Weekend Recap

We had a busy crazy weekend!!! The biggest thing that went on was that my sister got married! My sister and her now husband got married this past weekend at a church in Springfield, MO. Here's a picture of the happy couple:

Sorry, but that's the only picture I have, so far. Didn't take too many of them!

After the ceremony, we hung out, with my family, at the reception for a couple of hours. My other sister, her husband, and their child (my AWESOME nephew Matthew) went to dinner at Hinode. All of us just LOVED the whole fire show our chef put on for us, especially Matthew. After our meal, we went our separate ways and went home. 

On Sunday, Brandon and I slept in (felt really bad about missing church, but oh well), and in the afternoon, we made our way down to West Plains to hang out with his family. We had a very casual dinner at his grandparents' house and then went to Mountain Home, Arkansas to go to Lowes and Home Depot to check out refrigerators! Since we are buying a home, obviously, we have to buy things for the home. One of the necessary items we have to buy is a refrigerator. We went back and forth between the two stores at least four different times checking on this and that. IT WAS EXHAUSTING!!! Even though we did not buy one, we did pick one out! The refrigerator that we picked out is a Samsung Engergy-Star, French-door with the freezer on the bottom. It also has an outside ice & water maker, LED light on the inside, and many other cool features that I don't remember! Haha! I know everyone these days are leaning towards the stainless steel appliances, but not us, well, not me, I should say! Lol... I just don't care for the stainless steel because of all the fingerprints, smudges, dirtiness that can show on them. Black hides everything, and I LOVE black appliances! 

Here's what the inside looks like; just imagine the outside black:

I hope everyone had a great weekend and can't wait to hear about them! GOD BLESS!

Thoughts of the day...

Okay... this is the 3rd and final time I'm going to blog today. I don't know why I've blogged so much. I guess it's because I've got a lot on my mind. Well, final time. That's it. I promise!

This coming September, Brandon and I will celebrate our 4th Anniversary of being together. We started dating at the beginning of September in 2006. At the beginning of our relationship, I only wanted to spend time with Brandon and him alone. However, as time as went on, I've wished and even prayed (and still do pray) that we would meet a couple who had similar morals, values, and lifestyles as we do. My friends are basically taken off this list because they live away in different towns, and one girl in a different state. Brandon's friends are crossed off because they are all single and living the party-life. So... yeah... we are kind of in a pickle.

I can't help but to fell jealous when I see, hear, or read about how other young couples get together, have friendships, and hang out together. I know I should not be jealous, and it's a petty thing to be jealous of. BUT... I can't help but feel this way.

When we move to Marshfield, I'm making it my goal for us to find a couple that we can hangout and have a good time with.

Five Question Friday

Thanks to Lynsie, I'm sprouting my wings on new blogs and am participating in Five Question Friday (brought to you by Five Crooked Little Halos). Here it goes!!! 

1. What do you think makes a good friend, or friendship?

• LOTS OF THINGS!!!! A good friend is someone you can count on no matter what. A friend offers support, love, and kindness when others would judge. A friend is someone who is loyal and honest. A good friend knows laughter and can offer laughter as well. A good friend is someone who, during one moment, can tell you where to stick it when your out of line and during another is there to hand you a tissue to wipe away your tears. A friend offers hugs when others turn their shoulders. A good friend is someone who not only gets in trouble with you but helps you get out of trouble as well. See, there's LOTS OF THINGS that makes a good friend! 

2. What is the last thing you bought & later regretted?

• Our 2007 Chevy Trailblazer that we bought a couple of months ago. It's now for sale since we are buying a house, and it's not financially sound at this time, for us at least, to pay for a house loan and a car loan at the same time. 

3. Have you ever had a prank played on you?

• OHHHH YEAH! Basically, my entire life is one big prank. I have so many family members that love to be sarcastic and play pranks on one another (switching drinks out for nasty nasty things... food fights... etc.). Since I married my husband (a.k.a, Mr. Humor himself), I live around that type of humor... Sometimes I don't mind it and enjoy the fun; other times, not so much...

