a red kitchen is harder than it looks...

Eight.


Yep, that's the number of coats it took to get this 100 sq ft of kitchen this particular shade of red. Still not sure if I like it. I could really use some opinions here people. :)

Oh, and NEVER buy red semi gloss from Behr. They've got great customer service, but the paint is terrible.

survived

Wow, it was a long day, but we did it. The children got off to school ok, looking sharp, of course. We went to staff meeting and then enjoyed a quiet lunch on the youth room floor, scheming plans for that room. It was pretty nice. Then I ran to the library quick before I got to spend an hour in two car pick up lanes and driving across town. I can tell that Tuesdays are going to poop me out. I came home with the kids, got them settled in at home, then painted the kitchen with another coat. Rob came home, we ate supper and then jumped on the trampoline in the rain - gotta love that. It was baths and bed for the kids. Rob organized my pantry while I did another coat on the kitchen (my fifth coat, not including primer). After that we prepped our game for tomorrow night, so at least I feel a bit ahead for tomorrow now. :) I'm exhausted, but we've worked hard and I'm ready for bed.

Oh, and the pictures. Sarah took our photo on Sunday at my latest addiction - Bayou City Wings. mmmmm. And the other is Eli, yesterday, singing "I am a friend of God" to the accompaniment track at the Christian bookstore. The ladies in there loved him! And the last picture is Sarah making herself comfy in her new classroom. awww!

second first day

All of the sudden the 'first day in the first grade' song from Veggietales Jonah is streaming through my head.

My second baby heads to school today. She's totally psyched. Of course, she's so like me. Absolutely fearless. :) It's a good thing. I know she'll do terrific and I'm not concerned about the environment at all, I know the people that will be working with her and they are doing A Becca curriculum. Yay!

An update on Eli; He had an amazing first day. He made some friends, he loves his teacher, and can't wait to do math today!

first day jitters

So we tried school today. I think by the time we got there Eli was pretty psyched. His teacher seems very awesome, totally knew who he was and was expecting him. Every kid has to appreciate that! I can't wait for him to come home and tell me all about it.


Oh, and isn't this kid a cutie? Tell me we won't be beating off the girls in jr high. :)

new pages

We are off to Houston now for a conference. We are pretty excited to see the city. But after I finished my third coat of paint this morning and finished packing and then found a little time to play with Lori on the phone.

fun videos for the fam

Sarah opening Grammy D's Gift

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Sarah opening Aunt Char's gift.

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Oops

Somehow my kitchen turned Heidi Swapp pink.


The good news is that Sarah loves it.

amazed.

I don't know if I've really done an effective job of communicating how much we love it here. I don't think I've ever felt so effective and needed and excited about my job (s) before. I'm just amazed at what God is doing in us, through us, and with us at Trinity. It's so exciting. I'm just super thankful to be here, smack dab in the middle of His will and doing His work.


Suffice to say... youth was amazing tonight.

random question

do you think it's against our HOA to jump on a trampoline at 11pm?
























oops.

Back to Boring

So I went back to brunette tonight. Sad really. I just can't afford Texas highlight prices and my roots were showing, big time. I think it will be a big shock to everyone here. boo hoo. Oh well.
Been a weird day. Lots of expo-ing. Lots of library time. Pretty wiped out and tomorrow is Wednesday already. How did that happen? I need to come up with a game. Hopefully involving shopping buggies. I've got two. Any ideas??

A Sweet Surprise

Don't Worry

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Pretty exciting, remember you saw it here first! This is a video of Rob's song.. He wrote it a few month's ago and I just love it!

new Leeland video.

I'm all over this band lately. If you haven't heard them, you need to. They are amazing. This is the video that Rob put together from their concert a few weeks back. We'll here them again in October with Casting Crowns. pretty darn cool.

Check out this video: Leeland concert



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thanks Trent!

Enjoyed putting together our trampoline this afternoon. Seriously a little girl dream of mine. I'm thinking 23 years is a long enough wait, don't you? Just wish it wasn't quite so stinking hot. I had to abandon Rob in finishing the set up, he's working on the net now. We just had to test it out and make sure it worked. ;)

another day in Texas

Still adjusting to life in Texas, but it's all good. :) Today is Rob's last day off with the kids before school starts and we are enjoying it, just being laid back and loving the normalness of being at home as a family. We've had an unbelievably busy weekend, with a youth event every day the past three days, so it's good to just chill today.
The picture is Sarah enjoying a very special card from a special couple. The card features Sleeping Beauty and opens up to play "Once Upon a Dream". My kids were pretty impressed that I knew the lyrics. :)

