The last few weeks in photos

The last few weeks have been really busy. The house was put back together after the wood floors were installed, although some dust lingers. I took a trip to Tulsa to see my best girls and throw a baby shower. Luke, Boston and I spent the 4th of July holiday in Dallas with friends and took the long route home to visit Gramma's house one last time and move the piano generations of our family has tinkered on. Photos:

The floors

Baby shower:

4th of July - We grilled but it was so so hot we filled a kiddie pool with water and 15 bags of ice. Boston jumped right in, it was hilarious.

Disarray

So, in preparation for the wood floor installation tomorrow, I took everything off the walls and out of the bookshelves in the office and living room and moved all the furniture into the foyer, kitchen and closet under the stairs. Then Luke pulled up the carpet and began hammering out the nails for the carpet tack.

In short, the house is in complete disarray. I'm one of those "everything in its place" kind of people. Each time I've moved or we've moved, every box is unpacked within the first 48 hours. I stay up all night if needed, because a messy house is guarenteed to keep me up at night.

I have no idea how I'm going to get to sleep tonight knowing everything is a mess downstairs. I'm working from home tomorrow and probably won't get anything done - wanting to peek downstairs and see "Are they finished yet?". So I can put the house back together again.

Oh, I wish I weren't so unsettled by this. I'm excited about the wood floors. And incredibly anxious about things being back in their place.

Have a great week everyone - may you be more sane than I :)

IPE

Wood floors arrived today! Woo-hoo! There's actually quite a story behind it.....

Luke has wanted to have wood floors installed on the 1st floor of the house since, oh, about 2 days after we moved into the house 4 years ago. I wanted to wait, at least until the carpet had been used for a bit. Most of the 1st floor is tile, about 500 square feet of carpet.

This Spring, Luke and I decided we're staying in the house for awhile (assuming we remained employed) and there's no time like the present to invest in the house. We planted a garden in the backyard and began shopping for wood floors. Flooring choices are limited since we're coordinating with existing tile with dark grout and have a dog who will scratch softer woods.

Our search began at Lowe's, specifically "Pergo" laminant flooring. We brought home samples, had friends give their opinion and scheduled a contractor to measure and provide an estimate on installation.

We slept on it a couple of days and decided to install the floors ourselves and save the labor cost. I invited my parents to come down for a weekend and help "oversee" the project, since Luke and I have never done anything like this and my parents are pros with plumbing, wood floors and even electrical wiring experience.

Instead of placing the order for laminant flooring, we decided to shop around and make sure we liked the color/pattern etc. The other flooring store overwhelmed us with options. I now had my heart set on Engineered Hardwood instead of laminant.

Luke was okay with Engineered Hardwood, as long as the price was below a certain threshold. Which was very hard to find. Also, labor costs were back on the table since it's more complicated to install than laminant. I'll never get that hour back trying to coordinate my retired-parents social calendar, either.

Meanwhile, we took Boston for a walk each night in the neighborhood and discussed the floors and work and life and our next vacation. We ran into a neighbor, who also have a dog who Boston LOVES, and the neighbors mentioned they recently had wood floors installed in their house. We went to their house, oooohhh, very nice floors! They gave us the number of the guy who did their floors.

Emelio.

Emelio came to our house the next morning to measure and provide an estimate. Emelio's cost of labor is within budget and he's the nicest guy ever. He offered to use his connections to help find a good price on the wood floors using a sample of the wood we wanted.

Over the next week, Emelio met Luke at his office 3 times to exchange samples. I was on-line researching types of wood and Luke was on the phone with on-line stores negotiating price and gathering logistics details. The on-line store offered the best price, but we were nervous about ordering the floor without seeing a sample.

Finally, we found a wood which matched the tile, is dog-proof and at the right price. We ordered half a palette of IPE engineered hardwood aka Brazillian Walnut from simplefloors.com. This particular wood is twice as hard as oak and has a dark finish with a unique grain. It's very difficult to work with, not receommended for self-staining or installing 100% hardwood. The wood was scheduled to arrive in San Antonio early this week and to our house today.

Luke called me at my desk this morning because the delivery guy was in our neighborhood. Either Luke or I needed to be home momentarily to sign for the wood and help bring it inside the house. Luckily, the delivery guy was lost in our huge neighborhood, buying us more time to get home. Luke would soon learn the delivery guy was lost because "he and his boss/business partner do not get along so he's the ONLY delivery personnel without a GPS system". Too funny!

