friday favorites

heart this soap!



heart this vintage door hardware. I kept all the original door hardware in this house. it was one of the few things i wanted to keep. i love its two tone worn nature.

plumbing, poop, primary childrens, painting, planting

ok so first off this is my sweet neens. she is back at work ... ok well she was back at work the day after getting hit by a car but she wasnt herself. this weekend she was more herself with maybe just a tad different level of mobility but it was delightful to have her back! isnt she a doll! had another huge event this weekend but that is the last of the big ones for a few months. good thing i have the two best gals in town working for me!

next wasnt the Y game so disappointing?

couch update: it is gone. its gone to a family member on the murphy side. just where i would have wanted it to be despite what some family members might think. the drama that followed my post could have been some of the most ridiculous i have ever had the unfortunate opportunity to be involved with. and thats all i am gonna ever say about that.

saylor update: went to clinic on friday and met with every doc on the team. she is doing really well and pretty stable. the neurosurgeons dont think whats causing saylors headaches and back pain is tethering. though they think that may soon enough pop up do to the fact that she was untethered at such an early age and thats its been 4 years but they want to see her muscle test come back more depressing then it is now to confirm that. based on tests and symptoms they think she is having cerebral fluid imbalance problems. easy enough fix is that she needs to lay down so the fluid can get back to her head more often. feet look great but still need another tendon release. we are gonna put it off for a time. bladder and bowell finally seem to be doing what we all intended them to do when we started this mess over a year ago and we are thrilled to be falling into a mess free routine that works for all of us. school is going much better and all the little nuances are getting worked out one day at a time.

tonight is not a good night for the house or for us. thus why there is no house pic. i am kinda mad at the house. for exploding poop everywhere in the crawl space, for forcing nate into an emergency home depot run on sunday and hours and hours of labor in stinky stinky crawl space and tearing out my newly set toilets and making my bathrooms unaccessible for so many hours and for so much more. oh the joys of an old home. and oh the things we found .... ill spare you.

the outside is coming along. the yard is so white trash though., no offense friends. needs some planting and yet still even more painting. one day at a time though. nate is such a busy man these days with football, wrestling, eq, hunting hours etc.. etc... it makes it hard. the kids schedules have also become a tad demanding and kind wear me out.

heads up!

so thought you might like to see the good old home made headboards up in the girls room. they are identical and their bedding is identical so i figured to not inundate you with too many pictures of the same thing! they love their room and its perfectly girly in a non cheezy manner. am i 100% thrilled with its overall turnout? well no i am designer duh! but happy enough.

update: nate is busy still with the house we are working on the exterior still and its a slow going thing that is taking way longer then we anticipated. he is also busy with service hours for wildlife, EQ, stocks private wrestling couching that already started, his own football team, stocks football team, and of course football in general.

me: well ... lets just not go there.

storie: is deep into some extra curriculeeeers and busy busy, healthy and happy.

stock: is mvp on his team. so his dad, natural athlete with natural talent and sport understanding. he intercepts, blocks, and touch downs more then any other team mate. he is healthy and happy as well. doing well in school and is a great protector and watch keeper of the girls. mr popularity as always.

saylor: we are still working out lots of kinks at school. some have been really painful to address or rather to hear about, like the PE teacher who wasnt sure of her capability or how to adapt to her so rather then ask she sits her in a corner alone. she is having anxiety issues about school and fights us pretty hard to not go. she has very real stomach problems as a result of this anxiousness. on top of that she started having head aches last week and her back is now hurting. this very well could be indicative of something we knew might be coming but had hoped it wasnt ... tethered cord. headed to pcmc on friday for apts with the team and some scans. just when we thought we were done for the year.

in the midst of some difficult things some really great and fun things have come and gone and been experienced. we are planning a trip that we are extatic about (just so long as we dont find ourselves at an extended pcmc stay) and i am getting excited for an SF trip in november. our neens got hit by a car on her scooter last week ... that made my heart jump for a few days. she seems ok but a little beaten up. the house feels more and more like us and like home. i just got called into YW and am excited to work with the young hot ones. i am working on just letting the bad/negative things fade into the background. they seem to be out of my control anyhow.

