Moving Fun...

Last night we helped Kyle & Janelle with packing up their apartment. They closed on their new home last week and are beginning the fun moving process. They've already been working on painting everything, which looks amazing! Tonight is the "big" moving night, lifting furniture, boxes etc. Not that I'll have to do too much of that. I'll try to get some good pictures! We're very excited for them!!

(this pic is obviously not of us moving...but of them at their wedding last year)

So sorry so long!

Well, you have been patient and you have waited and you have been bearing with me in my delinquincy. I'm sure anyone who's moved into a house understands what Jordan and I have been doing the past week. It's been a crazy week and an incredible week, all at the same time. We had so much help on Friday painting and on Saturday moving in, it was amazing! (big thanks to Lindsey, Ian, JT, Dustin, Reese, Robby, Mom, Wendy, Tami, Chantel, Melissa, Aaron, everyone....) By the time Saturday night rolled around- I really felt pretty settled. Ferris, Martha & Merari had helped me organize my kitchen, Wendy Borst had totally clean our apartment for us- top to bottom, there were tons of guys who helped us move everything in and set it all up, Frank Borst, Robby & Pastor Rob helped us arrange the bonus room- I could go on forever about all the amazing people who helped!!

Saturday night Zach & Joy Griepenstroh & Ian spent the night and went to church with us in the morning. I made Thai Cashew chicken for everyone and we had a great time hanging out, eating, watchin' football and just chillin' in the new place! Sunday was a super fun and awesome day. We went to church early and ate afterwards, then actually got to come home for a bit before Ultimate Frisbee. The weather was gorgeous! I wasn't feeling the best so I didn't play, but I went and watched and took some pictures. (above are some of my favorites)

Then I went back to the house and Mom called b/c she wanted to come and plant some tulip bulbs- so I happily agreed! :-) Kelly Jiroch came over and helped me organize my china cabinet and do a couple of things. We ended up with a big group that night: Mom, Dad, Ian, Chris, Reese, Me & Jordan, Kelly, Robby, Chantel- we made personal pizzas- yummy, and watched some more amazing football! (Go Colts- Undefeated!) It was a wonderful weekend.

Monday, Kyle & Janelle Kellums graciously donated their whole day to help us prime the apartment- we had painted the whole thing before we moved in, so in order to avoid being charged, we had to repaint it all. We were so thankful for them!! The four of us went to Cracker Barrell for breakfast and then spent the day painting away. Thank you to K & J for your time and help- so wonderful!!

So, that's a quick and basic run down. I think things will be a little more "settled," as much as they can be anyway. Jordan and I are both back up and running with our work- which is good. It took us a while to get caught up. PLEASE come see us, if you haven't already. We love having visitors and we want all of you to come see us!

Now- for the house.....I've uploaded the pics to Shutterfly, so click HERE and come on a picture tour of our new house...it's the best I can do until you come and see it for yourself. :-)

BIG love and BIG thanks to all of you! We love you!

Busy, busy bee

Well the weekend was crazy & wonderful, all at the same time. I am slammed today, so I'll give you a brief update with more to follow later. Last Friday was official "painting day" as you can see in the pictures. Lots of people came out to help us and we're SO glad they did. We started early, taping and painting the kitchen, J's office and an accent wall in the Master Bedroom. You can sort of see the colors- the gold is in Jordan's office and then the kitchen is a dark orangeish-brown. It looks beautiful.

We finally finished paiting about 1:00am on Saturday morning- with the faithful few still working hard helping us. The end result was well worth it though- it turned out amazing...you will ALL have to come see it.

I'll post about moving day tomorrow and hopefully get some pics of the house up.
Come see us in Nashville!

WE OWN A HOME!

Amazing! We own a home and it is so exciting. I just keep feeling so incredibly blessed and so provided for. God is awesome! Our closing went so well yesterday- it was all of about 20-25 minutes with no issues at all. Of course we wouldnt- we had the best Mortgage Broker out there. We were so excited yesterday, too, when our closing costs came back way under what we had estimated. God is so incredible and good!

Today is painting day....I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures for you after today. Yes- I did finally pick out colors for the rooms. I found a nice green in my friend, Tracy's 1/2 bath, and match the color to that, I found a beautiful Ralph Lauren deep orange-rust color for the kitchen and the Porter Paint color, Lantern Glow, a soft & pretty gold for Jordan's office. The green will go on an accent wall in our bedroom. That's all we're doing right now. I may eventually paint the guest bath and guest room, but not right now. So we have several people coming over to help us today and then a bunch more coming tomorrow. I'm so thankful for those who are willing to help. It is very much appreciated.

