Before and After: Deck!

You know I love before and after photos...especially from a project that has been on our list for a very long time. T and his friends spent a Saturday a few weeks ago, tearing up the old decking and replacing the cracked wood with shiny new boards. That don't have splinters. And that are not green. It's fabulous.

The before

 And the after..

 They even replaced my bench. I love this bench and all of the seating that it offers. When we bought the house, I had visions of enjoying a cup of coffee outside. Now I actually can. Bliss.

 My very own Ty Pennington! The man who was nervous about operating a power saw is now in the market to buy one. He is deciding what else he can build. I love it and I love him. and I love the deck he built. :)

Back

I've been around but haven't felt like writing. I have had a growing list of things I wanted to write about but just didn't have the motivation. The last few months have been stuffed full of travel, friends, and new experiences but I just haven't felt like sharing. I guess I've become a bit more introspective lately, preferring to process things on my own instead of getting them out here. The downside of that for me is that I can get lost in my own head.

I started this blog for T and I, so we could look back someday on our wild and crazy days and remember everything that had made us who we are. I've definitely dropped the ball on that and I'm going to change that. This blog has been a way to keep in touch with long distance family and friends, and a Doogie Howser style journal for me and I'm bringing it back. I need it.

My first post back will be tomorrow with our new deck! T and I have been branching out a lot in terms of our comfort level with new projects. He is very thoughtful, preferring to plan it out ahead of time and know exactly how it needs to go. I am more adventurous. All I need is a material list and a rough idea and I'm off and running. Together, we make the perfect carpenter. And we're no longer afraid of power tools.

As I type this, there are three men outside, ripping off the old warped boards and trying to figure out how to save my beloved wooden bench. I can't wait to see the finished project. This is a big item that will come off our TO-DO list and I'm thrilled.

Weather Thursday: We went from this...

...to this

...within a few minutes. The strangest part of this storm was watching it roll in while hearing absolutely nothing. It was eerily quiet right before it roared over us like a freight train. The fun part was watching the neighbor's lights flicker a second before our power went out. Luckily we have plenty of candles on hand from the outage last year. :)

My new to-do list

It's been a tough year for me, one full of ups and big downs. In the last few weeks, I've finally been able to shine the light into the deep recesses of the old mind. It turns out that I've packed a lot in there over the last year or so and kept it out of sight so I could pretend that I was feeling fine. But I haven't.

I've made a new list for myself, a To-Do List that is not at all about completing projects. This one is about healing and rediscovering my life.  

Live in the moment not the what if's.

Don't put my life on hold.

Don't be afraid to make plans.

Live healthy.

Clear the mind chatter.

Improve family connections.

Be nice to me.

I've been busy..

...training for my first half marathon! 10 weeks down of training down and only 2 left before the race. Wish me luck!

Our homage

The Great Wall of Fame is done.

 Actually, I lied. It's not completely done. We're waiting on one more photo from Snapfish. Although we do think the orange flowers in the brown frame below go rather nicely with the room.

We are loving the way this basement is turning out..It's clean and simple and calming. And completely us. So much of out 11 years together has been surrounded by sports that these aren't just photos and ticket stubs. They're memories. It's the Clay Buckholz no hitter that we saw in  2007 from the roofdeck of Fenway. The baseball signed by the 1989 Giants that my dad won in a silent auction, and made me the happiest girl in the neighborhood that Christmas morning. The time we stood outside a bar in Manhattan on a frigid January day to see the Giants WS trophy. It's T's favorite Boston Globe cover that he chose from the 6 bags of 2004 newspapers that he kept from that amazing season. And it's the collection of baseball cards from my favorite player of all time that went missing in CA. My dad replaced them this year by scouring the Bay Area sports stores so Will Clark could take his place on the Wall.

I'm back

This year has started out pretty hectic and I love it. It's been 6 weeks of training, family, travels, and friends. T and I jetted off to see my family in CA and we had a blast hanging out with everyone...especially the kiddos. I love this boy.

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 This kiddo has become a toddler since I last saw her. She is sweet and happy and dances with excitement when it's time to go out. Which we did a lot of! The photo below was our visit to the park.