next post .... a few things vintage i kept!

parting with my heart

remember this great vintage couch i got from grandmas .... well though i have held on tight truth be told it just wont work in this small house. it just wont. it saddens my heart but i cant think of what to do with it that makes me have peace so i am contemplating a parting. i really want someone to have it that appreciates it a great deal. so you photog friends .. good find for shoots! so you family members on the murphy side got room? and if your not family please contact me via email or post comment with a bid of what your willing to pay! oh breaking .. breaking ... but ok.

midway through outside reno .... ok not quiet mid

so you may remember that the exterior of our home looked like this ....



now it looks like this ....

in prep for exterior reno the bushes/shrubs and everything else that accompanied the front walls of this great place have been removed. yes it looks a little naked. we think its an improvement. older neighbors differ in opinion. nate has started to treat and paint the brick. the painting will occur in several stages and 3 different colors for 3 different exterior parts. but its moving along. there are still a few inside odds and ends to finish up. isnt that always the case though? i took 5 packed car loads to DI this week and no i did not want to get rid of all that stuff but this house is just to small to accomidate it. and then there is the garbage ... oh the garbage. a few trailer loads of that and a now overflowing normal garbage can outside with 8 bags of pine needles from the front yard next to it. 3 trailer loads of yard waste have also been hauled away .... oh the work goes on.

this weekend has been so spectacular as we settle into our own more stable routine in a more stable environment. kids are doing well. there continues to be kinks in saylors school life that need some working through and cause a little heart twinge here and there. but she gets through like she always does. nates sister nichole was in town this week with her two little girls and the kids had a riot hanging out together. many fun things attended. stock had his first few football games and is like his dad .. natural athlete. we all knew that right? and storie performed in a violin recital. good week. good week.

isnt the front door appropriate

ok peeps. i have internet back. not my desktop but at least my laptop. i prefer them each for different things and i prefer the desktop for editing photos and therefor for blogging :) so your all curious right? well the move went fast and furious. there are still some things that need to be shifted and exchanged from storage and lo's etc.. but the mass majority is done. the house house is mostly settled but studio stems area is chaos. it overwhelms me big time. but i will just chip away i suppose. we have huge piles of DI stuff to account for lack of space. a brand new TOTO overflowed, we still live in a fishbowl and it has proven that window coverings are my greatest house enemy. nothing we seem to attempt in that regards works and even one curtain rod tried to kill us while playing old maid with the kiddies on monday night. phone lines are trouble, lights have been trouble, decorate drawer fell apart, sink pipes gave way, the washer pipe got clogged with bread (if you know plumbing this doesnt sound as silly as it does to the rest of you) ... oh the list goes on. i am near tears at how many little things keep popping up. when will it ever stop? i am anxious to get organized and get things established, cleaned up and working so we can start reno on the exterior ... its just so ugly. i can see the potential but can you? i am looking for the patience i planted but i think the family of like 100 quails that live in my yard ate it all!

i thought i would start to share the new abode with one feature/area etc... at a time!

so this is the interior view of the front door. (cause the exterior view ruins the door seriously it looks like it doesnt belong and it doesnt right now!) the door and the colors are so far what we get the most compliments on. the door was custom made by meadow wood doors off a design that i came up with based on a few pics i liked .. that we all saw earlier this year on this blog. it was a big budget breaker but it was worth it. its a key piece that really accentuates what i was trying to create. a door a key ... so symbolic of so much.

update on kiddos .... saylor has had both some bowell and bladder issues in the last week. something we werent anticipated and once again i naively thought we were out of the woods. but i suppose those moments were i let myself let it go get me through so its ok i am not gonna beat it up. she is doing ok now. kids are doing well at school and saylor's issues are working themselves out and they are getting used to her. one kid told me that she is "most popular"!