Missing the rain

After a quick phone call from my mother, I decided to go to AZ. What is it about mothers? They almost always know the perfect things to say.  It helped that one of those things was, "we got the AC fixed".

I was able to surprise my grandparents at their 60th wedding anniversary party. It was great and I'm so glad I got to do that!! I'm here at my parents house now. We have been playing lots of games, I've been visiting family and friends. I even went camping with my parents and sister.

Pulling a camp trailer, my dad drove us in his SUV for 3 hours to get to the camp site. When we finally got there we were the only ones around. There were lots of trees (they smelled really good) and birds and ants and flies. There were dried up creeks and streams. I could tell it used to be really pretty there. My sister said it looked like a totally different place than last time they were there.

So much of AZ is dry, dusty, brown and hot right now. Even worse than I remember. I haven't been here during the summer since I moved away seven years ago and I don't think I'll be back again. It hasn't rained in months and it needs it bad.

The camp site was in the mountains, but it was still about 95 degrees during the day. The wind would blow a bit and it was almost bearable in the shade but still fried some of our brain cells and made it hard to play games that required a lot of concentration.

When the night came and it was drastically better. The temperature went down and tons and tons of stars filled the sky. Stars always get me. I love them. And I've never seen them better than I have looking up into an AZ sky.

We stayed for two nights and decided to go home early. Camping just isn't want it used to be. It was nice to go though. It's been about 10 years and now I know I still like it, as long as it's not too hot.

I love spending time with my family here in AZ, but I don't miss the state. It used to hold such a large part of my heart but that is almost all faded now. I love NC so much and I miss it. I miss my house and my husband.  As sad as it will be to say goodbye in 11 more days, I'm looking forward to my green state and rain. I do miss the rain.

I love our house!

I haven't had much to say lately. I can only write, "I love our house!" so many times. I feel like anyone who reads this blog are sick of hearing about it. :)

But... I love our house!! We've been here for over a month now and it's already my favorite house I've ever lived in (besides the home I grew up in, nothing will ever compare to the wonderful loving environment my parents created for us in that home).

We've painted the entryway, living room, and kitchen a nice light grey. The dinning room is a darker grey and my office sports stripes of white, greens and gold. You can get a peak into my office if you read this post that I published on my business blog. The colors are pretty random in there, I was inspired by some frames I found at Khols.

Speaking of my business blog, if you clicked over for a peak did you notice the new blog/website design? I changed it a few weeks ago and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Nearly as much as our house (well, not really but it's in second place behind it). The navy and pink combine in my mind to make purple. Purple is my favorite color.

If you are in need of some graphic design (logo, web, blog, illustration, print, ect.) please contact me using this super cute page of the newly redesigned website! I would love to work with you. Or anyone you know for that matter. Pass us on please!!

Our new house

We bought a house! It's a new construction and hasn't been built yet so instead of posting pictures of the house (or the empty lot) I'll post pictures of our plans!

Here is the floor plan we choose. In the kitchen we went with the island and optional cabinets. Part of the cabinets will have a built in desk. There will be a wood deck off of the nook. The second floor will have stairs to a third floor. The third floor is a going to be a large open room with a huge closet for storage.

The closing date is projected for Feb. 28th of next year. That's 4 months away but with all the upcoming holidays I'm hoping that time will go by quickly. I'm so excited, I've already decorated the first floor!

This is my decoration plan. It's rough but should give you a good idea of what I'm thinking. Box #1 shows the selections we made at the design center - carpet, hard wood floors, cabinets, and granite. Box #2 shows the color palette, pulling from the finishing, wall color (the background of the boxes) fabrics and furniture.

******UPDATE******

I've switched the color to a plum purple color and I'm in love!!

Apex in the spring!

I just love North Carolina (yes, I am a broken record).We live in Apex and it's perfect.

Right now it's SPRING!! Spring is great. The trees turning brilliant shades of white, pink and purple. It looks pretty much like this, in some spots.



Plus it's still wonderfully chilly outside. The AC doesn't need to be on. I sleep with a blanket. Our nightly walks around the neighborhood require jackets.

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Not looking forward to summer, but not thinking about that right now. Looking past it to fall and then winter. I hope we get snow!

One week from tomorrow

My AZ Christmas trip was fantastic! Celebrating the birth of our Savior is always great and I just love spending time with my family. They really are THE BEST. :) Plus, I caught up with a couple friends too, which was fun!

The day I was to fly back home I got a call from Hubs informing me he was in the hospital. His heart was acting up again so they gave him some meds and let him out shortly after. All this heart trouble is so scary. But I'm grateful it hasn't been any worse than it has. And I was very grateful it happened on my last vaca day instead of the first; I was actually able to enjoy 2 weeks without worrying about anything - love that!

