A year ago

 Today I'm feeling a little sentimental...or maybe nostalgic, so continue reading at your own risk :)

Today is July 3rd in the US and the wee early hours of July 4th in Australia. It was exactly a year ago we were snug in our beds at the Wyndham in Sydney, probably not sleeping because we were so excited about leaving to go to the US that morning! I think July 4th was the perfect day for us to travel to the US. Most people would say Christmas or Thanksgiving would be at the top of their list for their favorite holiday, mine is July 4th! What can I say...I love summer time, BBQ's, fireworks, etc!

We didn't decide to make our trip to the US on July 4th because it was my favorite holiday, but more importantly it was the cheapest day to travel that week! But it couldn't have worked out any better.

I really can't believe we've been here for a year! We left Australia with 2 suitcases each, excited for our few months traveling in the US, not knowing all the blessings God had in store for us. Not only is it the anniversary of when we moved to the US, but it also just a few days before our 2nd wedding anniversary! We have had quite the whirlwind in our first 2 years of being married, but thats deserves a whole post of its own.

I'm so thankful God brought us to the US, just like I'm thankful he took me to Australia. We have been so incredibly blessed in the last year and settled so well into our new life in the US. My heart is extra full today!

Hello, summer break

As of 4:00pm yesterday I am officially (and finally!) on summer break! For most, summer break started 2 weeks ago but I thought sitting in ESL Academy for 13 days straight, 10 hours a day would be so much more fun...not! But I survived! All I have left is a lovely portfolio to complete and turn my paper work into the ADE and I will be ESL endorsed. 

I've know about the ESL academy for years, when I used to teach in LR and I've played around with the idea of getting my ESL endorsement for a few years, and finally decided to go ahead with it, since it will make me more marketable as a teacher and it may come in hand one day if we ever live overseas again.

It was the craziest, most intense 13 days...ever! In fact after the first day I came home in tears telling the hubby I couldn't do it. He sweetly reminded me that I could in fact tough it out and also reminded me of that lovely pay raise that comes with it, can you say motivation?!

Thankfully I had some friends from school there to suffer with. We started around 7:45 ever morning and ended around 6 every night. We had speakers everyday, some days more than one. Some were great, some were painful to listen to. I related ESL academy to flying overseas...For 13 days we were stuck in a room with no windows or contact with the outside world! There were 116 of us crammed in a not so big room, 3 to a table...I was in the middle "seat" the food was not so great, and it was freezing! Ok, so. It exactly like flying overseas but I promise there were some similarities! 

So, hello summer break! Can't wait to see what kind of fun we'll be getting into :)

Master & Den before/after...finally!

We have had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Anytime you get 3 days off from work is bound to be a good weekend. Our weekend began with a camping trip to Petit Jean, but that will be a whole other post! Yes, this girl went camping and slept in a tent for 2 nights!

When we returned to Little Rock we got to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents who came to visit. My mom and I hit the ground running,trying to finish up a few rooms in our house. I'm so thankful for my mom and dad. They have been a huge help to us with our house! I've had a lot of ideas in my head for the house but my mom is so great at putting my ideas together and making them come to life. This weekend we finally finished a few rooms and I'm so excited to share them!

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom after

I love how our master bedroom turned out! We wanted a relaxing, beautiful, clean space and I really felt like we achieved it. When we chose paint colors for our house we knew we wanted neutral, clean colors but we still wanted some color! We picked this green for our master bedroom from Sherwin Williams, it was called liveable green. I love it! We built the whole room around this color, which was a bit of a challenge. I found our bedding at the Pottery Barn outlet store. We opted not to put bedside tables in our room. For a few reasons, really...I couldn't find any that would work with our big room, but also I had these ladder shelves that I couldn't find the right spot for them anywhere else in the house! I love them because for us they are more functional than bedside tables. With the shelves, the wall mounted lighting and the many pillows I figured we could get away with not purchasing a headboard for a while. I made the framed artwork above the dresser from an old calendar with scenes from Italy. We still need blinds in the master bedroom, and the whole house for the matter but other than that, this room is complete! 

