christmas! yes!!

i never used to be a holiday-decorator. i owe my enthusiasm all to drea smith. she's one of my many past roommates who first introduced the concept to me. one year i came out into the living room to find an explosion of fake leaves covering every possible surface, compliments of drea. i hated it. i thought a plastic tree had reached its branches in our windows and thrown up. it was cluttered, it was messy, it was just plain out of control.
that was one extreme... we had conversations about it and came to compromises... but then christmas came around and she introduced me to the natural way of decorating. it turns out that the piney smell of evergreen and trimmings on wreaths and swags and themed decor is actually very soul-satisfying.
now i'm going on my 3rd year of loving decorating for the holidays and i think the new attitude is here to stay.

nick and i didn't pay too much attention to the trunk on this tree when picking it out until trying to get it to stand up... very challenging when it's shaped like an 'S'. next year we will definitely be aware! without going into too much detail, let's just say we've 'put up' our tree at least twice already. :-)
i don't like how a picture of the whole tree misses out on the pretty details, so here's a few of my favorite ornaments, up close and personal...




this was right after putting our tree up for the second time so nick wasn't feeling the holiday spirit as much... but he recovered eventually.

the cats keep getting my little berries and playing with them. annoying.

we're sad to miss visiting family this year, but also really anticipating our first christmas together and all the traditions we want to create... it's going to be so much fun! and as much as i love family, it's going to be really nice to not be traveling. it seems like a break with driving in it usually needs another break afterward just to recover!
not this year. two solid weeks of resting and relaxing.
i can't wait.

the nativity set

the main project the branson high school art club has been doing this semester is repainting this nativity scene. when set up, it overlooks downtown branson from the cliff way up high above the taneycomo river.
we had them laid out in bits and pieces on the tables in our art rooms and painted them with oil paints (losing several brain cells in the process). it was quite a task, but it turned out pretty nice. the place at which they set it all up is only a couple blocks from our house. nick and i went for a little walk on thanksgiving day to check them out. it was such a perfect, beautiful, sunny day, it's hard to imagine even though it was only last week! branson has definitely left behind the idyllic fall weather and encountered full-blown winter head on, darn it all.

the little-publicized sneaky wiseman who almost got joseph with his shank.

for being the star of the show, jesus is looking rather... tiny?

ah, jerusalem. just as i've always imagined it.

this cement pad overlooking downtown is the spot where nick and i went on our very first date. you can see the back sides of the nativity scene in front of us.

we set up our christmas tree on sunday! but that's a story that will have to wait for another day.

it's finished!!!! (or at least looks that way...)

from this...

to this...

to this!!

well 5 weeks later, our bathroom looks like a normal bathroom again...
there are still some plumbing issues that nick's in the process of resolving. since he's not a plumber it's been trial and error but he's figuring things out. he's a capable fellow.
aside from nick's pipe tinkerings, we also need to find the studs to screw the trim in (it's just tacked up right now...), figure out where the toilet tank is leaking from and fix it, attach the sink to the wall and caulk around everywhere (trim, sink, tiolet, etc.). despite it looking finished, there's still a long month of 30-minute jobs ahead of us...

pretty much every part of this room has had something done to it now. we even replaced the toilet flushing mechanism (whatever it's called) and got a new shower head! the old one was ridiculous.

somehow it seems bigger to me, which shouldn't be since the color's darker than it was... but maybe it's the tumultuousness we've been in for so long being transformed into nice and organized, making it seem roomier.

despite the list of things we still need to do to it, there's still something great about having it appear put together anyhow.
more peace of mind.

blips.

here are a random conglomeration of blips for your viewing enjoyment...
nick and his cohorts playing some bocci ball on a sunny day a few weeks ago...

sleeping samwise...

my bridesmaid dress (or should i say, 'matron of honor' dress...) for erica's wedding came in! it's pretty, me thinks. but me also wonders how i'm going to keep warm on december 28 in this little number. perhaps i'll be wearing a pair of uggs and a hand muff. with accompanying ear-flap hat.
here's maeby watching 'new kids on the block' (what were they thinking, coming back?!! stay in he 80's, boys!!). she has no sense of musical appreciation. she was equally enthralled by the kids as she was by pink, who i was surprisingly impressed with.
maeby sat, entranced, for at least 15 solid minutes of the AMA's.

aren't you sad i cut it short right at that melodic moment?
and let me take this opportunity to say, 'who do these people think they are?! i was working on a crafty project and i couldn't bring myself to watch football so the AMA's were the only entertainment option. i just have to say that the only impressive person was pink. everyone else came across in a very unimpressive way.

(the bathroom's ALMOST done!!!!)

joke of the day from one of my students...

Q: what do you get when a row of rabbits jumps backwards?

