Our New Addition!

Meet Heathcliff:

He is named after Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. (The Cosby Show is one of my all time favorites!) We adopted him from the Richland County Animal Shelter last weekend! We both just feel in love with this guy, especially Cory! I really had wanted a puppy but Cory really does not have the patience for that yet. Heathcliff is only about a year old so he still has a lot of energy but isn't whiny like puppies are sometimes!

He LOVES to sniff things, mostly the ground. He is a pointer and needs lots of exercise! We have taken him for a few walks and runs and running is definitely easier! When we are walking he has his nose to the ground just like he is hot on the trail of something!

He also really likes to play fetch and Cory love to throw the tennis ball with him. That is a lot better than sticks, like he is using in this picture, because he just likes to chew on those!

Cory is trying to convince him to bring it back but...

Heathcliff is enjoying a snack!

So yeah, we have a dog! It is kind of crazy because it was sort of an on the spot decision. I was actually wanting to wait because when you are at the shelter you just feel so badly for the dogs and want to give them ALL a home. I wanted us to make a practical decision, not just an emotional one because a dog is a huge responsibility! Despite that, we decided to take him on a little walk just to see how we would get along. As soon as Heathcliff saw the goats they have at the shelter also, he went rigid. His nose went forward and his tail pointed straight out, just like in a cartoon. Well, Cory was sold from that moment on. So much for practical!

It's All in the Timing...

I am late for pretty much everything. Work, family get togethers, and basically anything with a start time. I am so bad about being late that in the four months we have lived in our new ward, we had not been on time ONCE. Sad, I know. Well, this weekend I had this conviction that I needed to change that and start being on time. It was branch conference and we had been instructed to bring a main dish, side and dessert. By 10:15 all the food was cooked and the kitchen was clean which in itself is a small miracle. (some credit for this is due to my sweet husband who made the brownies. :)) I got to bed by 11:15 and woke up at 7:30 without pressing snooze once. Waking up Cory at 8:30 was a bit of a challenge (our AC isn't working so he hasn't been sleeping well lately) but by 9:28 we were rushing out of the door. We walked in right as they were going over the announcements. Not right on time, but close enough for me! As long as I don't miss any of the songs I count it! :) I was so happy to be at church and on time too! It was such a great feeling. Our bishop was the first speaker and he is just wonderful. I really hope everyone feels about their bishop the way I feel about ours. I couldn't imagine anyone doing the job better! At the conclusion of his talk he said he wanted to ask a few people to come up an give their testimonies. I actually thought to myself "I'm sure glad that's not me!" about a second before he called my name. I have never been so shocked at church in my life! Even the time a very straight laced girl cursed in Sunday school while I was in the branch did not compare. I now felt like everyone was looking at me thinking "I'm sure glad that's not me!" I went up and gave my testimony which I'm sure half the congregation could not even understand because I was so emotional. (I blame my emotionalness on Naomi, I was never like that before we were roommates!) But for me the important part was that the bishopric had given my name to the stake presidency a week before and without knowing why I just knew I needed to be at church on time that Sunday. The experience not only allowed me share my testimony with my ward but also gave me the opportunity to make that testimony even stronger. I know the Lord guides my life and will prepare me for whatever challenges come my way. I am probably in for many more "not me" moments in my life but I know that the Lord will always provide a way for me to be prepared for them, even when I don't realize it. For that I am truly grateful.

Hello House, It's Nice to Meet You

We are finally starting to settle into our house and it really feels like home to me now. It is so funny that even though we worked on the house for months before we moved in, it still didn’t feel like our home. When we first bought it there was the period of discovering things the previous owners had left. The weird sheet in the cupboard under the stairs, the child’s writing on the back of the door, and even the stopped up tub. The house belonged to us, but those things weren’t ours. Through the months of remodeling, those things went away, but we were constantly discovering things about our house and its previous owners through our efforts. As I scrapped the layers and layers of wallpaper from the walls, I could imagine what the house looked like for all of the people who had lived there before us. To me, that stuff was a royal pain, but to them it was something that made the house their home. Now we have those things. I am so proud of the repainted fireplace, the colors I picked out and the new faucet where I was my dishes. All those things belong to me, and so does the house. Even though it felt like ours finally, it was still a stranger. Over the last few months I have gotten to know our house and it now holds many memories for us. It is the place where we had our first Valentines Day dinner and where I cooked dinner for my Grandfather for the first time, not mention the countless little everyday things that make our life together so wonderful. I am just as happy to see the handprint on the wall David left when he helped us move in and the nail sticking out of the one creaky step for the millionth time as I am the fresh clean paint and new fixtures. We have started to make our mark on the place with the help of those we love. I am so grateful for our home and the memories and life we have begun to build inside it.

