The New Addition to the Family

 

RJ decided to surprise by coming three weeks early. My water broke early on Friday and we were excited thinking we were going to get a Friday the 13th baby. But he surprised us again and wasn't born until 5:01 Saturday morning (I have to admit this surprise was not as fun for me...). For the most part every thing went well with the delivery. But about four hours after delivery, they nurses checked his blood sugar and it was dangerously low so he was rushed to the NICU. He has been in the NICU since then but he is doing well, he is eating well, he is responsive, super adorable (of course I might be biased) and we cautiously hoping he will be coming home on Thursday. 

Pinterest and Too Much Time On My Hands or the Quest to Finish the @#$% Quiet Book

   

     For those of you not aware, I have been taking a break from working until after the little munchkin gets here (partly because it took so long for the Bar results to come in and by the time they did I was already 5 months prego but for a few other reasons). This means that for the first time since I was 12 I have not had at least a part time job, this has been interesting experience for me since I am essentially a stay-at-home mom with no kids. So what do you do with your time, you ask? Well, thanks to the wonder that is Pinterest I get delusions of grandeur and forget the reality that is my skill set. I found this great quiet book idea at Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows and thought, I can totally do that!

    I totally forgot that 1) I really don't like sitting at a sewing machine for hours at a time and 2) I really have no sewing skills, no really, it is one of the few crafts I have been unable to master. But me being me, once I start a project I am dang well going to finish it!

    So, three weeks later...I am not even kidding this thing took that long between all the small pieces to cut out, double sew and hand sew on it took me that long to finish it. All I have to say is that RJ better LOVE this book and hopefully (fingers crossed) he doesn't destroy it within three months of actually using it.

Jillian and Joe are Married!

I can't believe my baby sister is married! Luckily I like Joe a lot or else I wouldn't have been okay with it! I don't have the photos from the actual wedding yet, just the bridal photos we took earlier so we could display them at the wedding reception. We had an AMAZING photographer and I HIGHLY recommend him, he was easy to work with, got us the photos back super fast and he did an incredible job! His website is PhotoSynthetix , he is new to the wedding photog business but don't let that stop you from hiring him.

Jill decided (and I was totally jealous because I wanted to wear it when I got married but it didn't fit me) to get married in the same 1940s dress that our grandmother, Fae and our mother, Julie, were married in. Because she decided to wear the original dress we decided to go completely vintage on the theme for the wedding and thanks to the amazing efforts of Kay (and everyone else who helped) it was fabulous!

Instead of going with the traditional flowers, Kay made this amazing bouquet using some old costume jewelry (some was Grandma McArthur's, some was mom's and some was mine from my beauty pageant days), fake pearls, and some new jewelry that looks old.

Those of you who know Jill well know that she loves wearing her Converses so when we started talking shoes she had her heart set on ordering a custom pair from Converse. I argued against it but obviously I lost and Jill got her custom shoes with her wedding date on them.

She looked amazing and so much like Mom! I can't believe she is old enough to get married, I swear just yesterday she was 8. Like I said, once I get the photos from the actual day I will post them.

Colby and I are Expecting!

If you aren't friends with me on facebook (or haven't seen me in a little while) you might not be aware that Colby and I are expecting our first child in October. RJ will be joining our family in the next couple of months and we can't wait for him to get here! (Yes, we have a thumb sucker!)

Jillian's Bridal Shower

It has been an eventful last couple of months! We held Jillian's family bridal shower April 25th when I happened to be in town to help with the wedding preparation. I am always so glad when we have an occasion that brings the family together.

It was great to see everyone's little ones, to catch up in person (and not just a the quick statuses read on facebook) and to help Jill celebrate the beginning of this next big step in her journey. Jill received some needed household items and some items that made her blush but I am sure made Joe happy after the wedding. :-)

New House finished

We are finally in our new house, it has been a long road of choosing granite four times, deciding on flooring and hoping and praying that the vision in my head would match how the house really turned out. I think it turned out fabulously! (but I am a bit biased) I thought I would share with you the before and after photos (so you can see how big of a transformation it has been)

The house originally had two front doors, we aren't quite sure why but needless to say I had them remove one (I refused to bounce back and forth between the two doors whenever anyone knocked). As you can see in the picture below, they added a window and bricks and you can't tell that a door was there once. (They yard still need some TLC but most of that will have to wait until summer is over and it isn't 101 degrees at 9:00 am). We also had the exterior repainted, the roof re-shingled and the roof fixed (it leaked in the masterbath when we bought the house. We also had them remove the swamp cooler that wasn't hooked up to anything but was on the roof (we have central a/c that was also mounted on the roof).

One of the biggest things we did to the house was to remove two walls that separated the living room and the kitchen and the kitchen from the dining room. From what we can tell about the house given the records and decorating style, the house was originally built in 1947 and then added on to and redecorated sometime in the 70s.

Because the wall we had removed was load bearing they installed a beam in the ceiling so we could open up the front room, making the three rooms one great room. This is what sold me on the house. The kitchen is really the heart of the house, it is where family and friends gather to eat, chat, and spend time together.

So had the wall removed, redid the kitchen cabinets, replaced the appliances, added the island and had them build a pantry with an unnecessary part of the hallway. I don't know if you can tell from the photos but the outside of the island is also cupboards. 

When we bought the house the master bathroom roof had a leak in it that had been allowed to just be so the roof was falling in and the bathroom was all nappy. We had them gut the entire room and start over (after fixing the roof).

When were deciding on the Master Bathroom layout we decided to enclose part of it and make a walk-in closet.

They also tiled in the standing shower (which I think looks way better than it did before) but I will admit there isn't a ton of room to move around in it.

We had them install a pocket door between the bathroom and the closet so we wouldn't have to worry about a door swinging open and shut. This has turned out to be a fabulous idea since Smokey Joe likes to hide in Colby's clothes that hang low, getting cat hair everywhere, and we have to keep the door shut to keep him out of there.

The original closet in the master bedroom was an interesting built in unit with doors and sliding glass doors. Because we added the walk-in closet we had them tear out the closet to give the bedroom more square footage.

The master bedroom isn't the largest bedroom in the house and the bathroom is an obvious add on so I suspect it was not originally the master bedroom.

That is most of what we had done, the other rooms are so filled with boxes right now that I am not going to post photos of them. The main room I need to add photos is of the sunroom (which is one of my favorite), the sunroom is going to be my library (hooray!) but since we have only been living in the house for less than two weeks it is not put together yet.

Graduation from Law School (or finally done)!

Life has been very hectic lately, besides everything going on the house, I graduated from law school. It has been a long road and the last three years have been really tough but I finally did it (or more appropriately, Colby and I did it because I couldn't have done it without his help and support and ability to keep Mountain Dew in the house at all times)!

We were very blessed to have family members travel down to celebrate this exciting time with us. After the incredibly long and boring ceremony (and of course it was done alphabetically so I was 5th from last, yep, gotta love having a last name starting with W) we had a grill at Colby and I's house. Initially I was disappointed because I had hoped we were going to be in our new house for the party but then I realized it was fitting that finish off our last hurrah at the small little house we had spent the three years of law school in.