Favorite Kitchen "Looks"

To anyone who wants to help me with decorating our house (when it's built), you can see the style of kitchen I want by clicking the link below. Obviously, ours won't be as big or as grand. I mainly like the black and white simplicity of this kitchen. The stove and sink are a bit overkill for me.

My Favorite Kitchen Design

Andrew and I saw this kitchen while watching Designer's Challenge the other day. Actually, Andrew was watching and I caught the tail end of the show. They also had a hardwood floor! I would probably add more red color accents but this is the look that I want. Thought I would share! I would appreciate any tips and ideas from my creative friends and family as we gather ideas.

House Building Update

We are in the process of being pre-approved for a construction loan through IndyMac Bank. The specialize in working with UBuildIt, the company that will help us build our house. They have a pretty good program with their loans including things such as unlimited draws (once every two weeks) and online draws. We should know tomorrow sometime, our pre-approval amount. Our next step is to get our house plans to UBuildIt so he can figure up all of the specifications for the house and how much the whole thing will cost to build. That's where we are at right now. We're moving forward with things but I don't feel as rushed as I did before.

I am still trying to make a decision about whether or not to keep on with the May Festival Chorus after the year ends in May. I am enjoying my time in the choir, while I'm there, but the time committment and the drive down there is enough to make me consider quitting. I also want to get more involved with our church and to be able to do other things to help Andrew out with his Master's. I also really want to start teaching voice lessons again to keep that up but I can't do both as well as everything else I am doing. I know that I have a long time to make my decision (several months) but I would appreciate advice and prayers about this matter.

Family Sacrifices

Last night I attended Andrew's cousin's high school musical. It was very good. It made me reflect about when I was in high school. I got to thinking about all of the things that my family provided for me over the years. Let me explain. My family didn't spend large sums of money on vacations for themselves, eating out, brand new "things," clothes, etc. But when it came down to getting something for one of us that they felt was important, like senior pictures, college, weddings, etc, they weren't afraid to spend a little extra for something quality. I just realized last night how much I appreciated that through the years. This quality definitely carried over into the wedding that they provided for us. They never once complained about how much money it cost and a lot of times they wouldn't share how much sometime cost, just so I wouldn't feel guilty. Everything in the wedding was beautiful and well done, just because my family was willing to foot the bill, even though it wasn't something for themselves. I just wanted to blog and say how much I appreciate the sacrifices made by my parents and grandparents so that we (my sibilings and I) could have quality things at important times in our lives. Thank you, family! I love you very much!

So Funny!

One of the perks in my job is seeing all the kids in the preschool come by every day. I don't know many of them yet but today I had a little boy come into my office and said "Excuse me, can I have Kleenex?" After I gave him one he said, "I am a little sick. I have lots of buggers." Oh my, I laughed very hard. The preschool director is gone today so I have all the naughty kids in here. Right now I have a girl in my office who is in trouble for pushing a scooter into other boys head. Oh my!

On Being Loved

I just have to make mention of a wonderful thing in my life . . . job appreciation. This doesn't mean that I wasn't appreciated in my work at Sterling but the effort these people at King of King's Lutheran Church put into appreciating me is quite amazing! I usually get a few calls a week from members just calling to tell me what a great job I am doing and about all the good things they have heard about me. I have received homemade cookies, cupcakes, invitations to lunches (twice), a beautiful plant for my office, a journal, cards, many hugs, and offers of office help from these people. Also a few days ago, a person who I thought didn't care for me much because of their cold attitude to me, said out of the blue how happy they were that I was hired for the position! I am truly blessed to work here and I am truly enjoying it!

UBuildIt

Our meeting went very well yesterday. I had spent some time "researching" UBuildIt on the internet and was impressed by the meeting and by the information that I found. It is a very detailed system and all of the costs are looked at upfront, so there aren't any surprises, or very few anyway. We are now in the process of getting pre-approved for a construction loan. Once that happens, we will give our plans to the UBuildIt (hard to type that name) and they will lay out all of the specifications of the project to see if we can afford it. That's where we are right now. I will continue to update.

House Plan

I have had several requests for me to post our favorite house plans again. Click on the following link and then click on House Plan 1. That is our favorite. We are going to take that plan to UBuildIt today to see if we can afford it. If we can't then I will post our second favorite.

http://jaimeschechter.blogspot.com/2006/02/house-plans-part-ii.html then click on House Plan 1. We will make it a side entry garage and the area with Washer/Dryer will be made bigger by using the garage storage area inside but washer and dryer will still be kept on the main level.

President's Day!

