One year later- Before and After

 Exactly one year ago today my sweet hubby and I closed on our first home! I seriously can't believe its been a whole year, it has flown by! Ironically enough, we also started working on (and almost completing) the final room in our house this week, the nursery. Its taken a year but every room in our house has paint, curtains, and furniture! We still have some bigger projects we hope to complete one day (the kitchen, floors on the main level, backyard, etc) but all of those are put on hold for the moment until after baby girl arrives and after we make a trip back to Australia to visit family. So, for the most part most of the rooms in our house are complete, other than a piece or two of furniture, some light fixtures here and there and some blinds in a few rooms. We have done so much in a year I really can't believe it. When I say we, I mean mostly my hubby! He has spent countless hours painting and working on the house. I've done my part too with the help of my momma, but he certainly has done most of the "heavy lifting"! Its crazy to think that 18 months ago we moved back to the US with all our belongings in 4 suitcases, lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment and now we have a house complete with furniture and all!

This week was my spring break so my mom was here helping me do some spring cleaning and organizing, as well as work in the nursery. I can't believe after only living in our house for a year we've accumulated junk that needed to be cleaned out, but we had! We also got a lot done in the nursery, finally! I've been so impatient to get started working in that room so it was fun to finally be able to see our vision come together. That room is still a work in progress and should hopefully be complete in about 2 weeks.

So enough small talk, here are the before and after pictures of our DIY dream home...a year later! (I apologize for the poor quality, half were taken with my iphone, which I love dearly but it doesn't compare to a real camera!)

Dining Room- Before

Dining Room- After

This room was a big job mostly because of the wallpaper. We changed out the light fixture, curtains and of course paint. We still need to order and install the blinds for this room and my hubby is going to build me a buffet/cabinet one day we'll change out the floors, but for now its done.

Downstairs Den- Before

 Downstairs Den- After

This room was probably one of the biggest changes and challenges! We hated the wood paneling so we knew we would paint it, but I had the hardest time being able to see it. The whole room was painted, beams, shelves and everything! It is painted the same color as the dining room. Its a cream color with a hint of yellow (this photo does not do it justice!) I believe it is called Napery from Sherwin Williams. We wanted clean, warm colors in our house and this one looks great in this room! The only projects left in this room is to order and install the blinds and paint the back doors (not pictured). 

Living Room- Before (from front door)

 Living Room- After (from front door)

We didn't have to do a lot of work in this room other than painting and adding blinds/curtains. We went with accessible beige from Sherwin Williams on the walls. We will change out the floors one day after baby girl destroys them :) This is going to be our family room or play room for the kiddos or at least that is what we are planning on. Its on the main level with the kitchen and dining room so we can easily block off the stairs with baby gates to keep the kids contained. We tried to think kid friendly when picking out things for this room and arranging it. My hubby is going to build a shelf that will go opposite the couch that will be more storage for kid stuff and we'll mount a TV above it one day. 

Living Room- Before (from dining room)

Living Room- After (from dining room)

Same room, just a different angle. This room is ridiculous long and a little on the narrow side. It took a while to figure out the best way to arrange it. Yes, we have a wall of clocks. One is set to local time, another is set to Australian time and one doesn't have batteries in it :) It seems silly to have a clock set to  different times, but it sure it helpful sometimes when we're trying to work out a time to Skype with family overseas! 

Kitchen-Before

Kitchen- After

Kitchen Eat in- Before

Kitchen Eat in- After

Kitchen- Before

Kitchen- After

We still have quite a bit of work to do in the kitchen. All we did after moving in was paint (we're doing grey, yellow and white, the grey is useful grey from SW) and added a refrigerator. We plan to put hardwoods in (the whole main level), refinish the cabinets to be white, change out the appliances and backsplash/counter tops, light fixtures, etc. So, this is no where near complete yet, but it is livable for now! 

Master Bedroom- Before

Master Bedroom- After

Once again, I feel like my little iphone camera doesn't do any justice to the colors in the room, but oh well. This room just needed paint, a new ceiling fan and some blinds. Thankfully they had put all new carpet in before we bought the place. This is one of my favorite rooms in the house. The walls are a pale sea green (called livable green by SW) and our bedding we found at Pottery Barn had the exact colors we wanted. We really wanted a simple, peaceful bedroom and I think we got it! I opted for shelves instead of bedside tables, as much as I love tables I always clutter them up for some reason, so shelves seemed to be a little more practical, plus we don't have a headboard, so with the shelvers and wall lamps I wanted to create some sort of headboard wall without actually putting in a headboard.

