Home Renovations

The McClish family is working on a project in our home. We are adding a small room off our kitchen to serve as a mud room/dog room/storage/utility room/walk in pantry. It will have multiple uses. I say we, but Andrew has really ran solo on this. I am in more of a support role to assist him whenever he needs a drink refill, extra hand to hold something, that sort of thing.  The whole project was also his idea and he has executed it perfectly without prior construction experience! Not that I am surprised, he is brilliant like that. One of the many cool things that comes with marriage to an engineer! The need for this room came from growing our family to 2 dogs and wanting a place to keep them and their gear when we aren't home that is not one of our 3 bedrooms. I have other plans for that bedroom one day...and it is not for a dog if you know what I mean:) The added space will also provide more storage, square footage, and value to our house that may come in handy if and when we sell someday.

  

                                    

 It is difficult to imagine if you have never been to our house, but this is our pantry before. A VERY small closet type space next to our hot water heater closet. We plan to knock down the wall behind these shelves:

                                     

 Behind that wall is this space. See that Budwiser cooler (don't ask me why we have such an item..I think we bought it in a pinch at a gas station in Austin) in the top left corner shelf? That is the original pantry wall.

Andrew demolished that work bench area you can't really see. He eventually built a wall accross that space closing it in as part of the house. We now walk into the new room from the old pantry.

Before this was taken I moved all of my pantry contents to our mantle, kitchen table, and various other areas of open space I could find throughout the house and Andrew took out the shelves.

Let the demolition begin! Good thing he didn't wear his nice socks for this....

So far the wall is up and the skeleton of the room is complete! It looks great and I will take a picture soon so you can see for yoursleves. Now we Andrew, with the help of his brother who used to remodel homes for a living, will finish it out by instaling a new pantry, hanging shelves, painting (I get to help with this part), and installing new tile. I can't wait!

Nathalie

Thinking about Easter...

A couple of days ago I received an e-mail forward and out of curiosity I read through it. It was entitled “You Have To See These Pictures”…I know I am a sucker they all say that. They were pictures of metal sculptures set up on an open field depicting the crucifixion of Christ. They really were quite lovely and the sculptor responsible for them is very talented. There were multiple “scenes” communicating the life of Christ, his crucifixion, and resurrection. Under each photo was an attempt at a thought provoking caption. Here are two examples: “He disproved the law of gravity when he ascended into heaven” and “He cured the sick without prescription drugs”. Maybe a bit cheesy but true statements. Then at the end…just when I thought it wasn't one of those forwards…it said, ”If you believe in God and in Jesus Christ His Son .. Send this to all on Your buddy list. If not just ignore it. If you ignore it, just remember that Jesus said. 'If you deny me before man, I will deny you before my Father in Heaven’. You must send them to 8 people. In 8 minutes you will receive something you have long awaited.”

Seriously???

So I have to send this to 8 people or I basically don't love Jesus? And if I do send it to 8 people (as if God needs us to send e-mail forwards to bring him glory) “I will receive something I have long awaited in 8 minutes”? Hummm....really? Now I realize that most people who read this nonsense also thought that part was a little hokey. I mean if anyone truly thought their wish would come true 8 minutes after an e-mail blast they might be a little hokey. I get that, but it got me to thinking about my own pursuit of God's favor. At first I grew angry reading these lies because God does not work in response to something we do. God has a sovereign plan for us and no matter how many Jesus e-mails we send, church services we attend, or good deeds we do, we cannot control him or earn his blessings. Yet how often do I fail at resting in this truth? Even if I can see this e-mail is a load of dung, do I not have a false sense of entitlement when I do all of the "Christian things" I think are so pleasing to God? How foolish!

It was easy for me to pity the author of this forward who completely missed the point of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It is harder to face that at times I also attempt to control God even when I know and firmly believe I can't. Isn't that idiotic? The truth is, Jesus suffered and died on that cross to absorb the wrath of God for a people (us) who could never repay their debts to him. Praise His name that Grace is through faith alone! There is such freedom in the fact that we are His through Christ and our desire to spread his name is not for our own gain, but for a longing for others to know Him. As we prepare to celebrate Easter, it was good for me to reflect on the truth of who Christ is, struggle with where I fall short, and rest in what his death and resurrection really means.

Nathalie  

House Divided

In the collegiate culture, when a man and woman marry across school lines, it results in a “House Divided”. You may be familiar with these bumper stickers or flags (we do not have one of these stickers/flags by the way). My alma mater is Baylor University located in the fine town of Waco Texas. Yes that is the place all that crazy Branch Dividian stuff happened in the 90ies, but it really it has a lot of charm. I loved attending Baylor and you could say I was and still am proud to be a Baylor Bear. Andrew got both of his degrees from the University of Texas A&M hence the “division”.

Texas A&M is a rival school to Baylor. Now I use the word “rival” loosely, because A&M really doesn’t see Baylor as a rival (according to Andrew). It may be because Baylor historically has not been known for its competitive athletic teams, and was always an easy win for A&M. In any case, A&M is a very traditional school and the students/alumni are passionate “Aggies” as they call themselves. This passion is expressed through a series of chants, cheers, school songs, and of course the “WHOOP” that are sung, yelled, and waved at any school function, wedding, or athletic event. Andrew is slow to participate in these expressions of association to Texas A&M, but is certainly proud to be an Aggie. He also thinks A&M is a far superior school to Baylor academically as well as in athletics which is an on going debate in our household. I don’t see us resolving this any time soon, and if I am honest, it is pretty fun to be on opposing sides. I have had moments where I have thought about what it would be like to be one of those couples walking hand in hand on campus years after graduation with our little children dressed up in the school’s colors. Those families are so cute. BUT since I never want to be married to nor have children with anyone other than Andrew that will never be our family. I am OK with that and even cheer on A&M when they are not playing Baylor. I also embrace some of their traditions especially the one where you have to kiss every time the Aggies score…who doesn’t like that?

