Celebrating in Santa Fe

Tucker and I went to Tomasita's in Santa Fe to celebrate being done with all the big things. I'm so glad to be able to have our weekends back. It's been a year since we started. These pictures are just of the kitchen (earlier posts have the other areas we did). Renovation is no fun, and I'm sooooo glad it's over... for now..... except for that list of 15 "to do's." Oh yeah, the blue tape on the wall marks one of those to do's- cover over the nails in the trim that were used to put it up, then paint over the filler used. It'll get done. Right now though, we're celebrating!

Before and Afters of the Kitchen

So I really want this picture at the bottom, but whatever! It was Tucker's idea to go all the way up the wall with the tumbled stone, I love this idea. The stone is red tumbled travertine (although it doesn't look red). They're in 1x3 little bricks. I love the little bricks. I also love that each stone looks different.
This was the view from the laundrey room. This was all of our kitchen! On the left side, you can see the countertop peninsula and upper cabinets that hung down. I also hated the light box that had the flourescent lights in it. That was the only light in the kitchen. We took that out (with my dad's help patching over it). We also built up the window so that there's a window seal (Tucker's idea).
The grains in the wood are so pretty. I love how each piece looks unique. Tucker oiled it with a food safe oil, and water just beads up right on it. I thought wood might give me the eebie jeebies when it was wet, but it doesn't. It's so smooth, and we like how natural it is. We got it at lumber liquidators. It was cheaper than laminate would have been, and we love that it's natural!
I love our big open sink! No more double basin, it's so wonderful!
Here's the new pic taken from the laundrey room.
Completely Southwestern, gag me!
This picture kinda shows you the empty space between the living room and where the kitchen started. I guess it was for a breakfast area, but it was weird to have that right in front of the sliding glass door and then it had the dining room table on the other side of it. We put the bar where that 1/2 wall was.
I love the island with the granite top. It's been a great place for storage and cooking! So I chopped our frig out of the pic. We haven't gotten a new one yet, so it doesn't match the other appliances.
So, I still get so frustrated with the order pictures are loaded... but you get the idea!

Nacrotizing Fasciitis

This was one of our conversations last night at dinner.
Tucker: So, today I was pretty sure I had nacrotizing fasciitus.
(for those of you whose husbands haven't had close encounters with this as much as my husband has- it's a flesh eating bacteria)
Rebecca: Really, it has to enter through a cut or sore. Where's your open wound?
Tucker: Right here!
(In just the right light, I see a tiny cut at the base of his thumb)
Rebecca: Why did you think you have nacrotizing fasciitis?
Tucker: I was feeling achy, and I looked up the symptoms and was having several of them. And the cut is on my left side, if I lost my left side I wouldn't be able to write!
Rebecca: Why don't you think you have it anymore?
Tucker: Well, it turns out I was just nervous for my presentation. After it was over, I felt fine.

By the way- his supervisor told him after his presentation... "Tucker, you're really kicking ass here!" He's so smart!

God is our Provider

As we adjust to living on one income, we are also realizing how good God has provided for us. We were going to have to take from our savings each month, if our expenses stayed the same. But, this month is the last month for my car payment (caching!), and we refinanced our house so that takes another $200/month off of our expenses (caching! caching!). Our direct TV contract ends this month, and our land line phone contract ends this month! So, we have just what we need now to live on one income! We really know that God has provided perfectly for us during this time. He is so good! We were just talking last night and amazed at how He is our wonderful Provider. He has definitely reminded us that He cares for us, He knows us individually, and he cares for our needs! Thank you Lord!

It's ours!

So, we finally paid off my car! YEAH!!!! I'm so excited about this one. We paid it off last week. Tucker really didn't even want me driving it last week because he felt like it was just going to blow up or something after we sent our last payment in. How crazy, it's not like it has a target on it now. My paranoid husband...

In other news, I got in a wreck today! A 15 year old boy went out into an intersection, changed his mind, and reversed right into the front of my car. Aaagghh!

Classes...

So, I just started three new classes for the fall. I was actually excited to get started to add some interest to my days. I'm taking a course on teaching writing that requires us to write for 30 minutes each day (among other less exciting things). There are so many stories that I have in my head that I've been wanting to write about. I think I'm definitely going to enjoy this class. The other class is all about research. Do you know how hard it is for me to read a chapter about statistics and get it? I need visuals! The questions at the end of some of these chapters seem like they haven't been explained (Interpret the following in ordinary language: Rxy= +.90, p<.05). Yeah, I'm so sure....
I was originally planning on taking 3 classes and teaching, which I knew would be crazy, but had no idea how crazy! These first two weeks I had 17 chapters to read. Yeah, I think maybe God was giving me the gift of sanity by not giving me a job... so far (still open to something part time).

We're done... almost!

So, we finally finished all the big projects with the reno. Yea! We have a list of about 15 things left, but these are all little things (30 minutes-1 hour). The problem with this list is that it's been at about 15 things for about a month. We do a project and then more things get added to the list. Like after we grouted the tile, then we needed to touch up the paint around the tile on the wall. So, we have 15 things on our list, maybe they'll go away... or maybe that's normal for home owners.

I'll post some pictures when I can figure out how to get the camera off the timer mode. Help Tucker!