1/2 Marathon

On Sunday, my sister ran the 1/2 marathon in Atlanta. This was her second year doing it... such an accomplishment! She trained so hard and had a great race. I was really glad that we got to be there to support... and even happier that we were on the sidelines and not in the race, haha. :) Here are a few pics from the morning.

You can almost hear it, "Matt! Hey Matt, hey!" 

 So sweet!

Mom and Charles got back from their cruise the night before and came out to support- so sweet :)

Here comes my sister on the right in the blue.

 She almost ran right past us... we were yelling so loud but she was in the zone!

 Yay! She saw us right before she ran by!

Maddox skipping on his way to get a new balloon. :)

That's what I call motivation! Love this. :) 

:)

And last I leave you with a picture of Matt after he got back from a real estate reception last week.  Unfortunately, spouses weren't invited, but he was too cute to not take a picture of!

We have internet!

As sad as it may sound, a house doesn't fully feel like a home until you have TV and internet.  So as of yesterday, we are finally feeling like this is home!  Praise the Lord that the guy could finally finish everything before the NCAA tournament starts this Thursday.  And before Clemson plays in the play-in game tonight at 9:00.  GO TIGERS!  We may or may not have traveled to many places over the last three weeks trying to mooch internet or TV.  But that's what happens when the sweet lady that lived here before us only had connections for a 1950s phone line.  Here is a shot of one of our many trips to the book store:

(Okay, so we actually just like going to the bookstore and probably would have done this whether we had internet or not... hence Matt reading and NOT using the internet :) )

Not having TV and internet though has given us time to really settle. I feel pretty excited about how things are looking!  My parents brought us furniture that was in the house I grew up in for one of the guest bedrooms. They were our first official guests. :)

And here's the finished product of the living room and guest room!

Finally, last night we had two of my college roommates and their hubbies over for The Bachelor finale (such good sports our guys are!). 

Need a Contractor?

Don Goff: 770-369-6336

Let me start by saying we gain nothing from telling you how amazing our contractor was for us. He just deserves to be advertised!

We have been in the house for almost a week now, and every day we think to ourselves or say out loud how thankful we are to have found someone like Don Goff.  Don is the contractor who gets all the credit for our house.  Literally, we would not have even purchased it if it were not for him, which is why we want to tell everyone about how wonderful he is!

Don works extremely hard and is excellent at what he does.  He was so attentive throughout the entire process and made us feel like he was just taking care of us.  We knew so little about renovating, and probably asked LOTS of questions! ...but Don never hesitated to answer every last one.  He explained things well and did far more for us than we expected.  We were so lucky to find him!  So if you have ANY job that you need done at your house, big or small, call Don Goff!

We're In!

After lots of sweet help and teamwork (I can't believe I didn't take pictures...we had my mom, Matt's parents, us, and Don all working to make it come together!) over the weekend, we spent our first night in the house on Sunday! Tanner and Caroline stopped by while we were moving and brought a house-warming bottle of champagne... so sweet! The next surprise came from Steph and Dustin, who left a little gift at our back door... a Yankee candle and Home Maintenance book- perfect!  Y'all are so sweet!

We've spent the last two nights unpacking and organizing, but we did manage to have our first home-cooked meal- spaghetti (pasta of course!).  Matt's a good sport...pictures are always more fun when people are in them :)

Last night we had chicken quesadillas in between tennis and basketball...wow, it sounds like we have kids.  But I will say it's so nice to be back in the area where all of our activities are!  It feels like so much time is added back into our days.

We've laughed the last two days because we both just look around constantly, taking it all in.  This place was a project for so long, and now it's finally home!  It was well worth the wait.  But a HUGE part of why the wait was easier was because we had Matt's parents taking us in and making their home ours.  I don't think our time with them could have gone any better. I am really blessed to have such sweet in-laws!

So here's where we stand:

Welcome mats make a house look homier!  Thanks, mom!

Guest Bedroom #1

Guest Bedroom #2  

(Furniture for these rooms will come this weekend or next... one thing at a time!)

Living Room

Laundry Room

And last but not least... we finally got carpet and finished the master!!!

 That's all for now!

DIY Memories

Before it got too cold, we spent a few weekends giving a 'lil "TLC" to the outside/front yard of the house.  Praise the LORD that we have incredibly thoughtful and helpful families, because we had (and needed!) LOTS of help!   You know, people say that there's a sense of pride when you do things yourself.  Well, at the risk of sounding like a snot, I have to say, after experiencing both sides (hiring and DIY), I'm pretty sure I feel just as good seeing a finished result without the labor.  Terrible, I know.  However, I will say, the memories you make are way better when you do things yourself. :) Here are a few pics of the adventure(s)!

Please notice that the bushes could qualify as small trees, and the "ivey" (yes, that's right, the shrubbery on the right side of the picture is in fact ivey) could hide a large animal.

 Matt vs. Massive Root... after an impressive battle, Matt won.  This is his victory picture. :)

Love this!  Stage one: removing the ivey.

 Surprise!  There is a really pretty stone wall that lines the whole driveway!

My first experience with a power tool.  It's quite fun!

Look at the wall!

I swung this thing maybe 20 times when I was having my own battle with a root in the backyard... it is HEAVY! But I don't like to lose (or ask for help), so I paid for it the next morning. Thank goodness for manly muscles. :)

Love. This is my sweet Noah, always ready to help. :)

 My other love, Maddox. :) And I quote "Mine!  I NEED it! No, I do, Noah!"

One of the sweetest parts about being five is no matter how little you are actually doing, being a part of the action feels like such an accomplishment.  He was so proud!  And I of course loved the help. :)

 Yay!

This is awesome.  So we had no idea how freezing it was going to be on our work day.  Thank goodness, my mom had an awesome 80s wind breaker that my sister could wear. Ha! I repeat: awesome.

If I could only share a video of the next thirty seconds as I pull forward in the jeep and see my mom disappear from sight in my rear view mirror... and then pop back up yelling "STOP! STOP! The chain came off!!!". Hil.ar.i.ous! We all died laughing, and fortunately no one got hurt. Definitely a memory from this DIY project.

I'm sure our neighbors loved us for this massive amount of debris.

Getting ready to put up the shutters. Matt painted them for me to give them a glossy finish instead of a matte look. Lesson we learned: When you buy plastic shutters, you have to prime first. We'll repaint those when it's warm again. :)

:)

I hate that I don't have pictures of Matt's dad digging the path for the walkway, or Matt's mom laying the brick outline and placing the slate pieces just so. Matt had a tennis match in the morning and I left the camera in his car!  Hopefully the before-and-after pics show that this path was a sweet labor of love.  Thanks M and D! 

Yay! What a difference!