Finally!

Well even though we have snow on the ground today, hubby had to go off to work. He was very generous in volunteering to mail my son's GSP application. It has to be post marked today. We were up until 1 AM finishing it (it is a labor intensive application). My husband has to write every week as part of being a pastor, but it is a slow process for him no matter what he writes. He just can't "spit" stuff out on paper. He thinks, he types, he erases! He is an excellent writer and I am thankful for his willingness to write a recommendation in the midst of all his other work. GSP is "Governor's Scholars Program." Many states have this program. If chosen, they go for 5 weeks during the summer to live at a college campus and go through classes in a chosen "track" like engineering or music. They also play sports and get to know other students. It allows for some scholarships to come his way if he gets to go as well. We will just wait and see. It is all in God's hands. Another wonderful tidbit of news is that our fireplace is functional!!! Hip,hip hooray! Hubby put the connection in last night while I was in town delivering one to a Bible study and getting milk. I came home and he started our first fire. All our smoke alarms started going off because of the painted pipe. It has to burn off the paint, which took an hour or so. So here we are with a roaring fire in the stove, 3 windows open with fans sucking air & smoke out of our house and the dog freaking out over the fire alarm-what a zoo! It just makes me laugh. This morning though all of that is gone and the house is sitting at 78 degrees-(almost too warm for me), the dog is cuddled up and the house is peaceful, warm and quiet! Love it. Life is like that. Sometimes all helter, skelter and then God brings a quiet peace. I am so thankful! I have a few things I will post a little later today. A few emails I received yesterday sent me to a couple of neat websites. I want to share those with you as well. That will also be my 200th post and I think I will be doing a GIVEAWAY-Yeah!

Fancy Fireplace

On another note, several of my son's friends came over last night and helped my husband lift our massive fireplace onto its new pedastal. It looks really nice up there. It probably would have had a fire in it last night, if my husband had not cut the telescoping pipe piece a little too short. He was not happy, but atleast it was only a $10 part. He will pick up a new one today at lunch and in it will go tonight. He will have a roaring fire in there before the week is out I am sure! This area is 4 ft deep and 8 ft wide, so the fireplace with afterburner is a pretty large, heavy (400+lbs) piece.

More fireplace work and new dynamic duo!

This fireplace is a pretty consuming project. I will be glad when I can just sit and knit or sew in front of it! We did the grout work and have cleaned that off too many times to count.  Now comes the horrid sealer again. My husband would like for me to put it on before we leave the house for church today. Yuck-that smell! I hate to have to sleep with the windows open again, but as soon as it is dry we can place the insert-Yahoo!

On another note, I referred to a little journey my hubby and I made Sunday night.  I bought another sewing machine with cabinet and another serger.  I found them on Craigslist and the price was pretty good.  My hubby said you need another serger so you can keep dark thread in one and light thread in the other. Pretty supportive of my rather new found hobbies! So I brought the poor dirty things home and took them apart and cleaned and oiled them.  Rethreaded them both and they work great.  The only problems were a dull knife on the serger causing skipped stitches and my sewing machine won't run bobbins. My hubby says -no problem, we can fix that! When the fireplace is done I am sure he will look into it. Both of the machines are basically 90's Singer models. (trying to get pics in here, but the server isn't responding-will post them later)

The Fireplace continues and we are higher than kites

My husband and I went on a litlle journey last night (more about that in my next post). While we were gone our 2nd coat of Procrete was sealed. We came home last night and as soon as we got to the door the smell knocked me over-WOW! That sealer is pretty obnoxious stuff! The kids had just closed the kitchen window because they were freezing, but the fan was still running to pull air out of a living room window.  The smell wasn't as bad back in the bedrooms, but we still had our window open about 8 inches all night long. I don't like strong smells like that.  They make me feel woozy and my heart feels like it is jumping in my chest.  It is better this morning, but still strong.  It makes your nose and throat kinda burn.  Hopefully it will dissipate as the day goes on.  The great thing is that the hearth is looking fantastic!! We have to do grout now and then seal that, but then we will place the insert and away we go.

Home is Where Your Hearth Is

My whole family has been working on our new fireplace this week and my daughter's boyfriend has done 2 layers of Pro-Crete on our hearth.  It looks so good and we can't wait for it to be finished so we can sit in front of it! We have been scrubbing all the rocks that my hubby & son retrieved from our creek and then fitting them like a puzzle on the wall.  I love the progress, but it is a time consuming and very MESSY job! My house is a wreck and dust is everywhere from grinding the rocks to fit and mixing the powder mortar in the house due to the weather.  I am sure it will all be worth it when our house is toasty warm-YAHOO! I'll put more pics up tomorrow or Monday of the hearth dry. The last picture is of the tape being pulled up to form the stone look-that is so cool.  Happy New Year!

The Girl with the Blue Dress

I have been doing some school, some work on my son's highschool transcript, some house cleaning and now a little sewing. My blue/turquoise dress is definitely looking a little more wearable after the 30 minutes or so I spent on it. I sewed the neck down-didn't use the facings because of major bulk issues. I decided against the stand up collar for the same bulk reason, but also to allow me to wear it with tissue weight turtlenecks or sweaters under it. I also sewed up the side seams and sewed one of the pockets up. I have just pinned the pocket in place as well as the silver buttons. What do you think? Obviously needs hemming. I am going to cut off quite a bit. I tried it on and it looks a bit dowdy at this long length on my 5'2 frame. I am thinking the knee. There will be a fourth button on the front and then another pocket with a button. I will try it on to place the pockets so that my hips don't make them flip out-that would be tragic! I like the fit of the dress though, comfortably snug but not tight. Hopefully the weekend will provide me with some sewing/knitting time.

I am hoping I don't have to scrub rocks with comet and a toothbrush over the weekend. Scrub rocks with a toothbrush you say? How odd! Yes I did say it and have been doing it as well. We are still working on our fireplace insert area of the house and my hubby has decided we need to use rock from our very own creek-(sentimental & affordable). Quite a laborious task for him and my son to dig them out and push them all up the hill in a wheelbarrow though.The problem is this rock is quite gross. Due to the dry spell, it is covered in algae and moss and dirt. That all has to go before it can be attached to a vertical concrete wall. So we are scrubbing them all with a toothbrush. I know you wish you could participate in the weird antics with my family, but alas you cannot.