The Garcia's

He has ARRIVED!!!

2012-02-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce the world to the cutest baby boy, John Hayden Hodges!!!

This was taken just about an hour after he was born.

He arrived on Friday, January 27th at 3:19 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 inches long. Let me back up just a little. John Hayden was scheduled to arrive on Monday but he just wasn't quite ready to make his grand appearance, so we all waited...and waited...and waited. Thursday morning my brother and sister-in-law put in a call to their doctor to schedule an induction. When the doctor called them back much later in the afternoon she told them to come to the hospital around 12 that night. They didn't expect this response, but began getting ready.

Around 6:00 Friday morning Abe texted me and said we should start getting ready and head their way. Thinking we had lots of time we got up and leisurely got ready. Around 8:00-ish he texted me back and told us that the nurse was thinking that Hayden would arrive around 12:00. Then, we got a another text just shortly after saying it might be 10:30. We went right into super speed mode and got ready in record time. I think we got to the hospital around 10:30 and ran to the room because we thought Hayden was already here. If we would have known he was still not ready to come and meet all of us, we would have taken our time getting ready!

Lindsay was a champ. She was uncomfortable, but she never complained. About an hour before Hayden was born we were told it was time for us to head to the waiting room to do just a little more waiting. We settled in thinking it would be another few hours before we would be formally introduced to Hayden. Well, those few hours really ended up being only one hour. During that one hour, I made many trips to the gift shop and cafeteria, trying to make the time go by faster. During one of my trips I found this awesome button.

Thinking we would have lots of time Justin and I went back to the gift shop to get Abe a bubble gum cigar. As I was paying, I got a text from my mom saying Hayden had arrived. Justin and I ran back to the waiting room. I could have hit myself for not being there, but at least we got Abe a bubble gum cigar.

This is the proud Daddy coming to tell us that we could come back to the room to meet Hayden. When Abe walked into the waiting room he had the biggest smile on his face. He was most definitely a new proud daddy.

Here my parents are meeting Hayden for the first time. Look at the smile on Lindsay's face. I don't think I would be smiling after almost 15 hours of labor but like I said, Lindsay is a champ.

We had to wait forever for them to bring Hayden back to the room. I think I spent most of that time waiting by the nursery window trying to catch glimpses of Hayden. They had to give him shots, run tests, give him a bath, and whatever else they do in the nursery.

FINALLY!!! I got to hold Hayden!! I think he is just the cutest and best baby ever!!

Here are few pictures of Hayden's nursery. Lindsay did a great job putting everything together. I know Hayden is going to love his room.

I think we are planning on going to visit Hayden this weekend , so stay tuned for a lot more pictures of him.

Bedroom Makeover...Finally!

2012-01-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years, Justin and I have been updating our house room by room. We have finally decided its time to work on our master bedroom. If you listen hard enough you will be able to hear me say THANK YOU! Everything in our bedroom is either from our high school/college days or given to us by someone. About a year ago, I started looking online trying to find ideas for the room, but we put the room on the back burner when we started updating our kitchen. The kitchen is done and now its time to revisit my ideas for our room.

I didn't take any pictures of our room before we purchased our bed and bedding, so you missed out on seeing just how drab our room looked for the past two and half years. This is what our rooms looks like right now. Don't let this picture fool you - yes, the bed looks great but as a whole the room is still a bit drab and needs some love.

We found our bed at a local home decor store and got it at a great price. It's very similar to the bed in the picture below from Restoration Hardware (which I loved), but at a much better price. Our bedding was purchased a few months later while we were visiting NYC. We kept our old pillows and added a couple of new ones. Still not sure if we will keep all them when its all said and done but for now we are keeping the pillows as is.

We're hoping to replace pretty much everything in our room except for the bed and bedding. Since almost everything is leaving we can go in any direction. The hard part now is knowing what to do next. But now let me show you around the room. Do we need new dressers or what? This dresser was given to us just after we got married, and while it serves its purpose, it's very big and heavy. The mirror above the dresser was a cheap one we found at Home Goods. We when first got married we didn't want to spend money on furniture or decorations for the apartment because I was afraid that it would be a waste of money and wouldn't work in our home (once we brought one). I will get to the blinds and curtains a little later.

I got this tall dressers when I was in junior high. It is a solid piece of furniture but its small and I am not a big fan of the color. I am not sure if we will reuse it somewhere else around the house or if we will get rid of it. But I do know that this dresser has served me for a long time and has been great...it's just time to update.

In the view below you can see just how small the dressers really is. If you look closely you will see a small mirror leaning again the wall just next to our bed. This mirror came with the dresser but had a really ugly frame around it. We had great intentions to re-frame the mirror but never got around to it. Plus it really isn't a full length mirror. So we are adding a new floor mirror to our list.

Here is a better view of the poor mirror. Its a little embarrassing. Yes, that is tape on the floor around my current nightstand. We have been looking for new nightstands and I wanted to see how much bigger some of the nightstand would be compared to my current one.

Now on to the curtains: The curtains we are currently using in our room are the curtains that we used in our room in our apartment. They are a neutral color and might work somewhere else in our house but just not in our room. In our apartment we had one window so we only needed two curtain panels. Now that we have two windows in our room we need four panels. Its time to retire the two panels and update to four. The bamboo blinds came with the house and will be gone soon also. We have never liked them but have not gotten around to changing them.

As you can see here we have a brown rod and brushed nickel rings. I am not a big fan of mixing the two finishes but these, like everything else in our room, are from our apartment.

When we moved into the house we just used things from our apartment instead of buying new stuff. We wanted to give thought to all of our purchases and make sure we wouldn't regret buying anything. So now we are going to fix all these problems and soon we will have a room that we are more happy with.

As you have seen we have a lot to do in our room. I have been looking online for pillows, rugs, curtains, and furniture, anything that would caught my eye. I have found lots of stuff but I am taking it slow to make sure that we love everything that goes into our room. At the end of the day we want a room with lots of patterns, a natural color palette with some pops of color, a reading nook, and a relaxing peaceful place to begin and end each day.

Here is a list of some things that we need/want.

New nightstands
Dresser and chest
A reading nook
Full length mirror
Art work
Curtains
Rug
Chair
Pillows
Lamps

We will keep you updated on the improvements we make to the room.

The Hodges/Garcia Christmas

2012-01-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

I, like most people, love Christmas. Who doesn't love spending time with family, eating lots of good food, getting some time off work, decorating your house with lots of red and green, and driving around looking at Christmas lights? This year for Christmas my whole family was able to get together for a few days at my parent's house. We had lots of fun hanging out, seeing family, and just relaxing. One thing my mom always does is decorate the house for Christmas. Here are some of her decorations.

These are my baby shoes on her tree. She also has a pair of Stan's and Abe's baby shoes.

When I was little my mom made everything special and over the top. We had a wreath that had huge jingle bells on it that would hang on the back door. Any time you touched the wreath (or even the door for that matter) you would hear the bells. Some, how every Christmas Eve, Santa would come to the house to make sure we were being good and would take the bells and hide them somewhere around our house. Who ever found them the next day would win a prize (candy). When I was really little I loved this. When I got a little older this terrified me. I never let on that I was scared but inside I would cringe with I saw the wreath gone. You might be asking yourself why I was so scared. Well, wouldn't you be terrified that Santa could come into your house without anyone seeing him in the middle of the day. By the 4th grade I grew out of the scared stage, just in time to find out the truth about Santa. I have to give my mom credit for coming up with wonderful ideas for making every holiday special and memorable .

But back to this Christmas: We all spent most of our time in the kitchen. Stan, the chef in our family, made four wonderful meals. When I say four, I mean he made two dishes with shrimp and made me and Lindsay our own meals since we don't eat shrimp. Not only did he make four meals but everything was from scratch. I hope one day I can cook as good as Stan.

While Stan and Justin slaved over dinner we made sugar cookies. Well, Lindsay made them and I just helped to decorate them. We had so much fun and the cookies were delicious.

For as long as I can remember our family has had a contest to see who could be the first person to say "Christmas Eve gift" to my Mom on Christmas Eve. If you happened to be the first to say it to mom, you got the Christmas Eve gift. This year I won!!!! It has been a long time since I have won. Needless to say I was very happy. I set my alarm for 12:00 but thought my mom would not like it if I woke her up. So I waited until 6:30. The best part of winning is when your brother or dad thinks he beat you to it and you are able to hold up to gift and say "I already won!!"

While driving to my grandparents house on Christmas Eve we had to entertain Justin with bubbles.

This is my cousins sweet baby!!! He was so fun to play with and watch open gifts.

This year we went a less traditional route with our Christmas dinner and had steak and chicken. Again, this was another meal that Stan with the help us Justin made. It was wonderful!!!!

Christmas morning was fun, like always!!! We all still get excited to see what Santa has brought us. This year I was the first one up and ran around the house waking everyone up. Since we have gotten older we no longer open our presents right away. Now we all drink some coffee, start making breakfast (monkey bread), and then divide up the gifts. Once breakfast is in the oven we all head into the living room and see what Santa has brought us. Here is some of the loot Justin and I got this year.

We had a great time with our family and are looking forward to celebrating Christmas next year with John Hayden, who is expected to make his appearance on January 23rd. For those who don't know my older bother and his wife are having a baby in less than 3 weeks!

Celebrating 5 years with Mr. Right!!

2012-01-08T06:14:00.000-08:00

On December 16, 2011 Justin and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. About a month before our anniversary, I started thinking about surprising Justin with a weekend trip to Point Clear, Alabama. The reason I wanted to surprise Justin with this trip was not only becuase it was our anniversary (that was the main reason) but also to congratulate Justin with the launch of the new MC website. You might be wondering why I chose Point Clear. Well, we stayed at the Grand Marriott in Point Clear the first night of our honeymoon 5 years before. At the time we lived in Marietta, Georgia but got married in Ocean Springs and didn't want to drive back to Atlanta on our wedding day, so Justin planned for us to stay at the Grand Marriott. We both loved our room and the few parts of the hotel we were able to see. Unfortunately, we were only at the hotel for about 12 hours.

My plan was to get Justin to take off a half day on Friday (our anniversary) by telling him that I planned for us to do some things around Jackson for his birthday, which was the day before. He had agreed to take the time off earlier in the week. So my plan was coming along very nicely...until a few days before our anniversary. Here is how the conversation went.

J: So I thought about surprising you with something for our anniversary but I thought we should talk about instead.
S: What are you talking about?? (Trying to play it cool)
J: I was thinking we could do one of three things; stay the night in a hotel in Jackson, do what we had planned just dinner and maybe a movie, or go to Point Clear for the weekend.

Well, I couldn't hide my smile and I did think about telling him we should just stay home a just do dinner and still try and surprise him, but I decided I should tell him that I was already planning a weekend trip to Point Clear. I still got to see the surprise on his face it just wasn't quite the way I wanted to tell him!

I was able to book the same room we stayed in the first time we went. About five minutes after we got to our room, there was a knock at the door. When Justin opened the door the person gave Justin a gift for our anniversary. We both thought it was a special touch and we have a great keepsake from the hotel.

While in Point Clear, we rested, walked around the hotel grounds, shopped the cute town of Fairhope, made our way to the outlets in Foley to do some shopping, ate at some good restaurants, and went to Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights. It was a great anniversary weekend I hope one day we will be able to visit the hotel again. Maybe when we are celebrating our 10th anniversary.

Here are some pictures of our weekend. While waiting almost an hour in the car at Bellingrath Gardens, Justin and I got creative or...well lets face it...bored!

These are just a few of my favorite pictures from Bellingrath Gardens. This 65 acre garden transforms into a beautiful light exhibit during Christmas. If you ever find yourself in the Mobile, Alabama area during the holidays you should make a point to visit Bellingrath Gardens.

Here a some pictures from the hotel. We loved how everything was decorated for Christmas. We even got to see Santa getting our of his...van?

Christmas Party Garcia Style

2012-01-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

Sometime back in June Justin asked me if we could host a Christmas party. Of course I would not pass up a opportunity to host a party. Fast forward a few months and Justin still wanted to host the party, but didn't want to plan anything about the party except that he wanted to have hot chocolate and apple cider. In September we set the date of the party and I started working on the menu. It was so fun planning everything. I'm thinking this might be an annual thing.

I did have help in the form of a Christmas elf, that goes by the name Katie Boles. I could not have planned and cooked everything for the party without her help. The day of the party Justin did help me clean up the house but not before he forgot about his marketing final exam (which is an entirely separate story in itself). Needless to say, when he realized he had missed his exam he emailed the professor, she was nice enough to let him take it later in the day. Good for Justin...bad for me since he would be gone. That is when my Christmas elf came and saved the day. Katie got to the house around 10:30 and stayed until after midnight. Katie you are the best!!

I can only speak for Justin and myself, but we had a great time and thought the party went well. Here are some of our party guests and the delicious spread we served.

We had an ornament making station set up in the office.

Justin's must have - Hot Chocolate Bar

Katie my wonderful Christmas elf (and Jack)!! We couldn't have done this without her.

Christmas Explosion 2011

2012-01-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Christmas time!! I love that for one month out of the year we take down all our normal home decorations and put a huge tree, decorate it with lights and put lights on the outside of our home. If I had my way, I would decorate my house according to the next holiday all year round. Instead of taking down Christmas stuff and putting up our normal decor, I would be putting up Valentine stuff. Luckily for Justin, our home decor does not follow every seasonal holiday. I do however put up a wreath and maybe a few other things, but nothing to the extent of what we do for Christmas.

