Our New Home

I talked yesterday finding our new home in Texas and now I wanted to share some pictures. Excuse the Iphone pictures, we weren't really expecting to find anything we like well enough to take any photos so my camera stayed at home.

This is the front of our super cute house. One of my favorite things is the attached garage.

This is the view of the living room from the master bedroom.  The light on in the picture is in the guest bedroom. We have a split floor plan which is really nice.

This is our master....It is a great size with awesome big windows to the back yard. Andrew loves that it has carpet in it.

Our master bath with double sinks and a separate potty room.  I really like it but miss a big bathtub. 

We have two guest rooms and this is the small one of the two and is a good size for guest. I didn't take a picture of the second one...sorry.

Guest Bath and the only bathtub in the house.

This is our kitchen from the dinning room perspective. It's really nice and is a great layout.

Our backyard. We are loving the deck and working on keeping the grass alive. Lilly especially loves laying back here.

So here are all the before pictures. I will be doing home post in the next month featuring each room in our home and how it looks now. To say we have been busy decorating, painting, and redoing is an understatement and I can't wait to share it with yall.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday and just think....it's almost the weekend!

xoxo,

amber

Family...

When I found out we were moving I had this idealistic idea of what it was going to be like. We were going to get in the car, drive down to The Woodlands find our dream rental house in one weekend then return to Ruston to finish packing up all our belongs. Well things did not work out that way.

We came down and met with a realtor and thought we found our dream town home but the more we thought about it the more we decided we are not really town home people. Andrew could not stop thinking about the three kids we were going to share our master bedroom wall with and trying to move our furniture up not one but two flights of stairs, with a landing and I could not stop thinking about the lack of parking when we had guest over. Although it's only just the two of us and Lilly we like space, we have the furniture and were both used to a good size home. So although our realtor was aggravated we wanted to keep looking and look at some houses that were in our budget.

We returned to Ruston, disappointed but hopeful we could come down another weekend a find our dream home for real this time.  Well things just don't happen as planned.  The Woodlands, the area we moved into, is really booming right now. Big companies are moving in which is really affecting the housing market, rental properties are gone the day they are put on the market and it was near impossible to find something 5 hours away. By the time we found the home, looked at the pictures and planned a weekend trip to come down it was gone. If we had to we could have done a video tour and rented something without even seeing it first but Andrew and I just weren't comfortable with that especially when we a place we could stay.

My Aunt Harriet and Uncle Steve have lived in The Woodlands my entire life. They moved here before I was even born from Lafayette and have been here ever sense. I have always been very close with them; we vacationed with them and their two girls (my cousins who are more like sisters and who I have often talked about on the blog) and always dis the holidays together.  It's a running joke that I am my Aunt's third daughter that she never had: we're just a close family and very lucky.

A little flashback photo

Well...They have a beautiful home with 3 empty bedrooms upstairs that they kept saying we were welcome to just incase.  Now when your family offers you to stay with them you can't say yes...I mean they probably really don't want you there they just have to offer because they are your family but my Aunt and Uncle are different: they really meant it. So like total loons we finally said ok, after loosing the 5th rental house we like, packed all our belongs, moved them into a storage unit, and moved in with The Wilson's.

I promised we wouldn't be there long and actively went on the house hunt. I was so lucky that my cousin, Rachel, and Aunt Harriett were in town to help me look a different properties while Andrew worked.  We only looked at houses one day and our fifth and final house was a winner.  It was in a great area, towards the front which is where we wanted to be to help cut down on Andrew's commute, had a fenced yard for Lil and my dinning room table would fit!  We all loved it but I wanted the OK from Andrew. I called him 15 times and when I couldn't get him I told our realtor, "well take it!"

We turned in our application that day and later found out that 3 other applications were on the table.  Keep in mid that the property came on the market THAT DAY! We found out two days later that we got the house and we got the keys June 15th.  It was awesome to have our own place but a little bitter sweet not to just be right upstairs from two people I love dearly.

We are so grateful for all the help that my Aunt Harriett and Uncle Steve have given us these last few months. I have loved all the dinner dates, shopping trips, and vet recommendations. I can't wait for those to come in the future.  Andrew and I love you both so much and can't thank you enough.

Andrew and I are both so lucky to have families that love and care about us so much that they are always willing to help and support us.

We can't wait to make more memories...

xoxo

am

The job I'm good at....

As most of you know last year I had by dream job. I taught kindergarten with the most amazing team at a low income school. It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done but I wouldn't have changed one thing: I made a difference and in this big world thats all I really want to do. But then my life changed....we moved.We loaded up all of my classroom belongings, our house and headed over to Texas.

My personality is a busy body. I like to have a project and always something to do therefore just staying at home while Andrew worked was out of the question. Yes, Andrew has a great job that would allow me to stay home if that was what we need but honestly I can only do so many home improvement projects, and paint so many pieces of furniture until I get board...I need to work, I need to teach.

