Am I the only one bothered by this?

So I’m in the mall the other day and need to ask the sales associate a question.

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

“Yes?” She replies, as she turns around to me. Much to my horror, she is wearing a shirt, similar to the one above with only a bra underneath… a see through one.

“Ummmmm,” I mutter while trying to remember my question and overt my eyes to the floor. Glad that my hubby wasn’t with me I leave the store embarrassed by what I’ve just encountered.

This incident along with some of my teen girls asking about how to dress modestly (and my research into answering their question from a biblical aspect and not just a personal preference.) Has prompted me to start working on a blog post and a Sunday school lesson(s) about Dressing Like a Child of the King.

If you knew me before I was married you would know that the area of dress has never been my strong suit. I’ve always struggled with trying to fit it, be in style, and be attractive according to the world’s standards. I grew up in a good church that taught on dress and having appropriate standards of modesty but I guess it never sank in or maybe I was too consumed with the lie the devil feeds us about beauty and how to achieve it. It was not until I got married, to a very loving and forgiving man, who helped me see the lie I had bought and who has also encouraged me to change my dress for the glory of God.

It is not easy for me to write on this subject because I feel so inadequate. But at the same time I know that God uses the inadequate and the broken so He can gain all the glory. I hope that you will pray for me and with me as I work on this subject and if you have any suggestions that may be a help I hope you will e-mail them to me or leave a comment for all to see and gain help as well.

Thanks in advance,

Bex

Our House – Guest Bedroom & Outside

I’m skipping over the office and the garage right now because they are still in disarray :( We are still waiting for Kenny’s office at the church to be ready for us to move his boxes of books and filing cabinet into and the garage needs some rearranging before I show that to anyone! I’m also skipping the guest bath for now because its the same as before (I haven’t even bought a shower curtain for it yet) So the only other room to show you is the guest bedroom and the outside.

Nothing very exciting just a place to sleep for any of our teens or friends who want to come visit. I do plan on putting a lamp and clock in here along with a picture or two on the walls.

  This room also has a nice big closet which we are using to store jackets and blankets (for which I was made fun of for bringing to Florida!) In my experience with teenagers…. if you have a sleepover someone always forgets to bring their pillow or something to sleep on. Sooner or later these blankets will come in handy!

Next is the outside (my personal fave!) We were really blessed to get this house not only for its size and affordability but also…

   …because this is my backyard!

We have a nice little patio right outside the sliding glass door in our living room, and the door you see on the right is a little storage room for garden hoses, ladder, we probably could keep the grill in there (I don’t really know because I’ve never actually looked in there)

Here is the front of the house (again, sorry this picture is from when we moved in). The Penske truck is blocking the garage door but that is our driveway and you walk to the right around the front of our house to get to the front door (weird set up, I know).

 

And here is the rest of the walkway up to our front door. I’d like to put something our front with our house number on it I really like these ideas I saw on pinterest for the front door/walkway area.

I also have a little strip of “garden” area along the front of the house. Don’t know for sure if I could do this or if its too big of a goal for me but I really like something like this around that front window. I’d probably do something low maintenance like morning glories – if they can even grow here :/

…or maybe just start with a window box or two and go from there!

Anyways, that’s our house. I hope to have the office ready sometime this week to give you a picture of, as for the garage I think that might be a weekend project. Once I have all the house pictures for you I’ll start taking photos of the church so you all can see what we do!

Hope you’ve enjoyed our house tour. Come back to see the projects and decorations I choose for all those “blank” places!

Our House - Kitchen, Living & Dining Rooms

Sorry about not posting anything yesterday – I know your all just dying to see the rest of our house, right? We’ll start this morning with the Living Room. Keep in mind I still have a loooong way to go :/

We plan on getting a couch somewhere in the near future because the one that was given to us didn’t quite fit on the truck… Anyways that will go underneath the collage and the chairs will move to either side or depending on the size of the couch Kenny says the plaid chair will have to go… But I thought, if that was the case, I could move the chair into our bedroom where the tall mirror is… I don’t know we’ll just have to wait and see :) To finish the collage off I’m planning on using my Cricuit to make “~est. 2011~” to fill the gap between the pictures and the chair.