High School Musical 2 and Hurricane Preparedness

So the photo is Sarah busting a move to High School Muical 2 last night, which was quite enjoyable in my opinion. Don't ask Rob. He won't agree. :) It was pretty fun, but I was off last night. I've been pretty sick this week, so it's making it hard to enjoy much of anything, unfortunately.
Hurricane Dean is looming on our horizon and I'm just going to come right out and ask ya'll to pray for us. I'm not scared persay. I'm just really tired from a long summer of relocating and major life changes and house buying and everything else and dealing with a hurricane sounds just exhausting. I'm of course, concerned about our house. We have not bought plywood yet. It's been on our to do list since we first moved in, but at this rate we've been doing well to keep our lawn mowed to our h.o.a. standards, let alone do anything else around the house. I don't think we've ever lived in a house this long without painting a room or doing some major project! That tells you just how insane it's been! Plus being sick, I just want to catch up on some sleep, not pack my hurricane preparedness kit. Anyway, all this talk of hurricane makes me just a little sick to my stomach and I keep telling God, "I'm not ready!". So, we'll see.
Today we have a pool party all afternoon at Pastor Larry's house. That should definitely be a good time. Then maybe afterwards we can rustle up some plywood and think about getting our home ready. I've heard way too many horror stories of Rita and Alicia now. I'd just like to go take a nap. :)

happy birthday Sarah

Three years ago today I was recovering from my second c-section and waiting to meet our new daughter. A good day. One of the best in my life. Today is ranking right up there too.
First of all, we put Sarah's big present in our room last night after she went to sleep. She awoke this morning and came in to wake us, like she does every day, and found her new dollhouse smack in the middle of our room. "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed! There were hugs all around and she was ecstatic! So Daddy played with her while I made pink heart shape pancakes for breakfast. yum. Then Sarah needed a bath, and where do princesses bathe on their birthday? In Mommy's princess tub of course! She thought it was a great treat and all her new princess figurines decided to join her. :) Such a fun morning for her. Now we are enjoying a quiet afternoon listening to the rain of our first named storm of the season. :) So far it's not been too scary, but I guess there is a system in Cuba right now of concern. So keep us in your prayers - these Iowan's might feel a little misplaced in the center of a hurricane!
So, the exciting news. One of our students in youth group has a trampoline they are wanting to get rid of, so we decided to take them up on the offer and it's supposed to be delivered some time this afternoon - if the rain ever lets up! So we are pretty psyched. I've always wanted a trampoline, like since I was a kid and I visited my cousins in Topeka and they had one. I remember launching through the air and thinking that surely this was what flying felt like! I'm so excited for the kids to have the exercise. I'm pretty much planning on throwing open the back door emphatically and telling them to "Go jump in out!" when they get all gritchy with each other. It's going to be great. I also plan on spending a lot of time viewing the neighborhood from the high point of my jump. Surely 28 is not too old for trampolining, right??
Another fun thing today - fun is a relative term in this case - the contractor for Comcast is scheduled to show up in a half an hour or so to start ripping apart our moldy wall. yay! At least it will get repaired! But I'm not looking forward to the mess. Hopefully they'll bring some drop clothes or something. I'll be so thankful to have this nightmare behind us.

Hey

Remember the other day when I said I loved this song? Ok, this isn't a video of them but it's the video with the best sound quality I found - everything else was from a concert and shaky, loud, etc. But I wanted you to hear the piano. I love the driving piano, it's soooo fun! And these guys ROCK in concert, we heard them about a month ago. Their cd's and videos do not compare to them live. This kid can sing!

Wednesday is humpday.

So we officially registered Eli for public school yesterday, but I'm not feeling any better about that decision thus far. Rob and I have committed to trying a week of public and re-assessing at that point, and then continuing to reassess on a weekly basis until we feel comfortable with a decision, one way or the other. I was really hoping to get Eli tested for the GATE program, the Texas talented/gifted program, but testing only takes place once a year and we've missed that window. I have a lot of unrest about this school year, but we'll see how those first few days go and what new information he comes home with.
So on the docket for today? We have youth, of course. Can't wait for that. It's really becoming the highlight of my week. I had sudden inspiration to make video announcements with the kids. We have two big events this week - High School Musical 2 premieres on Friday night - Yay!! And we are having a youth pool party at Pastor Larry's home on Saturday afternoon. The video turned out alright, considering it was my first time using iMovie. Maybe I'll share it to MySpace and link it here later.
I'm really excited for Sarah's birthday tomorrow with her pink pancakes. :) I'm thinking of making a giant cookie instead of a cake too, but I haven't quite decided. I'm feeling pretty gross from the mold, so it's hard to get motivated to do much of anything.
Well, needing to scrounge up some lunch!

a perfect day

Wow.

