So let's go back... almost a year ago. (We actually signed our papers on our house July 9, 2007.) When we looked at the house back in June of last year... this is what the backyard looked like. It's what I like to affectionately call the JUNGLE. I believe there was a post of this at the very beginning. Anyway... we knew that one day it would be beautiful, but it would take lots of hard work.
SOOOO..... that one day is finally here. We have (Zach) has finished building the deck! It's amazing and it's huge. A whole lot bigger than I would have expected, but it's definitely beautiful. Now we must stain it (that's my job). My parents have donated their old patio furniture to the cause and so we'll be adding that soon as well. More pictures to come once it's all finished, but at least it's open for use! ;-) YEA!!! Side note: Zach has finished his last summer school class. Ceramics is now over and he'll get his grade sometime next week! One more class down. What a great feeling!
Beware - This video may make you sick from my horrible filming techniques, but it's absolutely impossible to keep up with our dog. This proves Bailey's abilities as a Jack Russell and I think that she could do real well in the Jack Russell Races, but she'll just have to keep dreaming.
Due to the shakiness of my video techniques, I have posted some pictures of the deck progress below. We only need a couple more support beams for the underneath and then it will be time to start the top boards. Not too much longer before we'll be able to enjoy our deck with our family and friends!
Well I wish that I could say that... Work is still on for the summer for me. And unfortunately Zach is also still in school. So that phrase doesn't really apply, but the fun times of summer have already begun.
Last weekend (May 30-June 1), I got to spend lots of much needed time with friends. On Saturday night, Amy, Abby and Amy's parents came over to the casa to see it and to have dinner. It was tons of fun and Abby was such a cutie pie! Here are some pics from the evening together.... I also got to see the Beller family last weekend. It was the first time that Zach and I had been to their beautiful house. We also got to spend some quality time with Lane and newborn Caroline. Good times... unfortunately, there are no pics to document this adventure.
Zach finished his Maymester course in Sculpture about two weeks ago. He's now started his ceramics course which will be over at the beginning of July. In his 3 week sculpture class, he had to do the following projects... I'd say that they turned out very well!
Project #1Project #2 In other news... we got a new oven as we are slowly trying to replace the appliances that we have. Our new oven matches the microwave that we put in the house and it's just beautiful. Again, a really good deal from Home Depot. Some would call it spaving... Spending so that you can save. I don't care what it is... it's pretty!
I think that's it... I'll let you know when the next project begins in the Shirley household! I'm feeling unloved people... leave some comments!
As promised... here are pictures of the house and ongoing projects...
Here is the house with the solar screens. Our house faces the west and we get some incredible heat from the afternoon sun. These screen block 80% of the suns rays from getting in the house. They are supposed to help our electric bills and they also provide a nice cosmetic touch to the house. Compare this pic to the Mother's Day pic in the previous post. We got them from Texas Solar Screens at a 33% discount that they were running. I thought that it would be really expensive to get something for those octagon windows but it really was not that bad at all.
Now the fence... it's been a major feat to accomplish here at the Shirley house. It's taken several weekends, but it's finally coming to an end. Here is it from every angle... Zach still has to build a gate here in the corner that will open towards the alley. This way we won't have to walk all the way around the fence to get to the front of the house.
The back side.... This is taken from down the trail behind our house. It's really to point out that you can't see the back door if you are coming down the trail. Used to people could see straight into our backyard... this was before the retaining wall was built.
The wonderful gate that works and shuts very easily. As you can tell from this picture, Zach still has to trim some of the posts down and cap them off.
This will be my job... probably with Zach's help though. We'll be staining the fence . ;-) So let me tell you why it pays to have a husband that works at Home Depot. No we don't get an employee discount... he gets many other benefits that make up for that fact though. This is why it pays... Adam who works at the paint desk let Zach know that someone brought back a 5 gallon bucket of stain that they didn't like. You can't get your money back on that and then the store can't sell it for full price because the color has already been added to the bucket. So we got a 5 gallon bucket of stain originally priced $150 for $15. It's called Opps! paint... great deal. The paint counter at Home Depot will always have some paint cans like this, but they may not be this great of a deal. So anyway... even though it may not have been the color I would have originally chosen, it was only $15.
