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Well, Travis and I celebrated our third anniversary yesterday. Can't believe we've been married that long already! We're actually waiting to celebrate until Sunday lunch since we are in Trussville with my family for a few days for the holidays. Last year I created a "Memory Jar" for us to write in every year on our anniversary. Each anniversary, we describe our favorite memory, a hard time we went through, a big decision we've made, and something we've learned throughout the past year.When we get older, I think it will be neat to go back and read through some of the things we've written!

3 years!

the obligatory Christmas card pic :)

Yesterday was the funeral for my great-aunt Georgia, Granny's sister. Uncle Bill, Aunt Gale, and her mom drove down from Richmond for the funeral, so we all went out to eat for lunch yesterday before the funeral. I'll always remember Aunt Georgia for her sweet and caring attitude. I don't think I ever heard her say something mean or rude to anyone. She went on our Cushing family beach trips a few times after Papa died, and the last time she went with us was back in 2006, the summer after Travis and I started dating. She wanted to see a picture of "this new boy" that I was talking to every night on the phone, and when I showed her his picture, she exclaimed, "Oh, he looks just like a movie star!"

I learned a lot about Aunt Georgia yesterday at the funeral that I'd never known before. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and worked for TVA as a "She-Engineer" on projects for World War II. Her husband was in the military and went to Japan, Korea, and Pearl Harbor among many other places. It was cool to look at old pictures of them when they were younger and read about their life together.


Today, we ate lunch with my mom's side of the family for Christmas. Gran told us a lot of her family's history while we were eating, which was really cool too. I didn't realize that the dining room table that Travis and I have was my great-great-grandmother's. Gran said one of her best childhood memories is sitting with her doll under that table at her grandmother's house singing hymns with her grandmother. That table has a lot of history to it! As you get older, I guess you start to appreciate that kind of thing more...


Tomorrow we're eating with the Cushing side of the family for Christmas. Uncle Bill and Aunt Gale have already gone home, but we'll get to spend time with the Palmers and Granny. Should be a fun time as usual! Then, it's back to Huntsville for Christmas with the Grant fam on Saturday :)


Quick update on the house situation: The sellers paid to have the house re-tested for radon, and the level this time averaged 12.1, which is somewhat lower than last time, but still higher than you want it to be. They've agreed to pay for a mitigation system to be installed, and they also agreed to all the other minor fixes that we asked for. Yay! Now, we've got to arrange the termite inspection, decide on our homeowner's insurance, and get the house appraised. Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly!

That's about all for now...Hope you have a very merry Christmas! :)

Radon, Lovely Weather, and Other Fun Topics...

Just to be upfront...a lot has transpired in the past week, so this will probably be a pretty lengthy post. You have been warned :)

I'll back up to last Friday. Travis and I met with Amy at Regions to sign paperwork...lots and lots of paperwork! Good thing I have to sign my name 50 million times a day at work, or it probably wouldn't come so naturally. She explained all of the stuff about our upcoming loan to us, which made me excited and nervous at the same time. Closing day is less than a month away. So we leave the bank, eat a quick supper at Rosie's (yum!), and then head to the mall for some Christmas shopping. In honor of my parents taking my sister and me Angel Tree shopping several times when we were growing up, I wanted us to do the same thing this year. I let Travis pick out our "angel", and he chose a little 10 year old boy named Ramzie. Now get this...what made this little boy special, apparently, was the fact that he listed a "science kit" as one of the items on his wish list. Haha :) So, off we went in search of a science kit. We finally found a "cool" one at a toy store (I think Travis was reliving his childhood a little!). We also bought Ramzie a card game from another toy store and a new pair of jeans and a sweater. I hope he'll enjoy everything!

Saturday morning was the big inspection on our house. We met the inspector there at 9 AM, and we were there until almost 11:30! He'd set up a radon test last Wednesday in the house (which takes at least 48 hours to complete). Steve, the inspector, walked us through the house inside and out and showed us all sorts of things we didn't know. Overall, we learned a lot, and the house was in pretty good shape according to him. He found a couple of safety issues that can easily be fixed (by the sellers, before closing), and a few other minor issues that the sellers would hopefully fix as well. If anyone needs a recommendation for a home inspector, let me know because he was great! Darlene, our realtor, took our picture in  front of the house before we left Saturday morning:

Yipee!

 So, we left the house feeling pretty good about everything. Steve said he would download the results from the radon test and send us an email with his inspection report later that afternoon. We went home and got ready to head to Montevallo for Alan and Katie's wedding. Andrew came over and rode with us down there. The wedding was beautiful, and we had a lot of fun! Katie looked gorgeous, not surprisingly, and they both seemed really happy. It was great to see a lot of people from Tuscaloosa that we hadn't seen since May as well! 

Alisha and me at the wedding!

  Bad news, however, arrived in the form of an email just about the time we got seated for the ceremony. Steve sent us the results from the radon test, and the house tested really high with radon. Really high. According to the EPA, if your house tests higher than 4 pCi/L, you need to have a mitigation system put in. Well, our house averaged 20 pCi/L! 

Some of you may not have ever heard of radon. I hadn't until earlier this year. If you go to the EPA's website, you can learn more about it. Basically, it's a gas that you can't see, smell, or taste that is formed from decaying uranium in soil. It can get into your house from cracks in the foundation or even through the water supply, and if it builds up to high levels, it can cause cancer. It is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer (behind cigarette smoking), and the EPA estimates that almost 1 in 15 homes in the U.S. have high levels of radon. Check out this map to see which parts of the country have the highest radon levels (red = the worst). 

