FIND YOURSELF

"The best way to find yourself
is to lose yourself in the service of others."

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I ran across that quote by Gandhi today and loved it. These past few months I have been in quite the rut, trying to listen to my heart in search of what way my path is curving. I am no good at hearing whispers so I will wait for a yell to tell mere where I am headed but in the mean time I am going to make it a point to serve more in my life.

I have found it's all too easy to get caught up in me, my life and how parts of it never to seem to fill up the way I think they should. Maybe it's time to focus on others for awhile and let me go.

There are two places I have thought about offering my time to and I honestly just never filled out the paper work so this week I am doing it, no excuses.

I also am going to begin 1/2 marathon training. I have a hate/hate relationship with running but for some reason I am really feeling called to it lately. Devoting my thoughts and time to some quiet running with my favorite training partner Willy will officially begin Monday with the 1/2 marathon race on October 20th. There is no speed goal , just the goal of finishing and devoting my heart to something that requires self discipline for the next 3 months. Oh the words self discipline, something I have never been too good at.

While I trained for Dam to Dam back in 2010 I found myself praying a lot on my runs and that is something I need to be doing more of lately too so hopefully I can get myself into some spiritual alignment and be happier in this moment

BABY-PALOOZA!

Friday was one of the best days I have had all year. Two of our best friends had baby girls in the last month, and after spending a heap of time with both of them Friday I've decided I am smitten. Like full fledged gonna steal their babies and raise them as our own smitten! These little love bundles brought so much love and joy in to my heart Friday and I am so freaking excited for all of my pregnant friends to get to experience their little ones soon too. I used to think weddings were my favorite thing but I think it's babies, cute, snuggly, chubby little babies. In. Love!

Just gettin' a little work visitor, Miss Harlow

What a sweetheart!

Harper is out for the count and slept on my legs for about an hour Friday night. Swoon.

Be still my heart! Is Murph not the cutest with Miss Harper in his arms?!

LONG WEEKEND

Due to some generosity from my boss and some PTO for Murph we were able to enjoy a stellar four day Fourth of July weekend. It. Was. GREAT! We both were able to check a lot off our to-do list including:

• Finished all painting of trim and walls
• Stained the floor of the deck a 2nd time
• Replaced and stained the rotting stairs on the deck
• Cleaned the house like crazy people
• Did a ton of laundry
• Picked lots of fresh raspberries from our bushes
• Weeded the entire back yard
• Arbor take down
• Had friends over to grill Saturday night

It is so nice to not see piles of paintbrushes and tools all over the downstairs, now I can focus on decorating :)

I think the best part of our little break was a trip to Maffitt Reservoir with the pup on the 5th. The reservoir is a little south of Des Moines and we thought a little hike / picnic sounded perfect for our day off. I'll say we were underwhelmed. We walked a little over 3 miles on a grass path through trees the entire time. Little elevation change, little path maintenance  LOTS of flies and little view of the reservoir. But Willy loved it and we got in some exercise so it was all good.

My favorites leading the way

After we saw that Wills was getting hot we broke for our picnic lunch of summer sausage, cheese, cherry tomatoes, and bread/crackers. We lounged on the picnic table and let Willy rest up.

One hot dog!

My love

Before we left for home we decided to head down to the water and see if Willy would like to play. It was the best. He ran through the water and Greg even lured him out far enough to get him to swim. He pumped those little legs of his and was a little panicked at first but eventually got the idea. I loved every minute of watching them in the water.

Swim lessons!

After the dip in the water we headed down Maffitt Road to find our future home. Seriously, the area is amazing, large wooded lots with giant homes we could never afford, I was smitten of course :) We got back home by 2:30 or so and gave Willy a bath then we all hit the deck to catch a few rays. That didn't last long as it was clear I had already gotten enough sun for the day.

When we came in Murph was rubbing Willy's belly and saw 10-15 large deep red welts. I panicked. Was it something in the water? Did he have ticks? IS HE DYING? SHOULD WE GO TO THE VET?! It was at that moment Murph uncovered some ticks and my Google search let us to believe he had some black fly bites and we shouldn't be alarmed. Phew. So we checked him for ticks throughout the night and pulled about 5 little guys off him. The bites didn't seem to bother him and thankfully are already gone, but worried me enough to want to stick to less grassy paths with the pup.

All in all it was wonderful and I think there should be at least 1 mandatory 4 day weekend every month. We would all be in a better mood :)

REMODEL UPDATE

Will it ever end? I think I ask myself this question daily. We decided to overhaul our first floor on January 12th, today is July 3rd. We aren't done :) Ah the joys of DIY right? With a nice fat 4 day weekend coming up I think we will be able to wrap this bad boy up! Because I've been a list making crazy woman on here let's do another. This is a comprehensive list, a few things we did prior to the Jan 12 date.

What We've Done in all of the Rooms:

• Painted Walls
• Kitchen, Living Room, Family Room, Bathroom
• Painted Ceilings
• Kitchen, Living Room, Family Room, Bathroom
• Tore out and replaced all flooring to a handscraped laminate
• Tore out and replaced all interior doors
• Removed all knobs and hinges and replaced with bronze ones
• Tore out and replaced all base trim and door trim

What We've Done in the Living Room:

• Painted the front door

What We've Done in the Kitchen

• Painted Cabinets
• Added Cabinet Hardware
• Replaced the lighting above the table and the semi-flush mount fixture
• New harvest table and chairs
• Took down the vertical blinds over the slider and added curtains instead
• Made roman shades for the 2 windows over the sink
• Installed new quarter round under the cabinets

What We've Done in the Bathroom

• Painted all of the trim and door white before buying new and doing it all over again
• Installed a new toilet
• Made a new sink vanity from a desk and pieces from Overstock.com

What We've Done in the Family Room

• Replaced the ceiling fan
• Took it down because it wasn't working
• Found out the problem
• Put it back up, it didn't work
• Took it down
• Installed it upstairs to see if it worked, it didn't
• Installed one from upstairs to see if it worked downstairs, it did
• Tried the original one again, without the remote sensor, it works but is always on high with the light on now
• Painted the mantle white
• Murph purchased a new soundbar and wireless subwoofer to please his wife and her hatred for visible wires running along the floors

What's Left:

• Finish painting a final coat on the trim in the family room, bathroom and closet
• Paint the inside of the front door again, it looks odd blue now, so it will go white to match the others
• Replace hardware with bronze
• Paint the door to the garage, paint the patio doors as well as their frames
• Replace hardware with bronze
• Replace floor grates with bronze ones
• Replace bathroom fixtures
• Mirror, TP holder, towel ring
• Add flexible moulding to the fireplace hearth along the floor
• Add quarter round under the garage and front doors
• Window coverings in the family and living rooms

Long Term changes:

• New countertops in kitchen - projected 2015
• Tile backsplash in kitchen - projected 2015

Wow. That's a lot. We need a break. For real. 

Throughout this process I have found out a few things about Murph and I, but the main one is that Murph is a champ. He trusted me explicitly with this overhaul from number crunching to process and did it all with a willing heart. He sanded those cabinets for hours, patched my botched holes, and never considered serving me with divorce papers. He is the best teammate I could ever ask for. I think I owe him a beer ... or 12.