homework night.

It's been awhile. Life has been busy with tons of homework (taking two classes right now), work, school, internship and all sorts of other things. And let's not forget about spending a week in Florida. I'll make sure to recap that soon, too!

Tonight is homework night. Rob is at a MOSES Board meeting and I'm trying to stay on top of what feels like one million assignments. But, there is something that eases the homework pain a little bit.

Nothing like a cute, sleeping puppy at your feet to put a smile on your face.

Now, back to Introduction to Classroom Dynamics and Developmental Psychology.

keys and paint.

Our latest project was a long time and coming. When we first moved into our house, we had the uncanny ability to lay our keys down and forget where we put them. We don't have much counter space in the kitchen - and none that is close to the door - so we didn't have a prime location to consistently put our keys.

In our apartment, we had hung little hooks right inside the doorway to hang our keys on and it seemed to work out well for us. We hardly ever lost our keys or had to hunt them down when we were trying to leave for work or school. So, when we moved into our house, we did the simplest thing possible. We put two nails in the wall in our stairway which is just inside our main entry door in an attempt to recreate the hook situation we had in the apartment.

This worked for awhile...until the nails started falling out of our silly cement-board walls. Our keys would fall down the stairs, the nails would fall down the stairs, the dog would find the nails, we couldn't find our keys - you get the picture. So, to solve the problem, Rob asked if I would make my next craft project a key hanger. I had all sorts of creative ideas but couldn't find the right supplies to make the ideas work out. Then it happened.

I found these letters for 99 cents each at Hobby Lobby and had the perfect idea to add a little bit of color (and some much needed key hanging space) to our stairwell.

I decided to attempt the project while Rob was at work one day (I don't work on Thursdays) in order to surprise him when he got home. I don't typically use power tools by myself. Bet you'd never guess that! Right?

I had a leftover dowel laying around from when I made my mom's birthday present and I found an old piece of trim in our scrap wood box in the basement. I cut three pieces from the dowel to use as hooks. The best part was that I remembered what my handy boyfriend always tells me about pre-drilling with a smaller size bit so I don't crack the wood when using the larger bit. It's ok, you can be impressed. I don't mind.

In fact, I was so impressed with myself I had to take a picture. I've taken better pictures. Oh well, you get the idea.

After I had drilled the three holes, I used a hammer to pound the dowels into the trim. I was left with this:

The whole process took a little longer than expected but I at least had the general concept together before Rob got home from work. He was very impressed with my [lack of] power tool skills. In a spur of the moment decision, we decided to spend the evening painting the stairwell in preparation for hanging the new key hooks when they were finished. I set-up shop at the dining room table to paint the letters while Rob tackled the paint in the stairwell.

Before Rob started painting, we were convinced the stairwell ceiling was white. HA! Guess again.

I don't know what color it was before, but it definitely wasn't white. We have really poor lighting in the stairwell so the picture doesn't do the colors justice, but you get the general idea. The ceiling got a nice new coat of white paint and the walls were spruced up with a light gray - the same color we will eventually get around to painting the basement with.

Last night I put the finishing coats of paint on the letters and the hooks so that we could hang them today! I chose pretty bright colors - the blue is the same blue we are in process of painting our exterior doors, the orange is the same colored I used to paint the snowman's nose for my mom's birthday present and the green is "Grass Green" that I picked up from Hobby Lobby...on sale for 34 cents. Perfect!

This morning, Rob hung everything up for us. I decided it might be better to hand the power tools back over to him at this point. He pre-drilled holes so that we could use toggle bolts to hold the hook with. We didn't want to deal with any of that nails-slipping-out-of-the-wall-every-time-we-hang-our-keys-up business again.

Mr. Beacon often likes to watch Rob work. He's like a little kid. Rob will work on a project and Beacon will sit quietly next to him and watch every thing he's doing. We'll probably let Mr. B use the drill next time.

After Beacon gave his final approval on the placement for the letters, I hung them up and [drum roll please]...

A brand new, colorful, useful key and leash hanging space! We knew we wanted three hooks because we each have a set of keys and Mr. B's leash and harness are always just laying on the first step because we don't know what else to do with them. It conveniently works out that the letters spell our initials AND give Beacon a hook too! (I didn't even plan that!)

And so, I think we officially like it. The keys and leash have been hanging on it for about an hour now and I haven't heard anything come crashing to the ground so I think we're in business. Not to shabby for a $3.31 project, if I do say so myself.

What projects have you worked on lately?

saturday.

It's Saturday. If you visited our house today, here's what you would find:

My good-looking husband painting our entry way.
Here's to an entry way that is all one color instead of the five colors it's been for the past year!
(Yes, I realize it's a really small space. And yes, there were five colors in that space.)

Me working on a five-page study guide for Legal Issues and Ethics in Counseling.
(What is transference and counter-transference? A gold star will be awarded if you know.)

And a puppy. Tuckered out from running around outside in the snow all morning.
(He sure does love the snow.)