I hope you enjoy looking at some of Christmas decor. I know enjoyed putting it up.

One of our projects for 2012 is to update our mantel. I would really love to paint it white and get rid of the brass. I like the brick but it needs little love to make it the focal point of our living room.

I really loved the way my tree turned out this year. After watching numerous videos about how to use deco mesh, I think I finally got it! Our tree was full of red and silver ornaments that coordinated. However, we had three very special ornaments on the tree this year. The first is an ornament we got on our honeymoon in Puerto Rico five years ago. The second is an ornament of the Radio City Rockettes we got on our first anniversary when we went to NYC. The third one is an ornament we got from Paris when we went there last year on a mission trip.

Around our Kitchen

2012-01-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

Our kitchen is coming together very nicely. Now that we are done with the hard part (sanding, removing wall paper, and painting) we can move on to shopping for new furniture. When we started looking for new furniture we knew we wanted a white breakfast table and maybe some yellow or red chairs. I wanted to keep our kitchen open and fresh. We had a dark table in the kitchen before so we knew we wanted our new table to be white. After searching every store in the metro Jackson area and many online store we found the prefect table.
Tada!!!!

I had seen many versions of this table in the past few months so I was very excited to find one that would fit into our price point. The white really pops against the blue walls.

However, we kept falling short in the chair department. I did find a few red chairs online but they all looked like they should be in a 50's diner and that was the not look we were going for. As for trying to find a yellow chair, well that wasn't working out either. Since we were doing most of our shopping online we couldn't get a good idea of what color yellow some of the chairs would really be and we didn't want to have to send anything back. We knew we would find a chair we loved but we would have to moved on from the red and yellow chairs and start looking at aluminum/metal chairs. There are many different styles out there these days. After checking all our favorite online stores and comparing prices we landed on these.

We love them! They are a little cold in the morning. We are looking for cushions but holding off until we have our curtains in place.

After finding the table and chairs we moved on to looking for some kind of storage that would double as a place for us to put our keys and mail. I spent a lot of time looking online and in many antique stores trying to find the perfect piece of furniture that would fit the small space. I wanted something different than just another table. Since we started redoing our kitchen I have been on the lookout for a piece of furniture that would fit under our family calendar. I kept falling short in my search and almost gave up, but I was excited when I found this bookcase. The color is white and it looks a lot better than this wood color.

I had never given any thought putting a bookcase in the kitchen but when I saw this one, I thought it would be perfect for cook books, keys, and our mail.

During my online searching I'm always coming across great finds. This cube shelf was one of those great finds. Knowing I needed something to go on a wall next to the sink, my initial thought was to just put up some artwork, but when I saw this I changed my mind. This now houses some of our coffee mugs, and some other kitchen stuff.

Now, onto OUR kitchen. Here is what our kitchen looks like now. We are still needing curtains and a few other things but other than that, its done. Justin and I are really happy with how everything turned out.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

I know I am a little late blogging about our Thanksgiving, but we have been busy pretty much every weekend since Thanksgiving.

After a few planning derailments, we all ended up at my parents house the day before Thanksgiving. It was great having both Stan and Abe home together. It has been a while since we have all been home at the same time.

Now, on to the all the family fun...it has become a new family tradition that the girls cook one night, my mom cooks thanksgiving dinner, and the boys cook the night after Thanksgiving. We started this last year and it was really fun and it keeps my mom from being in the kitchen the whole holiday. This year we changed things up just a little and just the girls cooked. Last year we had so much food left over from 3 big meals that the guys decided not to cook this year. I don't think the amount of leftover really had anything to do with it, I think it was that they didn't want to cook. We (the girls) decided to cook pizza. Since there are 3 of us (me, Lindsay, and Priscilla) all made our own pizza so we would have a variety. I made a chicken pesto pizza. Check out our delicious pizzas.

Our whole family is very competitive so when we are all together we turn everything into a competition. Because of all the competitiveness, this weekend was fulled with lots of game playing. The entire weekend was spent either eating or playing games. Each night we would sit around the table playing Taboo. After we went through all the cards (both front and back) we changed to playing fish bowl. I don't think I have laughed so hard in years. On Thanksgiving day the girls challenged the guys to a game of bocci ball. All the Hodges kids are very competitive and lucky for me so is my sister-in-law Lindsay. None us of had ever played bocci ball before so we all came to the field with the same skill level. I'm pretty sure that the guys thought they had it in the bag but they were wrong. The girls dominated!! Not wanting to lose to girls they challenged us to a rematch and they lost again.

When the fun of bocci ball was over we started playing in the pile of leaves we raked up. I know this is something that small children do, but there is something about going home for the holidays that turns us all into children. The fun started when Justin threw my parents cat into the pile of leaves. It only took seconds for the cat to race out of leaves and hide from us. After the cat, Justin thought it would be a good idea to jump into the leaves. Then it went downhill from there and for some reason we started kicking leaves at each other.

My mom not only made a great Thanksgiving dinner she also made a great centerpiece for the table. She is always making the house so festive.
Continuing with the competitive theme of the weekend Abe & Lindsay challenged Stan & Priscila to a game of corn hole.

While they played corn hole, my dad took me for a ride on his motorcycle. Don't I look styling with my pink helmet?
We ended the night making gingerbread houses. It was a contest (I told you we were competitive) I'm sad to say that Justin and I didn't win. Stan & Priscila won. I can only blame Justin for this loss.
Going from left to right, Stan & Priscila, my mom's, Justin's mom's, mine & Justin's, and Abe & Lindsay's. I really think we should have won, since we had both a reindeer and Santa on our roof.

Since, we are an hour and a half from any good shopping we didn't get to experience any of the Black Friday deals. We did however send the afternoon shopping around Winona (all 3 shops). Friday night we had a talent show...yes, that's right we had a talent show. (Did I tell you we are a competitive family?) I didn't get any pictures of this and I'm still hitting myself for not taking pictures. I played the recorder, Stan & Lindsay salsa danced, and Abe & Lindsay wrote and preformed a song. Justin was chosen to be the judge since he really has talent. Abe and Lindsay won the show with their on rendition of Carol of the Bells, Thanksgiving style.

We had a great time and always love when we are all together.

5 Great Years!!!

2011-12-16T05:55:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that Justin and I have been married for 5 years. It seems just like yesterday I was planning our wedding. I am so bless to have Justin as a husband.

Our Fall Decor

2011-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Before we put away all of our Thanksgiving/Fall decor, I wanted to share what our home looked like during the months of October and November. This post will be mostly pictures (there's not much to say about pumpkins and candy corns).

We didn't carve a pumpkin this year. I was a little disappointed because Justin has carved some great pumpkins in the past and knew this year would be no different. Since he failed me, I guess next year he will have to carve two to make up for this year. :)

I made these cute candy corns with poster board and yarn. You can make your own too. I found the idea on Pintrest.

Now, that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to put everything away and start putting up our Christmas decorations!!

Jar of Hearts

2011-11-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

Normally I keep all my posts pretty light and fun, but I wanted to share something a little different this time. I hope you will find it to be encouraging.

I can't remember the first time I heard Christina Perri's song "Jar of Hearts," but it wasn't long after hearing it that I that went to iTunes and purchased it. I really liked the song, and as with all songs I really like, I listened to it over and over. After listening to it many times I started to notice an interesting parallel in the song.

If you haven't heard the song, she is basically singing about a guy who keeps coming back to her and is constantly trying to bring her down with his lies. However, the lyrics also give a relatively accurate depiction of the fact that as a follower of Christ, I also have someone who is constantly trying to bring me down with his lies and to convince me that my Savior is not all He claims to be.

Over the past few weeks our church as been doing a sermon series on spiritual warfare. At the end of the first sermon, I thought about how perfectly this song summed up what Satan tries to do during those spiritual battles in our lives and what our response to him should be. It's not a perfect metaphor, but there are definitely some strong parallels. If you have not heard the song before I encourage you to listen to it.

Book Bazaar

2011-11-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

I love reading, but that wasn't always the case. When I was a kid I didn't spend much time with my nose in a book. I guess I was so busy playing with my dolls or pretending I was a teenager. When I was in college I would get a book and start reading it, but you know how it is when you are in college. If you are not reading something for school you just aren't reading anything at all.

However, in the past few years my love for reading has really grown. I almost always carry a book around with me (you never know when you will have time to stop and read a few pages).
I don't really like to buy books though. I would much rather check a book out at the library. As a result, I have become a big fan of MC's annual book bazaar. Last year I got a lot of great books for really cheap. I am sad to say that I have yet to finished reading all of them but I am working on it. You can read about those books here.

Since I no longer work at MC I had to find out all the details from Justin. Looking back at my last post I knew the book bazaar took place sometime in early fall. I would ask Justin almost every week if he had received any emails about it. Finally, while I was driving on campus I saw the sign announcing the book bazaar. I was super excited!

Once again, I stocked up. I have to say that I am not very familiar with many of these books, but for only $1.00 per book you really can't go wrong.

Here is the list of the all the books I bought at the book bazaar.

Thin Rich Pretty: Beth Harbison
Burnt Toast: Teri Hatcher
True Colors: Kristin Hannah
The Road to Eden's Ridge: M.L Rose
A Reliable Wife: Robert Goolrick
The Ninth Wife: Amy Stolls
And One Last Thing: Molly Harper
The Three Weissmanns of Westport: Cathleen Schine
The Lost Recipe for Happiness: Barbara O'Neal
Irreplaceable: Stephen Lovely
The Beach House: Sally John
Body Surfing: Anita Shreve
No One You Know: Michelle Richamond
Lost and Found Jacqueline Sheehan
Let Them Eat Cake:Sandra Byrd
In Her Shoes: Jennifer Weiner

I have set a goal for myself to read all the books I have purchased before the next book bazaar. Well, maybe just the ones that I bought at last year's book bazaar. I also might start writing my book reviews again. You will just have to wait and see.

Guitar Hanger

2011-10-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

I am really excited about this post because I am getting to share a small project we did in our office as well as give Justin's mad guitar skills a shout out. As many of you know Justin is a great musician, as I am writing this he is telling me not to say that, but I think he is great so I am going to let everyone know.

Now, onto the reason of this post. On any given day you could walk into our home office and see Justin's guitar and guitar case lying on the floor, taking up all the floor space. I am not sure why he never used the guitar stands he had but for whatever reason the guitar always ended up on the floor with the case wide open. In our dream home he would have a sound proof music room but at this point in our lives he is having to make do with a music/office room. After tripping over the guitar one too many times I knew something had to be done.

Don't get me wrong, I love it when Justin plays his guitar - I just don't love it when I can't walk into our office. So while at a music store one Saturday afternoon I convinced Justin that he needed to get a wall mounted guitar hanger. Let me back up a little...I really have no problem with Justin leaving his guitar out, my problem is with the open case on the floor and the fact that he always put his case in the back of the closet and had to remove almost everything from the closet to get to his guitar. So, not only was the case always sitting in the middle of the floor but also almost everything in the closet.

I never thought I would love having this hanging on our wall!

Once we got home, Justin put up this new wall mounted guitar hanger. I LOVE IT and Justin does too. Now the floor of our office is guitar-free. Also, Justin is able easily access his guitar whenever he is in the mood to play his guitar...which is all the time.

I never thought I would be this excited about a wall mounted guitar stand!

Well, I spoke too soon!! When I came into the office to upload my images this is what I found. Now, you can see why I was so excited to get the other guitar off the floor.

This guitar that is normally at church but Justin brought it home to practice. I hope he plans on bring it back real soon. I can't stand having all this stuff on the floor in the office.

Progressive Dinner

2011-10-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Way back in May (I know I should have posted about this months ago) Justin and I were sitting at home on a Friday afternoon thinking about what we should do that night. Tired of our usual trips to the Renaissance to window shop, we wanted to do something different...something fun. We contemplated taking a quick trip to Memphis but quickly talked ourselves out of it. Normally when we are out of ideas we either go to the Renaissance, call friends, or do nothing. On this particular night we decided to call a friend. There is nothing like being bored with someone else.

Thinking we would grab a bite to eat and just hang out, we thought our friend Katie would be great company and would make the night much brighter. So we called and, lucky for us, she didn't have any plans for the night either. We picked her up and heading to Sonic for a happy hour drink. While trying to decide what we wanted to drink, we noticed a snow cone stand and changed our minds and headed there. After we ordered our snow cones, Katie came up with a great idea to go to different places to have dinner...a progressive dinner. After much diliberation on where we would go, we decided the only stipulation was that it could not be a chain. So we started our progressive dinner out at SnowBiz with snow cones (Yes, I know that SnowBiz is a chain and the rule was made after we had already ordered!).

Our next stop was Babalu for appetizers. We had heard they had the best guacamole and that they make it at your table, so it was our first choice. Justin makes a great homemade guacamole so lately we have been trying guacamole at any restaurant that has it on the menu. Most of the time Justin's is so much better, but I have to say that Babalu makes a great guacamole and gives Justin's a run for its money.

