Well, I figured out that I can embed vines, so I’m making it a goal to vine a blog post each week. If you don’t have time to watch a 6 second video on a blog. Then you should probably cut some other things out of your life, because EVERYBODY got time for that.
xoxo,
Adora
Author Archives: Adora Mae
Empty room: prepared for new carpet
Today, I’m not at work because after months of back and forth and frustration, the management at our apartment complex is sending someone out to fix our carpets. (yay!) When you patch and clean carpets, however, you do not move furniture; that costs extra. That was our job, so thank you to our wonderful friends who came over yesterday and helped us hide the entire contents of our living and dining room into our two bedrooms. Our living room is empty now. So it begins.
so empty
They have to patch some straight slits that were obviously done by a straight razor and have gotten worse since they are in a high traffic area, they tried to say that our cats did this (I’m assuming they also pictured them meowing maliciously while they clawed away). While the cats may have made it worse, my cats cant even dig in the litter properly, they’re certainly not capable of long straight cuts into carpet.
the criminals being accused
The slices in question
They also have to replace the carpet under the window. Last rainy season (and every rainy day since then) the entire floor by our big window was flooded. After taking months to get back to us, they came in, pulled back the carpet and replaced the dry wall (by propping it up with another piece of drywall) and then added new trim. Then they rolled the still damp carpet and pad back into place.
when they “fixed” the wall a few months ago
Well since then, the carpets have become orange under the window, and when they come today we’re going to have to tell them again that it still gets wet when it rains, so they may want to fix that while they’re at it.
stains under the window
My house is empty. It feels weird. Like we’re moving, but we’re not. Anyway, I’ll add a picture of the carpets below once they’re done making them pretty…BOOM! Added!
Glory! Clean carpets! Though…still totally soaking wet.
Have you ever had any renovations done by your property manager?
xoxo,
Adora
Up-Bicycle Beach Cruiser make over
I told you here that one of the keys to success at being a one car couple is fixing up your bike… so here is how I fixed up my crappy $80 Walmart Beach Cruiser a.k.a. my main mode of transportation.
When I rolled my bike out of Walmart back in 2010, this is what it looked like. Sorry for the small picture…it’s very low res.
When I first got my bike I wanted the ‘cranbrook’ stickers off of them. These were the first things to go. This is where the stickers used to be.
My next addition (years ago) was a basket. This one was I think $15 or $20 at Walmart. Josh bought it for me back when we were dating. It’s big enough to hold my purse and maybe one or two other things. Great for small trips, not grocery shopping though.
A Bell! I love it. I wanted it, I got it. Thanks again to Josh.
This isn’t the original seat that came with the bike. I wore the original seat out and every time I would ride it little pieces of black would be stuck to my butt. So, when I became dependent on the bike, a new seat was in order. Picked this super big butt seat up at Walmart for $15
Stuff is getting serious. Added this rear rack so I could then add a big enough basket that I could grocery shop when I needed to. I ordered this off Amazon and it came with NO directions but my wonderful husband figured out how to get it on here like a champ.
I found this basket at HomeGoods for $15. I liked that it was metal so I could zip tie it to the rear rack. I haven’t towed much in it yet, so we will see how it holds up to full grocery weight.
I’m still considering repainting the whole thing or just the rack and basket. What do you think? Am I missing anything? How have you fixed up your ride?
p.s. all my iphone shots were made pretty by A Beautiful Mess‘ photo App.
xoxo,
Adora
My Old Room
Back when I moved out of my first apartment and in with my [seriously ended up to be totally] awesome roommate, Victoria who I met on craigslist; I did a massive change in the style of my room. I went from a whole apartment to living in just a room with a very small closet, so I just picked a theme and I went with it. My entire room was white. My all white room looked so clean – I love love loved it. I thought (and still do) that it looked like it was out of a magazine. I wasn’t blogging back then and I recently stumbled across some photos of my old room, not really a complete view of it but random bits of happiness. So, here it is, the last room I had as a single girl. You were so good to me, Hillsboro Light Towers.
Josh turned a random little table that Devin saved from the garbage for me into a full on vanity by adding light but hiding all cords. I wish I had a shot of my antique map of Auckland in 4 8×10 frames on the wall.
My shelf. I couldn’t commit to painting the canvases so I wrapped them in white wrapping paper. They’re still like that above our couch in the living room.
I got this little stand from a garage sale for free, it was all brown and the door was rattan. That same day I got a helpful Lowes employee to cut a piece of wood into the perfect size to cover the door, glued a filagree wood piece on it and painted it white. I love the way it turned out. Later, my parents wedding photo found its way into that frame.
Andy came and did a shoot in my room once. The black guy in a white room jokes were plentiful.
A shot from Andy’s shoot
Messing around with Andy’s camera
When my sweet parents stayed with me…sleepy little love birds.