Guest Room- Before

Guest Room- After

This room was another easy room to work on, just needed paint, blinds and a ceiling fan. The walls are the same beige as the living room (accessible beige from SW). This is kind of our catch all room. There really isn't a theme or anything. The furniture is mix matched, some of it was my childhood furniture my parents gave us. The bedding is blues, beige and grey that we got as a wedding present, but since we switched to a king size bed we couldn't use it in our room anymore. And this is the only room in the house that is allowed to have red. When I was living on my own several years ago, I loved red! My apartment had tons of red decor. Well, hubby was not a fan of red...so this is the only room in our house that you can find some of my old "red" decor items. Its also the room that has a lot of my artwork from Europe and other places I traveled before getting married. So, its kind of our mix matched guest room, but I love it. 

So, there you have it a before and after of most of our house, a year later. The only room I did not include is our nursery. We have about two more weeks until that room is complete and I think it deserves its own post. It may not look like we did a lot in a year, but we really did. We've been on a tight budget, but we've been able to create the perfect, simple, peaceful home that we both wanted. I still can't believe it is ours and can't wait to bring our baby girl home to our DIY dream home in a few months!

Playing catch up

I've said it before, maybe one day I'll be better at keeping up with my blog...that day (again) is not today. Oh, well...thats life. And boy is it busy! We have been so busy the last few months, so here is a quick recap. 

In November, we announced we were expecting our first child! We of course found out way earlier and man it was tough keeping that secret! We also hosted Thanksgiving at our house in November. There is nothing that makes you feel more "adult" than hosting a holiday for your family at your house. It was so much fun! It was just my immediate family, grandmother and aunt and a close couple friend of ours. I am super bummed I did not take one single picture from that weekend. But in my defense, I was fighting morning sickness and the exhaustion that comes with the first trimester, cooking a huge meal and entertaining guest. It was a great first holiday in our new home. 

In December, we jetted off to Disney World for Christmas with my family. I do love me some sunshine and warm weather in December! Disney World isn't the most exciting vacation destination when you are 17 weeks pregnant, but we still had a blast. I just did more sitting around while my hubby and brother got to ride all the non-pregnant friendly rides. It was so nice to have a week away with my hubby and family. We got to spend Christmas day with relatives that lived in Florida as well as some long time family friends. We visited Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I'm pretty sure Epcot was the guys favorite because they got to drink beer in every country. We did lots of outlet mall shopping, sleeping in late and laying by the pool at our resort. It was a wonderful trip, just what we needed!

Apparently this was one of the few pictures I took of my parents...I promise, they were there!

In January, we had our big anatomy ultrasound to find out what baby Fowler would be! I've been saying since day 1 that I thought we were having a girl but we were still so excited to finally find out! We had our appointment on a Tuesday and were planning a party that Saturday for our family and close friends to reveal the gender, however we decided to find out at the doctor. We wanted to find out first, just between us. I'm so glad we did because it was nice just the two of us knowing for a few days. Although, it was SO hard keeping that a secret from everyone else! People at work kept driving me crazy and I had to stop talking to my parents and a few girlfriends for a few days because I was afraid I would spill the beans. I wanted to go a different route for our party. I had done so much searching on Pinterest and there are so many good ideas out there but since we already knew the gender it was more about sharing it in a unique way for our family and friends. One of my friends gave me the idea we ended up doing. I bought several onesies and dyed them the appropriate color (pink or blue), wrapped them up for our family and friends to open. We had everyone in the living room and my in-laws and cousins in Australia on skype and had everyone open them at the same time to find out. And its a GIRL!!

Once again I wasn't so great with the picture taking. I was busy holding the ipad for my cousins to watch, while my hubby was holding the laptop for his family. I did get this great video of my parents opening it. I'm pretty sure my mom was the first one to find out. She immediately ran upstairs and came back down with a pile of pink goodies. I asked her if she had a pile of blue ones too in case it would have been a boy, she said nope! We are so excited to meet our little girl in a few months! Her name will be Evelyn Grace and we'll call her Evie. We didn't know it at the time we decided on the name, but Evelyn was my husbands grandmothers middle name and my great grandmothers name. We picked a family name and didn't even know it! 

