Hiking

I mentioned that we had spent the last few weekends "hiking."

I use the term loosely, because it is more like walking on a trail....

because truly it is nothing like what we used to do...

 

You see, before we married, Richard and I went hiking nearly every weekend. 

Serious hiking in the Blue Ridge Parkway throughout western Virginia.

That's us on that giant rock below.

Devil's Marble Yard, which is essentially rock climbing.

This photo does not do it justice.

This is at the top of McAfee's Knob.

This was one of my favorite times.

And no, not because my friend Ellen took photos of us making out.

The views were amazing. 

Sure it took hours to get up there, but it was soooo worth the sweat effort.

Then the summer before we married, we went hiking in Seattle - at Mount Rainier National Park.

One of the most amazing sights I have EVER seen.

We have some pretty amazing photos from this trip.

Once we married, we were in Oklahoma....surrounded by a bunch of flat land.

We still managed to find things to do every weekend.

We would roam through the Witchita Mountains Wild Life Refudge.

These were harder to get used to because they were not at the same level of intensity as the ones in Virginia. 

But we had a grande time.

So once we moved to Virginia, we were excited to try hiking again....

but realized that our ability would not be as great since we had kids now.

I mentioned to Richard that there is a trail not even 10 minutes from our house.

He brushed it off and we never went to check it out.

Yet one weekend, our friends mentioned wanting to try it out, and a few hours later we were dressed and ready to go.

Lucas was super excited to check things out. 

The trails were relatively flat, with some hills. 

The kids were able to run (with the exception of Meredith, who we strapped into the jogging stroller for some of the bumpier/rockier/rooty areas).

The evening was cool enough that we weren't dripping with sweat.

We saw the sun moving down in the sky.

Leaves are starting to fall, but there is still quite a bit of green.

And the miles of trail took us to the river that runs nearby.

We had an awesome time.

Awesome. 

We have gone twice so far. 

The joy on these kiddos faces is to die for. 

I am in love. 

And I can't wait to go again!

September Rewind

Just like the rest of the world, we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of fall. 
The mornings are crisp and cool and we can see the leaves changing.

So despite the 90 degree temperatures, we are still trying to pretend that fall is here. 

We have spent September picking apples...

Hanging out by the lake (This is from Labor Day - We haven't been in the water since then!)

Collecting acorns....

and taking breaks for photos on demand...

We have suffered through snotty noses and sinus pressure...

We have played in the woods...

Birthday parties!

Yard sales! 

Hiking!

Quiet evenings with friends -- okay well not really quiet since we have preschool aged children!

Regardless, we have been having FUN!

So in the midst of living, I have forgotten about blogging! 

What have you guys been into lately to bring in the season change? 

Prayer

When I was in high school, I was obsessed with reading Medical Thriller fiction.
Robin Cook made my world go round, and I could not get enough.

I watched the medical dramas.  The 20/20 Medical shows. 
I was completedly enthralled with the how and the why. 

I was certain I wanted to become a doctor. 
An oncologist.  Cancer seemed to be the biggest medical mystery in existance. 

Only I couldn't pass Microbiology, so I became a Psychology Major instead. 
I thought I could still do Nursing. 
But Microbiology still loomed over my head. 

I was determined to go forth and try it again. 
But life threw me a bunch of curve balls and although I was accepted to nursing school, God had different plans.

I married.  I worked a fun "helping" job that forced me to come out of my shell more quickly.

I worked toward and completed my Master's degree. 
My graduation gift was the birth of my son.
And with the continuity of the circle of life, a month later my grandmother's suffering ended and she passed.

Fast forward nine months.

My mom found out she had cancer. 
Again, the cancer/oncology thing intreged me.  How?  Why?
Questions surrounded me like a fog.

Three and a half years have passed.
And I have never regreted my decision to walk away from pursing oncology.
I have seen enough pain in one person to last a lifetime.

My mom has struggled and faught more types of cancer than my son has years on this earth. 

We have seen her in the best and worst of times.
She has been beaten with chemo, with experimental drugs, with radiation. 
She has risen above the medicinal treatment and the statistics of survial.

And glory to God, she is still here. 

She is still alive to see her grandchildren grow.
She is still alive to see her own children grow. 

I want her to continue to see her grandchildren grow. 
I want her to be blessed with more grandchildren.
I want her to see her son graduate college and begin a family of his own, whenever the time is right.

