Reality Check

Just got back from checking the house out and had maybe my second "Holy Sh*t this looks like a house" moment!(the first one was during framing when the roof was put on) I mean I know it's looked like a house for sometime now but today I walked in and I can literally see every piece coming together. I actually started to get teary-eyed. The bedrooms look like bedrooms. They are all painted and look like they are practically ready to move into (aside from the missing flooring, light fixtures and outlet covers). The laminate flooring is almost completely installed and the counter tops arrived. Every time I go over there I thank God for what we have been given and that we have this amazing opportunity to build "Our" house and its truly amazing!!There is still a long list of small things to do but tomorrow is the first day of July and do you know what that mean....the COUNTDOWN BEGINS!! Only a few more weeks until we get to make our house our home!! YEAH!

On that note, here are a few a few things that are going on at the house this week...

Blue/gray bath

Contrast of accent wall b/w other color in master bdrm

Can't wait to be sit on the deck with a nice cold beer and enjoy the beautiful view!

Colors

So the painters actually started painting the walls this week!! They finished spraying all the trim and doors in the bedrooms and bathrooms on the main floor and now have started painting the actual colors we picked out. I will put up pictures later but for now here is the color pallette for the house (FYI colors may be slightly different depending on computer screen, they look much more beautiful in person).

Burning Bush - Kitchen walls

Sauteed Mushroom - Living Areas

Dusty Trail - Master Bedroom Walls

Coffee Bean - Accent Wall in Master Bedroom

River Reed (light green)- Master Bath Mountiantop (blue/gray)- Main Floor Bath Toasted Almond- Bedrooms 2-4, Laundry room Honey Pot - Basement Bath (Dave's Hawkeye themed bathroom)

Gray Ghost - Rec Room

Sneak Peak

I recently took up scrapbooking this year. Mainly because I was given an awesome christmas present, The Cricut, but also because one of my best friends became pregnant and had a baby June 7th. My first scrapbook was for her and now I am onto Album #2 for my nephew due in September. Here is just a sneak peak of a few pages I have done...

House

We have a driveway and a sidewalk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They finished pouring it on Saturday! Now we just have to wait ~30 days till any large vehicles can drive on it.

Wedding Weekend

One of my co-workers, Mary, got married tonight. They have the cutest story ever! Mary and Ira meet when they were 4 years old, their parents where best friends and they became in separable from then after. They were best friends all through grade school, dated all through elementary school, and high school sweethearts, he even gave her his class ring. After high school they ended up going their separate ways, he enlisted in the military and served in the war. While apart they both lead their separate lives and ended up both getting married to other people and having families, but eventually both marriages didn't work out. After 40 years apart, God brought them back into each others lives and they found their love again! Every time Mary talks about Ira her face lights up, she gushes about him just as a teenager would. When talking about marrying him, she would get all choked up. It was the cutest thing! The theme was all 40's and 50's music from when they first meet and their love began. Mary was an absolutely stunning bride, the bridal party walked down the isle to "Going to the Chapel". During the vows, each one had picked out a song for the other one that was to be sung by a friends. Ira went first. He said his vows, but instead of the friend singing the song, he surprised Mary by singing the song himself to her. It was so beautiful and emotional. The recessional song was "Shout" and Mary and Ira dances down the isle in celebration. Seeing the deep love they have for each other was such a beautiful thing. I think this might have been the first wedding I've gone to where you could feel the love Mary and Ira have for each other just pour out of ALL of their family and friends in the church. It was a wonderful celebration!!!

Congratulations Mary and Ira!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prayers

My cousin Jason has been in the hospital for over a week now and is having his second brain surgery today. He has been having seizures for over the last year now and the doctors cannot figure out why. He is only a sophomore in college! Last Tuesday he had his first surgery which lasted 11.5 hours to localize the part of the brain that is causing these seizures. Today he went under for round two with an 8 hour surgery to remove the 240 electrodes they implanted last week. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers in this difficult and scary time. Thank you!!

The House is Moving Along...

There is a ton going on at the house this week. Yeah!! The painters started on Monday, they began filling all the nail holes on the trim and sealing around the windows. The marble sink tops arrived for the bathrooms and are being installed. The ceramic tile will be finished with grout on the main floor and the tile around the bar in the basement will be installed. They will do another rough grade around the house to even out all the soil. The footings for the deck will be set, the deck started, patio poured, and the sidewalk and driveway will begin getting prepped. The laminate wood floors are getting delivered along with the counter tops and hopefully the rest of the kitchen cabinets will come in also. A lot of little things that add up to big things.

This week we picked out ALL of our light fixtures, interior and exterior. We got our long list from our contractor and went to town at Lowe's. It was tough trying to coordinate all the fixtures with each other. We agreed on pretty much all of them except when it came to the exterior lights but we compramised on those ones. We picked out all of our appliances, we're going with Black, and now just waiting for the family & friends discount week to start so we can get a good deal on them at American. The carpet samples came in and are pictured below.

