Our new laundry room

Don’t you hate those home renovation shows that make you sit through an hour of home owners arguing and bickering as they work through a project before you ever see the final result? Me too, so let me start with the “after” picture:

The laundry room after

New cabinets and a new paint color add up to a prettier and more useful laundry room.

Roger did most of the work, although I did help bring the ridiculously heavy counter top upstairs…TWICE.  We had to cut the counter to size (go go new circular saw!), which wasn’t a big deal. The huge warp in our front wall, however, was a little challenging to hide.

I’ve had a crazy urge to paint lately, and this project satisfied that craving. Roger and I painted the walls Friday night, and I painted all of the trim Saturday. Then we both painted the mailbox and stair rails outside Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day and we were on a roll, so why not?

Read the rest of the post to see before pictures and how the kitties helped on the project.

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1 Brisket, 3 Meals

Last week I found a recipe that required my crockpot AND beer. What could possibly go wrong?

Ugh. It was so bland! First, I needed parsnips but couldn’t find them, and I didn’t know what they were anyway. So I’m on my phone at Publix looking up pictures of the elusive veggie, only to find out it’s an uptight carrot. I’m not a huge fan of carrots, so I opted for mushrooms instead.

And maybe that was the problem? Do parsnips have an incredible taste that I missed out on? Who knows. But all was not lost…

I was able to get 3 separate meals from this brisket. THREE! I was determined, because I just cooked 3 pounds of meat and wasn’t about to let that money go to waste. But I also wasn’t about to eat flavorless crap either. Read on for the recipes…

  • Slow-cooker beef brisket with beer (bleh)
  • Brisket fajitas (yum!)
  • Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (easy! fast! good!)

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Yes, I know my birthday was months ago

Roger took me to Elevation Chop House for my birthday last year. The restaurant is next to the runway at a small airport, so you can watch the planes take off and land. We’d been wanting to eat there for a while, and it’s a cool place but unfortunately the food is overpriced and not very good.

HOWEVER…

They serve martinis and margaritas made with liquid nitrogen (that stuff Mr. Wizard used once to freeze a rose and then break it by smashing it onto a table). When you order one, they bring a bucket of their house mix and pour the nitrogen into it. It freezes immediately, and they scoop it out like ice cream. Yum!

Liquid nitrogen margarita at Elevation Chop House

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I didn’t see Elvis but…

The Bellagio

That’s the Bellagio, and it was our home for the MLK holiday weekend. Well, more like our crash pad. Since we partied like college kids the entire time, we saw very little of our ultra fancy room.

This was mine and Roger’s first time in Vegas, and we were impressed. The hotels are beautiful. I kept thinking how small Vegas looked, but then I realized it only looked small because EVERY building is huge!

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Thinking of Ecuador

As many of you know, last June Roger and I went to Ecuador on a mission trip with my home church Wilmer UMC. You can read all about the trip on our Ecuador page.

Some of our VBS kids in Ecuador

I knew then the trip was changing my life, and it’s an odd feeling to be aware of such a change as it’s happening to you. But what I didn’t expect is the lasting impact it’s having on me. I find myself often thinking of Ecuador: the kids dancing at Colinas del Norte, Pastora Ruth singing to us after VBS, school kids racing to hug us.

I’ve struggled lately with being happy with all that I have when I know the people in Ecuador have so little. I nearly had a nervous break down Christmas shopping, because I felt like I was slapping God in the face by buying stuff that makes me happy but doesn’t feed or clothe me. Why should I have all these wonderful things (and that’s what they are – just things) when people in Ecuador face poverty with potentially no way out of it?

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