Packing, packing, and more packing

We are currently in the middle of the arduous task of packing. We started as soon as we put an offer on the house and they accepted, but somewhere along the way, we have stalled with the packing process. Well, since both Alan and I have today off, we've resumed the packing expedition. We have accumulated so much stuff since we've moved in. I know a lot of it is due to the wedding gifts of china, crystal, Arthur Court, and Wilton Armetale, but we have a lot of junk. And I don't feel like sorting through it right now. I know it would probably be easier to do before we move, and I will sort through quite a bit even though I lack the motivation, but all of my teaching stuff is where I draw the line. Even though I have only been teaching for 1 1/2 years, I have bought/made/saved a lot of stuff to use in the "future," like, for instance, my 7 cardboard egg cartons. Why do I save those?  Well, I guess I'll continue to save those things until I get sick of storing them. Hah. Glad I'll have a whole room devoted to my junk, although whenever we start having kids, my teaching room will be the first to go. Guess I'll just move it to the study when that happens. :)

I've taken a long enough break... Gotta get back to the grind of packing.

Jen

Color Crisis Averted

I've decided how to avoid the crisis with red and green paint colors. Instead of having green paint in the living room, we're going to paint it a tan-ish color. In fact, the exact same color as my parent's living room (unless I decide it won't go with the couch). This way it'll look good with the furniture we have now and the furniture that I really want to get, which would be leather furniture and giraffe print area rug. I couldn't copy and paste a picture of the furniture, so I'll just have to leave you with a picture of the rug that I want. Boy how my tastes have changed. Needless to say, I'm super excited to have the red kitchen back on the agenda. :)

Now, on to dinner preparations (yummy Mexican Casserole) and a 3-day weekend full of packing, packing, and more packing.

Jen

House

So a couple of people have asked about pictures of the house. I don't really have any that I have taken, so I've gotten some from the internet to show. It's a four bedroom, two bathroom house with a kitchen, breakfast nook, dining room, and living room. 

front of the house

breakfast nook

kitchen (looking into the living room)

living room

master bedroom

master bathroom

I've always wanted a red kitchen, and when I say red, I don't mean red accents or a red wall, but the entire kitchen red. However, since we're also going to have a sage green(ish) living room (darker than what is already on the wall), I do not know how that will actually work. Red kitchen + green living room = too much Christmas. I might have to resign myself to having a red wall or red accents. I just don't know what to do yet. The master bedroom and bathroom will also be painted. Our comforter (and bath towels) are gray with red accents (I like red, can ya tell?) and the rooms are a creamish/yellowish white. Not so good. So I'm debating between a red-toned neutral and a blue-toned neutral. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Well, we still have time for me to decide, but not too much time. We close January 29 and can start moving in Sunday the 31 (the current owners are leasing it from us until Saturday at midnight). We'll clean all day Sunday and start bring stuff in a little at a time on Monday (like when Alan goes to work) and then officially  be in February 6th, unless we can't get our fridge by then. We've already got our washer and dryer waiting to be delivered. We're waiting on the fridge to see how big the doors are first.

In the meantime, you can find me packing and cleaning up our rent house... Yuck!

Jen

New Year, New Home =)

We had a wonderful Christmas break in both of our home towns! We got to spend a lot of time with our families and enjoyed doing all of the "Christmas-y" things that we normally do. We spent about 4 days with Alan's family and then 7 days with mine. We had a blast, but are definitely glad to be back at our own home. Alan and I got this fancy new camera for Christmas, so I'm going to be teaching myself how to use it over the next couple of months. I also want to get Photoshop while I'm still in school because I can save about $1400. It's still pretty expensive, but at $1400 less, I'm thinking it'll be worth it.

Before Christmas, we put an offer in on a home that we really liked, but nothing came from it. We didn't know much about short sales at the time and thought that we'd be able to negotiate terms with the seller. Much to our surprise, it wasn't like that. The bank is actually doing the selling and just picks the highest bidder. That definitely wasn't us... Haha. Well, at least it was a learning experience. We went again yesterday and I'm pretty sure we've got a home! It's still pending on the home inspection and the sellers signing the final contract, but I think it's safe to say that we'll be homeowners by February! Good-bye Alan's commute... Hello Jennifer's. :)

More pictures to come later... after I figure out how to upload pics from our new camera.

Changes

Well, as promised, I've got news to share. Alan and I are house hunting! =) We're hoping to move the Houston area sometime next semester. Instead of Alan commuting, I will be the commuter in the relationship. My last two classes before I finish up my master's are both online, so I will be driving to College Station on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to teach my preschool class. I'm on the job hunt, as well. I'm hoping to find a preschool position with a local church for the upcoming school year. Needless to say, I'm stoked about looking for our first home. It will be so nice to own a home instead of rent one. I'll keep you updated on the house hunting front...

In other news, we're headed to visit Alan's family on Thursday this week for Christmas and cabinet building. Following that, we're on our way to visit my family to spend Christmas Day with. I absolutely LOVE Christmas and getting to see family! We've had our decorations up for a while (but we didn't get everything out this year), so I'll post pictures later.

Jen

Thanksgiving (and Christmas time)!!

So it's no secret to most who know me that I love Christmas! If I could listen to Christmas music all the time, I would! Shortly before Thanksgiving each year I am ready to put up my decorations. If I had my way, our Christmas tree would've gone up November 7 or 14. Alan, however, did not agree with me on this one, so I had to compromise. I put our nativity set out November 7 and waited to put the Christmas tree up on the 21. It is looking good! We still need more ornaments (most of them are the ball kinds, but I'm a big fan of the Willow Tree Angel ornaments and any other "fun" ornaments) and a tree topper, but that will have to wait until next year. I'm down to only one more present to buy and only a couple more to wrap. However, I do know the present that hasn't been purchased yet, which I didn't know even a couple days ago.

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year! I got to see my favorite nieces and nephew! We were all at Alan's parents house, which was a lot of fun! I didn't get too much sleep, though, but who wants to sleep when you can play with a 4 year old, 18 month old, and 9 month old? I had a blast playing with them and can't wait to start our family some day!

Only 2 more weeks until Christmas break for us! We're headed to Abilene for a week then off to spend Christmas with my parents in Texarkana! I'll get to stain some when we're in Abilene! Alan is going to re-do some cabinets for his parents, and since I can't help with that, I'll help with staining. Call me crazy, but I actually enjoy staining. :)

P.S. We might have some exciting news in the next couple of weeks... You'll just have to stay tuned to find out more. :)

November

Is it really November 19 already? I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving, and then only a little over a month until Christmas! I've been bugging Alan to get the Christmas decorations out since we'll be gone for 2 weeks in December, but that hasn't worked yet. I did set up my Nativity set on our mantle, though! And this weekend we're putting up the tree. I can't wait to get into our own home so we'll have more room for it. I've already wrapped all of the presents that I've purchased, ordered the two presents that need to be ordered, and plan on shopping for the rest (or at least most of the rest) this weekend. I just LOVE Christmas time and I love getting everything done early!!

We took Christmas pictures when we went to Texarkana last weekend, but I do not look good in them. Too bad you can't crop me out! Alan and the pups look precious, though! So I guess we'll either have to take them again or just not send them out this year.

Well, I'll close with a picture of the finished cabinet (minus the doors that haven't been built yet.) Painted one too many coats on the left drawer, but you can't tell near as much when you're actually looking at it.