When my parents came to visit and stayed with me, my dad said I had saved him the cost of a hotel. So, he got me this white TV and called it even. He loves to try and be ‘logical’ when spoiling.
I have to admit, living on a1a with the ocean on one side and the inlet on the other was amazing. Totally a God thing that I got to experience this for $500 a month.
So, what do you think?
xoxo,
Adora
One Car Couple
Back in 2011, when Josh and I were just dating and his old boat of a Volvo finally and completely died, I talked him into getting a scion, because I had a Scion…and we were cute like that. So he went off and got himself a nice little $10k of debt in the form of a silver 2007 Scion TC.
Cut to last Tuesday.
After months of discussion, Josh took his TC into Carmax to see what they would offer him. His payments were reasonable, but we just couldn’t afford it anymore, and in a quest to try and cut debt and monthly bills, off he went. I had prayed over this errand and when they came back with their offer of exactly 7 dollars more than we owed (the offer was $7000 if you want to know) we jumped on it. I was worried that Josh would feel sad but when he saw how much we were saving each month, he was all smiles. So our insurance went from $165 a month to $65 a month and our car payments went from $255 a month to $0 a month. Thanks Mom and Dad for the sweet car back in 2006! So the savings comes out to $355 a month minus whatever extra gas we use. I don’t think we will use that much more gas, because we’ve had to be a lot more purposeful in our errands and so often we would end up in separate cars at the same place.
So for the last week we have been getting into the swing of being a one car couple.
Here are 7 things that I have learned in the first 7 days of being half of a one car couple.
1) Fix up your bikes. One of you will be without the car most of the time, so have a bike on hand for trips to the grocery store, the gym, a friends house, the work out will do you good.
2) Know that it will be inconvenient at times. Once at work I announced I was headed out to lunch and almost made it to the door before my boss asked how I was going to get there. Oh yeah, I brown bag it now…I forgot. Another time I wanted to go shopping bad, so bad that only another girl reading this can appreciate that I was stuck at home and hadn’t yet fixed up my bike.
3) Whichever of you owned the car before, don’t drive for awhile. This rule is for someone with my personality (read: selfish). I know I need to detach myself from this thing that was ‘mine’ for the last 7 years, I never wanted Josh to feel like he was using my car – just that he was driving our car. So I’ve only driven it myself once, I try and get him to drive every other time. This is for my sake. If you weren’t the baby of the family and you have no problems with sharing, you may be able to skip this step.
4) You will spend more time together. My sweet man is not a morning person. At all. When we had 2 cars, he would almost never wake up and spend time with me in the morning. He tried, but it didn’t happen. Now that he has to take me to work, he has to be awake (to drive – see #3). He has a hectic work schedule, so no morning time together sometimes meant no time together at all. But we now have an hour a day (30 minutes each way) where we can spend time together while we are relatively undistracted. So no matter what, he leaves with me at 7 and picks me up at 6 even if he has to go back to work after that and it’s been so good for us.
5) You will communicate more. In our 2 car lifestyle, there was no need or reason to really schedule with each other. Other than saying he had a long day and would be home late, there wasn’t much need to tell each other where we were, where we were going, etc. Now we basically need to have tabs on each other most of the time so we naturally check on each other more. I think this is good for our marriage, it was easier to live parallel before, now it’s not.
6) You will save more money in other ways. I can’t jump in the car and run off the grocery store or the mall or wherever. I have to plan those trips. I plan my grocery list better, because I only have one or two shots at it. I have to pack my lunch, I have no other choice. I have to make coffee in the office instead of going to Starbucks at noon. When I get the urge to leave the house and go shopping…I just can’t, and that feeling passes, probably with $30 in savings at least; Lord help me if I get on Etsy or Amazon though.
7) It will get the ball rolling. Let me tell you something, getting rid of half of your debt, even if it comes with inconveniences will get you addicted. It feels great to just suddenly not owe $7,000. Now I’m like “What else can we sell?” “Do we really need this?” and I’m amped. I want to get out of all debt and I think this is the kick start we needed to make that really happen, and happen soon.
So any of you out there ever get down to one car? No car? Tell me about it!
xoxo,
Adora
Change is in the air
There comes a point in your life, and I hope this happens to everyone, when you look at what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve spent your time doing and the possessions you’ve gathered since you started your life as a full time adult; mainly, since college. When you really take stock.
I love what I’ve accomplished, I love that 6 months out of college I got a job I really wasn’t qualified for at an incredible non profit. I love that I’ve worked hard at it and now think I can comfortably say that I’m pretty darn good at it. I love that I went somewhere I knew no one and made friends, found a church home, found my amazing Josh and eventually listened to him when he told me that we would be really good at loving each other (because we really are). I’m proud that after a little (read: a colossal amount) of help from my parents I took up life as an adult pretty easily. I have a few apartments under my belt and I’m proud that Josh and I have managed to furnish our apartment in a way that represents us both and makes it feel like home. I thank Jesus for all these things, because he made them all happen, no matter how hard I tried to ruin them all.
