Sitting on my Back Porch

It's a beautiful Saturday morning and I'm sitting out on my newly remodeled back porch drinking a cup of coffee. The caffeine hasn't quite kicked in yet, so words are coming a little slowly at this point - and myt yping isn't toog ood, either. ;-) But I'm excited because it's so nice out here now and I thought I'd share a few pictures of what Jack and I were doing this time LAST weekend! He thought I should do a 'How-To' video and post it - haha. I'm not sure I would claim enough competence to do any such thing! Let's just say I'm happy with how things turned out, but now that I've done it, I've learned a LOT about how I might do things differently next time. SO, if you're contemplating a concrete staining project in your future, let me know. I'll share all my mistakes with you so that you don't have to repeat them. :D


We wanted to do an acid etch concrete stain on the back porch. After a bit of investigating, we decided on this stuff from Lowes: Quikrete Etching Stain and Etching Stain High Gloss Sealer. It only comes in 3 colors - tan, olive, and coffee - and we chose the tan because it was the lightest of the 3 colors. And even at that, it still came out pretty dark. Of course, a lot about the final color depends on the concrete that you are working with. I started out this whole thing by pressure washing the back porch - but even after that, I had a lot of 'red clay' stains that just wouldn't come out... so I think that my have something to do with the 'reddish' color that we ended up with. But the Quikrete says that it will give you an 'oldworld marbled look' to your concrete -- and it definitely does that.

Anyways, here is where we stared things last Saturday morning. We wanted to cut a pattern into the concrete to make it look tiled, so Jack cut 3 ft. diamonds into the concrete with his circular saw - pretty cool. LOTS of dust and noise!!

Next was vacuuming up all the concrete dust and taping off all the exposed surfaces that we didn't want to get stain on. I don't know what it is about having to do this step in things, but it always seems so tedious. I wanted to skip it (lazy!) -- but found out that would have been a very bad idea! Even with all the covering, we got stain on the siding in a couple of places...

After the taping, you have to clean the concrete with this stuff called TSP. I have no idea what that stands for. :-) But it cleans and etches the concrete and prepares it for the stain. All I know is that I had to use a scrub brush and scrub down the whole back porch... and that was tiring and hard on the back!

You have to let the concrete dry for 4 hours after the TSP, so it was almost dark when we finally got to putting the stain on the concrete. And it WAS dark by the time we finished and took a picture! By the way, the staining was really a two-person process. You have to lightly wet down the contrete just before you put the stain on... so I was running just in front of Jack with a hose spraying down the concrete while he went behind me spraying on the stain... and by the way, I wore long pants and a long sleeve shirt and rubber gloves, etc... and STILL got stain on my elbow and shin... ???? That takes a little while to wear off. ;-)


This is how it looked the next morning after the stain had dried and begun to set.


So that was Sunday morning -- later in the day, came the least fun part of all of this. You have to wash the 'etching residue' off the concrete. Now, if I had done this right the first time, it may not have taken 3 'washings' to do this -- but it definitely would have at least taken 2. You have to mix a bucket of baking soda and water and pour it on small sections of the concrete, scrub it with a brush to get the residue off, and then quickly suck it up with a wet/dry vacuum before the dirty water dries back on the concrete. (The first time I did this, I missed the part about getting the water up quickly - so I scrubbed the whole porch and THEN went back over it with the vacuum... but too much of the water, and residue, had already dried back onto the concrete... sigh) Anyways, I did that whole process once on Sunday night and then twice on Monday morning... and at that point decided that it was done, regardless of whether there was any residue left or not!! ha

Well, then you have to wait 24 hours before you can apply the Etching Stain Topcoat... so I'm into Tuesday morning by now and I had this small little window of time at lunch that day to get that done before about 20 girls showed up for the 'Princess Party' at my house that afternoon. The plan all along had been to finish this project over the weekend -- but as with most great plans, it took little longer that that! ;-) Anyways, the topcoating wasn't too bad -- you put that on with a brush and roller - and it looks really pretty when you're done. I enjoyed that part. :-) It's an epoxy sealer, so it makes the concrete look a little shiny and waterproofs it. And this is the finished product:

It was a couple of days later before I had time to move all the funiture back in and get a new rug and plant... but I think it all came out looking pretty nice. And it's SO peaceful and pleasant to sit out here now...

...and yes, Mandy is pretty excited because she thinks we did all of this for her. :-)

So, that's the saga of my porch makeover. :-) A good bit of work, but as I sit here this morning, it was well worth the effort. Now I just need to mow my back yard!! haha

6 Years Ago

This is just a quick post to note that 6 years ago today we moved back home to Huntsville from Boston. It's hard to believe that much time has passed and how much the girls have grown up since then! In thinking about it last night, Jack and I realized that this is the longest time we've lived in one place since we've been married! Pretty amazing. We're very glad to be back in the south and are thankful to be near family again. We also love the new friends we've made here, and I've had fun running across friends I grew up with. :-) ... But we miss all of our Boston friends, too!!

