Won't you be my neighbor?

I just have to say that I Hate when we are driving or walking around the neighborhood and our neighbors don't wave! It drives me bananas. I am beginning an initiative to obnoxiously wave to every single person I see until they get the hint. Oh, and I'm also really mad at the people that go flying by me at a strong 45 mph on our 25 mph street with no regard to the lady pushing a BABY STROLLER, clinging to the curb for her life.

Honestly people, were you raised in a barn, or at Daytona International Speedway? Geez.

The best laid plans

A few years ago there was a popular country song with a line that said "...and if you want to hear God laugh tell him your plans" that is ringing so true to our life right now it is ridiculous. Last Tuesday afternoon I started feeling a bit uneasy about the house being for sale and started having a lot of anxiety as to whether we should really sell now or not. I looked up to the sky and said a little prayer asking for a sign as to what we were supposed to do. Approximately four hours later our entire AC unit blew. As in, was no longer operable and could not be fixed.


I guess you should be careful what you ask for. Or be more specific.

Given the unexpected cost of replacing the 18 year old unit, we have decided it would be more financially responsible for us to stay in the house a few more years. We can pay off our one car that we make payments on (luckily we own mine free and clear), and save lots of money for our next place. I can't say it's what I want to do, but we feel like it's for the best, and are trying to trust that there is a reason we feel that way that hasn't yet been revealed to us.

Since lately I've completely lost the ability to just sit and relax, and I'm clearly not happy unless I have a project to do, I got to work.

Step 1- de clutter Madelyn's room.

Before:


After:


Step 2- install new kitchen dining set

Before:

After:

Step 3- Install baby gate to prevent Madelyn from making the stairs her new favorite hang out, which lately has been the case:

My selling rampage is also progressing nicely. I made $40 at the women's consignment last week, $45 at the children's consignment, and am pending another Craig's List sale I'm pretty excited about. It's a good thing too because I have a lot of items on my "wish list" to purchase and I'd like to stick to the budget I've created :)

Love the one you're with

No I am not talking about Matt, though I do love him dearly, I'm talking about our house. It's still on the market and my hopes of selling it swirl further down the drain every week that passes. I'm beginning to come to the realization that now may not be the right time. I haven't yet admitted defeat, but I have been doing a few things to make our stay in this house a little more enjoyable, no matter how long it may be.

One thing I wanted to do was create more of an office setting for myself, since I'm now consistently working from home 3 days a week. The kitchen table was nice (more on that later) but didn't feel office-like enough to really motivate me. Enter the desk in the guest bedroom. I love having a guest bedroom and it's an absolute must for me because I love hosting visitors, but given our distance from most of our family it is sadly a bit neglected. It's a nice big room with two great windows and gets tons of natural light. Perfect. Here is the before as seen in our listing photo:

BO-RING.

Enter Bryn, a super-talented (and not formally trained) interior designer in Charlotte who's blog I've been a long-time fan of. She put together this great office space and inspiration board which I just loved. So, I made my own! It took me 10 minutes and approximately $4. Cheap and quick, love it.

I took this old white frame with pictures from college that had been stuffed under my bed (so 2004), took the glass and pictures out, cut a piece of cork board to fit and covered it in black burlap, put it all back together and tada! So cute! I added a cute little white pencil holder I got from Target, a stack of white books with a piece of Pottery Barn coral on top, a candle, and voila! Sorry you can't see the frame hanging, Matt apparently locked me out of his tool chest. Not cool. He must know I'm on the rampage.

I admittedly went a little color crazy when we moved into this house and have long since wanted to change the light blue in the guest room. But with the new white accessories I think I can actually live with it. It feels much more chic and beachy now. I plan to snag two of these botanical prints from This Young House to hang over the bed and a cute small pillow for my desk chair and call it a day.

Now, about the kitchen. When we bought the house from Matt's parents they were sweet enough to leave us this kitchen set because they no longer had a place for it. It has served us well, but was never really my style. I finally decided to act and sold that baby on Craig's List for almost enough to buy us a brand new set! We pick up our new dinette on Saturday and I can't wait to share. Thus begins my obsession with Craig's List. I'm ravaging the house looking for more things to sell. I really am the opposite of a hoarder, though sometimes I think this purge mentality can be just as scary-- at least for Matt. He's afraid I'm going to sell or give away everything down to his socks. Hmmm...I wonder how much they're worth??

Surprise attack

Last Wednesday, in the cover of darkness, we flew out to Arizona to surprise my Dad for his 55th birthday. This is no small feat for several reasons. One, my dad is impossible to surprise. Seriously. Two, we were taking a 4.5 hour flight with an 11 month old. Seriously. And three, we've been planning this since last October and it's an absolute miracle I didn't slip and say something because I talk to my dad 4-5 times a week. The look on his face was priceless.

Our arrival was the first of many surprises. My sister also flew in and showed up at his house which he had no idea was happening, and Christine, his awesome girlfriend, threw him a really nice surprise birthday party with 20 of his closest friends and old co-workers. She really went all out- cigars and personalized matches, gorgeous decor and floral arrangements set against Dad's amazing view of the lake and mountains, personal chef, it was gorgeous and really sweet. And of course, like always, Madelyn stole the show.