Since I've been home I've been busy taking care of Hubs of course, catching up on work (DreamUp Studios) and cleaning/packing. It sucks to be back in reality world. That or I'm just incredibly spoiled. Probably the later.

We found a nice town home to live in for the next year up in North Carolina. We've only seen pictures of it, and not that many, but our Realtor saw it in person and assured us that it's nice. We'll see. I'm very anxious to check it out and praying that it has good vibes and quite neighbors.

Do you realize how many boxes it takes to pack up a three bedroom house? A LOT!  I'm actually all out, so off to the store I go to get some more. One week from tomorrow and we'll be on our way to our new digs.

Hope everyone has a super great holiday season!!

Help me choose a guest design?!

UPDATE: And the WINNER IS???? #2. Thanks everyone for your input!!

I can't think about our new house without my mind wondering to decor. How am I going to decorate it?? For the most part we are using everything we already have (red couches, dark wood, slate blue, brown and moss-dark greens). But that still leaves one bedroom and bath completely empty. These rooms will be for guests till we have kids, then we will add a nursery (classic Winnie-The-Pooh) to the bedroom.

Empty doesn't work for me so I wasted all day yesterday trying to figure it out and I ended up with 4 different looks. Hubs likes #2 and 3 but says it's my choice and I keep going back and forth. Can you look at them and help me decide???? Here they are (everything is from Walmart, Target, Ikea or Kirkland's - trying to keep the price as low as possible):

We don't really care about having it match the rest of our house. We just want something that will make us smile when we see it, and something our guests will feel comfortable in.

Which, of the four options, should I choose??

9 days

I've been so nervous lately because we were having a hard time getting a hold of our mortgage loan guy. He was suppose to schedule the appraisal for our first home a couple weeks ago and hadn't. I felt like we were going to loose the house. It sucked!

But we finally hear from him and the appraisal on our first home is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm probably even more nervous now since my hope has been mostly restored. I WANT THIS HOUSE!! Cross your fingers and toes that the appraisal goes well and we are able to close in time.

UPDATE: The appraisal came back for exactly the amount of our contract. Yippiee!!!

We did it, our first bid on a house - ever!

Hubs woke me up at 7:30 this morning. I was so tired but I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed, threw my hair in a ponytail and off we went to our Agents office to put in a bid on a townhouse. Eek!! I am so excited but nervous. I REALLY want this place - I totally feel in love and have already started decorating in my mind (but I'm trying not to admit that, just in case). 2-5 days has never felt so long. Wish us luck!!

Thank You!!

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Just wanted to threw a quick Thank You out to everyone who commented on my last post. A lot of great advise was shared. It was 100% agreed that we should look for a house outside our ward (aka. comfort zone). That was enough to push us so we are doing it. We've contacted an agent guy so hopefully we can get this ball rolling.

Looking for a house - part one

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My husband and I are looking for a house. We are currently renting and it's getting old. We need a bigger place, a place of our own. Since house prices are so low right now it's the perfect time for us to buy. The only problem is finding the right house and mostly finding the right area.

In our church we have what we call wards, basically the group of people we go to church with every week. The ward we are in depends on the location of our home. Make sense?

Right now we are in a really great ward. We have grown to love the people in our ward and have made many friends. So of course we would like to stay in our ward and have been looking for houses within the ward boundaries.

Here comes the problem - there are very few areas within our ward boundariesthat we would consider living in (there is a lot of crime here in Orlando). This makes house hunting HARD!


So hard that we are starting to consider moving outside our ward. There are a few places closer to my husband's work that look nice, plus it would mean less travel for him (his round-trip commute is currently 2 hour) which would be nice.

But we would have to go to a new ward. New people to get to know. New friends to make. What if we don't like any of the new people? Is it worth the risk??

So I ask, what would you do? Should we stick to only houses we can find in our ward or should we look closer to Hub's work???

Making my home SING!!

*Just wanted to give a little shout-out for everyone who has commented and followed my blog so far. You have made me feel so special. THANK YOU!!*

Now, today I want to try a MEME. I found one that I really like, something I believe in and might enjoy doing. It's called "Making Your Home Sing! Monday" and it's hosted over at Mom's The Word. What we do is answer this questions: What are you doing or going to do today to make your home sing?

With encouragement from this meme I'm going to do something that I've been putting off for weeks - TAKE DOWN THE CHRISTMAS DECOR. Yep, that's right, I have yet to take down our Christmas decor. Even our tree is still up. Do any of your still have yours up (please make me feel less lame)??

I LOVE Christmas and I hate to see it go, plus Hubby and I have both been sick and haven't had much energy to do it. But no more excuses. Today is the day. Wish me luck!