This is a little closet, on the way to our room, that houses games, extra kitchen stuff (crockpot, whirly-pop, etc) and my dust mop and vacuum. Opposite this wall… again no picture (epic fail) I’m thinking of doing another collage but with more sayings and less pictures like this one on Pinterest.

Turning on around I, again have a blank space above the TV that I’m not sure what to do with or if I even should do something with it :/ On the wall next to the door I like this kind of wall organizer but in white.

Moving on to the dining room, another blank canvas (I would normally have cleared off the table but its kind of become the home office until we get the office/craft room set up – it still has boxes everywhere for Kenny’s office at the church, working on that) On the short wall to the left of the picture I would like to find a small side board, or something similar, for my extra dishes or a small bench with a hide-a-way for shoes maybe something like this. On the far wall I was looking at a sign or lettering something like this, also from pinterest.

Next up is the Kitchen, (hold on because I have a lot of pinterest idea’s for this room!) as you can see I have a nice little window looking into the dining room also the closet door is my little pantry. I’ve had to brush up on my organizing techniques to be able to get everything in here – and I’m still working on that too! On the far wall, behind the ceiling lamp I have plans for some open shelving like this.

I feel like I have a lot of “stuff” sitting around right now, some of the things on top of the cabinets will go on the shelves I’m wanting to build but that still doesn’t free up the counter space for me. My other plan is to try and find a bakers rack type thing to move my toaster, coffee pot and cook books to, that will move quite a bit off the counters for me. Then to decorate I like something like this but using more colors.

Three more rooms down and a lot of more ideas to go… Hope your having a wonder Valentines Day!

Our House – Master Bed & Bath

 

I plan on buying some lamps for the end tables and I feel like we need something over our bed but I’m at a loss as to what… Any idea’s would be appreciated! Anyways, this is the set up right now but it is subject to change.

Here’s a shot from the other direction. I really didn’t like covering up that window with the dresser but I don’t feel like I have a lot of options as to where to put things – working on that -

I included this shot to show where our closets are. they both have nice big mirrors so I might end up moving the long mirror (in the previous shot) into another room where it could be of more use.

As you can see, I’ve started taping off stuff in the bathroom so I can paint. I haven’t picked out the exact color yet but it will be red like our bed spread and bath towels. Also, I’m not painting the entire bathroom. just what you see pictured here, around the mirror and countertop and above the tile in the shower. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the counter in here so you might not understand what I’m talking about. I have a cabinet underneath the sink on one side but then just an open space on the other (closest to the wall in this picture) Kenny and I have talked about putting an open shelf in for our towels to sit on and then adding some matching baskets or bins underneath it for my hair supplies and extra bathroom supplies to go.

This area, behind the door, will stay white and I’ll try to find something to hang on the wall – or do a stencil in a high-gloss white paint, its kind of the “style” right now… La-tee-daa! I also want to replace or paint the handles on this cabinet, because all of the other fixtures in here are silver – I have thrown around the idea of painting the cabinet but I don’t know what color yet, if I did.

That’s 2 rooms down and a couple more to go. I can’t wait to get started on some of the projects whirling around in my mind :)

Any suggestions for something on the wall behind the head board? how about the wall next to the toilet in our bathroom? I’d love to hear what you think.

Packing

I decided to take a break and show you some of our packing progress. To be very honest, at the moment, I feel like I’m doing all this packing but I’m not even making a dent in all of our stuff :/ what’s worse is I also feel like I’m in a non-stop mess! But don’t worry I know I’m making progress and things will look a lot better around here after the “Donate” pile has been hauled off and the “Sell” pile is going down. Any ways here are some pictures if your interested… and some helpful (at least I thought they were) moving tips I’ve gotten all over the place!

The “Donate/Sell” Pile – it pretty much takes up the whole room!

- My Packing Station -

  Former “Man Cave” now my stash for already packed boxes.