In January we also celebrated my handsome hubby's 34th birthday! I had my Kindergartners make the sign and I baked the cake. Well, it was an ice cream cake courtesy of Pinterest, so there wasn't any actual baking required. We celebrated with friends and dollar burgers at one of our favorite restaurants. I'm so thankful to call him mine and I look forward to many, many more birthday celebrations together! 

I can't really remember February, which is sad because it just ended a few days ago! We've been busy preparing for our baby girl. The nursery is painted and we have a crib, and thats about it. Well other than her closet being half full of clothes already! My mom has been working on sewing stuff for the nursery and she is actually coming in town this weekend to help me make some progress on it. I've felt pretty good since my morning sickness let up when I was about 17 weeks pregnant. Its true what they say, the second trimester is magical compared to the first! I've had some trouble on and off with my blood pressure, but we think its mostly stress related from work...yes, teaching Kindergarten can be stressful. When I was about 20 weeks or so, I got hit with carpal tunnel which unfortunately has not gone away. I tell you what, pregnancy is crazy! There are a lot of weird symptoms that I never knew about before I got pregnant. But really I can't complain, I feel like I've had a pretty good pregnancy overall. Some days are tough and uncomfortable but overall I've been very blessed. In fact she is kicking up a storm as I type this and there isn't any better feeling than that!

The next few months are sure to be a busy whirlwind! My best friend from high school is coming in town later this month for my baby shower in Memphis, I'm helping host a few baby showers for friends, my hubby starts his new job, childbirth classes, end of the school year craziness, etc. And before we know it the end of May, first part of June will be here and so will our baby girl! 

I will most certainly not let another 3 months go by without an update. We've finished some big projects around the house, so I fully intend of a before/after house update soon! As well as a nursery post and baby prepping. Until then! 

Our "little" announcement

 First comes love...

 then comes marriage...

then comes baby!

Yep! We are expecting our first little one, who as of our last doctor visit, is due to arrive June 6th. We are so excited, overwhelmed, nervous and thankful to begin this next chapter in our lives. I am almost 13 weeks, so I can see that wonderful light at the end of the first trimester tunnel! Since this is my first pregnancy I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I would say I've had a pretty tough first trimester...or maybe I'm just a wimp! I've had pretty much all the 'textbook' pregnancy symptoms, mornings sickness and all that jaz. But thankfully I've started to feel better the last several days, well except for the bronchitis and sinus infection I came down with last week. 

We have been to the doctor twice and everything has looked great! We even got to hear the heartbeat at both visits. There is no better sound in the world than that beautiful little heartbeat! We are just praying that our little one continues to grown and develops right on track. We look forward to meeting him/her in June! We will be finding out the gender of baby F, I'm hoping it will happen at our next doctors visit in a few weeks, but it may be our next one depending on if baby cooperates. It has been so much fun to share our news with friends and family around the world. We look forward to sharing more about our growing family over the weeks and months to come!

It's beginning to look like Fall!

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year! When living in Australia I really missed have 4 seasons. Of course they have 4 seasons there, but not like here! Everything is green all year long there,

so no leaves changing colors and falling off the trees. In summer it's hot, in winter it's less hot, but not freezing cold like it gets here. And there certainly were never any snow days...at least not where we lived by the beach! 

I love fall in the south! Pumpkins, mums, beautiful colors, cool crisp air, and I can't forget candy corn and peanuts. It certainly is one of my favorite times of the year! It's finally starting to feel like fall at our house. My mom came to visit this weekend and brought lots of fall decorations to let me use to decorate since we are hosting thanksgiving at our house this year. We also visited a local nursery to pick the perfect pumpkins for our porch. 

We also got a lot of things checked off our "DIY Dream Home" checklist and got a few big projects started. More on that to come!

writing it down

 A very wise man, also known as my daddy, reminded me yesterday that I needed to write things down. I used to be so good at that. The whole reason I started blogging was during my first year of teaching. I remember calling my parents and telling them some of the ridiculous things that happened in my first grade classroom those first few years of teaching and he said I should really write some of those things down, and I did for a while.

