Serenity

This will be my last post on this blog. It will not be shut down for memories sake, but perhaps a new blog will be created as a continuation of my life sometime in the future.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.Amen.

-Mary

RN-BC

I passed my big test this week! I am now a medical/surgical board certified registered nurse. The test was like taking my boards all over again, so I was pretty nervous since I haven't taken a big test in almost 6 years when I initially got my RN license. 175 questions and 2 hours later I can add another abbreviation to my title. Tonight we will celebrate with tequila and friends, supposedly for Cinco de Mayo but I know the truth.... it's all for me.

34:08

A lot has happened since my last blog update... yeah, over a month ago. I'm a terrible blogger. But I'm ok with that because I have been OUT in the WORLD..... LIVING! I have barely used the computer since I started training for a 5k, and I have no regrets at all. Speaking of 5k, I finished my first one 2 weeks ago. It wasn't a timed race, but my unofficial time was 36:30 (right around 12 minutes per mile, and I had to walk a short distance). Today, this morning, April 23, 2011, I finished my first timed 5k race! I ran every bit of it with a goal of finishing in 36 minutes and my official time was 34:08! I feel so accomplished and satisfied. And I can officially say I'm a runner. No one will be able to understand this on the level that I feel it. For my entire life I said "I can't run" and now I have conquered and I CAN run. I am a runner. I continually put my running shoes on and beat what I didn't think I could do. My times are getting better. My legs are stronger. I can run 3 miles and continue on with my day without feeling like my legs are made of jello. It is one of the best feelings in the world to know what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it. And I'm doing it all. for. me. No husband, dogs, parents, friends. I go out there and impress myself just for ME.

When I started training, February 4th of this year, I could barely run 3 minutes without having to walk and catch my breath. Ever since then I have ran 3 times a week, first for 2 miles, then up to 3 miles, pushing myself further to continually get a better time. I've gotten great advice from other runners. Like stretching! My God, my calves would be killing me a mile into a run. Now I stretch them 2 minutes on each calf and no more pain! Another great tip, sprinting at the end of a run to push my heart and lungs to their max. It's a killer in the Florida heat but worth it!

Now that I've conquered 3.1 miles, I'm going to start interval training to improve my time. As of now I have my pace so under control I don't get out of breath at all. It's time to start pushing my heart, lungs, and legs to the max. Every day the temp is reaching above 90 degrees here in Florida so it will be interesting to see how well I do in the heat (I only run outside, never on a treadmill). My goal is to run a half marathon so I can get one of those cool 13.1 bumper stickers, and the self gratification of knowing YES I CAN!

I would go for a marathon, but that just seems obsessive to me, so I'll stick with the 13.1 mile goal. I've also started one other "I can" project. I'm not able to share all the details yet, but it's MUCH bigger than running 3.1 miles, and will change my life if I'm able to accomplish it. My "I can'ts" are very quickly becoming my "I cans" and I couldn't be happier.

And... Breathe...

I haven't read a blog or checked in on my own blog in weeks. We have been busy swimming with manatees (although we didn't actually see any), having friends over for dinner (Jordan's New Years' resolution), I broke laptop number 3, we replaced all the hedges around the front of the house, I signed up for my first 5k and have been training 3x a week, Jordan has been sick and started working 10 hour days, my brother went to boot camp, and yes, I am still working on the living room. And.... breathe.... Oh, and most importantly, we signed up to go whitewater rafting in June for 3 days in the Grand Canyon! We are SUPER excited about that! I've been browsing through YouTube videos watching other people's adventures, which is making me even more excited! This one is my favorite so far.

I did finish the living room end table, which I like very much. Here is a quick pic I snapped with my iPhone when I got it done. I used the same paint from my kitchen cabinets, but added white to make it a little lighter green. I also scuffed up the table after painting it to give it a distressed look. I might scuff it a little more, right now it looks a little too "planned scuffed". I replaced the broken tile in the top with glass, and placed a faux bois print cloth napkin under the glass, just to add some texture and uniqueness to the table. I went with glass for the top so I can change out what's under the glass with different seasons or design inspiration. Right now I really love faux bois and I like how the wood on the table is painted, but the cloth has wood print on it. Just to mix up what would be expected.

Before

Found the 2 rectangular tables for

$15 each at a thrift store.

After

Paint and glass were free.

$18 table.

This Saturday we are going to Bok Towers with friends so the boys can take pretty pictures of the blooming azalea bushes.

On Sunday we will be going to the Florida Strawberry Festival to eat strawberry shortcake and continue Conquering Fear 2011 with some crazy fair rides.

Doesn't look like we will be slowing down any time soon!