But, I have a presentation due today. To the CEO of the company. The dataset has been evolving since February - very important presentation. On presentation days, I'm chained to my desk. Clear the calendar - no meetings, no lunch unless you bring it from home. Not that there's any time to eat lunch, anyway.

The power went out at Luke's office and the back-up generators were running low. He needed to stay at the office to re-boot servers or something IT-like.

While I was on the phone with Luke, he found someone to cover for him. Crisis averted.

So, Luke made it home and secured the hardwood floors. Emelio arrives Monday to install the floors. Photos to come.

A day at the beach

This weekend, Luke, pup Boston and I spent a whirlwind weekend in Houston. Saturday was spent with family celebrating my nephew's high school graduation. Lots of laughs, yummy food and excitement in honor of my nephew.

Sunday, Luke, Boston and I had breakfast then piled in the car for the 3.5 hour drive home. But when we got to the interstate, we decided to head south to Galveston Island and spend some time at the beach.

Boston's never been to the beach. He's a retriever and loves to swim and we knew he'd love the water. It had been many years since I'd been to Galveston Island, just 30 minutes from where I grew up in Clear Lake. So, the 3 of us were very excited for the adventure and to enjoy a beautiful summer day with cool ocean breezes.

Boston dragged on his leash across the sand to the ocean. I let him off the leash and he ran into the water. A wave hit him in the face and he retreated to my side, with a look on his face which said "Why did the water jump up and hit me in the face? What is this place?". The next few minutes he tried to jump over each wave. Luke threw a tennis ball into the water for him to fetch and he began swimming toward it, still learning to cope with salt water and waves splashing in his face but having the time of his life.

He learned to ride the waves and it was one of the most adorable things I've seen Boston do. Boston the bodysurfer. He would chomp at the water when a wave crashed over his tennis ball, as if protecting it. Endless entertainment. For Boston and Luke and I.

Below is a photo - it was such a short trip but so much fun. Boston was so tired from all the swimming and excitement he slept the entire way home. Luke drove so I got to take a nap too!

What comes to mind

Whew. So, I've taken a deep breath to let the last 10 hours of the day go. Since my last thoughts here were so incredibly negative and that's not the point of this blog (or life in general), I thought I'd share a funny story from today.

A dear friend of mine who lives in NY is gettting married here in Austin in the Fall. She's family - there are 4 of us in this family, all friends from high school. Endless hugs, laughs and memories.

The maid of honor, also a family member of mine - Megan, is helping plan some of the wedding events and emailed me today. The subject line read "Wedding bands?" and the message was addressed to a few friends of hers who have recently gotten married. She asked if we knew of any wedding bands for our friend's wedding. She mentioned the reception site which I didn't think twice about. I didn't recognize all the names on the email but assumed they were married in or outside of Texas, not necessarily local.

So, eager to help out any way I can, I responded with "We got our wedding bands at the mall. Luke lost his, so we bought matching bands at James Avery which I wear when gardening or taking photos or traveling to keep the engagement ring from getting banged up. Oh, and Luke got the engagement ring at Abercrombie, a great jeweler on Bee Caves run by a father and son - a few of my friends have gotten jewelry there as well and I highly recommend".

A pretty detailed but to the point response about jewelry. Satisfied, I hit send and went about the demands of the day.

Megan wrote back letting me know she was dying laughing. At my response.

She was looking for recommendations for a music band. To play music at the reception, which is why she mentioned the venue. Not for the "with this ring" portion of the day.

The neighborhood bully

Why can't people just be nice?

Seriously. It's all I ask.

And you know, when all one expects is for people to be nice and they go out of their way not to be?

It hurts. It really hurts. Today has been incredibly disapointing. I haven't cried but it's worth crying over.

I wish I weren't so sensitive. I wish I could tell people to just, fuck off!, but I don't use that kind of language and I guess I'm too nice.

Air France

The story about the Air France plane missing since Monday, which likely crashed into the Atlantic, really has me shaken up. It's terrible, I'm saddened deeply. 228 passengers from countries all over the world - missing. A plane crash unexplained, other than thunderstorms in the flight path and the complexities of planes and flight.

I realize air travel is safe but there's not much hope anyone survived so my heart is heavy everytime I read more about this story. I hope the families have answers about what happened soon, some sort of closure or comfort in knowing.

Progress

Another milestone has been reached in my pursuit of a photography career:

http://heatherwendling.com/

Stop by and take a look at my portfolio and refer friends or family in need of a photographer!

The site will be expanding as I continue to photograph weddings on my own or with EverAfter Images and generally spend all of my spare time taking photos.

Every time I look at the site I feel excited and hopeful....one step closer to my dream.