I'm really not sure why I had to work today. There is no preschool at the church today so it is VERY slow. I am here with the facility manager and the pastor. That is it! The lights are even still off in most of the building, except my office. Luckily, because it is Monday, I do have lots to do with the attendance from Sunday. I could have done it tomorrow! :)

We have a meeting with the U Build It people today at 4:00 p.m. I am excited to get things underway and see if we can afford the house we want. We went out and walked around on our land again yesterday. Dewey had a good time running around and getting his paws muddy! :) There is a nice fence around the property. We just had to watch him when he got near the front of the property. There is no fence there. I think I have picked out a spot for my garden. I hope to put in a few things this spring, even though our house will still be under construction then. I have some good landscaping ideas but those will probably have to wait until construction is finished. I have a feeling things will be trampled! Andrew's dad is planning on coming with us to the meeting. I'm glad. He has lots of experience building houses!

I have been losing things lately (not weight! Ha Ha). I couldn't find my book club book this morning and I have had a hard time remembering to mail things. Nothing that important but it is frustrating to me. I was wondering why I was feeling so displaced and disorganized. Oh yeah, half of my stuff is stored out in the big red barn! That's why! I felt better about being a little disorganized (we still know which box things are in, the trick is finding that box number) since we are still technically in the process of moving!

I will update tomorrow with details from our meeting today! Reminder: I love comments! :)

Any Who!

The other day, I was looking at commonly mispronounced words on the internet. The reason I was doing this is another story that I won't share here. Anyway, it was highly amusing. Let me share. If you wish to read the whole list you can go to www. yourdictionary.com. Here are a few that I thought were very common. Even though the word on the left may be a real word or saying the correct ones are located on the right for the purpose of this website. The ones on the right are the commonly mispronounced but correct words.

calvary/cavalry
card shark/card sharp
close/clothes
dialate/dilate
diptheria/diphtheria (pronounced with an f)
excetera/et cetera
Febyuary/February (I know I say this wrong)
foilage/foliage
For all intesive purposes/For all intents and purposes
heighth/height (not the same at width)
'erb/herb
irregardless/regardless
larnyx/larynx
mannaise/mayonnaise
miniture/miniature
nucular/nuclear
ofen/often

Enjoy and happy pronouncing! :)

My Valentine!

I woke up this morning expecting Andrew to have forgotten Valentine's Day. His actual gift to me is going to be a dinner theatre trip next week so I wasn't expecting anything on the actual day. He surprised me very much with a wonderful card and a love note during my breakfast. He went out and started my car for me this morning. When I got out to my car to leave for work, I saw a second card and love note! He did very well!! :)

Strange Things and Positive Things!

I have been noticing strange things lately, like the weather. January felt like March or April and now we are being hit by some very weird weather. While driving back from downtown yesterday we would hit patches of heavy snow followed by blue sky and sunlight. This happened several times. Today, it snowed for a good hour when I got here this morning and then by lunch the sun was out and the snow has all melted. I guess it is just in Kansas where it snows, sticks around for several days, and gradually melts. Ohio is weird! :)

Someone I work with is also weird. I won't mention who, but you can ask me later. This person will say very random comments in the middle of something I am trying to explain. His comments have nothing to do with the matter at hand. At first, I was a bit perplexed by this. Now, it just makes me laugh. This person also will interrupt even if I am explaining something serious. I don't believe they mean to be rude but well . . . I can't explain it! It's just weird!! (good thing I know how to spell weird, huh?!)
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My husband has been pointing out lately (sometimes in a nice way and others not - but that's ok) that I have developed a very negative attitude. This is true. I realize it and really want to make a change. So, whenever something annoys me or makes me sad, I am going to try and just look for the good in that and concentrate on it. I was encouraged and inspired back in Kansas, at a women's retreat I attended. The pastor's wife was speaking and she told a story about how her husband (the Pastor) would set his alarm for an early hour (think she said 5) but would then hit the snooze button for over an hour. She, however, would wake up with the first alarm. Instead of getting mad and grumbling at her husband, she instead began to use that time to pray! It made a difference in her life. I believe there is good in every situation if we just look hard enough. I realize this may be difficult but if I just start small and make little adjustments, I think it could really change my outlook on many things. I will have to share Andrew's "weightloss solution for Jaime" some day. It's pretty good, I thought!

Cupcakes

I've been thinking a lot about cupcakes lately and how they should be concentrating on their grades!

Saturday

A few requests have been made for another post from me. I'm not sure why I am writing this now, as I really don't have much to say. Today, I slept in (which was very nice), visited Andrew's grandpa in the hospital, wandered around on our new land for a while, watched some olympics, make homemade chili (which I enjoyed), and went next door to my in-law's house to watch more Olympics. I now am going to work on my music for tomorrow's concert.

Really, if I am honest, I don't really like Saturday's. I like to look forward to them, and I like them if I have sometime planned but most of the time they make me feel lousy. Just a day to lay around and not get anything accomplished. Next Saturday I will have to plan sometime to do for the day so I won't feel like I was a bum all day. I'd better get to work on laundry.

We own land!

