Old Friends

This past weekend we were able to catch up with some old friends from Indiana. It felt really good to reconnect with our dear friends. It's been over 4 years since I've seen some of them (Aaron saw some of them last year while recruiting), so it was very refreshing. I'll keep this post short and sweet. We miss you all dearly, and we wish we could spend more time with you all. Now that we're back in the Midwest, we'll have to make more frequent visits.

Congratulations Adam & Jessica!

Our old small group. Love you all!

Now...back to my Christmas prep...sigh.

Blessed

This past week wasn't exactly my best Thanksgiving week ever...I was sick Monday through Friday (very sick on Tuesday and Wednesday), my grandmother passed away on Monday night, and I didn't get to go shopping on Black Friday either. But for the first time in I don't know how many years (honestly...maybe 15 years or more), we got a family picture with my mom's side of the family. We haven't all been together for a while, but it was so great to see them even if it was under sad circumstances. Although, I don't think everyone was too excited about how cold it was without our jackets, but it was worth it...I think.

But I do have to say...we are truly blessed. We got to spend time with my aunt that I haven't seen in over six years and my uncle that I haven't seen for almost ten years. Not to mention...the time we were able to spend with the rest of our family (not just my mom's side).  All of you are such a blessing.

The LONG overdue Halloween Post

 I'm not going to beat around the bush...last weekend was just crazy busy. That seems to be the story of my life, but here's a few clips from our crazy busy Halloween weekend.

My friend Heidie's munchkins came over and carved pumpkins with Aaron, Christi, Justin, and myself.

These three are just the cutest.

After the world series, the boys joined us and the kids and Heidie left. Yes, that is a power tool in my husband's hand. He doesn't take carving pumpkins lightly.

After a fun evening, the four of us carved some pretty cool pumpkins. This was taken at 2am. I can't remember the last time I was up that late.

Saturday was Rachel's 3rd birthday party, and Cory did an AMAZING job doing a Disney princess themed party. Great job, Cory!! The food was delicious!

And here's Little Miss Rachel Jasmine showing off some of her birthday presents.

And that's pretty much it. Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend!! I can't believe it's November already...yikes! Where has the time gone?

Happy 35th Anniversary Ma & Pa Kaney!

Tonight we picked up Ma & Pa Kaney from the bus terminal in Rockford after they returned from their two week trip to Ireland and Scotland. I know you're so jealous...and so are we. We're so happy they were able to take this amazing trip to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary though. Thirty five years is a major accomplishment for a marriage in today's society that is filled with divorce. These two are a wonderful example to their children of what a Christ-centered marriage looks like. 

We surprised them by having Ryan & Cory and their two daughters (Rachel & Rebekah) join us as we picked them up and taking them out for a nice dinner at JMK Nippons in Rockford. Sadly, Christi & Justin couldn't join us, but it was a great evening celebrating Ma & Pa Kaney's anniversary.

Congratulations on 35 wonderful years! We know you have many more ahead of you. We love you!!

It's finally over!

The past six months have been grueling. Aaron and I have a pretty busy schedule, and in every second that I had down time, I was trying to fit in a long or short run in order to train for the Chicago Marathon. It really became a chore more than something I enjoyed. I started out this training because I wanted to do something with my sister, and don't get me wrong, I am glad that I was able to do it with her, but I'm even more glad that it's finally over. She'll agree with me, and I'm sure Aaron will also.

Aaron had to put up with my whining and complaining over the last six months..."I don't want to run today...I'm so tired...my legs hurt...my feet hurt...will you bike with me so I'm not lonely?...I'm so sore." He heard it all. Thank you, sweetie, for your support through my training. You are the best part of my day - every day, and I'm so thankful for your support. I love you!

Andrea and I ran most of the race together (at least until mile 20). Our original plan was to cross the finish line holding hands, but my knees completely gave out on me around mile 21. The last 5.2 miles were excruciating for me, but I finished. It was by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I knew I was holding Andrea back because she could go so much faster. So I told her to run ahead of me. I'm so proud of her. She did so well. It took me, on the other hand, 5 hours and 15 minutes to finish. I'm actually pretty embarrassed about that, but that's a pride issue I have. It's really too bad that my knees gave out, but at least I finished. Today I am in so much pain from the race. It's going to take me a couple days to fully recover, but I'm so thankful I'm done with the race. No more marathons for me...two is enough. 