At this point we were almost full but we could not stop just after our appetizers so we while were thinking of where to go next we headed to Dogwood. After a little going back and forth about where we should go for our main course, we finally decided on Local 463. It was a little out of the way but so worth it. Justin and Katie had burgers and I had a pizza. The burgers were huge! It was a great restaurant and will be one that we will revisit.

Finally, it was time for dessert, which is my favorite part of any meal. We wanted to go somewhere that served good desserts but when we started thinking about where we should go, we came up short. We finally thought about Mint. I had never been there before so I was really excited to try the place out. Once, there we went back and forth trying to decide on how many desserts to get, of course, I wanted try all of them. In the end we got three different desserts, a chocolate cake, a cheesecake, and beignet balls. All three were delicious and worth all the calories.

I am so glad that Katie joined us and turned a dull Friday night into a adventurous outing.

Justin's best surprise ever!

2011-10-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

Thursday the September 30th started out like any other Thursday. I went to the gym in the morning, had lunch with a friend, and did some stuff around the house. Around 5 that afternoon, Justin sent me a text telling me to look under a coaster in our office. When I first got the text, I thought it was Justin telling me he was on his way home from work. When I turned over the coaster I was surprised to find a QR code. I scanned the code and it took me here.

When I finished reading the poem I had the biggest smile on my face and picked up my keys and headed out the door. It took me a little while to find the second QR code, but when I did, knew I was on a fun scavenger hunt. During my fun outing Justin left me clues all over MC's campus as well as a few places around town. The places I went to find the clues are as follows, click on each link to view each clue:

Nelson

East Tower (Residence Hall)

Whittington (Residence Hall)

YogNFurit (yogurt place)

Olive Branch (gift shop)

Ratliff (Residence Hall)

Kugel (statue on campus)

The last clue lead me back home to check the mail box. When I opened the mail box I found Justin's iPod Touch with a Post-It note that said press play. This is the video is what the final clue. I encourage you to watch the video before scrolling down and reading the rest of the post.

The word surprised could not describe what I was feeling when I found out that Justin had planned a weekend trip to New York! If you know me, you know that I love NYC. I had less than 12 hours from the time I found out we were going to NYC to the time we had to get on the plane. Justin and I had ran around getting packed and getting everything ready before we left. Justin worked really hard to keep the trip a surprise. We had some plans already made but Justin had called everyone a told them of his surprise and told them we would not be able to keep our plans. He really thought of everything. It was awesome!!!

I don't think I slept the night before we left. I was excited and I kept thinking of things I needed to do and things I needed to pack.

Now on to NYC. Justin and I have been to NYC together 3 times, but each time we either stayed with friends who lived there or went with friends. To read more about our past trip click, here. The other two trips to NYC happened before I stated blogging so I don't have any posts to link to, sorry. When I found out that we would be going to NYC alone I was very excited. It has been a long time since Justin and I have been on a real vacation alone. I think it might have been our honeymoon almost 5 years ago.

We had a great time walking around NYC. We didn't do to many touristy things this time but here are some images of our trip. After checking into our hotel we went on the hunt for a place to eat lunch. One, of the many reasons we love NYC is the restaurant options. Living in Clinton you only have a few options when it comes to places to dine. NYC has 100's of options to choose from. When we are out of town Justin and I try to stay away from chain restaurants if at all possible. Its fun and it ensures that we try new places and different foods. This is my lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (This might be a chain...oops. I think it's a New York chain though.)

We sent a lot of time walking around Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Union Square, Time Square, and the Upper East Side. Here are a few of our favorites pictures from the trip.

This is the 9/11 memorial. If you are in NYC you really need to make a stop here, just be sure you get your tickets before hand.

In our all trips to NYC we have never walked the Brooklyn Bridge to this time we made a point to do it. I am not sure if you can tell but there were a lot of people walking and biking on the bridge.

Time Square!!

A very delicious banana and hazelnut crepe from Max Brenners.

Views of the Jackie Onassis Reservoir in Central Park.

We had a great weekend and I am so grateful for a husband who would go through all the trouble of surprise me with a special weekend in my favorite city!

I might have an obsession

2011-08-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

I think I might have a problem.

As many of you know, I love school/office supplies. There is nothing like getting a new notebook, pack of pens, Post-its, or paper clips. The other day I was cleaning my home office and noticed that I had a lot of Post-its/notepads, Sharpie markers and paper clips.

Justin has been making fun of me for a while about the amount of Post-its/notepads and Sharpies I have. I have always responded by saying, "The reason I have a lot is because I use a lot of post-its/notepads and Sharpies." After seeing all my post-its/notepads and Sharpies I will have to admit that I have a post-its/notepads and Sharpies problem. I knew I had a lot but I didn't know just how much until I put them all in one place. Take a look at all my post-its/notepads and Sharpies as well as a few of my other favorite office supplies.

Before you make fun of me you must know that I really do use these on a regular basis. I am always jotting a note on a post-it or making a list on a note pad and I use my Sharpies to make those notes and lists. I am a little embarrassed that I do have an unopened package of Sharpies, but I know those too will be used soon.

Now here is where I would have say that I have gone overboard. I don't really use paperclips that much nor do I use the pushpins that much either. When I am at the store I just can't pass up a colorful pack of paperclips. However, if I ever find myself in need, I know right where to find them.

I hope that I can resist the urge to buy any office supplies for a while since I have seen how much I have. I really hope I can do this.

Staying Organized

2011-08-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

I love being organized!

There is nothing like getting a new planner and filling it with birthdays, meetings, appointments, and other activities. I love being able to glance at my planner and see what my days, weeks, and months will look like. I have a planner that is always with me, a calendar on my phone that is connected to my computer, as well as Justin's iPod touch. Unfortunately, despite our extensive list of scheduling resources and devices, there are still times when one of us has something going on that we forget to put on our shared computer calendar.

I have always wanted a family calendar somewhere in our house - one that we could easily look at multiple times a day without having to pull it up on a phone or computer. I had planned on putting one in our home office but unless one of us is working on a specific project, we don't spend a whole lot of time in the office (although that might change with Justin's new endeavor). One place that I know we pass through multiple times everyday is the kitchen. It didn't take long to find the perfect spot - a blank wall that was just screaming "hang something here!" I measured the space and started my hunt for a calendar.

I found many different calendars that I liked, but most of them were dry erase. The reason I didn't want to a dry erase calendar was because it would be really easy to accidentally erase things from the calendar. Also, people (Justin) are always tempted to wipe a finger (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not) though the writing. Finding myself at a dead end, I decided that I would make my own.

Here is the list of materials you will need:

Bulletin board
Paint
Post-its
Ribbon
Push pens
Ruler

I set up shop in the garage and started spray painting. I thought about sanding the trim but wanted to get started so I skipped that and just starting painting.

I knew it would take a few coats but after 5 coats of the paint just soaking into the cork I knew I needed a new plan. I really wanted this to work to I took a few days and did some research and found that using real paint would work better. We were painting our kitchen cabinets at the time so I just took some white gloss paint we had for the cabinets and started painting. It worked! I still had to paint three coats but the paint was much thicker and adhered to the cork much better than the spray paint. It turned out just the way I had planned.

Here is a close up view of my paint job. I was a little worried that the paint would scratch off but it has proved itself very durable.

The next step was also very time consuming. I knew I wanted to use Post-It notes as the paper to write on since they are cheap a small. After laying out 30 post-its on the board I found that they were too big. I looked online for something smaller but came up with nothing. So, I decided to just cut the Post-It notes to the size I needed. Since each square would be 2.5''x2.5" I cut the post-its a little smaller than that. I don't really have an exact size but that are around 2x2". This part was easy once I had the right size. Here are the materials you will need:

Paper cutter
Post-it
Temple
Pencil
Pen

Use your template to trace out the 2x2 square. Next you will use the paper cutter to cut the square. I found that my paper cutter would only cut about 3 or 4 Post-Its at a time.

After you have all the squares cut and the dates written on them, its time to write out all your plans (my favorite part)!

I have not color coded my events but I think that is something that I might be doing in the future. I do love using all the fun colors. Once I had cut all the Post-Its I laid them out on the calendar and used my ribbon to make the columns. I didn't take any pictures of this part...sorry. But once you have anything pinned up you have a wonderful custom calendar.

I have really enjoyed using this calendar and I feel like it is keeping both Justin and I very organized. You will also see a white paper pinned to the calendar - that is our dinner menu. That way Justin can just look up there and see what we are having for dinner and does not have to ask. Or if he is in a good mood he can start dinner. HINT HINT!!!

School Back in Session

2011-08-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

I have to say we love it when school starts back. When you live in a college town and work at a college (as Justin does), you notice a difference when the students are here.

The title of this post actually means a little more than just having students back on campus this year. Justin had decided it is time to get his masters. I have been telling him for three years he needed to get his masters since a perk of working at MC is they will pay for you to take up to three classes a year. There was no reason for him to not use this opportunity to get this masters. Right?

When he first started working at MC he did look into getting his masters, but was unsure of what he should get it in. Since he does do some freelance on the side and has taken a bit more interest in business, he felt that getting him MBA would be the best option. I am sure many of you are thinking MBA? Really? Well, I think Justin would be the best person to explain why he choose to get his MBA. Take it away Justin.

----

Why the heck not?

No seriously, that's almost my real answer. But not really though. The real answer goes a little something like this: As an undergrad, my major was originally Management Information Systems. My sophomore year I started taking some business classes - economics and business law, to be specific. I hated them. I dropped economics, drudged through business law and changed my major to Information Technology.

Since entering the working world, however, I've actually developed an interest in business. I can see how business topics actually apply and why they matter. I'm interested in learning and I feel it would benefit me down the road.

----

Well, that should clear up any wondering questions as to why a computer guy is getting his MBA. We are both very excited about this and know that it will be a great thing for us. Please be praying for us as Justin goes back to school and I get use to living with a husband who is taking classes.

P.S. Hope you all enjoy some of my favorite pictures of Justin.

The completion of a much needed update

2011-08-24T06:33:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Justin and I have been updating our kitchen by painting the cabinets, walls, and adding some new accessories to make it more us and less 1980's. If you are just joining us on this journey you can read about what our kitchen looked like before we started here and here.

I have to admit that this project has taken us much, much longer than either of us thought it would take. Alas, after almost 5 months, we are finally done (minus a few little things like window treatments and some other accessories to complete the look)! Let me refresh your memory with what our kitchen looked like when we closed on our house in 2008.

I can't believe we actually bought this house with a kitchen that looked like that. I suppose we were able to see past the dated-ness of it and see the potential it would have after a little love. Fortunately for us, we did not have to move into the house with the kitchen looking like that. We negotiated with the seller to include money to update the appliances. Justin was so sweet and picked out all of them himself and had them all installed before I moved in (he lived in the house for about a month while I was still in Georgia). I do have to give him a shout out for installing both the dishwasher and microwave on his own! This is what our kitchen looked like for the past two years. Still in need of some love but a lot better than what it looked like when we first saw the house.

Just changing out the appliances made a big difference. I am so glad that we were able to make that change before moving in.

Now back to the updating that has taken us almost six months to complete. I am not sure if given the choice if we would take on another project like this. The time and effort was much more than I thought, but in the end we are happy with the turn out and are excited that we were able to do it ourselves. We didn't get any quotes from painters so I am not sure how much it would have cost if we would have had someone else come in a do this. However, if we ever find ourselves in this situation again, we both have said that we will call in the professionals.

I know this is a weird view but I wanted to share it because its the view from the entry way. This is what people see when they first come into our house and look to the right. The blue wall still needs something, I am still thinking about what I want to put there.

I wanted to give you a close up view of the knobs that we chose. We both really like the brushed nickel finish and the simple detail.

This was definitely a learning experience and now that it is all said and done we can say that we did this ourselves...well Justin can say that he did it himself. We are very happy with how everything turned out. We have a few more decorating things to complete before we can say that the kitchen is finished. This should be soon (that is what we are both hoping for at least). I am just glad that we are finally done with the painting. We love our new kitchen and can't wait to have everything in its place and start entertaining again. Stay tune for more updates in our kitchen.

HELP our Friends!

2011-07-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

I am writing to ask...plead...beg...pester you to help our friends win a kitchen makeover. If any of you have ever entered a contest where the number of votes you get determine if you win or not, you know how important this is! Justin and I helped them out a few weeks ago by making a video with them for the contest. So by voting for them, you would also be showing us love too. :) Here is how you can help them win a kitchen makeover.

1. Go here
2. "Like" the page
3. Click "Allow Access"
4. Click "Allow"
5. Click "Browse Entries"
6. Click on the Woods video and give them 5 stars.

August 4th is the deadline so please vote before then!

I know there are many steps to the but please take the time and vote for them. The video is funny if I do say so myself. Also, make sure you only vote for the Wood's video not anyone else's! You are only able to vote once so make it count.

Your vote is greatly needed and appreciated. Thanks you so much for your vote!

A High School Graduation

2011-07-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

May was a month full of travel for us. The weekend after my brother's graduation we traveled to Atlanta to celebrate the high school graduation of a family friend. We arrived in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon. After spending some time reconnecting with the Fosters we headed out to dinner. There are many reason I love going to Atlanta and the Fosters are one of them. We are like family and it is never a dull moment when we are all together. I think another reason why I love spending time with them is because we are always doing fun girl stuff. When you grow up being the only girl you don't always get to spend your days going shopping and getting your nails done - which is what we did Friday. How could we allow Daly to graduate without having a morning of pampering with some manicures and pedicures? Sorry...I didn't get any pictures because the day was full of running errands.