So the next project to be started is the deck that will go on the side of the house. I'm really excited about this because it's going to make the yard look so nice. The giant recycle bin will also be moved once the deck is built.
Here are all the supplies for the deck. The holes are dug... it's just a matter of Zach having time. We are project kings and queens. There's never a dull moment that's for sure. Hopefully Zach will have some more time in about a week. He'll be done with his Maymester class next week and will then only have 2 hours of class a day for the month of June. Also, another praise... Zach is now working full time at Home Depot. This has been something that we have been wanting for several months now and it's finally a reality. It's a very good feeling! I hope that everyone else is having fun with their summer projects. ;-)
I know I'm a week late on this one... but here goes nothing...
Mother's day weekend, Zach and I were concert machines. On Friday night, we went with my sister to Taste Addison and saw Switchfoot. Awesome concert... could see them tons of times and it wouldn't get old. This was actually my third time and Zach's second time to see them in concert. They performed all their biggest hits... Meant to Live, Dare to You to Move, Gravity, Stars, This is Your Life.... and they also performed their newest song, This is Home which is on the Prince Caspian soundtrack. Definitely my favorite concert of the weekend!! A week before Mother's Day, Zach won tickets from our favorite radio station, 89.7 PowerFM, to go see Manic Drive and Eowyn. So that concert was on Saturday night in Greenville, TX. After much hesitation(the drive is about an hour), we went to the concert. It was super small, maybe 100 people+. I'm not good at estimating... but you know it's small when the band members are sitting in the audience with you. Zach and I sat at the back of the auditorium to spare our ears from bursting. We still saw everything just fine and we definitely didn't have any problems hearing the concert. So here's what we saw.... we got there as this band, The Cost was performing...(don't be fooled by the banner in the background... these are all different bands.) Then this band, The Vow performed. There were really good. Probably the most mellow of the night. Zach got one of their shirts. Then Eowyn performed.... you can just barely see her in the middle holding her microphone. She's got a big hit out on the radio right now called Silent Screams and I'd have to say I really like it. She put on a pretty good show. If you haven't heard of her, she sounds a lot like Evanescence maybe a little bit harder. And then finally the headliner... Manic Drive. I had tried to get Zach to go with me back in January to the PowerFM benefit show to see these guys play, but that didn't happen. I knew that I knew a lot of the songs they play, but I didn't know just how many until I went to the concert. Practically every song I knew. That's always a good feeling! ;-) That about wraps up the concert mania... after we got home from Greenville on Saturday night, I had to start getting the meal ready for Mother's Day. Zach and I peeled shrimp for about an hour when we got home and didn't end up going to bed until probably 1am. After church on Sunday, my sister, Zach and I prepared the meal for my parents. Grilled Shrimp Kabobs, fresh corn on the cob, grilled zucchini, fruit salad, and rolls. My mom loved it. I'd have to say we did a pretty good job on the shrimp kabobs since we had never done that before. It was fun!
And to top it off... I got Zach to take a picture with me on Sunday in his Sunday best. You can see our pretty oleanders to the right. The day after this picture was taken we got our solar shades installed on our windows. I'll have to take a picture to show the difference. It really makes the house look great and I think (I hope) that it will help with our electric bills. ;) Anyway... next post... an update on the fence and pictures of the solar screens! Happy late Mother's Day to all my friends out there!
The fence is coming along slowly but surely. Today, my dad and Zach are going to work on putting up lots of panels. I will be glad when we can let Bailey out in the backyard to run free... it's gonna be a little while though.
The next project in the planning stages is a deck on the side of our house. It will be built between the house and the fence where the original jungle was when we moved in to the house. See blogs from the beginning of our house projects for the jungle.
This week at work, we had a play day on Thursday. We loaded up at noon and went to the Rangers game. The Rangers won, amazingly and we all had a great time... here's some pictures of the fun!Shanna & I
Suzanne, Alissa, & Brian
Jeffrey, Chase, Jami & Jay
Tanis, Mike & Joni
We had so much fun on Thursday that we had leftover drinks and food for Friday. We made popcorn and opened up the coolers for a Friday afternoon party on the patio at work. It's nice to work at a place that's all about Food and Fun!
