New Bedroom

This post has been a long time in the making. My bedroom is finally done enough to at least post pictures. As many of you know Josh's house was basically a blank slate when I got here with absolutely nothing done to any of the walls and nothing hanging on the walls. I have always wanted to decorate my own house and Josh's house represented my first real opportunity to do so. We have been working slowly through the house one room at a time and the bedroom is mostly done. Here are a few pictures:



This picture shows the new bed we just got (I love all of my new bedroom furniture) along with the walls (and Oscar). It is hard to tell (with the lighting in the room) but the wall with the pictures on it is painted a light brown color and the wall with the window is painted a slightly darker shade of brown. The opposite walls from these ones are painted the same shade. My favorite color is green but Josh was not in favor of an entire room painted green so I added a green stripe and will accent with green. Here are more pictures:



This is mostly a picture of Josh's dresser (sorry for the kitty butt -- he didn't want to move). When we got married Josh had no dresser. In fact most of the time he just would throw his clothes in these plastic tubs (unfolded of course). So, I'm really glad that Josh finally has a dresser and a nice place to put his clothes.



This is a picture of my dresser. The bed also has four drawers on it so we officially have plenty of storage and more drawers than we know what to do with (a good problem to have).



This picture shows just the top of the night stands we have. The bed we got is actually very tall and these nightstands are nice because they are equally tall. So, we don't have to reach way down to put things on the night stands...

Actually getting the bedroom furniture was quiet the ordeal. I never would have thought it would be so hard. At the store there were just a ton of options and then you factor in the prices and my goodness you can spend a lot of money quickly at those stores. At the time we purchased it they said it would be delivered in 7-10 days. So, getting close to the 10 day mark I called and they said that some of the items were not available but that they would come in the following Monday and I scheduled the deliver for the next Tuesday. This was my first disappointment because I was really looking forward to getting my new furniture and didn't want to wait any longer. Well, when Tuesday came they called to say my furniture was still not in and it would be the following Monday before they could get it in. I was irritated at this point because they had said it would be in 7-10 days and at this point it was going on three weeks. The other irritating thing was that I had rearranged my schedule to make sure I had the day off work so they could deliver my furniture. To make a long story short the following week came and they made a partial delivery of the bed and one dresser. This also irritated me though because it meant one more day of trying to accommodate and coordinate my schedule so they could deliver my furniture that they kept promising me. Finally last Monday all of the rest of the furniture was delivered. The unfortunate thing was that the dresser they delivered had three spots where the finish on the wood had been rubbed off. This was of course the icing on the cake. At that point I was done dealing with these people. I just wanted them to leave the furniture and I told them I would never shop at their store again. I paid a lot of money to have new furniture delivered when they said it would be delivered and it just didn't happen. If you live in NW Arkansas then I do not recommend shopping at Furniture Row... Okay, that is the story and I'm done venting. I am very happy and thankful to have my new furniture (I've never had such nice, matching furniture) but I just wish the whole process had been a little easier.

As far as the rest of the decorations, there will be a quilt on the bed eventually. It's only about 80% completed but I'm hoping to make some real progress on that this week (Josh is gone the entire week). There will probably be some green curtains of some sort and I'm thinking about getting some dark brown, vinyl lettering to put on the wall but need to figure out what I want it to say first. After I get this done then I believe the room will be complete.

Good Bye 20s

Today is officially my last day as a 20 something. Tomorrow I will turn 30. For some reason that number feels big to me. I know logically that I won't feel or be any different tomorrow than I am today but it still just seems big.

I remember one year walking on a school side walk with my mom going to some pre-school year function and talking with her about how I thought being 12 was old. I think she told me I wasn't and the conversation ended. So now, here we are 18 years later...

I really loved being a kid. I remember running around and playing imaginary games like cops and robbers with my brothers (when we were getting along), being in elementary school and having friends and people to play with, being involved in sports, music stuff, plays, etc and all the memories those events create. I loved being a kid. I didn't have to many cares or responsibilities at that time.

As I got older life definitely got tougher in just about all areas of my life but even so I still had parents and friends who loved me and helped me get through those times.

My 20s has really had a lot of ups and downs. I officially moved out of my parents' house when I was 20 (after 1 year at college). I learned how to become an adult and all the responsibilities that being one entails. I went to school, picked a career, finished school, moved to Arkansas, started my career and got married all in my 20s. Life did not always go the way I wanted it to or planned it to in the past 10 years but looking back I can honestly say God used those times in my life to draw me closer to Him. He has taken care of me in so many amazing ways even in the times when it felt like I had no one who really understood. He has provided all that I needed (and sometimes even more) at just the right times.

