The Rich Cycle.

 

I’ve Moved!

Come join me! http://therichstyle.com/

Grammar

Than/then
who’s/whose
they’re/their/there
its/it’s

Basic grammar: it makes you more attractive.

I’m talking to you, bloggers!

(thanks, shelby.)

Weekend

How was your weekend, anteaters? Ours was pretty great.

Since our A/C did a sneak attack on us we’ve been holing ourselves up in our room where the only window unit is. I feel like I’m on bedrest. Jason gets up and goes to work and I sit on the bed all day. I’ll admit, the only thing I’m looking forward to about going back to school is having things to do. Things to write and things to use my brain for. The past three months have had their good times but letting my brain waste away is getting old. Really old. Really fast.

But today, and a few days last week, I came to work with Jason. So now, instead of sitting on the bed all day, I sit at a desk and do nothing! Woo…

Saturday was a pretty good day. Jason made me breakfast for the first time ever. And it was good! I was really really impressed with that boy. Eggs with sugar and toast. So good.

Later, since our rears were getting numb from all of the sitting, Jason took me out for a snowcone! Yummy.

Sour lemon! And that’s a Twang you see on top of that. Lemon-lime salty goodness. I think they intend for you to put it on your snowcone but that’s preposterous. I licked it right out of that aluminum package. Ahh… nostalgia.

How was your weekend?

Humble Pie

Our air conditioner has given us a lot of grief since we got married. A bit into our marriage we had to shell out $700 to fix the gas line that led to the unit so we could have heat for the rest of the winter. Thankfully, the school paid half since they own the house. A bit after that we had to replace the electrical board because it was being leaked on. We paid that on our own–another several hundred. Since then we’ve been fine.

However, when summer really started to heat up our house just wouldn’t cool down. We’d have it set on 69 degrees and after about 11 AM it’d shoot up to 80-82 degrees. Most days I’d feel really dizzy or just sick so Jason and I would have to go to the back of the house to hang out where there weren’t as many windows.

Before the party Jason decided enough was enough and called someone out to look at it. The guy was out here for a record 15 minutes and we gave him a check for $80. He said we’d have to replace either the whole unit or the cooling system. That’d run us upwards of $2,000. Awesome, right?

Unfortunately, it was pretty hot the day of the party and the house heated up fairly quickly, but we stayed in the game room most of the night so everything was awesome.

Sunday night came and neither one of us could stand it any longer. We went to Lowe’s and bought two ceiling fans for the living room. Something we’ve been wanting to do eventually anyway. Monday rolled around and that afternoon the unit shut off completely and hasn’t come back on since. That night was bad–88 degrees– but nothing like yesterday or today.

As I prayed last night, I thanked God for this blessed luxury. It’s so easy to take something as simple as air conditioning for granted, but once it’s gone you’ll never take it for granted again. We are incredibly thankful for the school for helping us out with these big expenses and will forever be indebted to them for all they’ve given us. As I type there is a meeting being planned to vote on buying a whole new air conditioner for this house which means we wouldn’t pay a dime! I don’t know why God decided to bless us with such an awesome deal but I thank Him that He did!

We slept in the floor Monday night in another room with a ceiling fan and Tuesday we got a window unit for our bedroom and borrowed two floor fans from my parents. This is where we will be until we get a new air conditioner! It could be about a week and a half to two weeks.

We’ll still be hot for a little while longer, but we’ll just eat lots of ice cream.

Party People!

 

Heyy party people! How was your weekend? Mine was super rad. (Why do I keep using 90s phrases?) Jason and I finally had the party we’ve been planning all summer and it was so worth all of the sweat and tears we shed. Not really tears. All sweat.

Before we had the party we gave ourselves deadlines. The living room had to be totally finished before we could have it and we had to have most of the rooms painted. We hung up countless things on the walls, cleaned like crazy people, and worked our butts off all for the sake of a party. I think it was worth it. Jason’s still on the fence.

So, would you rather see before and afters of the house? Or you just wanna jump straight into the party pics? Party pics it is. Sadly, I only took pictures of me and my crazy sister doing an inordinate amount of faces while the shutter clicked as fast as it could.

Oh, and a picture of Randa throwing a dart into our window.

The party was so much fun. Friends even brought us gifts!

A reed diffuser that smells of apple cinnamon and a Saint Jude candle with a giant penny around his neck. (You know you’ve always wanted one but were too embarrassed to pick one up from the ethnic aisle at Brookshire’s.)

And sweet Chaney made chocolate cookie dough truffles. So. Good.

Oh yeah. Jason found two of these while he was sweeping out the garage.

Are you happy party people? We risked our lives for this party!

 

 

It Is Done.