I'll leave you with this... our oleanders are blooming. I love it! Spring is in the air!
The Shirley's haven't fallen off the face of the earth, we have just been extremely busy the last few weeks which leaves little time for updates. So here's a big one....
Starting with showcasing some of Zach's artwork. These are two of my favorites from this semester and I'm sure that he would agree. The first is from his Drawing II class... he had to take three well known drawings and combine them into one making it his own. One of the main artists used in this drawing was da Vinci. Love it!
This second project was from his Two Dimensional Design class. He says it's all about cut and paste, but I would say that you definitely have to use your imagination in this class... I love this picture for obvious reasons. It's from our wedding. ;-) So with that... Zach is now in his final three weeks of classes for the semester. He starts a maymester course on May 12 and then he'll have a summer I class and then a break. I'm just so proud of him for this past semester because it's been great to see his artistic talents. ;-)
So a week and a half ago, we had seriously bad storms here in the Dallas area. Well we have actually been having them a lot lately, but on the night of April 12th, the was a bad storm that sent most people to their bathtubs in the middle of the night. Zach and I braved it, but the sirens weren't going off in Lewisville. The wind was super strong though and the rain was pelting down so hard, it was definitely scary. As I was leaving the house the next morning, I looked over from the alley way, across my yard and into my neighbors yard and saw that she had lot nearly a 1/3 of her tree. It was amazing that this tree didn't snap onto my house or her house, but instead just fell over into the other part of her yard. Last Monday, she sadly had to let go of her tree and get it chopped down. It's a drastic difference and I'll post pictures once I get some. It made me glad that we don't have any big trees in our yard.
So the weekend after the huge storms came, Zach and my family started working on the new fence. Zach's parents were here for a portion of the weekend and they helped as well. With the ground being wet from the storm, it really helped us dig the holes and set the posts more easily. Last weekend, we got 8 posts set and this past weekend, the rest of the posts were set. We are now ready for panels on the fence, and I'm ready for it to be done so Bailey can run and play in her backyard.This past weekend was a whirlwind to say the least. It all started on Friday night with our PowerFM sponsor dinner. As a part of my contribution to the station, I have been hosting a dinner for a couple djs and the sponsor of their choice. So Zach and I went to eat with Eddie, Jade, and Michelle and her son JD. Good times and lots of eat, drink and play. Then on Saturday morning, I went with my sister to walk in the March of Dimes March for Babies in honor of little Grace Elizabeth Nelson. We raised money for about three weeks for the event and then walked with what seemed like 5 billion other people around White Rock Lake. Ok, so we didn't really walk around the entire thing... we actually only walked about a mile and a half. When you are walking with a group that has babies in strollers, you just can't last for the entire 5 mile course. So after the walk, we got ready and went to Gainesville, TX and you may ask why. Well, I informed my sister last weekend about some yorkie puppies for sale in Lewisville. She went to see them, and didn't decide right then, but called the lady back the next day and asked her to hold it for her. So we went to the lady's house on Saturday to pick up my sister's new little yorkie pup, Miley. We spent the rest of Saturday tending to the dog, picking up items that she needed, giving a bath and just cuddling with her. She's a precious little pup and once I have pics, I will post. ;-)
And that leads me to yesterday, Sunday... what a great way to start the week. Yesterday was the final Big Time performance at The Branch. After 4 years of awesome outreach to the kids, Big Time closed the doors to begin a new chapter in the children's ministry at the Branch. I'm still not sure what the new sometime entails, but I know that it will be just as uplifting and a great ministry to show the kids the love of Jesus. This is a little taste of what Big Time was like.
So here are a couple pictures from yesterday's finale... you can barely see me singing (a kid is about to walk in front of me). Here's most of the singers and dancers from the last performance. Finally, last night was our small group which I look forward to every week. Since we had almost everyone present last night it was a perfect time for a picture. So here we are, the Lewisville small group from The Branch. Front Row L-R: Zach, me, Sarah, Tyson. Back Row L-R: Drew, Jamie, Mark, Shevawn, Josh, Jessica, Holly and Aaron.
What a blessing all of you are in our lives. Love you and hopefully you'll see another post before a month goes by. ;)
