Florida

This last week Grant and I took a break from rotations, work, and house to head to Florida!!  Grant was able to work extra hours during the first three weeks of his rotation so that he could have the last week off!  We headed down on Friday night ready for sun and relaxation.

 

The weather wasn't all that great the whole week.  I think I only wore my bathing suit about three times and took my cover up off once.  However, I haven't seen the sun in who knows how long, so I still somehow managed to get a good burn going after the first day.  It rained a couple days and we had 20 mph winds a couple days, so there was plenty of relaxation time!  I read through almost the entire Divergent series (very good!) while we were there.  We haven't had cable at our house since the hardwood hasn't been laid, so it was luxury to be able to get up in the morning and turn on the TV!  We slept in, worked out, read books, shopped a little, went to the movies, ate well, watched the NCAA tournament, and got a little sun!  It was perfect!!

 

My grandparents came down to their house on Monday, so we went to dinner with them on Tuesday night and then grilled on Friday night and watched the Cats play.  I think Grant and I have almost had about 15 heart attacks this last week watching them in NCAA tournament.  It has been SO exciting!!  We are now onto the Final Four!! Whoo hoo!!!  And Grant won $180 in the bracket pool he was in! Bonus!

 

I didn't take very many pictures, since it was just the two of us, but I snapped a couple a long the way!

 

View from the beach on the first day we were there...ahhhhh

 



I did all of our packing this year. lol!  Grant had no idea why two people needed so much stuff :)

 

Coffee and Cable made for some happy people in the mornings!

 

This is the view from my grandparents condo.  LOVE!  This was one of the pretty days!

 

And this this is what happens when you don't wear sunscreen on the above pretty day...whoops!

 



Before dinner one night.  We thought we pulled off the mirror, peace sign, selfie pretty well! Ha!

 

Lots of time for silliness!

Rene and I ready for the game in our UK Blue!

 

 We went down to the pool on Saturday for a bit before we headed back to reality.  Of course it was beautiful!!

 



While we were gone we got the call the our hardwood CAME IN!!!  Hallelujah!  We spent Sunday getting everything ready so that Ray could start on it early this week.  We had to clean the dust off of all our furniture and get everything out of the living room and bedroom.  We laid the mattress out so that I could vacuum it off, and I couldn't help but lay on it!  It's been almost four months since we have gotten to sleep in our bed!  It was heavenly just to lay there for a minute!  So happy that we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.  Once the hardwood goes in this week, then we will be able to move all of our furniture in, organize or clothes, get cable, and really start to settle in!

 

CAN'T WAIT!

 

We had a great week relaxing in Florida, but now its back to normal.  Grant starts his LAST rotation tomorrow, and I am in Nashville this week for my LAST closing week at work.  I can't believe it is already April!   

 

 



Happy Everything

One thing I have realized while decorating our house this go around is I have a major obsession with Coton Colors.  It's a problem....and maybe a little out of control??  Nah...That's not possible!  I just love all the bright colors, the personalization, and how it helps you decorate for every season! 

 

I've had my big platter and most of my big attachments for years.  I asked for that one year for Christmas before Grant and I even got married.  I've had the chalkboard for awhile as well.  The rest I just HAD to have to complete our home!  Grant always gives me a little eyebrow action when we get a package and it says Coton Colors!

 

My sister-in-law is very creative and always has such cute chalkboards in her house.  She inspired me to get a little more crafty with ours.  Usually it just has some random phrase on it or some important dates coming up.  I searched around on Pinterest, put a few ideas together, and came up with this design for our March chalkboard.  I think I'll try to continue this for each month throughout the year.  I never really thought I needed the four leaf clover attachment, but now I'm kind of wishing I had it!  #attachmentenvy

 I used Chalk markers from Hobby Lobby.  They make writing in chalk so much easier!  Pretty proud about how this turned out.  I only had to erase and redo a few dozen times...

 

 We have this random open nook in our cabinets that I thought would be perfect for our recipe books.  But what recipe collection is complete without a cute recipe box to match?!  I'm justifying it by the fact that I now have a lot more time to cook, therefore I have more recipes, so I need a good box to keep them all in. :)

 

 Grant got me this little gem for Christmas this year.  Loved it!  It goes perfectly on our counter tops right by the sink.  Since it takes mini attachments, I think I'll have to start investing in a few more of those for the upcoming seasons!

