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!

Our New Ward!

We have started going to our new ward and we both love it! Everyone is so nice and we already have callings. I am teaching CTR 5 and Cory is an assistant scout master. We are both very excited. I taught my first lesson last week and it was an adventure. I kept having to move them around during sharing time because they are very chatty but in the end I had the most reverent class. Yay me! J My nephew is in the class and he asked if he could sit in my lap and I said sure. Well, about 5 minutes later his little best friend tapped me on the shoulder and said “Sister Barber (who was their teacher last year) let two sit in her lap.” I got the hint and had two sitting in my lap through the rest of sharing time. J Class did not go quiet as well as I had hoped. I have learned quickly that to them class time means “freedom” so we are going to be having more active lessons from now on so hopefully I can actually teach them something. J I only teach every other week so I can get to know the sisters in Relief Society which is really nice. The girl I team teach with is new as well and her family will be here until May when her husband finishes a program at Fort Jackson. So after that I will be on my own. I am a little afraid of that but I also have a feeling I am really going to miss them next week.

Cory absolutely loves being involved with the scouts. He earned his Eagle when he was in scouts so he has the benefit of “been there, done that.” I think he is most excited about the camping trips. He has scouts on Wednesdays and then plays basketball, which I love because it gives me a chance to do all the girly things like watch chick flicks and organize things that I miss. It is very hard to do anything in our two tiny rooms when we are both there. I am so ready for February 6th to get here I don’t know what to do!
It is also nice being in the same ward with Cory’s brother and sister in law. Jenn is in primary with me and Mike is an assistant scout master with Cory so it is very fun. They have been so good about introducing us to new people and having us over all the time. We are definitely blessed to have them!

We went to the Elders Quorum social at the weekend and it was so much fun. We ate Barbeque and played games. It was very yummy and fun! It was so nice to meet more people from our ward and spend time with the people we already know! I am looking forward to many more exciting times there!

Here are a few snapshots from the Elders Quorum social:

It was really hard to run straight after all that spinning!

My nephew doing his crazy dance moves!

Mike and Trevor running the three legged race!

Steve and Cory in the saltines eating contest.

A Long December...

Wow. December was definitely a crazy month! It started off with our wedding on the 5th (Happy 1 Month Anniversary to us!) followed by Cory’s exams, our Honeymoon to Disney, my Grandmother’s passing the Monday before Christmas and finally a ton of Christmas and New Year festivities. I felt like I was on a crazy emotional roller coaster for the entire month. So many wonderful, yet very emotional moments.
Our wedding was an absolute dream. I am so thankful for our temple marriage and have already felt the blessings of it in the month we have been married. We were so blessed to be surrounded by so many of our family and friends on our special day even though it made it hard to speak to them for very long. The last thirty minutes was an awesome dance party and we had to almost literally be pushed out the door. It was a wonderful day and we are so thankful for everyone who made it so special for us. We spent that night at a bed a breakfast in Camden and had a little picnic in our beautiful room. By far the best day of my life.
The next week was a rough one. We were both impatient to be on our way to Florida but we still had school and work. After Cory’s exams were over we were finally able to leave. Cory finished with A’s and B’s by some miracle because I know he did not study nearly as much as he should have this semester, but I guess he had some good excuses. J Driving down 95 to Jacksonville in the dark is not an experience I would like to repeat. I have always been wary of big rig trucks and that is about all that drives on 95 at night. Plus there was construction going on almost the entire way so I was a huge bundle of nerves the entire time. We made it safely though and had an absolutely wonderful time. We ate so much food, but it was all delicious. Everything was decorated for Christmas and it was so magical. The weather was wonderful. We wore shorts and short sleeved shirts and even went to the water park! Cory had never been before so I had fun playing tour guide and showing him all my favorite parts. :) We are already talking about our next trip. :)
We got back from the honeymoon on Friday and my grandmother passed away the next Monday. She was in the final stages Alzheimer’s disease and so it was surely a relief for her to be free of that body. She was one of the most wonderful women I have ever known and it was definitely hard to say goodbye. She had been on a downturn since Thanksgiving and so we had expected it, but it is never easy to lose someone you love. She and my grandfather had been married for 57 years. Someone asked her once when she knew she was going to marry him and she answered “Third grade.” J She was always the last to sit down for dinner and the first to ask if there was anything you needed. Her recipes for tea cake cookies and spaghetti were famous. My brother and I even made our own commercial about her spaghetti while watching home movies when we were little. I have so many wonderful memories of her and feel so grateful to have had such a wonderful woman as my grandmother.
The thing about loss is that it tends to bring families together and that was definitely true for our family this year. It was nice to be able to spend so much time with my extended family leading up to Christmas and we really learned to rely on and help each other. Cory and I had a wonderful first Christmas together. The nice thing about getting married at this time of year is that you get to spend a lot of time together. It has kind of spoiled us. :) Our nicest present was from Mom and Dad. They are paying someone to paint almost our entire house and we are so excited and grateful! We finally have a move in date: February 6th! I can hardly wait! Right now we are living with my aunt in two little rooms. It will be so nice to be able to spread out! :)
For New Years we went up to Cory’s brother and sister in laws house to celebrate his nephew’s birthday. It was a lot of fun but crazy with all those kids! Cory and I are both looking forward to a wonderful New Year filled with many more exciting adventures! I will have some pictures of how the house is coming to post soon (fingers crossed)!

New Blog!

Now that I am a married woman, I decided to start a brand new blog about Cory and my life together. I'm going to copy over my last post from my personal blog and from here on out I will be posting on this one for the most part. I hope you enjoy a peek into the craziness that is our life! :)