Anyway, my first thought (since we know someone personally who lived in this area, never smoked, got lung cancer and died in his 40s) was to say "Let's walk". Because we can technically get out of the contract, since radon is considered a safety issue. But, what's to say that the next house we found that we liked wouldn't have the same problem? All of north Alabama is in the red on the map. Plus, we've also learned that just because your house tests low or high for it at one point, that doesn't mean that the next test will have the same result. The results depend on the weather and the pressure in the atmosphere at the time. So, what if we found another house we liked, got it tested and the results came back ok? Who really knows if the results would be the same time if it was tested a month later? Here's the kicker: the people who own the house now say that they had it tested back in 2007 when they bought it, and the results were fine. Now they're 20??

Basically, the only way to assure yourself that the radon levels in your house are within the acceptable limit is to have a radon mitigation system put in. We got a couple of quotes from different companies in the area, and they cost between $1000 to $2000 to put in. Of course, if we decide to stay with this house, we'll have the sellers pay to put a system in. 

Right now, the house is being re-tested for radon by a different person. The sellers offered to pay for it just to double-check that the first results were accurate. This test should be finished tomorrow, so we'll hopefully know by tomorrow night what the new results are. I'll keep you posted, of course!

Moving on, it has been freezing cold around here lately! I feel like we are living in Antarctica, not Alabama! Travis actually got to leave work around lunchtime today because of the sleet/freezing rain in the area. It was so nice having him home during the day...brought back memories of our college days when we'd actually see each other at other times than just at night.

Work has been crazy this week. A lot of out-of-the-ordinary stuff happened to my patients, which translated into me feeling like a pretty awful nurse. Most of it I guess wasn't really my fault, but it was still frustrating. I wish everything went smoothly all of the time, but some things are just out of my control. Anyway, I had a breakdown yesterday after everything happened. Luckily, Mom answered her phone and helped calm me down and remind me that I'm a good nurse and stuff like that just happens sometimes. I have the best Mom :)

If you're still reading at this point, I'm proud of you! I figured this one would be a little long-winded :)

Hope you are staying warm and dry this week! Aren't you thankful for a warm place to sleep at night? I know I am!

*Explanation*

Confession: I didn't do a very good job of transitioning from my post on the day after Thanksgiving to my post on Monday night. I'll blame it on the fact that we go to bed so early these days (usually before 10 PM)...

So, some of you were probably left wondering why we decided on the house we did, since in my previous post, I'd said we were leaning toward the new house (my "dream" house). I'll try to go back and fill in the gaps so it makes more sense:

Last Friday afternoon, we went back to look at the new house...

 
...and we left there still liking it. I had some hesitations though...mainly about the fact that it doesn't have much storage space (both in the attic and in the closets throughout the house). Also, the kitchen is smaller and doesn't have a lot of cabinet space...I'm not all my stuff would even have a place to go! But, it still had a lot of perks (the sitting room in the master BR, big laundry room, really nice view, etc.)

Before we left that evening, our realtor told us that the sellers of the other house were going to be dropping the price again soon because they really wanted to sell soon. So, we decided to go back and look at it one more time Saturday morning...

We met Darlene there Saturday morning to take another look, and it didn't take much to convince me. The kitchen is much bigger, the backyard is really nice, and it's been really well maintained. I could definitely see us living there longer because there's just more room. It may not have as much "curb appeal" as the other, but I think we can fix it up by planting different shrubs in front of the house and near the mailbox. We did a lot of thinking over the weekend...and the rest is history! 

Once we close in mid-January, the next step will be repainting the inside of the house. I'd like to repaint almost every room, so it may take a little while to do that. We're not really in a huge rush to move in though. 

Moving on, we've almost forgotten about the holidays since we've been so busy with the house hunt! We decorated our tree Friday night and put a few other decorations up around our apartment. No presents are under the tree yet, but we've gotten a couple bought. We still have most of it left to do though! Maybe next year, I'll be more on top of things :)

We also have an anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks! We've almost been married for 3 years...pretty crazy! It's really flown by. And, yes, I'll probably say that every year. 


This Saturday, Alan and Katie are getting married. Yay for December weddings! We'll be going to that Saturday night. Saturday morning, we're getting the house inspected. Should be very informative...since neither of us know a whole lot about the way homes are built and maintained. Tomorrow afternoon, we're meeting with Amy at Regions to go over some stuff about our loan. Then, tomorrow night we're planning to go out to eat and just relax. I'm really looking forward to it. It's been a busy few weeks...and I'm thinking it's not going to slow down anytime soon...

Here's to a short break from our busy schedules! And here's to remembering what's really important in life (and it's not the house we're buying)...


Hope you have a chance to slow down and think about the important things this week too! :)

It's official!

It's going to be ours!!!! :)

Quick update...we have a contract on this house!! We're set to close January 13th if all goes according to plan. I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the recap of the house: 16 years old, 1930 square feet, almost 1/2 an acre of land, 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, BIG kitchen with plenty of cabinet and counter space, fenced-in backyard, etc. This is the house that has had pretty much everything replaced or very well-maintained, so it's almost like new. 

We were able to talk the sellers down almost $5000 off of their asking price, and they are paying almost all of our closing costs, so that's good. They are also going to fix a couple of minor things that need repair, as well as pay for a 1 year home warranty. I feel like we're getting a great deal! Overall, we're getting the house for about $15,000 less than they paid for it in 2007, so hopefully when we get ready to sell, we'll be able to make a profit if the market improves! 

I guess doing this around the holidays might be crazy, but we are busy all year long, so it probably doesn't matter too much. At least, buying in the winter gives us more time to buy things like a lawnmower and grill! :)

Well, it's almost time to get ready for bed....just wanted to share the good news with you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you're all having an awesome week!

Thankful :)

I'm writing this from the living room of my parents' house. Mom and Jenn are on their way to Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl. Dad is at Granny's house. And Travis is sleeping upstairs.