As soon as we found out that we were for sure moving I started looking for information on what I needed to do to be able to teach here. Texas is a whole different ballgame when it comes to teaching and fortunately they don't really recognize any of my Louisiana credentials (hope you hear the sarcasm in my voice). I applied for a temporary certification that would allow me to teach for a year but with the understanding that during that year I must take two more teaching test..no big deal. The funny part is that to gain a Louisiana teaching certificate if you posses a Texas certification all you do is pay a fee...way to go Louisiana.

Well school starts a week from today and who still doesn't have a teaching position...this girl.  I have applied to a ton of schools for a ton of different positions and I'm sure principals are getting tired of seeing my email address in their inbox but a girls got to be persistent right?! I've been totally fine about being on a job hunt...I kept saying I'll just sub and it will be fine which is true but who wants to sub when they have already had their own classroom...and thats when the discouragement set it.  I started doubting if I was supposed to teach and if I wasn't going to teach what was I going to do.  I was feeling really bummed then we went to church and the message was about overcoming discouragement
 though faith...Thank You God, I hear you.

I felt like it was the perfect sermon for me to hear and that the pastor was speaking directly to me.  We left church and I prayed that God would show me what he wants me to do this year.  The next day I got a call to be a nanny. I'm good at being a nanny, I like the flexibility of being a nanny, and I love not having to get dressed and do my hair everyday when I'm a nanny.

Liam, and the Smith family have been the biggest blessing in my life these past few weeks. Liam is such a ball of joy and so much fun. They are also going to be able to let me sub. during the school year to help get my name into the school system here.

So although it isn't my dream teaching job and it wasn't my plan it is a job I love and a job I am good at. I know that at this point in time it is what I am supposed to be doing and when it is my time to teach the perfect job will come along.  I am just feeling very grateful for where I am right now... sitting downstairs while Liam naps.

This is the song we have sang a few times at worship and I'm really loving and finding strength though it right now.

Happy Monday Everyone,

xoxo

amber

New Look....

Well as you can see the blog is getting a new look. I thought since I am turning over a new leaf with this whole blogging thing that a new look was needed.

When I decided to change things up I look to a fellow blogger, Meg over at Everyday Meg, for a little advice.  Her blog is very cute and I wanted mine to be cute too. I just wanted the name of the person who designed hers and then she told me something I wasn't expecting...SHE DID IT HERSELF!

So that got me to thinking that if she could do it so could I. So while Liam was napping (he's my new baby that I am nannying for but thats for another post) I did a little research via Google, downloaded some new app on my macbook and got busy. I knew I wanted a teal ombre included, and I wanted to use this really cute font I downloaded (download it here) but that was it. It was a lot of trail and error trying to get the sizes right but I think it came out pretty cute.

Although it is a work in progress, my goal was to have a new header and to make the blog easier to read and I think those two goals were accomplished.


I hope everyone had a great day and I leave you with the best commerical on TV right now...

xoxo,
am

The last 3 months in photos

We have been going non-stop since January, with showers and finalizing everything for the wedding and one would think that after the wedding is over, things slow down and the couple gets to live in this crazy wedded bliss....well I'm here to tell you: it DOESN'T HAPPEN!! or at least it doesn't for us.

We had an amazing time on our honeymoon in the Domician Republic but hit the ground running when we returned.  We were home less then a month then headed over to Belzoni for the annual catfish festival with the Halbrook Clan (sorry no photos).

May 4- Started May with a bag celebrating Jesse and Mary Margaret's wedding in Natchez, Mississippi.

May 11- We went to Houston to look for houses to move into the first of June.

May 18th- Andrew and Jessica graduated for college. Andrew with his undergrad and Jessica with her masters.

May 25- I went to the beach with the Woods...my little second family i miss so so so much!

 May 29-  We took month after photos for the wedding. I wanted to do this so we could get some shots together with Lilly and would not be rushed the wedding day. (more on this to come later)

June 1- We packed all our stuff into two Uhals, our cars, and our parents cars and then we drove them to The Woodlands, Texas. We then unloaded everything into a storage unit and moved in with my Aunt Harriett and Uncle Steve because the house hunt mentioned earlier did not go so well.

June 3- Andrew started his first day of work with Centerpoint Energy

June 8- We hung out with my cousin Rachel and her baby boys for the week.

           We also looked for houses during this time and found this little gem that we would soon call
           home. (it really is so cute)

June 15- We were supposed to move into our new home but my best friend was having a surprise engagement that I could not miss. Sooooo.....we drove to Thibodaux to surprise her.  Little did she know I had been cleaning out our storage unit all week searching for all the candles we had left over from the wedding for her special night. This engagement was more stressful then my entire wedding process

June 22-  We moved again...