A: a receding hairline.


hahaha!

she tells me a new one every day. it's great.

i'm so curious about this person.

i was stopped behind this car at a stop light and just had to document it as the oddest group of bumper stickers i've ever seen.

what does a self-proclaimed pagan actually act like in every day situations? are they just your average joe? do they wear goth and chains and have multiple piercings? are they hippie nature lovers?
hmm.

contentment and couches

i journaled yesterday for the first time in about 5 months. i hadn't missed it until a couple days ago when i started feeling this vague little stirring in my thoughts, a sort of gentle nudge saying, 'hey... maybe you want to journal...?'
so since nick had to work until 10 p.m. at panera last night i took some supper over to him then just hung around on their cushy couch and journaled for a couple hours.
the biggest thing i realized is that i'm a pansy whiner. after about 5 pages of whining, i started getting a rather disturbing picture of how negative i've been lately. putting all my gripes down on paper made me see them clearly and realize how pointless it is to dwell on them.
there is so much i want right now that i just can't have.
after going on and on about it, i was almost sick of myself.
i found myself wanting more than all of the other wants just to be content.
as i thought about how to do that, how to go about being content, and after asking god to help me be more satisfied, i paused for a second then noticed that i actually was content right then. i was sitting in a warm place with cozy food smells, classical music playing, and the cutest guy ever just across the counter (i stopped to watch him frequently - he's so stinkin' adorable!)...
instead of needing to work up a sense of contentment, i found that i just was.
it felt good.
it's been a while.

these flower and berry pictures are from last week, right before the arctic wind and rain descended upon us.


on another note...

we found this couch at the thrift store a few weeks ago for a mere $25! nick was never big into the floral pattern of the previous furniture. i like more simple color palettes also. some may call it drab (along with my sense of fashion - today i'm wearing brown and navy - not too artsy, i know) but i just call it comfortable. i like comfortable colors that don't reach out and smack you. pretentious colors - blah.

we put the floral furniture over at the garage apartment (since erica wanted the couch that was there to go over to rob's house...) and brought the chair/ottoman from erica's... a case of musical furniture. someday we'd like to spot a different chair/ottoman at a thrift store or something - this set is not my favorite. i reupholstered it long ago but it looks a little too reupholstered for my taste.

next room to be photographed... the finished bathroom! we have to wait until tuesday before we can really finish (payday!) but it's coming, people, it's coming.

the saga of the bathroom... part 2

through this renovation process we've discovered a principle of life... whatever time you think something's going to take to accomplish, it will most assuredly take five times that long.

phase 1: tearing the subflooring out... 10 hours of two men (zack kuenzle is our new best friend - SO incredibly helpful!!) laboring extensively with crowbars.

phase 2: installing new subflooring and cement board to prepare for tiling... 8 hours.

phase 3: laying new tile... off and on for 3 days - nick mixing & cutting, me laying the mortar, tiles and spacers.

phase 4: tearing out beadboard, mudding, sanding, and scraping walls, then painting one small bathroom... 6 hours while nick's away at work.

of course none of these phases could happen consecutively what with our normal lives getting in the way. the tub, toilet & sink have been in the dining room for 8 days.

if it weren't so inconvenient it might be humorous...

today nick is doing phase 5: the grouting - so hopefully we'll be ready for phase 6: putting all the stuff back in, hooking up the pipes and finishing up last details this week!
that one sentence will most likely take another 10 hours to accomplish. especially since the 'finishing up last details' part means installing a chair rail and trim...
someday in the next month i'll post some pictures of the new and improved bathroom.

don't hold your breath.

arg.

it's been almost a month since last i blogged!!! that's a record.
i've been overwhelmed, to be honest. october has been the month of feeling like i'm in over my head. thankfully, i'm gradually coming out of it and starting to think i might be able to deal with it all eventually. i've decided that it has to do with being a delayed reactor. 3 months after getting married and i'm finally realizing that it's an adjustment to share your life with someone. it's a blessing beyond compare in every regard, but it's an adjustment at the same time. you know what they say though, admitting it is the first step to recovery :-)
starting a new job with very different things happening there - huge class sizes, huge school and whatnot hasn't helped. i didn't expect to struggle with teaching - it's something i've done for 4 years, i figured i'd breeze in and be fine. it's been harder than my first year of teaching, though, if you can believe it. the main struggle is getting used to such big classes every single hour and the amount of energy that goes into that. it's exhausting, but i'm starting to acclimate.

anyhow, all that to say, i'm finally back to blogging and i have a various assortment of odd things to report with the random picture to back it up...