I just thought I'd give you a little bit of the facts about our marathon...
The course was beautiful. Chicago in the fall is beautiful in general, and the weather was perfect. There were 1,700,000 spectators along the course. There were 109 countries represented. There were 45,000 bananas available to participants (enough to feed the apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo for 19 years). We didn't die, but one man, sadly, did. And one woman started getting contractions around mile 13 and then finished the race just in time to give birth to her baby. It was an amazing journey, and even though I have some regrets, it is still one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Those 26.2 miles were unforgettable.

Here's a few pics from the weekend...

Getting pumped up at the Expo

We were a little bit excited to see our family around mile 14. We'd been looking forward to it for a while.

Chicago in the Fall

My amazing sister...so proud of her!

Big Sis...Little Sis

After the race...I had to get a pic with my handsome supporter.

Later that night...exhausted, in A LOT of pain, feeling sick to my stomach, no makeup, and hair wet, but I needed a pic with my medal. This is the smile of someone who is glad it's over.

This was my second and last marathon race. Praise God for getting me through it because I couldn't have done it without His strength. Now that the race is over, it's time to pause, reflect, and enjoy other aspects of my life that may have been neglected during my training. Praise God it's over!

Goodbye marathon running...it's been quite a journey.

Sewing Club

I feel like this is typical of my life...I blinked and two weeks went by. Sometimes I think I blink and 6 months have gone by. Life can be consuming sometimes, but this past weekend I was very thankful to get a weekend away with Sewing Club. I've been looking forward to this weekend for some time now, and for those of you that don't know, I'm not a member of Sewing Club and this may be kind of difficult to explain, but Sewing Club actually doesn't sew.

Sewing Club is a group of Christian women that get together once a month to just be women...they hang out, share food, laugh, cry, and share in one another's lives. My mother-in-law has been a part of this group for years, and this particular group of women started about 20 years ago. You have to be a member of the group, and to be a member of the group you have to be invited. And in order to be able to get an invitation someone has to either die or move away. To make a long story short, it's just a group of Christian women that decided to start meeting once a month to escape from the every day demands of life. It's not a Bible study or a "church group" per se, but just what it is...a group of women sharing life. And they each make a commitment to stay a part of the group until (like I said above) they die or move away. There's so much more to it that I can't explain well enough, but you just have to trust me that it's an awesome group of ladies.

That being said, I was privileged to be able to go on their annual weekend getaway this year. My good friend, Heidie, and myself were allowed to go because we were interested in starting a "next generation" sewing club, and they had a few extra spots, so we were able to join them. And it was an amazing weekend!!

This was taken Sunday morning before we left. It's just too bad that some of the ladies had to leave earlier that morning and couldn't be in the picture.

And of course...Sue and I had to get a picture.

I learned so much, and I'm so excited to get the next generation of sewing club up and running. It's so important to have Christian women to do life together with, and I can't emphasize that enough. God made us each unique and wonderfully made, but He wanted us to mold each of our uniqueness's together and walk through life together. 

This past weekend...I learned a lot from a great group of women, but we also laughed so hard that we cried, we stayed up late (ummm...3am) , we ate and ate and ate, we shopped, we got massages, we talked about everything, and we just had FUN. A woman needs that sometimes.

And I definitely don't want to leave out the fact that my wonderful husband stayed home all weekend and worked around the house (cleaning out the garden beds, painting around the outside of the house, etc., etc.). Thank you, thank you, thank you Aaron for allowing me to go away for the weekend, and for all you did around the house! I'm so blessed!

