gifts

when you think of gifts, you can immediately think materialistic gifts. the truth is- we all have spiritual gifts that we are blessed with and are meant to utilize them to bless others and yourself. the more i truly embrace this belief, i have sought out people's gifts to help assist us with our home repairs and other misc. life dilemmas i have. and the cool part is- people are placed in your life strategically and purposefully to provide you their gifts. you just need to see it, be open to asking for it, and of course, being thankful for it. lastly, leveraging people's gifts makes them happy bc when you have a gift in something, it comes natural and therefore, blessing others with it is a joy.

our love (in photos??)

can you believe it? dp and i are nearing our 3 years anniversary this coming august 30th! where has the time gone? and further, we have been together nearly 6 years come august 6th! who would've imagined given dp's longest relationship before me was 6 months and who would've thought that we would still be in love with one another each morning (and most evenings ;) blessed are we. why i'm writing this? well, one- bc i am in amazement! and two- because for our anniversary gift, i'm hoping to win dp over to agree to having professional photos taken of us. i'd love to invest in something we've (well I) held off for a while (not like dp is thinking of this as much as i am...) so, we shall see if this will come true!

dp and his serving

this post is dedicated to my wonderful husband... who deserves an acknowledgment for his selfless serving and my admiration for his humble nature. last fri-mon dp went with the church's youth group to paint the youth and children's rooms in a village church in mexico and also by conducting a vacation bible study (vbs). i'm so proud of him and wanted to share this with you all because if you ever asked him what he's been up to, he wouldn't ever bring this up. yet, what a difference he is making in the lives of the youth, our church, and the church in mexicali.

post-paint job with paintings done by one of the kiddos

i love being home

we are so thankful for our new home. thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point. dp and i sure do spend a lot of time working within our home (and there are many discussions about how much time and energy should go into it), but regardless, we are so happy! we're sitting here now as i type and he reads economist. we just did a few hours of house work. he is scraping glue off the walls in one of the bedrooms and i was pruning the rose bush, and cleaning up odds and ends. we also met another set of neighbors which was cool. everyone seems respectful of privacy yet very friendly and helpful. apparently our other neighbors had a block party in jan and are going to have another one this summer. i am excited for that and maybe will be a part of that coordination. today dp and i finally returned back to church... it had been several weeks. it was nice to be back. it's so wonderful to be a part of a community that notices when you've been absent for several weeks. anyways, life is dandy and we are just immensely thankful and happy. praise You Lord... for your blessings and faithfulness in providing us with what we need and want... but all for the purposes You have in store for us that we may never understand within our human mind.

love these songs...

whenever need be, i listen to these songs. i thought you may like them too.

blessings by laura story
grace by laura story
7 x 70 by chris august

hubbell home

today my dear friend ll invited me to join her to visit james hubbell and his wife's estate in santa ysabel, ca: hubbell home. it was such a nice day... to tour their estate filled with detailed and creative pieces of art big and small. it was a great inspiration for work i can do for our home. we shall see if i can pull off some mosaic work. ll thinks i can although i beg to differ that some people are just blessed with that gift.

the hubbells' sons quarters

who needs dp? ;)

... to build the following ladder shelf! go ak and rp! i am proud to share that with the help of my dear friend and a drill, i was able to accomplish this task that dp didn't believe me that i was going to put together. also, i didn't mention earlier but i put together our weed trimmer too! yep... i'm cool :)

lake arrowhead

this past weekend dp and i spent time with friends up in lake arrowhead in a beautiful home overlooking the lake. we had such a nice time with them and their kiddos just relaxing, eating, chatting, and simply enjoying life... no attachment to our emails, phones, and diy tasks. thanks friends for an enjoyable time and memory! here are some pics of our trip!

the backyard of the home we stayed at

the gals

check out these other huge homes overlooking the lake!

dp enjoying some boyhood

builder dp

this sunday into this week has been all about dp putting together furniture that we purchased... first our first-ever bed frame... then our 62" tv stand... and soon, our ladder shelf! dp is quite awesome with these tasks and look at his finished products!

home blessing

recently our pastor stopped by to bless our home. and it was a wonderful occasion in that we were reminded that God has given us this house as a gift. and it is my thought that dp and i are meant to utilize it as a place where we can be hospitable to people- friends and strangers. and it was a nice reminder that though we could update and upgrade as much as we want in the home, if the end result doesn't serve to make us and others feel "warm" and happy then why do it? why have a home that we can show off that looks amazing and has the latest and greatest (not that we could afford that anyway, haha)? what purposes does that serve? his visit was just a grounding moment for dp and i to marinade in this thought and to always remember to focus on God when making decisions.

painting

when we moved in the colors of the walls were an assortment of blue, light yellow, dark tan, and who knows what else. all we knew was that it didn't look bright, light, and clean. also, the paint job was horrendous. it was as if the painter ran out of paint and then stopped painting in some areas. or, the paint would peel off if you bumped into it by accident. odd. thanks to our painters, we were able to repaint our living room, dining room, hallway, and master bedroom.

our paint crew

you can see the new color to the left and the old color to the right

our newly painted walls!

hardwood floors

dp and i are thrilled with our new hardwood floors although we have discovered that it is a lot colder with these floors!!!! so, we've had to wear slippers (i had to order dp some), socks, and sleep with an extra comforter. check out the transformation!

dp ripping up the carpet and cushion, then removing the nails and staples

rp helping cut the carpet

our beautiful hardwood floors