Surrendered

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Girls Room

Way back when... we painted and moved the girls into this room and then stalled out. We have *down the road* plans which involve a loft bed for MaryVance and a Captain's bed for Molly. We wanted to do something for *now* to make sure a) MaryVance liked a loft bed and b) Molly liked getting her clothes from under her bed LOL

The boys had two sets of drawers that fit under their bunk that they donated to the cause so they are under Molly's bed. Then we built a frame for MaryVance's bed to fit up on. Don't be afraid... it's very secure, I assure you wink

There are 1/2 inch x 4 inch dowel rods going from the bottom of her bed frame legs into the top of the frame we built. The bed is connected to the frame the exact same way it was connected to the lower bunk when they were bunked.

It's a very "looks like Mama did it" kinda style LOL

but it serves the purpose to see if she really likes it like this. I will make a curtain for the bottom of it as soon as I get the fabric.

With all that... here is their new re-do Hearts over the Head

Our Girlies are very happy!! And that makes this Mama, very happy!!

Our New School Room/Library

Just for frame of reference... this is a mid 70s ranch-style house. This room is on the front of the house, facing east, and was originally "the parlor" or "the living room" (not to be confused with the den).

We made it a library/guest room originally. It has been a sewing room, a play room and is now a school room / library Heart

When we bought this house this room was a white/lt gray/lt blue? color. Very pale. We painted it an "oops" color. Paint we had tinted to go somewhere else that we did not like but had it so we used it here.

So you can see the old color vs. the new color. When this was made into a play room I used planets on black fabric and multicolored striped fabric for curtains. I used the planets on black fabric to pull the green color. I cut the curtains down into just valances so we could have lots of light in here and removed the curtain from the front door.

Here goes:

This looks out into the front yard.

The short shelves are "easy" books. The tall book case houses school baskets with current work. Supplies are on the top shelf and bottom shelf. The three drawer units are preK stuff.

This is the north wall.

The little school table... all prettied up with stickers from Auntie Charlotte Heart

The rest of that wall. The door goes into the living room. That corner has the arts and crafts cabinet, shelves of paper and shelves of puzzles.

This is the opposite wall. (The other side of this wall is our living room, the big wall I just posted pics of.) You can see the south end opens into the dining room.

Command Central LOL

I hope you enjoyed our tour! Come see us sometime!

Latest Living Room Project

I saw the idea in Angela's living room Hearts over the Head

This is my version. I got the brainstorm the other day, ran to Lowe's for supplies and Caleb and Sam built them yesterday. I love them! Hearts over the Head

Eventually I have a whole different plan for this wall but that plan is a way down the road and I wanted something up there *now* wink

The shelf/ledges are 3.5 feet long each. Toldya its a huge wall

Head nod yes

We have this huge, HUGE wall in the living room (this is where all those book cases were, remember?) and since I know some of you will strain your eyes to see the photos LOL

Tracy and Me, all of us at Matt & Jennifer's reaffirmation ceremony, my maternal great grandparents on their wedding day, Great Aunt Mary Louise [MV's namesake], my parents/Tony's parents/us at our wedding

Honey and DD (maternal grandparents - Marshall and Bobbye [Martha Vance] Rains - MV's other namesake), my brother Jack, sister Rebecca and me, old family pic when Ike was the baby, Mr. Albin & Miss Martha [dear "family" from our previous church], Matt, Jennifer and baby Landon at the beach [this was right after they moved in the first time Heart

], my mother's grandparents, their children and grandchildren - my mother is the little girl, she is the only niece

Aunt Louise & Uncle Max, me and my brother Jack, Matt & Jennifer at their reaffirmation ceremony, "Davenport Wheel" when Ike was the baby, me and my Grandaddy at my wedding, the Lewis/Graves gang [Tracy's family]

They are made with 1x3s faced with a trim piece and spray painted black.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Rearranging... again :) ... A New Play Room!

Yes, I am a chronic rearranger. I love change! And I am on a neverending quest to make our home work for us. With that in mind, we are in the process of moving the play room to the office area and the office stuff and bookshelves from the living room into the old play room to create a library/school room. So far... the new play room is all done and the old one is in the process of being painted. Green. Yes, green. "Green Galore" actually. ;)

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Thanks for the scar, Scott...

Several months ago a young man we know was diagnosed with cancer...

Watching his journey strongly affected me in many ways...

Because of him and his story I felt a very strong prompting to have two spots checked out. One was on my face and had only been there for a year or so and the other was on my right side, it was fairly new also. As I said, I had both of those for probably less than two years and had never given them a second thought. One day as I was praying for this young man the Lord just stuck me with the intense, overwhelming need to get my own spots checked.

So I did.

I went to the dermatologist and shared my concerns with him. He took one look at the spot on my face and said "That is nothing at all to be concerned about". Then he looked at the one I pointed out on my side. Again he said "Nothing there at all, no problems." I was so excited, so thankful, so grateful to the Lord... so very relieved!

Then his tone changed and he said "Oh" and to the nurse "I need to get a look at this one, we need to biopsy it."

Honestly, I was stunned. What was he talking about? What other mole?? I asked and he led my finger to the place but I couldn't even feel it. He drew a picture of it on a piece of paper, it was the size of a skinny marker's dot. But something about it attracted his attention and he was concerned.

He took a biopsy. Two long weeks later the results were in: "Abnormal mole. Moderate risk. Recommend immediate removal."

I went right in for the surgery for removal. It was nothing like I expected. For this tiny little mole I have a two inch scar, eight external stitches and I don't know how many internal stitches.

I had no idea. I did not know it was even there. If I hadn't been prompted by this brave young man's story and our loving heavenly Father I would have never known about it. My dermatologist said it definitely had the potential to develop into something very serious. It was on my midback just an inch or so from my spine. I don't know if I ever would have noticed it... until it was too late.

So, thank you Scott Cloud for so openly sharing your journey with us. Thank you Lord for your loving prompting and healing.

So I say "Thanks for the scar, Scott."