Yesterday was a fun day! We had Thanksgiving lunch at Granny's with the Palmers. Gran came along too, so that was nice. We ate too much good food, watched football, and looked through the Black Friday ads. Travis and I decided not to get out with the crazies this morning to shop. He did find some movies online that he may order later, but that will probably be the extent of our shopping for today. 

For a few minutes, I'm going to try to take a step back from The House Hunt to be reminded of how blessed I am. It's too easy to be consumed/stressed out about finding the perfect house for the perfect price. But we wouldn't even be house hunting at this point if Baugay hadn't been generous enough to let us live with her for a little while. We are so thankful for you, Baugay! And we also wouldn't be house hunting if we both didn't have good jobs right after graduation. I'm thankful to have a nursing job where I don't have to work nights, weekends, or holidays. We've both got awesome families and friends that encourage us and inspire us to be better people. We have each other. We're going on 3 years of being married, and I still am convinced that I couldn't have found a better guy. And, most of all, we've got a great God watching over us and taking care of us. 

So, when I'm obsessing/stressing over finding a house, please remind me of how much I have to be thankful for!

Just a few updates on the house hunt, in case you're wondering...


1. We got pre-approved for a loan on Wednesday! We also found out that we would qualify for twice the loan amount that we'll probably need...now that's crazy! The pre-approval lasts until February 22nd, so if we don't buy before then, we'll have to get pre-approved again.


2. I think we've ruled out two of the four houses from my last post. We went back to see two of the four on Wednesday afternoon, and that helped us cross one of them off the list. 

So long! :(

Now, I loved this house from the first time I saw it. It's got great curb appeal and a great yard, and it's in a great neighborhood. However, it has some downsides. The owner lives in Virginia, and the house has been a rental house. The home is 9 years old and has the original appliances, roof, HVAC, and hot water heater. It has new carpet and paint, but the paint looks like it was slopped on the walls without any care at all. There is water damage in the master bathroom and possibly in the guest bath. And there are other minor things that would need to be fixed before we moved in. The owner is supposedly "very motivated", but even if we got a great deal, I'm just afraid all the fixing up we'd have to do would cost a lot more than we planned for. 

Bye, bye!

This house is in great shape, but it's a lot smaller than the others (only 1650 sq ft). The biggest negative to this house, though, is the neighborhood. I'm afraid we would have a hard time re-selling it in the future. 

As for the other two...

Maybe??

 

 I still like this house a lot. It has been meticulously maintained. I'm talking...new roof, stove, microwave, fridge, carpet, paint, HVAC, vinyl windows, hot water heater, insulated garage door, kitchen sink, dishwasher, vinyl flooring, bath countertops/lighting/mirrors/fixtures, etc. It is practically a new house that just happens to be 16 years old! The only things we would need to do would be re-paint (for personal preferences) and fix a couple of other minor things. 
 

Dream home = reality??

But, as of today, I think we're leaning toward this house. It's probably in the best location of the four. It's brand new, which is really appealing. It's my favorite from the outside, and it has a great view of the mountains. We think it would probably re-sell the best. We LOVE the floorplan. It has a sitting room in the master bedroom and a huge laundry room. It's slightly more expensive than the others, but not by a whole lot. 


We'll see. I'm not going to stress! Repeat, I'm not going to stress! Whatever we end up in will be awesome, I'm sure. 


Ok, time to get ready to watch the Iron Bowl!! Roll tide!!

The Contenders

"The Contenders."
  
That sounds like the name of a TV show, doesn't it? :)


Well, here's the weekly update on our house hunt. Last Thursday, Darlene took us to several more houses that were a good bit cheaper than the ones we'd seen before. It was a good experience! They were definitely smaller, but we saw a couple that had potential for sure. 

This Saturday, we are going back to 4 houses that we've already seen once, and Mom and Dad are going to come along and give their opinions. In no particular order, here they are...

#1

This is one of the houses we looked at 2 weeks ago with Darlene. Built in 1994, 1930 sq. ft., 3 BR/2 BA. The owners have really done a lot to it (new roof, carpet, HVAC, appliances, etc.) It has been on the market since June. 

#2

 This is one of the houses we looked at last Thursday. It is considerably cheaper than the other 3 houses. It is between 10-15 years old, 1650 sq. ft., 3 BR/2 BA. It has a really nice backyard, and it is pretty much move-in ready. It has only been for sale since mid-October. 

#3

 

 This house is one that we saw 2 weeks ago. It was built in 2001, 2020 sq. ft., 3 BR/2 BA. It has been on the market since early September. The seller just recently dropped the price several thousand dollars. I love it from the front, and it has a great backyard. 

#4

 

 Last but not least, this house is the one I fell in love with. It is brand new, 1849 sq ft., 3 BR/2 BA. The view from the backyard is really beautiful. I love the color of the brick. The master bedroom has a nice-sized sitting room. It's in a great location. I could go on and on :)


So, there you have it. I'm not ruling out looking at other houses, but I would say those are our top 4 right now. 


In other news, Travis gets home from Latrobe, PA, tomorrow. I can't wait! This was his very first business trip, and it sounds like it's been quite the adventure. He came really close to missing his flight up there, so I'm glad that he didn't! He got into a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game for $20 (tickets are regularly $100, and they were sold out!).  He found his way to church on Tuesday night (gasp!). Apparently, all of the congregations either meet on Tuesdays or Thursdays up there. And tonight, a bunch of them are watching the Bama game together...Roll Tide! This will be the first game we haven't watched together since who knows when...probably before we met...


Next week is Thanksgiving, so we're excited about spending it with my family. We're both only working Monday and Tuesday next week, so it will be a nice long break (almost like being in college again..haha). 

Well, I've got to get back to work...I'm in the middle of making a "Lender Comparison Spreadsheet"...Travis is definitely rubbing off on me :)

A rollercoaster!

That's what this week has been.

To catch you up on what's been going on, I think we've pretty much decided to wait and get Travis a new car. The master cylinder is fixed, and we are $300 poorer, but at least the car works! We got a lot of advice (thank you, thank you!), and we feel like it is smarter to use the money we have saved for a down-payment on a house rather than spend it on a car right now. Hopefully, the ol' Honda will keep ticking for several more months (or years!!) without needing any major repairs. 

Last Friday, we looked at several houses in the Harvest/Monrovia area. Six had been lived in previously, and four or five were brand new. All of them were in the same general price range. The realtor who showed us the houses was awesome! We met her not really expecting much because I'd contacted her about a month or two ago about a house she was selling. We didn't know anything about her, and we figured we'd end up using a realtor who had been recommended to us already (we've got the names of two or three). However, she really, really impressed us. She wasn't pushy at all. She let us walk around and explore the homes on our own without hovering. She pointed out bad qualities and things that needed to be fixed as well as the good qualities. She was very knowledgeable about the whole process of buying a home. She just seemed like a real person...not a pushy salesman. It was great! So, that was a definite step in the right direction. I feel like we can actually do this with her help. As far as the houses that we looked at, they were awesome. I could see us living in any of them, really. They are all one-level, full brick homes with flat yards. But, here's the problem--they are too expensive!

Looking for a way to be idiotic? Here's how: Go look at several nice houses before you sit down and redo your budget to see what you can honestly afford. 

Ok, we could afford them for sure with both of us working. But, in a few years when we (hopefully) have kids, I'm not going to be working...and we'll be down to one income. Will we be able to afford that same house then? I know Travis will be getting raises between now and then. He should bump up to a DB3 in two years hopefully, which is supposed to be a $10,000 jump in salary. But, it's probably not smart to assume that...not when you're talking about a monthly mortgage payment. 

Unfortunately, I got my heart set on one of the houses that we looked at Friday. It's PERFECT. Perfect, perfect, perfect. And perfectly too much money. I was so excited Friday and Saturday...thinking that it was THE ONE. Then, we sat down with the dreaded all-powerful Excel spreadsheet, crunched the numbers, and boom. I was crushed. All of the sudden, he's wondering if we need to just wait another year or two to buy. That house won't be there next month most likely. My emotions swung from one extreme to the other in the span of a couple of days. Normally, I'm really not that emotional. Ask anyone who knows me very well. Travis is probably the crier in the family (shhh...don't tell him I told you!). But, not the past couple of days. I shouldn't have let myself get emotionally attached. That was a huge mistake. There will be other houses out there when we're ready. They may not be as nice as what we were looking at, but they'll be home. 

So, after a lot of number crunching, Excel spreadsheeting, thinking, praying, crying, etc., the plan is that we're going to look at some much cheaper (as in $40,000 cheaper!) houses tomorrow with Darlene, our realtor. I think there are 7 on the list. Wish us luck! Who knows what we'll find. They won't be like the ones last Friday, but that's ok. This may be the convincing I need that we should just wait a while longer, save up a bigger down-payment, and be able to afford something nicer down the road. 

We'll see how it goes. I'm just glad to be back to my normal, mostly level-headed self, and I know Travis is too! Tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to be more objective, not get my hopes up, and not get attached to anything at first sight. This is a big decision, and rushing into it on an emotional whim would be stupid. Especially rushing into something we can't afford on one income. 

So, the search continues. Updates are sure to follow :)

BIG decisions!

"Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be this hard."

That Coldplay quote sums up nicely what I am feeling about making adult decisions! Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again...with "important" decisions about what flavor ice cream to eat and what cartoon to watch on TV. Well, I can't turn back the clock (and I really don't want to!), so I guess it's time to face these decisions head-on. 

I'm sure you're wondering what decisions I'm talking about.


Well...


I'm guess you all know we've been saving, saving, saving for a house. That's one of the main reasons we're thankful to be living with Baugay...because it's letting us save faster. No apartment rent = more of our paychecks that can go toward that downpayment. I've been looking at houses on ValleyMLS for months now, and we've gone to several open houses. We've been hounded by several realtors (yipee!), and we're even meeting one on Friday afternoon who will be showing us 4 houses in Camden Cove. And, you don't have to remind us that this is a great time to buy a house with the interest rates being so low. 


We've got about $20,000 saved right now. So, what's the problem?


Well, Travis's car is in the shop AGAIN. Apparently, it's the master cylinder this time that needs to be replaced. It will cost a little over $300 to fix. Last summer, we spent over $1000 getting new belts and other stuff fixed on it. The car is 15 years old and it has at least 210,000 miles on it. The guy at Bryan's said that the next thing to go will be the clutch, which will cost over $900 to replace, and it probably won't be too terribly long before that happens. 


So, we told them to just replace the master cylinder (since the clutch is still working fine), and that will give us some more time to make a decision. Does it really make sense to spend another $900 on a 15 year old car that is worth only about $400 (according to Kelly Blue Book)? If not, then we need to be looking for another car. The best time to buy a new car from what I've heard is at the end of the year (last two weeks of December). 


So, should we go ahead and just get Travis a new car now (a.k.a. before the end of the year), or hope that the clutch on the Honda holds out a while longer? If we do go ahead and buy a new car, should we pay for it all at once? I did some research on AutoTrader yesterday, and I found several 2-3 year old cars (Altimas, Accords, Corollas, etc.) with 25,000 miles or less on them that are under $16,000. So, we can definitely afford a new car, but paying for it all at once would pretty much wipe out our savings for a house, and we'd be back to square one. Or, should we just go ahead and keep house hunting while the interest rates are so low, and hope that the car keeps going for another year or two? I'm afraid that we're going to find a house, buy it and move in, and THAT'S when his car will need to be replaced. 


So...that's what's been on our minds this week, along with work, Bible class teaching, and planning for a big Alabama-LSU game party here at our place. (I'm making gumbo for the first time!)


If you have any advice about what we should do, I'd love to hear it! I want us to make the best decision possible, but sometimes it's not always clear what to do...


I know one thing that will help...praying about it!


"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" ~Philippians 4:6

Hope you're having a fabulous week :)

Another weekend trip

I feel like we never stay home on the weekends, and when we do, there's always so much to do that we're not home much anyway. This weekend, we went up to Pigeon Forge to hang out with Mollie and her family and some of our Tuscaloosa friends. We met Alisha, Tyler, and Kylie in Fort Payne and ate supper at Cracker Barrel before making the drive up there. We didn't get there until almost midnight, so I was tired by the time we did! 

 Saturday, we ate a big breakfast that Mollie's mom made, and then we went hiking somewhere near Gatlinburg. The traffic was HORRIBLE. It took us over an hour to get there when it normally would take like 10-15 minutes. I know fall is peak season, but it was ridiculous! The hike was fun though, and we took a lot of good pictures. 

On our way to go hiking

Sisterly love!

On our hike :)

We made it to the waterfall!

After our hike, we headed back to the cabin, and Mollie, Jason, and Kylie headed to Knoxville for the game. Travis, Tyler, Alisha, and I decided to just stay at the cabin and watch it. It would have been fun to go, but we had fun just hanging out on the couch and watching all the other games on TV. Alabama looked good in the 2nd half against Tennessee, so we were happy about that. And I'll  just say I'm officially scared about the Iron Bowl...but we have to get through LSU first week after next!

Sunday, we went to church where we saw some other friends from Tuscaloosa! We all went out to eat for lunch together, and then we hit the road. Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to close one of the main highways going back to the interstate, so we sat in traffic in Pigeon Forge for over an hour on our way home. We ended up stopping in Chattanooga for church Sunday night, where we saw Josh Tucker (another friend from t-town who just moved there). We finally got home around 8:30 PM after a really long day. It was a fun weekend with friends, but I definitely wasn't impressed by Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. Don't get me wrong....it's super pretty up there during the fall, but the area is just one big tourist trap. It's a lot different from the way I remember it last time I was there (although that was 8th grade!). Oh well. We still had a good time! :)

Well, it's about time to get ready for bed. Hope you've had a great day :)

24

Well, I had a great birthday yesterday! I got lots of cards, texts, phone calls, and facebook messages, so that made my day very special. Travis came home with a big bouquet of flowers from a florist nearby, and I love them. He knows that I don't really like roses, but these are perfect.


He also got me the newest Little Big Town CD and 2 books by Francine Rivers that I've been wanting to read. Yay!!

Last night, someone at church asked me how old I was and then immediately said, "Oh wait, I guess I'm not supposed to ask you that, right?" I laughed and told him that I wasn't to the point where that question bothered me yet. But, then the more I started thinking about it, I hope I'm never to that point! Being 24 means that God has blessed me with 24 years of life! And the same will hold true when/if I get to be 44, 64, or 94, etc. I think it's silly for people to be embarrassed of their age because it's really something you should be thankful for. So, someone please remind me that I said this in 16 years...haha :)

This past weekend was dedicated to Mrs. Cheryl's big birthday celebration. Alisha and Tyler spent the night Friday night, and we had a lot of fun. I made BBQ sandwiches for supper, and we got to spend some time talking with Baugay upstairs too. Saturday was the big party! We spent most of the afternoon at the Copelands' house decorating and getting ready.

Most of the Dvorak cousins :)

The decorated food table!

The hostesses with the mostesses :)

My camera died before the party even started, so I tried taking pictures with my Droid, and they didn't turn out very good. It's probably user error :)

The party was a lot of fun though! She wasn't surprised, but that's ok I guess. It's hard to keep parties a secret when so many people know about it. We had a good turnout and more than enough food leftover.

This weekend, Travis and I are going to Pigeon Forge. Mollie's parents are renting a cabin up there for the weekend, and she invited several people to come stay with them. I didn't realize until recently that Pigeon Forge is so close to Knoxville (where the Bama game is)...it's only 30-45 minutes away! I'm not sure if we'll go to the game or not; we don't have tickets yet, but I'm thinking that they wouldn't be too hard to find once we get there. Either way, it will be a fun time!!!

Well, it's time for me to hit the gym. I biked 15.7 miles yesterday, so I'm really trying to get that mileage in! Right now, I'm in 7th place in the Iron Bowl Walk-A-Thon...woohoo! :)

Hope you are having an awesome week so far!!

An Up and Down Weekend...

...I guess you have to take the good with the bad, right?

Travis and I really enjoyed having some time to ourselves this past weekend. We are usually so busy during the week that we barely see each other or get to talk, except for the occasional supper when I'm not working late. But, this weekend, we were house sitting for Laurie while she and her family were at the beach, and it was a lot of fun. We didn't do too much, but that made it nice. We grilled hamburgers Friday night for supper and steaks for lunch on Saturday. We watched a lot of football on Saturday and entertained Laurie's two dogs, T-Bone and Angie. As a result, I now have "pet fever" along with "house fever". But, the pets will have to wait until we get in a house!! Oh well :)

Alabama lost on Saturday for the first time in 29 regular season games. That's a long streak! I was pretty disappointed, but hopefully we'll rebound this week and play better. The Ole Miss game doesn't start until 8 PM...pretty late!

Speaking of football, Travis and I played each other in fantasy football this weekend. Let's just say I got killed. Before this weekend, I was 3-0 against him, so at least I still have a winning record :)

Anytime Fitness, the gym that we have memberships with, is doing a program right now called the Iron Bowl Walk-A-Thon. Apparently, Bryant Denny Stadium and Jordan Hare Stadium are 160 miles apart, so they are encouraging everyone to try to walk, run, or bike 160 miles by Thanksgiving, the day before the game. They've got a "map" up on the wall where they are tracking how far along everyone is. The person with the most mileage gets a free pair of running shoes, and everyone who goes at least 25 miles gets some sort of prize. I'm not sure I'll make it the whole 160 miles, but I'm going to try! I've probably done about 20 miles so far. It's a good incentive to exercise, at least!

Well, that's it for today. Hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!! :)

October = LOTS to do!!!

October means...

*Football games every weekend
*My birthday (I'm turning 24 this year!!)
*Cooler weather outside :)
*The leaves changing colors
*Halloween candy!

This is a crazy week for us. I worked yesterday and today, and I work again on Friday. Travis is off Friday, but has a ton going on at work this week. It's getting pretty stressful from what he's saying. Tomorrow through Sunday, we are house sitting/dog sitting for a nurse that I work with. We did it once before back in June, so we already are familiar with her house. It'll be a nice get-away, but I'm not looking forward to packing for it tomorrow. It's far enough away that I don't want to have to make a bunch of trips back here for stuff, so I need to get everything the first time!

We had a lot of fun this weekend at the lake house and at the Bama game in Tuscaloosa. Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for letting us go!!! Mom made her awesome meatloaf for Sunday lunch, and we celebrated my birthday early, since we won't see them or Jenn before my birthday in a few weeks. (Thanks, Gran, for the silverware you got me!!! We'll put it to good use!).

The Parade of Homes is this weekend, but I'm afraid we won't have the time or energy to go to any of them. How do you buy a house when you don't even have time to go look at any...haha?

Well, that's all that I can think of right now. My brain is tired from a crazy day at work!

Something I need to remember every day:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

~Matthew 6:33-34



God will provide!! :)

Lessons Learned (and Re-Learned)

Here are some random things I've learned in the past week:

Lesson #1: NEVER give your phone number to a realtor at an open house, especially when you aren't seriously looking to buy in the next month or two. I made the mistake of giving my number to one who said "I promise not to bug you. I know how that feels, and I hate being harrassed." Ok, so what do 4 emails and 3 phone calls in the past 2 days equal? HARRASSMENT! Oh well, I'll know better for next time :)

Lesson #2: Stressing out about taking a class for your job is pointless. Chances are, they won't fire you if you don't do good. And chances are, it's not going to be nearly as hard as you think it might be. Translation: I got all worked up over taking ACLS last week because I'd heard from several people that you need to study a ton for it and it's really hard. And it wasn't super easy. But it went fine anyway! Always does :)

Lesson #3: "Working life" is just as busy as "college life" is. For some reason, I thought we would have all this free time on our hands to enjoy now that we don't have class, tests, and homework to worry about. Well, I'm not sure where all the time is going, but it's going somewhere! I guess life never slows down...you just have to take advantage of the time you have right now.

Lesson #4: Publix is awesome. Unlike at Wal-Mart or Target, you never have to wait in line more than a minute or so. Last week at Wal-Mart, I waited 20 minutes to check out....literally. Publix is clean, the associates are helpful and nice, and they have an awesome coupon policy that lets me save money! Every time I go to Wal-Mart or Target, it makes me love Publix even more!

Lesson #5: Perspective. It's all about the way you look at things. If you automatically view everything and everyone in a negative light, it can really bring you down. But, if you look for the good in people, chances are you'll have a better day.

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes." ~William James

Hope you all are having a GREAT day!

Busy, busy, busy

This post is going to be short and sweet...I'm sure you're all thinking "yay!"

I worked Monday and yesterday, and tomorrow and Friday I'm taking a class at the hospital called ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support). I've been studying some for it b/c it's supposed to be pretty intense from what I've heard, so hopefully I'll do ok.

This is Travis's 5-day work week, and I worked late the past two nights, so I feel like I've barely seen him all week. He's giving the invitation tonight at church, so he's also been working on that.

Saturday, Nate and Andrew came over to watch the Alabama-Penn State game with us. I made BBQ sandwiches, Rotel dip, and "white trash". It was a great game, and we had a lot of fun. This weekend, Alabama plays Duke at 2:30 PM. Hopefully that will be an easy victory!

Baugay gets back from Ireland Saturday night, and we're supposed to be picking her up from the airport. She's a world traveler! Can't wait to hear all about her trip :)

We went to an open house Sunday afternoon, and it was another failure. I guess we're 0-3. The first open house (that Alisha went with me to several weeks ago) smelled like dog inside...gross. The second open house that Travis and I tried to go to a couple weeks ago wasn't actually open. No one was there to let us in...sigh. And, the one we went to on Sunday smelled like cigarette smoke inside! Do people not realize when they are trying to sell their house that dog smells and cigarette smells are not appealing? Who knows! The frustrating thing about that last house is that I really really liked it....except for the nasty cigarette smell. Oh well....I guess we'll find something eventually.

Well, I guess it's time to get back to studying. I only thought I was done with that when I graduated :)

Fall = Football, Family, Friends, and Fun!

We had an awesome Labor Day weekend. To start the weekend, I got off a little earlier than normal on Friday (around 5:30 PM), which was nice. I hurried home, and we ate supper, packed, and hit the road for Trussville. We spent time with my parents (and the pets!) Friday night and Saturday morning before it was time to hit the road again for Tuscaloosa.

Our first stop in t-town was at the Johnsons' house. We visited with Mrs. Kathy, Elizabeth, and Trenton for a little while, and Elizabeth "fixed" my awful haircut that I got a couple of weeks ago. It looks much better now! Then, we headed to campus for the game. It felt so great to be back! I think I missed Tuscaloosa more than I realized. We parked and started walking toward Jason's tailgate to see everyone that we hadn't seen in forever. On our way, we passed by this:


Anyone recognize what this is? Sadly, it's where Presidential used to be. Our "first home" as a married couple, and they tore it down! We knew before we left in May that they were going to do that, but it was still weird to see it as just a dirt pile now. I'm glad that we got a picture in front of Wyman (our building), and I took plenty of pictures of our apartment, so we'll remember what it looked like.

We saw a lot of our friends at Jason's tailgate, but not too long after we got there, they all had to leave to go stake out their seats in the student section. That is one nice thing about not having a student ticket...you can wait til right before kickoff and still have your seat waiting on you. We were using Mom and Dad's tickets for the game, and they turned out to be really great seats! We had a blast! And the final score didn't hurt either....48-3 :)


One not-so-nice thing about not being a student anymore is the traffic leaving Tuscaloosa after the game. I don't think I'd want to do that every weekend, that's for sure. We finally got home Saturday night around 11:30 PM.

Sunday, Uncle Bill, Aunt Gale, and Jenn all got into town. Yay! That afternoon we visited Gran and Dadaw at GreenBriar, and then after church Sunday night we went to Granny's to eat pizza with the Palmers and her. It was great to have everyone together...first time in a while! I told Travis that it felt like the Fripp trip condensed down into 2 days...haha :)

Monday, everyone came over for lunch and we had BBQ. Then, we played a game, and before we knew it, it was time for Jenn and Kathleen to head back to Auburn, the parents to head to the lake, and us to come back to Baugay's. Overall, we had a lot of fun.

Fantasy football starts tonight, and I'm planning to keep up my winning streak against Travis. Right now I'm 3-0 against him...as I'm sure he wanted you all to know :)

Saturday night, we're having a few friends over for the Penn State game. Should be a fun time and a good game too!

Time to get busy....I've got lots to do today! Hope you're having a great week :)

Summer is winding down...

This summer went by so fast! Now it's time for fall weather and football season to start. We had a great time at the bed and breakfast last weekend. The day before we left, last Wednesday, Travis got sick, so I was afraid our trip would be ruined...but he slept the whole way there on Thursday and felt better by the time we got there. Yay! For our first time at a B&B, we definitely picked a good one! We didn't really know what to expect, but Pat and Phil (the owners) were really great. They were friendly but also gave us our space too. Ashley and Seth came along with us, so we got to hang out with them while we were there. Ashley has gotten big into couponing, so she brought along a gift certificate from restaurant.com to use at Shane's Rib Shack about 20 minutes away. The four of us ended up eating supper that night for about $15 total! Way to go, Ashley! Both mornings we ate a 3-course breakfast which was fantastic! I would go back just for the breakfast alone.


On Friday, we went to Amicalola Falls State Park and hiked up to the falls. Amicalola Falls is apparently the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi. It was a good way to burn off some of that breakfast. We definitely got a good workout in because my calves were sore for the next three days! The waterfall was really pretty, and the view was the top was as well.


Friday night, we ate dinner at Charlie's, an Italian restaurant in Ellijay. It was awesome! I'd say it was better than Olive Garden, and I really like Olive Garden :)

Saturday, after another big breakfast, we packed up and headed the outlet mall in Calhoun, GA. It wasn't anything special, but Ashley did find some clothes for work, and I think Seth got a shirt, so we'll consider it a success. Overall, we had a great trip, and we're definitely planning to go back!

This week has been super busy so far. We had a short gospel meeting at KSR that ended Tuesday night, then we had Andrew over for supper last night before church, and then tonight we're going to the Copelands' for supper. One night, it would be nice to stay home and do nothing, but I guess that'll have to wait until next week! Kinda related...Travis said what I cooked last night was one of the best meals I'd made in a long time! We had BBQ sandwiches, okra, steamed squash, baked beans, and apple pie a la mode. It was the first pie I think I've made since we've been married, and it turned out pretty good. We've got about 3/4 of it leftover, so I'm bringing it this weekend, Mom!

Speaking of this weekend, we're hitting the road again. Friday night after work, we're going to Trussville. Then, Saturday, we're going to the Alabama game in t-town (Roll Tide!) and then back to Trussville that night. We're planning to come back up here sometime Monday. Should be a fun weekend! Aunt Gale and Uncle Bill are coming from Richmond, and Jenn will be home too!

It's a short work week :)

I'm already done with work for the week...woohoo! I worked yesterday from 11 to about 8:30 or so. Travis has tomorrow and part of Thursday left, and then it's B&B time! In case you're interested, here's where we're going--The Hearthstone Lodge in Ellijay, GA. We're super excited and ready to spend a few days with Ashley and Seth! We don't have much planned other than how long we're staying, but it'll be nice to be somewhat spontaneous and schedule-free for a change :)

Last night, Travis had dinner with Jonathan, Tiffany, and James Caldwell, but I had to miss out because I was at work. They were in town for the gospel meeting at Gooch Lane. I think Travis and I are going to go tonight...he said the lesson was really good last night.

The past two mornings have actually felt cooler outside (as in 80-something degrees...haha), so maybe fall is around the corner! I hope so!

Enough rambling...it's time for me to hit the gym. We've actually been doing some running lately after Travis gets off work. We found a nice paved bike path that's fairly flat and runs right along a stream, so we've headed out there several times. My goal (someone hold me to this, please!) is to run the Country Music Half Marathon on April 30th next year, so I'm trying to slowly get in shape. Anyone want to run it with me? Otherwise, Travis is being volunteered...haha :)

Hope you're having a wonderful week!

Georgia on my mind

Went to Georgia this past weekend. Going back next weekend. Looks like the Grant family will be doing a lot of traveling this fall!