Happy Weekend, from the Bergmans.
Whether you're home-improving, studying, or napping - we hope you're enjoying your Saturday as much as we are enjoying ours.

puppy surgery.

Well, it's official. Beacon is the last in his family line. Maybe he will end up with nieces and nephews someday; but offspring of his own? Sorry, buddy. He had surgery on Thursday and now he has to spend a week wearing the cone of shame, poor guy.

I dropped him off on Thursday morning and picked him up again Thursday afternoon. I think the vet thought I was a bit crazy when I went to pick him up because of the pathetic whimpering noise I made when I saw him laying in the cage. He just looked so sad. It took me a good while to get him out to the car because his medication still hadn't worn off and he was so out of it! He just stood and stared off into space and wouldn't look at me when I said his name or anything. It was cute in a sad and pathetic sort of way.

And so he spent the rest of the night sleeping and being super cuddly. I liked that part. But boy, did we feel so bad when he threw up three times because of the anesthetic and when we had to make him wear the cone to go to bed and now that we have to give him sedatives to keep him calm during the day so he doesn't run or jump or tear his incision. Thursday he gets his stitches out and that day can not come soon enough.

We did get a nice picture out of the deal though. Normally Mr. B doesn't sit still enough to stay in a picture with us, so we took advantage of him and his groggy state. 

We're a little bit bummed that we got our first major snowfall on the day after his surgery, 1.) because he can't get wet when he's outside and that is not an easy task to make happen when the backyard is covered in snow and 2.) because he loves to play in the snow...and he can't. And even though it's cold and messy to drive in, we can't wait until next weekend when we can take the pup out to play. And you can't tell me that this view of the park down the street isn't beautiful...

But, since we're cooped up inside for the week, Beacon and I have been spending our spare time trying out new cookies recipes and working on some craft projects. (Well, I do the work, he lays around and sleeps.) Just for the record, these chocolate chip cookies are awesome and you should definitely try them. And do like she says: use coarse sea salt. The cookies end up with this crispy edge and every couple of bites there will be a distinct crunchy salty taste. So good. In between eating cookies, I've been going to town with twine and a $0.34 Goodwill wreath. I think I've eaten more cookies than I have worked on the wreath though. 

In other news, we have a new follower on our blog! We'd love it if you would follow us too. All you have to do is click "Join this site" in the top right corner, just under our picture. 

can we be friends?

Today - in between eating, going on a walk, taking a bath, and playing outside - Beacon did some serious thinking:

We just wanted to share our excitement with Jared and Mary, our friends over at Ugly Muffin Library, in the new puppy addition to their family! (I know they are excited because I saw a zillion pictures and videos over break and they have two blog posts up already...all while dealing with the first puppy days and being sick!) 

Anyways, Rob and I love Jared and Mary dearly and are blessed to be able to call them friends. But, I think Mr. B might be jealous because now he keeps asking if he can be friends with Kobuk. Hopefully they can meet some day soon! Road trip, anyone?

what we love the most.

Rob and I started out the new year on just the right note - in my opinion at least. We I slept in, we were blessed to worship together with our church family, we enjoyed some awesome rolls with lunch, we visited my cousin, her fiance and their beautiful baby girl who are visiting from New Mexico, we made it home before the weather turned too snowy, I watched Criminal Minds, Rob finished a book, and Mr. B ate snow balls.

The best part of the night, though, was reading our "I love you" gifts that we wrote throughout December. In an effort to be intentional about recognizing the things we are most thankful for in one another, we decided to try out a little extra "gift" to celebrate Christmas this year. We were a bit late in opening it, but what's a day or two...or seven?

It's really as simple as this: 
          1. Cut some pieces of paper into strips (we chose red and green in the Christmas spirit);
          2. Label the paper with the dates of the month (we decided on December 1-25 with plans to read them on Christmas morning);
          3. Find a box or jar to hold the papers once you've written on them (see ours pictured above);
          4. Write down one thing you love about your spouse each day (sometimes we fell behind...);
          5. Enjoy reading them together and re-discovering what it is you love most about each other!
          6. After we read them, we sealed them up in an envelope to keep (along with future December notes) so that we can read them again years from now.

After we read each of the 25 "I love..." notes, we both realized that we weren't entirely surprised by what the other wrote down, but there were also some things that we didn't know were loved so much. We also seemed to notice a few themes running throughout the notes (i.e. commonly repeated topics).

What Rob (repeatedly) loves about Stephanie:                   What Stephanie (repeatedly) loves about Rob:
          1. Her creativity                                                                                            1. He loves to give hugs
          2. She loves to give hugs                                                                            2. His patient, listening ear
          3. She makes my lunch in the morning                                                    3. He passionate, servant-heart for everyone he is around (family, clients, etc.)

As we move into a new year, one of our goals is being intentional about letting the people we love and care about know that we love and care about them...and that goes for letting each other know too. These daily notes are one simple way to do just that and it was definitely fun to sit and read them together tonight. It gave us something to look forward to at the end of the month, and was a Christmas present that was genuinely from the heart.

As you move into a new year, what are your goals for showing love to the people you care about?