Our Redneck Antenna

On a normal day, we typically don't act like rednecks, but this Sunday was an exception. For those of you that don't know, Aaron and I rarely watch television, and when we moved into our house, we decided not to get cable for that reason. We assumed that we would be able to use our antenna to watch all the local channels from our tv if we really wanted to watch something, but we were wrong. We tried to use the antenna when we first moved in (back in May), and we were unable to get any channels. I guess there's a big difference between the reception that you get living in the city as opposed to a small town of 800 people. We were disappointed, but we let it go because it wasn't that big of an issue.

Well...

Today Aaron decided to try again because of Sunday afternoon and evening football, so he attempted to get a signal with our antenna. He gave up after making several attempts, but not me. After he had gone out of the room, I decided I would try to "save the day" and acquire a signal with our antenna. This is what I came up with:

The cord to the left goes to the plugin in our dining room, and the cord to the right goes ALL the way into our living room to connect to the TV.

Now all afternoon and evening I've been walking through the house laughing at my contraption. I think this contraption just may win me the "Best Wife of the Year" award (if there is such a thing) because Aaron's been enjoying football on our own television all day. Needless to say, I did some research online, and we actually can get local channels through our tv. We just have to buy a new antenna for the roof. It turns out this is a common problem for "country folks". We WILL be purchasing a new antenna this week.

I knew those law books would come in handy some day though.

Garage Sale

I feel like I blinked and the last couple days were gone, but then again, I think I say that about everything nowadays. I was able to help Ma Kaney out with her garage sale yesterday and today, and even though you do a lot of sitting around during the garage sale, I'm still kind of worn out. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Sue the past few days,getting her garage sale ready, and helping her "purge" some things. Aaron and I were even able to make a few extra bucks with some items we sold in the garage sale. I think we may be "garage sale buddies" from here on out.

We make a pretty good team.

A Small Town Celebration

This weekend went by way too fast. We were busy all weekend long, but made sure to have lots of fun...of course. Our wonderful little small town (population 800- if that) had it's Labor Day weekend celebration. The famous "Shannon Days" was this weekend which meant that the main street of our small town was closed for three whole days. Only in a town this small could you get away with shutting down the main street for three days and not get complaints. The downtown area was hoppin' (well...as hoppin' as Shannon can get). There were farmer's market stands, pony rides, a live band in the evening, and most importantly there was BINGO. We kept saying "just one more game" and as always...didn't win anything. The main event of the weekend was the parade though. We haven't been to a parade in years, and we were able to enjoy the parade on Monday. Well, I'm not gonna lie...we froze our behinds off that morning for the parade, but it was fun.

 

 

Aaron refused to use my pink polka-dot blanket because it was too "girly".

Apparently, Shannon has the longest parade in Northwest Illinois. I found that hard to believe, but I guess it's true. And it wouldn't be a small town parade without my favorite things....

Ford Trucks

And Tractors.

 But I could definitely do without....

The Scary Clowns.

I can't believe it's September already, but most of all, I can't believe Fall is just around the corner...along with the cold weather. Lord, please be easy on us this winter. We need a gradual slide back into northern Illinois living. We've been away for a long time.

Homemade Salsa

Yesterday we learned a new thing...how to make our own salsa and can it. We've been really excited about canning and freezing our own vegetables this year. We have quite the stash of vegetables in our pantry and freezer. We have green beans, corn, zucchini, rhubarb, and now homemade salsa. It started out being a lot of fun, but by the time we were done, we were REALLY ready to be done. We spent six hours making the salsa and canning it. It probably wouldn't have taken the average Joe six hours, but Aaron had to work on his trial for tomorrow which left me (Miss Perfectionist) to do the cutting and dicing of the tomatoes. Imagine how long it would take a perfectionist to dice up probably around 40 or 50 tomatoes. No one can try telling a perfectionist not to spend so much time on it and just go faster...it just doesn't happen in my world.

The end result was delicious! Needless to say, we had nachos for dinner last night, and just so you're aware two people can finish off one whole bag of tortilla chips all by themselves within an hour.

Here's the recipe we used: (compliments of Ma Kaney)

2 cups of peeled and chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1-2 jalapeno peppers - seeded & minced (add more for more spice)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of corriander
1/2 teaspoon of parsley
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon of vinegar
1 tablespoon of fresh cut cilantro

Combine all the ingredients and heat it to can it or refrigerate it if you'd like it fresh.
(We did four times the amount of this, but you obviously don't have to do that if you're only making it for yourself and a couple people.)