June 29- My Mom came to visit and see the house...we didn't take any pictures.

July 4- Our friends came to visit for 5 days!!!

July 13- took the weekend off


July 15 went to the beach with my parents and nanny, went to shreveport to see granny, and then to Ruston to cut my hair off. (no pictures)

July 27- Ruston and Shreveport for Andrew and Dad's Birthdays

August 3- Trip to NB to see my cousins and all their babes...

And last weekend Andrew and I spent the weekend watching the sopranos...redoing our laundry room...and just being married.

So yes I haven't been a good bloger.

     yes I have been busy

     yes I haven't posted anything in 3 months....

                                   ....but I had a blast making memories with my hubby, our families and our friends

                               

xoxo 

am

Im back....

I feel so terrible that I have been so absent from the blog. I was so good about documenting every step at the beginning of the wedding process but as it got closer and closer and I started teaching blogging just got pushed to the back burner and for that I am truly sorry. Blogging is something I truly enjoy and I have decided that I must make time for myself to do it at least a few time a week. I know it is a great way to keep everyone in the loop with what is going on but mostly I know in 10 years I will look back and be so thankful I document our journey together.

The blog the next few weeks will be really random and it is going to take a totally different feel. Instead of just writing about the wedding I will start writing about what is going on in our lives. The wedding is over but our lives together are just getting started so that is really all that matters. We have so many exciting things coming up but I want to end this short post with a shout out to my amazing cousins

I've talked about them a lot in their blog and the hug, life changing experiences we have gone through together, me getting married...rae having her first baby, twins at that.... and amanda having her 3rd little girl. Rae didn't get to come to the wedding because she was to close to her due date with the boys and thank goodness she didn't because she had the babies less than two weeks after the wedding.

Introducing Wyatt and Bryce born April 3, 2013. We are so excited that they are healthy and home.

Are they not the cutest little humans you have ever seen! I can't wait to get to hold them and love on them in person.

That is not all the exciting news I have...AMANDA HAD HER BABY GIRL TODAY!!! Skylar Jane has made her grand entrance into the world and is such a cutie pie.

Sorry for all the pictures but what can I say...I'm a proud cousin!! I can't wait to head to Texas and meet  these cuties in person.

Hope everyone had a great week. I don't know if it was me but it seemed like this weekend took forever to get her. I am going to really enjoy my weekend for sure!

xoxo

amber

A month without blogging....

It has been a whole month since the last blog post and I do apologize but there are just not enough hours in the day.

As all of you know I started teaching on January 7 and that has been nothing but an adventure.  I love my babies but wow have we been busy getting into a routine.  I feel I am a little more structured than the other teacher and I have changed a lot but the students are adjusting and last friday I feel like we finally turned a corner. I am exhausted when I get home but have had something almost every night that is wedding related.  This is going to be a very busy next few months.

Since I was staring my job I wanted to get as much done for the wedding as possible therefore Christmas break was consumed with any appointment I could make for wedding purposes. Although I got a ton done over the break I still have a lot to do these next few weeks. If i'm absent from the blog I'm sorry I will try my best to blog at least once a week to keep everyone updated but for now here is a little rundown on what has been going on.

1. The invitations are out. Andrew and I mailed them out on Thursday so everyone should start getting them anytime. The invitations were a total mess and have been the worst part of this whole wedding experience.  Everything was going great until I went to pick them up Christmas Eve Day and when I got them home they did  not fit in the envelope that THEY told me to order. I had a mini panic attack and they assured me that everything would work out and they would take care of it just to run them back up after christmas.  The day after christmas I was up there working things out and it felt like everything was going to be fine....they took full responsibility and just chalked it up to a mistake. THEN when my Dad went to pick them up they wouldn't give them to him unless he payed for them AGAIN....for something that wasn't our fault. Needless to say I am very disappointed in their costumer service and I will not be using them for anything in the future.  It is really upsetting when you use a family friend and this is what happens.

2. Food is finalized for the rehearsal dinner and the reception. Now just waiting for the RSVP's to come in so I can give him final numbers.

3. Our showers have started and they have been amazing. Andrew and I feel so incredibly blessed and are loving getting all the packages.

4. My wedding dress is MINE! It is finally finished being altered and I can't believe how beautiful it looks. I love it even more then when I bought it. I can't wait to ware it and let everyone see it.

5. We finally decided on how i'm going to ware my hair for the wedding. Everyone can sleep at night  now. As my MOH would say it was worse picking the hairstyle than it was picking he dress.

6. The tuxes are picked now everyone just needs to get measured!

7. All the wedding party gifts are ordered and we are just waiting for them to be shipped.

There are still a lot of little things to do but it is coming together. Next week is full of appointments from picking out rings, ordering favors, floral appointments and much more.  I hope everyone has a great week and I promise to be better.

xoxo
the engaged couple