Friday, we met Mollie and rode with her to Jason's house north of Atlanta where we spent the night. It was great to see Jason for the first time since May. We had fun just hanging out Saturday, and that night we met Alisha, Tyler, Jeremy, David, Justin, and Lauren at Atlantic Station for supper and then went to the Braves game together. It was rainy off and on all day, but luckily the rain stopped by the time the game started. Overall, it was a pretty boring game. The Braves lost 2-1, and apparently this year they are 42-16 when playing at home, so we just got unlucky I guess. We spent Saturday night at Jason's and went with him to church at Roswell before coming home Sunday afternoon. Elijah and Leisha were at church, and we got to meet baby McKenna for the first time! She's a cutie! :)

Today, I officially accepted a part-time position at the hospital. It's in the same area that I've been working (pre-op), so it's basically just a change in status. Now I can get employer matching in my 401K and earned time off (ETO) that I couldn't get while working PRN. It's going to be 24 hours a week, but some weeks it may be around 28 hours depending on how busy we are. It was tough to decide between going part time or staying PRN, so I hope I made the right choice. This will give me (hopefully) a more consistent schedule, but it's not as flexible as being PRN. Most weeks, I will work Mondays and Tuesdays from noon to about 7 PM and Fridays from 6 AM to 6 PM.

Next Thursday through Saturday is our trip to Ellijay, GA with Ashley and Seth. We are staying at a bed and breakfast there, and we are really looking forward to it. It got a lot of good reviews online, so I hope it will be a nice place to stay. It'll be good to see Ashley and Seth for the first time since May also!

This weekend we will actually be staying in town (shocker!). I'm looking forward to just taking it easy around the house :)

Thought of the day: " Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
~ 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

We have so much to thank God for every day!

Time for an update...

My blog got a facelift! What do you think? I get bored when I keep the same background for too long, so I decided to play around with it this morning :)

Travis had a fun weekend with the guys at the lake. He says they played lots of Settlers of Catan (a board game that's kinda like Risk I think), went swimming, did a little fishing, and went tubing behind the jet ski. They even got the old pontoon cranked...I was impressed! He got home Monday night around 6:30 with all four limbs and no broken bones or sunburn (even though he didn't use the sunscreen I sent with him....surprise, surprise!). I think he was glad to get back to "orderly" living...he must have forgotten what it was like to live with a bunch of guys...haha! Not quite as neat as we keep it around here, I'd guess :)

I had to work late Monday night and last night. Monday night I didn't get home until 10:15!!! It was crazy. Usually the late people get to leave by 7:00 or 7:30 most of the time, so this was pretty unusual. When I got home, Travis was back from the lake and I saw these sitting on the kitchen table:



I love them! I'm not really big on roses, but these are so pretty! He made a special trip to the store to get them after he got home Monday night and saw that I was still at work....what a thoughtful guy :)

Then, last night I didn't get home until 9:00, and Travis waited on me to eat supper. He fixed shrimp, salad, and some sweet tea to go with it. I was starving by that point, so I was glad to get some food in my stomach. He's racking up the brownie points this week :)

By the way, he also went grocery shopping for me yesterday. I made the list for him and gathered all the coupons he'd need so he wouldn't have to take my pink coupon binder with him...haha. He even got rainchecks on the stuff Publix was out of for me!

Ok, enough bragging on him. He's awesome...end of story.

He works today and tomorrow, and then Friday is his off day, so we'll actually have a Friday off together (I'm off the rest of this week). Saturday, we're going to watch the Braves play in Atlanta, and I'm really excited about that. I think the last Braves game I went to was probably back when I was in middle school or junior high! Tyler and Alisha and a few other friends are going too.

Usually around this time in August, we're packing our things up to head back to Tuscaloosa, but not this year. I thought it might feel weird, but it hasn't yet. Maybe we're already adjusted to the working routine. I KNOW it'll feel weird when we watch the first Bama game on TV instead of being there, but oh well. We'll go to a couple of games this season hopefully :)

Football season will be here soon....yay!!

Looking forward to the weekend...

This weekend is going to be full of fun things! This afternoon, Travis is leaving for the lake house to spend a few days with the guys. I think there are going to be 6 guys going (including him), so he's really looking forward to that. He's supposed to come back sometime Tuesday I think. Yesterday I spent all morning baking (one of my favorite things to do!) to send some desserts with him. I made peanut butter cookies, chocolate and white chocolate chip cookies, rice krispy treats, strawberry cupcakes, and german chocolate cupcakes. Whew! It literally took over 4 hours to do all that, but it was fun! I hope it all gets eaten b/c I don't need to be eating any of it if it gets brought home :)

Tonight is the Grant cousins' sleepover here at Baugay's, so I'm looking forward to that. Unfortunately, Travis will have to miss it, but hopefully he can come next time. I was supposed to work today (and thus, supposed to get up early), but they were apparently overstaffed today so I didn't have to come in. So...I got to sleep later than I thought I would be able to, and hopefully I will be able to stay up past 9:30 tonight...haha :)

Tomorrow afternoon is Laura and Clayton's wedding in Arab. Travis is going to meet me there. Laura is my best friend from nursing school, and I'm glad that she and Clayton will be living fairly close by so that we can get together more often (hopefully!).

Next week, I work Monday and Tuesday 11 AM to close (hopefully not too late). Travis took this Monday and Tuesday off for the lake trip, and he'll work Wednesday and Thursday. Then, we both have next Friday off (first time in FOREVER that we'll have a Friday off together!). Next Saturday we are planning to go to a Braves game in Atlanta with Tyler, Alisha and a few other friends...yay! :)

Well, I'm about to run to Kohls to spend my $10 in Kohl's cash that expires soon. Good thing it's tax-free weekend!

Hope you all have a great weekend too :)