New addiction

Nothing too exciting at our house, but I have discovered a new addiction-- LOST. I had heard people rave about the tv series Lost, but I had never seen it before. In fact, I wasn't really too interested in seeing it. There just isn't much worth seeing on tv in the summer, so I decided to give Lost a try through netflix. I'm HOOKED! In fact this weekend, I ended up renting most of season 2 at a local video store because I didn't want to wait for a new disk to be shipped from netflix. I'm such a silly girl! :) So I crocheted some booties as a gift for a friend who is expecting, and watched Lost all weekend. Mark had NO interest AT ALL in watching it with me has gotten a bit sucked in as well. I have to pause and catch him up a lot. Missing one episode of that show can leave you missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle. Season 3 isn't on DVD yet, so I have to figure out how to catch myself up the rest of the way before their next season starts!

Thankful for the little things

I had a dentist appointment on Friday. The hygienist started going on and on about his wife and son going out of town and how bored he is without them. They are his whole life. His wife is due to have their 2nd child in about 6 weeks. Between mouthfuls of hand, in a round-about way I was able to share with him that we had been trying to have a baby for several years. He said he understood. He and his wife had tried for 2 years and had 2 miscarriages before conceiving their now 16 month-old son. They set up an appointment with some sort of specialist, and were at their initial consult when they found out she was already pregnant! At this point, I kinda thought maybe this guy really does get it. But then he went on and on.... Then the dentist comes in for my exam, so the hygienist goes on some more about the car seats and how it's harder than they thought to get the 2 car seats into their smaller car, and tells me the dentists wife just had a baby 2 weeks ago, and was asking him all kinds of questions. Good grief, I almost thought I was at an OB's office, with all the pregnancy and baby talk, instead of a dentists office. I kept thinking how thankful I was that I was in an OK place with my infertility journey that day. I can think of many many days that I would have been choking back tears to hear all of that. Hopefully I'm still in that good place when I go back today for sealants, and in a couple of weeks for a filling!

I made the call!

Well, as I draw closer to reaching the some of the goals set before me, I'm getting excited again about doing treatment again. After comparing work calendars, Mark and I are aiming for the end of August, or early September. Actually more like I'm aiming and Mark is along for the ride. He is so easy going about all of this. He's ok with whatever happens, he just hurts that I hurt. What a true gem I have been blessed with!

Being the planner I am, I want to know what to expect. So I made up my list of questions, and called the RE's office. I got a call back yesterday. The nurse called in a prescription to my regular pharmacy for the meds to jump-start my cycle. She called another pharmacy with connections for discounted fertility meds, and she is mailing me a copy of the chart they use to track the cycle days, and what needs to be done when. That way we're looking at the same page when I call in mid-cycle with questions. Everything is set and ready to go when I am.

Now I just need to get myself ready! I'm down 17 pounds. At least 8 more pounds to go, and about a week and a half of my bible study. Mark and I have started reading each morning together from a book called "Moment's for Couples Who Long for Children," by Ginger Garrett. Ok, so that's not completely true. We don't read it together. Mark reads it to me while I put on my makeup. (Once again, what a gem!!) I normally don't have a lot of extra time in the morning, and evenings don't work well for us to do things together consistently. This book is great for that though. It's called "Moments..." for a reason. Each section is only 1-2 pages, so it's not a huge time commitment. So that's about all that's new in this neck of the woods. I pray your day is blessed!

Honey-Do List

Bad, blogger. Bad, bad, blogger. Until last night I haven't updated my blog in 2 months. I feel like if we're not actively working towards having a baby, that I have nothing to say that anyone would care to read. My sweet husband doesn't believe anyone really reads the blog, so he often leaves comments. But I have been doing a lot. So last night I did some updating to the blog. I have backdated the blog so all of the entries for the last 2 months are new, but look "old." Sneaky huh?? Now for more of what I've been up to.

Quite some time ago, about a year and a half or two years ago, I felt a stirring in my heart. God was speaking to me, and calling me to a time of preparation. Preparing for what?? I'm not sure. But preparation none-the-less. He gave me a list of things to do. A "honey-do" list. None of the things on my list were particularly difficult. I put a little effort into it at the time. And within a few weeks, brushed it aside. I've revisited those thoughts here and there, but still never put the effort into them that I needed to. I am very glad to say that over the last couple of months I have once again recognized the need for obedience, and I have been putting a great deal more effort into my list. So you might be asking what kind of list God would give me? I'll share it with you.

