Our House!

So, if you've been reading for long, you know that Jacob bought a house in February. I will never forget the day that he bought it...it was a Saturday and he was due to come for a visit. You can read the story here. That night after he left, he texted me and said "Lord willing, it will be our house." I'll never forget that either...would you?!

Our house needed a lot of work. Like, seriously, a lot. I've held off with the pictures so far, honestly because it looked rough, and while Jacob and I (as well as our immediate family, who are all thrilled for this opportunity for us) could see what it would become, we knew it might be hard for some people to see what we saw. :) We're both very fixer-minded and have grown up with that mentality....buy something that needs work for a lot less than normal, fix it up, and end up with something better than you could afford. This is just another thing that I am so very thankful for in Jacob. He can do anything and will do anything. (Just get used to the bragging, k? It's my privilege and joy and will be abundant!)

Jacob has been working on the house ever since February but in the last couple months you can really see the results. I mean, we could see the results before, but it was stuff like floor joists that would be covered up. :) I don't have pictures from as soon as he bought the house, but I do have some after he'd done a little work. The folks that lived there before...well, it was rough. The first little bit of sheetrock had been wet and was rotten in parts of the house, the floors joists had to be cut out and replaced..all that sort of stuff. Here are some starter pictures...

This is our house from the road...

This is our living room...looking in from the front door. The master bedroom is the door you can see on the right... This is after the rotten joists have been cut out and replaced, before the sheetrock was put in.

This is looking from the front door into the kitchen. The bathroom is the door you can see on the right. You can see part of the subflooring he'd put in at this point. The kitchen sink had leaked hence the yucky sheetrock in the kitchen. We saved the top cabinets but had to tear out the bottom ones.

This is looking towards the living room from the kitchen area. The rooms on the far wall are the master bedroom, on the left, and the spare bedroom on the right. That's the front door that's open...

Another view of the kitchen...this one's better...

This is looking into the bathroom, but you can't see much...the toilet is on the left and the shower is on the right..

And this is looking the opposite direction, out towards the kitchen. The washer and dryer goes on the right...and the sink is on the left.

Alrighty, now fast forward a few weeks! In this next set of pictures, all the subflooring is in and the new sheetrock is in.

Looking into the living room...

Looking into the kitchen from the living room...

This is wall the bathroom is on...the other room is a small room that used to be a bedroom. (that story to come in a minute!)

Looking towards the front door...

Now....fast forward a few more weeks! A couple weeks ago now, it was a Monday and I was on the phone with Jacob. I asked him what he'd done that day and he said "oh, just piddled around with stuff here and there..." and I just said ok. Well, Tuesday when I went out to their house, he took me over to our house so we could do some cleaning, and I think I hollered when he opened the door! His "piddling" was spending about 11 hours painting the whole kitchen and living room! He LOVES to surprise me like that and it is incredible! It looked AMAZING and I was SO excited! Over the next week or so, we had picked all the colors and he'd painted the whole house.

That day when I was over there cleaning, a couple cousins stopped in at different times. Once, one of them asked what the little room was going to be (the one on the same wall as the bathroom, in the kitchen area)  and I hollered in there and said I was wanting a craft room! They laughed and kept on talking. That cousin left and a little while later another one stopped in. He also asked Jacob about that room, and I heard Jacob say "oh, that's her sewing room!"

Awwww. :)

He put down flooring sheets as a relatively temporary floor, until we put hardwood down later on. Then he stained the floor in the living room...we'll be putting linoleum in the kitchen this week. All of the other rooms have a good floor that didn't need replacing.

So, here's looking into the living room from the front door...(there were spots on my camera lens!)

From the back of the living room looking at the front door...

The kitchen area...

(We do have a washer, dryer, and stove now...as of last week!!!)

This is the bathroom...pretty light blue!

Laundry...

Cleaning supplies on the bathroom counter :)

This is my sewing room! It's turquoise!

The master bedroom....a gorgeous light green! Jacob and I separately said we though light green would nice. :) That happens a lot!

Looking into the kitchen...the linoleum will go where the floor isn't stained.

Alright, that's it so far! We'll get the linoleum this week, new doorjambs in, baseboards in, new switchplate covers, all that sort of stuff! It's so exciting!

I LOVE when Jacob provides for me. The feeling coming from this is so amazing...the excitement in his voice when he shows me something he's done in our house...it's wonderful! :D

Change of Plans

So, after I go blabbing about our plans, everything gets all shook up.

Are you singing?

We'd been having a hard time finding a church and a couple other things just didn't fall into place like they were supposed to...or at least like I thought they were supposed to, so we've had a little change of plans.

We're calling the whole deal off and just saying forget it.

Hahahaha. Gotcha.

Ok, for real. We just bumped the wedding up a week, so now we're getting married September 1st. That's set in stone, like I'm about to order invitations...that kind of set in stone. Finally. Resolution is nice at this point.