 

Now here are the Tips:

• Use small boxes to pack books. This may sound like an inconvenience to pack several small boxes with books but them being small will save your back later as you load and unload your truck! FYI we went to our local grocery store and asked for milk boxes and they gave them to us for free! Can’t beat that deal. – This back saver came from Pastor Mike Haley, being a Pastor he has moved a lot of books through several different moves so I think he would know how to best do that.
• Wrap/Pack glasses, dishes, and breakables in plastic grocery bags. They are way cleaner than newspaper and allow for a tiny bit of jiggle room in your boxes so things are less likely to break (of course you still want to pack things tightly) and for the best reason, they are free at the grocery store just start saving them as you purchase things and ask your friends to do the same. – This one comes from my Grandma who has moved many, many times and has experienced little to no loss of her numerous dishes!
• Pack dresser drawers (any drawers for that matter) and cabinets as full as you can. No sense in wasting that empty space, fill it with things you are taking with you any way. – I think this one came from my Mom who moved around a lot as a child/teen/young adult.
• Place pictures and other flat items in-between blankets, sheets and pillows to keep them protected. Just be careful when your un-wrapping! – this one came from my friend, Sabrina, who has also moved several times with her former Marine hubby.
• Use the “Color Coding” system. Pick a color for each room of your new house, (i.e. Yellow – Kitchen, Blue –  Garage, etc.) then label your boxes accordingly – I got this hint online somewhere but I can’t remember where so I could give them credit for an awesome idea
• On my colored pieces of paper I’ve also been labeling what is in each box so when we get there it will be easier to find what is needed instead of having to unpack every box right away. – This one is from Mom (she’s a super woman when it comes to packing things!)

Well that is the end of my borrowed brilliance! Any other tips I should know or could add to my list?

~Bex

Plans for the week

This past Saturday my sister and I went yard saleing and I found several things to aid in decorating the house. I plan to blog about those this week and get them in place. Eventually, I hope, to do a “home tour” for every one here on the blog.

Kenny (finally) made it back home this morning from the Conference in California at 2:45am. Although we didn’t talk much last night, I know Kenny is excited about the things he learned out there and has already been planning some changes for the choir and youth group. Should be really good from what he has told me already.

Also, this week we are getting ready to take the teens to camp in Georgia for a week. If you think about it please pray for us as Kenny and I will be counselors for the week and for all the teens, that their hearts would be open to God’s word.   - Along the same line Alton Beal was preaching at our church  yesterday. His message last night was about the four men who brought the man of the palsy to Jesus by lowering him through the roof. Alton was saved as a young boy through the bus ministry run by four men. His message was “What are you doing to bring people to Jesus?” I know I’ve mentioned praying for our teens a lot but it is an important way you can help bring people to Jesus.

Last thing I’d like to share here today is Your not JUST anything! I follow the blog “Not JUST A Housewife” Its a Do-It-Yourself decorating, organizing and anything else you can think of kind of blog on a budget. (just my style!) She did a really good post yesterday about being proud of what you do. I really enjoyed reading it and hope you will too!

Random Thoughts about: Decorating and Organizing

Here recently I’ve been gathering idea’s from decorating and organizing websites and blogs for our future home. However, most of the people who have such sites own their home so they can paint, wallpaper, nail, caulk, etc. without the worry of “damaging” someone else’s house.

Just the other day I ran across a website that specializes in helping renters with decorating and organizing a rented home, working with what you’ve got and giving tips for making the most out of your space without damage to the home.

Sounds perfect right?

Unfortunately, the woman who writes the blog uses so much slang language I felt like I was digging through a pile of mud to get the small gems at the bottom. This has happened with several blogs and websites I’ve found under this topic and I just think a person should be able to get the help they’re looking for without extra, unnecessary, foul language, innuendoes' and unrelated comments added.

So I’ve decided, I’m going to…

Wing it, and blog as I go, hopefully to be a help to others in the same position… hopefully :)

Here’s some thoughts and questions I have about this:

• Should I create a separate blog for this and keep Life in the Big City as my personal blog?
• or Should I leave it as is and create a separate tab for decorating?
• If I create a tab how do I go about it?
• If I do a separate blog what should I name it?
• Those of you who have more than one blog, how hard is it to keep up with?
• Do you face any major problems having two blogs instead of just one?
• Is this idea of mine something that my current readers would be interested in if I added it to this blog instead of creating a separate one?

I’m looking for any kind of feed back, if you have comments, suggestions, answers to any or all of my questions, Please leave me a comment or shoot me an email!

Random Information, Invitations and Recipes

I feel like everything I say right now is “Oh yeah, by the way…” I already had a post set up to go out this morning and then last night I found/did a couple of things I wanted to share so here’s for post #2 today :)

Last night Mom and I ordered our wedding Invitations! YAY!!!!! I wanted to share this because not only do I really like the ones I got but I got a pretty good deal on them too.

