Updates of all kinds

It has been over a week since my last post. I have been running around like a lunatic since we got an email that the CIS in Ho Chi Minh City has our paperwork. They got it about 5 weeks before we thought they would! So things are moving along quickly for which we are thankful. The sooner we can get Ava home the better. But it sure kicked me into high gear. Since we found that out Thursday before last I have gotten her room all done except for the closet which I finished painting last night. We got the new shelves for the closet today after church so those will go up on Thursday. I would do it tomorrow but I have to run some paperwork up to Atlanta and get that mailed off. Then I will be done with the paperwork!!! Yahoo! That is, until she gets here and then we will have some more. But that's then, so let's think about that later. Anyhow, her room looks so cute if I do say so myself....and I do! Her curtains are adorable with little birds and flowers on the sheers. They are perfect since her name means "like a bird" and her given Vietnamese name means "flower". The color on the walls is PERFECT. I was a little worried about it when I was about half way finished with it but now I love it. It took 3 coats to cover the old green color. I was tired. But it was worth the work. I can't wait to post pictures to show everyone the finished room. I will do that this week I hope.

Now, on a sadder note... We will be losing one of the cuter members of the family...Grissom. But he is going to a wonderful home with sweet fun kids who we KNOW will take good care of him: Sarah and Silas! They are so excited to be getting him and we know that he will have so much fun playing with them. Bonus: we will get to see him over the years too! It's weird that I'm as sad as I am about it. I guess it's b/c I spent so much time with him here at home while Brian was working. Brian is sad too but he's thrilled to give such a great gift to the kids. We made this decision after Shiloh had an accident that required a visit to the animal ER on Easter night. We were there until 1:30 in the morning. And of course when we got home, Grissom need some attention as well. We realize that with 2 dogs and a baby, and Grissom requiring more attention than Shiloh, that it would be a good idea to let the kids have him. I don't know that we would have given him to anyone else but since this opportunity was there it really seemed to make the most sense to us at this time. I'm really going to miss that guy. But I know when Ava comes that my attention will be on her and so I won't miss him so much. And Shiloh requires very little attention at all except for about 20 minutes in the evening when she seems to plop herself into my lap for her nightly petting session... And the occasional visit to the vet, poor girl. She has a hard time. But she will be GREAT with the baby. I remember one time I took her over to visit with the twin boys I used to babysit and they loved her and wanted to pet and play with her. They would get right up in her face and yell at her (thinking they were playing with her!) and she would just sit there and not budge! She was so patient and she didn't feel threatened at all. What a sweetie. So, we will be sad to see him go. I know I will just sob when Brian takes him away!!


So this will be another full week. I am trying to enjoy the preparations instead of being overwhelmed by them. We still have so much to do and pack before we're ready. They said that at this point it could take up to 60 days to finish this part of the paperwork BUT nothing so far has taken as long as they've stated. SO....we may be going sooner than expected. Once they give us the all clear with this step then we will travel within a week. Isn't that crazy?!? So basically, we need to be packed and ready to go at a moment's notice. How exciting!! We're coming AVA!!!!

Brian and I had a good day today. We went to church and then headed to home depot to get the closet stuff. Then after naps we headed to the antique flea market to find Brian some kind of wardrobe for his room. That boy needs some more room to hang his clothes. He has the smallest closet. We found one for $80! Great price. Then we headed to Target to register. We found some great things but didn't finish before we got hungry so we'll finish up later. Brian found an animal bowling game that is so cute. He used to always do bowling with the kids in the nursury at church and they loved it so of course we have to get that! It was fun looking at all the baby stuff with him and seeing him get excited over it. Then we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant up the street. They should know us by name at this point. Great day. Great evening. Hopefully it's followed up with a great week.

The New Furniture

Here they are...pictures of the new furniture from the antique market. I'm so excited to share them with everyone.
This is the new armoire that we put in the sunroom. I LOVE it. It has a lot of shelves inside.
It looks nice in the sunroom too. The yellow color is nice with all the sunlight that comes in there. What shall I put in it? Hmmmmm....I think it will end up with toys and books. But who knows. I'm sure I'll play around with it before I get it just right. I have so much that could go in it. It'll be a tough decision. But that's a decision I'm not complaining about having to make!