Anyway, that's it. My dress is being altered, invitations will be on their way soon, the tux will be rented, we'll start moving my stuff out to our house soon, life will change drastically, and we're going to love every minute of it.

Life is good. Even when plans get thrown awry by unforeseen obstacles. :)

Lots of Planning...

Well, I know I haven't been the greatest at blogging...ok, ok, so it's been like this since last October. Understandably so, if you ask me. I've been being wooed and do you know how distracting that is?

Quite.

So anyway, you wanna know my excuse now?

I sure hope you said yes, cause I'm about to tell you even if you said no.

I'm planning a wedding. Yeah, y'all knew we were engaged, so this is natural, right?

How about 5 weeks from today?

Here's the skinny. As soon as Jacob asked me to marry him, I started thinking about dates. We had a couple family things that we were planning on doing in September and October and I didn't want to try to have a wedding around those things. So, that put it either in August or we'd have to wait until November. Our philosophy is that there's no need for a long, drawn out engagement, so November didn't sound too good. After a couple weeks of discussing it and weighing the options, we made our decision. The options were soon or not soon. And we decided soon.

Jacob and I will be getting married August 25th, 2012. When we decided, we had about 40 days. Now it's down to 35...five weeks. In those five days we've already gotten several things decided on and I'm working on the wedding pretty much every day. We've had a glitch as far as location goes, so I'm trying to get that ironed out, because I can't see about invitations until after the location is final. And I really have to see about invitations since it's pretty close. I know I have some family coming in from out of state and I've already let everyone there know, so they can start planning a trip if they want.

We're trying to keep this as small and simple as possible. I know that, as far as weddings go, it will be small and simple, but there are still an awful lot of details to think about. People keep asking me stuff, and I have no answer...I haven't thought about that yet! We possibly got a location today, I had a trial run done on my hair...things are getting done...but there's still a lot to do!

I do have a lot of help, and for that I am soooo grateful! Jacob's mom (I have a wonderful future mother-in-law!) is helping me soooo much and it is wonderful. Next on my agenda is seeing about invitations. Then I have to decide what to do about flowers. I think my colors will be coral and turquoise. We aren't having any attendants, so that cuts down a lot of worry about detail, but I did need colors for the cake so I decided on some colors. I'm going to try for coordinating flowers...maybe coral flowers wrapped in turquoise ribbon. By the way, I'm making the cake.

I did order a dress a couple days after he proposed, and I've had it for a couple weeks now. I ordered the necessary accessories to wear with it and will be taking it to get it altered this week sometime, hopefully. And in the middle of everything, mom and I are meeting my granny and aunt in Chattanooga next weekend for a Friday and Saturday and she's (granny) going to take me shopping. It will be a LOT of fun, and a nice break in the middle of all my crazy planning.

I've also been shopping around for a cabin in a nifty town somewhere in east TN, for the few days after the wedding. I spent all day on the phone one day this week getting prices for different cabins...stuff over there is pretty expensive!

While I've been doing all this, Jacob has been working like crazy on our house. He brought me paint samples over one evening this week and I picked a couple colors. ("Whatever you like, Honey" YIKES!) He's going to be ready to paint at the beginning of next week. He's already gotten some temporary (i.e. until we can afford hardwood...but I don't care) flooring and will put that in and stain it after he paints. We still need all our appliances (stove, fridge, washer, dryer...yep, that's it,) as well as lower cabinets in the kitchen. We do have cabinets on top!!! Yay!

Money is a little tight right now...on my end with all the wedding planning going on, and on his end, with the house. Jacob's been out of a job for several weeks now and has worked odd jobs. He'd like to wait until after we're married to get a regular job, so he doesn't have to try to get vacation time right away for our honeymoon.

Honeymoon. After we're married. Marriage. I am talking about me here, right??? I still have to pinch myself every now and then, or twist my beautiful ring, to make sure this is all real and happening! It's incredible!

So, we're both being stretched a little thin (hey, that doesn't sound so bad!!!) and are working like crazy to pull this off, but we'll get there. God has been so good to us already, and we have a lot of help. People are so nice, when you make known that you need certain things or could use help in certain areas. A friend of mine is a photographer and is cutting me a great deal of photography (thanks Elisabeth!) Jacob's cousin will be doing my hair, someone (you know who you are!) sent me stamps for the invitations, Jacob's mom is helping me out tremendously with the reception details, my granny is taking me shopping....it's just incredible!!!

I really don't know what'll happen to my blog in the near future. I'm sure we won't have internet at the house for quite a while, and access will be unpredictable at best. I will be much easier to get in touch with if you send letters (snail mail...old-fashioned) or call, instead of emailing, after I get moved out to our house. (End of August)

Well, that's the update. :)

The Best County Fair Ever

Well, it's that time again...county fair time! We actually didn't go last year, so it's been two years since our last fair visit. I think I always say this, but....the fair is a lot of fun...once a year.

