our mortgage was that we needed to paint the house. apparently the bank doesn't like it when you have chipped & peeling paint.

so we painted the house - check it out :D

doesn't it look incredible?!

so clean and neat and NICE.

OH we got a new mailbox a few months ago too - so no more ghetto fabulous!

we still can't believe that our house looks so nice. 

last night when all the work was completed, we just stood back and soaked it in.

we're so used to it being nasty that it's hard to believe it could look so much better! that just a simple coat of paint could turn the entire house around.

amazing.

OH and then tonight as we were finishing up dinner - we saw this gorgeous double rainbow right outside our window :D

[i was really hoping it would be OVER our house so i could run outside and take that picture, but unfortunately it wasn't]

so our re-inspection is tomorrow - pray that it goes perfect & we can close on our house next week!!

a HUGE shout-out goes to D's parents who did a huge majority of the painting. D's Dad sprayed the entire house and his Mom painted most of the trim - so without them, we never would have gotten it done. so they deserve a huge thank-you :)

I Heart Faces - Best of Summer

i can't believe it's already fall.
seriously - where did the summer go?

thankfully, after a week of cold - we're back to nice weather again - that kinda makes it feel like summer again.
but with all the leaves falling and the cool nights, i must admit, fall is here.

which brings us to this week's i[heart]faces challenge - i'm supposed to post my best photo from the summer.
do you know how hard that is to choose?
HARD.
D&I did so many fun things this summer! our summer was fantastic. so choosing one image to sum the whole thing up is so hard.

but i did.
this is my baby sister :)
she learned to ski this summer at the lake-house and boy was she excited.
she's now a pro - and will be doing all sorts of tricks by next summer :)
but for now, we were happy to get a photo of her smiling [instead of her normal super-concentrated look]

be sure to head over to i[heart]faces to see more "summer" photos! everyone is posting their best so there are some REALLY great ones over there this week!

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Things I've Learned..

so we're at the end of gardening season :(

and i must admit, i grew pretty fond of my little garden.

never mind the fact that my eggplants never grew, my green pepper plants never gave me any green peppers, my cucumbers were a flop, i only harvested lettuce once, and something ate half my beans!

haha

i really enjoyed watching my little garden grow this summer though.

and i learned a few things along the way!

1. start earlier!

2. harvest earlier!

i definitely should have given some of my plants a head start inside. growing things from seeds and just planting them straight in the ground was fine - i got some great results [and some not so great results] but things are JUST starting to peak right now - and we're in danger of frosts now. so i definitely need to start at least my tomatoes and peppers inside next year so that they'll have a head start on life :)

and i had no clue when to pick things - haha - really. i waited way too long to pick my lettuce and thus lost out on a ton of really yummy salads. i waited too long to pick my beans and thus had to throw a bunch away because they were too hard. a few of my zucchinis rotted before i realized - i was thinking they would grow as huge as the zucchinis in my parent's garden and well, they definitely didn't.

SO - all that to say -

i can't wait for next year :D

is it spring yet?

silly faces

every time we go to the lake house - we spend 70% of our time at the lake.

who wouldn't?

and of that 70% of the time, 90% of the time D is being pulled behind my father's boat.

either he's skiing, wake-boarding, or knee-boarding.

[okay so maybe 90% is too much, let's just say, he usually leaves the lake extremely sore and bruised]

i got a new lens this summer [a 75-300mm for all those interested :D] and it was perfect to use to shoot off the back of the boat! the other lenses i had got me close, but not close enough - and that thing - wow could i get close!

close enough to capture some of D's pretty awesome knee-boarding skills :)

as you can see, he was getting really confident and trying to jump some waves - some worked out great and some worked out, well, not so great :)

he then dared my cousin zeb to try it and see how high he could jump.

again, same results, some worked out great and some worked out, well, not so great :)

all in all - they were great entertainment for us staying dry in the boat :)

September 11

so i know that today is September 11 - and today marks the 10 year anniversary of the devastating terrorist attacks on the United States.

however, i'm having quite the difficult time remembering that.

oh don't get me wrong, i totally remember that day 10 years ago. i was 11 years old and i remember watching in shocked horror as planes were flown into buildings and crashed into a field. i will never forget that day.

what i mean is that i'm having a difficult time concentrating on remembering that tragedy when another tragedy is staring me in the face.

it's amazing to me how oblivious some folks are to how severe the flooding is/was. i work at a bank as a teller which means i talk to a lot of people. and it blows my mind to talk to people who were unaffected by the water and have no clue how horrible some families have it.

we know several families personally who lost just about everything. and my heart breaks for them.