 

 My big platter I absolutely love.  It's been a part of my kitchen for the last 6-7 years probably.  I love how you can change it up to match the season.  When I saw this new house attachment, of course I had to have!  Perfect for our new home :)

 

My mother-in-law knows me well and got me this cookie jar for Christmas.  Lucky for me, this house attachment is getting retired and I got it for under $10!  That's a steal!

 

If you are looking for a cute item to fill up a space in your kitchen, or really anywhere, I highly recommend!  My dream one day is to open up a gift shop.  I most definitely will be carrying Coton Colors, and Grant will be happy when we can start getting everything at cost :)

 



Another Random Catch Up

We've been busy bees these last few days!  I've turned into a terrible blogger, so I'm having to revert to another random catch up!  My bad!!

 

This first week of March I headed back to Nashville for closing week at work.  Even though I was there for work, it was nice to be back in the city, do some shopping, and get to hang out with some of my very favorite people.  Grant was so jealous that I got to have dinner and hang out with Lindsey and Curt while I was there!  We had so much fun just catching up!  Hopefully we will get to see them again soon.  Missing our weekly meals with them has been one of the worst parts about leaving Nashville!

 

Me and my Nashvegas, BFF :)

 

We are STILL waiting on our hardwood (long story) so we haven't really been able to get much further with the house.  I am dying to start hanging stuff on the walls, but we can't really do that until we know where the furniture is for sure going to go! So frustrating, but hopefully it won't be too much longer.  We did inherit Trent and Lisa's Mini-Van for the past couple of weeks, while ours is getting repaired from hitting the deer.  Not only is the van super family friendly, it can haul off a bunch of trash!  Thanks Trent and Lisa :)

 

Carpet, empty boxes, scraps of wood...the mini does it all!

 

I have made a little more progress in the kitchen decorating department.  We have ordered a table and hutch that should be in in the next couple of weeks, and then we will be able to hang somethings on the walls and be ready for the blog transformation post!  Here are few updates that I made this week...





I finished off the little office area on the kitchen counter to keep our bills and invitations.  I'm always getting things in the mail that I want to keep and remember, but I hate having them clutter up my counter tops.  I found this little mailbox envelope thingy at Target and it works perfect!

 

Recipe books above the office nook!

 

We've had a couple of really awesome weather days lately.  Grant got off of his rotation a little early one day and we hit up the walking trails at the park and tried to get a little sun.  Fun times relaxing and soaking up the spring warmth!

 

Our high school girls basketball team made it to the state tournament, so Tuesday and Wednesday we made trips to Bowling Green to cheer them on!

 

Tucker and I living it up in the Suite he snuck us into :)

 

We ended up losing the second game, but making it to the Elite 8 was awesome!

 

We spent some time with Megan, Tyler, and Monroe on Saturday night and again Sunday afternoon. 

Monroe loved the Mexican restaurant!

 

And he helped us cheer the Cats on the SEC Finals!  Isn't he the cutest in his UK gear?!

 

Grant has been working extra hours this rotation so that he could have the last week off and we are headed to Florida! Whoo hoo!  I've got to somehow dig out my summer clothes and bathing suits from the trash bags they are in in the garage, but I'm ready for a vacation!  We are leaving Friday, so hopefully we can just make it through this week! 

 

 

 

Laundry Room Transformation

It's been a little over two months since we closed on our house, and we just completed the first room this week!  I still might hang a couple things around, but for now, the laundry room is done and ready to go.  For some reason I didn't get very good before pictures - like only one - so you'll just have to use your imagination.  This is the transformation of the room!

 

So this is my only "before" picture.  Whoops.  I promise I have lots more of the other rooms :)  You can see they had a beautiful laundry room themed border up, yellow on the walls, that beautiful light fixture, and white linoleum on the floors.  They took their washer and dryer so the space below the cabinets was empty (and nasty).

 

We took down the border immediately, cleaned everything...about 45 times, replaced the two light fixtures (there's another one you can't see), changed the knobs on the cabinets, changed the door knobs on all three doors (entry from kitchen, pantry, and hot water heater), painted all the wood works white, replaced and painted the moldings, painted the walls, painted the ceilings and painted the shelves in the pantry, and bought a new washer and dryer.  I know...this is only one room.  See why we're still working on it two months later!!