Conquer Fear 2011 - Gators

Back in December/January I decided to make some goals for the new year. Well, one goal specifically, to conquer fear. I named this year Conquer Fear 2011. I made a list of stuff that I avoid to prevent an uncomfortable feeling. I'm not naturally a fearful person, but there are certain things that hold me back from living as full as I could. I'm definitely not the type of person to say I can't do something. But I kept finding these little things that I would avoid just so I wouldn't be uncomfortable/afraid/scared. I wasn't made to live in fear, so I'm going to conquer it. Take it head on. Then laugh in it's face.

My list consists of very specific to activities that send me into "freak out mode". Some of it may not make sense to other people, but it's all stuff that I avoid due to fear. So here it is (straight from my iPhone list labeled "2011"):

1. Canoe gator infested Wekiva Springs
2. Hold a spider
3. Learn to Fly
4. Ride a roller coaster

Small list but I can add to it. Today was gator fear conquering day. It worked out really well. I went canoeing with my best friend Maribel, and Jordan and her brother tagged along in kayaks. She and I had been canoeing down the springs before and I remember the sense of desperation to "get out" when I saw any gators. Didn't help that it was me and another female in a canoe, which means we were definitely not going fast and I was a brand new canoer so I wasn't very good at it. Trapped, inexperience, gators, ya, that sums up most of my anxiety inducers right there. But I love water. I love being outside in the Florida sun. I love a good physical challenge. There was no real reason for me to hate canoeing besides the unnecessary anxiety. So that was definitely first on my Conquer list. I made a couple videos while going down the springs. I have no video editing skills so it is what it is.

The Lived In Room

Its transition time around here. I've been "sitting" with our living room in a mess to get an idea of what I want and where it's all gonna go. We've been moving furniture in and out, deciding on colors to paint the furniture, looking at fabric choices. This is where we are so far.

The sofa, ottomans, rug and mirror stay where they are. Everything else is standing in for something that either doesn't exist yet, or is being painted. The chair over by the mirror is staying, but it currently stripped down to it's cushion. It used to look like this.

My friend found it for me at a thrift store for $25. The fabric was stained and dry rotted so all of it came off last night. Which means I have to learn how to reupholster a chair (fingers crossed) so I don't have this sitting in my living room for long.

We also found these end tables at the same thrift store for $15 each. They did have marble inserts in the top, but one was chipped and we broke the other in the thrift store parking lot. I'm having pieces of glass cut to replace them, and plan on putting some kind of decorative paper under the glass. The pedestal table is from Home Goods for $40 and is getting the same coat of paint as the other tables to help unify all 3.

This is in the middle of painting them. The white is primer and the green is actually my kitchen cabinet color with white mixed in to make it a little lighter green.

We still have a long way to go but I'm enjoying the little DIY projects to make this living room unique and all my own.

Painting Cabinets

I was really nervous about painting my kitchen cabinets. My biggest fear was them ending up with brush strokes and drip marks and look painted, and they didn't! But I also knew I was not willing to spend thousands of dollars on new cabinets. I read a couple tutorials online, including this one from Young House Love. I relied mostly on the guys from my local Sherwin-Williams for picking out the paint and tools.

TOOLS

I used a 1.5" angled brush for the crevices

of the cabinets, and 4" foam rollers for a smooth finish.

I don't know much about this primer and paint

but it's what the paint guy recommended.

The primer covered really well and the

paint went on nice and smooth.

PREPPING

I removed all the cabinet doors and numbered

them so I wouldn't forget which went where.

I removed all the old nasty

hardware from the doors.

Ladies, if you don't have a mini electric

screw driver, GET ONE! My husband's

is way too big for my hands, and this

little guy was a God-send for this project.

I set up some make-shift saw horses in our garage.

I would highly recommend this.

You're going to spend a lot of time with these doors,

so save your knees/back and get them at a good

painting height for you.

Also, since the doors will be drying for days,

you'll want to protect them from the weather.

TID BIT

I started with my doors front side down on the saw horses with the idea that when I flipped them, if the paint smudged, it would be on the back of the door and not the front where it would be more noticable.

SAND

After I had all of this set up I was ready to either completely ruin my cabinets or end up with a beautiful kitchen. I did a light hand sanding with a 80 grit sandpaper block. The goal with the sanding is to gently rough up the surface so the primer adeheres the best it can. I did not spend a lot of time or effort on this. Just a couple swipes then used a damp clothe to remove the sanding dust.

PRIME

With my 1.5" angled paint brush I first did a light coat of primer in all the angled partions of the doors. I then went back with my 4" roller and covered the entire door. The foam roller would not work to get into the little crevices, but the paint brush does not apply as smooth of a coat. So using the brush first and the roller second gives great covered and a smooth finish. The goal is a light even coat. It's tempting to apply a lot of primer (or paint) to cover better, but this will end up looking splotchy and uneven. Resist the urge and I promise you won't regret it.

