Our Little Kitchen

Our kitchen remains a mystery to me.  As I stated in my previous post cooking is a rarity in our home.  Our kitchen is probably the least used room in our house so how in the world does it get so dirty?  Seriously.  It amazes me.

It could possibly be because it is my least favorite room to clean.  I'll do just about anything to get out of cleaning the stove, sink, and dishes.  Again, how do those things get dirty when we don't cook?

Thankfully our kitchen is small.  Perfect for people like us.

It comes complete with a crazy brown dog. :)

I HATE our white cabinets.  Andrew and I enjoy going and looking at new houses and getting ideas for our dream home.  When I walk and see white cabinets in the kitchen it completely turns me off to the whole house.

Some things in my kitchen that I do like...

 My owl cookie jar.  He is was a birthday gift from my Mommom.  I'm pretty sure he was the first owl to come into our home. 

 My dry erase board, scentsy warmer, and my favorite picture of my brother and me.  I love my little dry erase board.  I enjoy switching it up every so often.  And if you haven't bought into the Scentsy idea, you need to .  They are marvelous!!!

 My monthly canvas.  My very crafty sister-in-law Sara gave us these for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I LOVE them!!!  

Honeymoon water.  Andrew and I filled this bottle from the springs in Hot Springs while on our honeymoon.

While we're talking about my kitchen, I might as well update on how the cooking is coming.  Andrew ended up having to stay in OKC longer than expected.  He is on his way home right now.  I cooked for myself one night and that was it.  He will be home a couple of days before leaving again so hopefully I'll be able to try out some of my recipes.

Going Domestic Part 1

 A Master Chef.

Queen of the Kitchen.

The Next Martha Steward.

Paula Dean.

These are names that my sweet husband would NEVER use to describe me. HA! 

When it comes to cooking, this pretty much sums up my feelings.

Sometimes I have high hopes of these grand meals being hot and on the table when the husband arrives home from work.

Because we are not a family who eats at home, we rarely have the ingredients on hand to prepare a meal.  So I get these great ideas for a meal and head to the store to pick up some groceries after work.  By the time I'm out of the store and home I no longer feel like cooking.

But now it's summer.  I'm home all day.  I don't have to try to cook a meal after teaching all day.

So I've been scouring pinterest the last few days looking for some easy and healthy recipe.  I pinned a few and made my grocery list.  

The meals have been planned.  The groceries have been bought.

I'm going to learn to cook this summer.  I hope the husband's stomach can handle it. 

I'm praying that I learn to at least tolerate it as well.  I do want to cook so we don't eat out every day.

Maybe if I blog about it and allow all of you to hold me accountable I'll actually maintain a cooking lifestyle.

Wish me luck.  And send those recipes my way.

Come On In!

Welcome to the Weaver House!  I'm linking up with Kelly today to share our living room with you.

Decorating our home as been a long journey for me.  When we first got married I was 20 years old and had not a clue as to what my personal style was.  At that point Andrew definitely had better decorating skills than I did.  Sometimes I think he still does. :)

It has a taken almost eight and a half years, but we are starting to learn OUR style.  I'm not very good at seeing the big picture.  So many times Andrew will say he likes something and it will look good here or there and I just don't see it.  Of course once we get it home I have that Aha! moment.  There are times when I wish he didn't care, but for most part I'm very thankful to have a husband who wants and input in our home and what it looks like.

We both like color!  When it comes to furniture it is very hard to find something we agree on.  The foot in height difference has something to do with that.  If he sits comfortable on a piece of furniture, chances are my feet don't touch the ground and my arms are level with my head when placed on the arm rest. HA!

Enough talk. Welcome to our living room!

 The view from our dining room.  The doors in the background are our garage door and front door.

 Looking in from the hallway. 

 I LOVE my red TV stand!!  It was something we had been arguing over for quite some time.  I wanted something big... a real piece of furniture.  Andrew wanted something small.  We stumbled across this and both fell in love with it.  We got a discount because a lady returned it because of teeny tiny scratch ON THE BACK!  It was meant to be. :)

 Aww.  My chair!!  There have been many books read in this comfy chair. :)  Notice the owl pillow.  Of course it is my chair.

 Our love seat with my favorite pillow.  Andrew surprised me with it after I fell in love with it.  It was an expensive pillow so he originally told me to keep looking.  I couldn't find anything I liked near as much so he went and bought it for me.

A close up of our paintings that our dear friend Amanda painted for me.  They are huge and bright!  Adds so much color. 

So there you have it!  Small and comfy.  That's how we like it.

Summer Summer!!

One Week!  One week of my Summer Vacay has already gone by.  Time really does fly when you are having fun.  And it's been fun.

We started the summer of with a little Riverfest.  This is an annual event that happens in Little Rock.  Outdoor concerts and fun down on the Arkansas River.  I normally send Andrew by himself as I hate Riverfest.  I suffer from crowdaphobia and there are definitely crowds there.  I prefer concerts where everyone has their assigned seat. 

But Boyz II Men was playing this year and I wanted to see them so I gave it another try.  Oh MY!  How fun!  Andrew and I stepped back in time a decade.  They were a hoot with all their dancing. 

We went back Saturday night to see Lynyrd Skynyrd.  This was not so much fun. HA!  Not my type of crowd if you know what I mean.  I've never seen so many rebel flag du-rags in all my life!!  I will say that was probably the one and only time you'll have that many Hog fans cheering for Alabama.