Note to self....

STOP volunteering for stuff. ;-)

Well, this cup just seemed appropriate for my coffee this morning as I contemplated my 2 1/2 hour meeting yesterday with our middle school band director and treasurer for the band parents association! Yikes! And it's still the middle of summer... ha. I think the scariest (is that a word?) part of that meeting was when the director asked if I was the new person that needed to be #1 on his speed dial now that I'm officially president. Oh dear... I guess I'm still not heeding the warning on this mug very well. But, it is good to be busy and I like to be invovled in the things that are important to my kids... so it'a all good. Just somebody please remind me of this post somewhere in, oh.... September, when I'm pulling my hair out.... :D

Only the Lonely

I mentioned in my last post that I've been listening to a series of sermons entitled "Only the Lonely." It was a series of 4 sermons that were done in a month at The Village Church in Texas. I wanted to post a link to them here and recommend them... I actually got more out of reading the PDF file of the sermons than I did out of listening to them. The man who is speaking does a good job, but he really gets going at times and runs pretty fast through stuff -- I just found that I had more time to think about what was actually being said and make sense of it when I just read it. But both the PDF and audio files are available and that's nice. So here's the link...

http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/sermons?type=sermons&page=2&match=any&kw=&topic=&sb=date&sd=desc

...and the sermons are dated in the month of June '06. The titles are: 1)The Pain of Lonliness 2) The Joy of the Hiding Place 3) The Jewel of the Wilderness and 4) The Hope of the Exile

There are many excerpts that I could post, but here's a short one from The Jewel of the Wilderness that I think sums up what all 4 of the sermons are about:

"...I'm here to talk about how God can make this ugly thing called loneliness into something beautiful, a pathway to Him. And tonight, I'm going to seek to define the wilderness as the following: “The wilderness is that season of our lives where God, through our loneliness, teaches us that His will is to do something in us, not merely do something for us. That is, by walking by faith and not by sight, He works in us a stronger faith, leading to a deeper worship that results in a greater joy.”

The man who is preaching these sermons talks up front about how he felt as if he had been in a 'season of lonliness' for several months and that these sermons are basically about what he learned during that time. I guess that got my attention, because I feel like that is pretty much where I'm at right now -- and this definition of 'the wilderness' actually gave me some hope that there really is purpose in what's going on in my life at the moment. If I just listen to my emotions, it can feel like a pretty bad place -- but, these kinds of sermons serve as reminders to my faith that God is always at work... one last quote:

"In the midst of the hiding place (or the wilderness), regardless of the reason why we as human beings choose to hide, there suddenly comes the realization that nothing, and I mean nothing, can separate us from the love of God. And we learn, in that moment, that we are not, by nature, seekers of God -- our great God is a seeker of lost sheep. God was the one who initiated contact in these passages. They weren't looking for Him, they were looking to escape. He approached them, He came seeking after them, He chased after them, He initiated contact with them. And suddenly, the big God of the universe became small enough to be near with them, so that they could cry out, “the nearness of God is my good.” And suddenly, we see that the hiding place for us is a place that we think is a chance to run away from people and circumstances, but God sees it as a prime opportunity to encounter Him when we least expect it. And so God, the great God of the universe, in His great love for His children, decides that He is going to come and meet with them."

I am so grateful that God is willing to come and meet with me no matter where I am at... and that He's working in me a stronger faith that will lead to a deeper worship and a greater joy...

Is summer really half over?

I’m not really sure where the time is going these days, but I woke up yesterday and it was July 1st. Goodness…. So I thought I wanted to catch up on some blogging, but I have this thing about not just being able to start where I am when I feel like there’s been a bunch of stuff that was worthy of being blogged about that I’ve missed. So I’ve decided to do a ‘Summertime Summary’ for today and get caught up… :-)

So things got started with Mackenzie’s 16th birthday, and thankfully I managed to write about that already -- but that was a nice kick-off to the summer.

Along with the Birthday, came the driver’s license. After several hours at the DMV, she passed her driving test and not only did she get her license, but her picture even came out good!! ha You know, I thought I was going to have a heart attack every time she walked out the door to drive somewhere by herself, but it hasn’t been that bad. It’s actually very nice to have another driver in the family. :-)



Oh, and the picture here is of her new license plate... fitting, don't you think? :P

Shortly after the birthday weekend, our teen intern for the summer, Jami, moved in with us. She’s a wonderful addition to our family and it’s great to have her here. I should say that we’ve also adopted our other intern, Wes. Even though he doesn’t officially live here, he’s still here most of the time! I think he’s officially the son (and big brother!!) we never had. :-)

Next was the trip with the teens to Six Flaggs. I don’t know why it is, but for the second year in a row, a drive that should really only take 4 hours at the most, took more than 6 (!!) with stops and what-not… crazy. But the day at the park was fun and the trip home was much quicker. :-)

As you can see, Rodney was a little tired on the way home... I should have hung a 'do not disturb' sign on him!! ...but Jasmine and Lindsey were having a great time with Bugs Bunny...