Honey-Do Area's of Preparation

• Spiritually - My walk with Him has not been as it should for quite some time. I've been existing, but not drawing near to Him. Very specifically I felt called to finish the Beth Moore bible study that I purchased a couple of years ago called "Believing God." progress - Beginning week 8 of 10!


• Physically - I am overweight! I lost more than 30 pounds before I met Mark, and after we got married, I gained all that back.... multiplied! I have known all along that being overweight increases my PCOS symptoms, and in turn makes it harder to conceive. Not o mention that it's just plain unhealthy! progress - 16 pounds gone.... lots more to go, but still 16 pounds gone!


• Our Home - God has blessed us with a very nice home. There are lots of things I want to do to our home, and I've been slowly working on them. However there was one specific area that NEEDED work. In my family we refer to it as "Chuck's Room." We have no one in our family named Chuck. So why does Chuck have a room?? Because you open the door and chuck things in. When we moved into the house 2 and a half years ago, Chucks room was where we put anything that we didn't know where to put, or didn't have room to put, or just didn't want to take care of. I have attempted cleaning it out many times. I even had a crib set up in there for awhile. But there has been lots of emotional baggage tied to that room. The crib remains empty. The room doesn't yet serve the purpose I dreamed of when we first walked through it. Also in the area of our home, I have been working on things that I want to do to it that would be harder to do with a baby. I don't consider those things a requirement on the list though... just extra credit! progress - Chucks Room is CLEAN!!! The closet isn't yet, but the ROOM is clean! You can see the carpet!!! This is monumental! I'll add (terribly embarrassing) before and after pictures just so you can appreciate it! I do want to add that the before pictures are no indication of the rest of our house! We do keep the rest of our house in tidy order, chucks room is just the unseen area.

So now you know what I've been up to! It's very sad, but I feel almost like the Children of Israel wandering in the desert just outside of their promised land, because of unbelief and disobedience. Hopefully my wandering isn't quite as long as theirs! I am working on things though. That is all I can do now. I am recognizing the importance of obedience for the sake of obedience, not just for a reward. I do have to wonder if my disobedience is the reason our baby is in heaven, and not inside me. I can't dwell on that thought though, only move forward.

Bathroom Update

Here is my latest project. Only one before picture, and that is the picture with the carpet. In a week I tore up the carpet and the little vinyl patch around the toilet, layed tile, and put beadboard and chair rail on the walls with a new border and new towel bars.

Reflections

First of all, this might get a little long and wordy, but I just need to let this out.

I am doing a Beth Moore bible study called Believing God. I paid for the study A LONG time ago, and for one reason or another, never got more than a few weeks into it (I think it's 10 weeks long) but that's a story for another post. For this post, I'd like to just say I'm really glad I'm finally doing it. I'm really getting something out of it. One thing I have known for awhile, but is really hitting home to me this week is knowing God has a plan for my life. My first mom died when I was 3. While it is true that children are resilient, that was still a life altering thing for me. It caused a great deal of sadness throughout my childhood. I couldn't really remember her, but just KNOWING I used to have a different mom, and she died was hard. But this week I was reminded of how God's hand was in that situation all along. I am not saying God caused bad things to happen. I don't believe that. I do believe however that He does allow things to happen in our lives, and uses them.

More and more I am reminded of God's protection, especially during the most difficult times. God used a very bad thing-- cancer-- to urge my mom to get her life right with Him. She was a christian when she died, and she is at perfect peace in heaven now. God used a terrible thing --the death of my mom-- to handpick the perfect family to raise me to love Him. God used those events to protect us. Who would have thought of that? Cancer to protect someone?? There is no doubt in my mind if those things hadn't happened, I would not be who I am today. My mom died 26 years ago next week. It's taken me a lifetime to appreciate God's hand in these very sad, very difficult situations. Just last night while recapping these events in the earliest season of my life for my "Believing God" lesson, I started to wonder... years down the road in life, how will I see God's hand when I think of infertility, or our miscarriage? I WANT to see His hand in this. I KNOW God had a reason for blessing us with our tiny baby for such a short time, only to take him to heaven before we could ever even see him. It's another terrible situation, but I have to know that God isn't surprised by this.