We've also been working on our downstairs den, which was a huge job! The painting took quite some time. But my amazing hubby has worked so hard on it and it turned out SO well! Here you go...

The downstairs den before

Downstairs den after

I feel like the lighting is all off in some of thee pictures, I guess that's what I get for only ever using my phone to the photos. 

Again, I'm loving how well this room turned out! Since we have 2 living rooms, we wanted this to be our main, cozy tv living room. We painted it the same as our master bedroom. We bought our white (yes, white...don't worry we bought the fabric protection!) from Hanks Furniture. My mom made our curtains from drop cloth. I love all of the special touches in this room from our wedding and my moms Pinterest creations! Again we still need blinds, a coffee table and a few other things but this room is mostly complete. 

I'm so thankful for our house. We love having a space that is ours and we can make our own. It has been a wonderful journey so far! 

A little "before & after"

I was looking at photos earlier of our house when we first moved in. It already looks so different! So I thought I really needed to share some before and after pics. Its so weird to see what it looked like before. Of course I remember it like that because thats how it looked when we were contemplating buying it, but now it feels so different, it feels like our home.

 Once the house is completely finished (at least up to my standards) I'll post a big update with all of the before and after pictures, but for now ill at least share some of the changes we've been working on!

Looking at the eat in kitchen from the dining room.

Eat in kitchen, from a little different view, but you get the idea. 

We decided to do yellow and grey for our kitchen. Most of our house is neutral/natural colors but in the kitchen I wanted a little pop of color, but still wanted it to flow with the rest of the house. The curtain fabric is from Target, and it is actually a table cloth my mom turned into curtains! She is amazing!!

Forgive the mess in my kitchen! At some point down the road we will paint the cabinets white, put in new counter tops, subway tile back splash, new appliances and hardwood floors...all this will be a ways down the road!

This is our guest room before...

And after...

We didn't have to do a lot to this room, mostly just paint, furniture and curtains. Since we got a new king size bed, we just used our queen bed in here. My parents also brought us over all my bedroom furniture from their house, so we've mixed and matched a little around the house. We still need to order blinds, for the whole house but for the most part this room is almost finished!

My mom made these awesome drop cloth curtains!

This is a little surprise...I made myself a "office" in the closet in the guest room. It's a huge walk in closer, that we really were not going to use. I was wanting a little area (but not the size of a bedroom) to organize some of my school stuff and work on grad school stuff. It's the perfect spot...still a work in progress though. There is still plenty of room in the closet to the left for guest to hang their clothes, and the bedroom has a dresser so all I have to do is close the doors when I don't want to look at my mess!

This was my latest project in the master bedroom this weekend. I can happily say that our master bedroom should be finished this weekend! I actually took a old calendar of Italy to make the 6 framed pieces. Such an easy, cheap project but it fits in that room perfectly, up against the green. So here is a sneak peak of that room, the rest you'll have to wait for my next update! 

making progress

If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last month since we became homeowners, is that we had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into! Ok, well maybe my husband knew a little more than I did, but I was so busy and focused on understanding the process to buying a house (paperwork with the bank, inspections, insurance, etc) that thinking about all the little (and big!) things we would want to do to the house, was the farthest thing from my mind. Buying, becoming owners and fixing up a house is a journey! For the most part it’s been exciting and a lot of fun, at times stressful when things don’t go as planned. We have already learned so much throughout this process; there are so many things I would do differently next time, or things I now know to look for in the next house (i.e.-buy a house with good windows and blinds!) but we love our house and we love getting to make it our home, even if it’s going to take a while. We’re practicing patience…or my husband would say…I’m practicing patience.

