Kitchen is still under construction!

Kitchen Update:

We have removed the large cabinets that hung over the breakfast bar.  (If I were sitting on the stools at the breakfast bar, I have to duck under the cabinet to see whomever is in the kitchen!) This left a large hole in the ceiling.  

Tommy and others placed sheet rock to cover the hole and have been floating it out so we cannot see the new ceiling. 

Kim and I made a trip to San Francisco for an amazing project table Pottery Barn desk as well as the pendant lights you see over the breakfast bar. Tim installed the pendant lights in place of the cabinet. And if you can see the 4 lights through the plastic, you can see that the box light is gone and recessed lighting is in its place!! THANK YOU TIM!! He has spent so much time in the attic, through the walls, and making there be light where there was NO light before!! Can't wait to see it finished!

Cabinets have been sanded, primed, and have received their many coats of cream color enamel paint! We also picked up all of the cabinet hardware at the Expo! Thanks Eric and Greg for installing it all!!

Ladders!

We have some very tall ceilings in our new house and the engineering husband that I have, happens to be a perfectionist : ) He of course wanted to paint the ceilings and cut in perfectly in the very high corners. So, he and the men in his family built a clever platform for the ladder to go on over the stairs! So creative! 

Paint, Paint, and MORE Paint!

Which equals more trips to Home Depot, more color decisions and LOTS of friends and family helping!! We are deciding on the paint for the family room, the living room/dining room, and the downstairs bedroom, and the office. I can officially say that I hate picking colors! Thanks to Kim for helping me and also teaching me about the squinting of the eye trick : ) Thanks Bryanna and Colleen for letting me bounce ideas off of you! And thanks to Rod, Tommy, Eric and Genie, Kim, Tim, Elizabeth, Mom, Matt, Larry, Katie for helping us paint!! You guys are all incredible! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Kitchen Construction!

Mom's here! The interior work begins! We are painting EVERYTHING! Demo-ing the downstairs bath and we are re-finishing the cabinets. Well, Steve Donato (our cabinet hero!) is doing an incredible job with the cabinets! His attention to detail is awesome and he is such a hard worker! They are coming along nicely! Eric and Genie helped remove all the cabinets and hinges to get the project started! Thanks guys!!

The construction begins...

These photos were taken before we lived here. Notice the dark stained cabinets, the large box florescent light on the ceiling, and the cabinet over the breakfast bar.....soon to be all changed!

Here are some before photos...

This willow tree could be the death of us!!

Greg glaring at the Willow Tree!!

Everyone knows that I love trees! I cry when trees are cut down, I hate change, and my last name (now middle) is Green...call me a hippie, call me a tree hugger, call me a part of the green movement, whatever you wish..I just love trees- alot! EXCEPT this one!  Two days before we closed escrow the pool was a beautiful sparkling blue, the yard was free from any leaves and it looked like it could just use some flowers....Well not today! Not the day we close escrow...

 

Surprise! The Willow Tree decides to shed ALL of its leaves, fill the yard with these little yellow leaves, turn the pool a nasty color, and shed some more leaves!  I tell you... this Willow Tree could be the death of us! 

First things first.. FLOWERS OF COURSE!

VERY 1ST TASK..PLANT FLOWERS!

Yes, that's right! The very first thing on my (yes, Bree's. Not Greg's : ) list is to plant some flowers!  So that I did. Early Saturday morning (the day after my dad and Sus have arrived) we went straight to Home Depot and bought some flowers!

Daffodils it is! I love the vibrant yellow they immediately provided for all to enjoy on the back deck! Tommy took these pictures! Great pics T-Tommy!

Surprise! The outdoor crew is here!

We had just received the good news on Friday, signed papers, etc. It was late in the evening and Greg and I were just sitting at the kitchen table in our condo discussing the huge purchase we had just made! We were also trying to guess at how many times we signed our name that day : ) My dad had called and I was on the phone with him when we got a knock at our door...guess who! My Dad and Sus! They drove all the way down to surprise us!! And let me tell you, they did not come empty handed! Since you know how much they love the outdoors and working in the yard, they came with a truckload of brand new outdoor tools! Rakes, shovels, clippers, wheelbarrow, shop vac, vaccuum, air compressor, sander, oh and so much more! We could not believe it! (Although we could believe that of course they would not let a day go by without getting into that new yard to spruce it up! (And we hadn't even closed escrow, but it didn't matter! To the new yard we go!!) 

That morning was filled with pure giddiness!  I was SO excited! It was also the morning of our first of MANY trips to Home Depot! They should have frequent flier miles at Home Depot! We would have so many free flights right now!

So where to start? Well in the yard of course! 

We bought a house!! 48 hour escrow!

