It is truly amazing that in the matter of just days, trees can go from bare, to blooming, to being covered with tiny leaves. This spring I feel like I’ve been more aware of the new life spring brings and how in awe it leaves me. For fun before dinner a few nights ago I went around our small yard and photographed the new life I saw.

I am at a loss for how exactly one of my daffodils migrated to the middle of a scrub. My sorority sisters will understand why I was pleased to see violets in my yard, even if Tim saw them as weeds.

Last week, Tim and I had the opportunity to travel south of Rosarito Mexico to the City of Refuge Campus of Tijuana Christian Mission with Eric and Bethany from our church. Tim had been working with Eric on the site plans for an erosion control solution for the property. While a relatively new campus, the serious erosion issues were causing concern and limiting the full use of the property. The guys were able to meet up with key people involved with the mission to discuss of the current concerns and talk through solutions and next steps. The men were incredible who had already given so much of their hearts, time and talents to this organization.

While the men were doing engineering work, Bethany and I were playing with the kids and taking a nice portrait of each of them. My hope is for them to have a picture that shows how beautiful and special they all are. Many of the children at the campus come from very broken homes or no homes at all. I was so encouraged by seeing their love of life, love for the Lord and love for each other. There is so much to say about an experience like this, but here’s just a few photos to give you an idea.

I do want to share that the mission has suffered a significant decrease in their funding and are really stretching to make ends meet right now. Many people wonder, how do I get connected or really help a group like this one? Well, this group is very organized and has opportunities for individual child sponsorship, listing of current needs and opportunities for groups to come visit and work on the property. I know their are so many huge needs out there right now, but if this group pulls on your heart, please at least take time to read through their site and think about what it might look for you to help in a small or big way. Tim and I hope that with the help of our church support we will be able to see the erosion control project to completion in the near future.

Many of you know that Tim and I have a cat named Nacho. She is currently on the other office chair curled up and sleeping soundly.

Well recently we had our hand at dog care as we watched Brinkley for a few days while a friend of ours was out of town. Brinkley is quite the dog, definitely the most trained dog I’ve been around (which was a good starting point for our friendship). She got many walks, most of which were in the midst of snow storm activity. I loved that she saw the world as a giant snow cone, while my job was to keep her away from the “lemon flavored” parts! We did a bit of jogging, though hindered by my snow boots.

It was neat to interact with a dog and see their loyalty and love. However, I was still happy to come back to my small, lovable and low maintenance Nacho.

Moving on past demo, we began to rebuild our bathroom. I did lots of measurements and cutting of styrofoam and moisture resistant drywall. Tim and his dad totally rewired the room.

We knew that high quality tiling was out of our league, so we called up Eric at Jensen Tile. While tile prep and setting were happening, Tim and I were running between Home Depots, Menards and Lowes to make sure we had everything we needed. Tim learned how to cut tiles in half (for the marble floor) and I was busy in the basement priming and painting the baseboards, trim and beadboard.

Since we had a tile team at our house we decided to also go ahead and tile our kitchen floor, which had been a project in waiting for about two years. So in our small Broad Ripple house, both the bathroom and kitchen were out of use. During the workday, we got accustomed to going to the Lowes or McDonalds bathroom. At night we stayed at a friends house who so willingly put us up for what totaled 8 nights! As Christmas approached we got the project to a good stopping point, one that involved a working toilet and shower, and headed out of town to spend time with family in a non-construction zone house. Directly following family Christmas gatherings, we left bright and early for the Urbana Conference in St. Louis.

I am super excited to shoot my first wedding of the year tomorrow for Amanda and Adam. They are so in love and so ready to be married!

As I mentioned earlier, Tim and I have been tackling some major home renovations this past month. A few weeks ago our bathroom looked like the before pictures below. It is our only bathroom and we knew that work was looming. It was spacious and pretty functional but water damage had begun to show on the wall by the shower and we had already removed a large section of wet and loose wall tile this summer. Our sweet handwork to get us by so far involved lots of caulk and a bit of duct tape.

You might wonder, why home improvement in December? Sure it’s freezing outside, time to enjoy the holidays, but it was also time when I had little Megelaine Images commitments and Tim and his dad’s man power were available. Yes we are frugal and yes we tend to be do it your selfers. I knew it was the real deal when the dumpster got delivered to our driveway. This pictures are the first two days of work. Lots of crow-barring and bucket loads of debris hauled to the dumpster. At the time of these photos we were still staying at our house overnight.

As a note, our house was built in 1926. Let me tell you that they built them to last back them, which is great but made demo hard work. It was neat to see how different the construction was from techniques and materials used today. Turns out the bricks for our chimney were made right here in Indianapolis. More to come soon in our adventures of home remodel…