It's been wonderful harvesting all the vegetables in our garden this year. I think it's even made my husband like vegetables when he wouldn't touch them before. He says "it's different when you grow them yourself". I just laugh. Vegetables are vegetables. The only difference is ours are more work, but they're a lot cheaper and organic. I shouldn't complain though...at least he's eating them.

A Recap of Our Week

I've been neglecting to blog for the past week...well, let's be honest almost two weeks. We had a housewarming party at our house last weekend, so we were busy finalizing things around the house for that and then after it was over we just wanted to do NOTHING. The housewarming party was a lot of fun, and we were very blessed to have everyone make it to the party (especially those from out of town). We kind of felt like we were getting married all over again. We received a lot of presents which we feel so blessed to have received. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that came! (Don't worry...you'll get an official thank you card sometime next week now that I've passed the "do nothing" stage after the party.) We really do feel like we're starting a new adventure in our lives. It's nice to be able to settle down for a change. We've had so many "stages" in our marriage over the past six years that it's nice to know that this one will be for a while...or at least until winter when we'll be changing our minds and moving to someplace warm. (just kidding)

Amongst all the "doing nothing" time, we celebrated Aaron's 27th birthday (yes, I am 6 months older than him and he insists upon reminding me that I'm older than him for 6 months of the year). We had a pretty quiet evening at home on Wednesday for his birthday. Aaron did not want to go anywhere for his birthday which I was completely fine with. We had Culvers that I brought home with me from work, and we had a concrete cake (yum!). We just sat around the house all night. I'm sure next year he'll be asking "what did we do for my birthday last year?" and neither of us will be able to remember.

(I hope you had a great birthday sweetheart. I love you so much! I am so blessed to have you as my husband.)

Now...after all the "nothing" that was done this week, I have make up for it today because my house is a disaster, and we are in desperate need of some clean dishes and clean laundry...it should be a fun Friday.

One Simple Change

It's Sunday, and we were busy yet again, but I made time to make a simple change to our master bathroom tonight. I made my first set of curtains!! I'm so excited about them! It's the simple things in life that excite me. One simple change made the room look a ton better (in my opinion). We eventually want to redo everything about our master bathroom (paint, tile, vanity, etc.), but until then I thought I'd give it a little pick-me-up. It was looking a little blah before. It cost me less than $10 and didn't take me very long at all.

Before...

 
After...

Fair Fun

We went to the Carroll County Fair last night, and we had so much fun! (Sorry, no pictures. We were in Aaron's "stomping grounds" for work, and I knew he'd be extremely embarrassed if I even tried to take a picture in front of all his court house co-workers.) It was a great start to my three day weekend though. I think we're starting to appreciate and fall more in love with our roots and where we've come from. Last night was the Jason Michael Carroll concert at the fair, so we went to the fair early to enjoy some fair food for dinner. (I know...we enjoy all the major "American" food groups including grease, sugar, and fried dough.)

The concert was great! I'm not at all musical, but I enjoy music SO much. I always listen to my music too loud in the car. Aaron's always wanting to turn it down (although he's getting more and more lenient on this every day). Aaron and I both sing in the car ALL the time, and I always have music on when I'm at home. You'll either find country or Christian music on where ever I am. So even though I'm not musical in ANY way, music adds so much to my life. It just makes it more fun!

I love how music can create so many emotions, but my favorite songs are the ones that make you appreciate life and smile, that make you laugh, that tug at your heart and make you want to be a better person, or that make you lift your hands and praise God. Christian music does that, but there's a lot of country music that does too. I know a lot of people don't appreciate it, but it's got so much about life...I just love it!

I'm still singing Jason Michael Carroll songs in my head this morning...

(Where I'm From)

I'm from the front pew of a wooden white church
The courthouse clock it still don't work
Where a man's word means everything
Where moms and dads were high school flings
Gave their children grandmothers maiden name
Yes it may not sound like much
But its where I'm from...