Then next piece is the sideboard we bought for the living room. I ended up leaving the top and the legs the original dark wood and just painted the front and sides. I had to first do a primer coat and then 3 coats of the white-ish paint. Then I did a layer of stain and then sanded that until it looked distressed. It was a LOT of work and took a lot of elbow grease but we are very very pleased with the outcome. Better than I could have imagined. Especially considering what we paid for it. We got a wonderful deal on it. So, here it is....Here is a shot of it a little closer. You can see more of the details.
It really was a find too because it was EXACTLY what Brian had wanted. And it really does fit perfectly in the space-not too wide and not too long. Just right. And the added and unplanned bonus...it's a perfect match to the stars we have on the wall over the sofa!
For the kitchen we found this chest. It is a good size for the kitchen with good storage. I hope to put Ava's dishes, cups and such in there. You know, all the plastic things so that if she gets in there it's no big problem. The finish on it is very unique. It's done with multiple colors so that it blends well with whatever color is around it. It has some white, off-white, grey tones, and yellow tones too. It's really pretty, although I haven't decided what to put on the top. So for the picture I just stuck some stuff up there but all that will definitely change.
Last but not least, this is Ava's new chest of drawers. I absolutely LOVE the color. It's sort of greenish blue. It reminds me of the water in the Caribbean. And it's a good size. She'll have plenty of room for clothes and at the rate I'm going she'll need it! I've had a hard time picking out a new color for her room but I think I've found one that will look good with the chest. Her room is going to be very soft colors with a few brights here and there. Hopefully my vision for it will look as good done as it does in my head. We'll see!
So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Weekend Antique Shopping

We had a busy weekend, or shall I say, busy as far as we're concerned. We are not ones to fill up our schedule. Saturday night we had an event for the Chamber of Commerce in Clayton county. It is an annual thing and is just one of those things you HAVE to do. Not a great time, you know, just mostly obligation. Jack and Sherry went of course, and the another attorney who works in the same office with Jack and Brian and his wife, both of whom are very sweet. Eldrin Bell (the chairman of the Board of Commissioners and he's also Justin Guairini's dad for all you American Idol fans) and his two friends sat our table also. The program gets longer every year I think. I told Brian it's like the sate of the union address--everybody has to clap after every speech and every award, both when the name of the award winner is called out and after they accept the award. I clapped but my heart was just not in it !!:) But we did have fun dressing up and talking with Jack and Sherry. It's not often that Brian get to don his tuxedo.

Sunday morning we went to church and heard a very interesting report on the missions program. After going home and changing clothes we went to the Scott's Antique Expo which is in Atlanta, though only minutes from Brian's office. We met up with Jack and Sherry and spent most of the afternoon there. They have gone many times and know their way around. The Expo is two buildings actually filled with antique dealers. It's HUGE! Brian and I decided we needed something to put in the living room for extra storage and we'd rather get something unique than something new at Pottery Barn, which would be overpriced anyway. This was the place to do that, let me tell ya. BEAUTIFUL things. Bri and I both said that if we had an empty house we could fill it up with stuff from out there, and we'd love to do so. So did we find a piece for the living room? Yes!... And one for the sunroom, and the kitchen and Ava's room!!! Are we crazy or what?!? BUT, get this, what we paid for that stuff we would have probably have only gotten 1 maybe 2 pieces from potterybarn. Isn't that insane? We got great deals and beautiful old pieces. They were delivered today. We had to have someone deliver them b/c they wouldn't fit in our truck. But it was also nice to have someone carry it all in for us too. It would have been hard to do that, I'm not that strong.

So it's almost all set up. I'm going to paint the front of one piece we bought, the sideboard. Don't freak out, dad! I know it's an antique BUT the front needs something different done to it. It has a crazy design on it. But the other pieces I'm going to leave alone. Can you believe that we got a sideboard, exactly what Brian was looking for, for only $175!?! It's from the 1920's so it's not extremely old piece, but like I said, it fit the bill. So now I just have to paint it and we'll bring it into the living room. Add it to my list of things to do before Ava comes. So, I'll post some pictures once I get everything done. How exciting! I love a new look. It's so refreshing.

The Winds of Change are Blowin'

This is what the guest room used to look like, but no longer. We cleaned out some of the furniture in order to make some much needed room for the tike and all the stuff needed to take care of her. We rented a cargo van and filled it with lots of unnecessary items we've collected over the years. We took our loveseat and mattress set and some other little things over to the salvation army. Before it was even off the van there were two people eyeing it so I'm sure it was snatched up Saturday. It was a good love seat but very bulky and even though we could use more places to sit, we need the extra space more. What can ya do?!? We also took the bed and vanity back up to my parent. The footboard and headboard were my mom's grandmother's bed. So if anyone wants to visit you're welcome but we'll have to put you on the sofa!! But now we have lots off extra space to hopefully fill with pieces of furniture that will give us some storage. That's the most needed thing 'round here---STORAGE! We found a beautiful chest of drawers with three deep drawers at the flea market. It's an antique piece that was handmade in the 1700's. We may purchase that and put it in the living room where the trunk is now. That would give us some place to put toys and things like that. I think it would look nice there as well.

Mom also took me shopping for baby things at Target. There are SO many cute things there! We did find the car seat I wanted to get, and also some curtain rods. Also, Ashlie gave me her high chair and bouncy seat. So we're getting there! It's so fun to go into her room and look at all the stuff we have. Now that we have some space in her room I feel like I can actually move around in there and work on the room, getting it prepared. Hopefully this week I can get the closet cleaned out and ready for a new closet system that will hold more than what's in there right now. And then I'll probably repaint her room and then we can start setting up the crib and other things. Progress....I love it.