being a slum-lord, lohan, prayer, and lingerie

we are still cranking away over at
our sweet rental house,
“the villa on corona”.
today, i repainted the front bedroom
because, apparently dark colors
are not the only colors that require
two coats sometimes.

we still have A LOT of work to do
before they more in on the 15th of august.
i mean, A LOT A LOT!
can’t wait to learn how to install the flooring
in the bathrooms and laundry room!
stuff like that totally excites me!

i am SO proud of herb and myself!
the place looks like a completely different house!
we have both worked really hard;
pushed ourselves.
and tried to be kind and patient with each other
in the process.

when we bought it, it was dark and old and outdated.
and now it is bright and clean and beautiful.
it is a home.
and i am so happy to have
a home to offer our family of renters.

11 more days until they move in!
it is also really fun because i have been praying
for quite some time now about our need for a community
of folks to walk along side in life
and things like these friends and their children moving in
NEXT DOOR bring
sweet promise and hope of answered prayers.

other things have happened too –
like a supper club with three other couples
who all decided, “yeah, it WOULD be great to meet every other week
rather than just every 3 or 4 weeks.”

add to this the rekindling and healing of other relationships.
god continues to be good to us
even when we don’t see it.

today i stumbled across tristan prettyman's silly song about lindsay lohan while i was on this girl's fun blog.
“lindsey, you can drink the Coke
but don’t snort the coke.”
it cracks me up.
especially because we saw her in concert
about a year and a half ago,
and she really did
talk about lindsay lohan the whole time.
hilarious.

it was sort of hard to tell after listening to this song,
but she seemed to really have a bit of a celebrity crush on the lohan.
i mean, have YOU seen her in "the parent trap"?
can you blame tristan?
having seen the film myself, I submit the following:
“no, no ya can't!”

in other news,
i learned the hard way today
that unless you REALLY know the person well,
don't buy lingerie for another person.
ever.
never.

even if the invitation to her bridal shower
suggests that she wants lingerie.
if you don't know her, bring some lotion.
Bring a candle.
heck – order her a case of massage oil if you need to
feel like you are contributing to their marriage bed experience.
and I don’t
not any more than i support healthy sex in all marriages.
but i got a little excited.
and i bought some stuff.
it was sexy.
and i am afraid,
based on the look on her face,
and a little conversation i had with her,
it was a little TOO sexy.

hmmm.
i felt a little silly.
and maybe just a little slutty.
and not in a good way.
oh well.

Sometimes Life Is Like . . .

. . . the really big hedges
in front of your new next door rental property.
you know,
the one you were really excited about
before you owned and
had to remove the hedges
that were probably planted in 1953,
when the house was built.

those are old hedges,
in case you were not certain.
and so they have really long,
gangly, tangly roots
that twist and turn
and make things unpredictable
and you have to pull them out
so that your rental property is not ugly.

because really,
who likes an ugly rental property?
no one, that's who.

truth be told,
herb has been the one ROCKING the bushes!
so really, from personal experience,
life is more like many layers of 60's and 80's
inspired wallpaper
hung without first priming the walls
because all you can think about is how lovely
the burnt sienna and maize print will complement
you brand new kitchen carpet
with the beautiful faux-parquet wood pattern.
and you don't have time to think about priming.

yep, i said kitchen carpet.
carpet which, by the way,
you felt was a much much better alternative
to the beautiful wooden floors that you covered.
so you secure it with glue and tar
and layers of thin ply wood and foam that will be crumbly
and difficult to peel up in 45 years.

life is sometimes like that.

you know what i mean?