Such an awesome day to be a Thoreson. Sarah slept in until 8:43. Yay! And it was Rob's day off, so we were all sleeping in and that is the perfect start to any day off. Then she came bursting into our room with hugs and kisses. We snuggle for a bit and then let her know that we decided to take her to Chuckie Cheese's today to celebrate her birthday rather than Thursday evening. Such a smart decision on our part.
So we got up and lazily got going, we made it to the pizza joint about ten minutes to eleven. It was perfect, there was literally one other child there and a grandparent. It was amazing. Now, you have to understand that I *hate* Chuckie Cheese as a rule because it's generally such a cesspool of germs and uncleanliness. But, at 11am the place is clean and quiet. We really enjoyed ourselves until almost one pm, when I noticed a child on a ride whose arms and legs were covered in what appeared to be chicken pox. We grabbed the kids and left. Obviously.
This afternoon Comcast came and FINALLY finished installing my home phone. Praise God. I am so excited to be a real person again with a phone! Now if they will just come and fix my mold problem!
This afternoon I ran some errands, finding some great clearance items at CVS for the pool. So of course, when I got home we had to take em out and test them! So we went to the bath, er, i mean pool. But it feels like bathwater when it's been over a hundred degrees for a week straight. Then Rob grilled up some burgers for supper. It was just a great day.
Exciting things on my mind??

1.) Sarah turns three on Thursday. Wow. We put together her big gift tonight. A dollhouse. She's pretty much going to lose her mind over it!

2.) I tried skeet ball for the first time about three weeks ago with some of our students and I loved it!

3.) Tomorrow is library day at our house. yay! and actually, registration day for Eli for school!

So, it's a big week at our house. School starts two weeks from today and both my kids are pretty psyched!

just kidding

About scrapbooking last night. At 5pm I got an email from expo saying they were changing their promotion and you had until 11:59 eastern time to upload any videos in the toy, housewares, and art/craft category. So I finished up my last five videos and uploaded Rob's videos while he made them. We finished 32 of his videos, which I didn't figure was too shabby for 3 hours (we started after dinner) and a slow server!
So on the docket for today... a breakfast meeting for Life Group leaders, some back to school shopping, and then maybe, just maybe, a little more scrapping. Not sure though, my house is pretty deep!

A new garden of inspiration.

And I mean garden. I planted every one of these seeds myself - no outside influences today. I just sat with my stuff and played and tried things and these are the results, like em or hate em. I personally, enjoyed the process and feel tremendously better. Maybe I'll be brave and post the pictures of my house later and then you'll see why I don't play more often. This place was a wreck by noon and I started scrapping at 10:45.

I've been listening to Leeland all day. Hey, you're the one is my new favorite song, it's just so happy. I could use a little more happy.

(one of my pages didn't photograph well, so I will post that later. I'm not done playing for the day - I'm committing the day to scrapping. Just pausing to make supper.)

today I'm really going to do it.

I'm putting my feet up. no laundry. no housework. nothing that isn't on my plan for relaxation. It's my personal challenge to myself. I'm going to scrapbook and mess around and watch Oprah and maybe even take the kiddos to the pool. Good times. Wish me luck!

My Comcastic Nightmare

So here is a copy of my letter to Comcast concerning the above pictures...

I am emailing you to report the damage done to my home by a Comcast Contractor. Her name is Karin (she did not give me a last name) and her technician number is 5264. She showed up at my home on August 3rd about 3:30pm and worked for approximately 2 hours, drilling various holes, etc. Shortly after five she left to purchase a tool at Lowe's which is about five minutes from my home. She didn't return until 8pm - well after my stated apt time of 2-5pm. She worked for another hour and fifteen minutes and left about 9:15pm stating that she wold be back on Saturday (August 4th) at noon to finish the project. She left wires all over my home (split through my living room running to computer and tv) and piles of wires in my driveway and on my back patio. Also, numerous holes had been drilled but not properly sealed.
Karin has never returned to finish the job even though she left her tools and ladder. I called her numerous times on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I finally went to the Comcast office on Monday afternoon and complained, scheduled another appointment with a contractor for Tuesday 2-5pm who also never showed. On Wednesday I returned to the Comcast office and requested another appointment. Finally a team of contractors showed up Thursday morning at 9am. They were thorough and fast and very polite about the whole mess. Thursday morning, about ten moments before the contractors came, my husband noticed mold on our wall where the cable had been incorrectly installed. We quickly realized that it was due to moisture from the hole that Karin had drilled through our home 7 days ago. We now have a four foot stretch of black mold in our dining/living room. This is absolutely unacceptable. I have a three year old and a 6 year old who are both asthmatic and mold is the worst possible thing for them. I need to have this repaired immediately.
I called Comcast this morning and filed a claim. An inspector came to my door, looked at the mold and concurred that it was definitely the previous contractor's fault and assured me that damages would be covered and it would be made correct immediately. I am very concerned about the health of my family in this process. Please correct this matter as soon as possible. I have enclosed pictures. The first is from Saturday morning and the latter is the wall as it currently is with mold growing rapidly. Thank you. - Anna

