DIY Tuesday - The Microwave Project

Ok, this DIY project actually started a few weeks ago, and was finished last week, but after finishing it, I was just too tired to post about it! Kyle was kind of upset though that it wasn't up, so here we go.

It started when our built in to the wall microwave went out. Seeing as how we are still a little on the poor side, we did NOT have the $600 it would take to replace the microwave and the trim around the microwave. After many measurements and a lot of swearing at the old microwave, the project began! We went to Target first, and purchased a microwave for $80. Then, it was off to Lowe's! We purchased some wall moulding, nails, and then got to work! We installed the microwave, installed the moulding, spackled, caulked, sanded, and painted, and when we were done, we had a beautiful custom trimmed microwave! I'm pretty pround of this one. Here's some pictures from the project:

Church Entreprenuers

I had this thought awhile back, and I'm finally getting around to posting something about it. As most of you know, Kyle and I are members at St. Peter Lutheran, which is a church plant from another Lutheran church in the Metroplex. (I guess most of you know, I don't know who all reads this thing. So on a completely different note, if you read my blog, holla!)

As we were dropping off the trailer one Sunday afternoon (as must be done every Saturday and Sunday, load up, drop off, reload, drop again), I started to notice something. The guy pulling the big trailer owned a landscaping business. I own a Mary Kay business. Kyle does not own his business, but has in the past, and is in the position where he has to go out and find his business. Then I thought about others in our church: a general contractor, a barber getting ready to own his own shop, the owner of a funeral home, a vet with his own practice, a jewelry repair man with his own store, a couple that owns their own CHL licensing classes, multiple realtors, and some that own their own home cleaning business.

Entrepreneurs have a different outlook on life. There is no "traditional" family schedule in an entrepreneurial family. You work until you're done, you carve out family time, but it may not be at the 6pm dinner time when most families eat, you stay up late and you get up early. You are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, because it's up to you to make it happen!

So what does this have to do with St. Peter?

I started to realize that a church plant is a lot like owning your own business. You start from just a simple idea, get others on board, and launch into it. You continue to do things most established "businesses" don't have to do (like setting up and tearing down your church each week), and your hours just aren't like "normal" people. (Again, like setting up and tearing down each week.) And isn't it funny that a church which requires so much extra care in these early stages is filled with entrepreneurs! I think it's something we're comfortable with - sure we complain about the extra steps sometimes, but in the end, we're willing to do what it takes to make our church succeed.

On September 11th, St. Peter closed on our own piece of property, and are preparing to build our very first building! I have to say, I'm pretty excited, as is everyone else in the church. This is an entrepreneur's dream - God has called us to it, blessed our mission, and it is coming to fruition!

So here's to the entrepreneurs, both in church, and in our own daily callings.

DIY Tuesday NOT brought to you by T Mobile

I spent 3 hours on the phone tonight with T Mobile, therefore, no crafty time. Here's the deal. Our cell phone contracts are up, so we wanted to switch to AT&T, get some fab new iPhones, and have things that will work better for both of our businesses. Here's the catch. We have a home phone. Through T Mobile. And apparently, you can't have the home phone without the cell phone. Wrong? Yes. Horribly. So after yelling at 4 different people, repeating myself 9 thousand times, and being absolutely irritated at T Mobile, the only option they gave me is to transfer our plan to someone else who could use it.

It sounded crazy, but after posting it on facebook, I already had some interest, so who knows? On my wall in my office I have a wall thingy that says, "I will find a way, or I will make one." I don't like giving up, and I don't like not getting what I want, especially when I know it will be an improvement!!

So, here's hoping...and hopefully next week I can be back to my crafty self.

DIY Tuesday - Fall Necklace

With Fall comes the inevitable - football. At my house it is not an option, and since we only have one tv (by choice!) there's not really an option of anything else! So last Saturday, as the Baylor Bears kicked off their first game, Kyle and his buddy Ryan settled in for some (loud) game watching. Now Ryan's wife Steffi and I, both Baylor grads as well, love our Bears, but are bored out of our minds watching the thing on tv.

So, with the guys focused on the game, we headed off to Michael's for some crafty things. 2 hours and a bottle of wine later, and we had some lovely necklaces for fall! Here's mine:


Now I'm definitely keeping one of these for me because I absolutely adore the colors and the way they go together, but I am listing them for sale at my online store bellecreek.etsy.com.

By the way, the Bears won! Sic' Em!

DIY Tuesday - Peach Jelly

I've decided to start a new weekly thing - DIY Tuesdays. Now that I'm not the only income coming in, I can take a little bit of time to go back to my country roots, where we like to make stuff by hand. :) Many of you already know I have a little store called Belle Creek Village (bellecreek.etsy.com) where I make jewelry and baby gifts and things, so some of those things will be on here, too.

Today I decided to try something totally new (to me!) and make some peach jelly! The peaches came from my Mom and Dad's farm in central Texas. I got the recipe online (I know, really exciting!), and oh my GOSH, it turned out fantastic!! It was so good I wanted to take a bath on it. Here's the formation of my jelly:

The finished product:

And our taste test!
Now let's see what else I could turn into jelly...

Brown Hair and Onions

My life should be a movie. Seriously, some of the things that happen to me are just plain ridiculous! Yesterday, for instance.

I work from home most days, so sometimes my schedule is a little funky. Kyle gets home yesterday afternoon, and I'm standing in the kitchen in my leopard print pajama pants and nothing else. I had decided to make my hair a nice light brown shade, getting ready for fall, when I'll go to my usual red. So there was hair dye all over my head, and leopard pjs. Got that nice funny mental picture?

I decided to get a head start on dinner while my hair was "dying." I thawed the meat, got out the vegetables, and started cutting. *Slice* I cut through the onions - and right through to my finger. And I cut it pretty good, too. So now I'm standing in the kitchen, leopard pj pants, hair dye on head, bleeding profusely from my finger.

This happened 2 minutes before the hair dye was supposed to come out.

By the time I had slowed the bleeding enough to get a bandaid on my finger, it had been 15 minutes past when I was supposed to wash my hair out. 15 extra minutes of the color on my head.

I'm now a dark brown brunette, and Kyle finished the onions.

I broke my WHAT?

This post was going to be all about Kyle's new job. But we'll get to that in a minute.

So I was rearended last Monday. Yes, add it to the list of the zillions of wrecks that I've had. It was rainy and gross, and she tried to stop and squealed all the way into the back of my car. Car, not so bad. Me, not so good.

I went to the doc on Friday after having a week of back pain. After some x-rays and lots of paperwork, he popped the films up on the little light. "Um, Michelle? Do you have more pain in the middle of your back?" "Yeah." "You have a chipped vertebrae." "What does that mean?" "You have a broken bone in your back."

Excuse me? I broke my what?

Now this will heal just fine, but for the next 8 weeks I am not allowed to lift anything over 10lbs, and this will be followed by lots of PT and dealing with insurance and such. Blah. My friend Brian is trying to get me to call Jim Adler...seriously though, you should hear his impression. It's pretty good.

But back to Kyle - today was his first day at Smith Barney! He is now a financial advisor, is rockin' a suit everyday to work (love it), and works only 5 minutes from the house. What a blessing! We're super excited, and he loved his first day of work! We're just so excited to have 2 incomes again!

Thanks to everyone that prayed and helped us out during these long 6 months! We love you!