A Visit

My grandfather came for lunch today. It was the first time he and his wife, Miss Anne had ever seen our house. My mom called me on Thursday to warn me that he was planning to stop by on his way home from visiting one of Miss Anne’s sons in the upstate. Now, I love my grandfather but I was terrified and immediately thrown into a tizzy. He is very no nonsense, has a way he thinks things should be and is very vocal about his opinions. Ever since I was a little girl I have known “Papa means business.” So you can imagine my despair as I looked around my little house at all the things out of place, things with no place, things not working, and things to make things work that were strung all over the place! Since then I have spent hours cleaning, organizing and just plain stressing out all for the end result of not that much difference! And you know what? He didn’t even care! He said it looked great and he thought we were doing a fine job of fixing everything and that pretty soon we would have it how we wanted. All that worrying over the boxes still unpacked in the office (and everything else) was for nothing! He totally understood. I guess the point I am trying to make with this story is that I’m glad my respect for my grandfather makes me set higher standards for myself and I’m glad his love for me helps him understand when I haven’t quite gotten there. It was really good for me to see that acceptance from someone I think so much of because I worry all the time about the state my house is in. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t let anyone in until it was absolutely perfect! Luckily I have Cory to realize that the people who love us will understand we are in the middle of a very long process and appreciate where we are now without thinking about how far we still have to go! The fact that is story applies to life as well as to houses is purely coincidental. :)

Papa and me at my wedding reception. Yes, I do wish I had inherited his dark skin tone but alas, no.

Our House

I have finally done it! I have made a collage to put on my blog. Hopefully they are not too small for you to see and you can click to make them bigger if they are. So here we go: Moving day and our new home!

We had such good friends and family come to help us unload everything from the U-Haul. Even my five year old nephew was willing to lend a hand and may have even unloaded more than me. ha! Well, I guess someone had to be there to document things.

These are our bedrooms. "Kat's room" is at the top right. We just got all that furniture put in today and I am so excited that we have a "real" spare bedroom now! The boy's room (bottom middle) is in kind of a sad state at the moment. When we go and get the bedroom suit for our room from my aunt next month, they will get the furniture that is currently in our room. I haven't been able to do much decorating upstairs yet, but it will be happening soon I hope.

The two left pictures are of our guest bathroom (aka the only bathroom with a working shower)up until this morning. We had to have a floor lamp because we hadn't gotten a light to put in there yet and a 3 dollar blanket from walmart served at the door (which we had gotten but just not cut and put up yet). But now we have a nice DOOR, light and new shower curtain! The only things left are the window treatment and a new sink!

Our kitchen is on the verge of being finished! We just have a few more cabinet doors to hang, a little decorating and putting on door knobs! So exciting!

These are pictures of our downstairs hall bath and den! They are looking so much better, although still not too much going on in the decorations department. I am learning that when it comes to home renovation, it is all about baby steps and patience. It is kind of nice to see a lot of baby steps in a row though!

We are having our first official get together tomorrow night for Cory's 23rd birthday. I am excited but also nervous because even though the house looks a lot better, it is still not exactly in show off condition. The fact that I am running on very low energy levels because of my oral surgery yesterday and am not supposed to bend over hinders my efforts quite a bit. I can get a good 10 minutes of work done before my body says "Not so fast missy" and I have to sit down for 30. Lucky my wonderful mother came over this morning to help get things straightened up a bit so I am not quite so worried as I was, but still. I hate feeling so helpless! But don't worry, I'm not overdoing it. I have had the fear of dry socket instilled very deeply into my brain and in no way want to be dealing with such terrible pain! Hopefully I can get in a good bit of rest today and be ready to go tomorrow (or everyone will be kind enough to over look the mess!).

Our First Valenties as Mr. and Mrs.!

So today I had oral surgery to remove a wisdom tooth and so I am pretty much out of commission for the next few days. What better time to start catching up on my blogging??

We finally were about to move into the house although were are still collecting our things from what feels like the four corners of the world. I think now were are basically done but I am almost to afraid to ever go and search through the storage unit for the rest of my things(except my silverware which is hopefully in there somewhere!).

So without further ado, a snapshot of our very first Valentines day as a married couple!

I stole the idea for a Candy Gram from my dear friend Naomi. It was so fun to make this for Cory!

The beautiful flowers Cory got me in an water purifier pitcher. At this point most of my things other than my clothes were still not here so even though I got two beautiful vases at the wedding, my flowers had to be displayed this.

Our dinner with plastic cutlery and paper plates because we didn't have the kitchen unpacked at this point. It was still yummy though!

Yes, this record player is glowing because it is so awesome. We listened to Alabama while eating our dinner. There may have also been some dancing. :)

My favorite part! We dipped strawberries and bananas in melted chocolate. Double yummy.

4 Days and Counting!

We have carpet! We have paint on all the walls! We will soon be living in a home of our own! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Last night when we went to inspect the newly laid carpet, I couldn’t help but to throw off my shoes and just dance around the house. It is the first time I have been able to take my shoes off there since we got it and it was such a lovely feeling. It is so nice to feel like we have a home, not just a construction zone. Things are going according to schedule for us to move in this Saturday. I can tell you my little toes are happy. In the last two months I have tripped and stubbed my toes more times than I can count on boxes, school books and drawers left open around the house. My little space seemed cozy when it was just me living in it and now it has started to be on the unpleasant side of cramped. We only have four more days though! Not everything is going to be completely done when we move in. We will still have some work to do in the kitchen and bathrooms but it will be livable and that is really all I care about at the moment. I like having projects so I am excited to finish up things and make it cozy after we move in on Saturday.

Now back to the packing...

I really hate uploading picture but here are my two favorite rooms. Dining room with the kitchen cabinet doors in it.
The den all finished!