(Livin' Our Love Song)

Baby just look at us all this time and we're still in love
Something like this just don't exist
Between a backwoods boy and a fairy tale princess
People said it would never work out
Living our dreams has shattered all doubts
It feels good to prove 'em wrong
Living our love song

After last night though...I'm desperately wanting some cowgirl boots. I've been wanting them for a while, so I think I may see if I can find a pair today while I'm out and about...although I'm not sure my selection in the "big" town of Freeport will be very good. We'll see...but if not, it's a great idea for a Christmas gift (hint, hint).

60 More Days...

Today marks 60 more days until the Chicago Marathon, and believe me...I've been counting down for a while. Andrea and I did our 16-miler on Sunday, and it was brutal. We only have two more mile markers to go before race day (our 18-miler and 20-miler), so I am feeling more and more like I'm in the home-stretch.

Despite how awful the 16-miler was, I was very thankful to be able to run it with my sister. It made it go by so much faster. To be honest, it's kind of lonely running by yourself for long distances. Your mind plays tricks on you, so I praise God that she was able to run with me and help me keep my sanity. Plus, I got new running shoes, so I got to try them out.

The Lord has taught me a lot through my training, not only for this marathon, but my last one too. I know He has great things in store for me as I continue to train for the race, but sometimes while I'm in the middle of it, it's hard to see how that's possible.

Just like your walk with the Lord, you have to spend time reading His Word and worshiping Him in order to grow, and the same thing applies to running a race. You have to be able to dedicate the time and energy to it in order to grow. Today, I'm thankful that there's only 60 more days until completing 26.2 miles, and I praise God for all He's taught me and continues to teach me along the way.

Now, I'm off to get my 4-miler in for the day...

Simply Sunday

So Aaron and I thought our house needed a more welcoming front door...

We decided it needed an inexpensive "face-lift". The wreath and rug that were hanging and sitting by my front door were from the previous owners of our home, and we just hadn't taken them down. Needless to say...they were, for lack of a better word, nasty. We went shopping for a new welcome mat and a new wreath, and in order to get one that stood up to my "standards" I was going to have to spend at least $15 on a welcome mat (and that was the lower end) and between $30 and $40 on a wreath. We lucked out on the welcome mat and got one on sale at Kohls for $10, and I had a 20% off coupon. Plus, for some reason this weekend Kohls is giving you a "tax break" and giving all their customers an extra 10% off their purchase. Sales tax is really only around 7%, but hey...if they're willing to give me an extra 3% off on top of that, I'm all for it. A ten dollar welcome mat then cost me only seven dollars...yay! So that fixed our welcome mat issue, but that didn't fix our wreath issue.

In order to save a few extra bucks on the wreath, we decided to make our own or rather I decided to make our own. Hobby Lobby was having a sale in their floral section (50% off). We picked up a plain twig wreath for $2.50 and three bunches of accenting floral for our wreath at $1.50 for one piece and $3.50 for the other two pieces. This made my wreath only $11 instead of $30 or $40. I was totally excited, and this was the result:

Not too shabby for my first time...

It was a really simple project, and it made my Sunday simply wonderful after seeing the finished product. I'm in love yet again, but then again...I say that about pretty much everything. :)

Friday Fun

Fridays are my favorite! I only have to work four days a week (Monday thru Thursday)...praise God for that...and Fridays are my day to catch up on my week or relax. It really just depends on my mood that week as to whether or not my Friday will be a productive one or a non-productive one. Either way...they are just plain wonderful!!

I thought for my Fun Friday post I would post an update on our latest redecorating project. We recently redecorated our sun-porch, and I'm in love! Aaron's in love with it too because almost every night I have to wake him up out there because he's fallen asleep out there relaxing reading a book. It's really the most relaxing room in our house. We had a lot of fun choosing the color scheme for the room and picking out the furniture, but I wouldn't exactly call it "fun" when we had to paint the one wall. It was the most awful thing we've ever painted because with all the detail on the wall you had to paint the whole wall by hand. Literally almost a whole week of painting went into one wall. I missed my paint roller desperately. But I'm so excited about the result, so that doesn't matter anymore....life goes on, and we now have a fabulous sun-porch!