Now on to the graduation. I have not thought about my high school graduation in 9 years. I guess I was just so excited to be done with high school. Don't get me wrong I have thought about my high school days many times over the last nine years, but I never really think back to my graduation day. However, during this graduation old memories came back to me of my own graduation. It was great to take a walk down memory lane. During the commencement, Daly gave a speech to honor her teachers, which she did a great job with. After the ceremony there was a reception. It was fun/weird watching all the seniors taking pictures together and talk about what they were going to do over the summer and where they would be attending college. Weird, because I seem like yesterday I was doing the same thing.

My camera was acting weird so forgive me for the pictures.

Saturday was a another great day. Most of the morning was spent getting ready for the graduation party Daly and two of her friends would have that night at the house. Well, in all honesty it was the guys that spent most of the morning getting things ready. The girls went around town looking for candles to put on the tables and other things for the party. After everything was ready Justin, Abe, Lindsay, and I decided it was time to head downtown to shop.This is off topic but I just have to say that I really miss the shopping in ATL. When we got back home everything was set up and the party was about to start. Everything about the party was great. I am so glad we were able to be there for Daly.

It was a wonderful weekend celebrating with Daly and her family. We are all so proud of her!! She will be following her mothers foot steps and will be attending Auburn in the fall. My parents are big Mississippi State fans so I am sure there will be some tailgating when State and Auburn play each other in September. I will be cheering for State that day.

So Close...

2011-07-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's Justin. Yes, I actually write the posts on here every now and then (okay, this is only the second time). As you know, Sally often writes about various projects that we work on. Well, this time I had a project that would have been the perfect bloggable project. I went into it camera-in-hand, ready to document my way through so that I could write a wonderfully informative post as a celebration of the successful completion of the project.

What was this project, you ask? It was the replacement of the driver's door lock actuator in our Honda Accord. Of course, I expect that all of your know what a lock actuator is, but for those of your who (like me) should be reading "Car Repair for Dummies" instead of attempting projects like this, an actuator is the small electronic piece that actually creates the movement that locks and unlocks your car door.

Unfortunately, a few months ago our driver's door lock stop working electronically. It would still lock/unlock the door, but it wouldn't do so when we pressed the remote button. After a little Googling I discovered that the cause was most likely a bad actuator. I ordered a new one on Ebay, found a "How to Replace a 2005 Honda Accord Actuator" tutorial online, waited for a few free hours on a Saturday afternoon, and had a go at it.

Things were coming along quite nicely. I got the door off, peeled back the plastic sheet on the door, and located the actuator. I removed the power from the actuator and plugged it into the new one to test and see if it would work - it did! The only thing left to do was to actually remove the old actuator and put the new one in.

Sadly, that's about the time my project ended. Apparently when they put cars together, they hire the winners of the "World's Strongest Man" competition to put in the screws. I absolutely could not get the old piece out of the door...not without starting to strip the screws. But rather than try harder and risk stripping them completely, I thought it would be wiser to honor Sally's one request given before I started the project: "Please just don't break anything."

And so my project ended there...so close, yet unsuccessful. I'll guess I'll just have to suck it up and take it to the Honda dealer :(

Here's some pics showing how far I got:

This is the door with the interior panel removed. I had to peel back that plastic stuff to get to the actuator, and after that it was still tucked behind the metal part of the door on the left

I taped a mirror to the inside of the door so I could see the piece. Those two black plugs are what I removed and plugged into the new actuator to make sure that it would work.

The culprits. Screw these screws!! No seriously, I wish I could have...or unscrew them rather...

The new actuator. If only I could have removed those screws...

What can I say...I tried. I'm just glad I didn't break anything.

Abe the Master

2011-07-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

In May (I know I am still two months behind) I went to Louisville, KY to celebrate my brother's graduation from seminary. I had never been to Louisville but had heard what a great place it was. I was very excited to make the trip with my parents. It was a long 8 or 9 hour drive but when you can sleep in the backseat it does not make for a bad drive.

While Abe was in school he worked at a hotel and was able to get us a room here. It is a very nice hotel downtown. Abe scored us a room on the concierge floor in the Gatsby suite. The room was nice but what I loved the best about the room was the shoe shining box. I had never seen one before and thought it was amazing. I just wish I had shoes that needed shining. This is the view of the box from inside the room.

When we arrived it was dinner time so we went to a place my mom had read about in the Southern Living Magazine. I can't remember the name but it was a real treat. It is a very eclectic place that has a fun gift shop. You know me, I love any kind of shop. While waiting for our table we had a great time trying on hats and looking around the shop.

This is a view of the inside of the restaurant. I have to stay that this image does not do this place justice. Another thing that set this place apart was the fact that they had toys at the table for you to play with while you waited on your food. Not just that game with the golf tees like at Cracker Barrel but real toys, like toy horses, a "seek and find" game, crayons, and a few other things.
When we finished dinner we took some time to have a fun photo op with the outdoor decorations. There was a lot more stuff outside that I just did not take pictures of but it was just as eclectic as the inside.

After dinner we walked around part of the city and wasted time until we had made room for dessert. We finally made our way to the Pie Kitchen. As I am writing this, my mouth is watering just thinking back to my experience. I wish Clinton or even the Metro Jackson area had a good dessert place that had more than ice cream or yogurt. I had a delicious piece of apple pie and a scoop of peanut butter ice cream. It was so good!!

The graduation was at 10:00 in the morning so we arrived in time to get good seats and did some people watching while we waited for the ceremony to start. The weather was great until 10:00 when the ceremony started. That is when the sun came out from behind the clouds and fried us. Other than the sun it was a great experience. It was all worth it to watch Abe graduate with a Master of Divinity form Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Later that afternoon Lindsay and my mom put together a cookout at a great park on the Ohio River to celebrate. We had steaks cooked by my dad along with chips, potato salad, broccoli salad as well as some other things that I can't remember. The highlight of the night was the great cupcakes that Lindsay had made. They not only tasted great but looked great too. Here a few shots of the food table and some of people that came to the party.

It was a great trip! I am glad that I was able to make the trip to see Abe and Lindsay. Now I only have to drive and hour and a half since they moved to Louisiana two weeks after this weekend. Since they have moved we have made many trips to each other houses.

Welcome to the Beach

2011-07-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

In May we took a beach trip to Gulf Shores with a few of our friends to have a farewell weekend for our friends who moved to Australia. We borrowed my parents car so we could all be together and loaded all our stuff in the car and drove five and a half hours playing games and doing anything we could to make the time go by.

When we got there it was late and we all were really excited to see what the condo would be like. We booked this particular condo, site unseen. It was wonderful! We had three nice bedrooms each with its own bathroom. I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the condo but take my word for it, it was really nice and we had lots of space.

On our first real day at the beach some of us didn't use a high enough SPF and, well...we got burned. We laid out until later afternoon. It was great just sitting on the beach. The guys laid out some, but got antsy and played football and frisbee.

A beach trip is not complete without a foot in the sand picture. What is funny about this picture is that we are all wearing the same color nail polish.

After taking all the sun we could for one day we when back to the condo and got ready to going shopping and for dinner. You can kinda tell that we are a little red but this picture does not show how really burned we all were.

After dinner we went to a souvenir store to look at getting a boogie board. While we were there Justin and I had a great time trying on hats.

The second day was also a blast. I didn't spend as much time on the beach because I was burned, but I did use a better sunscreen the second time around. Justin had a big scare in the water while he was boogie boarding. If you see him you should ask him about it. All I have to say is that I am so glad I didn't know what was going on. After lunch some of us took naps while others went back out to the beach. Before heading out that night we decided to try and take some pictures on the beach. It was a bust because of the wind. I am not sure we were able to get one good pictures. Here are some of our attempts.

The same thing about this picture is that all of them look just like this. Mine and Jessica's hair are blowing in our faces. Somehow Heather was able to keep her hair out of the way.
We spent out last night playing putt-putt and eating at LuLu's and went and got ice cream for dessert. Also this was Sunday night so when we got back to the condo we turned on the TV to watch Obama tell the world the Bin Laden was dead. I know that has nothing to do with anything but it was something that made the last night a little more memorable (in an odd way).

We had a great time and are very grateful for the time we were able to spend with our wonderful friends!

Another year older

2011-06-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

This post is also two months old. Just know I am working hard to get everything updated. It is just taking longer than I wanted it to.

On April 20th my brother, Stan and I celebrated our birthday. Stan and I have never missed being together on our birthday and this year was no exception. Last year Justin and I went and visited Stan in Waco, TX. You can read about that trip here. This year he was able to come here so we could celebrate. He and his girlfriend drove in late Tuesday night before our birthday.

Justin woke me up that morning with two gifts - one an Anthropologie gift card and the other the Michael Jackson Experience Dance game. Justin had to go to work so Stan, his girlfriend and I leisurely got ready played a few rounds of my new game and then met Justin in Jackson for lunch. Stan let me pick the place we would eat lunch and I chose my favorite place, Bon Ami. We spent the rest of the day shopping around and playing the Michael Jackson Experience Dance game. I LOVE it!! That night we cooked dinner and ate at home and Justin went to Newk's and got two pieces of Strawberry cake. It was a great day!

That weekend just so happened to be Easter so Stan and his girlfriend went to my parents the day after our birthday and Justin and I joined them that weekend. We really didn't do much at my parents house just played outside and relaxed.

On Sunday everyone came to my house for Easter lunch. I love having people over and it was fun cook dinner for my family. The sad part was that Stan and his girlfriend left. All in all it was a great birthday week/weekend.

These eggs were dyed by the college students from our college small group. I think they did a great job and they had fun doing it too.

followell|fotography

2011-06-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday April 18th, (I know that was two months ago) I started a new job at followell|fotography. I was not necessarily looking to leave MC, but there are times when the Lord just drops an opportunity into your lap and very clearly opens a door, and this seemed to be one of those times. I loved working at MC mainly because it gave me the opportunity to get to know a lot of college students, and the webmaster (who worked just down the hall from me) is pretty hot, but there were a lot of times when it was rather difficult as well.

When the opportunity to work at followell|fotography was presented to me, I knew it was from the Lord. Those of you who know Robby know that he is an amazing photographer. We have been grateful recipients of a few photo sessions with Robby - our favorite being a shoot in New York City. Check out those images here and here. Not many people can say they LOVE their job but since I have been working at followell|fotography, those words have come out of my mouth many times. Who would not love talking about weddings and seeing beautiful pictures all day?

Shortly after getting the job, Justin told me he was jealous of my job for three reasons: 1. I get to work with cool people, 2. I get to work in a really cool environment, and 3. I get to wear jeans to work. I'd have to agree with him that those reasons are definitely close to the top of my "Reasons I Love My Job" list. I really do love my job and I am so grateful that I get to work there.

This is a iPhone pic of the studio. (Yes, I do have a chair...we were just temporarily using it for something else!)

I am such a bad blogger :(

2011-06-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

I am starting to notice a trend in my blogging, and I am sure many of you have too. The trend is this... I blog like crazy for a few weeks, slow down a little and them completely stop. I start feeling guilty about not blogging and blog an "I am such a bad blogger post" (case in point) and the cycle starts over. No matter how organized I am or how hard I try I can't break this cycle. A friend said the reason my blogging is so inconsistency is because I am always on the go doing things that I need to blog, so I don't have any time to do the actual blogging.

So, the question is, what do I do? Stop blogging all together or continue in the cycle and hope that things might get better? I could NEVER stop blogging all together. So, I guess the cycle will continue. If you are around me for any length of time you know that I talk about blogging all the time. Currently my camera is full of pictures that I am itching to put on my blog.

Here's hoping that the list of things I want to blog about gets on the blog before I get back in the ugly cycle of not blogging. Wish me luck!

Jack had a friend for the weekend!

2011-05-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my parents asked us to keep their dog Max while they went out of town. Jack and Max love playing with each other. Well, Jack loves playing with Max...I'm not sure if Max really likes playing with Jack. Max is also a Miniature Schnauzer and is a great dog who only has only one hang up: he will not go to the bathroom unless he is on a leash. I know most people would love that about their dog - don't get me wrong it is great. However, we have trained Jack to go outside in the backyard to do his business without being on a leash. Max will go outside and play and sniff around, but unless he is on a leash, he will not go to the bathroom. It is annoying at times..like at 6:00 in the morning or when it's raining.

Minus the whole leash thing, Max is easy to have around, especially when he is entertaining Jack. I know this might sound weird but they really do have a great time playing together. Whenever they are together, they play so much that it gets annoying. I really can't explain it but I am hoping the pictures help you to understand how hard they play with each other. They have ripped apart many toys playing together.

I can't say for sure but I do think that Jack was sad when Max left.

Kitchen Progress-It's coming together!

2011-04-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

We are just about done with the kitchen update - boy am I excited!! Hopefully the next post about the kitchen will be the BIG reveal. According to our time line (that I worked so hard on) we should have finished Monday April 18th. Clearly I was wrong. At first I was a little disappointed but now I am okay with it taking a little longer for a few reasons: a) Justin did most of the work all by himself, b) we are only able to work once we get home from work, c) we have a life, d) Justin is being a perfectionist.