What's the Plan? ~Devotion~

I wrote a devotion about a month ago to be shared on Hannah's Prayer. It didn't get read very much there, so I decided to share it here as well.

What’s the Plan?

My family loves to get together, but things are often left unorganized until the last minute. It seems I find myself asking them “What are we going to do? What’s the plan?”

In your own life do you ever find yourself wondering what the plan is? I’ve wondered that many times. I remember one specific time that I asked God. I remember it so clearly, that while it was 10 years ago, it’s as clear as if it were yesterday. I was 19, and my first love had just broken up with me. I was devastated. I was so sure he was the one I was going to marry. I could barely get myself out of bed in the morning. I was on my way to work, and cried out to God, “Please! Just show me how this is going to turn out.” My reasoning for this request was simple. If I knew how it was going to work out-one way or the other- I would have the strength to get through it. I got an answer to my request. It just wasn’t the one I wanted.

God laughed at me. I heard Him. He laughed. Not the mean hurtful laugh of one relishing in the pain of another, but the very opposite. It was a warm gentle chuckle as He softly said “And just how much faith would that take?” It’s taken years for those words to really sink in. If I had all the answers, if I knew the plan, how much would I really lean on Him?

I know what MY plan is. But His ways are not my ways. He has a much bigger plan for my life than I can even begin to imagine. We’ve all heard that, or something along those lines countless times. As difficult as it can sometimes be to hear, it’s true! I love Jeremiah 29:11, this is The Message translation.

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out-- plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

“I know what I’m doing.” How can you argue with God when He says that?? When I think about God’s plan for my life though, I can get pretty self-centered. After all, it is His plan for MY life. I often forget though that He has a lot of plans He’s coordinating. With that thought I’m reminded of an illustration I once heard when I worked in youth ministry.

A lady was working on a project while her grandson was on the floor playing with toys. He looked up several times to see a needle pierce the cloth. Her steady hand pulled the needle from below in one place, and pushed it back up through he cloth in another place. Every now and then, she would clip the string and choose another color of string, and begin stitching again. The boy looked up and saw a bunch of crisscrossed colors and tattered strings . He wondered why she would spend so much time making such a mess!

So finally he asked her. “Just you wait,” She told him. So he continued playing and she continued stitching. Finally she called him over, lifted him on to her lap to see a beautiful tapestry. She explained that from his view below all he could see was the messy underside, but from above she could see a work of art. Each of those stitches was necessary to make the whole picture come together.

Oh the countless times I’ve looked up to wonder why God was making such a mess out of things! Now just try to imagine the beautiful masterpiece He’s creating, weaving our lives together, in tragedy and triumph.

Romans 8:28 NIV
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Something to think about. How much would you lean on Him if you knew the plan?

More local travel

Yesterday Mark and I decided to do some more local exploration. This time we went south-east to the "South Hills." We were scouting for some camping spots. We didn't find anywhere we really wanted to go camping, but it was a nice drive. And we came across this VERY funny (gross but funny!) sign. I'm thinking about sending it to Letterman!

Our animals

We are blessed with wonderful animals. We loved them like family. Our kitties are sisters. They love to be together. They are rarely apart.

And our dog Lady. She is my baby. She's a 50 pound lap dog. She is truly a gift from God. I don't know how I would have made it through these years of longing for a child without her. I Thank God for his blessings!!

March of Dimes and Father's Day

Busy weekend! Mark is on-call for work, so we must stay close to home, so we decided to skip the normal family festivities. Part of this was for me. Mother's Day and Father's Day will never again be the same for me. Friday night we took our parents out to dinner to celebrate Father's Day with our dads. We had a nice time together with our parents.

Mark had to work Saturday, and earlier in the week I got suckered into walking in the March of Dimes Walk America with the team from my office. I had thought about it a couple of months ago, but Mark talked me out of it. Much to Mark's upset, I got talked back into it. I'm not so sure why he didn't want me to walk. I had to remind him that he himself benefited from March of Dimes as a premie. I ended up walking. 6.2 Miles is a long way to walk when one isn't prepared to do so! I really didn't think I would make it the whole way, but once I made it 2/3's of the way, I was determined to finish. It was a good feeling to finish, but I'm a bit sore for it!

