Kitchen demo!

I'm going to take this oppertunity to brag about my husband. He not only built cabinets for my, he took out part of a wall! It was apperantly unneeded and now we can see into the kitchen from the living room. It makes both rooms look much bigger. In the gap between the lower cabinets we're going to put a dishwasher there. I also have about 4 more feet of counter space! Plus the lower cabinet will be a bank of drawers. Before we started the kitchen I had no drawers in my kitchen much to my dismay.

God works ALL things....

You know what's amazing? This last month I went through a pretty hard time with my marriage. I was really struggling with some jealously with my husband. I was seeing him hang out with other women, who are mutual friends and getting pretty upset about it. It was really hard but we finally were able work through it. Recently a friend f ours was dealing wit pretty much the same thing with his girlfriend. It was really cool to be able to tell him what were went through and what we learned from it. God does give us trials, and they always have a purpose. Some times we see them and sometimes we don't. I thought I'd share one that I could see. =)

More kitchen progress!

 Joe built and hung the corner cabinet and the two narrow ones by the fridge. This was day two progress.

 This is another view of the corner cabinet.

The kitchen as it stands one day 3. Microwave hung and a cabinet above it.

Kitchen in progress

Before- not a very effective use of counter space as over half was stuck behind either the stove or the fridge.

 Day 1 progress- Joe moved the fridge across the room and tore down some cabinets. It's hard to see, but it opens up the room so much!

Living room before and after.

Painted over the paneling, took out the carpet and re-finished the hard wood floor. Also took off the blue drapes and added some very flowey white ones. I forgot to get a picture of the other side, but one a maller window I put brown sheer drapes, to accent the wall color.

Flowers!

I have been blessed with the most wonderful flowers in my yard. And the best part is they were already there, so I didn't have to do anything! :) I sometimes kill plants...

So first. I have giant dandelions! Well really just the fluffy parts. And I'm sure it's not called a dandelion, but that's what it looks like. It's seriously almost as big as my hand stretched out.

Second I have a huge rose bush that has copious amounts of flowers. I think they are called old fashioned roses. 

My favorite, which has just started to bloom is these fantastic orange flowers. Joe thinks they're orchids but he's not sure. (I thought they were some sort of lily) 

It's wedding season!

Ah, that time of year when every weekend someone we know sems to be getting married. I really do love weddings, but I struggle so much with them. I want to be able to warn the bubbling couple how hard marriage is. How much work it takes. How quickly the 'honeymoon' phase can go by. But the problem is I know they won't believe me if I said that. I know, I was there. I was told all these things before we got married, but I thought we were somehow above it all. I thought since we had known each other for so long we had great communication. What I didn't realize was that talking through things before and after marriage is totally different. When you're living with someone you can't just leave and hope it's not a big deal the next day. Things just don't blow over as easily when you sleep with the person you're fighting with. I wish I could explain this all to newly married couples. But I know they won't listen. I know the heartache of unmet expectations in marriage. I want to spare all my friends that. But unfortunatly, I think it's just something you have to learn for yourself by doing it. =(