Let me give you an example of what our evenings have looked like while we have been working on the kitchen. Normally when we get home form work we rest for about 10 minutes, play with Jack, and make a plan as to what we wanted to get done in the kitchen. Justin starts doing whatever was on the list for the kitchen and I start dinner. I don't want everyone to think that I just sit and watch TV while Justin is working hard painting our cabinets. Okay, let me be honest... the first week I WAS sitting in front of the TV while Justin was working.

Here are a few pictures of the progress we have made.

This is where it starts looking like a real kitchen!

We are now to the point of putting up the cabinet doors which has really motivated us. We should be done with the cabinets in just a few more days but will need to touch up the walls and paint the baseboards and door frames before everything is completely finished.

Going out with a Twist

2011-04-16T08:10:00.001-07:00

I hope that the title of this post is not offensive to anyone. If it is I apologize. It was just so witty I couldn't resist! Yesterday was my last day working at MC. I will be starting a new job on Monday and I will tell more about that next week. This post we will be about the events that made up my last day at work.

The day started out like any other day. I got up, did my normal morning routine, and went to work. Being that it was my last day, I had a long list of things I needed to get done before turning in my key. I got to work and starting checking things off my to-do list. There was talk around the office of bad weather coming our way, but some thought it would pass over us. I had no idea about the potential bad weather because Justin and I had been painting out kitchen cabinets in the evening and not paying much attention to the local news. Read about that here and here.

Around 1o:30 or so the tornado sirens starting going off, so everyone in the office went down to the basement, thinking it would last for a little while then back to work we would go. When we first got down there everyone was greeting each other and watching the weather and looking out the windows. Yes, it was raining, dark, and windy, but when you are around a lot of people I think scary situations are not so bad because you are distracted. For a while it was just dark and rainy. I thought for sure that within the hour we would be back to work. I was wrong. Around 11:30 or so the sirens starting going off again and then the power went out. This is a sweet friend Daniel Mortimor who took this picture of us to celebrate my last day at MC. It s blurry because well it was pitch black in the room.

While we were all waiting to see what had happened we got word that a tornado had touched down across the interstate less than a mile from MC. I believe we were down in the basement for about an hour and a half or so before were told we could go back to our offices. The problem with that was we still didn't have power. I went up to the third floor and tired to finish my to-do list. Most of the stuff I need to do was on the computer but without power, well, it was impossible.

We all thought that since we didn't have power that they would be spending us home soon or that the power would come back. I finished what I could and them we just sat around the office talking and answering the phone (at this point our cell phones would not send or receive calls or text messages but the landlines were still working). I will refrain from being negative about the fact that we were made to stay all most all day without power. Being that it was my last day, I packed up my desk and around 2:30 I turned in my key and left! Needless to say, it was a very eventful last day at MC!

When I got home I got on the computer and searched for video of the tornado. This is what I found. I had no idea this was going on just a mile away from where I was. It is very scary and just goes to justify my reasoning for being afraid of bad weather. I am blessed to say that Justin and I did not have any damage and never went without power.

Dreaming of Paris

2011-04-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

When Justin and I signed up for the mission trip to Paris I didn't now what to expect. I was completely blown away by the whole experience, to read about the mission work we did click here.

This post will be about the beauty of Paris and some fun pictures that our group took throughout the week. I am going to let the pics tell the story. I might have to make this two different post because we took a lot of pictures. I will do my best to include everything but not make it too long.

At the airport playing Banana Grams

Sacre Coeur

View of Eiffel Tower from the top of Sacre Coeur

The most delicious cookies you will ever put into your mouth.

Arc De Triomphe

In the Louvre

The Louvre

The Seine River

Notre Dame Cathedral

In the Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame Cathedral at night

Eating more delicious pastries

Eiffel Tower

Eating the best Nutella and Banana crepe!!

Top of the Eiffel Tower

Shamrock shakes: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Sprite

More crepes!!

There are many more pictures that I could not include for that fact that this would be the longest post ever. We had a great time in Paris and hope you enjoy looking at the pictures too.

Happy Birthday MOM!!

2011-04-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the BEST Mom Ever!!

I could go on and on about how great my mom is, and if you know her you would agree. Instead of going on and on about how great she is, I will just share a few reason why I love her and why I am proud to be her daughter.

1. She is a Light for Christ.
2. She puts up with me and my two brothers.
3. She is always up for a party.
4. She taught me to be hospitable.
5. She can make almost anything into something fun.
6. She is a great at delegating
7. She is a great shopping partner.
8. She can has pink motorcycle boots.
9. She can make a house a home.
10. She is my Mom!!

Bonus: 11. She puts up with my husband Justin!

Happy Birthday MOM!!!

In Progess--Kitchen Update

2011-04-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

It has been two weeks since we started updating our kitchen. Let me rephrase that: it has been two long weeks since we started updating our kitchen. It is a slow process since we only work after 4:30, when we get home from our regular jobs. We are still not done, but we are so much closer. Here is a reminder of what our kitchen looked like before we started doing anything to it.

Our progress...
It is no secret how much I hate wall paper. I know that back in the 80's it was the hottest thing in home decorating. I hear that it might be coming back, I really hope not! Either way, we will not be putting wall paper in our house any time soon. I am sure wall paper can look great when its in a modern color and the print is not overwhelming. The first thing we did to our kitchen was remove the ugly wall paper border. It was not a long process (thank goodness) but it did take us a day to get it all off and to clean the walls. Here is an "in progress" picture of us removing the border. I know that this might sound a little crazy but I think our kitchen looks bigger without the wall paper.

The next step we took toward our new kitchen was painting the walls. This is by far the easiest part. We taped off the cabinets in a matter of minutes and started primed the walls, the trim around the doors and the baseboards. We then painted the walls a light blue-ish grey color called "Breezy" and that was it. I didn't get any pictures of our walls painted because we had a little trouble with our memory card. But take my word for it, it looks good.

After the walls had some time to dry and we had a good night sleep, we started the daunting task of painting the cabinets. Before we even poured the first drop of paint we had a well thought out plan as to how we wanted this process to look. However, that was quickly thrown out the window when we stated painting. The first step was to removed all the doors, hinges, and knobs. This was the easy part until our drill battery died and we had to do it by had. Think about it, each door had 10 screws and we had 20 doors. So I am thinking we unscrewed about 150 screws by hand. I was not a very happy camper while doing it and was thinking how easy it would have been if we would have just charged the dumb battery. There is a picture of all the hinges, screws, and knobs. The angle this picture was taken does not show how big the pile really was, just take my word for it. The pile includes; 20 hinges, over 200 screws, and 28 knobs.

This is Justin using the drill when the battery was working

Once, we had removed all the hinges and knobs, we cleaned the doors and the framework of the cabinets. We laid all the cabinets on the floor and wiped them down with a warm damp sponge. Needless to say our house has been over run with our kitchen. More on that later.

At this point in the project we were super excited!!! Notice how I said "were" that's because as of right now we are further along in having a freshly painted kitchen, but still not done. I think the project will still only take us 21 days but we have thrown the schedule out the window. Our kitchen is looking great and will do my best to get another update posted really soon.

Getting a Face Lift

2011-04-05T11:54:00.001-07:00

Justin and I have been wanting to paint our kitchen cabinets ever since we moved into our house over two years ago. When we bought the house everything in the kitchen was original to the house. We did negotiate with the seller and got some money to update all the appliances. The new stainless steel appliances really helped us live with the kitchen for the past two years. However, it is now time to lighten up the kitchen and make it more us. As of right now we are only going to paint the walls and the cabinets. We do not have any plans to change out the countertops or backsplash. We are going to live with the fresh new kitchen for a while before doing any other updating (to the kitchen that is).

This is what our kitchen looked like when we closed on the house.

This is what it looked like when we updated the appliances.

We had a memory card error so we lost some of the better pictures of our kitchen, so this picture will have to do.

Side story: Justin picked out all of our appliances by himself and even installed the dishwasher and microwave by himself before I moved in. At first I was upset because I didn't get to pick them out but was very glad that it was all taken care of before I moved into the house.

When we decided it was time to paint we discussed many different color options. We both had our own idea of what we wanted - good thing they were similar. Here are a few of the ideas that we played with: dark brown cabinets with either green, blue or white walls, white cabinets with green, blue, or yellow walls, or white cabinets with a tint of gray with a blue/green wall. We have a lot of red accents in the kitchen so whatever we picked had go with what we already had.

We have been in our house for two years, so for two years I have been looking online at books and magazines for ideas for our kitchen, knowing that one day we would be ready to make the needed changes. After about a week of thinking and talking through what we wanted, we finally chose our colors. We will be painting the cabinets Extra White and the walls Breezy. We both think this will really make our kitchen look more open and freshen it up a lot. This is the look we are trying to go for, but we will have red accents.

Before we even started doing anything in the kitchen, I came up with a time line/to do list for this project. We have painted and removed wall paper in both of the baths and our dining room and painted our office and our bedroom. Each time we have started a project in our house it has taken longer than we planned. Being that this would be our biggest project to date I wanted to make sure that we had everything planned out before pulling off that first piece of wall paper.

If everything goes as planned the whole project should take us 21 days from start to completion. I am not sure if we will be able to stay on this time line but that is the plan and we are going to do our very best to keep to the plan.

Updates coming soon...

Paris -- Mission Work

2011-03-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

This was part of our team, minus Tyler

This post is well over a week past due but I have a few reasons/excuses. One, things have been really busy for us as we try to get back to our normal schedule. Two, I am still trying to process everything that I learned in Paris.

This will be a two part Paris blog post. The first (this one) being all about the mission work that we did while there and the second will be of the sites that we saw and random things that happened while there.

I hope you are ready for this...

While in Paris we worked with a group of IMB missionaries who have been working/living in Pairs for about 10 years. They work with and have a passion for the NAME (North African and Middle Eastern) people of Paris.

Our days started out by getting up around six-ish because we had to be ready to go by 7:15. We would have a devotion as a group before leaving the hotel, then head to the church around 7:45. After a bus or RER and a metro ride we would walk a few blocks to the church (we did a lot of walking). We would have a bible study lead by the missionary, learn about what we would doing that day and then head out . We would either have lunch depending on what time we finished or we would go right to ministry work.

Much of our ministry work consisted of passing out tracts, hoping someone would stop and want to talk about it (which happened a lot more than I thought) or doing surveys. Here's how the surveys worked: we would stop someone walking by, tell them that we were working with a Christian organization that was seeking to learn about what kinds of needs (social, economic, spiritual) existed in that area. It really was a great way to start a conversation, because we all have needs. In conversing with them (through a translator), we would try and steer the conversation toward spiritual things.

Many of the people we spoke with understood Jesus to be a prophet, but really didn't know much else about him. Typically when we talk about people who have never heard the gospel, we often think about remote parts of the world or third world countries, but it was amazing to see how many had never clearly heard the gospel in Paris - and not just a few, but the majority of the people that we talked to.

We did not see any people put their faith in Christ during our trip, but many seeds were planted. I would say that this trip was a great successes. I know that many of the people we told we were going to Paris (and maybe even you!) thought that we would do a little mission work and a lot of site-seeing and touristy things. Well, I am sorry but you are wrong! Justin and I have talked about the week we spent in Paris almost everyday. It was by far the hardest mission trip I have ever been on. Justin said that it was harder then the 8 weeks he spent in Burkina Faso, West Africa. People all over the world are lost. It does not matter if you are in a remote village in Africa or in the streets of Paris - Satan does not want people coming to know the Lord and Savior of the world and he is alive and committed to make that not happen. I leaned the true meaning of being filled with the Spirit EVERYDAY. When Satan is working against you things can be very difficult. He is always trying to tempt you to believe lies . But when you are a child of God, you have the power to overcome him through Christ in you.

This guy was with a church in Paris and while we passed out tracks he sat on the bench for 3 hours praying for us the whole time.

Paris is a very dark place full of people who not only do not trust in Christ, but simply do not know the truth about all he has done. The Lord taught me many things during my week in Paris that I hope to never forget. He taught me that I have freedom in Him, that He is the God of the nations, that there are people all over the world who have not heard the gospel, and so many other things.

I know this post was definitely a little heavy, but I tell you everything because it was the best experience I have had doing mission work. It was hard, but it was so worth it!

2011-03-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I love NYC. I don't have any real connection to New York, I just love the city.

While Justin and I were in NYC over the Christmas break (read about the trip here),our wonderful photographer friend Robby Followell took time to take some pictures of us. Robby is a great artist and photographer his pictures speak volumes, check out his blog here.

I am not going to post all of the pictures just our favorites. I hope you enjoy them as much as Justin and I do! We are still trying to decided which ones that we want to have framed in our house. If it was up to me I would have all of them. Just kidding. But for real!

I told you that we had too many favorites!! Do you have a favorite? Let us know if you do.

Happy Brithday ABE!!

2011-03-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

Bon Anniversaire

I hope you like the handmade sign!

Wishing my big brother Abe the Happiest Birthday Ever!!!

I hope you have a great day celebrating, know that Justin and I are wishing you a happy birthday from Paris!!