We picked 3 choices: Haystack, Saddle Tan and New Linen (yes that is green shag carpet, your eyes are not deceiving you, my in-law's living room is still stuck in the 70's). The carpet is pictured with the cherry wood laminate flooring we picked out for the kitchen/dining/entryway.

We're really not a fan of New Linen because its too light so here are the finalists with the sample of the maple cabinets also, (the pictures do not do the colors justice).

And I just wanted to include the before and now pictures of the house. First is the land before we broke ground and Second is what the house looks like currently.

Shower Invite

Invites are done! Finished addressing all the baby shower invites for my sister-in-laws baby shower next month. Steph's sister, Mollie, did a great job picking them out. Don't they look cute! Can't wait for her shower.

St. Louis

This weekend I took a short road trip down to St. Louis with two of my friends from work, Gretchen and Brittany. Gretchen is trying to explore all of what the Midwest has to offer before she moves back to the West Coast next year... and she's also trying to visit all 50 states, so this was a great excuse to have a girls weekend, road trip, and just get out of dodge. Our adventure started in the car ride with Brit showing off, as she puts it, her "stupid car dance". Although it's more like convulsions than dance moves :), but none the same, funny!

We walked around downtown STL looking for a place to have lunch. Surprisingly there was absolutely no one around! Nobody walking the streets, hardly any cars driving around, it was like a ghost town. Weird for being a big city and in the heart of the downtown area, and we were only a few blocks from the stadium.

You know on trip advisor or food review shows, that the little whole in the walls are the best place to eat....well that's definitely NOT true. We thought we found it, it had the look, the atmosphere, and those pictures of the owner with all the celebs plastered all over the walls. It fooled us, it fooled us all! My food- it was like they mixed a lukewarm can of tomato soup with pasta and added broccoli and mushrooms, it was the most horrific thing. We all left very unsatisfied, still hungry, and with a bad taste in our mouths.

We visited the Budweiser Brewery. I got my free samples of Amberbock and Shock Top which I am now in love with. I totally could have sat there all day sampling all the different beers, unfortunately they only have a 2 sample limit, probably for that exact reason. I made 2 of my own variety packs from the gift shop and gave one to my dad for his Father's Day gift. We ate at a classy steakhouse right next to our hotel, got free drinks and snacks from the hotel during their "happy hour", went to a dueling piano bar called The Big Bang on The Landing, and went up in the Arch. The Arch by they way, it really is not as cool as it seems. It's definitely one of those things you do once and your okay with not coming back. It takes only minutes to get to the top, but you get into these little capsules that amazingly fit 5 people. It made me feel like I was in the movie Spaceballs (great movie by the way). You know when the ship is going to self-destruct in 5 minutes and everyone runs to those tiny capsules that shoot them out into space, it's like that! Then it take only about 10 minutes to look out at the view and your ready to go back down. Favorite quote of the weekend,"I thought it was a camel shed, you know like where they shed camels"

My artist photo of the Arch and The Brewery

How I Got Here...

I did it! I've finally given in to my own procrastination. I've been wanting to start a blog for some time now and have just never done it. I know a handful of people that have their own blogs and have found them to be quite interesting. They gave me a little bit more inspiration to get this thing started. I like the idea of documenting ones life in a way to share with friends/family, being able to discuss any topics I want, and just to be able to write. I am in no way a writer. This is my journal. Basically this is for my own good and enjoyment. So if I am the only one to read it, that's fine by me but if anyone else should want to keep up on my life, I hope you enjoy. So here goes!

A little history...

Dave and I were married May 31, 2008 in Iowa. It was such a beautiful day! We had the absolutely most perfect weather, warm and sunny. We were surrounded by all our friends and family and so thankful they were able to be there. We even were able to have out two dogs join us on our special occasion after the ceremony.

Maddux is a Shih-zu we got in December 2007 from a litter of puppies our friends' parents had. He of course is named after the former Chicago Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux. Waveland is a Poodle/Shih-zu/Yorkie mix. She was an oops! An unplanned, unknown pregnancy until the owners of the mama came home to her in labor. So we added her to our family in April 2008. She is named after Waveland Avenue, one of the streets Wrigley Field is on....(can you tell there is a baseball/Cubs fan in the family).

March of this year we sold our house and moved in with the in-laws! That's right we're newlyweds and back to living with our parents. How romantic is that?! Isn't that just what every newlywed couple hopes for in their 1st year of marriage? Well it will definitely be worth it in the end because 5 days after we closed on the house we broke ground on our future. We are now about 3/4 way through the building of our new house and what an amazing adventure that has been. And now here we are!!