Well, I have to go- lots and lots to do! I just have have to say again- Praise the Lord! He is so good :-)

It's gonna be a whirlwind day...

We are praying that the closing happens. It has been extremely wet and rainy here, so some of our outside grading & landscaping work has been delayed over the past week and half, keeping the builders from getting to everything they needed to. So we are in a race against time today to get the CO in time for a closing this afternoon. Please be praying that things happen in a perfect timing today! It wouldn't be the end of the world if we didn't close this afternoon, but we are believing for perfect timing in all of this! God is faithful.

I didn't get to posting yesterday- this week is seriously funny- this is the first time I've been responsible for moving an entire house, setting up utilities, planning schedules, picking out paint, decorating, etc. etc....it's been fun and challenging and I am certainly learning a lot. Despite all there is to do, I haven't felt "stressed" so I am thankful beyond words to the grace and peace of Jesus throughout this whole process. He is so good and Jordan and I feel like we must be the most blessed couple in the world. Thanks to all of you SO MUCH for your support and help- we love you.

Here are some pics from Halloween night, which we spent with some friends in Spring Hill. The is Ethan Rudd, Cadence Cole and the little baby is Ethan's sister, Eva. They are my little babies until I have some of my own and I LOVE THEM! Cadence was a lady bug and Ethan was a pickle....that's what he told his mom he wanted to be- so that's what he was. I've never witnessed trick-or-treating like I did Tuesday night. Jordan and I pulled into their (the Cole's) neighborhood and the place was reeming with children- EVERYWHERE. There are SO MANY kids in Spring Hill and most are under the age of 8..I walked with Jenny & Tracy with the 2 year olds door to door- it's just hilarious! I wish I could have posted video but you'll just have to believe me when I tell you they are adorable and so precious! Well, it's not posting the rest of the pictures that I'm trying to, so I've got to get going. Click here to see the rest....

Have a blessed day and please pray for a smooth closing this afternoon and grace and joy over the weekend of painting, moving and unpacking!

Painting Fun

Well yesterday was seriously quite the day! We had a Newsong Family Service yesterday morning, so our congregation went up to Cool Springs for the 11:00 service which was wonderful! Worship was powerful- the word was strong and Dr. Shibley's word was timely and very good. I still have a lot to process about what he said and spoke over us.

Afterwards, Jordan and I went over to Mom & Dad's to eat lunch and watch football. We had such a treat- as we got to watch the entire Indy game- SO good, and they remain undefeated! Go Colts!!!

We headed back over to our apartment about 6:00 (it was so dark though, it felt like 9:00) and began moving stuff around and getting ready to paint. Ian arrived shortly after, and he and I started priming the dining room. Chris, Ferris and Robby showed up too and helped us immensley! I've packed up pretty much the whole pantry and kitchen already, so I rummaged around and found eggs, turkey sausage, pancake stuff and Ferris and I made "Breakfast for Dinner." (Side Note- do you like Ferris's painting of her UT stripes on our wall? GO VOLS! End Side Note) I sent Ferris and Jordan to the store to find boxes and pick up a few things, but when they couldn't get boxes at Food Lion or at Walgreen's, Robby proceeded to stop at Walmart on his way over and show up with a car full of Chiquita banana boxes! It is so funny what you end up packing stuff in....anything and everything you can find!

Thanks to everyone's help, we got everything done except a second coat of primer in the kitchen, which J & I will finish tonight. We have our walk through shortly, so I'll try and take some pictures, as promised. Very exciting!!! It was a really fun night. I think they only thing that could have made it better would be having my lil' bro around. I MISS DYLAN! :-)

At this point- I think we're going to hold off on painting our bedroom. The greens just haven't worked and I don't think I have time this week to try and hunt down the perfect color. I will take your advice, Trish and go to Home Depot for some colors. I think I'll probably get everything in and then have you come over once we have it in to see what you recommend at that point.

Oh, and I've told Jordan he's going to need to post a statement about the gotee. We are really getting mixed reviews here and I fear mutiny! We'll see what happens...

More pictures and fun stories to come.....

It is most definitely Fall- and the leaves are actually changing- it's beautiful!