Door backs covered with one

coat of primer.

After the door backs were covered in primer, I primed the boxes of the cabinets. This gave the doors a chance to dry a little before applying the paint. I used this back and forth method for each coat of paint also. The primer recommended waiting an hour, but it was the next day before I was able to apply the first coat of paint.

PAINT

I used the same brush-then-roll method for the paint. With the first coat of paint the primer was still showing through. Not only was the primer showing through, but the paint color looked much lighter than it was supposed to. Not to worry, it gets better.

After the backs were covered in 2 coats of paint (about an hour to dry in between) I let them dry for 2 days before flipping them over and repeating the whole process. I did NOT want my beautiful paint job to stick to the saw horses, so this is where patience came in handy (and I'm not a patient person). This is also where your couple of light coats of paint, instead of thick coats, come into play. It would take so much longer for the paint to dry.

FREAK OUT

At about this stage in the process, my husband decided to tell me the green looked like "that 70s color green." You mean AVOCADO GREEN?? This was after 6 hours of painting on Sunday night. And I had a complete melt down over my color choice. Avocado green was definitely not my goal. I was VERY particular about the color green this was supposed to be, thanks to my inspiration kitchen.

I chose Dried Thyme, from Sherwin-Williams.

DEFINITELY NOT AVOCADO GREEN.

So I sat in the kitchen and cried while surrounded by my avocado green cabinets. I looked at them from different angles, different lights turned on, upside down, right side up. Anything to see another color besides AVOCADO GREEN. Finally, like a good artist, I gave up for the night and hoped to see something different with fresh eyes in the morning.

Hmmm, nope, these were still very yellow cabinets the next morning with fresh eyes and fresh light. Then, some how, I realized it was the inner cabinet color that was completely throwing off the green. The inner cabinets are a yellowish/orange wood color that was pulling all the yellow from the Dried Thyme. So I grabbed some cabinet doors and placed them as they should be and WA-LA! No more AVOCADO GREEN! It's amazing how a little thing like that can completely screw the color. See how NOT AVOCADA GREEN the cabinets are?

Moral of the story, don't freak out.

BEFORE AND AFTER

I Just Can't Stop

I might have a serious problem. Is there a 12 step program for decorating addicts? We finished our kitchen 2 weeks ago and tonight we went out and bought a new sofa. Yep, looks like we will be doing the living room next. Everything in our living room is about 6 years old. The sofas are getting ratty (want to buy them?) and we just don't like the set up. I've always had a vision for something much more custom than an "L" shaped sofa setup like we currently have. I know exactly how I want it to look, now I just have to find all the pieces to put it together.

Current living room setup.

(with the old floors and old kitchen)

This is the exact sofa I had imagined

for my living room. And somehow

I managed to find it at a

decent price at Macy's.

I imagine a huge floor mirror, a couple side chairs, a thrift store find TV stand that I can paint, some small side tables and a couple lamps. Oh, can't wait!

We're Home!

We finally made it back to Orlando! On Friday we were supposed to get 2 inches of snow in Waynesville. Ended up being about 12 inches. We were supposed to leave Saturday morning but with our cars stuck and the 1/2 mile driveway iced over we had come to terms with staying until it was safe to drive again (possibly Tuesday). Fortunately we were able to hire a snow plower to plow the driveway and we all got out about 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Driving down the icy mountain was definitely the scariest drive of my life. I'm a FIRM believer in guard rails! Of course there were not any where we were driving. But we made it out alive and we're back in not-so-sunny Florida.

We had to leave my car

at the end of the driveway.

Rear wheel drive and slick

roads don't get along.

This was about 2pm Friday.

Saturday at 10:30. We went back

down the drive to find the snow plow

guy and check on our cars.

The in law's car slid off the road

on Friday. That's when we

figured out we had a real problem.

Saturday we found my car a bit snowy.

Thank you for whoever

left the orange cone.

It's good to be home and good luck to all those suffering through this winter storm.

Moments In Nature

Have you ever had one of those moments that God becomes so very real to you? For me, this normally happens when I'm experiencing something in nature. During this vacation to North Carolina, I've been lucky enough to have two of those moments. Both times were early in the morning when the house was still quiet and I was all by myself. And I was lucky enough to catch them on my phone so I can relive them over and over again.

The first moment was our first morning in the cabin. The clouds and fog were moving together, so not only was the view of the valley breath taking, but so was nature moving through it.

The second moment was this morning. It had snowed all night and this was our view. Same valley as the video, but completely breath taking for a different reason.

Our Cabin

Happy New Year!!! After spending a quiet night ringing in the New Year, Jordan and I woke up at the before-crack-of-dawn on Saturday and started making our way to NC. We are up here in Waynesville for the week with his parents, brothers, and sister-in-law. This is our 3rd Pitts' Family Vacation in the Smoky Mountains, but you'll understand why shortly.