The situation that I was telling him about last night happened yesterday. Fridays are crazy in my kindergarten classroom. I mean, seriously I have no idea if its what they feed them for breakfast or what but I feel like Fridays are always crazy! The day ended as usual dismissing the bus riders and daycare kids followed by me walking my car riders out front. A few minutes later a lady from one of the daycares came out to find me to ask if one of my little ones was here today. I said of course and that I sent her to daycare at dismissal. Well she didn't make it there. This particular little one is a little bit...or a lot on the sneaky side. Well she decided she was going to ride the school bus home even though she's never been a bus rider! With the help of one of our parapro's I started running and chasing down buses as they were pulling out of the parking lot, finally we found her. And boy did she get to hear my mean voice and I'm pretty sure she got to hear her grandma's mean voice too when she got home because she wasn't too happy when I called to tell her what happened.

There is never, never a dull moment in Kindergarten! That is what i've learned so far this year. My kids are a wild, crazy bunch but can be oh, so sweet when they want to. Even though teaching can be a challenge and sometimes I want to pull my hair out, but they really are amazing little people that I'm so thankful to have in my life for the next 8 months or so. I'm sure I will have many more stories I should write down over the next several months!

New school year, new adventure!

 A few weeks ago I began my 5th year of teaching and my first year of teaching Kindergarten! Yep, you read that correctly! Two week before I was suppose to start back to work I was told there would be some changes to my position as a GT Specialist and I would no longer be able to work full time at my school, so I would be split between two schools. I wasn't super excited about the thought of spending my time between two schools and all that comes with that. I had a few different options and one of those was to go back into the regular classroom. As much as I enjoyed working in GT there was a huge part of me that really missed being in the classroom and having my own group of kids, so back in the classroom I went! 

The last week of summer and the first few weeks of school have been a whirlwind of moving into and setting up my new classroom, learning a new grade and curriculum, but I am loving it! Being back in the classroom certainly has its own challenges but I know this is exactly where I'm suppose to be. I'm getting to work earlier in the mornings than I ever have before and staying later than I'm used to but I'm finally getting the hang of things and settling into my new position, so hopefully these long hours won't last forever! 

I'm still trucking along with my graduate degree. I'm taking one class this semester, had to drop one because with starting my new position I just couldn't handle 2 classes and a new job this semester! I only have 5 classes left to go. I would say I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but graduation still seems so far away! 

Our house is coming along! We really have been making some progress and now that the weather is cooling off we hope to get a lot of work done in the backyard so we can enjoy it!

Here is a glimpse of my new Kindergarten classroom...my home away from home!

the lake

Do you have a favorite place? You know one of those places that when your there it instantly feels like home. One of those places that always puts a smile on your face. One of those places that holds so many good memories. For me that place is the lake.

When I was about 14 or 15 we went to the lake for the first time. I don't remember a lot about that trip. But a few months later my parents purchased a house there and so began our weekends and summers at the lake. We spent countless weekends there when I was in high school. My parents were great sports putting up me and my wild bunch of friends! In college i'm pretty sure we were there every weekend, since it was only 45 minutes away. It was our escape from dorm life and a free place to do laundry! One of the first weekends my freshman year, my suite mates and across the hall suite mates all went to the lake. I remember being a little nervous because we were all still getting to know each other and wasn't quite sure how the weekend would play out, but it was one of the best weekends. It was the start of a great friendship between me and those 7 girls. Throughout college the lake was our favorite place to be! I remember skipping class, maybe once or twice...driving to the lake with some girl friends in the middle of the week, taking the boat out and enjoying the peace and calm feeling of having the lake to ourselves...until the dance party on the boat began. 

Then after college when I moved to LR the lake became our escape from the "real world" you know, being grown ups with full time jobs and all that stuff! We celebrated birthdays there, had amazing bonfires, saw some of the most beautiful sunsets, and made so many amazing memories over the years. To this day are some of my favorite memories. There were also some memories I would love to forget, like the time my cousin and his friends had an accident on the seadoos and not only did we have to call the paramedics to come out to the boat (don't worry he only had a few broken ribs!) but I also had to call my dad and ask him how we could take the seadoo back to the marina when it was floating in pieces in the lake. Then there was the time my friend was having a little too much fun and busted his chin on the seadoo and we spent the afternoon in the ER. 

When I was living in Australia, I missed the lake. I know...crazy! But for me the lake feels like home. I had some of my best growing up years there and so many of my favorite memories were made there. For me the lake feels like home, I feel like myself there and its one the most relaxing and beautiful places. 

We don't get to spend as much time at the lake now days. But this past weekend the hubby and I, and my parents got to spend a few days together, in one of our favorite places. We didn't do a lot, but it was the perfect weekend.

As you can tell, Marley really loves the lake too! It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend that we all needed.