July with the Shipleys

Our busy summer is moving along quite nicely, and next week we leave for a week in South Carolina. Oh, and we might go to my brother's wedding while we're out there. :) I'm pretty excited about it!

Back on the home front, Mike and I both have changes in our careers ahead. Today, I started a new job with the City's IT department. It will be a permanent part-time position as admin assistant, so wish me luck with that! I'm just glad I held out long enough to get something permanent, 20 hours a week, and still with the City! And so far, everyone in IT has been just as nice as HR. Always good to make friends with HR first, I say. :)

As for Mike, he is transitioning from working for a Johnstone franchise store to working directly for the Johnstone corporate office, which is also something he's been holding out for. He will most likely start his new position (with better pay and much better benefits!!) after we get back from our vacation. Yeah Mike! Patience has really been paying off for us lately.

We have also been getting more involved with our church's junior/high school youth group, although we are taking it very slow. We got burned pretty badly at our last church in Florida after trying to get involved, so we're testing the waters now after being at our current church for almost 1 1/2 years. We've been trying to get to know the kids better, and I was a chaperone on one overnighter during youth camp. Mike is going to teach a lesson this Wednesday during youth group. Thankfully, we are becoming very good friends with the current youth leaders, so we don't feel alone!

All this added with the gorgeous weather, and what more could a girl ask for? :)

My project of the week

Last Monday I woke up, went out to the kitchen, looked at the gross yellow walls and decided I'd had enough! No longer would I be subjecting myself to someone else's bad taste in paint color. And I don't care if we haven't started remodeling, I am painting over these awful, dirty mustard walls!

And what's most surprising is... I actually did it! It's not often in my life that I decide to do something and actually follow through, so this is a very proud moment for me. :) You can pat me on the back next time you see me.

Here's a picture I took right after we bought the place, but before we moved in. This picture doesn't do the walls justice, because in reality they were smudged in various places with a gross, black dirt/grime/who-knows-what.

The yellow paint also extended behind the countertop on the left to a large dining room area (which I use as my office and dog jail). So although what you see here might make it look like a simple job, it actually took about 3 days of cleaning, painting, and touch ups before all the yellow was covered up.

And here's the outcome -- a much nicer, more mellow, calming blue (which I matched to our dishes). I realize all my stuff on the counters probably makes the kitchen look more dirty than when it was yellow, but trust me, in person this is a much better look. Yay me!

Hello Summer!

Mike and I are knee-deep right now in a couple of projects - me in painting the kitchen (no more mustard yellow, hooray!), and Mike with refinishing the front of the shed. So although I don't have time to fill you in on our exciting trip to the dog park last weekend, or our first adventure with getting the dogs groomed, just thought you'd like to know that we are busy, happy, and looking forward to a great summer! (with many blogs, hopefully :p)

Seabrook

We were able to spend a few days this weekend with my family at Seabrook, a newer vacation town on the coast just north of Ocean Shores. It was great! My brother, Eric, brought his fiance, Erica, (yes, that's right) from South Carolina so we could all get to know her better before their big day July 19th. It was a fabulous time, and I highly recommend Seabrook to anyone looking to vacation on the Washington coast.

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery power within the first hour of being there, so I didn't get many pictures. Hopefully, my wonderful sister-in-law, Nancy, and her wonderful camera will be able to lend me some. :)

Here's cute Kelly in her gangsta hat (which I think was my dad's), getting ready for a ride to the beach!

All around the neighborhood of houses were these old, yellow bikes, which you could pick up and ride anytime. It was pretty fun the first day, when the weather was nice enough to actually ride them!

Here's a pic of some of the gorgeous houses in the neighborhood (with Eric and Erica walking on the street). They are all new houses, but built to look old-fashioned. It's very pretty!

And here's a pic of us... the Shipsters. Hopefully I can post more pics of us with Eric, Erica, Scott and Nancy soon!

Life's little pick-me-ups

Last week, I had to deal with an incredibly annoying and time-consuming problem with the property taxes on our new house (in which the previous owner's mortgage company really messed things up... again!). This wasn't the first paperwork problem to pop up with this house, and sometimes all these issues made me regret ever buying this house. Add all these administrative issues to the long list of improvements that this house needs, and it can really make me start to feel hopeless.

But thankfully, God puts little pick-me-ups in our lives when the minor details start to frustrate us. For me, this was the arrival of some gorgeous roses in front of our house. I was told these were in fact rose bushes a few months ago, but at the time I was so bitter towards the condition of our place, I was sure they were dead and would just have to be ripped out. But God is good and gave me roses, and they make me smile every time I walk up to the front door.

This is the rose bush growing right outside our front door.

And here are the pink roses growing outside our guest bedroom window. I just hope I don't accidentally kill them off, like I do with every other plant I've tried to care for!

Remodeling

Last month we worked really hard on getting some much needed updates done to the house before Mike's brother and sister-in-law came to visit. With all the excitement, I forgot to post some before and after pics!

Bathroom
The bathroom still needs to be decorated, but we are trying for a sunken treasure theme. Eventually we will deck it out with treasure maps on the walls, some fake gold coins, and maybe some spooky lighting. The possibilities are endless!



When we moved in, the walls were an awful green and the countertops matched in awfulness.

















We painted the walls blue, put up a sailboat border, painted the bottom brown with sponging, and replaced the hardware on the drawers. Then we had someone install new countertops and sinks for us.














Here's a closeup shot of the sink before the udpating (but after we painted).













And here it is after, complete with a few accessories we found at Goodwill. Much better, yes?











I wish I would have taken a picture of the old light fixture above the sink. I suspect it was installed when the house was built in 1976.

But anyway, here's what Mike installed in place of the old junky light fixture. I think it complements our theme nicely.








Here's a shot of the opposite wall.













Doors
The old, gross brown doors in this house were really driving me crazy. We painted all the trim white as soon as we moved in, so we've been ready for some new doors for a long time. Thankfully, the guy who did our carpet and bathroom fixtures also put in new doors for us for a great deal.




Here's the best place to illustrate our door problem - the hallway. All I can say is yuck.















Now this picture includes the new carpet, new light fixtures (that Mike installed), and our new doors. Pretty!

Recipe of the Month - Shredded Taco Chicken

Looks like I've been doing a terrible job at my monthly recipe postings. Anyway, here's one I've been wanting to post for a while. Enjoy!

Super Easy Shredded Taco Chicken

You need:
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 crock pot

You do:
1) Put chicken in crock pot. I use frozen chicken all the time, and it turns out great.
2) Combine broth and taco seasoning and pour over chicken.
3) Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
4) Remove cover and using two forks, shred chicken in the crock pot.
5) Stir shredded chicken with the remaining juices and replace lid. Let sit in warm crock pot until ready to use.

This chicken is perfect in enchiladas. You can also add chopped white onion, green peppers or chilis to add some extra flavor. Also great over nachos. It's so easy and requires minimal prep time.