I'll spare you the story about how we got put in a holding pattern (TWICE) over Mississippi on our return flight home and then got re-routed to an alternate airport due to weather, all while calming our screaming baby who's little ears clearly couldn't handle all of the up and down. I'd prefer to end this on a happy note :) Needless to say, we had a great time but after two weeks of serious traveling we are beyond happy to be home. Here are some pictures from our adventure- enjoy!

A few more pics from the weekend

As I mentioned, we spent the weekend in Florida watching my loves Dai and Andrew tie the knot. Aside from any Madelyn-related cuteness, there is nothing better than getting together with your favorite girlfriends who unfortunately, live far away from you. We had a lot of fun, drank a lot of wine, laughed about our husbands and boys in general, and then reflected on the fact that 10 years ago when we met in our freshman dorm we would have never thought that one day we'd be sitting around talking about our husbands, work, and babies. Sadly, I don't have many pictures of the blessed event since I was lucky enough to be in it, but here are a few others you may enjoy.

Me and my sweet angel :)

Rehearsing

The girls at the rehearsal dinner. It was a seafood buffet and I was seriously in heaven. Kristin and I gave an impromptu speech about Dai which luckily was not a total trainwreck!

Boys at the rehearsal.

Later that evening we returned to our rented townhouse at the beach to find that the lower door lock was not functioning. Enter this vibrant van which belonged to Last Key Locksmith. He saved the day. Would have been more enjoyable if this had not all taken place at 2 a.m.

Me and the Beautiful bride right before she put her dress on.

Pretty girl

And last but certainly not least...the piece de resistance. Me, the girls, and the old ball coach.

Gator fans understand.

Big Girl

Madelyn is officially done crawling and now walks everywhere. It's crazy. We leave her with my mother, former track state champ, for two days and this is what happens!

As you can see, she's also very sweet to her "friends" and takes them everywhere she goes.

She's also learned to walk over to me and give me a hug. Well, her version of one at least. It's pretty darn cute. I have a video but technology hates me and it's taking forever to upload, so please go here and watch. Apologies for the sideways vision, I'm working on that...

Technical difficulties

I have been trying for three days to post a hysterical recording of Madelyn laughing and cannot figure out how to get it to work. If you know how to make this happen please let me know. Until then I'll blame technology for my lack of posting.

We've had a busy last week as Matt's been working tons of overtime and Madelyn is becoming increasingly mobile which is wearing her mommy out! Luckily, it is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS outside and we have been able to get out and take some long walks, open the windows, enjoy the fresh air. Love it.


Tomorrow we are heading down to Florida for Dai and Andrew's wedding- aren't they the cutest? They're going to have the most gorgeous little bambinos one day. I, for one, am hoping "one day" comes sooner than later, but as much as I want to I am trying not to be the pushy overbearing friend and instead subtly overload them with Madelyn cuteness every chance I get. I think I may be wearing them down ;)

My mom is going to keep Madelyn so we can party it up at the wedding (which is at the beach no less!). I cannot wait to see all my favorite girls from college. And to wear sundresses. My skin is so pale they're going to think I've been living in an igloo for the past year.

I'll be back next week with tons of pictures and I'm sure lots of funny stories of Madelyn running my poor mother ragged. I hope you're ready, mom!!

"New Years" Resolutions

I'm not a huge New Year's resolutions person because I'm constantly making resolutions for myself, therefore doing so on January 1 isn't a huge priority for me. That being said, I've been thinking about things I'd like to accomplish this year. I think it's the very (very) slow emergence of spring and my spring-cleaning mentality that have me so resolute. Maybe if I blog them (can you use "blog" as a verb?) they'll come to fruition.

1. Be Present. I want to be 100% in the moment in all areas of my life, and try to slow my brain down. At any given moment I am literally thinking of 13 different things and I really want to learn to just turn that off and enjoy every minute. I hate that I'll be playing with Madelyn and find myself thinking about what we need at the grocery store or how I really need to do laundry. There is plenty of time for all of that when she goes to bed, and I really need to learn to segment those areas of my life a little better.

2. Be financialy smart. If you know Matt and me, you probably know that we've had our share of financial struggles since we've been married. Now, we're really in a place where we feel secure, we've minimized our debt significantly, and God forbid there be some sort of disaster, we'd be ok. But, that being said, there is always room for improvement. I've been listening to Dave Ramsey on my way home from work every day, and follow a blogger that always inspires me with her budget-friendly lifestyle, Buford Betty, and I'm more motivated than ever to pay off our one car payment and stock away as much savings as possible. This means a variety of things- continue to meal plan and use coupons to lower our grocery budget, shop sales (and shop less- hah), sell things on Craig's List that we don't need or want (anyone interested in a Tivo that's in perfect condition?!), etc etc...

3. Read More. I've always been an avid reader my entire life, but these last few years I've found myself reading less and less. Lately I've been getting back into it and SO enjoyed it. My interests are spanning the board from mindless chick-lit novels to religious books by Beth Moore to foxnews.com, so if you have any suggestions send them my way! Oh, and how could I forget, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You, and the squishy bath book as shown below. and yes, