New Bathroom/Closet

Jeff finished my closet/bathroom remodel and I'm now able to move back in!!! It's been a long time coming, but it looks great and thanks to the help of "Tile Master" Brent, it's all done---minus a few little details that don't affect me moving in! (yeah!!) Jeff does such a great job at getting everything to look perfect, and this new remodel is just what this master bed/bath needed. Now it doesn't look like an old 1970's house where you look at the vanity from the bed! Everything is now completely separated and can now actually fit a husband/wife in there instead of just having one of everything. He's added new electrical outlets, more closet space, more storage space, and new lighting--with switches (which is great since now my closet doesn't have the "pull chain" light anymore!).

We're hoping to do more to hopefully increase the value of the house, but not get in over our heads. The brass is now almost completely out of the master bed/bath, so that's a plus! We ARE NOT brass fans, so anything that has it is either being changed or spray painted! Thanks HGTV!!!

I walked around the house the other night as I was organizing/cleaning my new bath/closet and realized that this house is finally becoming what we want it to be, which is really exciting! We've put a lot of sweat into it, and with the help of family and friends (and new carpet after a tax refund), it's completely worth it!

We treated ourselves to a little "house break" this weekend by inviting some friends over for game night last night too, so that was fun---and helped us work on our hosting skills---we weren't bad! Even Chip behaved himself for the night. Patio furniture is now on the list of things we need, but we made do with what we had! I'm all for waiting for the sale, so it doesn't bother me at all!

Pictures will come later this week---I just tried and they're not rotated the correct way and I've got to grade papers! This too, will come in time!

We're not master gardeners, but we sure had fun!

• Today we decided to literally take everything out of the front lawn---shrubs, trees, etc. We did this without having a plan really, which in the end made it even more fun (especially calling someone on Good Friday to come haul it off---found someone to do it for pretty cheap on Monday, so we're good!). The pictures above don't really do it justice. I decided as Jeff had the truck in the cul-de-sac with a rope and chain around a shrub that we really needed pictures of this since nobody really believes that sometimes we "just do things"!!! Our reasoning throughout this entire project was "we're just really tired of looking at all this, and plus....it's a beautiful day to be outside working in the yard!"

• After a lot of confusion at Lowe's as to what type of soil/mulch/etc to buy we decided to go with what we know about landscaping---which is literally shit---cow manure that is! Sorry mom....I know you won't like that, but if you were with us at Lowe's--you'd understand! My plan is to use the 2 azaleas I bought last weekend (how, I don't know), and then maybe do some native plants with it--you know.....so I don't have to water all the time! Then Jeff comes up with the idea of a sun room----which generally is great, but then it becomes the next "PROJECT" that we have to do. So right now, we've got to come up with a plan and then go from there. Believe it or not--after we do things, we actually come up with plans we love and everything turns out alright. It's just the getting there that's a work of art!

Just to explain the pictures:

1st: This is after we started, but gives you a look at the "before" for part of the yard

2nd: This is Jeff "uprooting"a shrub--dwarf holly trees apparently. Our neighbor Kathy saw us doing this as she was putting her little boy down for a nap, saw me dying laughing taking pictures, and had to come see for herself!

3rd: The "after" picture---clean slate for us!

4th: Steph "dragging" a tree to it's new home on the curb

We Have a Date! And a Location!!!

It's finally arrived! We have a date and location for our wedding, and we couldn't be more excited about it all! Jeff and I met off I-10 near Luling yesterday (at the ginormous Buckee's Truck Stop, which has the best bathrooms by the way), and drove to Wimberly to visit Old Glory Ranch. So here's the info:

Date: March 14, 2009 (Pi day for all you Mathletes out there!!)

Place: Old Glory Ranch---Wimberly, Texas http://www.oldgloryranch.com/

Check out the website because it's amazing and totally something like us, so we can't wait! We have our first meeting to work on stuff after I get out of school in June, so now I get some rest from wedding stuff--and knowing that we can plan and someone will take care of it from there is great!

Some have asked how we found OGR. I have a cousin getting married there in May, and it also came up in most of my Google searches for "South Texas Wedding Venues", "Texas Wedding Venues for Large Numbers" (b/c of my large family), etc.---and that's pretty much how we found it! I wanted something different from Ash and Court's weddings (even though their weddings were absolutely a blast--and beautiful), and this is perfect!

Even though I'd love to be married sooner (like now!), we had the best weather yesterday to see it in all it's glory literally, so we could only pray for it to be as wonderful next year at this time. So even though many of you have heard me say many dates, this was actually the first date we chose (before we knew that both our spring breaks next year are at different times), and it just so happened to be the best choice for us! We're so excited to begin the planning--------in June!

Whew! That's Over!

We had the first meeting of the parents yesterday and boy, I'm glad that's done! It went much better than I expected (you just never know how things will work and I was slightly worried). The funniest thing was that Jeff and I bought our moms plants--lavender for his, a hot pink geranium for mine---and they both walked up with plants for our house too! So now I get to learn how to grow ferns and a hot pink geranium myself (yes, my mom and I actually gave each other the exact same plant!!!).

I made my famous homemade lasagna (compliments of Stouffer's---why spend time making it when they've gotten it just right???), salad, bread, and I actually made a pecan pie for the first time. Jeff said he was so glad he was marrying a woman who could make a pecan pie--and my dad told me I could make him one anytime too! Here's my secret---look on the back of the Karo syrup bottle and buy the cheap HEB frozen pie crust! Yes, there's nothing fancy with my cooking, is there???

The best thing is that both sets of parents got to see the work we've done on the house, which Jeff and I are both proud of. I couldn't have this house without him helping to make it better, and I was just as eager to show off my new bathroom/closet as he was! I keep saying I'll post pictures of the remodel--I may work on that sometime soon (notice I didn't give myself a timeline!). By the way...for anyone looking to remodel their closet and they want space for shoes (which is of the extreme most importance)---I highly recommend someone talented to build the shelves, but also Closetmaid's shoe inserts---super easy to slide together and as long as you build the shelves to their dimensions, you can have as many boxes as you desire!

Happy remodeling to all!

Kids are supposed to be fun, aren't they? Well, I was all set and ready today to blog about my fun students yesterday and then today I broke up my first ever fight. In my 7 years of teaching, I haven't had to do that yet---but now I'm in that new category of teachers who breaks up fights. It's not worth it to go into detail, but it's funny how much things can change in just one day!

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had a student ask me, "Are you married yet? and "How long does it take to find a place?" (little does he know my family!) I had to answer no, and realize that some children just don't know what I've known my whole life---THE PROCESS! Well, anyway, the next question out of this child's mouth is "So, are you just like married once you have a ring?" I proceeded to tell him that "No, you don't just walk up to a person and say 'hey, read these lines for me so I can get married' You have to have someone licensed to do it--like a priest, judge, etc. I know this may not seem like a funny thing to you, but this was one of my at-risk students (meaning they had many risks for failure), and it was nice to just simply have a conversation with him instead of an argument. My students are so curious when it comes to this stuff (except when their mom/dad is getting married for the umpteenth time---and I've got a few of those too).

Anyway...I love getting to teach my students about things that go on in "normal" lives because a lot of times, school is the most normal they get. They all bring such different perspectives to the table and even though most of the time I'm pushing them from the moment they walk into my classroom, I love these moments when we get to just be "real people" to them and have a conversation!

Gorgeous Day!

I don't know what type of weather everyone else had, but over in Port Arthur today it was gorgeous! We decided that Chip deserved a day at the beach (or at least a few hours)! He LOVED the beach! He's been in lakes, bays, rivers, on boats, etc., but the beach was a brand new experience! From the moment he jumped out to the moment he got back in, he went full throttle! He had a blast chasing birds (he got that from his human daddy, who also loves to aim for them when driving the CG boats!!!), and even tested out jellyfish (dead ones)--but he was so curious since they were squishy!

Jeff and I enjoyed a great walk on the beach while Chip did all this--and more! This just so happened to be the very same beach we went to after meeting each other, so that was a fun memory! The beach was part of McFadin State Park, and since it's not too far from Port Arthur, it's perfect!

We also took advantage of our time together to shop for a new sofa--Grandmother Ruth's old one has almost seen it's last day. Didn't find one, but at least we got some ideas. Went to Dillard's to see if they had furniture at the one in Beaumont (which they didn't), so we did some registering there---Jeff is so much more patient with that than I am!

Found a Dress!!!

Yeah---I found a dress!!! Since Courtney was coming in from Arkansas and mom was coming up for a few days, I took off Friday and we did dress shopping first thing in the morning so we could play in the afternoon. I didn't go in with any high expectations--I was actually hoping to find a style that looked good and if I ended up finding a dress, well then, that was just icing on the cake! We went to I Do, I Do, where Ashley and Courtney both found their dresses and had great luck! After trying on about 10, I said "I think we're going to be finding a dress today", which completely shocked mom! I had 6 that were good choices and tried them all on again, narrowing it down to 2 (although I knew which one I was going to choose--it's good to have options!). We went to lunch and then back to order the dress!!!

By the way...for those of you who didn't know (and the Blackwell clan didn't), there's a new CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) on West Gray by Sherlock's--where Biraporreti's used to be. THAT was another highlight of our day since we'd already decided that's where lunch was going to be and instead of having to drive to the Galleria, we got to walk just across the street! Yes--that's how good of a day Friday was!

So yeah---one more thing checked off the list! I'm not going in any order that all the books/websites say you have to go in, so hopefully nothing gets left out! Then again, that shouldn't be surprising, seeing as how I always do things my way instead anyway!