HGTV Fixer Upper

This post is about one of my favorite shows of all time - HGTV Fixer Upper.  The owners of the show are the Christian couple Chip & Joanna Gaines, of Waco, Texas.  They are realtors but mainly what their show is about is the renovations of their clients' homes.  Whenever they get a client, a single or a couple, they have the clients come up with a budget - the budget includes the purchasing of the house as well as the renovation costs.  And as the clients are driving to the first home Chip & Joanna show, they exchange their ideas of what they want in the home - lots of land, big kitchen, etc.  Chip & Joanna show them three houses, and then the clients select the one they most wish for.  Sometimes the clients must try to get their chosen house for less than the asking price in order to still have room left in the budget for the renovations.  After the house has been purchased, Chip & Joanna begin renovations - both on the interior and exterior.  Some of the houses need just a few things done, while others need to be almost completely re-done.  A good portion of the renovations include things that the clients want, not necessarily things that absolutely need to be done - for example, Joanna likes to open up walls between living rooms and kitchens to make it feel more open; she also likes to install French doors in many places so that more natural light will flow into the house.  On this show, it seems that Joanna is the stylist and Chip is the "worker" - combining these two talents together make a great team.  As Joanna mentions a few times, she likes to do a little "side project" on each home.  She will recommend to the clients three options for this project, and they will choose the one they like the best.  Especially at this step in each episode, you will notice Joanna's Texas-talk, "y'all."  After everything is done, Chip & Joanna drive the clients to the home, forcing them not to look, to close their eyes.  Then they lead them out of their Suburban, and let them open their eyes to see two huge boards with a picture of the house before the renovations on those boards.  After Chip talks about what the house was before and what it is after, Joanna says the clients' first names, followed by, "Are you ready to see your fixer upper?"  The clients love Chip & Joanna's work.  After showing them the entire renovated place, Chip compares the value of the house before the renovation to the value after.  Each episode is closed with "Welcome home!"

If you are able to access Netflix through a Roku box, you can watch it without going onto cable or satellite.  Just search "Fixer Upper" and you should come up with it.  They show only 13 episodes on Netflix but you'll find more on HGTV - I believe they appear on TV every Tuesday night.  If you do decide to give this show a try if you haven't already, I hope you really enjoy it just like me!   

The Mortification of March 11

So my mom and I went out to dinner at Applebee's last night.  My family tries to do this almost every month where my dad and my sister will go out somewhere and then the same night my mom and I will go out to a different place, but sometimes my dad and I go out somewhere and my mom and my sister go out somewhere.  When my dad and I go out and my mom and my sister go out we call that Guys' Night Girls' Night (I don't prefer that name!), and when my mom and I go out and my dad and my sister go out we call that Date Night (Goodness, we really could think up another name!).  Anyway, after that confusing ramble I'll just tell you that last night was Date Night.  It was a Friday night, of course and my mom and I were going to Gregg's at first - yeah we pulled right back out onto the road when the restaurant was packed to the doors!  So we went to Applebee's instead, and we had to wait about five minutes for a seat - which wasn't that bad.  As we were waiting this person walks into the kitchen and I say to my mom, "Mom, that person in the kitchen really looks like Dan!"  And she looked and said, "Because it is him, he does work here."  It just turns out that Dan is my cousin's fiance.  Very unfortunately he wasn't our waiter but he did have a spare moment so he stopped at our table to say hi.  

So anyway, when we were finished with our meal and I had put my leftovers in a container that the waitress brought me (without me asking, by the way and she did the same thing with another glass of lemonade), I went to wash my hands before we left since I had been touching my shrimp which seemed to be a bit greasy.  So my mom said, "Do you know where the bathroom is?  If you look at where Dan's standing it's right behind him."  So I said, "Okay" and walked off.  So, after I had rounded the corner I thought I had walked far enough and that Dan had just moved or something.  No, because as soon as I went through that doorway I was smack-dab in the kitchen!  Thankfully someone was walking out at the time so I didn't more than a bit of a step inside.  This person says to me, "Oh hi, are you looking for the bathroom?  Well it's right up there to your right, just walk right up there."  Then I looked up there and Dan is still standing there, and he said, "Yeah, it's over here behind me."  I was a bit mortified, my future cousin directing me to the bathroom which a snail or a turtle could've found sooner than I did!  So I said, "Oh okay, thank you!" but was really feeling a bit silly.  

That almost tops the other day when I was watching a show (I Love Lucy) and there was a quiz show on it and the song, My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean, Lucy sang there.  After the episode was over I saw the only song of that episode come up on the screen, so I exclaimed, "It's 'My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean?'  I always thought it was 'My Body Lies Over The Ocean!'"  So my mom and my sister, who were home at the time, got a good kick out of that and now my mom has given it this alias, 'The Song of the Ghost.'  Do you get it?

Anyway, I know if Dan is with the family for Easter in just over two weeks he'll tease me about it, "Oh hey, do you know where the bathroom is?"  Who knows?  He's also a magician, by the way - I don't know why I just said that now but whatever.  Anyway, that was 'The Mortification of March 11' and next time we go to Applebee's I'll be sure to watch more closely!