 

 Instead of paying the $20 for Home Depot to install the washer and dryer for us, Grant thought he could do it himself...that's him crammed in behind the dryer trying to figure it out.  A little over two hours and few trys later, it was hooked up and ready for use!

 

 LOVE our new washer and dryer!  We went with the LG top loader.  So far, so good!  The best part is it plays a song when it's done instead of one of those annoying beeps!

 

Ta-Da!  The finished laundry room!  This is as you walk in from the side entry door.

 

Same thing here - just ignore the box on the floor and the khakis on the dryer :)  Picture on the right was before I put the words around the bulletin board.  The door by the bulletin board is our pantry.

 

One of my favorite things we've done so far!  I love having pictures around and having places to display them.  We have been blessed with great friends and family!!

 

So, one room is completly done...check!  We just got word from the place we bought our hardwood from that it should be here next week.  Once the hardwood gets in, we'll be able to get more organized and hang things on the walls in the main living areas.  I can't wait to have a couch to sit on, a TV to watch, and MY bed to sleep on! 

 

 





Mathis Family vs Deer

Well, we had an eventful and interesting weekend! 

 

We started out by taking Kem and Ray and Kevin and Melisa Baker to Patti's for dinner on Friday night.  Kevin and Melisa have worked hours at our house these past couple of months.  They painted our bedroom and bath, the half bath, the upstairs bath, and one of the upstairs bedrooms.  They have been awesome!!  They are definitely two of the most selfless people I have met.  They wouldn't accept any money and then almost refused to go, but we finally convinced them that they had to come to dinner and let us pay for it!  Of course Ray has helped us with all of the floors and base, and Kem has been on the cleaning crew, so buying every one's dinner was the least that we could do!  We had a fun night out spending time with everyone away from the house!

 

 

Saturday the weather was beautiful!  We got out of the house and went to watch Grant's little cousin, Walker, play basketball, and then went to Gabbi's game to watch her.  Afterwards, we went back home, sat on the back patio, got some sun, and cleaned off some things that were in the garage and brought them into the spare bedroom.  After cutting all of the tile and the boards in the garage, where all of our furniture was, everything is covered in dust!!  It took three-four cleans before they were presentable enough to even make it into the house.  They will probably all need another clean before they get placed in their final spot!  We cleaned enough and organized the garage enough that I am now able to get my car in.  Yay!

 

Saturday night we went and hung out at the Parker's house for a while.  We ordered pizza and just sat around and talked for most of the night.  Fun times!  We left their house around 10:45 to head home.  We got off at our exit and we were about 5-6 miles from our house.  I was not paying attention and was playing on my phone when I heard this loud boom!  I panicked thanking that someone had come over the center lane and side swiped us, but it was a deer!  The thing came out of nowhere and literally tore our front up to pieces!  We pulled over to assess the damage and were able to make it back home and get it the driveway.  The next morning when we went out you could see deer hair stuck everywhere - yuck!  With Grant and I's luck we weren't really that shocked, just one more thing to add to the to-do list this week!

 

 

Grant was hoping it would total our car and we could get a new one!

 



We saw the deer laying in someones yard on the side of the road on the way to church the next morning.  Dumb Deer!!

 

Sunday night our church hosted a youth service for area youth groups.  It was an awesome night of praise and worship.

 

Jeff doing the beginning "ice-breaker."

 

Besides the car getting beamed by a wild animal, we had a great weekend!  Lots of time with friends and family, pretty weather, and getting some things done around the house makes for a pretty great couple of days!

 

 

 



Valentine's Day/Our Weekend

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Friday, Grant and I spent a pretty low key Valentine's Day at our new house!  We just started sleeping there this week, so we were still pretty excited to be staying there on Valentine's.  As soon as Grant got home from his rotation, he cooked us one of his specialties, Chicken Marsala.  Yummy!  I made a Oreo cheesecake dessert.  It wasn't my best dessert I've ever made, but it was my first attempt at cheesecake so I gave myself a pass! Bad blogger moment - I didn't take any pictures on Valentine's Day...whoops!  Anyways, Grant got me some socks I had been wanting, some chocolate, and the biggest Valentine's Day card you have ever seen.  It was hysterical!  I got him some filters for his K-Cup machine that let you use regular coffee (not just the kcups) and some candy.  After our dinner, we finished the night by sealing our tile for the second time!  Fun times :)