I think one reason it just seems a little hard to say good bye to my 20s is because there has just been so much that has happened in my 20s. I am not the same person today that I was on my 20th birthday (thanks to God's strength and grace).

My friend Marti told me a few times something to the effect that your 20s are filled with so much work and struggle but that your 30s are when you get to enjoy the fruit of all the work/struggle you did in your 20s. I'm not sure what the next 10 years has in store for me. I guess with God's help I'll take it one day at a time and see what happens. Today though seems a little bittersweet to me.

Northwest Counseling, Inc.

I spend a lot of time here at the office and since we recently moved to a new location/office I thought I would show off my new office a little. I think it has turned out pretty nice. It still needs a few minor things done (like curtains) but I still think it looks pretty good. Here is the lobby of my new office:



Here is one side of my office:



and the other side of my office:



I'm not a big fan of the love seat in my office but hopefully that will be changed soon. The sister of one of my coworkers is making some green curtains for my window so that will be a nice added touch to my office. I have to say I really like my office. I've never had chance to decorate my own office before so this was fun!

Here is the playroom where we do therapy with kids:



and the other side:



The playroom is not really complete yet. I would like to see some more kid-friendly chairs and more color in the room but it is a work in progress.

There are a few kinks we still need to work out like the door in my office doesn't shut nicely so it sounds like you are slamming it just to get it to shut. I used my office for the first time yesterday and had a hard time opening the door when the session was done. LOL

I really enjoy my job and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to work in a private practice (a lot less stress than community mental health) and it's a blessing to work again at a Christian company. I would highly recommend Northwest Counseling, Inc. to anyone needing counseling and I'm not just saying that because I work here. I think the other counselors here do a great job working with people.

Fun Weekend

Josh and I have been very busy lately and just felt like we needed to relax some. So, we decided to go to Petit Jean State Park again. This is the place that Josh and I did most of our dating. It had been about 8 months though since we had been there. I love this place. It really is soooo beautiful.



It was a very hot, hot day so we didn't do very much outside (no hiking for sure). We did look at a few overlooks but pretty much stayed in the air conditioned car.





This picture was taken by Josh and it is a neat picture with a great background. We should have tried to take a picture together here...

After we drove around a bit we started to think about where we wanted to stay that night. Our original idea had been to just get a motel room somewhere (I had already checked the lodge and cabins at the park and they were full - which I wasn't surprised about because they fill out several months in advance usually). Josh suggested we try to see if there is any openings in the lodge or cabins because he didn't know I had already checked on that. So I went ahead and checked just in case. Much to our surprise and happiness there was one cabin open for the night. The original cabin dwellers had left early (there loss was our gain in this case). So, we got to stay at a beautiful cabin that is located in just about the best place you could have a cabin. Here are some pictures of our cabin (with a great porch swing) and the view from our cabin:



View from outside our cabin by the porch swing:





View of the back of the cabin:



Sunset view from our cabin:







In the far left of the picture above you can see some giant rocks. Josh and I have sat on top of those rocks before and watched the sunset.

We ate supper at the Mathers Lodge (our first time eating here). Our table was right beside these huge windows with an amazing view. After we ordered our food I looked around at some other people's plates of food and the portions looked really big. Josh and I ordered a salad with our meal and you got to go to a salad bar and make your own. I was somewhat surprised and irritated that the vegetables (tomatoes, green peppers, green onions, okra) on their salad bar were not cut up very small. Sure I would like some green onion on my salad but not a whole one. The next disappointing thing was the actual food. I ordered a country fried steak, baked potatoe and house vegetable for the night. My country fried steak was very bland and really did not taste very good. My potatoe was good so I was happy about that. The house vegetable for the night (which I did not know when I ordered) was LIMA BEANS. Who has lima beans as the only vegetable they serve?? YUCK!! YUCK!! Josh had some fried catfish and he really was not impressed with his meal either. Josh had a good point about dinner. He said that there food really doesn't have to be that good because they really don't count on return customers very often which is probably true. They count on just getting a lot of different tourists in from all over the place. Despite the bad food I had a great view and wonderful company for my meal. :-)

I was really kind of sad to leave the cabin on Sunday morning. I think both Josh and I could have used another few days there to just relax and get away from everything. I think it would be amazing to have one of these cabins in the Fall when the weather is cooler and the leaves are changing. I'm looking forward to going back even if we don't get to stay at a cabin.

On Sunday we drove the long, round-about way home that included a few stops at the Buffalo National River to do some swimming. This was a fun experience and very interesting. At times it was somewhat challenging to swim against the current. I wish I would have thought to take some pictures because it really was a pretty river with beautiful scenery around it. Josh had some snorkling gear and so I had my first snorkling experience. It does take some getting used to.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I loved every minute of it!