I've Moved!

I've officially changed this blog's web address!  At 10:36am, six minutes after I was planning to move, I moved from everythingimaginable62.blogspot.com to the new location, chandlersmithblogger.blogspot.com (by saying I moved this blog I mean I merely changed the web address).  And with this new web address comes a different blogging routine - you will have something new to read at least twice a week, I'm anticipating, and things will be more interesting.  If you have any suggestions of what I could share with the rest of the readers, please leave a comment and I will be glad to consider whatever you have to say.  Have a great weekend! - Chandler Smith, Blogger

2 Days Until I Move!

Hi everyone!  This is one of the last reminders of my scheduled moving on Saturday!  This Saturday, March 5, I will be moving this blog at 10:30am.  Presuming it's still available, its new address will be chandlersmithblogger.blogspot.com.  If it's not still available I will think of another address and schedule another moving date.  Please keep all of this in mind as we move toward Saturday morning.  Thank you, and have a great day!

Nature Photography!

I just found this neat picture that I took last spring on my computer.  Since I took it it's served as my Skype picture, briefly my Pinterest picture and also the picture on the e-mail me, two friends and my sister share.  So now it's time to let the world in on my secret picture!



One thing I really like about this photograph is its background.  The light purple lilac looks great with the wooded background and the scene is complete with the leaves dangling over the flower.  But the thing that really gets me is that God made this beautiful picture.  If it weren't for Him, we would have nothing and this includes the beauty of the earth that is ours to enjoy.  It also reminds us that God is our Creator and He has the power to do anything that He sees fit.  I also believe that this picture could serve as an excellent reminder that the world may look good (and by saying this I mean nature), but it's actually filled with evil, hate, crime and so many other acts of sin.  We must never think that this world is good, never.  Romans 12:2 ESV says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  This means that we obviously live in the world, but we should not be like the world.  So there's nothing wrong with admiring the earth's beautiful scenery and other natural wonders, but that is not what the world is like.  We may think we are secure every minute and that nothing bad will happen to us.  That's a big mistake.  As I said, there is a lot of evil on this planet.  So in closing, let us not worry about standing out from the crowd or what others think of us and just faithfully be set apart from the world.  Things will not always go well if we do this, but at least we will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord, which is to glorify him in all that we do always.

THIS BLOG IS MOVING!

HI READERS OF EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE!  THIS POST IS ALL CAPITAL BECAUSE IT'S VERY IMPORTANT SO PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION.  ON MARCH 5, 2016 THIS BLOG IS MOVING TO ANOTHER WEB ADDRESS.  IT WILL NOT BE A NEW BLOG, IT WILL JUST BE A DIFFERENT WEB ADDRESS.  PRESUMING IT'S STILL AN AVAILABLE ADDRESS ON MOVING DAY, I WILL BE MOVING EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE! TO CHANDLERSMITHBLOGGER.BLOGSPOT.COM.  I WILL ALSO BE CHANGING THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG BUT THE NEW WEB ADDRESS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  SO IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I POST HERE AFTER MARCH 5 PLEASE BE SURE YOU SAVE THE NEW WEB ADDRESS.  I AM MOVING ON MARCH 5, NO SOONER AND NO LATER.  PLEASE WRITE THE NEW ADDRESS AND STORE IT ON YOUR COMPUTER OR IN ANOTHER SAFE PLACE SO THAT YOU HAVE IT HANDY FOR MARCH 5.  THANK YOU! - CHANDLER SMITH

Snowball Smith!

Hi everyone!  Sorry that my blogs have been idle for so long, I've just been busy with school and other things.  I was sick Saturday-Sunday and really couldn't think of anything to share with you in an ill state.  But I'm fine now and would like to tell you about a hamster I got yesterday.  His name is Snowball (I'm still thinking of a middle name for him), so obviously he's white.  I was considering Snowflake as well but Snowball better suited him.  I was also thinking about naming him Powder but I felt that Powder didn't fit just quite with a male hamster (besides, 2.5 years ago our cat died, whose name was Powder).  What also helped in deciding against the name Powder was that I was 11 when the cat died and she had been around since well before I was born (my dad had her before my parents were married in 1998) so I was just used to Powder as being a name for a female animal.  Anyway, let me just say it will take me a little while to get used to him being mine.  The employee at Petco who got him out of the cage for me said that I would need to tame him a bit and she asked if I was okay with that.  I said I was.  A small part of the reason I still picked him is because he was the only hamster who had his own cage - all the other hamsters were in pairs or in sets of three, and I'm just not the person to separate them.  But I liked him especially otherwise so I still chose him.  He hasn't been out of his cage yet but he is adjusting to his new home and family.  He loves to run in his wheel and climb on the bars of his cage (he kept me awake with the running a good portion of last night).  Once he's used to his new surroundings I'll bring the cage out here during the days to let him be with us.  Once I can handle him I will put him in his ball and let him roll around on the floor.  I was also told that he'll grow some more so I have that to look forward to.  He is still very new to this house but he'll adapt quickly.  I'm looking forward to an excellent few years with Snowball Smith!