After a whirlwind of an escrow (48 hours!!) we are finally homeowners! We put in an offer and waited (somewhat patiently) for a long time. We waited and waited over Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and then finally in the second week of January we heard the good news! We were homeowners! We found out Friday that our offer was accepted, we had (already scheduled) inspections on Friday, and we signed papers at the Title company on Friday! Monday the funding went through and Tuesday early AM we were homeowners!!

Here are some pictures of the house. We didn't take these picture, but got them off a realtor's listing. 

From the back corner of the yard, looking toward the back deck. 

The yard is on two levels. The lower level has the pool and lawn. The upper level is a large Willow tree, Redwoods, and some rosemary plants. So a lot of open space, not sure what to plant there.

Finally Updating Our Blog! (Sorry it's been awhile!)

So much has happened since September! I will try to fill in the blanks...but the biggest news is that we bought a house! Woohoo!!!

We made it through our 1st Year!

I love being married! We really enjoyed our anniversary weekend! Eric and Genie were so gracious and let us use their beautiful house for the weekend. We had just forgot how much we enjoyed spending time together. We biked, shopped, went to a Wine and Food Festival, watched Princess Bride on a huge screen on the beach, golfed, relaxed, laughed and just enjoyed the weekend. We need more of these! ha!

Happy 22nd Birthday Tommy!

Saturday was a jam packed day! We woke Tommy up with singing, noise makers and breakfast in bed. Then went off to a leader meeting at 8 then met up with about 20 YL folks to go to the A's game. It was a fun day! We tailgated, had birthday cake and enjoyed the sunshine.   The whole day we kept looking up at the billboard where it was supposed to say, "Happy 22nd Birthday Tommy!" But we never saw it!!! What the heck! Anywho, we concluded our day with one of Greg's close friends' weddings. Quick ceremony and lots of time for a fun reception.  It was definitely a Pioneer class reunion for Greg which he really enjoyed spending the time with his high school friends. Congrats to Dave and Jeff for their recent engagements to their girlfriends! Quiet an exciting day!

Sailing Time!

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this! We went and picked up the Sunfish sailboat that my grandparents learned how to sail on and my dad learned to sail on! It is in pristine condition and is just beautiful! I cannot wait to get it on the water!! 

Tommy has a girlfriend & we adore her!!

Yep! This is exciting news! Tommy is dating an amazing girl who we cannot quit talking about. We absolutely LOVE her! Yea for Bryanna and Tommy!  Here are some super cute pics of them... enjoy their cuteness!

Mollie Almost 1 Year Old!

Mollie is almost 1 Year Old! This Saturday I was able to spend a little time with Travis' little girl Mollie and had some first's with her (at least my first time hearing/seeing) Firsts....."Hi!" with a little wave, laughing, walking. She is precious!!! Ps- Camo and lace ruffles...so cute! Only in Biggs : )

Oh Mollie! I know you will hate this picture someday, but I had to post it on here! My dad calls this "Four-Hi". Mollie doesn't like to have her knees touch the grass so when she moves onto grass she pops her caboose in the air and walks on all fours! So cute! 

Happy 28th Birthday Gregory P!

Happy Birthday to YOU! Happy Birthday to YOU! Happy Birthday dear Greg! Happy Birthday to YOU! 

Thanks Larry, Kathy, Matt, Tommy and Bryanna for taking Greg to dinner for his birthday! 

Greg and I also celebrated by having a beach party dinner at our house! Quite fun!

The Shack

The Shack- Read It! Greg and I have been listening to the audio version on our iPods and have really enjoyed it. I also was able to spend a lunch with the author as he visited us at Woodleaf for the afternoon.  Very awesome to hear someone that is so transparent about their life! 

ISRAEL VIDEOS FROM OUR TRIP!

I just found out that there are videos from our Israel trip. Dan put all his video shots together. 

Thanks Dan! 

Click here to watch the first Israel video. 

Click here to watch the second Israel video!!

Sky High aka Bouncing off the walls!

Tommy has come to live with us as of late and we are bouncing off the walls in excitement that he's here!! Check it out!

Assignment in Santa Cruz

I just returned from an easy breezy 2 week assignment in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We did a 2 week Wyldlife camp (Jr. High). I say easy breezy because it was so short compared to my 5 week assignment in San Diego last summer at the peak of wedding chaos!

It was a great time with great people. My job was head leader so basically I got to love on leaders and kids the whole time. It was such a different assignment than my previous assignments at Woodleaf and Oakbridge. It was very small, not a beautiful Young Life property, dirty, and just different. The great parts were: our small A-Team, summer staff, (no Work Crew) and under 100 kids each week. We were able to know each kid by name and create for them an awesome experience! 

For Greg and I this was a neat assignment because it is so close to San Jose (relatively) he was able to come stay off and on during the assignment. He was able to spend time with the summer staff guys as there was not a male SS coordinator.  I LOVED having him there with me! 

Also- I found Vallarta's in Felton! The BEST burritos I've ever had!! More on that to come!