Oh Christmas Tree, How Moldy Is Your Water?

Christmas Season 2011 was amazing!

We realized how rich we really are!

We were blessed with a beautiful home that we got to decorate...

a cute welcome mat for friends and family to enter into to...

can’t forget about our Lord and Savior being born

(it’s sort of the WHOLE point!)...

Falcons made it to the playoffs…

our Christmas Tradition of riding around all bundled up with the windows down and hot cocoa in hand while checking out Christmas lights was a success…

here was our favorite house of the year (it will be hard to beat last year's dancing lights to the radio)…

I got to execute a few Pinterest ideas (here is 1 of many)…

 

We got to spend extra quality time with the fam…

 

There was incredible food placed on the table in front of us all weekend long…

And everyone’s tree looked so beautiful this year…

My Mom's

The Castardi's

The Cox's

 

and don’t let our glorious tree fool you because underneath all this beauty…

Was a little bit of this…

MOLD!

Yep Christmas Tree’s produce mold and our’s won First Prize this year… my throat was the judge!

But no worries because this little guy came to the rescue…

Our Falcon Tree! Caw Caw!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :) 

Tatertots & Jello

I am entering my first giveaway on one of my new favorite blogs, Tatertots & Jello. This blog is written by this awesome chic named Jen who explains all of her amazing DYI and craft techniques! Today the giveaway is a camera bag from Jo Totes. These bags are not only practical for all of your photo sessions but they are freaking adorable! I will probably carry around as a purse without my camera, when I need to. The reason I would love to have a Jo Tote bag is because, as you may know, I need some motivation to pick up my incredible spankin' brand new Canon Rebel T1i that my generous husband bought for me for Christmas last year. I think the solution would be a practical (and SUPER CUTE!) bag to carry it in so that I can start bringing it everywhere and learning how to use it by default! Right now it sits at my house, next to the zoom lens, and charger!

Now I would post a picture of the types of bags that Jo Totes offers but they are so awesome that you would want to enter the contest after seeing pictures and that would lower my chances, so you will just have to look it up and buy one yourself! What I will do though is link over to the giveaway as long as you promise to only look… :) 

http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/10/giveaway-day-jo-totes-my-favorite-camera-bag.html


Happy Shopping, Blogging, & Halloween!

Newest Obsession...

PINTEREST. If you haven’t heard of it, I am sorry. If you have and you are not on it, shame on you! It’s the best thing since sliced bread! I seem to do more pinning than actually executing the ideas but that will come later! I actually had a friend last night (shout out to Heather!) who was telling me about all of the things she has made from it and I automatically thought of these 2 pins….

But then I remembered that I have made some things from ideas off of my boards. That is when my “Been There. Done That.” board was created. To post pictures of the things that I (and Steven!) have made! Unfortunately I am having a hard time uploading my own pins unless it comes from a website so I am going to have to keep updating this post with my pictures and then pulling the pictures from here! So here is a list of things that I have executed:

Works of Art

Steven and I just celebrated our 1 year anniversary! We both can't believe it. Time is flying by too fast! We sure did have a wonderful year together as a married couple and we just know it is going to get better as the years go on....even through the ups and downs. You find out who you are in the hard times, right?

Well we were going to make a trip back down to FL where we got married to celebrate but since we just bought a house and all, we decided to stay in town! We had a bum day... it was AWESOME! We got some breakfast, layed around all day, watched some football, took a nap, and decided that instead of getting each other some fancy-shamncy gift that we both don't need that we would make each other something! 

So on that note... I headed over to my newest obbession, Pinterest, and tweaked one of the ideas to match it for Steven and I! I forgot though that not only is Steven a perfectionist, he is one heck of an artist. So here are our works of art:

Mine: which took about 1 day, 2 colors of paint, and a sponge.

Stevens: which took about 10 days, hiking for beautiful colored leaves & spiraled twigs, picking mums out of our front yard, and gorilla glue!

Check out the awesomeness of the 3-D crown!

And this picture is to TRY and give justice to the depth of the canvas.

 Yup, this is true love people!

Roasty & Cozy!

Can’t wait to eat a perfect fall, rainy night meal (grilled cheese & tomato soup with crumbled ritz crackers), sit by the awesome roasty fireplace in our new cozy home, and wait for The Biggest Loser to grace me with its presence tonight at 8:00pm and then I will probably keep my eyes pried open to watch Parenthood after that because it's just SO good… all with my loving and amazing hubby that I sometimes wonder how I got so lucky to be with! AHHH… life is grand!


Speaking of our awesome roasty fireplace. Check it out… one of the many pics from our new and cozy home! (More to post when I have the energy to do so!)

** Painting (of the WHOLE ENTIRE HOUSE...even this fireplace) compliments of Cathy Castardi from Creative Touch of Color. For those of you who don't know... this is my mother-in-law and she is an incredible interior painter! She even does ALL of the painting herself...no outside help. Enough said!



yOu KnOw YoU'rE oLd WhEn...

1. You buy a sewing machine at a yard sale.

2. You don't get a Spring Break or Summer off work.

3. Instead of looking at Facebook updates, you look for new pins to repin on Pinterest.

4. You have to drink a BIG Red Bull in the middle of the day while playing put-put to keep up with all of the kiddos running around there.