Anna has decided to go back to competitive gymnastics, so she’s started back training at the gym 4 days a week from 11 - 2. She didn’t think she was going to like going in the middle of the day like that, but it’s actually been a blessing not to have to get up and out at 8:00am every summer morning like some of the other girls have to do. She hopes to be competing in meets again in the fall if she can get back up to speed after being off for a year. I really thought my ‘gym mom’ days were over, but here we go again! :-)

A week after the Six Flaggs trip, Mackenzie went with the teens to New Orleans on a mission trip there to help continue with efforts to clean up and rebuild in the aftermath of Katrina. They had a week of lots of hard work, but were very blessed by the trip and the chance to serve together.

On June 18th, we celebrated Jack’s 46th birthday -- old man. ;-) I can say that for the next 4 months until I turn 46!! ha I think I actually managed to surprise him this year with something he liked -- a new air compressor. He’s been wanting one for a long time, and with the help of my dad, we managed to go buy this huge thing and get it in the garage so it would be waiting for him with a big bow on it when he got home. :-) He was very happy. Yay! Um... now we just have to figure out how to rig up a ‘paint booth’ in our garage…. Ahhhh……. ;-)

Right after Jack’s birthday, we left for Jr. Impact with the teens. This was Anna’s first year to go and she was very excited about it. She also had a friend from school come with her - Kerry. I really need a whole blog entry to talk about Impact -- it was a great theme this year (Hidden) and a fantastic weekend. I think I was personally challenged physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by the whole thing -- as I know many of the kids were. There were lots of great things that came out of that weekend, the best of which was Anna giving her life to Christ. She was baptized on Father’s Day (June 21st) at about 6:30 in the evening by her dad and me. She had been thinking about this for a while, but she had talked to Jami and Katie (another counselor helping our group at Impact) that Sunday afternoon and then came to us to tell us that she was ready to be baptized…. We had a great talk that afternoon and she didn’t want to wait any longer, so we headed over to the pool along with all the teens and she was baptized. It’s actually kind-of neat that almost exactly 4 years ago, at Mackenzie’s first trip to Impact, she was also baptized there and it was on Father’s Day… so these are 2 Father’s Days “gifts” that their dad will surely never forget.

Rayne and Bayli were also baptized over the weekend -- and James was baptized when we got back to the church building on Monday... here they all are with "Flat Jesus" -- and that's probably a story for another time... :-)

This last weekend, Jack and I were able to go up to Nashville for the Good Guys Annual Street Rod show. It was a nice chance to get away for us -- it’s been a very busy month! - and he loves seeing all the hot rods. There were some beautiful cars -- but honestly, I don’t know when the last time was that I’ve been so HOT!!! The show was out in the parking lot of the Tennessee Titan’s stadium and it must have been over 100 degrees on Saturday. But we survived and had a good time…

This 1969 Camaro (Jack's favorite) was on sale for $160,000 -- we figured we could trade our house for it!! ;-)

So I think that brings me up to date on the ‘events’ of the month. It really is amazing to me that summer is going by so quickly. I’m already seeing school supplies at Walmart (oh, but THANK GOODNESS they finally got the Holiday Fruit Cakes off the shelves!!!! haha) and I’m beginning to get calls and emails about band stuff for next year. Did I mention that I said I’d be band parent president for the middle school this year? Yeah, check back with me on that around the beginning of September -- we’ll see if I’m still sane. :-o But before all of that gets in full swing, I do hope to enjoy these last few weeks of summer.

We’re headed to the lake this weekend for the first time this summer -- I’m looking forward to that… I need to get some sun on my feet - I’ve got a serious farmer’s tan going. (yuck) Lots of yard work and walks this year, but not much pool (or lake) time,,,

This is a picture of some flowers I planted out front a couple of days ago -- I thought they were so pretty!

So now that I’ve got my events of the past month down, maybe I can move on to post some things I’ve been thinking about lately… I’m in the middle of reading (and listening to) a good sermon series titled “Only the Lonely.” I know it sounds depressing, but it’s really good and it’s speaking to my heart -- so I need to finish that and post some links to the website… check back for that soon. :-)

So one last thing -- I had to pause for a little while and take Mandy out for a walk. Maybe that wasn't such a smart thing to do at noon -- it's hot!! We passed by a retaining pond, so since it looked like she was going to die without some water, I let her go get a drink. She decided to wade all the way in - which for a dog who doesn't like the water all that much is pretty funny. And she got all the way in up to her just the top of her head and back showing. Then she proceeded to duck her entire head under the water and start walking! I wish I had my camera -- she looked like a submarine! :-) Of course, then she came up sputtering and choking on water... which now begs the question: Can dogs hold their breath? Or would they even know to? I'll let you ponder that.... :-)