....I know, I know...it's been months

To say that things have been busy in the Tyson house would definitely be an understatement. In an effort to record all of the things that have taken place since the last time I wrote in........April....it's going to take a series of posts.  We've sold a house, moved more than once, left a good job, completed a doctorate degree, started a new job, did some major furniture shopping, and traveled, traveled, traveled. Although none of the posts to come will be news to those of you who are closest to us, I feel that they are still "blog-worthy". I'm ashamed that I've gone so long without recording these big changes, so I promise to blog more frequently in the coming weeks.

Supper Club

Since we've lived in Birmingham, Chase and I have been absolutely blessed with some incredible friends. More specifically, friends who love to eat as much as we do! Seems that most of our time together is spent sharing food...perhaps it's a Southern thing?  Here are a few shots I managed to grab at our favorite Mexican spot before I was told to put the camera up....

 Sweet Madelyn crunching up a bunch of chips, ha.

Josh holding lil Barrett so Maggie can eat :)

And here are a few of one of our most recent and most meaningful dinners....a pizza 'picnic' on the day that Jonathan and Kristie closed on their LOOOOONG awaited new house!

While You Weren't Watching......

While downloading some pictures from my camera, I found these (snapped when everyone else was watching Alabama win the National Championship). Mischievous lil cuties. Love them!

Link Love

I love blogs. My love borders on addiction. I never loved cooking so much until I began to read blogs, or more specifically blogs with beautiful pictures of food. Because I love so many blogs that it would take the whole right side of this page to list them all, I'll highlight a few of my faves each week.

One of my most recent favorites is Knock Off Wood.   Written by a stay-at-home-mom, the blog features plans and step-by-step instructions on how to build your own copycat version of some of the most loved pieces of brand name furniture. Each week, she also has a 'brag board' where readers send in projects they've completed using her plans (see below).

I have vivid memories of my Dad doing quite a bit of woodworking when I was younger - the result of which produced the most beautiful, humongous Barbie doll house you've ever seen. Now I'm hoping I can talk him into digging those tools out again and building something for me from one of these plans!

And while I"m at it, Copy Cat Chic is also a good site to use when you've had your eye on an expensive item that you can't bear to pay that much for. The site regularly posts more affordable 'look-alike' options for those of us who are poor on a budget.

A Real Fixer Upper

A little less than a month ago Chase and I placed our house on the market. We knew we needed to sell the house, but listing the house in such a low market was really hard to swallow. Chase had purchased the house the summer before he started dental school....and at the height of the housing market (read $$$). 

For some reason, I felt really frustrated when we listed the house. I think it was because I have a healthy obsession with real estate. I could look at MLS listings for hours, I love watching staging shows on HGTV, pouring over Pottery Barn catalogs, and a good 'before & after' renovation. Chase and I had agreed when we got married that we wouldn't put much any money into the house - knowing that we would not likely see a return on our investment. Still, seeing the pictures on the real estate website made we wish that I had painted this wall, or hung that picture, etc.

And then I came across this passage from the book "Cold Tangerines" by Shauna Niequist.

"On my worst days, I start to believe that what God wants is perfection. That God is a new-house God. That everything has to work just right, with no cracks in the plaster and no loose tiles. That I need to be completely fixed up. I think that God's kind of people are squeaky-clean people whose garages don't leak, but really a lot of the people God uses to do amazing things are people who don't necessarily have it all together. A lot of the best stories in the Bible, the ones where God does sacred, magical things through people, have a cast of characters with kind of shady pasts, some serious fixer-uppers.

On my very best days, as an act of solidarity with my house, since we're both kind of odd, mismatched, screwed-up things, I practice letting it be an old not-fixed-up house, while I practice being a not-fixed-up person. I wear my ugly pants, the saggy yellow terry-cloth ones with the permanently dirty hems, and I walk around my house, looking at all the things that I should fix someday, but I don't fix them just yet, and I imagine God noticing all the things about me that should get fixed up one day, and loving me anyway and being okay with the mess for the time being."

A friend recently reminded me that our house has come a long way from its beginnings. Here are a few shots of what the house looked like when Chase bought it (with the previous owner's belongings).

And for all who care to see, here's the link to our MLS listing: www.3049SummitDrive.BestHomeAround.com