5. Your apartment is filled with boxes because you are packing up to move into a house that YOU are purchasing.

6. On a Friday night, you order 2 tickets to a 9:40 movie, go out to dinner at 6:30, done by 7:30, then walk around Garden Ridge to kill time before the movie so you don't go home and fall asleep.

7. On Saturday night you are at your own home, with your HUSBAND and 2 dogs, watching some pigskin (and blogging of course!)!

Yea I may be old but I sure do love my life; Wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now!

Let All You Do Be Done In Love.

Got another one of those emails that really makes you think about your life and what you are doing with it! It was sort of a long one that I won't bore you with but the statements at the end are worth sharing. Here are some things that God won't ask you at the end of your life and things He will:

God won't ask what kind of car you drove.

He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.

God won't ask the square footage of your house.

He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet.

He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.

God won't ask what your highest salary was.

He'll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

God won't ask what your job title was.

He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

God won't ask how many friends you had.

He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived.

He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.

God won't ask about the color of your skin.

He'll ask about the content of your character.

God won't ask why it took you so long to seek Salvation.

He'll lovingly take you to your mansion in heaven, and not to the gates of Hell.



Weeks.

A week ago the weather here in Atlanta, GA was sunny and about 100 degrees hot! A week later (today) it is in the 60’s and rainy. We went from summer to winter. My favorite season is fall so I am sort of upset that we skipped right over it! That is GA weather for ya though! Fall will come back around… I believe that good ole Mother Earth won't let me down!


A week from today, my baby sister (who is actually not even close to a baby anymore and has for sure grown out of her brat stage… ) leaves to live in Costa Rica for 9 months (or about 36 weeks since we are talking week terms here!). I cannot even believe this time has come. During her high school years I was encouraging her to take this “gap year” between high school and college and just GO but to think that she is actually doing it is incredible…. I wonder what else I can encourage her to do… haha jk! This is DEFINITELY something she wants to do with all her heart… she is not even nervous, which means she is 100% sure and excited! I cannot wait to follow her blog, facebook video chat (since she is too cool for Skype), write, and hopefully visit her while she is there. Not only is she going to touch so many people’s lives whether it be those she is going to live with, minister to, or just smile at while passing by but all of those people are going to touch her life as well. It is amazing how God’s Grace is everywhere, especially when we are trying to do things for others and they give us the gift right back. My prayer for her is to embrace this opportunity with everything she has (and I have no doubt that she will). God is great!

Two weeks from today Steven and I will (God-Willing) be home owners… crazy! Who knew we would be moving again? Actually it didn’t surprise anyone! This will be our 4th or 5th move since we have been together (I lost count) but guess what guys…. We REALLY do plan on staying at this one for awhile! We have picked a place to call our Home Sweet Home! Steven and I are super pumped about the whole process… yes it was a little stressful picking out flooring, paint colors, and furniture but if that is what’s stressing us out these days… we are in good shape. Like I said before… God is great! We feel SO blessed to have the resources, finances, wisdom, and support to be doing a thing like this. In a way we sort of feel ungrateful but we have promised to make our house a home that glorifies God in every way! We hope to be a light to our neighbors and new community! We have to keep reminding ourselves that this is not OUR house it is HIS and He can take it from us at any time. We will keep praying that if this is where God wants us to be living, that He will continue to guide this smooth process through the very end. If not, Steven and I know that wherever we live is where our home will be. It is not where you are but who you are with. Since the day we both said “I Do”, we have worked hard at constructing a rock solid foundation to build our marriage upon. We know that with a good foundation, we can withstand anything. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” – Matthew 7:24-27

Weeks after that… who knows what life is going to throw at us but we do know 1 thing… GOD IS GREAT!

Little Buug. Little Shug.

Last weekend I got to not only visit my favorite people in the whole world, my grandparents, but I also got to bring Steven with me! Now, a lot of people would say, "Why visit there?" and I would say, "'cause beyond all those corn fields and soy beans, it's where my roots are from; where most of my family still lives, so what's better?" So I FINALLY got to show Steven where I used to spend all of summers, most of my Christmas's, and a few New Years....Indiana! Here are some pictures from our wonderful trip:

First stop.... Grandpa & Grandma's House aka the most peaceful place I know!

And here is their barn. Well, its really Grandpa's carpentry workshop. You should see his work of art!

Here is a picture of his awesome garden.

Here is Steven picking some cucumber.

Check out this HUGE spaghetti squash and cabbage.

They also make their own homemade jelly out of these trees below: Pear, Apricot, Cherry, and Apple.

And we can't forget the corn fields!

Steven and I wish to be like them when we grow up!

On Thursday we took Steven to all of the hot spots in Muncie, IN:

The Water Bowl

Pizza King

God decided to show off his artwork with this beauty the whole day!

We even stopped by Ball State University. Grandma and Grandpa walk a couple of miles each day around campus. Plus we have some family members who attended and are attending! Go Cardinals!

and you can always count on Grandma having sweets around, especially Peppermint Sticks in the car!

On Friday we went to my Aunt and Uncles house for a family gathering! Here is their precious house in downtown Indy!

On Saturday we took this Indy Party Train....

To the Jazz Kitchen....

To celebrate the wedding of Sarah (my cousin) and her husband Brett!

and what's a wedding without Grandma & Grandpa showing off not only their dance moves but their 59 years of marriage!

As you can see, we had an amazing trip and can't wait to go back! Thanks to all of our family up there who welcomed us with open arms! Congrats to Sarah & Brett! We love YALL Indiana folk! xoxo