Moving, Visits, & Marriage

The week is finally here.  Andrew and I close on our new house this Friday and we could not be more excited.  I feel like a little kid at Christmas just thinking about it.  This is our dream home and we feel extremely blessed to be able to have it.

The past few weeks we have begun preparing for the move.  Last Monday we sold our washer and dryer.  That wasn't a big deal until Friday when one of our dogs puked all over the bed.  We didn't notice until it was dry & crusty.

YUCK!

We spent one night in our guest bed and one night on the couch & love seat.  Neither was a real comfortable option so I hung out at the laundry mat yesterday afternoon.

Reminded me of a great episode of Friends.

Today we sold our refrigerator.  I think the buyer will pick it up Wednesday.  I'm not sure what we are going to do after Wednesday.  

I was off work today thanks to Christopher Columbus so I decided to head "home" to visit my HG family.  I was able to have lunch with Traci and visit with several former coworkers and students.  

I had the best day!  People would be talking to me and halfway through conversation realize that it was odd for me to be there.  It was too funny!  Students kept asking me if I was coming back.  So sweet!

I ended up staying until school was over.  

On my way home I stopped and picked up a new rug that Andrew picked out.  We love it and think it is going to look even better in the new house

I have been reading this lately...

Can I just say WOW!

Lately I have felt overwhelmed about my husband and our marriage.  Overwhelmed in a good way.  It's something I've been wanting to write a blog post about, but I can't seem to find the words to describe what I want to say.

I have always felt blessed that Andrew chose me to be his wife.  But lately that feeling has been intensified.  There are times when I look at him and tears well up in my eyes because I'm so thankful to be married to him.

I feel like God is calling me to something big that has to do with marriage, but I don't know what it is yet.

I encourage all wives to get a copy of this book and not only read it but pray that you would be open to allowing God to use this book to strengthen you as a wife and as a daughter of the King.  

Andrew & I will celebrate 10 years of marriage in just a few months.  It is hard to believe that it has been a decade since we promised to love each other for the rest of our lives.  

I've decided that we need to go somewhere to celebrate.  I told Andrew it didn't have to be far away, expensive, or extravagant.  I just wanted to go away and celebrate.

Today I told him that I was fairly certain 10 years was the Las Vegas / Grand Canyon Anniversary.

Yep.  Pretty sure I read that somewhere.

What do you think?  Where should we go to celebrate?

Midweek Randoms

I'm home with an awful stomach bug today so I thought I would take advantage of this time and get caught up here on the old blog.

Andrew and I close on the house two weeks from today.  I don't think I have ever been so excited about moving.  We view this home as our forever home.  I don't plan on moving ever again after this.  This is it.

The thing I'm most excited about is getting to host our families for the holidays.  I have already been planning and thinking about ways to make it extra special.

Since several of them will be spending the night with us we have also been shopping for bedding.  We have four guest rooms in the new house.  I know how I want to decorate one of them.  I am not 100% sure about the other three, but I feel like I have to hurry up and decide.  I'm thinking about just doing neutral colors for now and then I can add color later with pillows and other decor.

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Yesterday my coworkers and I took our students to the Greers Ferry Dam 50th Anniversary celebration.  It was neat to be a part of this small piece of history.

Arkansas Governor Mike Bebee spoke.

President Clinton also spoke.  I don't think my students really knew who he was, but they thought it was pretty cool to see a former president.  With ever important looking car or figure they would ask if it was the president.

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Andrew and I have a new favorite show.  It is rare that we find something we both like but we love Cutthroat Kitchen

Have you seen it?  If not you need too!  I'm not sure that it is supposed to be funny but Andrew and I laugh until we cry.

Friday Night Randoms

1.  It has been raining all day.  We definitely needed it.  The rain has also made the temperature drop.  It's been nice.  Whenever it starts to cool off, I start listening to Baby Its Cold Outside by James Taylor.  I love it.

2.  Andrew and I have attended the past two Razorback football games.  It has been an absolute blast.  But I'm not going to lie.  I'm looking forward to watching the game on TV tomorrow from the comfort of our home.  I'm planning to make some chili cheese nachos for the game.  Yum!!

3. We close on our house in less than a month.  I am so ready!  We are going to have the blessing of hosting my family for Christmas this year.  I could not be more excited about that.

4.  Speaking of Christmas cards I have already started planning ours.  We have scheduled our photo shoot with Uncle Kevin - he is so amazing to take our picture every year.  It's not easy with two crazy dogs.  I even think I have the card design picked out already.  I just have to figure out outfits and we will be ready.

5.  The Voice returns Monday.  Yay!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I bet you thought I forgot all about my Canvas giveaway.

I didn't.  I've just been crazy busy.

We have a winner now.

Congrats Bri!!!  You are our winner. 

Perfect since you are a new home owner. :)

I'll contact you about how to claim your free canvas.  

Weekends

I have been living for the weekends the past few weeks.

I think I am finally starting to get used to working again.  The whole getting up early and teaching all day has had me exhausted.

Friday afternoon I came home and crashed.  It was a lazy Friday evening.  I don't even really remember Friday night.  Pretty sure I slept for most of it.

Saturday morning I woke up early and got ready for a day in LR.

