My two-part life

Lately it feels like I have two lives - one Monday-Thursday as a teacher-in-training, graduate student doing school work, and one Friday-Sunday as a wife-in-training doing house work, spending time with family and friends.  I live in Chapel Hill Monday-Thursday, with my parents Friday-Sunday, and work on our home Friday-Sunday with Parker.  I'm ready for my second life to be full time.

Last weekend, we were so busy, but we had a great time!  Friday night we went to a park called Deadwood with my parents and Weston's baseball coach and his wife, Weston, and a few of his baseball buddies.  Deadwood has putt-putt, a train ride, a restaurant, and a bunch of other stuff.  The owners turn it into a haunted house and train ride around Halloween, so we decided it would be fun to check it out.

This was my first haunted anything... and I was nervous.   Parker looked scared, but he was so excited. haha

Let's just say that Deadwood will be my last haunted anything.  The haunted house wasn't that scary... but it was scary enough for me!  I think I scared myself more than anything.  I kept thinking, "I know something's about to happen, I know something's about to happen" and I made myself very paranoid.

The boys had a great time, and even though it was less than 50 degrees they had on shorts and ate ice cream.  So tough.  Ha! 

Parker and I worked at Operation-In-As-Much on Saturday morning with some folks from our sunday school class. Operation-In-As-Much is an event put on by a bunch of local churches where people go out in the community and volunteer doing yard work (what we did), build houses, visit with the elderly, run backyard bible studies, etc.  It was quite chilly, but the difference we made was awesome.

Then, we invited Casey & Ryan, our friends from church, over for dinner and board games.  The boys kicked our butts in Battle of the Sexes, and then Parker ran the table on us in Pictionary with Ryan getting 2nd place by a point.  Casey & I obviously need to step up our game haha!

This weekend, Parker bought us tickets to the UNC v. Barton exhibition game at the Dean Dome, so we are having a date night!  Whoo hoo!  Then we will be going to the ECU game or my brothers benefit tournament or something else that comes up tomorrow...  Church on Sunday, and then I'll be returning to my other life on Monday.

Talk to you soon!

Living Room Pics!

At long last... Welcome to our newly painted living room!

I know you love the photo in the frame on the far left.  :)  haha  It's what I had at the moment people, let's be real.  Our awesome clock that we registered for will look more awesome when it's above the fireplace!

Boy would brown and white striped curtains look good on that window!

All of our mixed matched furniture in our sweet, very own, first living room!

 What color should I paint that TV stand?  I'm thinking dark brown.  Or blue.  What do you think?

What about this coffee table?  Today, I'm leaning towards white.  From this angle, it looks okay as it is, but from the other side... you'll see why it should be painted.

And just to keep it real... this is the guest bedroom.  The other side of it looks about the same.  Boxes, stuff, boxes, stuff.  A computer desk, with boxes and stuff.  One day we will get there.  Then we will paint it too.  One day.

Oh, and I'm going to paint the light too.  White?  Gray?  Blue?  Brown?  I have no idea.

I feel slightly better about having people over now! :)  haha. Thanks for stopping by!

Curtains

I know I stink at posting regularly, but you should thank me because I really have nothing interesting to talk about.  Seriously.  Unless you want to hear about my unit plans, studying for a three-day history exam, or driving back and forth to Greenville.

I promise I'll put before/after pictures of the living room/dining area up after this weekend.  Now that the painting is just about finished in the main living area (we still have to do the bedrooms and bathrooms... ugh), I've been obsessing about decorating.  I have a vision.  Most of our furniture doesn't match and everything is hand-me-down (we were going for free not looks), so we'll be painting a couple of pieces to make things look more put-together.   I'm fine with that because I'm definitely into the painted furniture look.

However, now I'm going crazy about what colors to pick for furniture.

This is what I'm loving today...

... it's likely to change tomorrow.

So far, I'm in love with what we've used so far.  The kitchen is Topsail (6217) from Sherwin Williams, the living room is Natural from Lowes (I forgot the maker), and the trim/cabinets/doors are Delicate White from Lowes (forgot that maker too...)  Kind of matches my blog, eh?

I'm also in love with antique looks like this picture easel.

I stumbled upon The Nester and let me tell you... I love this lady.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to copy a lot from her.  Look at this:

Love. It.  We have a coffee table (that is currently stained wood) that looks almost exactly like that table... but shorter of course.  It is going to be painted white.  And those plates!  And the pale blue!

The hydrangeas.  The chalk board.  But wait... my favorite part.  The curtains!

Oh how I've been wanting brown and white horizontal striped curtains.  Big thick stripes.  Sigh.
I have looked everywhere for curtains like that.  Ikea, Boscov's, Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Walmart, Kmart, JC Penny, Belk, Big Lots, Kohls, Anna's Linens, World Market, TJ Maxx, Overstock.com, Amazon, Ebay, Home Goods, even Pottery Barn (which I would never be able to afford).  They don't exist!  This is the best I could find on Amazon thanks to my sweet friend MB.

But it just doesn't fit my NEED for these curtains.  The harder it is to find them, the more I want them.  I'm fine with making them... but I just have to find the time and the fabric.

So if anyone finds thick brown and white vertical striped tab drapery panels for an affordable price (or at all), you will be my best friend for life.  At this point, I would even consider dark khaki and white stripes.

Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to hunker down and make 'em.

So...

What have I been up to you ask?  Well let's see...

I've been watching this guy play baseball... and win not one, not two, but three Top Gun tournaments, along with a bid to the Top Gun World Series in Concord...

 I've been doing a little painting.  Heck, I've been doing a lot of painting!

And travelling through monsoons to hang out with family...

  

Oh, and some more painting :)

That pretty much sums up the last 4 weekends...  Pictures of the home updates coming soon... but don't hold your breath cause grad school is becoming a lot of (not hard) work!

Wedding Registry!!

Since we got engaged, I have been SO excited about registering for wedding gifts!  Last Friday night, we bit the bullet and went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  It was so easy and fun!  We proved to be quick and confident in making decisions - Thank the Lord!   Otherwise we would have been there all night... which we almost were - well an hour and half that is... but by the end, it seemed like all night and we didn't even register for bedroom or bathroom stuff yet!

Parker was an eager participant, don't you worry!  He kept saying things like, "Ooo, we need one of these!" and "Oh, we need to get this."  Which was funny... because he said it for things like this:

A bra ball.  Haha!  I informed him that we did not need one... cause I am the one who wears the bras... but I really didn't need one.  But he insisted...

So if you check out the registry and see it... now you know.  Hahaha

Update on Mom

Mom is recovering well from Gamma Knife.  As you would expect, she is tired and has experienced some headaches and body aches.  This weekend, she went to Weston's baseball tournament in New Bern and did fairly well, although it definitely caught up with her on Monday and yesterday.  She will have scans in 5 weeks to see the results.  I'm praying for no cancer.  I'm trying to stay positive and remind myself that this could be God's way to get the doctors to take some action on the "inactive" tumors in her brain and get rid of them once and for all.  Amen? Amen!

A few weeks ago, Mom and I went to get haircuts at the mall.  We passed through JC Penny on the way and saw these CUH-RAZY hats.  We decided to try them on and I sure am glad that we did:

How cute is my mom? 


Whew!  That one is a definite for the wedding!  She will definitely get the attention she deserves wearing that!  Hahahaha

We had a great time laughing and goofing off.  The several people that walked by us were definitely not as amused... but poo on them!


I mean, how could you not giggle at that hat?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful man, my future husband!  I love you babe!