One of our biggest painting projects for the house was painting the downstairs den. It was a HUGE job, but my amazing hubby took his time and it looks amazing! We are still working on putting that room together, getting the shelves back together, curtains made, our new furniture arrived, etc. My goal is to just get one room finished. I think i'll feel a lot better after that happens. We have made a lot of progress with the house and a lot of the rooms are almost finished, but I would love to have just 1 room completly finished! Once we've made a little more progress, I'll post a lot of before/after pictures of the house.

Den-BEFORE (Painting)

 Den- AFTER (Painting)

My husband has been working so incredibly hard on our house! I love being able to see him do something he loves and I know the finished product, even though it may take a few years, will be well worth it! I'm excited to be able to have friends and family over for cookouts and parties, looking forward to having houseguest now that we finally have a guest room, and I love knowing that the "spare room" is going to get to be a nursery some day. Its so nice to finally feel at home and settled, after several years of not feeling that way. 

The house is taking up a lot of our life...but we still have a lot going on! Ben has been working part time for a contractor, which has been such a blessing. We are still looking for full time work for him, but in the meantime, God has blessed us so much with Ben being able to work part time and still be able to work on our house.

I have finished my 2nd semester of grad school! I'm so thankful to have a few weeks off before summer classes start. So far I've made straight A's the last 2 semesters, which I'm kinda shocked about, but so excited! When I started grad school in the fall I was a little concerned about starting that and a new job and having just moved back to the US and dealing with immigration stuff and how I would be able to handle everything, so I'm extremly proud of myself for doing as well as I did. I have 2 more GT grad classes to take this summer to complete the course work for my GT endorsement for my licensure, however I'm also taking 12 other graduate hours via the ESL Academy through Henderson State University. Yep...it's going to be a crazy summer for me! But it will be worth the pay raise next year, plus I'll have 2 new endorsements for my teaching license, which professional I feel is a good move.

We placed membership almost 2 weeks ago at Little Rock Church. The journey to find a church home in LR was long, but we are so thankful that God lead us to Little Rock Church. We have made so many good friendships there already and we really look forward to getting involved and building new relationships through the church family. I'm thankful we have found a place we can grown and to know that when we have kids they will be surrounded by such a loving and encouraging group of people. 

I can't believe the school years is winding down, although there is a little part of me that is SO excited it is! I love my job, but these last 9 months or so have had so many big things going on it will be nice to have a break from work and have one less thing to think about, for at least a few weeks. 

Alright, my lunch break is up...time to get back to work. More house updates and photos to come!

house update & my 90 day challenge

 I've been a slacker with updating about the 'house' progress, but lets face it...I have a full time job, plus moving and getting settled into a house could be considered a second job, so I've been busy. We are loving it though! Most of it...except all those lovely little things you discover about your house, that you didn't think to check or relize when you were looking. Oh, well...to late now! I think when buying a house you should be able to spend one night/day at the house before closing on it. I know thats weird, and when it came down to it I probably wouldn't actually want to, but there is so much you don't really know when buying  house until you are actually living there. Thankfully, we haven't run into anything major, just things that are going on the list that we didn't think of at first, or in some cases things that were on the list that have been moved up to the top. For example, in our master bath we have this old exhaust fan that has a heater built into it and its on one switch, so when its on both the heater and fan are on. Its old and lovely, and works ok. But I'm just thinking ahead to summer, when its already hot outside I'm really not going to want to have that heater/fan on after I get out of the shower. Also, although it works ok...apparently my hubby and I like much hotter showers than the former owners becuase when we shower, the wallpaper has started peeling off the walls. Yep. Which in some ways is great, beacuse at some point we were going to take it down. Oh, the joys of owning a home!

The painting is almost complete! My hubby is finishing the downstairs den as we speak, then we need to take the wallpaper down in the dining room and our bathroom and paint those and then we are finished with the painting! Until we decide to tackel the paint on the outside...but that is a ways down the road. My mom is in town this weekend to help us make some curtains, hang some things, etc. She is AMAZING! Its nice having our own personal decorator! We have/had some good ideas, but my mom is so great at helping our ideas come to life. I can't wait to see what it looks like by the end of the weekend, I'll be sure to share pictures!