Au Revior

2011-03-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

Many of you might not know that Justin and are leaving for Paris tomorrow on a mission trip. Now before you start thinking "Right...I'm sure you are going on a 'mission trip' to Paris...", let me tell you a little about what we will be doing. First, we will be working with a minority people group sharing with them the story of Christ. We have been told that many of the people we will be working with have never heard, experienced, or lived in the freedom that only Christ can give. This brings me to my first request: please pray that each person who has the opportunity to speak with this people group would be filled with the Spirit. I know that I am nervous about what to say to someone who tells me that they have no idea who Jesus is. We will also be working with missionaries, doing whatever they ask us to do, such as working with the woman's literacy classes, helping them in their bookstore, and encouraging their church through manual labor...really just doing whatever they ask.

Justin and I are very excited about this opportunity and would greatly appreciate your prayers. I know that the Lord is going to Shine!!!!

I will give a full report once I return. So until then Au Revior!!

The Golden Girls

2011-03-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

I am sure when you read the title of this post your thoughts went right to Betty White, Rue McLanhan, Bea Arthur, and Estelle Getty or maybe the beloved phrase, "Thank you for being a friend." As I am writing this I am humming the tune. (Confession: I use to watch The Golden Girls every day. Sorry, back to the point...)

Last month, a few of my friends from USM were together at a shower. We talked about how sad it was that we all live within an hour and half from each other but never really hang out. We made a plan to get together every few months to hang out and keep in touch. We wanted to have a name for our group so we started throwing out ideas. Since we all went to USM, we wanted our name to represent USM in some way, hence "The Golden Girls." Get it? Golden girls, golden eagles.

This past weekend was the first Golden Girls reunion. We meet in Jackson at Julep for dinner. We had a great time catching up and making memories. Check out a few of the Golden Girls blogs here, here, and here.

Group pic!!

Here are some of the highlights of the night:

Two of us arrived a few minutes before the other two and the waiter asked us if we would need the other table. If we didn't they would like to know so they could use it for other guests. We didn't need it so we happily gave up the table.
The waiter kept trying to get us to order before everyone on arrived. He also used the word "beautiful" after everything. Waiter: "Are you ready to order?" Us: "No we are waiting on someone." Waiter: "Beautiful." Every exchange of dialogue went this way.
We ordered 4 desserts. We thought they might be small and everyone would be able to have a few bites of each. We were wrong!
We all finished our meal and dessert and had paid our bills and were just enjoying hanging out, when our waiter came to our table and asked if we needed anything else. We said no. He then asked us to leave because other costumers had reserved this table. We all looked at each other a little confused and processed to gather our belongings and left.

Don't you wish you could be eating these. Can you say delicious!!

Before we were asked to leave we made plans for the Golden Girls to get together again. We are very excited and are hoping that all the Golden Girls will be able to join us next time.

I want to leave you with a blurred out pic of the waiter that asked us to leave. Another funny moment, when we asked him to take our picture and he squatted down for us to take a pic of him. Enjoy!

Be our Guest

2011-02-25T09:18:00.001-08:00

Justin and I have not had a lot of guests come through our house in a while. However, in February we had guests (granted, both were our moms...but they were guests none the less!) on two weekends in a row.

Our guest room is one of the rooms in our home that we have filled with a hodgepodge of furniture and decor to make it functional. It works for us right now and we are happy with the room, but I did want the room to be welcoming to our guests. After a lot of online reading and magazine perusing, I found the perfect idea that would make our guest room just a little more guest-friendly. I created drawer with personal necessities that our guests may have forgotten to pack for themselves.

How many of you have forgotten a toothbrush, deodorant, or some other toiletry item while out of town? Most of the time you don't notice what you forgot until right when you need to use it, like at night or early in the morning - not the best time to run to the store. Well, I saw this idea in a magazine and knew that this is something I wanted to put in our guest room.

I cleaned out the top draw in the small chest we have in the room and put in some organizing trays. I filled the compartments with toiletries and other things our guests might need while visiting. I made a cute little tag to go on the drawer so the guests would know that they were welcome to use anything they might need while staying with us.

Here is a list of everything that we have on hand for our guests.

Kleenex
Soap
Shout wipes
Shaving Cream
Deodorant
Q-tips
Nail File
Lotion
Vaseline
Pain meds
Mints
Chaps Stick
Floss
Toothbrush and Toothpaste
Mouth wash
First Aid kit
Hair Spray
Lint Roller
Finger Nail Clippers
Wet Wipes

I have already thought of a few somethings that I will need add for our next guest!!

I have also put some of my favorite books on the nightstand and some magazines in a basket next to the bed. One day I would like to have some place to put a carafe of water and some snacks for our guests to munch on when they were at our house.

How do you welcome your guest? I would love to hear your ideas.

Oxygen in the House

2011-02-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Justin's mom came for a visit. With her, she brought along a few plants for Justin's office at work and for our house. She is great at gardening and has a very "green thumb" - something neither Justin nor I have. We have talked about getting plants for our house for a while, but have never done anything about it - in part because we didn't want to spend the money on plants that would probably only live for about a month because of our lack of botanical expertise.

I have tried over the past four years to keep numerous plants alive in our house, but for some reason I am just not very good at it. Perhaps I water them too much (or not enough), or give them too much light (or not enough). Up to this point, the only plant that I have a good job of keeping alive is the plant I have at work. It's one of those plants that you find in almost everyone office that needs very little water and no sunlight. Over the Christmas break it did nearly die, but fortunately I was able to bring it back to life (though it did lose a lot of leaves and it is not as green as it once was).

So anyways, when Justin's mom brought us all these plants I was really excited to have some plants in our home again have the chance to try and better my plant management skills. She gave us three different plants, and while shopping for pots I found a plant that I have been wanting to put into our guest bathroom to add some life to it. I hear that moisture is good for this type of plant, so the bathroom is a great place for this little guy.

I'll admit that I am a little nervous to share this with everyone because if the plants don't live very long...well, everyone will know how bad of a gardner I really am. ButI am going to do my best to keep all four of our new plants alive and growing for as long as I can. We'll see how it turns out!

This is in Justin's office a home.

This is the new plant in our guest bathroom. I just love the delicate look of this plant.

This plant has not found a home yet. I am still moving it around trying to find the best place for it.

This picture does not show the real size of this plant. I am hoping that this one lives.

GuestBath Complete

2011-02-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

I feel like we have been working on our guest bathroom forever. We've actually been working on it since July to be exact, so I am very excited that this room is finally finished. To read about phase one of our bathroom redo and to see some before pictures click here.

Without having to spent a whole lot of money, the bathroom went from dull and outdated to clean and somewhat modern. We didn't gut the bathroom - we simply painted and updated the old fixtures, but we are both really pleased with how it turned out. It was a long process, but all worth it in the end.

Here are a few stories of why the bathroom took so long:

The Mirror - We purchased a very trendy mirror from a local design store, but when we got it home we found that it really didn't fit the space, so we went back to the store to return it and find something different. They didn't have anything in the store that would work, but we looked through lots of magazines and found one that we both thought would work. It ended up taking two months to get that mirror when we were told would take four weeks. But either way, we still like it a lot and have no regrets about this mirror that we picked out from a catalog without first seeing in person.
Wallpaper - When we removed the wallpaper we were either not careful or the wallpaper just damaged the walls (a little bit of both, probably). We not only had to fill in holes and sand but prime, sand, and paint the walls twice. This is the real reason why we waited so long to finish the bathroom. Once we finally got around to sanding the walls and repainting the walls, we realized how dull the trim and doors looked. So we had to find another weekend to paint the doors and trim. We started this over the Christmas break but because of the cold weather (Justin removed the doors and painted them in the garage) the paint took forever to dry and what we thought would take only 2 or 3 days took over a week.

But finally we are done. This has been a long time coming but it was worth the wait. We both love the bathroom and are excited to be finished with this project and move on to something else.

Here is a list of what we did to turn our outdated bathroom into something that we are glad to call our guest bathroom.

Removed two layers of wallpaper
Filled, spackled, and sanded holes in the walls
Primed and painted the walls (twice)
Painted all the baseboards and doors
Replaced the vanity and shower faucet
Replaced the mirror
Painted the vanity
Updated the light fixture
Replaced all brass knobs (including the door handle)
Added some artwork
Added new rugs
Replaced the toilet
Changed out the old shower curtain curtain and rod
Add accessories
Updated the blinds and curtains
Replace the magazine basket with a wall mounted magazine rack

I love fresh flower in the bathroom!

Sorry, for the poor lighting, wnated you to see the window

This does not look like much but I had to show you the white doors and new knobs

Wow, that is a lot more than I remember doing. I guess you forget all that you did when it takes all most a year to finish the project. I very excited that this is done and now can move on to another project.

2011 Resolution Update

2011-01-31T07:43:00.001-08:00

Janurary is just about over, so I felt as though it would be an appropriate time for a New Year's resolution update. My thought behind the update is mainly to hold myself accountable. Since I put the resolutions out there for all to read, I owe it to you to let you know how things are going. Don't worry I won't be giving updates each month - at this point I just wanted to see if I could keep my resolutions for at least one month.

This year I put a lot of consideration into my resolutions. You can read more about that here.

One month in, I think I'm still going strong.

Read at least 12 books in 2011 - I have read two books already only 10 more to go. (I don't think will be reading 2 books every month, I am just eager this month)
Read through the entire Bible - Our church has a reading guide to help with this and it is keeping me on track.
Make the bed every day - Justin and I have made our bed everyday!! It has now become part of our morning routine and I love walking into the room with the bed made. I feel like the room looks cleaner when the bed is made.
Blog at least once a week - As many of you know I have been blogging 3 times a week. My resolution was to blog at least once a week so I am still going strong. However, as much consideration I have decided to scale back and only blog once or twice and week. This way I will be able to put more time and thought to each post I make.
Like always, workout/eat better - I have been working out at least 3 days a week. I am also planning on running a 10K at the end of April. I have been cooking healthy recipes and taking multi-vitamins. This will be the one resolution that will give me the most trouble.

How are you doing with your resolutions? It's never too late to start making life changes.

Current Bedroom Inspiration

2011-01-28T06:35:00.001-08:00

Now that we have finished our office (more about this later) we are now looking ahead about what to tackle next. Justin and I both agreed that we need to work on our bedroom. This has been a room that we have totally neglected since moving into our home. We did paint our room right after moving in but that is the extent of what we have done. All of the furniture are things Justin and I had before we got married or furniture that was given to us.

We are going to keep the same paint color but that is all that we are going to keep in our room. The only other thing that we are 100% sure about for our room is that we want a upholstered headboard. When looking for inspiration we knew the bed had to be upholstered and in the blue/gray family.

It is very exciting to be working with a clean slate. These are some bedrooms that we are looking at for inspiration. We want something very comfortable, fresh-looking, and sophisticated but not too stuffy. We are very excited to start this next project, but we are still in the early stages of coming up with a design that works for us.

This is not something that we are going to use as inspiration, but when I saw it I had to share. What girl would not want to have this has her room.

I love Snickers

2011-01-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

Over Thanksgiving break the girls in my family cooked dinner for the whole family and made this delicious Snickers Cheesecake (to see the whole meal click here). I have been wanting to make it again for a while, but I knew that Justin and I didn't need to have it sitting around the house. So, when we hosted out adult small group last week I knew this was my chance to make it. It was just as good as I remembered. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:
1.5 cups of crushed Oreos
2 tbs butter, melted

Crush or puree Oreos until fine add butter. Pat down into a spring-form pan. Bake 6-7 minutes. Cool.

Cheesecake Filling:
3 (8 ounce) softened cream cheese packages
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
24 mini or 4 King Size Snickers candy bars or more!

Beat cream cheese on low until smooth. The key to a smooth cheesecake is to beat the filling nice and slow. If you beat it fast, too much air gets into the batter and it will not be smooth, it may also crack.

Add sugar, then the sour cream. Beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth and creamy.

Chop up the Snickers candy bars.

Fold in Snickers, leaving a handful aside to top the cheesecake with.

Pour into cooled pan. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the center is still a bit jiggly but the rest of the cheesecake is firm. Cool and refrigerate.

Ganache Topping:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbs butter
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Slowly melt all ingredients together while stirring until smooth.

Pour over cooled cheesecake. Sprinkle with extra chopped Snickers pieces. Let cool.

Undo the pan and look at all the pretty layers.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

If you don't succeed DYE again!

2011-01-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

As you can see, this was just a little overwhelming

We have been working on decorating our home office for months. The colors we chose for to use are gray, orange and white. For the past few months, it's been just about complete, with the only things that were lacking were curtains and a little side table next to the reading chair. Well, not anymore!!

I had been looking around and thinking about what color and style of curtains I wanted for the office. We have two small windows so I really didn't want to have full length curtains, so my options were very limited.

A few months ago while Justin and I were in Atlanta for a friends wedding and we stopped by Ikea. We really were not looking for anything in particular on this trip but were very happy when we found these bright orange curtains for only $20.00 for two panels. Unfortunately, they were full length panels. However they came with some iron-on adhesive tape so you could adjust the length. I told Justin that we could use one panel for each window and make a valence. So for $20.00 we got them.

They sat in our office for months...really. We didn't have curtain rods and never really thought about picking any up when we went out. During the holiday while in Lowes we found some for $5.00 a pop. Yet again the curtain, along with the new purchased rods, sat in the office for another week. At least we were making some progress.