So sinister. Anywho, Jason and I  and his brother Jeremy finally finished up the drywall in the living room a little over a week ago. This is what I did while they worked. We had planned to have our party the next weekend and I was having panic attacks thinking it’d never be finished. There was an excessive amount of dust on the floor from the mud being sanded smooth and our furniture was strewn among different rooms. Even Jeremy didn’t really think we’d get it done on time. But that was our deal: no room, no party.

 That’s Jeremy, Jason’s brother, helping him mud. That’s the “new” couch the school gave us! Hooray for no more butt numbness!

So we worked. The days leading up to the party were insane. We were always hungry. We were too busy to eat. When we did there were midnight runs to Taco Bell or Whataburger. We covered all the furniture that we couldn’t move and sanded on Jason’s lunch breaks. Poor boy didn’t eat lunch most days the week of the party.  After that, we vacuumed the room, swept the room, and mopped four times. The dust is finally gone.(I just found some on the side tables.) And our floors are really clean. But we finally got it finished. Through all of the dust, painting, sanding, moving, driving around, and sweating (LOTS of sweating), we finally did it. So without further ado I give you the many before and afters of our living room.

BEFORE: 

We affectionately called this stage “Rich’s Asylum”.

AFTER: The hutch you see at the end of the room was also given to us by the school. It needs a good sanding and some paint but it’s an excellent piece to fill that awkward space by the windows. I’ll be sure to post a before and after on that piece once I get to it!

We covered that 80s couch with a suede two-piece slipcover and we love it. It looks so much better than our futon and it’s a great in-between until we can afford a new couch. I love that Mexican blanket! An old purchase from a mission trip there.

BEFORE:

That’s the wood behind the wood paneling I’ve talked about. In some places it was in great shape and looked Anthropologie-ish, but other places had bad water damage and were rotting away like above the fireplace here. There was also a layer of some kind of cheesecloth fabric underneath the paneling and what seemed like billions of nails. Once we figured those things out leaving this wood up was not an option. So drywall it was!

AFTER: I decided early on that I wanted to paint the brick to match the trim. It wasn’t bad brick but it wouldn’t blend well with our new colors. It turned out better than I could have imagined! I am in love with the fireplace now. I can’t wait for the winter! We still plan to paint that concrete hearth black to make a nice contrast with the white.  My sister made those adorable pompoms. Tutorial here!

I am so incredibly happy with the way it turned out. We wanted to quit so many times but it really paid off and I am so proud of us for doing that together! It’s such a huge accomplishment and I love showing it off. We still have some top trim to hang. We tried hanging it before the party but since we put up drywall it doesn’t fit anymore.

I still want to do some things to it decorating wise, like, hanging up a big picture collage above the couch to fill that dead space. I’d really love to hang a deer head  in the middle of that picture collage. Just have to sell Jason on that idea first!

So, what do you think? Happy Tuesday!

When God Goes Quiet

I really have nothing to add to this. It defines my life so eloquently right now. Wow.

http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/2011/07/when-god-goes-quiet/

Promise me you’ll read it?

Hello, Hello

Hello, dear readers! Just a quick update for the day.

We arrived home safe late last Saturday from a GLORIOUS beach vacation! (More on that later!) Since we’ve been home Jason finally finished putting up all of the drywall in the living room! It looks so good! He’ll start on the mudding this afternoon and my music room will FINALLY be done by tonight. We’re trying to get everything finished in time for our big party debut next Saturday! We’re having friends over for a good time and to show off our home. I can’t wait! We’ve got lots to hang up, to paint, and to buy before next week. This will be the most I’ve done all summer, no doubt, but it will be totally worth it.

Trust me, there are loads of before and after posts coming your way soon!

-Mel

Can You Smell It?

No, not that. The salty air! The sand! Mmm…

Well, we aren’t actually there yet. In fact, we haven’t even left yet! We leave for Florida at midnight tonight! Are we crazy or what? I say, yes! Thank goodness for car adapters for my laptop so I can watch Scrubs for 11 hours. I so can’t wait to be there! Here are my favorite things I’ve packed and will be wearing the majority of the time.

 L to R: Old Navy camo jacket, F21 studded shirt, F21 cheetah shorts, F21 sandals, Target sweater for chilly nights, F21 beach hat, F21 dress, thrifted denim top, Retro Dress suit.

L to R: Gold watch, F21 polishes, Bath and Body Works lip gloss, my iPhone, F21 sunglasses

These are the things I’ll be toting to the beach everyday! And there she is in all of her vintage glory! Finally. A high-waisted modern bathing suit with a vintage twist! She fits like a dream! I can’t wait to swim in it! I bought Beastly a while back and haven’t even started reading it. I’m hoping to finish it this week because the book I ordered last week (Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers) didn’t come in time.  :(

Side note: I took these pictures with hubs Nikon camera. It’s a lot fancier than my Canon G10 but I already got the hang of it after working with it for about 20 minutes! Can’t wait to check it out at the beach.

Try not to envy me too much.