So, changing gears a bit...I'm starting my 90 day weight loss challege today with Body by Vi! I had never head of the 90 day challege before, until sometime last year I think right around the time we moved to LR, a friend of ours in Texas had been doing it and she looks amazing!! I still don't know of anyone close by that is doing it, which sucks a little bit, but I know I have a great network of friends and family that are always supportive whether it be via email, texts or in person. I'm really excited to see where this adventure will take me over the next 90+ days! I feel like I have always struggled on and off with my weight. I think when we got married we both got a little "too" comfortable if you know what I mean! Plus with everything we've had going on in the last year since moving here etc, we've had a lot of stress which has not been good for me or my body, and it shows. We kind of decided when we bought our house, that it was going to be a fresh start for us and for me I really wanted to work on me as a part of this fresh start. And a huge part of that is losing some weight! I've done it before, I can do it again and I'm excited to be apart of the 90 day challege to encourage and support me as I reach my goals. As for goals, I'm still working on the specifics! But overall I just want to be healthy and lose weight, mostly for myself but also for my husband and our future kids, our family. God has given me a beautiful life and a beautiful body. I need to make sure I'm treating this body he blessed me with, well! So I can live and enjoy this beautiful life he has blessed me with! 

If you want to know more about the 90 day challenge, please let me know! I would love to have a friend join me for encouragement and accountability!

Moving Day!

I don’t particularly like moving. I mean, who really does? I think I’m good at moving…all the packing, getting things organized and utilities set up, etc… but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it. My good friend, Kristi can tell you…I was just not with it on Saturday, which was our big moving day!


The last 10-11 days since we became homeowners have been a blur! We spent most of last week packing, moving little bits here and there, picking pain colors, cleaning, painting (ok, yes the hubby did MOST of the painting!) oh and yes, I worked all week and it was testing week! So by the time moving day got here, I was already exhausted!

We had some AMAZING friends come help at all different stages during the move! We could not have done it without them! And of course my WONDERFUL parents! They brought a U-Haul trailer from Memphis with furniture to fill our giant house, the rest of my stuff we had been storing at their house, and all of my childhood belongings! We seriously have the best friends and family, ever.

We are slowly, but surely unpacking and trying to get settled. Our house is still a BIG work in progress. We got about half of the house painted before we moved in, so we still have a bit to go. There are a lot of little projects here and there we want to do (changing light fixtures, etc) and some big projects (adding retaining walls to the backyard, re-doing the kitchen, etc). There is a part of me that just can’t wait to have it all done and by done I mean, unpacked, decorated, and labeled, but I know this is going to take some time, so I’m just trying to relax and enjoy the process. In the meantime I’m spending a lot of time on Pinterest, plotting/planning what each room will look like! And I’ve got enough boxes and plastic tubs to go through from my parent’s house to keep me busy for a while. One of my goals for our home is for it to feel warm and inviting, and functional but not cluttered! I’ve done cluttered before and I refuse to do it again. Just because we have moved from 700 sq feet to almost 1,900 sq ft does not mean I need to fill our house full of “stuff” or as my husband puts it, “We don’t need to have a picture hanging on each wall!” He’s right…sometimes :)

We will be having a garage sale with some friends in May. Hopefully we will be able to clean out some junk and make some money!

I’ll try to update soon with some photos of our work in progress. In the meantime I can’t wait to see what else home ownership has in store for us…hopefully no more toilets overflowing, which lead to my hubby having to rip carpet out of a bathroom at 10:30 at night! Yes, that really did happen, and yes it was our 2nd night in the house! Good thing we were planning on ripping the carpet out of the bathroom anyways…so this just gave us a jump start (and why on earth would someone put carpet in a bathroom anyways?!?)