Now, prior to our marriage, Baylor’s list of athletic accomplishments included one women’s basketball championship and a long list of Olympic runners. However, Andrew and most of the general public don't really know about that. The funny thing is, since we have been married, Baylor has made quite the showing in football and men’s basketball, the two sports Andrew follows regularly. In fact, the picture of us at the top of the blog was taken on a bus traveling to the 2008 A&M vs. Baylor football game where Baylor went on to win! It was an exciting day to be a Bear! Sort of like today as Baylor is competing tonight for a spot in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite 8, something the men’s basketball program has never achieved! As our house is “divided”, I can’t say Andrew is as elated as me (A&M was eliminated from the tournament last week) but he has to admit Baylor has “rival” potential!

SIC’EM,

Nathalie

The McClish Household Celebrates the Coming of Spring

To the rest of the world, spring is marked by budding trees, warming weather, and longer days. However, the McClish household prides itself in the untraditional. Therefore, each spring as other husbands trim their lawns, mine works on another type of landscaping......on his face. I have come to call it the annual Beard Transition Day. It is the one day Andrew takes his beard to a new and often scary place. Once he receives a reaction from his co-workers and our church Home Group, he is contented with shaving until November when he will re-grow his beard to begin the cycle once again. Each year he chooses a different "style" as doing the same shave each year would prove boring and predictable. He wears it with pride causing poor innocent bystanders (new people at small group, grocery store clerks, etc..) to question the seriousness of it all, and finds it particularly funny if they think he seriously chose the look for his face. Below are the pictures from the 2009 Transition Day. Here he chose to go with the "Pedismile" as it has come to be know because...well...I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

For the 2010 "Transition Day" there was much more mixed interpretation of the "look". Some suggestions were: Leprechaun, Civil War Soldier, and Elvis.

The picture quality is not so great, but I hope you are still able to appreciate the "chops"....it makes me laugh anyway.

Have a great day!

Nathalie

What is a girl to do....

When her hair dryer catches fire?! Yes...not exaggerating folks. This morning I took a shower, washed my hair, did other primping, then went over to my hair dryer and switched it on. Thankfully my head was not yet near the thing, as it began to glow bright orange then proceeded to "cough cough" red sparks across the room. Startled, I screamed in the sort of way one screams when discovering a huge bug in the shower, switched it to the "off" position, but the glowing coils did not recant! Andrew, responding to my scream from his shower, shouted "everything OK?" and I replied "my hair dryer is on fire!" no flames mind you...but to me at the time it seemed like a fitting way to describe the situation. He then instructed me to unplug the appliance. Not being totally useless in a crisis, I had already pulled it out of the socket, finally causing the coils to slowly turn back to a blackish color.

As my adrenaline began to subside, I realized how fortunate I was not to have a burnt section of hair, skin, or face. However, I also found myself with a sopping head and 20 mins before I needed to head off to work. I toweled off what I could and headed to the back yard for a few minutes to allow it to dry. Unfortunately for me, this morning proved to be extremely humid and possibly made my hair wetter. My new plan was to drive with the windows down all the way to the office then sneak into the ladies room for a quick pony tail before heading to my desk. Haven't I mentioned before how resourceful Andrew can be? Well...he is and set me up with this solution:

The shop vac has a "blow" feature so here I am attempting to get some hair dry...Great idea babe...it just didn't work so well because the air was cold and I have quite the thick mop of hair. I was able to get it dry enough to wear in a pony tail though and I doubt anyone noticed.

Nathalie

Ft. Worth Cowtown 10K

Running is a hobby I picked up after college. I really enjoy running. Scratch that...I enjoy the benefits of running: eat what you want, runners high, muscle tone, etc... Over the last few years I have ran 2 marathons, countless 1/2 marathons and pretty much every Saturday. Well that was until I got married anyway. Andrew and I actually share a passion for running. Our fist conversation was on the subject of running and during our engagement we completed the San Francisco Marathon together. I had high hopes of us making the 26.2 mile trek annually and being the "married runner couple". However, here we are 1 1/4 years into marriage and our marathon count? ZERO. The challenge lies in sharing a bed with a man who is great at convincing me on cold mornings (okay any morning at this point...I am weak and unmotivated) to stay there in the warm covers and "run later". Not a problem unless "later" never comes which often times is the case. Despite our digression from our former intensity of running, we still make the occasional venture out around the neighborhood on nice days and weekends. And you know what? I am OK with that! Entering local races is truly the only way we are now held accountable for running, and honestly we were a bit under prepared for this race. It was a tough 6.2 miles, but we finished, burned some calories, ate a huge breakfast and felt proud. Check out the pictures: We left the house at 5:40 AM....one downside of organized running...there is no sleeping in!

Here are my shinny shoes...as you can tell they haven't had as much wear as the should...

Someone wishes we were back under those warm covers....notice the bed head he didn't mind wearing out in public. I love that he is confident even with bed head.

This is our friend John Paul...without him we may not have left those warm covers. Thanks for the accountability John Paul!

The boys...a little happier now that they have had some time to wake up...

I really should put on some makeup before these things....oh well..trying to decide if I should wear my sweatshirt.

A local told us about this place...a greasy spoon that has not changed since the fifties...I had eggs, sausage, biscuits, hash browns, and coffee for less than $5! Check out the refrigerator. It is still functional....

Glad we got out of bed for this race. That is the thing about running....you never regret going once you have finished.

Nathalie