Somehow we managed to make time for some pool action Saturday before Riverfest.  Andrew swam and I laid out with a book.  Aww!  The sweet life!

Monday we drove up to Andrew's Uncle Kevin's lake house for a day on the water.  it was a fun and relaxing day with family, friends, and good food.

It's not very often I make something I'm willing to share, but I found these ideas on pinterest.  They were easy and festive so I had to give them a try.  I even ate one of the strawberries!! 

Today I had the pleasure of keeping Miss Sydney while Jill and Amelia had a fun day at the zoo. 

Sweet girl was happy to be hanging out with her Aunt E.  Melt my heart!!

Even with all the fun, I've managed to get quite a bit accomplished for school.  I'm at a stand still with that now until I go to a few workshops over the next couple of weeks and get some answers.

Happy Summer!!

Three Day Weekend

I'm enjoying the last day of a wonderful three day weekend today.  Somehow I managed to make it through the school year without using my personal day, so I'm using it today.  Then I only have four days left of school.  I'll admit I have mixed emotions about it.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm more than ready for Summer Break!  But at the same time, I'm going to miss this group of students.  They have been absolutely wonderful.  Smart, sweet, and well behaved. 

Last week was exhausting so I started my three day weekend with a nice long nap Friday afternoon.  I woke up long enough to go grab some dinner with the husband and then went back to sleep.

Saturday morning I got up and got ready to head north to see my family and celebrate a few birthdays.  Within a few days of one another my two little cousins, my little brother, and my Mommom all celebrate birthdays.  I really enjoyed getting to visit with the fam.  Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures.  Too busy visiting I guess. 

Speaking of my little brother...he's engaged!  Yay!  Excited for him and my soon to be sister-in-law. 

Yesterday the husband and I decided to take Liberty for a walk and to the dogpark.  We walked about 3.5 miles around the river trail, up the Big Dam Bridge, and to the dog park.  It was a good little workout for us girls.  At the 2 mile marker, Andrew decided to run back to the car (apparently we girls were too slow) while Lib and I walked on to the dog park.  There were four other dogs when we arrived at the dog park and let me just tell you Lib wanted nothing to do with them.  She was little Miss Antisocial.  All she wanted to do was sit in my lap.  

We left as soon as Andrew made it to the dog park with the car.  We grabbed some lunch and came home for a nap.  Last night we went to eat at Casa Mexicana and had sno cones for dessert.  We came home and played three games of bean bag toss in the back yard.  I lost all three games. :(  Poor Liberty did not understand the game.  She couldn't understand why we were throwing things and she wasn't allowed to fetch them. 

I slept in this morning.  It was nice!!  Once I was finally up & dressed I headed north to visit with my best friend from high school, Mandy & her new daughter, Macy.  it was the best visit.  I am so thankful for a beautiful Christian friend like Mandy.  We go months without seeing each other and when we do we talk like we never missed a beat.  We talk about any and everything.  I love it!

And Macy?  Oh my!!  That is one sweet little girl.  She just laid on my chest sleeping for close to an hour.  It was the best.  Little girl made me have a serious case of baby fever.  She is just too precious.

A Few Changes

Things are changing around our house.  For someone like myself who doesn't like change, this can be very difficult to deal with.  Once I am accustomed to something, I prefer to keep it that way.  Take the husband's new Kindle Fire for example.  It is different than my old school kindle therefore I do not like it.  I'll keep what I know and understand.

Some of the changes occurring are easier to deal with than others.  One change that I am absolutely giddy about is a slight career change for me.  I was given the opportunity to teach English next year instead of Math.  I had to jump on the opportunity though I will admit I was a little hesitant at first.  Though Math is probably my least favorite subject, after two years of teaching it, I was getting used to it.  Teaching English means starting all over again.  After a couple discussion, some which were more heated than others, with my husband I knew teaching English was the right choice for me.  Now that I have officially made the decision, I couldn't be more excited.  I'm currently reading teen novels as fast as humanly possible in hopes of deciding what novels I will use in class next year.  Some are definitely better than others.

The hardest change has been with Liam Bailey.  It's been almost a full month and he still has not come home.  I cannot let my mind wonder about what has happened to my sweet cuddly boy.  My heart just cannot handle that.  As hard as it has been for me and as much as I miss him, I think it worse for Liberty.  My sweet, crazy girl has not been herself since she came home.  She misses him.  There are times when she lays here and cries.  It will BREAK your heart.  Because of that we have start discussing and looking into getting another dog.  She needs a friend to play with.  I'm not sure Andrew and I are completely ready, but it is something that I feel we need to do for her.  I only have a few weeks left of school (YAY) and then I will be home all day and have the time to train a puppy.  So far I have not found one that I have fallen in love with, but we are not in a hurry.  We do have an L name in mind. :)  Still searching for the perfect B middle name.  Of course we'll have to wait and see if this name fits our new furbaby.  Who knows.  Maybe in a month or so I can introduce you to the newest furry member of our family.

Gold Winner

Today is the big day.  I used random.org to select a winner for the Britt Nicole album. 

Someday I might even figure out how to display the generated number here like some of you do.  Until then, you will have to trust that I'm not a cheater. :)

The winner is #2 Momma Weaver!  Yay!!  I will your get your cd in the mail tomorrow!  I think you will enjoy it.