For the past 3 weeks...

Last August I found a wonderful solid oak dinner table at Goodwill. I was thrilled because it's so hard to find solid wood furniture anymore! Even though the stain and finish was old and needed much repair... I really liked the design of the table. It was made really well and I knew if we could re stain it someday... it would be a great piece of furniture. So that became our dinner table for the past year.

Finally Josh had an opportunity to work on it. I have a friend from church who's husband, Bob, graciously offered Josh his wood working shop to work on the table. So for the past few weeks Josh has been stripping, sanding, staining, and finishing this old table. Bob is a great carpenter and has taken Josh under his wing to show him the tricks of the trade. Bob is a retired hand surgeon, so he is a very detail oriented craftsman and Josh has learned a lot from him.

I know it's hard to see (and it's not the greatest of me), but this is the only picture I have with our table in it. It's the round table on the right side of the picture. You can see how dark and worn it is. I think if you click on the picture, it'll show you a large size of the photo.

Who knew the grain would be so pretty?! I wish you all could have seen the old finish on this table. It was so dark and thick that you could barely see the grain. Once Josh scrapped all that junk off, we started to see how pretty the wood was.

We originally wanted the table stained really dark to match the rest of the house, but after 2 coats of stain, the grain really popped out and we loved it.

In the photos the table looks brown, but the stain we used has a lot of black in it. Hopefully it'll go well in the house. We should be getting the table back in the house by Tuesday.

Saturday Night at Fort Woof!

Fort Woof is a popular destination for Josh and I these days. It was voted the best dog park in the nation and we love it! Despite Charlie's wimpy exterior, he actually prefers the "Big Dog" side of the park. We didn't stay long last night since a rain storm was rolling in, but it was still fun.

Charlie

We ended up coming back to our apartment to watch the storm roll in. Oh yeah... Josh buzzed his head.

I am totally that annoying dog lover now.
I never thought this day would come, but how could I not be?? Look at him!

Julie and Patrick's Visit to Fort Worth... May 08

This is Josh's sister Julie and her boyfriend Patrick.
I'm not quite sure what's happening here.

Texas Rangers Game


Fisters
(friends/sisters)

Taking the Train to Dallas

At the famous Dallas Aquarium

Goodbye Monica... May 08

This was my first friend in Fort Worth... Monica. She and I met at the women's Bible study at our church. We became instant friends and had many breakfasts together. She recently got engaged to a great guy and moved back to her hometown which is near Houston.

Dustin and Monica are getting married on Valentines Day in 2009 in Friendswood, Texas. I am delighted to be one of her bridesmaids!
This was our goodbye breakfast with her mom before she moved home to Friendswood.

April 08... Todd and Jessica Elrod's wedding in Fresno, CA

This wedding was at her cousins house in Fresno. Her father was the landscape architect that designed this backyard. Creativity runs in the family... Jessica used to be a clothing designer for Nike, but recently joined up with a business partner and is designing her own shoe line. She also designed and made her own wedding dress.

Josh and Todd met in college at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. They were both on the baseball team... both majoring in math. God had plans for these two to become the best of friends. Both Todd and Josh ended up at Texas Christian University for grad school and in their last year at TCU, they were roommates. Todd and Josh grew very close in their last year at TCU. Todd was also the coordinator for our engagement and put in HUNDREDS of hours in preparation. Jessica actually flew in from Portland to help with the engagement... and they officially started dating on the day we were engaged. Anywho- Josh and Todd are like brothers, and Jess and I like sisters. God is so good to bless us with friends like them.

Since Todd is in the army, he and Jessica moved to Germany about 3 months after their wedding. About a month after they arrived, Todd left for Iraq. He plans on being back in Germany this November. Josh and I miss them a lot and are hoping to go visit sometime soon.

Well... Here we are. Bloggers/Valets.