If anyone is reading this that needs to order invites of any kind in the near future check out Invitations by Dawn right now thru March 11, 2011 they are offering 15% off your entire order with the promotion code: semimar

I saved $26.00 on my order which more than paid for the shipping (you can get free shipping if your order is $175. or more, which mine wasn’t)

The other thing I wanted to share was a website I found. $5 Dinners – If your like me, constantly looking for a new, good, in-expensive recipe’, this just might be a sight you should check out. I’ll be honest and say its not my favorite layout for a recipe’ website. However, I do like the fact that they list the cost of each item(and give you coupons for different items) in the recipe’.

Probably my favorite recipe’ website is allrecipes.com I have this one on my iPod, you can say what your looking for, give them what ingredient you have on hand and want to use and choose your cooking time. For instance, Last night I wanted something quick and easy but different. I put in “Main Coarse” for the dish, “Chicken” for my ingredient and “20 minutes or less” cooktime. It came up with Romano Chicken! We all loved it, it was very good and with prep and cook time it took about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Here’s the recipe’ just in case you’d like to give it a try:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
• 1/4 pound Swiss cheese, sliced – I didn’t actually measure this and the ham, I did one slice of cheese and two slices of meat per chicken breast.
• 1/4 pound ham, sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1/3 cup dry bread crumbs

Directions

1. Place chicken breasts on a pan. Place Swiss cheese and ham slices on top and roll up, securing with toothpicks if necessary.
2. In a small bowl combine the Parmesan cheese, paprika, garlic salt, tarragon, basil and bread crumbs. Mix together and dip rollups in mixture to coat.
3. Drizzle with melted butter and cook on High in microwave for 4 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear. – This took 8 minutes in our microwave.

I didn’t have ham, Swiss cheese or Tarragon. What I did instead was Roast beef slices, Provolone cheese in two of them and Mozzarella cheese in the other three, and left out the Tarragon and it turned out just fine, so its an adaptable recipe’ as well.

I hope you’ll check some of these things out for dinner tonight!

Just Because

I don’t really have anything important to write about today I just really like my new blog layout :s is that silly?

The temperature here in NC has been so nice lately I keep forgetting that its still February! I just hope that when it cools off this weekend it doesn’t completely kill all of the buds that have started coming out, I just want the pollen/allergy causing stuff to die.

Spring projects… that might get blogged about :)

• Cleaning out the flower beds, I’d like to get some of this done before the weeds come back in full force!
• Organizing the music files at the church. Kenny has done well with this already but still has a lot of music in tubs on the office floor, with that said anyone know where we could find an in-expensive filing cabinet? Book shelves would be another nice addition to his office.
• Yard sale-ing – I’m not going to have one of my own but I really enjoy going to look at them :) I claim the motto: “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
• Start packing things up to take to Kenny’s. I’ll be starting with decor (lamps and pictures and such), paper work, kitchen and living items that are currently in the attic and books. Once the warm weather is here to stay I might start working on the winter part of my closet :s Look out Kenny, here she comes!
• The wedding guest book. My cousin scrapbooked her own guest book, it was really cute. For mine I’m planning on having extra space where people can leave advice and comments with their names. I thought it would be more fun to look back at in the years to come.
• Flower girl basket and ring pillow
• Wedding veil, I’ve decided to make my own, how hard could it be? To be honest my sister is going to be aiding in this project since she is more crafty in the sewing arena.
• Address and mail invites… maybe I’ll invite a couple people over and have an invite addressing party! Anyone interested? (sarcasm)

Well I’ve made myself sound like a really crafty person with some of my upcoming projects, but don’t worry they’re really simple and as long as I don’t wait until the last to do them it should be a lot of fun too!

Does anyone else have a project list for this spring?

My New Years Objectives

Serve More

Stress Less

More Fun & Games

                  Less Perfectionism

                                                                                Read More

Waste Time Less

Trying New Things More

“I Can’t” Attitude Less

These are just a few things I’ve decided to do this year among the yearly “clean out my closet, organize my books…” basically things I never get done! Happy New Year!

What are some things your going to work on this year?