Today looks beautiful! What an amazing fall day it's going to be. Jordan and I have several errands to run, but it looks like we've sold my old keyboard that's been living under my poor sister's bed for a couple of years now. I saw a posting on Craigslist for a guy looking for a keyboard, emailed him and asked a price and he said he'd take it! Sounds great to me! So we're going to meet him in 30 minutes to exchange products....he gets the music, we get the cash! :-)

Other items on the agenda for the day are looking at yet another green paint color- I am about to abandon the Porter Paints' greens....might try Benjamin Moore or Behr. Again, any suggestions are welcome! Seriously.

We'll be doing more packing. I made it through our cds last night. Anyone who knows me (or Jordan) knows what a task this is. I alone brought 500-600 cds into the marriage (my contribution) and this amount of music cannot be just thrown away. I found tons of duplicates, so if anyone needs a Smitty "Christmastime", "Romeo & Juliet Soundtrack" or a Blues Traveler "Four" let me know.

We're off! Happy Saturday and enjoy your beautiful Fall day!

TGIF!

Not too much has changed in the past day. We have a few more boxes stacked up, a couple more calls made and we're back again to square one with the paint color. The color I thought would work oh-so-well isn't working for us now that it's FULLY dried. Jordan took the board down with him to the house right now- he's checking out the progress. I am wondering if green is just not our color. If you have any good suggestions, please let us know, because I feel a little stuck at this point.

We're going to the Mission's Conference again tonight and then packing and working all day tomorrow. We'll probably have the TV on and keep an eye on College GameDay....I would LOVE that as I haven't gotten to watch a single college fball game ALL YEAR! What has become of my life? Oh, just kidding, just kidding....

We did get a bit of good news yesterday! The apartment complex manager came up to our place to look at the paint color that we have over most of the walls and told us that she is pretty confident that we will NOT have to repaint all the walls! Now THAT is exciting stuff. We have to paint the bright orange in our kitchen and the blue in our bathroom, but that'll be easy if we don't have to paint the rest.

Jordan just called and said the house looks GREAT! I am so excited to see it. They are almost finished. I'll take pics at our walkthrough on Monday and post them for you to see.

Have a great Friday night. Oh yeah, and by the way, Jordan thinks he's growing the gotee back....any thoughts on this?

Boxes Galore!

Here is a picture of our living room, from my view at my little makeshift desk! (Which is currently a card table- it's funny!) We have boxes totally lining the hall, to the point that we can barely walk through. Moving day is going to be funny, because it's going to take a while before we can actually get to a point of MOVING things out....

We did quite a bit of packing last night. I got home about 7 and put together a Thai Chicken Pizza (mmm,mmm good!) for myself, Jordan and Ian- who was here helping us out. Jordan started going through the storage a bit last night and came across a couple of "keepsake" boxes so we did take a little detour looking through those. I found my "Jordan" file, where I had saved all sorts of little things from the time of our courtship and engagement, and Jordan found his keepsake box, full of lots of fun True Vibe stuff- he and Ian had fun looking through that.

I packed up more dishes and glasses, photo albums and such......we're definitely making headway, although moving around is becoming more and more of a challenge. Oh well, it is definitely an adventure!

We are going to the first night of the Mission's Conference at our church tonight...I am very excited about that! Should be really good! I'll keep you posted...

Yeah for Sales at my Favorite Store in the World!

Well here I am, finishing up the day....it was a pretty good day, too! Last night was a blast: me & Jordan, Kyle & Janelle, Sarah & Mike & Robby went downtown for Kyle's 25th b-day. We ate at Maggiano's, which was really good and extremely reasonable too. Jordan and I split a Caeser salad and a really yummy Shrimp Angel hair dish that had a spicy tomato red sauce. It was plenty of food, as it fed us for lunch today, too!

Since Jordan and I are days away from moving and still needing a few furniture items, we've both been checking out the classifieds, Craigslist and certain online stores pretty regularly...so I happened to look at Pier1.com this morning, and lo and behold, they're having this HUGE sale....so I was glancing through things and found a console table that I've been eyeing, at 50% off, and then 50% off of that! I called our local store and they happen to have one left in stock. So, I ran over there and found even more goodies: another chopstick & rice bowl set, a candle holder that totally goes with the mirror I got a while back, a couple of extra pasta bowls in case any of the ones we have break, etc. It was quite the exciting time, and we now have a Console table for our Entry Way. The picture of it is above- it totally goes with the global bazaar theme we'll have going on.

Jordan is currently at Sleepwell Mattresses checking out the prices there- we still need one more mattress & box spring for the guest room, or our room depending. We are scheduled to do our walkthrough on Monday- which is SUPER exciting! I have a bit of mentoring tonight and then will be packing the remainder of the evening.

Call if you wanna say hey!