Finally after many months of sitting in the office the curtains are finally up. YEA!!!!! Hold on though...it was not that easy...we had to dye them first.

You can see just how orange the curtains are when you compare them to a real orange.

DYE/TRY AGAIN!

When we put them up to see what they would look like we found that the bright orange color was just a little much for our office so off to Walmart I went to get some dye. We got brown and orange, because Justin and I could not agree. We first dyed them brown hoping that they would keep some of the orange color. Unfortunately it didn't keep much of the orange color. It was more of a brown orange and not the color that we really wanted. So we tried it again but this time we used the orange dye. The result was a successes.

This is a good picture to show the true color of the curtains.

After dying them twice, I cut them and used the iron on adhesive tape to hem them. The color is just a little darker than I would like but

for only $35.00 for both windows I think they look great. Having the windows done brings us one step closer to having a finished home office.

Not the best picture, I know

Since putting up the curtain, I found the perfect table to go next to my reading chair. The office is now finished. I will be posting about the finished office very soon.

Unexpected storage

2011-01-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

I love using items in unexpected ways - like this great organizing tool. As many of you know, I love office/school supplies. When I was young, my favorite part of school was getting new school supplies and getting them all organized. Now that I am done with school I have no real need for lots of supplies, but that does not stop me.

A few years ago I downsized my desk at home and lost a lot of storage for all my supplies. This was sad because I was not ready to part with my supplies, so I purchased some baskets to store them in. Yes, this caused our office to be overrun with all kinds of random baskets and boxes. Eventually, Justin told me that I should just get rid of some stuff. Not wanting to part with my colored staples, colored pencils, and all the other fun things that I have collected over the past few years, I searched for something to put all my supplies in that would not take up a lot of space and would help me find just what I need without having to dump everything on the ground. What I found was this:

Yes, that is an over the door shoe organizer (in its old life), but now it is the place that I house my glue sticks, note cards, batteries, and so much more. The small clear compartments are great for finding just what you are looking for at a glance.

When I am in need of something I just go to the back of the door and look through the clear pockets and find just what I am looking for. Since I am not longer is school many of the things that I once would have put into my little pockets have changed, but I still love this system for keeping everything organized.

Here is a closer look at what I have in each compartment.

Craft Scissors
Lots of Sharpies
Random Science Stuff and UV Beads,
Colored Staples
Erasers, pencil sharpener, whole punch
Glue and balloons
More craft supplies
Batteries
Felt for furniture
Ribbon
Tape
Paint Markers
Safety Pins
More tape and pencils
Note cards
Pens

Markers
Crayons
Rulers
Magnets
More Sharpies
Random Supplies

Saying bye to 100 unused things

2011-01-19T08:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I read about someone who was moving and wanted to get rid of 100 things before they moved. So, I starting thinking...I have more than 100 things I could and should get rid of. We are not moving, but I did want to go through our house and get rid of some things that we don't use anymore or have not used since moving into our house over 2 years ago.

I thought this would take only a few days but I was wrong. In doing this I have not only gotten rid of 100 things but have cleaned out our guest room closet, our office closet, our bedroom closet, and just about every other closet in our house. I did my best to keep everything organized but my pile kept growing and became a mess!

This is the itemized list of everything we got/are getting rid of:

Books (6)
Clothes (69 pieces)
Frames (8)
Decorative clock
Wall Art
Candle holders (5)
Window panels ( 4)
Pillows (4)
Sewing Machine
Blankets (3)
Alarm Clock
iHome
Vases (2)
Desk Lamp
Workout Bands (2)
Guitar stand
Shoes (5 pair)
Key Holder
Purses (4)
Lunch Box
Scarves (3)
Hats (2)
Beach Ball
Decorative Wall Art
Painting
Jewelry
Cookie Sheets (4)
Picnic Blanket
Japanese Learning CD's
Scrapbook Paper
UGA Calendar
Pet Paw Groomer
Over the Sink Rack
Canvas Art Work
Scrapbook Album
Messenger Bag
Shams (2)
Water Bottle
Vest
Light Saber (This was Justin's)
Photo Albums (5)
Dog Costume
VHS tape
Dog Rain Coat
X Box and lots of games

Grand Total: 160

I was very pleased with everything that we got rid of. I am still keeping my eyes open for more things that we might not need or use anymore. I feel like this might be something that I try to do once a year but on a smaller scale.
If anyone has ever done this or is thinking about getting rid of things that are not being used let me know.

What will 2011 look like??

2011-01-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

"What will 2011 hold?" That is a question that I have been thinking about over the past few days. At the beginning of each new year people, myself included, start thinking about things they want to start doing or stop doing...resolutions. Well, I am looking at my resolutions a little differently. Instead of thinking of about 5 things that I want to start doing, I am thinking about things in my life that I want to improve on. Last year I blogged my resolutions, which you can see here, and looking back on the 4 resolutions I made, I am sad to say that I only was able to keep one.

This year, I (of course) really want to keep my resolutions, so I thought long and hard about not picking things that would just be easy, but things that I really wanted to accomplish and were reasonable to achieve.

Here are some questions I considered when making my resolutions for 2011:

Did I have a plan to accomplish the resolutions? (For example, if it was to lose some weight, did I have a workout plan or an new dietary plan ready?)
Was I passionate about the resolution?
Could I be held accountable to complete resolution?
Would there be a real benefit from the resolution?

If I was able to answer yes to at least 3 of the 4 points then I gave the resolution some real consideration.

So without any further adieu, here are the things I would like to accomplish this year:

Read at least 12 books in 2011

Read through the entire bible

Make the bed every day

Blog at least once a week

Like always, workout/eat better...I don't know what this plan will look like yet, as I am still working on it. I thinking about going one day a week without carbs, working out 3 to 5 days a week, drinking lots of water, and trying new healthy recipes.

Well there you have it, my resolutions for 2011!

Just an update... I only have about 30 pages to finish before I am done with my first book, I have made the bed everyday but the snow day we had on Monday (you get a couple of free days, right?), and I have started reading the through Bible using a scheduled plan that is produced by our church.

Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

2011-01-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards is a novel that tells the story of a man who gives away his newborn baby, who has Down syndrome to one of the nurses.

I have had this book for all most a year and I had it on my reading list for longer. When I finally got around to reading it, I turned to the back cover to get an idea about what the book would be about. Sometimes I like to judge a book by its cover and just start reading without any prior knowledge of what the book is really about. The cover and the title play a big part in my decision to read a book. As you can see from the cover it really does not give much away about the book. After reading the back cover, I was not as excited about the book as I had been when I saw it on just about every "must read" book list.

I have to confess that it took me a while to finish this book. My interest was not captured at first. I have a friend who says if she is not hooked on the book within the first few pages she passes on the book and starts another. Although it was tempting to do the same, I dredged through the first few chapters and by the end of the book I was pleased.

I think one of the reason that I had a hard time getting into this book was because unlike most books that I read, this story was told through the view of the three main characters. Just when I was getting into one of the characters it would change to another one and my focus was broken.

With all of that said, I did actually end up liking this book. I am not sure that I would ever read it again, but once I got into it, I did enjoy it. The story line was very unbelievable, but I guess that is why it is fiction. I don't think a doctor would ever really deliver his own twins and finds one has Down's and give it to his nurse. Well, I suppose it's possible that some crazy person might do that, but not a person who could go on living as if it never happened.

If you find yourself thinking about reading this book I would love to hear what you think about it.

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams are Made NYC

2011-01-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

Photo by Robby Followell

Most of you know that I love NYC. I feel it's the result of our first trip in 2007 when we celebrated our 1st anniversary. We stayed with friends had a great time. It really felt like we lived there.

Since then, Justin and I have back two more times - two years ago Justin and I rang in the new year in Time Square, and just a few weeks ago we went back with our dear friends the Followell's. I have to say that each time we go we have a wonderful time but each time the experience is just so different.

I think the best way for me to tell you about our trip is to tell you everything that we did then include some pics with some explanations, otherwise you would not finish reading this post.

Tried to go to the Regis and Kelly Show. When that failed we tried to get on The View...and failed at that also. (story below)

Road the Staten Island Ferry

Ate lots of great food and lots of desserts

Rockefeller Center

Time Square

Empire State Building

Found the best cookies ever: "Macarons"

Shopped

Saw the Lion King

Saw the Radio City Rockettes

Photo shoot with Robby Followell

Union Square

Dylan's Candy store

We had a wonderful time. I could tell you lots of stories, but I will limit my story telling to just one.

On Monday we woke up really early, 4:30 a.m. to be exact, with the hopes of getting on the Reggis and Kelly show. We didn't have tickets, but thought if we got to the studio early enough we would be able to get a standby ticket.

You should have seen our faces when we walked up to the door and saw no one in line.

You should have also seen our faces when we found out that they would not be filming the show that day. I We went from ecstatic to sad in a matter of seconds (at least I did). They don't have any info on the site saying they would not be filming so we had no way of knowing. So, four very sad adults walked across the street to Starbucks for breakfast and to come up with a plan B at 6:00 in the morning. We decided to try and get on the The View, not because we like the show but because that was the only thing do at 6:00 in the morning. After waiting in line until 8:15, we had our standby numbers. We were told to report back at 9:30 and at that time we would find out if we could get into the show. Well, we didn't get in. We were disappointed but it was okay since none of us were fans of the show anyways. Don't worry our day was not lost, we had a great rest of the day shopping, eating, seeing the Lion King, and walking around the great city of NYC.

Just found out that they were not filming.

The Lion King was great!!

Radio City Music HallPhoto by Robby Followell

Rockefeller Center
Photo by Robby Followell

Just another great shoot of NYC
Photo by Robby Followell

Justin informed me when we got home that we would probably be taking a break from visiting NYC. I am sad but I am excited to visit other parts of our nation. I think LA would be a good choice, and I don't mean Louisiana.

PS--Don't compare my pictures to Robby's. He is a professional!!!

Not a Real Snow Day

2011-01-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to complain about not having to work yesterday, but I was really sad that we didn't have any snow on the ground.
On Sunday when the weather was bad I was hoping/wishing that we would not have to work on Monday because of all the snow. Well when I woke up on Monday I didn't have to go to work but I also didn't have any snow.
I was still super excited about the day off and will gladly take a free day off of work any day.

This was taken on Sunday night. We didn't get snow just ice cycles.

Christmas in the house!

2011-01-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

I know I am really late writing this post, since I have taken down all my Christmas decor, but I still wanted to show some of the Garcia Christmas decorations. I am sad to say that I really didn't decorate as much as I did last year. I blame this on a few things: 1. I didn't start decorating until the week after Thanksgiving. 2. We were out of town a lot during the break.

A little background...This year Justin and I got a new artificial tree. The one we had before was a hand-me-down from my parents. Justin really wanted a real tree and I wanted a fake one, but the "fake" tree won when we found a great looking PRE-LIT tree. I have to say that not putting light on the tree this year really made decorating it much more enjoyable (the same with for taking it down).

I hope you enjoy the limited pics of my tree and front porch.

This year we filled our tress with red and sliver ornaments.

This is one of two ornaments that we not red and sliver, we got this on our honeymoon.
This is the other one, we got this on our first trip to NYC for our first anniversary.

Our front door. I still get excited when it's time to change the bow!

Our front porch

These are all the pictures I have of our home decorated for Christmas. I know it's not much but that was all I was able to get done. Next year I plan on making up for this year. Well, this year I plan on making up for last year. Haha!!

Merry Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to blog about my family Christmas while it was going on, but never got around to writing it. So, here it is a few weeks late. This year my whole family was home for Christmas. Last year Abe and Lindsey were not able to be at my parents on Christmas day so it was so great to have everyone home.

On the 22nd, my parents picked Justin and I up from the airport in Memphis on our way back from NYC (post to follow). When we arrived at their house, my twin brother Stan was just getting there also. We said our hello's and quickly went to sleep because it was late and Justin and I were worn out from our trip.

On the 23rd Abe and Lindsay arrived and the party started! We had a great time just being together. All we really did was hung out and tried to get some cooking and baking done.

On the 24th Christmas Eve Abe woke up with vertigo...not good! Lindsay did her nursing thing and nursed Abe back to health. That night my whole family went to my Mom's parents house where my aunt and cousins were. We had a wonderful dinner and a good time being together. I can't remember the last time all the grandchildren were together in one room. After dinner we headed back home to get ready for Santa but not before almost killing a deer with the car. It was a little scary but no people or deer were hurt. Thank goodness.

My mom's side of the family

All the grand-kids and their spouses and Conner

Growing up my bothers and I always had matching PJ's to wear on Christmas Eve, now just the girls get the cute PJ's. The guys just don't appreciate matching. This year our PJ's had Miniature Schnauzers on them, to honor Max and Jack.

On Christmas morning Jack (our alarm clock) woke us up around 6:45 so my sweet husband got up to let him out. A few minutes later Justin comes back into the room telling me it was snowing. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window! Justin was right it was snowing so I ran into my parents room to wake up my mom. We love snow and get excited very easily. Within a few minutes the whole house was up, though they weren't all quite as excited about it. This was my first white Christmas!