these first two pictures are to share with you the state of disarray our bathroom has been in all week. the tiling and grout had just finally gotten too horrible and we think the wax ring on the toilet is leaking or something (notice the darker wet wood around the toilet... gross, i know.) so tomorrow nick and his buddy zach kuenzle are tearing out that last plywood layer, putting in new stuff, then retiling. what with moving out a cast iron tub, it's not going to be an easy job. but i'm excited that we'll finally have our bathroom retiled! it's been a long time coming. i'll post 'after' pictures.


then, in the spirit of 'when it rains, it pours', i went downstairs to use the bathroom this morning at 5:30 a.m. and actually thought it was raining - in the kitchen! a pipe came loose under the kitchen sink and flooded the house. upstairs wasn't too horrible, but the basement was under about 3 inches of water. in these pictures nick had already sucked up over 60 gallons of water. it wasn't even close to being done - he said he'd keep counting to see what the grand total would be.

i guess we'll be throwing out the rest of the carpet (which is pretty ghetto anyhow...) and eventually tiling. within the next decade, that is.

poor guy.
he's going on a boar hunting camping trip with the men from church tonight, then tiling tomorrow all day...

last week we went to allison's for a pumpkin carving party - so fun!

here's mine. it only lasted a few days on my porch before it caved in and looked like an old man with no teeth. i think the frost got to it, and the huge mouth cavity. not much support.

nick's is the one on the far left. it's a ghoul. casey made a great pirate there but really, everyone's looks super duper. we were all impressed with our skills.

my old college roomy was in town last weekend and we had a delightful afternoon hanging out. her two girls LOVED the cats, anna especially. she kept picking them up and carrying them to someone to hand off. the cats would then promptly run away but she'd find them, pick them up, and bring them to someone again... it was quite the hilarious little cycle. for some reason samwise and maeby really didn't seem to mind. they were even purring occasionally. perhaps it reminded them of being carried around by their mother.


the weekend before that, drea, erica & i went to springfield to find bridesmaid dresses for erica's upcoming nuptials (dec. 28th!). here's drea modeling the chosen dress (but they'll be marine blue) with the creative bow option. it reminds me of minnie mouse.
it only took us an hour to settle on dresses so we celebrated by going to cheddar's for lunch.


last sunday nick and i wanted to go up to the cemetery close to our house and see the beautiful fall colors - the trees there are always the most gorgeous. sadly, they had already mostly fallen. we missed them. but it was a lovely sunny day so we enjoyed the peacefulness anyway.



a long while ago, nick and i went bike riding after he proudly fixed our bike tires. it was so much fun whizzing down the sidewalk! we went on a long road with big, gradual hills. it was almost too fast for me at times. the outing ended in disappointment though - one of nick's brakes was dragging on the new tire in a way it shouldn't have and it shredded the side. we had to stash them in some shrubbery and go back for the car.
but someday, we will return to biking land. we like it. we also probably need helmets.

so that about sums up my last month. i'm sure other things have happened, but i don't have pictures of them, so i don't remember. that's part of the reason why i need this blog - to keep my memory timeline in order.
alzheimer's not far away, i fear.

henning tower

yesterday was a blah day. i just felt the mundanity of life weighing me down. especially the mundanity of having 3 afternoon classes of horrible, devious, misbehaving highschoolers. they're just rotten. some of them anyways. plus they're in the afternoon when it'd be nice to have perfectly angelic classes to make up for all the afternoon nap urges coursing through my brain right around 1 p.m.
anyhow, all that to say i was tired of it and bored with the routine and needing a change. i texted nick and asked him if we could skip exercising after school and do something spontaneous and fresh instead.
he came through with the most fun picnic ever!!
he picked me up from school with the picnic basket packed, a blanket on hand, and even a guitar and djembe in case we needed additional spontaneity.
we drove around for a scenic while, searching for the perfect spot, and eventually ended up at the henning tower, a place i'd never even been to before!! just when you think you've explored every interesting place in your town, along comes a really great one to prove that no, in fact there are still millions of nooks and crannies in these ozarks just waiting to be experienced.

we climbed to the top with our haul then spread out and enjoyed a tasty meal together. the view was lovely - even though it had been cloudy and cold and windy, the sun broke through from time to time to surprise us.

some unknown person had been just as overwhelmed with love but happened to have a green spray can in their hand...


we tried to pose with the 'love' around us, but my arm's not long enough.

here's looking down the tower...

this little dinner adventure was just the thing to make me feel revived and envigorated.
and also appreciative of this newlywed season. people are always saying that they were glad they waited to have kids so they could do all the things you can't do with a baby in tow. i always secretly thought, 'what kinds of things are these people doing anyways?!' it's not like i'm aching to go snorkeling in zimbabwe or parasailing in cozumel. but here's a prime example!
i still have that old-fashioned motherly urge to procreate, but i'm greatly enjoying our newlywed freedom in the meantime.

isn't he just a good one?