this afternoon D&I went and helped one of those families begin to clean up. and it was amazing to me how well they did. i think if my house was destroyed, and i had to go back to sift thru all the muddy remains, i would be devastated. but no, they plugged along and worked hard - and said through it all "praise God we all made it out safe".

so, it's not that i'm discounting the 10th anniversary of 9/11 - absolutely not. there are men & women who laid down their lives 10 years ago today so that others might live and we should always remember their sacrifice.

i am just so overwhelmed by the devastation just a few blocks from my house.

after 9/11, there were reports of neighbors helping neighbors. and i consider that the greatest honor we can pay those folks who died 10 years ago - instead of concentrating on ourselves, we should look out for our neighbor and consider his needs higher than our own - even to the point of laying down our lives for them. and if the least i can do is "clean" out my house and donate items and help hold garbage bags open to put muddy & ruined things into - i will gladly do so.

if you are interested in donating things, either money or household items, my church is acting as a "middle-man". they are collecting things and distributing them as they can and i would love to point you in the right direction if your heart so leads you to do so! if you leave me a comment, i will gladly give you the info you need to make those donations!

and what we said 10 years ago still rings true:

united we stand.

more water

after i picked up D from work last night, we took a little jaunt around town to look at the rising water situation.

we were shocked.

the river was so high - but we thought the worse was over.

and then it rained all night long.

and when we both got phone calls early this morning that both of our jobs were closed for the day, we had to go out and take a little jaunt around town.

and we were more than shocked.

what we had seen last night wasn't even the half of it. the water had risen severely and we learned that most of the communities around the area had been evicted.

thankfully, our house and street continues to be on the high ground and the possibility of us getting flooded has passed. i mean, it would have to flood ridiculously for our house to flood anyway, but the way the water was rising, we just didn't know.

we still don't know the extent of the damage but a lot of homes have been destroyed by water. many of the homes in the lower portions of our town have had their first floors completely flooded - some waters even breaching the second floor.

it's completely unimaginable and still hard to believe.

water

if you haven't heard, we have a lot of water.

[and i don't mean "we" as in me&D&abby, but "we" as in the town]

anyways.

we have a lot of water.

and it's becoming a slight problem -

there is a lot of flooding going on and the stories i was hearing at work today just get worse and worse.

it started with a road being shut down.

then another road shut down.

then we heard about a car stranded - so that road was shut down.

then we started hearing about people's homes being flooded.

the schools announced that they were shutting down.

businesses were closing.

then we heard about towns around us being evacuated.

or in worse cases, people simply being stuck there.

all this water though, makes me extremely thankful for 2 things:

1. that where our house is? it won't be flooded. we're far enough away from the river that we're out of the "flood zone"

2. that all this rain is not snow :)

the only one that is UNhappy about the absence of a lake forming in our backyard is abby.

she was in her element this past weekend at the lake - no more fear of water folks ! it was quite the opposite this weekend, we had trouble getting her OUT of the water :)

anyway, the rain continues and we'll see how bad it gets.

say a prayer for the folks who have been affected by all the flooding, the folks who are stuck in hotels tonight because they can't get home, and the folks who have lost their homes in the flood.

only

only

at my family's lake-house

[where you may find up to 21 people staying the weekend]

would someone hide

the oreos

in the bathroom :)

[along with the antifreeze/coolant, because everyone is just dying for some of that! haha]

confessions of a disney college program alumni

 

it's been over two years since i worked at, lived in, and breathed disney world.

i remember the day i left - that morning i drove to the airport twice: 

the first time was to take 2 of my roommates to the airport.

i then drove back to our apartment to load my car with my stuff and then drive back to the airport to pick up my [then] boyfriend who was going to help me make the 16 hour drive home.

it was on the way to the airport the second time that it hit me.

i had turned in my parking pass, my id, and i knew i was driving out of those security gates for the last time. and that's when i lost it.

i literally bawled the whole way to the airport - like i have never sobbed before. it's a miracle i made it there safely.

i was closing a chapter in my life - finishing the most amazing 8 months of my life - and it was heartbreaking.

i got engaged the very next day - talk about going from the pits of despair to the highest of highs :P

but when i came home, i missed disney so much. i missed my friends, my roommates, my co-workers, the parks, the atmosphere, the happiness. and i remember thinking: eventually, this has to go away, right? like, i'll always remember the awesome time i had, but eventually i won't miss it so much.

well i'm here to tell you: i still miss it so much.

i feel like i just left yesterday. and it's been over 2 years.

i've said it before and i believe it to be 110% true:

disney has ruined me for life.

so, shout-out to all my disney buds - i miss you all!

you all made the happiest place on earth truly that - the happiest :)