I found this cabin a couple months ago while reading through some blogs and new I had to visit. I've never really been into the log cabin look, so I thought it was really interesting when I saw this one was completely out of the norm. And, why yes, I did base this whole vacation solely on the decor of one cabin.... does that make me sound crazy? Lucky enough, it's also in a great location. About 30 minutes from Asheville and a couple exits from Maggie Valley. Anyway, here are some pictures so you'll understand why I had to come here.

The living and dining room

Camera paraphernalia already littering the cabin.

Ironic I just painted my kitchen green

and have these exact shelves and drawer pulls?

The master bedroom with a

super comfy bed and down pillows

All the furniture in the cabin is painted.

Have I ever mentioned my love for painted furniture?

Love it.

Master bath and three key words:

claw foot tub

The staircase down to the second floor.

The attention to detail is what has

my heart going aflutter.

The family room downstairs has

the TV in it and a perfect cross-stitch chair.

Fireplace number 2!

Second Bathroom

The second bedroom/newlywed room

with 2 bunk beds.

Thanks Adam and Abby for being troopers!

Each bed has it's own

gymnasium style caged light

The back of the house. There is a deck with a hot tub

overlooking the valley.

And the VIEW! Holy smokes the view!

Somehow we didn't get any pictures of the third bedroom or bathroom but I'll try to get some before we leave. So far I've been very satisfied with everything about this cabin (besides the lack of cell phone service). The beds are comfortable, the kitchen is well stocked, the two different living spaces (not having a TV on the main floor makes for a very peaceful vacation), and close proximity to a Walmart (Yes I used the "w" word, but it comes in handy on vacay). Oh, and did I mention my love for the decor?! Attention to detail is where it's at. When I grow up and become a real decorator, I hope to be half as creative as whoever did this place.

Fear

My husband is one of the trendiest guys I know. I have no problem going to him and asking for advice on an outfit or how to decorate the dining room table. He has an amazing eye for placement and spacing, much better than myself. So when he dyed his hair red (pink) you can imagine my shock. He said he wanted to do it before we have kids and he wanted to put himself "out there". OK. Cool. I went through my period of piercings and it was a fun stage. Everyone has their thing they like to do to be a little out there. My husband chose red (pink) hair.

Tuesday: Jordan, "I'm going to get my hair cut." Mary, "See ya soon!"

2 hours later: Mary, "OMG.... OMG." Jordan, "What?" Mary, "OMG OMG OMG"

My husband has a red (pink) mohawk. And no, I don't mean fauxhawk. So I came down pretty hard on the WTH were you thinking attitude. I was slightly over the "this is your thing" to say the least.

Then tonight, as we lay in bed and have those precious discussions in the dark, I understand. He is shoving himself into discomfort to get over fear. How brave. How admirable. He saw a fear, an uncomfortable situation, and he took it on head first (no pun intended). How amazing. I wish I was more like that.

Kitchen Reveal!

Wahoo! The kitchen is done. DONE. D-O-N-E. And I am loving it! Absolutely, completely loving it. So much so that I actually want to keep it clean. And my extra deep kitchen sink helps with that by hiding the dirty dishes. The final piece of the project was the back splash, and it brings everything together! I love it when a design project comes together so well. Since I was buying all my fixtures/finishes independently from each other, I wasn't quiet sure how it would turn out once everything was in one room. Yep, I impressed myself this time. And here are the pictures.

Lets not forget the before.

White formica counter tops from hell and

pickled oak cabinets.

And the after!

I painted the cabinets

Dried Thyme from Sherwin-Williams.

The tile back splash is from Overstock.com

It's lantern mosaic tile in a soft white.

Update: The link to the back splash.

The granite is from a local company.

We saved about $900 by going with this

granite since it was on sale and sold by the square foot,

not by the slab.

We were fortunate enough to already have nice appliances

that we had bought 2 years ago when we moved in.

I love the silver and white together.

I will probably change out the outlet covers

to silver also.

The door pulls and knobs are from Home Depot.

I was SO nervous about painting these cabinets.

I didn't want them to look painted,

but the finish turned out perfect.

We are getting ready to go out of town, so I haven't had a chance to write recently. But when I find minute I will be posting the step by step process I used to paint these cabinets. I had been weary of painting them, I was so afraid they would end up with brush strokes, but it turned out to be a lot easier, and prettier, than I expected. Point being, you don't have to live with ugly cabinets OR spend tens of thousands of dollars on new ones.

UPDATE: Here is the link for the tutorial on how I painted the cabinets.

Linking up: Jennifer Rizzo, who also has an amazing kitchen transformation