Renovations

Y'all proud of me? It's only been a week since the last post!! Woohoo!!!! Okay yeah, anyway! :P

Ladies and gentlefolk! Next up is the Lighthouse Baptist Church Renovations!

Y'all remember this before picture from the previous post? Yeah well I didn't give you an after picture because I didn't have one. lol But (drumroll please) I took final pictures Tuesday night...

(continuing drumroll as I drag this out)

Tadah!!

And, yes, I'm having fun with this. ;P

But, on with the story.

{And by the way, when I say "we" in this post, I mean the entire church. This most definitely was not a family project. Everybody in the church was working together on this one.}

So anyway, the story...


{Befores... if that's a word... :D}
Paneling on the walls needing to come off, carpets to come out, walls to come out, a door to close over and a door to open...

{Right} putting drywall up...
{Left} drywall and mudding done...

{Right} first coat of
paint on.

{Left} the door on the right is being closed and the one on the left was
put in.








Nate, having way too much fun at a late work night. ;P

The floors got interesting. The carpet we tore out had been glued down. Yeah, that's what I said. Glued. And no, the glue doesn't just come up when the carpet comes up. The glue had to be sanded off. This took forever! And our time was winding down. We wanted to get the renovations done before Missions Conference,

which was March 1-4.

But on top of the sanding, we had to put

polyurethane down as well, three coats of it.

And it's supposed to have at least six hours between coats. 

This is the first coat going down.

Drying...

We ran into a problem here. The floors wouldn't dry. The first coat was put down Saturday morning {Feb 24}. We went back Saturday night to put another coat down, but it wasn't dry. And technically the poly is supposed to cure for a few days before enduring heavy traffic. And, we had to put the sanctuary back together Wednesday night if we were gonna get it done before Missions Conference.

We managed. Praise the Lord! Just ducking under the wire.

The piano and organ were moved to the platform Sunday night.

I had done another mountain mural on this wall quite some time ago, and the plan was to add a verse. A verse hadn't been decided on all these months, but one was finally chosen so I could get it done while all the paint stuff was out.
Eph. 3:21

Putting it back together... 

The final product. So gorgeous!! I'm still having trouble believing somebody glued residential tan carpet over top of this amazing pine flooring. :O

So, that's the renovation project! I tell you what, we couldn't ask for a better church family. There were a couple times that Dad would be working over there one evening and send out a text asking for help. Every man available would show up and work as long as possible. A couple times they worked until midnight or later. The whole church worked together to get this done. 

Back from the Dead

Okay, y'all, I realize it was November the last time I posted, and you probably thought I dropped off the face of the earth. Well, I didn't. Surprise! :D I would say I've been busy (and I honestly have been), but you're probably getting tired of hearing that excuse. ;P
So let me show you what I've been doing!

Okay, updates on life.

The church decided to renovate the sanctuary. We started in the beginning of January and just finished two weeks ago. Without going into great detail since I'll be doing another post on this, here is before...

...but since I miserably failed to take final pictures,
you won't be getting an after picture until I post on it. 

Another post to come is our basement transformation, though I won't be giving you teaser pictures. :P

The most exciting news of this year is the upcoming wedding! Amber Hoyle and Bradley Welch, both in our church. This is the first Lighthouse wedding. The only other wedding here was Melinda's, and Andrew wasn't a member at that time. So yeah, this is a big deal!

This has been so much fun tho! Melinda is Wedding Coordinator, Hannah is a Bridesmaid, and I am the face of the Decorations Committee (yeah, I made that title up). Anyway, basically, the other two people in the "committee" already have other duties (Melinda is of course the coordinator and Amy Welch is Mother of the Groom). So when somebody has a problem or question with the decor the day we're decorating, they get sent to me. I think. It hasn't happened yet 'cause the wedding is still almost two weeks away, but you get the idea. lol

Oh! And other reason to be busy... yeah, I know, I'm probably boring you... we also had our Sweetheart Banquet on Feb. 16th (for which Melinda and I decorated and Mandy, Abby, Hannah, and I cooked and served), hosted a bridal shower for Amber on the 24th (for which Melinda, Hannah, and I decorated), and had our Missions Conference March 1-4, which also included an International Banquet on the 3rd (for which Melinda and I decorated). Forgive me yet for disappearing?? :P Seriously tho, we've been crazy busy, but I've had a great time during the chaos. I love to come up with ideas and decorate and create things, and we've been doing a lot of that lately. lol


Okay, enough chaos, on to normal life. Right? Sorta.

Also coming this year--I am graduating! Yay!! :D I got senior pictures taken with the two girls graduating with me, Mandy and Abby. Emily Russ, a friend from Calvary, took them for us.

Some of the highlights:

Left to right in the above pic:
Abby, me, and Mandy.

Thanking the Lord for these two today. Y'all are the best two friends a gal could want. Thank you!

Keep an eye out for the next post!

Bloom Where You Are Planted

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

The vine still clings to the moldering wall,

But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,

And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

"The Rainy Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Has life ever felt like "It rains, and the wind is never weary"?

Sometimes life is tough, and you don't like the circumstances you are in. But even in the worst circumstances, God has given you the power to bloom no matter where you are planted.

We have a few rose bushes outside. By November they've been done blooming for quite some time. It's just too cold. But there is one stubborn little bush that refuses to give up.

It's amazing! The day was cold and dreary,

but this one little bush still brought beauty where it's been planted.

God has put you in a particular place. No matter what you're going through, you can still bloom. No matter where you have been planted, you can still blossom into the flower that

God intended for you to be.

Trust the Lord to calm the storms in your life in His timing. Just keep doing what He has for you to do, and let Him take care of the rest!

"Behind the clouds is the sun still shining"!

Even though you can't see Him, God is always there.