I had a Thirty-One party that morning.  It was the first home show I've done in a while.  I enjoyed it so much!!  

I've got to step out of my comfort zone and start meeting new customers in my new hometown.  I miss doing home shows.  

It was a great party!  My hostess earned over $200 in products and nothing makes me happier than helping my hostess earn lots of free goodies.

After the party Andrew and I went in a few stores to look at home decor.

We close on our new house in 39 days.  

Then we headed over to the stadium for the Razorback Game.

It was so incredibly hot!!!

Miserable kind of hot.

I lost count of how many bottles of water we went through.  

We had fun despite the heat.  

And it was worth it since we won!

Love my hogs but they have some work to do before we play some of the SEC teams or we are going to be in big trouble.

We started today with church.  I sat in with our 412.  That is the name of our 5th-7th grade class.  We had 17 students -most of which were boys- in a tiny little room right off the sanctuary which means we have to be very quiet.

It was a lot of fun.

Next Sunday I am scheduled to serve in the nursery.  I am excited!!

Andrew and I just finished Connect classes so now I'm trying out some different areas and praying about where I am supposed to serve and how I will get connected with my church family.

Since I was in with 412 this morning, I missed the sermon.  :(  Andrew said it was really good.  Thankfully we put our messages on our website so I can watch it later this week.

Now it is time to finish getting ready for tomorrow and then off to bed.

Turning Thirty

Despite all the kicking and screaming and resistance it still happened.  

I turned thirty Friday.  

This has been a very hard birthday for me.

I never thought I would be thirty and still without kids.  I really believe that is why this birthday has been so hard for me.  

Andrew woke up early Friday morning to give me my birthday present before I left for work.  He bought me a cute red & black chevron dress that I had seen in a store window.  I commented that it would be a cute game day dress.  Unfortunately, it doesn't fit as well as I would have liked so I have to take it back.  Hoping to find one as equally as cute.

When I arrived at work I found a little surprise waiting for me on my desk.

My new coworkers really are wonderful.

My students found out it was my birthday and showered me with homemade cards all day.  They were too sweet.

Birthdays are so much fun with facebook.  I received birthday wishes all day long.  Makes a girl feel special.

After work Andrew and I drove to Little Rock for a birthday dinner and a little shopping.

Ten years ago on my 20th birthday Andrew asked me to marry him.  I'm so incredibly blessed to be his wife.  He loves me well.

Saturday my family came up for some lake time.  We swam, played lake basketball, ate some yummy burgers, and listened to the Hogs gain their first victory of the season.

I was too busy having fun to take a lot of pictures.

After a full day on the lake Andrew and I came home and crashed.

Yesterday we started the day at church and then came home and got ready to join his family for some more lake time.

Andrew's Uncle Kevin & Aunt Sandi were so kind to let us invade their lake house for the weekend.  Between yesterday and today we were able to see all of Andrew's brothers and sisters.

We love our family!

My sweet friend, Jennifer, not only brought stuff to make burgers and dogs but she also got me two delicious cakes.

I spent the night there last night while Andrew came home so that he could go golfing with the nephews this morning.

Uncle Kevin took us out on the ski boat for a little tubing this morning.  Nothing makes me smile bigger than hearing my sweet nieces say they want to tube with Aunt E.

So much fun!!

Believe it or not, it was my first time tubing.


After lunch we had fun playing in the cove.

It has been a long exhausting weekend - but a good exhausting.

I am so thankful for our families and the memories that we make while together.  It sure does make turning thirty a little easier.

A Canvas Give Away

Lately I have been getting several emails asking me to review different products.  I have no idea what I'm suddenly being bombarded with these request, but I could not have been more excited to receive one from Easy Canvas Prints.  

Photo on Canvas We have a long hallway in the new house where I want to do a photo gallery.  A 16x20 canvas is a great place to start.

Agreeing to review their product was the easy part.  The hard part was choosing a picture.

I have been unsure about using a photo of Andrew and me.  Seems a little strange to order a huge canvas of myself.  But we don't have any kids and I didn't want a huge canvas of our dogs.  They are my babies but I refuse to be that person. 

There is currently a beautiful painting of the house hanging inside our new home.  I would love to keep it, but the family will be taking it with them.  It gave me the idea of doing something similar.  That is part of the reason I chose to take pictures of downtown.  I thought about using one of those pictures from this post.  

I finally came back around to the idea of using a picture of Andrew & me.  After some facebook encouragement I decided to do it.

I chose one of my all time favorite photos.  It is from our Christmas card photo shoot back in 2007.  That was my favorite photo shoot EVER!  Uncle Kevin captured some great shots.  I remember just wanting to capture our love for one another in a photo.  It was a success.  Several of those pictures have become my favorites.

Including this one that is now a huge canvas print.

As if getting a free canvas for myself wasn't exciting enough I get to offer one of you a free canvas as well.

This company was great to work with.  They were very patient with me as I tried to decide what photo I wanted to use.  

Though I didn't choose to go this route, I was very excited to see that you can use an instagram photo.  How many of have a favorite picture on our phone that just doesn't print well?  

Easy Canvas Print can put it on a canvas for you.

 I cannot wait to hang my canvas in my new home.  And I cannot wait to give one of you a free canvas for your home.

The giveaway will run until September 10

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