A Work in Progress...

Well, the renovations are underway. They did this in under 3 hours! And to think we waited SO long to do this...so wall repair first thing in the morning and texturing tomorrow afternoon...then priming and painting on Wednesday! Yay! I can't wait until it's done!

And the Renovation Begins!

So...we have lived in our house since January of 2007...time flies. I cannot believe that we made it with this awful wallpaper in our bathroom for this long. (Well, the wallpaper isn't so bad, but check out that border!) Today, the wallpaper removal process begins! After going through the wallpaper removal/texturing walls experience before, we opted to hire this one out. So Fopay Paperhanging of Longview is here today tearing down the wallpaper. Depending on how things go, they will be done on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Since the wallpaper was put directly on the sheetrock when the house was built 11 years ago, there is a good chance that there will be some damage to the drywall from the removal process. If so, they will make any repairs necessary and then do blown texture on all of the walls. After all that is done, I will paint...I can't wait for it to be done!!! See the "before" pictures below.

Saturdays at our House

So this is what we do on Saturdays at our house...it was unseasonably cool on this particular Saturday so I took the opportunity to take the kitties outside to sit on the swing while we watched Jeremy work in the garden. Pictured below is me holding tight to Mama Kitty...

Baby Gizzie just looking around...
Jeremy after digging up our tomatoes. We had a bountiful harvest, but just couldn't water them enough to keep them alive. We planted two more cherry tomato plants in their place.

Me with Baby Giz...she could stay outside all day every day. She is spoiled rotten!

Sassy New Hair

New Hair! I seem to cut my hair to collarbone length every 18 months or so...it was time. I'm loving it! Oh...and by the way...jaws are still just a little swollen from my wisdom teeth extraction last Friday (all 4 removed!) Yay for recovery!

Welcome to our Home...

Wow! It has been a long time! So much has changed, but so much is the same. We are still living in our same house and continually working to make it our own. It's really come a long way in 2+ years. Almost every room has been painted (or will be before the middle of August) along with every doorknob being changed and almost every light fixture being updated. We're almost there.

Our master bedroom...next on the list to be painted.

Kitchen after getting rid of awful wallpaper, texturing

the walls, and painting. A job I never want to do again!

Our dining room after removing a wallpaper

border, texturing walls, and two coats of paint.

So that's a pretty good update on our home....now for work. I just completed my first year as a Special Education Counselor for Henderson Independent School District, a small town about 30 miles from Longview. It is the hardest job in the world, but also very rewarding. I am enjoying having summer off, but also wondering how some of my little babies are doings. I guess I'll find our in about 6 weeks! Jeremy is still working as a Mechanical Engineer for Westlake Chemical here in Longview. He has been instrumental in developing a new maintenance department for the plant and works too hard!

We still have our three kitties, Mama Kitty, Gizzie, and Princess. They are more spoiled than ever!

More to come! Hope you enjoyed the update!

A Much Needed Update

Well, following Miranda's lead, I decided that it would be nice to keep far-away family updated without feeling bad about not calling everyone often enough. It would take a very long post to update everyone that I haven't talked to in a while. I'll try to keep it sweet and simple.

Jeremy and I are living in Longview, Texas. It's about 45 minutes west of Shreveport. So it's Texas, but not too much Texas. We bought a home here on January 8 of 2007 (in 5 days, it will be one year ago!). We have been extremely busy since then. The company that Jeremy works for was sold a little over a year ago so we were faced with uncertainty as we went through that transition. Fortunately, everything worked out and we were able to stay here in Longview for a while longer. Shortly after the company sold, and 3 days before we closed on our house, Jeremy was involved in a serious car accident on his way to work. Amazingly, he wasn't hurt seriously, but we faced so much turmoil in repairing his truck and dealing with the insurance companies. The accident wasn't his fault, but we suffered a great deal for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I can't believe in two days, that will have been a year ago as well. It seems like yesterday.

I am currently in grad school and can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am getting my master's degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in School Psychology. I travel back and forth to Tyler, TX, which is about 50 minutes from out house to go to school 3-4 days a week. I have a full courseload in the spring (which begins in a little over a week) and one more class in the summer. After that, I start my year-long internship and should have my degree in my hands by summer of 2009. It's been a really long process, and we are so ready to really get our lives started. I plan to work for a little while before we have a baby. I'd really like to have a child before age 30....and I'm thinking my family would agree.

So I plan to post pictures soon of the accident, the house, etc. But I also have to tell you about the 3 children that we do have. We have 3 (inside) cats. We took in a stray in February who gave us 5 kittens several weeks later. By that time, we were hooked. We gave away 4 of the kittens and decided to keep one. One of the new owners decided that she no longer wanted the responsibility of a pet so we took one of the kittens back. Unable to find the kitten a new home before we got attached to her, she stayed with us. I'll be posting pictures of them as well.

Well, I hope this has answered some questions for those of you that I don't talk to often enough and that this will help some of us stay in touch a little better. I miss you all!

This is our Mama Kitty.

This is one of our baby kitties, Gizzie.

And this is our other baby kitty, Princess.

Saying baby kitty is very misleading though since they both now weigh more than their mother! Aren't they precious?!