For Father's Day, I wasn't going to go to church. The thought really hadn't occurred to Mark that we might not go. So I figured if anyone had a right to be upset today it should be Mark, and if he wants to go, then we shall go. When they asked all of the Father's to stand up, I think it really hit Mark. Even though he knew he is a Father, he didn't stand up. I think he didn't want to feel like he needed to justify or explain that our child is in heaven. I had a rough time in the service we ended up staying for prayer afterwards. The music minister is the one that came to pray with us. What a devine appointment. He and his wife suffered through infertility and ended up adopting their son. He spoke to us with great compassion from someone who has been down that road.

Women's Retreat

Mark and I both grew up in Assembly of God churches. His parents and mine both attend A/G churches. Mark and I do not. We belong to a church we love called Lighthouse Christian Fellowship. We have nothing against A/G churches, but we just felt led to the church we are a part of. My oldest sister's husband is an Assembly of God pastor. She invited my mom and I to go to women's retreat with her church.

I decided to go. The retreat is in a beautiful facility surrounded by some of God's most amazing scenery. I went with expectations. I want to be healed. It feels like my body has failed me in so many ways. We have been trying to have a baby for more than 4 years now, and my body can't even have a miscarriage the way it should! It's very frustrating. So at the end of the first night, the speaker had an alter call for women who needed a healing in their bodies. She first called for people with specific conditions, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. Then she called for anyone that wanted a healing in their body. My mom told me I had to go up. I wanted to, but didn't know if that was necessarily what I was supposed to do. I dismissed that in my mind as fear. Fear of not being healed. Fear of disappointment. So I went up. There were so many women at the altar for prayer that I had to wait for probably about an hour. When she got to me and asked what I needed prayer for, I told her between my tears about our efforts to have a baby, and our recent loss. She told me that she doesn't pray for couples to have babies. She never had a baby, and there are lots of children around for me to love on. She said she would pray for God to give us a child only if that child would make heaven it's home. She didn't pray for my body to be healed. I left that alter angry.

Later, my mom was speaking with a member of the prayer team that travels with this speaker, and she said what a great track-record the speaker has for praying for babies. Every year she has women come up to her with their miracles conceived after she prayed for them. She didn't pray for me to be healed. She didn't really pray for me to have a baby. What was I supposed to get out of that? I don't know. In the end, I think it was some confirmation of some things I needed to hear. I guess maybe I was pinning my faith on the prayers of a person, not God. How sad. :( It really isn't about me. God does have a plan, and I need to learn to wait on that plan. The rest of the retreat was good, once I got passed that. While the retreat wasn't what I had hoped for or expected, I did get some confirmations of things I needed to hear. God has given me directions. He has given me my honey-do list to work on. I just need to keep working on it. Will this bring me a baby? I don't know. I guess in the end that's not what matters. I need to be obedient. Lots of rambling here, but I'm getting my thoughts out. More on that later! With this, I'll leave you with some more pictures.

Local Tourists!

We talked about going away for memorial day weekend, but in the end decided against it. I have spent my entire life in Southern Idaho. The problem with spending my entire life in one area is that it's easy for me to overlook the beauty that surrounds me. Mark didn't grow up in this area, and he's not entirely familiar with some of the local attractions. So we

decided to be local tourists. We grabbed our sunglasses, some snacks and the camera and hopped in the car and started driving. I think the farthest we got from home was about 40 miles, but the beauty is amazing when you slow down to admire it! We looked like we were out-of-towners, stopping along the road to take pictures. We really didn't care. We had a great time together. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures from our day!

The beauty of spring

Let me start by saying, I do not have a green thumb. I have one houseplant that has survived for nearly 6 years now, and I'm trying to figure out how! I'm told it's very drought-tolerant! But I am trying! :) We have been in our home for 2 and a half years now. (We moved in 18 -months to the day - from our wedding date. So here is a look around the beauty of spring at our house.

Last year I was given a gift certificate to a local nursery. I looked and looked, but couldn't decide on what to choose. Finally I decided on a chinese wisteria. I chose it because of the beautiful flowers pictured on the tag. I was saddened to find out later that it only blooms in spring, and I had already missed it's flowers for the year. Yesterday I was outside pulling weeds, and I looked up to see this beautiful delicate flower. So far it's the only bloom on the vine. I'm hoping for more. I wish I could make this picture a scratch and sniff. The smell of this flower is amazing! I really need to work on something for this Wisteria to climb on!



