Before and Afters

Lot of cha-cha-changes going on around the Nichols' Cottage...

First. I'm going to get real with you. Meet the bane of my existence. THE SHOWER. I wish I could be all techy cool and make the font all drippy- you'll just have to imagine THE SHOWER with drippy font. How many bloggers you know show you undoctored pics of their existence banes, hmph?? I hate you shower. But guess who is winning this battle...

BOOYAH!!!! That just happened. It was bad y'all don't even know. It had mold down to the studs!!! Speaking of studs, John demo'ed it and is going to completely redo the shower himself. It was worth the allergic reaction (my face swole up good) to the mold that lies beneath (at least it's not dead girlfriends -movie reference!!!) to get this puppy demo'ed. John is the man. New shower timeline- 6 months. We're just full of realness around these parts. So we're doing that and a little of this...
Hello! I'm Crazy Confusing Living Room Color here. I'm grey! No,I'm green! No, I'm biege! Who cares! I'm just boring!!!

Meet Much More Pronounced Living Room Color:


Phew.. It's Nostalgia by Valspar. Thank goodness that color identity crisis is over- at least on one wall and we're good with that. Now onto the couch that looks like it was assembled from a massacre of Teddy Ruxpin dolls. Not hating on the color per se, it's just not working anymore for me. We will be doing a more, weimaraner dog color look:

Yes, the couch will be made out of real weimaraners! Who do you think I am Cruella DeVille? Yes, actually I do aspire to have her fashion skills.
We also got our legendary Ol' Smokey back- remember car go boom boom?

Say Hello to this!

What? You saw that coming? Come on. I'm really going to up a pic of a 2005 prison gray corolla on here. I love our Dave Ramsey Car though. Livin' like no one else drivin that car- actually living like 3/4 of Katy, really. Thank God for the knowledge of Dave Ramsey!!! (Told y'all- real here!)

And there's also the whole phoenixing of my mind that is taking place. I'm thankful that God is renewing my mind. If you are interested in totally having your mind blown read further... If not, go have some doritos or something.

I was in a real Why Me? state a couple of Sundays ago when I read this brilliance from Oswald Chambers in his Contemporary Classic Devotions for a Deeper Life. If you aren't down with O.C., you are missing out.

March 12:
But that no one man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith (Gal. 3:11).
God uses symbols in His dealings with us human beings in order to get our attention.... Yet God will sometimes remove symbols of guidance in our lives. Over and over again, God has removed the symbols whereby He has guided His people. And whenever He has done it, some of His followers proved to be wedded to the symbol instead of God. As a result, the loss of a God's symbol wrecked their lives.
When Jesus reinterpreted the Law, what did the Pharisees say? They called Jesus "an impostor" and thought He should be "put to death." They were wedded to their symbols, and not to the Lord.
When you begin to walk with God, He may permit you to walk by sight more than by faith. But after a while, He will begin removing visible symbols and let you tremble. When that happens, you can be sure He is about to teach you how to walk by faith.
Prayer Thought: O, Lord it is easier to walk by sight, but teach me how to walk with You by faith.

The Staycation...

We needed a break. Oh we got a break! But we'll get to that..
Day 1:
Breakfast at Crescent City Beignets. Yumface.
We zoo'ed it up. Several things about that:
1. Ever since going to the NOLA zoo we are too spoiled and the Houston Zoo kind of pales in comparison. I'm sorry. Plus, IT'S EXPENSIVE. For real. Almost too expensive for popcorn. I said, ALMOST.
2. The African Forest. Here's my take on it. The chimps held a zoo staff member hostage and said, "Look. We are going to start goin' ape on your visitors' faces if we don't get a pin that's waaaay bigger than the orangs- capeesh!!!" (chimps don't know how to spell Italian). Oh and this chimp was sad. Sad because he hadn't eaten any faces that day. I don't like chimps.

Leelah in front of her all time favorite species:

Komodo time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And the best quote of that day from Leelah after her and daddy 'accidentally' showed me a pic of the reptile house, "Enjoy your nightmares, Mom."

Day 2:
CAJUN TOWN! the best place you ain't eatin' at!!!
Oh and we then went to MAJOPA= Mary Jo Peckham Park and played free putt putt and then went to the library where we saw this priceless gem:

We sent it into the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. We're kinda hoping to hear back in our dreams...
Day 3:
We went to Huntsville to visit Mom and Pop, Aunt Amy and Ryan and Great Gram- this happened as soon as we rolled into town:

Some dude's truck which didn't have brakes we later learned from the tow truck dude smacked Ol' Smokey pretty good. This trip was almost 3 weeks ago and she's still in the shop!!!! Oh Ol' Smokey you should have been totaled!! We had a sweet little ER visit for Leelah on account of her bruised hip- she was A-Okay and laughing in the waiting room. But it did give her a good scare and I'm still not right from it! Thank the Lord for watching over us!!!

Day 4:
Something about bank switching. Hey, every day can't be amazing!

Day 5:
Honestly, I forgot. But I'm pretty sure it involved Barnes and Noble and Chuy's.

But we were so very glad to have John home with us.

Last week I had my 10th eye surgery- I'm just plain bragging now- and it went very well! More posting on that to come soon!