Before we started on the sun-porch, it looked like this:

Not everything was changed, but notice the blue floors and the blue wall on the right. Not to mention...the previous owners painted all the windows blue. Yes, they painted all of the windows blue. Who does that? It was awful to paint. Note to self: NEVER paint windows a non-neutral color. It's such a pain to fix.

So here's the finished result:

We painted the floor with deck stain/paint.

 I replaced the purple and green flowers in the arrangement on the wall with red and yellow to tie in both of the main colors of the room (red & yellow). Added two new rugs from Menards (super cheap too...only $20 a piece).

 We painted the one wall yellow and repainted the windows white. We had one "major" expense which was the furniture. We'd been watching the furniture for a while and waited for it to go on sale. It was a bit of a hassle getting it, but we ended up getting it for $150 cheaper than we would have in the store. It turns out that you  can buy the furniture online and pick it up in the store for a cheaper price. Who would have thought you'd get a discount just for paying for the furniture online instead of in the store? I wouldn't have, but it worked out to our benefit. I now have $150 extra dollars in my bank account. Yay!!

So...that's our new sun-porch. We love it! And we love how relaxing this room is. We could sit out in this room for hours...reading a book, talking, or spying on casually watching the neighbors. This room makes Fridays even that much more FUN!!

A Thankful Weekend

I'm thankful that it's the weekend. I only wish that it weren't going to end so quickly. Three days is never enough, and this weekend I only have two days for the weekend, so I'm thankful for every moment of it.

I'm thankful that Aaron and I could learn how to can green beans this weekend. I'm thankful that Illinois has the best sweet corn on the planet. We DO NOT miss Virginia corn. We actually boycotted corn while we were there because well...it's just awful. I think they may have been eating field corn...yuck. But anyway...

I'm thankful for the rain that came to cool everything off after a few long hot summer days, and I'm thankful that on rainy days it's okay to sit on the couch and watch movies, nap, eat lots of junk food, and just be lazy. The rain makes you feel like it's "okay" to be lazy...which I love.

I'm thankful for so many other things, but this weekend I'm especially thankful for my amazing husband who rode right by my side on his bike while I ran my 14 miler this weekend. I was thankful for him being there every single step to encourage me, distract me when I was feeling like I couldn't finish, hand me water when I was thirsty...and just plain be there. Marathon training can be so hard sometimes, and he made that milestone in my training that much easier. I love him...and I'm so thankful for him.

Our Sixth Anniversary

Our anniversary kind of snuck up on us this year. We had talked and talked about doing something for our anniversary, and we just kept getting busy and never got around to planning anything. We had wanted to go away for the weekend, but Aaron was on call at the courthouse. For that reason, we had to be within a short distance from home so that he could come back if he got a phone call. All that being said, we decided to go to Galena for the day.

After the past couple weeks of go-go-go in our household, we really just wanted to relax and just not have to worry about meeting friends or family somewhere or doing work around the house. We've had an exhausting last couple of weeks, and we just wanted to enjoy a slow paced day together with no interruptions. Galena holds a special place in our hearts anyway because we got engaged in Galena 7 years ago. We couldn't go to the lookout tower because it's no longer open, but we were able to enjoy some time in the downtown area of Galena and eat dinner at Vinny Vinnucchi's (where we went the night of our engagement). And then afterwards, we went to Grant Park. We had a great time. It was a much needed break.

It's hard to believe it's been six years already. So much has happened in six years...

We've lived in three states. We've moved six times. We've seen friends and family have babies and get married. We've seen friends and family get divorced and pass away. We've had a lot of special moments and a few sad moments mixed in there too, but we've grown so much over the past six years...we wouldn't trade it for anything. Our prayer is that we continue to grow more and more over our lifetime together...closer to God and closer to each other. I'm sure I'm a little biased in saying this, but I really do think I have the best marriage ever. I married my best friend and a true man of God...what else is there to ask for?

Happy Birthday America!!