But it’s time for a change.
I find myself looking around our little home and when I used to look in appreciation at all our possessions, I just think to myself, “I don’t need any of this”. My vagabond instincts are kicking in and after nearly four years in south Florida, I’m craving change. I don’t know what that means for us, or how quickly this change will come. All I know is as long as I have Josh, I’m home, and I would love go everywhere in the world with him.
I have a feeling that my posts may become much more interesting in the near future. I hope.
xoxo,
Adora
The business of being married
My husband and I both work in ministry. He works on production at a large church and I work in the web department of an international relief and development organization. There is so much fulfillment in being able to say you really believe in the mission of the place where you work. It’s so fulfilling for Josh when he works hard at creating a cohesive church service and he gets to see people make a decision for Christ or take the next step of obedience in Baptism. I love when hard work on a web page or graphic design inspires someone to donate to a project that educates poor students in Haiti or provides water to people in need in Nicaragua or shelters an orphan in Zambia. We are so blessed in our jobs. That being said, ministry is beyond a full time commitment.
In our first year of our marriage there have been countless late nights spent apart because of the requirements of our jobs. While we wouldn’t change jobs for the world right now, it has caused a lot of issues. Our different temperaments, the different ways we were raised, and our vastly different views on how a house should be kept have caused a lot of tension. I was talking with an older person the other day, who has been married for 40+ years and they told me that all the issues I told them about came down to just one issue: communication. All the tension, they said, is based on differing expectations that haven’t spelled out for each other, and our busy schedules were ensuring that we wouldn’t be able to tell each other everything we needed in casual conversation. One issue seems so much more conquerable than dozens so I took the rest of their advice.
They told me to have Josh write down everything he could think of that we should communicate on once a week, and for me to do the same. So we did. Not surprisingly many of the points were the same on both of our lists. So, I’ve taken the lists and created a document. We’ve both agreed to meet every Monday, review the document and the dozen or so question is asks, and together write down our answers. This thing covers everything from bills to sexual expectations to social engagements to household chores to prayer and beyond. We talk about how the previous week was and our expectations for the coming week. Then we will place it in a binder and keep them all there each week adding the fresh document.
This way, we get the business of having a life together out of the way in about an hour each week and then, when we do have precious time together, it can be spent just enjoying each other – as friends, the way we started. We’re only a few weeks in, but I really think if we stick with it – it will be a useful tool. Has anyone else tried something like this?
xoxo,
Adora
Hold on to your butts
How beautiful our couch used to be
…because you may actually fall into my couch these days.
When we got our 13 foot long 8.5 feet deep couch of craigslist it seemed like the greatest deal we’ve ever scored. And it was! For two or three solid months.
The the cracks started. And continued.
Then the cats discovered the feel of fake leather under an extended claw. That continued.
Then cracks gave way to full on tears on well worn sections and the simple peeling away of the top layer in other sections. And so on and so on.
Then I read some random blog where the woman said tent repair patches will blend in to the leather and stay on. She lied. The patches however did take off in big chunks the parts of the couch that were just starting to peel. Thats… helpful.
Now I’ve resorted to ducktape, which you may be thinking is hideous looking, but it literally can’t make this couch look worse. My goal is at least to close the giant gashes and stop the peels from falling on the floor by ducktaping all of them together.
All because, hope is on the horizon. Hope in this case, is my moms amazing talent at anything she’s ever attempted. This talent extends to sewing. My mom and Dad have promised to come and visit Josh and me soon. My mom already knows that as soon as she gets here, operation couch cover goes into effect. I have no talent for sewing and zero experience making slip covers so we will see how that turns out. I promise I’ll post whatever we come up with, no matter how bad it turns out.
Time will tell, do you sew? Do you sew slipcovers? Do you want to sew my slipcover?
xoxo,
Adora
NTEN NTC Day 3
The final (most exhausting) day of NTEN NTC is over. We’ve learned all we could while we were here & tomorrow at 4am we will be in a cab on our way to the airport – homeward bound. Here are some snapshots of the day.
breakfast
plenary
#13NTCvoice
lunch
quick trip to the bookstore to pick up josh’s present
#13NTClvlup
#13NTCsmpol
dinner
bike laws
last look at the city
xoxo,
Adora
NTC Day 2
Today was a full NTEN – NTC conference day, even more break out sessions than yesterday followed by a networking outing and business dinner. Here are some pictures of the day:
Early Breakfast
After Breakfast Plenary
#13NTCcamp
lunch and the announcement of the new .ngo URL extension
#13NTCwuw
reviewing notes between sessions
#13NTCvideo
cramming 20 people into a small elevator after the last session
networking event
xoxo,
Adora