Our first spring in this home, I kept my niece while my sister was a a retreat. As a thank you gift, she gave me his clematis. It's got some beautiful blooms on it as well. I hope it will grow bigger this year than it has in past years. I need to get myself some miracle grow for this one! There is lattice on op of the fence behind the trellis. I'd love for the clematis to take over the fence!

And here is a glimpse into my "secret garden." I created this last year. It's a work in progress. But there are several things that have come back from last year. I'll take more pictures as more things come into bloom. Part of yesterday's work was to plant the moss between the stepping stones of the garden floor. I chose the moss because it is fast growing. I'm hoping it takes over all the cracks quickly! The floor of the garden is made up of cement stepping stones that are molded to look like stone. When I started the garden, I envisioned a large stone floor that had been broken into many pieces, with ground cover growing in the cracks. I'm getting there.


I'm still waiting on my lilacs to bloom, so you'll have to wait to see pictures of those. The bushes are sure growing though! They were the first thing I planted our first spring in our home. They were planted even before the grass. When we had nothing but a dirt lot with a house in the middle! So more pictures to come as spring continues to progress around us!

Our Anniversary

4 years ago today, I married my prince charming. It was a beautiful wedding, on a breezy and cool, but still lovely day. I remember it well. Today we celebrated that day. Mark and I both took the afternoon off of work. I made it home before Mark did, so I did a couple of things around the house. I replaced the broken keypad on the keyless opener for the garage. Mark came home and we went to town, did a little bit of shopping. We got Mark a fishing pole and some accessories as his anniversary gift. We then went to lunch together and had fajitas. MMMMM! Our favorite place for fajitas is still Cafe Ole in Boise, but that's 2 hours away. So we decided to try out a mexican restaurant we hadn't eaten at before. It was wonderful. The service was great and the food was very good as well.

After lunch Mark took me to the mall and I go a pedicure. It was a wonderful relaxing time. She offered to paint a flower on my toe. turned out very well. Even if you can't see it in the picture very well. Once the pedicure was complete, Mark and I took a short drive. Then we came home, and I took a nap for about an hour. Mark woke me up and it was time for our Lifegroup bible study. All in all a wonderful anniversary!

Mother's Day Survival

After an emotionally tough weekend I think I've survived Mother's Day. It was definitely not without tears. I did have a couple of family members acknowledge our loss, and the difficulty I was having with the holiday. I gave myself a backup (or maybe better put, back out) plan in case I wasn't up to the normal family festivities. I delivered my brother's birthday gift, and my mom's mother's day gift both on Saturday. In the end I decided to go.

Thanks for those that were praying for me. I know that was a huge help in getting me through the day.

Big step

I have struggled with Mother's Day a lot over the last few years. This year is different. This year I am blessed to be able to say I AM a mom. I've never been able to say that before. While I'm blessed to be able to say I'm a mom, I'm also still very grieved at the passing of our child. The physical part of my miscarriage is finally over, but the emotional aspect still lingers. That's one thing I think a lot of people don't understand. This wasn't just a pregnancy that didn't work out. We had a baby and it died. I feel like there are some people that don't understand this, and are maybe a bit critical that I am still grieving. I would like to challenge them to hold onto that criticism until they have walked a mile in these shoes.

Wow, have I gotten sidetracked or what? I came to talk about a big step I took today. My birthday was February 1, right in the midst of our treatment cycle. I was so hopeful for this cycle, that when I received a mall gift certificate from my sisters, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to use it for. I was going to save it for the long awaited maternity clothes. I have been saving that gift certificate in the bottom of my purse all these months. Every time I've thought about spending it, that thought was met with a great deal of sadness and anxiety. Today I used it to purchase a new bible. It's an Message/NIV parallel bible. I'm excited about it.

On a side note, I would like to ask for prayer for a blog-friend Ramona and her husband Wade. This mother's day will be particularly hard for them as they just learned yesterday of the loss of 2 more of their precious children to a failed IVF treatment, bringing their total number of children in heaven to 6. I know the pain I feel at the loss of one child, I can't imagine that compounded. Please pray for these dear people.