Isn't that the craziest thing you've heard this week?? I'm in awe of the gross negligence of this contractor. I'm really praying that Comcast will get this fixed quickly before it gets worse. It's pretty much growing by the minute - because there was no visible mold yesterday.

needing to slow down tomorrow.

whew. just need a breather. maybe a vacation from housework and expo. needing some down time. got a bag of new scrap goodies calling my name.

Oh, and this is my new scrap area. I hi-jacked the laundry cabinet.

Today's a big day.

Rob's letting me preach tonight, and about that.... I'm pretty psyched. This photo is the inspiration for my message. :) We'll just let you wonder about that.

got this email today...

Hi ladies,
Guess who I saw on a commercial on the travel channel for Expotv.com's Beat the Heat contest???? Can you guess? Our very own Anna!!!! I was watching (can you imagine?) a show about the 10 best ice cream parlors in the US and on came a commercial about Expotv.com and there she was streaming across the tv screen. It was only for a few seconds, but enough for me to jump out of my comfortable recliner and yell "there's Anna, there's Anna." To nobody since I was home alone. But it was exciting none the less.
Thought I would share my celebrity sighting with all of you. You never know which one of us will be next. So get in your videos for the contest!!!
Hope everyone is having a great day. Talk to you soon,

Estelle


How cool is that???

Scrapbook By Design

So I accidentally discovered the most amazing scrapbook store of all time. It's in Houston - Clear Lake area. This lovely gal named Tracy owns it and I was waaayyy impressed. She's a big Heidi Swapp fan (so that makes me a fan of her) and her store is a haven of black and pink damask complete with chandeliers and rhinestones and little pink birds even! And when she does a sale, she does it right! Starting last Thursday she put her whole store on sale at 50% off. Why? To make room for all the new CHA stuff, of course!! You can check out her blog and look back to June and July to see beautiful pictures of her store. Tracy's scrapbook store (boutique really) is exactly what a scrapbook store should be - a plethora of inspiration on product rolled into one beautiful package, like a christmas present waiting to be unwrapped. And boy did I unwrap, finding some really fun, out of the way things. I can't wait to play tonight after the kiddos go to bed!

new pages

Today's fun. off to bed.

Schlitterbauhn

We actually went Monday, but you are just now getting the photos. Schlitterbauhn is an awesome water park in Galveston. We took our jr. high students and our kids and it was loved by all. Eli's favorite part of the day?? Yep, that's him boogie boarding. You should have heard the crowd watching him - in awe because he's so little. I couldn't believe he did it - he's usually so scared of everything! But he watched Daddy do it and was thoroughly impressed, so he had to give it a try. I guess he charmed the life guard into allowing him on it - leave it to Eli. Sarah's favorite part was the frog slide. And we all enjoyed the rapid river and the wavy river. You ride your tube (Sarah and I shared a special toddler-holed tube) down this channel and then the waves come and toss you to and fro like a bottle in the sea. It's pretty much awesome. I think we floated down that way four or five times total! Definitely recommending this park, even though it's super expense - $37 a person. Youch!

Happy Saturday!

and a new Anna Garden has bloomed. Although, the green and white one is pretty much an out and out Heidi lift. :)

Sooooo thankful to be back online. You can't know how much it's been killing me! I so live on the internet and the phone, and so being without BOTH for an entire week - well, let's just say I about didn't make it.

But now we are back online, still phoneless, but I've got free weekends on my razor, so we should be ok. Oh, and my new internet is screaming fast so that's a big bonus, I'm thinking it's already worth the arm and the leg I handed over to Comcast last night.

On the docket for today - a wedding. And possibly some scrapbooking. Lori played with me last night and thus the new fodder today. See you soon!