It's almost summer...

for Phillip. He ended up teaching summer school and summer officially begins for him Monday at 1pm. However, the last few days we've been acting like high school students on summer break anyway. We've been up past 2am every night since Thursday! We've been indulged in watching movies and eating snacks we really shouldn't. Last night we even had a little bonfire in the back yard and made smores. Yum! I love smores. Today we had actual errands that needed to be ran and then we spontaneously went out for ice cream. (This is a huge deal for us. Nothing is really spontaneous.) Then we went for a walk at a local park and now we are just chillin' w/our lappy's. Tomorrow will be a pretty full day w/church, caring for my parent's critters, Area58, and a few chores. Next week, other than Monday we plan on just relaxing and hopefully working on a few home projects. It will be so nice to have a few days at home with Phil though. We always get so much accomplished and have such a great time just being together. I know that Phil really needs a break though. I mean, I know that most people don't get but a week or two of vacation a year in most jobs. So Phil is really lucky to get the snow days, Thanksgiving, Christmas vacations, and then usually a two month summer break. It just seems he's been a little more stressed out lately though so I'm sure he'll be glad to have a break. Of course the next week we have VBS & making home made ice cream which will fill out days entirely. Not so much of a break, but that's okay. I'm just glad he'll be done with teaching school for a few weeks.
I have uploaded some more pictures from my last photo shoot on my photography website: KaitlynRae Photography . They turned out so good! I am loving photography and I hope that this is something I can really run with. I guess we will just have to wait and see!
I better get going. I don't want to fall asleep during the sermon tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Today was Claire's 2 year birthday! I know it's somewhat silly to celebrate a dog's birthday, but she is like a child to us. Unfortunately, we kind of forgot that her birthday was coming up so she didn't get a cupcake or a birthday present. I'm sure it doesn't matter to her. I did manage to sing happy birthday to her twice today. Haha. Phil must think I've gone nuts.

Happy Birthday to my Clairby.

(This is a picture of her after her big hair cut. I do miss the long hair on her ears. It's growing back. I find it to be feminine. Hehe.)

In other news, the kitchen cabinet hardware has finally been attached!! It only took a year. It was super easy to do, and I did it almost entirely by myself. The husband helped me a little with the drawers since they tend to move around a bit. I should have done it sooner, but was afraid I'd mess up. But after building a bed frame, I'm feeling a little more confident with power tools.

This week has been somewhat uneventful otherwise. I've been working on a post about the platform bed we built. I wanted it to be easy to read for other first time DIYers... so it may take me awhile. We have been trying to organize a little more and work away at all of our clutter. It's amazing how much you can accumulate over a couple of years.

Well, it's been a full day and tomorrow will be as well. I better get some rest.

~Toodles!

Baby Bunnies

Last week while I was mowing, I saw something move in the grass. I assumed it was a frog as I've seen many of them in our yard before. I looked a little closer and noticed that it was a little bigger than the typical frog I find. I looked even closer and noticed it was a baby bunny!!

So I went to get my camera and a pair of gloves so I could move the bunny out of harms way. I looked to see if there were more and I found one more just a couple feet away from the first. They were so precious!

Look at the size of the baby bunny compared too my hand. They were so tiny! Their little ears, little thumper feet, and little tails! The second one couldn't put it's ears up yet and wouldn't open his eyes either.

While searching for more bunnies I found their nest. There were 6 of them! So I put both of the little bunnies back inside of the nest so I could finish mowing the yard. Precious little guys.

I've checked on them every day. Two of them had left the nest on the 4th. There was one left Sunday. Today they were all gone. I was kind of sad. I hope they're all okay. I have seen a sneaky black cat hanging around lately. But I don't want to think about it. They're probably growing and hopping around all cute-like as they should. Good luck, Baby Bunnies!

Busy

We have been so busy lately! We haven't had much time to just rest. Two weekends ago Phil's brother got married. So then that week I was busy with editing photos from a photo session the week before and from the wedding along with the usual in and outs of life. Last weekend, Phil and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary. We painted pottery and went shopping, went out to dinner... It was so wonderful.
On Sunday we were busy helping with an outreach our church does. We do a fireworks show for our town each year (We've only done it 3 years so far) and so we of course volunteered. It went really well and we had about 9 - 10,000 people on the grounds.
After such a long day on Sunday, we were of course so tired. Waking up on Monday was terrible however because we both realized what terrible shape our mattress was in. So we decided it was time to get a new bed frame and mattress. We have been saving up for about a year to such, we were just waiting for a good sale on mattresses. So Tuesday we ordered the materials we were going to need. Wednesday my father brought all his tools over and supervised me while I cut all of the wood to length. He sanded them for me and then I began the staining process. I really enjoyed staining the bed frame and I have plans to stain a few other pieces in our home. Thursday we went shopping and found ourselves a new mattress. We built the frame Friday and the mattress was delivered. I have slept SO much better the past two nights!! It is incredible how a good mattress and solid foundation makes such a difference! I might just post about how we made the bed frame. It only cost us about $150 for all the wood, stain, screws, etc... We built a King size frame and that baby isn't going nowhere soon. We could probably use it for the rest of our lives. Haha!
We had a fantastic Fourth of July. We spent it with Phillip's side of the family. We played some card games, put together a puzzle, and also celebrated my new sister's-in-law birthday. We then went to the St. Louis Fireworks. Wow! They were just beautiful. They went off right behind the Arch and it was totally magical. I know that sounds silly, but it really was. It started to drizzle just as we were walking back to the car. Perfection.
Even though we've been so busy, I have loved it. We have spent so much time with family and friends and helping others. I guess I just haven't felt so alive in such a long time. Is that terrible? Oh well. Part of me thinks that this medicine I'm taking is helping me return to myself a little bit more or maybe it's not the medicine? Maybe I'm just growing, maturing? I don't know. I'm just thankful for the life that God has given me. I really need to remember to count my blessings!!!