4. What is your favorite theme park?

• My ALL TIME FAVORITE THEME PARK.... DISNEY WORLD!!!! It's the best place where adults and children can ALL be kids at the same time! I went there when I was around 3 years old but haven't been back since. My husband and I talk every once in a while about going there for a vacation. 

5. Have you ever seen someone else give birth?

• Only cats and dogs. Humans... NO! I don't know if I could watch that. No more details... that's it. :) 

LINK UP TIME!!!! 

Our Soon-To-Be New Home

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope everyone has had a great week so far! Yesterday, Brandon and I met the inspector at our soon-to-be new home! Above is an outside pic. Nothing bad came up in the inspection! YAY!!! No big shock there because this home is a great home in a great location! :) I can't wait until we close, and we are able to take possession of the home! Most importantly, I can't wait until I can decorate to make this house a home for Brandon and I. 

While the inspector was looking around the house, I took several pictures so we don't forget what it looks like. Here's just a few of the pics:

I hope everyone has a great Friday and a great weekend! GOD BLESS!

Got the Seller Sensation

Yesterday, our landlady called us and informed us that someone was interested in viewing her home, that we currently rent, and they set up a meeting for Monday at 3 pm. We worked all last night on packing up the other spare bedroom til 11pm. We were exhausted and ready for bed. I did want to do some cleaning last night, but I was just too exhausted.

Today, I got up and did not feel like cleaning the house at all! I'm the type of person that if people are going to come over to our house, I'm gonna clean, clean, clean! I had to get out of my funk. I drank some coffee and took a shower (2 things that always wake me up). Afterwards, I was ready to clean. It wasn't as if I had a lot of cleaning to do because I always clean the house, top-to-bottom, every single week. After 2 1/2 hours of cleaning, the house was done and smelled great!

I didn't feel comfortable staying at the house while someone else was viewing the home. Therefore, Chester, our dog, and I got in the car for a lil joy ride around the town. After being gone for 30 minutes, we drove back by the house, and nobody was around. I wondered if anyone had been there at all. I called our landlady, and she informed me that they left 10 minutes ago. 10 MINUTES AGO!?!?!?!?!! To be perfectly honest, I was a little ticked off that I EXTENSIVELY cleaned the house -more so than normal- and they were only there for 20 minutes. It's not as if I expected them to stay an hour; just a little longer than 20 minutes.

I know I'm being dramatic. What can I say... I just got a little taste of the "seller sensation," and I didn't like it one bit.

I hope everyone has a great Monday! GOD BLESS!

Small Town On A Saturday Night

On this wonderful Saturday night, my husband and I decided to stay at home and save some mu-lah. This whole house purchasing ordeal has us spending and shelling out money left and right! So... we've decided to go ahead and start the budget that we will be on after we buy the house. The budget has been a HUGE wake-up call for the both of us. We sat down one night and looked at exactly how much we make a month,  subtracted our expenses, and analyzed what was left over for the month. After deducting our bills, the remaining amount was sickening. I'm not even going to type out a number, but it was sickening to know that we were blowing that much money each month. The biggest place we were spending our money was food. In order to start saving money, we are going to live on a budget each and every month. 


Anyways, that's not really the reason why I'm blogging tonight. I'm blogging tonight about small towns and the people that live in small towns. I LOVE small towns. Grew up in a small town and loved every single minute of it. Moved to a BIG city (Springfield, MO) and was okay with it, but my heart resided else where. Now, my husband and I live in a small town (different town than I grew up in; has approx. 2000 population). What cracked me up tonight is that even though times have changed, morals have changed, etc. the boys of a small town still act the same: they want to impress girls. While sitting at Sonic this evening with my husband, the local teenagers were hanging out and cruising around Sonic. While pulling out of Sonic and onto the main drag, several teenage boys pulled their old trucks out on the main drag and revved up their engines as loud as they would go, squalling tires, etc. Like I said, times may have changed, but boys have not. 