We officially own our two acre piece of land as of 11:00 a.m. today. I am excited in a way but I am also sobered by the amount of debt we are facing now! I really feel like this was God's leading. Things just worked out so smoothly! Anyway, we will probably go take some pictures tonight so I will possibly post them here. If you want to send us mail, our address is 4862 Maud Hughes Road, Liberty Twp, OH 45044. We don't have a mailbox yet but we will soon!

Land and other such things!

We are closing on our land tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. We will then begin cleaning it up as there is some old tires and scraps of metal still left on the land from where the previous owner tore down an old house. It will be fun to go out there and play around!

I have been exercising a lot lately. I'm quite pleased with how I have been doing. I have done Pilates a few times this week and I even got up early this morning and got in a 20 minute pilates workout. I was a little late getting ready and didn't have time to make Andrew's lunch so I will have to get up just a bit early if I am going to continue this. I did another workout video last night.

I need to practice for May Festival Chorus a bit tonight. We have our first concert on Sunday and I have only sung through all of the pieces once. The choir sang some last year and so there are others more familiar with it than me.

House Plans Part II

Thanks, Linda and Melanie for your comments! I LOVE comments and I agree with you completely. When Andrew said that he liked that plan the best, I was a little disappointed that it wouldn't have an upstairs but I did like the idea of the dormer windows bringing lots of light into the family room. We are now considering two other options as well. One of them is our favorite, absolutely #1 plan. It is, however, a bit too big for us right now. The second one is significantly smaller. We really want to do what God wants us to for this house. Our dilemma lies in the fact that we are sort of limited in our ability to house needy people (which we both feel called to do, whether it be adoption or just a needy family) if we build the smaller house. I really don't want to build the bigger house just to be selfish. If we are able to afford that one when I really want to use it for a bigger purpose than just a place to live and accumulate stuff, if you know what I mean. I'm not sure that I am making myself clear in this post about how much I really just want to do what is God's will! Even if it means a tiny house, I am fine with that. Ok, here are the links to two more house plans.

This is the plan that is a bit too big for us right now, especially if we finished the upstairs. We would have a side entry garage, and a railing on the porch: House Plan 1

This is the sensible and economical house plan that we like:We would add a two car garage to this plan. House Plan 2

Let me know what you think! I am so glad that we have a while before we have to decide.

House Plans

See the link below to view our (Andrew's) favorite house plan. I have others that I like better, that have all features that I like but they are too big for us to build right now and stay within our budget limit. We probably won't be putting up a wall to that smaller bedroom (I would say knock out the wall, but hopefully we just won't put it up in the first place) and make the dining/living area bigger. We will have two bedrooms to start out with and then add one in the basement and start to finish it when we need more room! The whole plan will probably be mirrored to adjust to the sun/wind/rain factor on our property. Andrew also thinks this plan is easily add-on-able but I'm not so sure. I think it would look funny. I do ADORE the outside of the house! It is so cute and I can imagine us enjoying the view from the front porch. Enjoy looking at it and PLEASE let me know what you think. I am open to ALL suggestions because you know how much I LOVE comments! :)

http://www.houseplans.com/plan_details.asp?id=12732&st=10

Beautiful People!

In my time in Ohio I have noticed a very funny thing about people. I have been wondering when I might make some friends. What I didn't notice was that I already had. They just weren't like my friends in Sterling (meaning, 20 somethings single, or young married couples). Another things that I have noticed is that people who aren't as good looking as society thinks they should be, sometimes make the nicest friends. I won't mention names or specifics but one lady that I have met is just the sweetest person ever. She isn't good looking by the world's standards (overweight, facial hair, etc). She asks about my life and watches out for me. She isn't attractive or someone of high importance but my life has been made better through the brief interaction we have had. She is the person that I wish I were like, not the skinny blonde, with whom I have contact, who is consistently rude and doesn't have time to even say hello. So, why do I, as a woman, spend so much time pursuing outward beauty, because in my experience that is NOT at all what counts! I realize that this may be a bit of a deep subject for this early in the morning and that I just may be slow in this discovery. Some of the most beautiful people I know are ugly by the world's standards.

Compromising

We are in the process of picking out a house plan to build later on this year. This has turned a formerly fun task into somewhat of a tedious one! Part of the problem is the organization of over 100 house plans. I will start to work on that tonight, if I have time. I am attending Andrew's cousins shower tonight. Andrew and I like different things in our house plans. I tend to like house plans with 1) porches, 2) nice Master bathrooms, 3) secluded Master bedrooms, 3) kitchens with islands, 4) the potential to expand the house in the future, meaning expandable upstairs, basement, or the ease of an addition. We are also limited by funds. I would like a 2,000 square foot house but pretending we are just living on Andrew's salary means that we can only afford about 1300 square feet. Andrew has picked out a house plan that he thinks is the one. I guess that I just expected to see a house plan and say "that's it." Kind of like the feeling when you find the perfect wedding dress. This house plan is definitely acceptable. My only qualms with it include the layout of the house and the lack of a second story. Looking at what we have lived in so far, I guess I shouldn't be so picky.