The Home in Edmond

now this post is REALLY long overdue!  I have been meaning to share our home with you for hmm...about 6 months now!

the home that we purchased was a HUD home.  HUD homes can be a bit unpredictable...you never know what kind of condition that a hud can be left in!  our realtor from tulsa found us this home online.  with hud's they are put up for "bidding" and have a deadline.  he found this house and the bidding had 24 hours left until it's deadline.  so we had only seen pictures of this home online before we put our bid in!  talk about "walking by faith"!  the company accepted our bid, so the home was ours!  now it was time to see it in person.  here are some before pictures...

Outside--the weeds were awful in the front flower beds!

Looking from the living room into the kitchen.  (the walls in the kitchen were pewter and shimmery!!!)

Kitchen and leading to the laundry room and door leading to garage.

Master bedroom....carpet was awful.  it looked like it had been lived on for 20+ years
when the home is only 8 years old.  

Guest bathroom/Brynlee's bathroom (the walls are a mixture of pewter and gold paint mixed together--it's REAL nice!  the owners (or renters) had an interesting choice in paints!)

Office (or i guess they used it as a nursery looking at that lovely blue color)

Master bath

Guest bedroom

hallway leading to 2 bedroom and guest bathroom 

Brynlee's room

looking out "breakfast nook" window to outside (there is not much of a backyard at all)

So, the house needed some work, but it was not in that bad of condition compared to some other hud homes we had seen.  it needed some fresh paint in every room (walls and ceilings), new carpet, and a DEEP and I mean DEEP cleaning!  needless to say, we kept our offer and got the house!  

before moving in we had great help from some great friends, my dad, my mom who watched Brynlee so that we could work on the house, and my sister, Shannon, and her husband.  it was a lot of prep work but well worth it!  

the house is in a great neighborhood, we are on a cul-de-sac, and we are in a great school district (for when that day comes).  Chad is also only 4 miles from campus so that is really nice.  

the next post will be "after" pictures... (i still need to take some of those!  ;) )

Christmas 2012

sorry I am so behind on this blogging thing.  it takes more time and planning than i had planned on!  i'm trying to catch up on a few....so here goes!  

Christmas 2012 was definitely a Christmas to remember.  Brynlee was so much fun this year.  she thoroughly enjoyed opening gifts.  she was so excited to receive gifts.  and she has actually played with most of what she received!

to start our christmas off, we began at home with our family of 3.  my favorite time was watching Brynlee open her stocking.  she took each thing out one by one and looked it over and then moved onto the next item.

it seemed the theme of gifts to Brynlee from us this year was "cleaning supplies".  we gave her a toy vacuum and a broom and dust pan set.  she was thrilled with both though!   i hope she clings to that love of cleaning!  

we continued christmas festivities with a trip to tulsa where we stayed through christmas.  a tradition that family started last year was to have "Christmas Minute to Win It" games and compete for a prize!  last year Chad one an automatic candy dispenser.  this year was yet another win by a male--Neil Krone!  he won a Lowe's gift card.  we are pretty competitive when it comes to games.  the best part of this type of game is that the kids can be involved also!
  
Brynlee is playing "Face the Gingerbread Man" (you have to use only your face muscles to move the cookie from your forehead to your mouth).  My sister, Amy, and her son, Reuben, are playing "Snow-Caps."  My sister enjoyed (maybe a little too much) throwing marshmallows at her son!  He loved it though!  

We continued through the holidays with family.  It was such a great time celebrating being together and celebrating Jesus' birth.  

PaPa and Gabriella (my niece)

Dr. Reuben

Brynlee got a baby bed from Auntie Amy & Uncle Nick!

...a rocking chair from Cammie and Pa-Pa!

and all kinds of goodies from Grandma Tina!

Gabriella opened her personalized ABC book from Auntie Ray-Ray!

...like I said before....this was definitely a Christmas to Remember!  

Fall Festivities

well Brynlee had her first "Halloween" dressing up and going trick-or-treating.  I made her costume.  she sure made the cutest cow I have ever seen!  I copied the idea from something I saw on Pinterest.  the original idea was being sold on Etsy for $70 some odd dollars.  whatever!  we don't pay that kind of money when we can do it ourself!  ;)

 we had our friends the Findley's come over and join us in our neighborhood to walk around.  their kids are Ella and Carson.  Ella was a fairy and Carson was the old man from Up.  they both looked adorable.  


we had a fun time.  it was a definite workout though chasing them all around.  we took the wagon with us but none of them wanted to ride it for long...of course!  and Brynlee ended up wanting to push Carson's house/balloons around.  she was a bit of a confused cow!

my favorite part of the night was when Brynlee decided she should share her candy.  so instead of taking the candy from a nice couple at one house, she started passing her candy to them.  they loved it and so did we!  (don't worry--we got the candy back!)

the next night we got to participate in the BCM "All Saints Party", so we got to dress up again.  i chose not to dress up, but here is what Chad came up with...

enough said.  :)

i don't really care for the holiday in general, but i loved dressing my girl up and the good fellowship with friends!   

the boxes are unpacked...now what?

today was my last day of my "boxes" class.  this is class that is based of the book After the Boxes are Unpacked:  Moving On After Moving In by Susan Miller.  this is a class designed specifically for women who are new to the Edmond area.  i highly recommend something like this for anyone going through a similar time of transition.

this class has been such a blessing in the following ways:

• it has helped me to meet some new ladies who are in a similar situation
• it has helped me learn more about the town that i am living in
• it has helped me to grow in my confidence of attending classes or going places that are unfamiliar to me and where i don't (at first) know anyone
• it has helped me to venture out to places that i would not have otherwise heard about
• it has provided me a "mommy" time with childcare

i'm so thankful that a church in our area offered this class.  it has been a blessing to me, helped me make a new friend or two, and helped me more quickly adapt to the city of edmond.  

i'm a little closer to feeling more at home here.  next week i start a "long term sub" position at a mother's day out here in edmond in a 3 year old class.  i'm excited about this opportunity and praying that it will hopefully lead to a more permanent position in the future.  

well...i'm making an attempt at the blogging world!
i'm wanting to blog important events, things about my precious girl, crafty projects (that are usually project ideas i steal from others), and just an outlet for me to process life.

so here is the first post...

i'm in a new phase of life...new home, new home town, new "job" as stay at home mom, new role as a more active minister's wife, and on and on and on.

we made our big move to Edmond back at the end of june.
it has been quite an adjustment even though only an hour and half away from "home".

i have had to step out of my comfort zone many times so far.  i've had to meet new people, attend classes that are unknown to me, try out many churches where we are always new, push myself to have order in my home when i lack motivation to do much of anything, and just be vulnerable to what the Lord is trying to teach me through all of this.  it's been uncomfortable, challenging, rewarding at times, and a growing process.

i am learning that God just wants me to trust him ALL through this process.  he loves me, he is good, and he is faithful.  he wants me to surrender my fears, doubts, insecurities, and just trust him.

yesterday at church we sang this song by Elevation Worship.  it is called "Give Me Faith".  here is a link to the song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Voi3JM8ZA&feature=related
it truly ministered to me at this place in my life.  i hope it does the same for you.

thanks for "listening".  most posts won't be this serious, but i needed to process what God is teaching me!

(here's a pic of our new home in Edmond....more pics to come later!)