The best picture of the snow on Christmas morning

Once the excitement had died down we started getting our Christmas morning breakfast ready: monkey bread. When we had the first batch in the oven we started opening our gifts. Santa was good to everyone this year, no one got ashes and switches, just clothes, watches, gaming systems, jewelry, kitchen items, and more. Jack even got a new toy and a bandanna from Abe and Lindsey. Later that day Abe, Lindsey, Stan, Justin, and myself thought we could find an open Wal-Mart to make an exchange. Well, we could not find one but we did find and open CVS and went inside and bought lots of junk food. When we arrived back home we started getting ready for our family Christmas dinner.

The rest of the time with my family was filled with playing the Wii and having a great time. I love my family and I am looking forward to the next time the family is able to get together.

I want everyone to notice the cute owl hat that Ella Kate is wearing, I really wish they made these for adults.

Happy 2011

2011-01-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been so long since I've blogged. That is a phrase that I am going to do my best to not say in 2011. So this year, one of my resolutions is to blog at least once a week. I love making lists so I started making a list of all the things I need to blog about. Here are a few things that will appear on my blog in the coming weeks:

Our home decorated for Christmas
Our family Christmas
Our New York trip
More Book Reviews
Resolutions
Home Improvements

Come back tomorrow to read about my family Christmas (now I have to blog about it since I just told you I would!).

Married to the Best Husband ever!!

2010-12-16T06:08:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to give a shout out to the best Husband ever!! Today we are celebrating 4 years of marriage. I can't want to spend 60 more years with him!!

Love you Justin!!

Happy Birthday Justin!!

2010-12-15T06:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to the Best Husband Ever!!

Today we are celebrating Justin's birthday!!

I am so blessed to call Justin my husband. Here is a brief list of things that I love about him...

He loves the Lord
He makes me laugh
He allows me to be me
He loves me
He brings me fresh flowers for no reason
He can create some awesome web sites... www.sixeightmedia.net
He works 50 feet from my office
He can dance
He is very talented

If you see him today make sure you tell him Happy Birthday!!

Gobble Gobble until you Wobble Wobble!!

2010-12-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving my whole family came together to celebrate - and let me say - we did some celebrating! We started the Hodges/Garcia extravaganza by traveling to my parents house. Stan (my twin) and his girlfriend drove to our house on Tuesday night (from TX) and we drove to my parent's house together on Wednesday. Once arriving at my parents we settled in and had dinner and waited for my older brother Abe and Lindsey to arrive. While traveling from Louisville, Abe and Lindsey encounter some horrendous traffic, it took them 11 hours to get to my parents (should have taken only about 8 or 9). When they got to the house we all said "hey" and then went straight to sleep.

I could type for days about all the activities we did together and all the fun we had but instead I will make a list (I love making lists)

Hung out with family
Enjoyed lots of good food
Helped a church serve Thanksgiving dinner
Played the Wii
Cooked
Had a massage
Rode the rope swing (my favorite thing)
Went shopping
Had a scavenger hunt
Made some great memories

I hope you enjoy looking at all the pics! I know that my whole family had a great time together and we are all looking forward to Christmas were we will have another Hodges/Garcia extravaganza.

Jack enjoyed the ride to my parents

Eating breakfast Thanksgiving morning.

Playing Wii- we were very intense about this game.

Tasting the turkey

This was the kids table, there are now more kids than adults...if you count people under 30-ish as kids.

My grandmother!! So sweet

My grandpa, with his great grandson (my cousin's son) - oh and they matched!

Playing corn hole

Waiting for our massages.

I am really not hurting Jack he was just smiling for the camera.

Sister!!

Waiting to start the scavenger hunt!! Justin and I really won!!!

Saturday night the girls cooked for the guys and this is what we had...

Look at this Snicker Cheese cake, not only did it look delicious but it was.

Just another pic because it was so good . Did I say that it was made from scratch?!

On Saturday we had my parents' pastor and his family over and here are some pictures of there cute kids.

It's begining to look like Thanksgiving!

2010-12-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

I know I have been falling behind a bit on my blog updates, but my excuse is that it is just that time of year. I have lots to blog about - the trouble is finding the time to write the posts.

This is part one of my two-part Thanksgiving post.

Nothing says Thanksgiving like cute Turkey napkins.

We starting our Thanksgiving off a little early by having some friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner the weekend before the real Thanksgiving. Let me explain: a few weeks ago I was talking to my mom about our family Thanksgiving. My mom is just as over the top as I am (well, she comes up with the ideas and I do my best to get my family to participate). However, this year I too was full of ideas for our family Thanksgiving. While my mom and I talked about what we would be eating, the fun activities we would be doing, and what decor we would be having, I starting thinking about how I would set my table for Thanksgiving (that is, if we had Thanksgiving at my house.) Well, all that thinking gave me the idea to have some friends over for a "Friends Thanksgiving."

So, I started planning. My mom had given me some cute Thanksgiving-ish paper plates and I found the cutest turkey napkins on sale a few weeks ago and there was my table setting. I finished the table off with some table clothes and pumpkins as place card holders. Everyone thought of two dishes they wanted to bring and everything was set. I have to say that everything was really delicious. We ended the night hanging out and playing games.

Gotta love self timers!!!

These are the two desserts that we had that night. Not only did they both cool great they also tasted great.

I will be posting part two of mine and Justin's Thanksgiving later this week.

Christmas Card Time!!!

2010-11-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

I love getting a great deal and I love Shutterfly, with this great offer I am getting both. Last year, Justin and I sent out Chirstmas cards for the first time, after looking all over for the best card I finially found just what I was looking for at Shutterfly.
Look at this great offer from Shutterfly, They are doing a promotion for bloggers! I loved the Christmas cards I ordered from Shutterfly last year, so when I started thinking about this year card Shutterfly was the only place I looked.
Shutterfly always has the cutest cards! I've attached some of our favorite things, including cards! This card looks like the one we orderd last year. I also really like this one and this one. Shutterfly also has the best gift ideas for everyone on your list. Our favorites are the calendars and photo books.

If you already got your Christmas cards, Shutterfly has cute cards for birthdays, moving announcements, etc. Check them out here. Also, if you are a fellow blogger and want to see more information on this amazing offer, click here!

J&A Designs

2010-11-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

Check out this site J&A Designs.

These are friends of mine who are making handmade home accessories. They are just starting out but have been working hard to get a good inventory ready for Christmas shoppers. If you see something you like but the colors are not what you are looking for they can customize for you. I can tell you that these two are perfectionist so your products will be well made and will look great.
They just launched an online store click here to go right to it. Check out all of their wonderful products. They have great one of a kind frames, really cute magnetic boards, and cute initials

You can shop their store by clicking the link on the web site, or find them on facebook at J&A Designs.

s.

Book Review: Redeeming Love

2010-11-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

This is my first book review (well I guess that is what you could call it). So here I go!

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers was one of the 12 books I got at the MC book Bazaar. To read about that click here. It was one of the first books I picked up at the book bazaar. It was also the first of the 12 books I read.

Anytime anyone saw I was reading Redeeming Love they would tell me that it was the best book ever. Friends have encouraged me to read this book for some time, but I had so many other books I wanted to read, plus I didn't have the book. Let me just say that I am not the biggest fan of Christian novels. I think it is because most of them are geared toward teenagers, or the setting is in the early 1900's or late 1800's. I personally like books that are more current, and will keep my attention. If I were completely honest I would say I like "chick books." You know what I am talking about - something set in NYC, or some other major city where the main character faces some big dilemma that always works out for the best. That is not to say I only read chick books, those are just the books that I gravitate toward.

I was a little nervous when I first started reading this book because it is not something I normally read. I knew it had to be good when Christians and non-Christians told me it was a great book.

Redeeming Love is a historical romance novel set in the 1850s Gold Rush in California. The story is inspired by the book of Hosea from the Bible. Its central theme is to portray the redeeming love of God towards sinners.

I will not be giving anything away by saying that we can do nothing that will stop God from wanting to know us as His children. This book took the story of Hosea and made it personal. It tells a story that helps all readers more clearly see how the sin in our lives can keep us from truly knowing the love of Christ.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting a good love story with a deeper meaning behind it.

Happy Halloween!!

2010-11-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

I know I am a little late posting about our Halloween events, but better late than never, right? Our Halloween weekend was really busy but really fun. I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves, but I want to give a little background. I had to come up with three different costumes this year. One for my Bunko group, another for a Halloween/Birthday party, and the last for a college small group bowling party.

I started the Halloween festivities off with a Halloween themed Bunko night. In attendance that night we had two cowboys, a bee, Hello Kitty, two doctors, Alice in Wonderland, an old lady, Mother Christmas, a spider web (me), a Stepford wife, and a spooky teacher. We had a great time and ended the night eating some really good ghost cake.

While I was at Bunko, Justin worked on our pumpkin. Last year Justin wowed me with the Southern Miss pumpkin. I was very impressed!! This year we thought long and hard about what our pumpkin should look like. We could not think of anything quite as good as last year but Justin did you a great job carving the spooky house on this years pumpkin.

This is the pumpkin that Justin carved for us last year.

This years pumpkin, bats and a scary house.

We had a Halloween/Birthday party on Saturday night, unofficially dubbed Birthoween. It was really run. We all dressed up, carved pumpkins, had cake, and watched Ghostbusters. Justin went as Steve Jobs and I went as Elle Woods.

If you didn't guess it Justin carved the Apple logo. The pumpkin that won was the Fleur De Lis. I guess there was a lot of Saints fan at the party and not as many Apple fans.

The silly string finally came out.

Singing to the Birthday girl!!

I love this pic because all the pumpkins are lined up in front of the garage.

Of, course I had to dress Jack up for Halloween. He is just too cute to not. Last year Jack was a Jack-O-Lantern, this year he was Turtle. I don't think he liked being the custom. I made him wear it all night (well not the hat but the shell). He is just too cute.

To end the Halloween weekend we had a college small group bowling party. Not only did they ask us to come dressed up, but they asked us to dress as a group. I went to Google for inspiration and found the perfect idea - we would dress up as Tetris pieces. Justin and I gathered all the materials and invited the group over on Saturday to make the costumes. I think they turned out great. We had a great time bowling with all the other small groups. I think our costumes were the best (I am not biased).

Another small group leader, oh and by the way this is not his costume. He really dresses like this.
Beth Ann showing off her bowling skills.

Sweet Lyndsey, AKA Tinker Bell!!

Happy Fall Y'all!

2010-11-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

YEA.... It's Fall!!

YEA.... It's Fall!!

The weather is finally changing and now I feel like Fall is really here. I have to say that Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the colder weather, the smells of fall - spiced pumpkin, cider, and fires burning, love getting out my crock pot and cooking chili and roast and tomato soup and grilled cheese. I also love tights, boots, scarfs, and hats, all things that keep me warm during the fall. With all of that said, I think I love decorating my house for the fall the most.

I try to keep my decor for Halloween and Thanksgiving the same. We of course carve a pumpkin and it goes out on the front porch, but that is just about all of the Halloween decor I put out. Instead, I fill my tables with small pumpkins, gourds and some foliage. I do replace my Jack-O-Lantern with a cute scarecrow.

I hope you enjoy the decor I put up this year.

This is a new addition. I saw this at a gift shop when I was with my mom a few weekends ago. I thought it was really cute. I know our mail box needs a little work but that will have to come later.

My front porch!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I will be blogging about our Halloween weekend later this week so keep your eye open for the cutest turtle ever...

Garden Vegetable Chicken Skillet

2010-11-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Garden Vegetable and Chicken Skillet

Photo by: Taste of Home

I normally don't blog about recipes but after last nights meal, that might change. On the menu last night at the Garcia's was Garden Vegetable and Chicken Skillet. I found this recipe in my Simple and Delicious magazine. On Sunday I was looking through the 6 month old magazine for some dinner ideas and ran across it. I deiced it was time to give it a try.

I chopped all the vegetables a head of time because Wednesday nights are really hard to get dinner on the table before we leave for church. What I really love about this recipe is that you are not limited to the list of vegetables given. I added yellow peppers to the mix and a few more carrots. Next time I am going to add more veggies to the mix . Also if you wanted to make it a little more heart healthy you could substitute olive oil instead of the butter.

Garden Vegetable and Chicken Skillet

1-1/2 lbs. boneless chicken, cut into cubes
1 medium yellow summer squash, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
3 cups fresh baby spinach
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup uncooked instant brown rice
1-1/4 cups water
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a large skillet, saute the chicken, squash, onion, and carrot in butter for 5-6 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink; drain. Add the spinach, garlic, salt, thyme, and pepper; cook for another 2 minutes.

Stir in rice and water, Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in lemon juice.

This is a must try meal. Let me know what you think!

DIY Art Project

2010-11-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

The last time we were at Ikea we picked up these white frames for $2.99. I wanted them to go in our almost finished guest bath. Click here for some before and afters. It's still not done, we have a few minor things to do before it is completed.
Justin had a great idea to paint a really cool skyline on them, however the painting didn't turn out like Justin had hoped because the frame was so small. We scrapped that idea and starting brainstorming something new. While I was shopping at Hobby Lobby I came across some really pretty scrap paper that I thought might look good in the frames. I grabbed the paper on sale for only $1.00 for all three sheets. I measured and cut my paper and put them into the frames. For only $10.00 I have the perfect piece of art for our guest bathroom.

What is so great about this artwork is that when I am ready for a change I only need to get new paper. I love this because I like to change things up every once in a while.