 

 

Saturday morning, we slept in for a little bit, and then got ready to go drop some big bucks!  Our two last big purchases for the house that we needed were the washer and dryer and a kitchen table.  My mom and grandparents volunteered to help us with the table, chairs, and buffet piece.  Thank you!! We have definitely been blessed with some great help during this process.  We headed to Faegan's Furniture to look through their books and get one ordered.  I finally decided on the one below.  LOVE it and can't wait for it to come in.  We got the table and six chairs (not the bench) and the matching hutch.  I think it's going to look just perfect in our dining/kitchen area!

 

After we finished furniture shopping, we headed to Paducah to look at washers and dryers.  Tucker went with us most of the day and got to see how much fun it is to own your own home...lol!  If you know anything about Grant, you know how cheap he is, so it was quite the experience to shop for major purchases with him.  Tucker and I were so embarrassed at one point, we had to just walk away!!  However, we did get a good deal on a great washer and dryer.  They are getting delivered in a week!  I've never been more excited to do laundry!

 

Tucker's modeling our new dryer for us :)

 

Saturday night, we went to Trent and Lisa's to eat pizza and watch the Cats lose to Florida...ugh!  Then Sunday, we got home from church and worked around the house before heading to Kip and Blair's to play with baby Lovett.  I was able to bring in a few things from the garage to put on our counter tops.  It's actually starting to feel and look like our house now.  Sneak peak into the decor are these very special framed recipe cards from my grandmother.  My grandmother has always been a great cook, so I thought it would be neat for her to write down a couple of her favorite recipes and frame them for our kitchen!  I think it turned out great!

 

 

It was so nice to actually have some time to enjoy this weekend!  It feels like we haven't been able to interact with normal people in forever! Ha!  We are hoping to finish up a couple more things this week while we are STILL waiting on the hardwood...





Catching Up!

We've been so busy with everything lately, it's been almost a month since my last post! Crazy!  Quite a bit has changed on the home front, we went to Maryland for Clay's birthday, I spent about four days in Nashville for work, and it's been a blizzard in Kentucky the past couple of weeks!  This is a random, quick update of what we have been up to!

 

Around the last weekend in January, we headed to Maryland for Clay's birthday.  It was nice to get away from the house for a couple of days and spend time with family.  Kem, Ray, Grant, and I flew out on Thursday night just in time for Clay's birthday on Friday!

 

This was the view from Courtney and George's back porch!  They had gotten about 8 inches of snow before we got there!

 

We played lots of football!

 

And got to be there for Clay's sports themed birthday party!

 

We had a fun weekend with Courtney, George, and Clay celebrating.  I can't believe he is 8 years old!

 

This is what Kentucky has looked like the past couple of weeks. Yuck!  I need some sun in my life!!  Lots of ice, a little snow, and the kids have been out of school all of this last week.  Grant and I managed to get our car stuck in a field at one point and had to be pushed out, so the we've just been enjoying this weather so much!

 

This past Friday night, we went and hung out with Megan and Tyler and baby Monroe!  He slept almost the entire time we were there, but he is precious!  We both got some good bonding time in with him!

 

Look at those cheeks!

 

I spent part of my Saturday at the oldest laundry mat I have ever been in!  We don't have our washer and dryer yet and Kem and Ray's is broken!  Fun times :)

 

STILL snowing here!  Yesterday at church the boys starting throwing snowballs at the building trying to knock the icicles down...boys!

 

We spent most of last night cleaning up around the house and then got to move some furniture into the guest bedroom.  That means we can start staying there! yay!  It is actually starting to feel like home :)  I'll save the most recent pics until a later blog post - that way I will be able to keep them all together.

 

Funniest picture from the past few weeks is this one Grant!  Sorry, he is in his boxers :)  This is reason #1651 why I don't want a dog anytime soon!  We were in charge of babysitting Kem and Ray's dog, Rimmy, last night.  She peed in the floor while we were getting ready for bed, so Grant had to take her outside in the snow with no clothes on. HA!

 

 

We've had an extremely busy, but productive, last few weeks.  Can't wait to blog about the house and compare the before and afters!  It's getting close!!