He’s currently in the hospital recovering from surgery.

The other night, Dan and I prayed for my dad.  As I prayed, I specifically asked that the Lord would have mercy on my dad.  After we were done praying, I thought about the use of that word…mercy.  It’s not a word I use very often. It’s not something I pray for often, if at all.  But it seemed appropriate at the time.

The next day, I drove to the hospital to see my dad.  We chatted for a few minutes until two nurses came in the room.  The first nurse walked over to the whiteboard and erased her name because she was going home for the day.  As she wrote the new nurses name, I wasn’t sure weather to laugh or cry…..

I kid you not. Her name was Mercy.

Have you ever met anyone named Mercy before? I haven’t.

I know God was telling me that my dad was in His care…that He heard my prayer.

Do you ever wonder if God hears you?

I know, without a doubt, that God heard me that night.

Thank you, Lord, for listening. And for showing me in such a crazy way that you heard me.

God is good. Even when life stinks…when life throws you a gut wrenching curve ball….when things don’t go as you planned…. God is still in control.

jen

Design Camp was unbelievable.  Full of information and an amazing lineup of speakers!

But let’s start at the beginning…..the hotel.

We stayed at the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle.  For the first few minutes at the hotel, I had a bit of guilt….

…because this was all mine for two days!

And it was a huge hotel room.  Once I took a look around, I got over my guilt and started to enjoy myself!

They even supply you with an animal print bathrobe!

And don’t you love these brick walls!?

Ok, enough of the hotel.  On to the people.

This was the first conference I attended without my trusty sidekicks, Lori and Amanda.  But thankfully, I had a few local blog friends that I hadn’t met in person.

Meeting Stacey Steward from Steward of Design {on the left} and Maggie Morgan of Maggie Rose Interiors {on the right} was so  much fun!

And I had the opportunity to meet other great designer from across the US, like Molly Quinn from Louisiana.

Molly and I met the first evening in the hotel lobby and enjoyed hanging out during the entire conference.

And now onto the speakers…..

Design Camp was put on by Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis.  Both of these ladies are incredibly talented designers….

…and so down to earth!

They brought with them an amazing line up of speakers.

Nathan Turner {from Million Dollar Decorators} spoke on his journey to success.

Ronda Rice Carman from All the Best spoke about her journey to being published.

Cassandra Lavalle {Coco+Kelley} is a successful blogger from Seattle.  She spoke on creating and maintaining a successful blog.

But I think the most information and inspirational speaker {for me} was Kimberley Seldon.

Kimberley spoke on the business of design. She challenged each and every designer to charge what they are worth. And to not apologize for it! Not only was she encouraging and challenging to the novice and experienced designer, but she was funny as can be!

The conference was filled with so much incredible information.  If you ever have the opportunity to attend a Design Camp, DO IT! You won’t regret it for a single minute.

Thank you, thank you to Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis. You outdid yourselves.

jen

While I’m not sure of the exact numbers of runners today, there were a ton.  This race brings out the entire community.  Whether your running or spectating, it’s just fun to be a part of the festivities!

I’ve had a few frustrating winters of sickness and injuries that kept me from training for this race.  But this year was my year!  I was healthy and injury free.  So I trained and trained. And today, I made it to the starting line.

{No, I’m not walking, even though it looks like I’m walking in all of my pictures. Apparently I don’t kick my feet very high!}

And while I didn’t break any records today, I ran the best race I could run!

13.1 miles accomplished.  It was worth the wait.

And it was such a treat to have friends and family at the finish line to celebrate with me!

Now me and my achy body are getting a much needed massage tomorrow!

Aaaah….

jen

Dan was off one day this week so we headed to the Mac store to do some research.  And while we didn’t come home with a new computer, we placed an order for one!!

This is similar to the one that should be heading my way in the next few days {I hope!}.

We are a Mac family.   We drank the kool-aid and are convinced that Apple has the best products out there.

While I’m looking forward to my newer and faster computer, I hate that I’ll be without it for a day or two while all of my data is transferred over.

While I’m enjoying a computer free day, you should check out my social media pages!

Come follow me on twitter …

Or on instagram …

Or how about Pinterest …

If you don’t currently follow me on social media, please click one of the links below!  And hopefully I’ll be back in a few days visiting you from my new laptop!

jen

The hutch was in good condition.  But the red no longer matched the decor in their family room.

Several cans of spray paint later, the hutch went from red to white.

A fun evening of shopping brought home several new accessories for the shelves.

And here it is now, after it was painted and re-styled.

Here are a few close ups of the vignettes.

And once again, the final after…

What a transformation!!

jen

I have a fun guest post on May Day flower arrangements!

There are lots of ideas so come on over to check it out!

jen

Before moving in, the walls were painted a light gray and the brick around the fireplace was painted white.

Here is the fireplace today!

Quite a jaw dropping difference!

Once again, the magic of paint amazes me!

Over the next week, I’ll be revealing a few other projects from this room as well.  So make sure you come back to check it out!

jen

linking up to:

create with joy, i should be mopping the floor, home stories a to z, romance on a dime

A few years ago, we put a second story addition on our house. While we love the addition, we don’t love the extra shade that it’s giving our already shaded backyard.  Moss is a common thing here in the northwest. And in our shaded backyard, it thrives!

This is what our grass looks like in some places…

Yes, it’s mostly moss.

So we had the aerating guy came look at the grass.  And then the moss killer guy came to look at the grass.

Then that led us to call a sprinkler complany to move a few sprinkler heads to properly water our newly planted grass. And of course it turned out that a number our our sprinkler heads were leaking and needed to be replaced.

Today they finished replacing the sprinklers.  Here they are in the {muddy} ground! And they’re properly marked for the lawn guys that are coming to start their work tomorrow.

We also had mulch delivered and spread in the garden this week…

And while that work was being done, we were reminded of a huge crack in one of our fence posts.  How was I reminded?! I head a giant ‘THUD’ as the post hit the ground.

How in the world does something like that split in half!?  Seriously! We wonder if maybe a deer ran into it? Who knows. Regardless, it too needs to be fixed. So the fence guy comes tomorrow as well.

I’m ready to have my yard back to us again! Tomorrow marks the ten day mark of workers here at our house.

The highlight is that now our yard is all set for summer!  And the highlight for the kids….

…the sprinkler guy left a ton of extra flags.  It turns out they make really cool spears when you throw them into the grass!
They are in hog heaven.

Here’s hoping for no more repairs.

jen

It reminded me of my kiddo’s….we had two thumb suckers.

First there was Jack….

And then Emmie….

But today, we had a major reality check from those cozy, snuggly years of thumb sucking….

Our first visit to the orthodontist!

Jack starts tomorrow and Emmie starts phase 1 in about 9 months. So at least that will spread out the expenses of having two kids in braces! {I’m trying to find the silver lining in all of this!}

But was it all worth having two sweet thumb suckers?! One could argue that they probably would have needed braces anyway. So maybe it was worth letting them have their thumbs. After all, I did get tons of snuggles out of them!

jen

Stacey and I are fellow bloggers and fellow moms from the northwest!  And we are going to get the opportunity to meet in just a few weeks at Design Camp!

If you missed my book plant tutorial from last year, head over to Steward of Design today and check it out!!

jen