Touched

When Mark and I met, he was a youth minister at his church, and I was doing youth and children's ministry at mine. After we married, we did the children's ministry together, and Mark did music ministry at the small church I belonged to. For various reasons, we left that church about 2 and a half years ago. Sadly, since then, we have been going to church very casually-- Never REALLY getting involved. Mark wanted to, but I think I resisted. I don't even want to get into the reasons, or worse, the excuses for this. Last Sunday after church, I walked by a table, and signed us up for a small group. Our church now calls them "Lifegroups- Do life Together."

We know one of the couples that co-hosts this lifegroup, so that helped me in choosing this group. It's specifically for married couples. We went tonight. There were 5 couples total at this Lifegroup. We opened by introducing ourselves. Then We sang a few worship songs. The Last Song was "Lord You're Beautiful"

"Oh Lord You’re beautiful

Your face is all I seek

For when Your eyes are on this child

Your grace abounds to me."

When we sang this song, the tears really began streaming down my face. I didn't want to cry. I just couldn't stop it. I want to reach a point that His face is all I seek. It seems that over the last few years I've wanted to be a mom so bad that I spend a whole lot of energy seeking that. Probably more than I spend seeking Him. This must change. The other part of that really got me was this: "For when Your eyes are on this child, your grace abounds to me." Think about those words. Soak them in. Wow. When are His eyes not on us? Even as I have felt a whole range of emotions after losing our only baby, God has had his eyes on me, and I have been surrounded by His grace. I just felt so touched. I want to cry again now.

Silly blood pressure!

I had to go back to the doctor's office again today. Just to have the nurse check my blood pressure. Late last week Mark and I went to our favorite store Costco and bought a blood pressure monitor. My blood pressure was a whole lot lower at home than it was at the doctor's office for my last appointment. Interesting huh? So I took my monior with me to the doctor's office today. I checked my blood pressure at work in the morning, and it was 127/76. At the doctor's office, as soon as I walked in the door and was standing in line, I felt myself getting anxious. When she checked me, it was 142/87. So either I have a funky monitor, or I'm freaking out at the doctor's office. Which in light of doctor's appointments over the last couple of months, isn't out of the question. I pulled out my monitor and checked, and it was very close to what she got. So I don't have a funky monitor.

Silly blood pressure!

Doctor's Appointment

I had an appointment with my general family doctor yesterday. Wow.... how exhausting! Don't ya love it when they make you take your clothes off and sit in a room and wait on them. :) Looking around the room there were all kinds of mommy and me type things. I could feel the tears welling up. When the nurse came in, first of all, there were the apologies. She felt so bad about the congratulations call a couple of weeks ago. When she took my blood pressure it was abnormally high. The nurse left, and I was alone in the room. Being alone with my thoughts is still hard. Left alone with them very long, I lose it. Then the doctor came in. All he could say at first was "Darn, Darn, Darn, Darn, Darn." Doctor Irwin is such a nice man. He did the initial exam and then had the nurse, Laurie, come back in for my pap. Normally I'd go to my doctor in Boise for this, but I just didn't want to mess with the travel for just a pap. Dr Irwin said he'd send the results to Dr. Lowder and Dr Foulk in Boise for me.

After my pap was done, they talked with me about the high blood pressure, and of course, the need to lose weight. They they asked how I was doing. All in all, I cried, and they both listened for about 45 minutes. That's a great doctor for ya! Yes, you do have to wait in the waiting room FOREVER there at times, but I guess it makes it better knowing they aren't afraid to spend time on someone who needs it. It was very validating for me. Most people in my day to day life don't know what to say. So they don't say anything. Sometimes I just want to scream. My baby died, and my life changed forever. Life is back to normal for everyone else. I know Mark hurts. He just doesn't say it, or show it.

Ok, enough of the babbling! My current mission is to work on my blood pressure! I want to do another ovulation induction & IUI cycle, but I'm not sure when that's going to happen.

Home Improvements

I've been a bad blogger lately. I haven't updated in about a month. I've been working on a home improvement project for awhile. My original intent was for dictraction from recent life events. I really threw myself into this project. Giving it every spare minute. I think it really turned out beautifully. We got a screaming good deal on cheap (errrr uhhhh, reasonably priced) ceramic tiles. Then I splurged on the accent tiles. Those really make the design. I designed the layout myself, and Mark and I helped my dad lay the cement board, and then my dad and I did got a good portion of it done while Mark was out of town for work.

Here are before and after pictures as well as some construction pictures.