Home is Where the Heart Is

Our new house is starting to feel like home. Most everything has found a happy home. This is such an exciting time in my life. I'm finally living my dream. I knew one day it would happen. God has a funny way of operating sometimes. There were times when I would get so mad at Him and wonder what I did to tick him off because he hadn't sent me anybody yet. Now I know that he was just making me hold out for the right one. And boy did he pick a good one! I'll just chalk my 20s up to one, big learning experience. I knew when I went skydiving on my 30th birthday that this decade would be good. Two years later, I haven't been disappointed.

A huge load has been lifted from my shoulders now that we have a wedding date and a place. Next task is dress shopping. Mom and Karen are coming to Houston next week to begin the search. I have a picture in my head and saw a dress I really like at David's Bridal. My wish is that I walk in to DB, try it on, and say yes to the dress. But just in case, I also made several other appointments while they're here. I get goosebumps just thinking about trying on wedding dresses.

I'm enjoying these last couple of weeks before I go back to school. I feel like I've accomplished so much this summer. I'm going to miss my mid-morning workouts. It will be time to get on a new schedule. I am looking forward to school starting though. I miss those little guys! I work at a transient school so I'm just hoping that most of my little friends return this year.

We're also starting the task of looking for a church home. It's something Neal and I are on the same page about. We have a list of churches to start visiting. As I was searching for churches, I think its so cool that Houston just about has a church for everybody. All different languages and interests. There is even a Houston Church for the Deaf nearby. That might be neat to visit. I might not agree with everyone's views but one of the reasons that America is so great is that everyone can worship as they choose and feel welcome.

10 days

Well its been 10 days since we closed on the house. Today our furniture arrived so its our first night to sleep in the new house. The past week has been a week of blood, sweat, and tears. A week ago I made the stupid decision (with a little help) to attempt to take the wallpaper down in the kitchen. It won't take long, right? We tried to take it off and ended up damaging the walls. I became a master dry wall mud scraper. We fixed all the holes and then it was time to sand it. It looked like a blizzard in the kitchen with all the dust. Luckily, we had masks to prevent from inhaling too much of it. Then it was time to prime over the wallpaper. Since the primer was oil based, it was great fun to get all of it off my body. The paint went on yesterday. Today I played Cinderella and was down on the floor scrubbing the grout and each tile clean the mess. After a few touchups, it will look great.

I absolutely love the house. Especially now that we're starting to move in. More adventures to come!

Closing Time

We finally closed on the house today. Seems like so long ago since we put the offer in, but it really hasn't been. As soon as we closed, we went home to get Mack and then went to the new house. He ran around the place exploring all the rooms. When we put him in the backyard, he ran around for a minute and then came and sat by the door. He was probably thinking, "It's hot as hell. I'm an inside dog!"

Tonight we went to a hotel in the galleria to hear a spill from Celebrity China. They were at the bridal show and called me to tell me I had won a prize. Well we did get a pair of champagne flutes, but also had to listen to a 60 minute spill about their cookware line. We ended up buying one of the packages. It's the waterless, greaseless cookware and has a lifetime warranty. As they say, we'll never have to buy cookware again.

I've been calling around to venues to try to find a place for the wedding. We're going to check out a place this weekend.

Excitement Abounds

Holy Moly! I think my relaxing summer has quickly turned into a fastlane kind of summer. Today, Mom, Karen, Leslie, and I walked the Bridal Extravaganza to get some ideas. By only going to the venue and dress booths, it wasn't too overwhelming. There are a few places we're looking in to. Also, found a couple of dresses I would like to go try on. I think the colors are going to be jade, black, and white. This is the inspiration, but the jade is darker.







We're also getting closer to closing on the house. We've been trying to close for 2 weeks now but there were major issues with the appraisal. After everything has been resolved, the title company is finally getting our file so we've been told Tuesday will be the big day. We'll see!

Nothing like moving, fixing up a new house, fixing up the condo to get it rented, and planning a wedding all at the same time. Oh and going back to work in a month. Let the fun begin!

Lazy Days of Summer

It officially feels like summer. The past 2 weeks have been very refreshing. I've been reading a lot. Hard to believe the first month of summer is almost gone. Hmmm....what's been happening? A month later, we're still under contract for our new house. We hit a little road bump last week. We were hoping to close by last Friday but the appraisal came back lower than we had expected. We have an awesome lending guy that immediately went to bat and sent in a petition to the appraisal company. Hoping to hear back soon. A few things could happen. A.) The appraisal could come back higher. B.) The seller can come down on her price. C.) We could pay the difference which we're very hesitant to pay more for a house than its worth. As much as we really like this house, we've decided that its in God's hands and if this isn't the one, we'll move on.

Leslie had a BBQ last night to celebrate that we graduated from college 10 years ago. It was fun to sit around and talk about old times and the stupid things we did in college.

Neal did a triathalon in Pearland this morning. It H-O-T! He did well. He placed 80th out of 500 and 17th in his age group. Proud of him and so happy that he has this passion for the sport. We're considering getting me a road bike so I can start doing long bike rides, especially since my knees aren't feeling well and I need to cut back on my running.

Summerrific

I love my job,especially when I don't have to work over the summer and still get a paycheck! I've already been to the library to stock up on books. My first read is Gone with the Wind. I love it! I broke the rule and saw the movie before reading the book. But it's been a long time since I've seen the movie. The book is oh so good. Love me some historical fiction.

Mack also got his summer hair cut this week. He looked a lot better when it was longer but I know its so much cooler now when we go run.

Mrs. Sister

Karen and Coy tied the know on June 12. All her hard work paid off and the wedding was beautiful. After the rehearsal, the girl cousins, aunts, maw-maw threw Karen a bachelorette/lingerie shower. So fun! Even little Miss Ayelet got to participate but that's probably because her food source was there. :) We laughed and laughed that night. Good times.