Another item on my mind this evening is decorations. Hopefully, we will be closing and taking possession of our new home at the end of June. Therefore, decorating is on my mind. At our home right now, we are just renting. That means no painting, no demo-ing, etc. Basically, no flair, pizazz, no nothing. I can't wait to close on the house, move in, and decorate the house with our personality. My favorite style of decorating is English Country. There's just something about that style that is country and elegant at the same time. Below are some ideas that I'm just gonna have to steal!  


I hope everyone has a good weekend! GOD BLESS!  

My Mind Is Going To EXPLODE!

Wow... SOOOO many things have happened since I last blogged!!! Even though my posts may be few and far between, I can't stay away from blogging too long. It's my way of getting everything out, whether people read my blog or not. Okay... enough stalling... Start timeline in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... BEGIN TIMELINE: 


May 5- Last Blog
I think at this point I was rambling on about our first house that we were looking at in Marshfield. It was a foreclosure in an amazing neighborhood. It had cathedral ceilings, a beautiful fireplace, and great details everywhere!


May 9-14- The Search Continues
We let the foreclosure house go because of several questionable things (septic system, water heater, furnace, plumbing, structure, etc.) that we did not want to get involved with for our first home. So... the search for other houses continued. I found several houses on realtor.com that were great! Gave the list to our wonderful realtor, Melinda Swope, which happens to be Brandon's aunt. She called the sellers' realtors and set up appointments for the viewings on Saturday, May 15. 


May 15- Viewing Other Houses
Our day started at 9am. We left our home then and made our way towards Marshfield. We had a total of 8 houses to view that day. I knew it was going to be a long day but a good day. I just knew deep, down, inside of me that we were going to find our future home that day.


When we viewed the houses, only 2 houses stuck out in our minds: the 1st and the last.
1st Home: A split level home with 3 bedrooms & 2 baths; basement; at the end of a cul-de-sac; privacy fence; priced at $109,000. This house was great for us considering our point in our lives (no kids; starting our careers). It did need some updates, paint, new carpet, but I envisioned what we could do with it in my mind.  


Last Home: A 2 story home (including basement); 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms; GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD; move-in ready; tile; hardwood floors; priced at $149,900. This house was also great for us because we are not the "handy/fixer-uper" people. I don't mind doing some work to a house, but I'm not ready nor willing to completely demo and re-construct layout on a house. 


From these 2 homes, we definitely had some thinking to do!!!


May 16-20- Decision Time
This was the last week of school. I had so many things going on this week: seeing kids, completing screenings, finishing up paperwork, contacting parents, you name it and it happened this week! Crazy Crazy Crazy....


During this week, we made our final decision one which house we wanted to purse. Our decision was the Last Home we viewed! :) It seemed like the better deal of the two, even though it was more expensive than the first house. This was a home that we could see ourselves living in for years, and that's what we were looking for! We wanted, and still do, to buy a home that we could live in for years, raise kids in, and thrive in the community. With our decision made, it was time to make an offer!


May 21- Last Day of School!!!
As weird as it sounds, this was a relaxing day! I gathered with my fellow Exceptional Child Education Cooperative employees, and we had a cookout! It was wonderful to celebrate the last day with my co-workers and enjoy the last day with one another! 


May 24-Now- Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork...
Apparently, it seems as if my life revolves around paperwork. Even though school ended, I was still up to my knees in paperwork. I had to put the finishing touches on paperwork for my job, AND we had to gather the necessary paperwork for the house we are trying to buy. During this time as well, we "battled" with the current home owners of the last home of a reasonable purchasing price. We finally settled on a price, and we continue playing the waiting game on the bank, inspector, appraisal, etc. until we are able to close on the house (that's IF everything works out)! 


Everyday that passes, we pray and review what has occurred thus far. I know in my heart that we are making a good decision. This waiting, however, is starting to play mind-games on us. While we wait, we are trying to push aside the nervous, anxious feelings that are boiling in the pits of our stomachs.