No more than once a year. :)

Although, I think this was the best fair yet. And it wasn't because the rides were great, the food was any better, or really anything that actually had to do with the fair itself. We (my family and I) were standing there by the mule pull, and I turn around and see this drop dead handsome thing walking towards me.

Yeah. He's mine. Be jealous.

I don't sound scary or possessive or anything, do I? Oops.

Let's back up a bit. Mom took a few pictures of all of us looking like we were having a grand time at the mule pull. See?

Dave... (who got on a Greyhound again last week, bound for MS and then ND and then MT)

Dad and the other boys...

And me, being ever-so-photogenic...

Ok, so now we're up to speed.

After the mule pull we went to ride some rides on the way to the food concessions.

This happens to be the first picture taken of us since being engaged. :) Is that redneck? The first picture after the sealed deal being taken at the county fair...right after watching the mule pull? Right before watching the monster truck crush cars? Naaaah. He doesn't look so happy here (he didn't know Mom was taking the picture) but I still like it. I like my look of adoration. It's rather stuck there. :)

The boys rode this flying thing first...

Then me and the little boys (one of which is taller than me...) rode this thing...it spins and Dave can't handle spinning things, and neither can my fiance. ;) He was very mature and no fun at the fair. ;) I'm kidding...he's always fun...he just doesn't ride the scary stuff.

The boys and my honey slid...

The boys and I rode the Freak Out, which is pretty much the only big scary ride at our fair. And it's not that scary. Jacob thought it looked very unsafe. I think he was worried about my well-being. That, or really concerned about the mental stability of his girl and what he's gotten himself into. ;)

Then we all rode the ferris wheel. Mom handled it slightly better than the Dollywood ferris wheel. She didn't scream this time. Jacob handled it too...it wasn't too bad. 

Titus got some cute pictures of this cute couple. I think I laugh too much.

Awwwww

They made me ride bumper cars. I didn't want to.

Dave and I rode this swing thingy that took you up really high and swung you around. Very thrilling. Also considered to be very unsafe by my significant other. "What if those chains break???" 

Then we ate supper and watched this monster truck drive over these cars. That was something else. While very entertaining, I'm glad my man doesn't have hobbies such as this. ;) Very redneckish. And unsafe. Much moreso than a swing. :)

After that, we walked around and rode more rides (actually just the same ones over again...cheesy fair!) and Jacob bought the two of us some cotton candy. I took advantage of the chance to practice an upcoming event. ;) He did it too...Dave just didn't capture the moment. :)

It was a great evening...doing stuff and spending time together is just wonderful. And that's that.

Fudge Brownies

Hey, look...I'm posting a recipe! It's been a while, hasn't it? I really need to dig up my archives because there are a gazillion (that's a lot) recipe posts on there that I should repost. It's just a lot of work and not very fun, so I haven't had the inclination to do it. Besides, my time online these days usually has other direction...starts with a W.

So anyhow, how about some fudge brownies? They're yummy!

Ok, so I decided to get all the ingredients out and make a picture of that. That's fine and dandy, if you remember all the ingredients. So here's a picture of about 3/4 of the ingredients. Blond.

So, start out my melting together 1/2 cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar. I split the sugar and used half regular and half brown. I put it directly in a skillet to melt them together.

I had an issue when I measured out the butter.

The only other butter I had was frozen at the time, so I made it up with lard. Mmmmmm.

Get that melting all together...

In the meantime, mix together 2 eggs, 3/4 cup cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper...I'm just kidding...1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon or so of instant coffee and 1 tablespoon of vanilla...

Cocoa...

Salt...

Baking powder...

Instant coffee...whaddya mean, that's not a teaspoon???

Vanilla...

Now whisk all that together. Hahaha. Very funny. That totally did not work.

So I added another egg. What could that hurt a fudgey brownie?

Better.

Now, my sugar and butter mix has melted together and I removed it from the heat and let it cool a little. Use a bigger spoon than I did, will ya?

Caution: when removing metal spoons from molten sugar/butter, spoon will be hot. Caramelized sugar particles will stick to your fingers and burn the living fire out of you. 

Just saying.

So, add that stuff to the eggy, cocoa-y mix. Making up words is fun.

Mix that all up well...or until blurry.

Now stir in 3/4 cup of flour...

And 1 cup of chocolate chips. Now, I have a fundamental problem with dirtying more dishes than necessary,  so I just heaped the 3/4 cup measuring cup I'd already used. :)

 Pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish...

Spread it out nicely...

Lick the spoon. Sorry, forgot to get a picture of that step. 

Now bake at 350* for 35-ish minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick or knife or whatever sharp thingy you stick in it comes out relatively clean. The chocolate chips will be gooey so it won't ever been all the way clean. And you can decide how fudgy you want it...take it out a little earlier if you want. I left mine in too long. :(

And I forgot to get any more pictures of it after I baked it. Hey, give me a break...I had company. ;)

Check Out This Giveaway!

There's a giveaway going on over at Fresh Modesty and I would encourage everyone to go check it out and sign up!

:)