I don't typically ask. 
Maybe it is pride.
But Christians are praying people. 

And if you take the time to read my blog, you must care about me and my family even if you don't let it be known.

So please pray for my family.

Pray for longevity. 
Pray that my mom has the strength to rise above yet another diagnosis of cancer in more body parts and organs than I care to name. 
Pray that we all have the strength to support her through this again. 
And above all, pray for peace and for love. 

For without that, the world cannot go on.

Headboard?

To finish Lucas' bed, we needed to make the headboard.

We used this plan from Ana's site.

I lobbied to use pine, but after pricing the woods, Richard decided whiteboard was the way to go.

We went on a day that Lucas was in preschool-- the smartest thing we did since yesterday! 

Selecting wood with only one child is WAY easier and less time consuming!

Again, we had the wood cut at the store to save us the hassle at home. 

Would you believe I lost misplaced the reciept for the wood??

So don't hold me to it, but the total cost was around $35 dollars.

The headboard came together quickly.

There were angled boards that were supposed to mimick the look of a barn door....

These boards were not cut correctly and were not long enough to angle, so we decided to omit them entirely. 

We followed the same plan, of sanding, priming and painting over several days.

Water-based primer - one coat

Valspar's Rich Mahogany - two coats

I polyed it with only one coat.

We let that dry for three days before we moved it upstairs.

Lucas would care less about the headboard.

He still doesn't understand the purpose of one.

But I think it it really finishes off the room.

What do you think?? 

A Bed: Buying and Building

Once we returned home from our busy summer, we decided to begin working on building Lucas' bed.
We began with the frame. 

We followed the design on Ana White's website for the Brookstone Twin.

We printed out the list of wood we needed to purchase and headed out with the kiddos. 

I would definitely NOT take you preschool-aged kids to your home improvement store when you need to buy a large quantity of wood.  I am sure you can imagine why....

We won't discuss that. 

What I will discuss is that all the wood, with tax and 10% off coupon, ran us $104. 

You see they were completely out of the 3/4 inch plywood that we needed. 
Of the thicker plywood, all of it was sagging and in poor shape. 

Without knowing if it was a good choice, we went ahead and purchased 3/4 inch MDF. 
We later read that MDF is denser than plywood.

Since we had everything cut in the store (for free and no cleanup for us), we began building immediately.
I promise I really did help.  Richard just didn't take any photos of me!

The original plan called for the cubby supports to be only on the ends.

However, we found that the MDF still sagged. 

We decided to add another 1x12 board down the center and off to either side for extra support.

Although we lost the continuity of the storage space, we eliminated having to crawl through for lost toys!

At this point, we realized that we would need to finish building the bed in Lucas' room.

We also realized priming and painting the bottom would be easier before attaching the top support.

I sanded all the boards!

Then, we primed with a water-based primer.

The MDF really soaked up the primer.

We painted with Valspar's Rich Mahogany - 2 coats.

I wanted to stay more traditional (brown) for longevity - despite Lucas' protests for GREEN!

At this point, we moved it upstairs to Lucas' room to complete.

We added the MDF top support piece and started adding the trim. 

Meanwhile, the kiddos entertained themselves.  I love listening to their pretend scenarios.

Today, it was cold and they were going to play in the snow. 

The snowball fights must have worn them out.

But luckily the nap made it possible to arrive at this point: completion!

Lucas was super excited.

He said it looked like his very own stage!

He and Meredith sang a few songs on the stage for us before we wrangled them for bedtime!

We didn't fill all of the screw holes with wood filler because we wanted to be able to disassemble it in a few years when we move again.

So a few more days of priming and painting!

After several days of letting the paint dry, we also put two coats of polyurethane.

We let the poly dry for about three days before we moved Lucas back into his room.

Lucas was (and still is) super excited about his bed.

Now, I know many of you are thinking, "That was a lot of time and effort!  You spent $100 dollars just on wood. You could have just dropped some cash on a new bed for the kid!" 

I don't owe you an explanation, but I do know a few things:

1) Lucas is VERY PROUD to have a bed that we MADE him.  And he is 3. 

I am happy that he genuinely appreciates when someone does something for him.  I am doing something right.

2) The process allowed Lucas to SEE that things don't just come from a store.  Things are crafted and produced. 

3) The process provided much "bonding" time for my husband and I.  Lucas and Meredith assisted in the building process and even pretended to help with their own tools. 

Stay tuned for more information about the headboard!