Beach Day!!

Today was what summer should be about:Friends, fun, sun and of course, the beach. I decided I am tired of staying home almost every day of the week, so I told my kids that one day of each week we will do something fun, whether it involves the beach, shopping, the zoo, whatever. So this weeks activity was going to the beach. Just what I have been looking forward to since last summer. Only this was a full day. My friends Pam and Lisa and their kids were there too. I think everyone had a great day and will sleep well tonight from all the activity. We did pick the coolest day of the week, so the water was a bit too chilly for me, but it certainly didn't stop any of the kids, even though at times their teeth were chattering. We were at a private area of the beach belonging to a couple at our church who live right on the lake. They are extremely generous to everyone in their invitations to come to their home and use the beach area, and the lower area of their house where there is a bathroom and kitchen area if needed. They invited our family the 1st time they met us, which amazed me. Here is Dalayna with her friend Abby. They had a wonderful time building sand castles and digging in the sand. Unlike the boys, they preferred to stay out of the water until right before we left. Colby and Jadon(Abby's brother) venturing into the water even though the outside temp was only in the 60's at the time. The waves were as loud and large as the ocean today, so Colby was happy since he likes to body surf those big waves.

Colby was a good big brother to all the kids today since he was the only teen. He kept them busy and watched out for all of them.

All the sand castles....isn't that they type of thing kids are supposed to do instead of sitting watching TV and playing video games?

I thought this was the cutest picture. Poor Abby had been knocked over by one of the waves, so she and Dalayna were holding hands to keep from being knocked over. And a good time was had by all.......

Tour of the House-Part 3 The Finale-:)

I am not ending my finale with big fireworks or the best room in the house. It is simply my hall bath and 2 of my 3 storage areas. Afterall, isn't storage what counts to many of us these days...where to put all the stuff we somehow acquire? I hope you have enjoyed seeing what everything looks like in our new home. Maybe this will be my home longer than a year this time........We are very thankful to be in our own home again and know we were able to do this because God provided the buyer for our house in FW.

We do have a bathtub with shower in the hall bath. It is ceramic tile on the inside. What fun to clean!! I do have to say the former owners left it in excellent condition. I hope to take care of it as well as they did.

I reallylike this vanity. What appears to be drawers are really doors with plenty of storage inside. The very bottom is a drawer. I also have a large linen closet next to the shower.

Obviously the stairs into the basement.

Storage room #1. All the clothes in the corner are winter clothes. Somehow over the winter they multiplied. Maybe it is because Colby is taller so his clothes are bigger, or because I want to wear nothing but sweaters living in the land of the frozen tundra(HA!). I am still trying to figure it out!! We went from 5 tubs of winter clothes to 7 tubs, plus some big storage bags. I guess I will figure it out next winter.

Storage room #2. This room will belong to Terry and Colby for their fishing and hunting gear. It is also a nice storm shelter, where my kids were last night when those 70mph winds blew through!! We were told the people who originally owned this house put this wash tub in to use for canning veggies, etc. In storage room #3, which is not pictured, I have this tiny little stove they used for cooking. I am hoping to get rid of that tiny little stove at some point. The washtub comes in handy for laundry if needed. We also have one of these in the garage, which is nice for bathing a cute beagle, or cleaning dirty hands after working outside. I would like to turn this into a bathroom someday.

The other side of storage room #2. I am hoping these shelves never become filled with stuff!! As I said, I do have another storage area, but it isn't that great. It has our furnace, water heater, a dehumidifier, etc.

Tour of the House-Part 3

These pictures are of my laundry/computer area and the basement. To the left of the washer/dryer is the garage. This computer desk area sits directly across from the washer and dryer. There are plenty of cabinets for storage and also a coat closet. , which is next to the computer desk.

Here is the basement. This area will eventually be sectioned off into a guest bedroom and schoolroom. The TV used to be in Colby's room, but we didn't feel he had room for it anymore, so now it sits downstairs, which is fine with him. Terry HATES this yellow color, so he would like to paint it because it could be next year before we drywall everything. What you see is all paneling.

Same picture-OOPS!

The guest bed.

Games, toys and puzzles. The door you see leads to one of my storage areas. I will post pictures of those tomorrow.

Our school room area.

The view into the family room area.

This is a gas fireplace with a blower, which will be nice when it gets cold outside. This room needs some new paint, a rug, etc, which will all be purchased at some point. Terry and Colby plan to make it an "outdoors" type of room.

This door leads into another storage area.

The final set of pictures coming tomorrow!!

Tour of the House-Part 2

Part 2 pictures consist of the living room/sitting area, kitchen and hallway/entryway. Here is the huge living room window. I didn't open the curtains all the way because I am not good at taking pictures, much less taking pictures that involve glass that can reflect light. It is a bay window and takes up a good portion of this wall. Part of the living room area.

Here is an area we are still working on what to do with it. The former owners had a very fancy (and expensive) chess table sitting here. The chandelier is too low for our kitchen table( which is now downstairs), and too small an area for our dining room table. So for now, it will be a sitting area. At some point I plan on purchasing a small table to go next to the rocking chair.

We purchased this fireplace from the former owners. It is not real, but we wanted it more for looks than anything. It does burn the gel cans.

This chandelier is so sparkly. Everyone knows I like sparkle. Let's hope I can keep it clean enough it will continue to sparkle!!

My kitchen. It is very roomy and without my big dining room table it would be even bigger.

My Crate&Barrel bargain from the former homeowner.

I have a double dishwasher, which I am not too keen on. It means you can do much smaller loads, but I can't fit as much stuff in.

I do like the double oven. It is perfect for cooking 2 different things at different temps at the same time. As silly as it sounds, our favorite thing of all is the icemaker on the refrigerator. It also dispenses water, so we are all willingly drinking more water.

The view from the kitchen into the living room. It is very open and we liked that aspect of this house.

The entryway from the front door.

I really liked all the light fixtures the former owners put into our house. This one hangs over the stairs into the basement.

More pictures coming tomorrow.

And the Arbor Came Tumbling Down(Sigh!!!)

Remember the arbor that leads to my backyard? Unfortunately, as the title says, it came tumbling down. We had a really bad storm yesterday. The winds were extremely high(70mph). We thought we came through the storm with lots of debris, then saw something laying up against the door leading to the garage. It was my arbor. It broke apart in several different places. After inspecting it, they had not firmly put it in the ground, but just 3 inches, no cement, nothing. So, my father-in-law says it would have been a matter of time before it came tumbling down anyway. I am thankful it didn't fall on someone or put a window out and hurt my dogs. I will miss it though!!

Terry took it all apart before I had the chance to take a picture. Our fence will now go here and we are hoping the vines will grow on the fence. Only time will tell.
You can see on the right side where it broke apart. It came apart in several different places. We enjoyed looking at it and enjoying the privacy from it the past few weeks. The one over the patio made it through just fine.