Vacation Bible School (VBS)

This week I got to be a part of VBS at our church. It was a blast!! I led games for the little ones at VBS, and it was a lot of fun playing with the kids and teaching them about Jesus. I had several groups of kids rotate through my station each day, but I picked a favorite group...just because I can...and I told my favorite group every day that they were my favorite group. I miss them already, and I'm already looking forward to next year. We had a lot of fun!

Rebekah Christi

Last Tuesday, June 21st, Aaron's brother Ryan and his beautiful bride Cory welcomed a new addition to their family...Rebekah Christi. This past weekend we were able to enjoy a day with the new family of four. It was a great day filled with lots of excitement. We soaked up every minute we could with them.

We took a walk with everyone to a neighborhood root beer shop.

We were there for Rebekah's first bath.

Rebekah is so precious.

 She has great parents...

and a sister that adores her.

 

They're a pretty cute family...if I don't say so myself.

We love our two nieces.

Congratulations Ryan, Cory, and Rachel!! 

A Picture Tour

I've been asked by several people..."when are you going to post pictures of your new house?" So I decided I would give you a picture tour of our new home...which I'm still in love with by the way.

There are so many intricate parts to our house that the pictures won't do justice, but at least you'll get a glimpse of our cute country home.

First, I'll take you on a tour of the outside of our home...

This is our garden. We've been working on this a lot lately, and we have green beans, spinach, carrots, lettuce, peppers, onions, zucchini,  kale, tomatoes, squash, and pumpkins...

 

 This is our garage...not really anything special here...just a regular two car garage...

This is our yard. There are so many flowers that I still have no idea what they are. It really is a lot of landscaping, and it's a work in progress, but eventually we'll get it to look how we want it to look, and with hopefully less maintenance. But right now...it's a lot of work.

Here's a side view of the yard from the East...

 The porch off the master bedroom...

 The patio/deck area off the sun-room...

 A view of the yard from the West...

 And a front view of the house...

Now I'll show you the inside...

First we'll go in through the front door where we haven't really done anything, but one of my favorite features of the entryway is the hooks on the wall. They line every wall of the entryway. You can't see them all, but they're darling, and I love them. I'm looking forward to doing something really cute with them in the future...

From there we'll go to the right and go to the office/sewing room. This is part of the original house that was built in 1888. The whole house still has the original hard wood floors from 1888, except for the new addition that was built in 1997 (which you'll see in a little bit)...

 

Now we'll go into the kitchen....

View #1 of the kitchen...

 View #2 of the kitchen...

And then we'll go into Aaron and I's favorite room...the sun-room. We spend a lot of time out here, and we'll soon be remodeling it. It'll soon be red and yellow with comfy three season furniture. This picture will be used as a "before" picture later when we finish it....I'm really excited about what we have in store for this room...

And now we'll go into the living room...

View #1 of the living room...

 View # 2 of the living room...

And this leads into the dining room with two more of my favorite things about this house...

the french doors...

 and the shutter windows...

From there I'll show you the guest bathroom...

View #1 of the guest bathroom...

 View #2 of the guest bathroom...

And then upstairs are the guest bedrooms...

Guest bedroom #1

 Guest Bedroom #2 (We lost the screws to this bed somewhere in the move, and we're still looking for them after 3 weeks. I think we'll need to go buy new ones.)

 And a den area upstairs...We haven't done anything with this yet, but it'll eventually be a game room with the poker table set up and possibly a TV...

And then we'll go into the new addition...built in 1997, but as you can see they tried to match the hardwood floors and carried it out throughout the whole house...yet another one of my favorite things...

And this is our master bedroom which is a work in progress...nothing matches (I have blue curtains, gray walls, and black/yellow pillows on the bed). This will soon be redone with a gray and yellow theme, and I'm really excited about what's in store for this room...

This is the master bathroom...there's also a walk-in closet to the right, but if you've seen one walk-in, you've seen them all...

And last but not least...yet another one of my favorite things about this house...the laundry room...

So now you've seen it....this is our house. You may not love it as much as I do, but it suits Aaron and I perfectly. We feel so blessed. God is good, and He's provided for us in so many ways.