 T and I took our nephew out on the town for a special day'o' fun. We went to the Academy of Sciences in SF and had a blast touching starfish at the tidepool.

 Watching the giant fish swim overhead.

 Watching the sea lions at Pier 39. I'm amazed that he is 7 years old and is becoming a boy right in front of our eyes. He tells time, he reads, he plays games on the computer and he loves to karate chop everything. But he also isn't afraid to cuddle up on the couch and give out butterfly kisses. He and his uncle bonded a lot on this trip. It was a lot of fun to watch them together and I'm even more convinced that T is going to be an amazing father. We can't wait for our next visit in June. :)

 And back on the homestead, we re-homed our spare couch to the basement.

 Half marathon training slowed down after I threw out my back and caught a cold after coming back from CA. Hoping to lace these bad boys up again soon and get back on track.

 We have the final piece of our sports wall of fame! My all time favorite baseball player is Will Clark and I had hoped to find my collection of his baseball cards while we were in CA. They were unfortunately nowehere to be found so my dad went to several card shops and found new cards for me. Here they are framed and ready for a place of honor downstairs.

Looking forward to the weekend!!

We're plotting...

Our spring trips!

        Our sports memorabilia in the basement..

                        

           And this? This is the shadowbox that will hold my finisher's medal and race number after I run my first ever half marathon at the end of March!

It's shaping up to be an exciting few months. 

Hitting the ground running

I started painting the basement back in November and the holidays dragged the project out much longer than we anticipated. After my morning cup of coffee, we trooped downstairs to get going. The agenda on this beautiful January morning (55 degrees!) was to finish patching the holes in the ceiling that the previous owners so thoughtfully left behind for us, paint the ceiling, finish cleaning out the odds and ends and steam clean the suspicious smelling carpet. I hate painting ceilings. Almost as much as I hate drywall. So you can imagine how excited I was to scratch these two items off the To Do List.  :)

 We developed a system to ceiling paint after I threatened to run away during the bedroom ceiling painting event. I was tired, cranky, had a stiff neck from looking up and had paint dripped in my eye a few times. Thanks to the system, nobody has to run away. I use the edger along all of the corners and Tim rolls in the rest. He bought the paint months ago and when we opened is and saw it was bright pink, we did a double take. It's a pretty great invention, it rolls on pink so you can see what you've completed and it dries to a nice bright white.

 We took off the awful, scratched accordian doors that covered the laundry room.

 Tim handled the laundry while I used our little blue beast to clean the carpets. 7 gallons of black water later and we're feeling really good about our progress! Next weekend we'll work on filling up some of that empty wall space. And start the couch hunt. I'm too tired to think about anything else right now. :)

 With our work done downstairs, we headed upstairs to put away the last piece of Christmas. We are counting our blessings in this new year and loved seeing all of our little friends every time we walked by our card display.



Reset

I knew that when the clock struck midnight on December 31st, I would be thrilled. I couldn't wait to get rid of 2011 and all the emotional baggage that came with it. I spent a low key night with a dear friend in New Jersey while T went to bed nice and early (he had to work at 5am the next day)

We had a wonderful dinner, watched movies, laughed and talked about what our hopes and dreams were for 2012. At midnight, we walked down to the shores of the Hudson River with a glass of wine and watched the fireworks over Manhattan. Lost in my own thoughts, I watched each explosion and marveled at the year that seemed like it would never end. And yet, here I was. I made it. As the sparks from the last firework rained down over Central Park, I felt relief. Relief that 2011 is over and I made it through in one piece. As awful as the events of last year were, I know that they have made me a stonger person. They have made T and I a stronger team. We made it through together and I am so grateful that he is my partner in life.

There is something so hopeful about a new year. Like a big reset button, we have the chance to start over. We don't start completely over however, we pack up the lessons we've learned and bring them with us. We bring our joys and sorrows and loves and these things help us as we write the next chapter of our lives, colored by what we've learned. So thank you 2011, for teaching me to trust in a plan that I don't understand. To tell my people how much I love and appreciate them. To lean on my husband and let him kiss away my tears. And for my angel baby, who I'm certain is being well taken care by my father in law, my beloved Barbie and my grandmother.

I can't wait to see what 2012 holds for us.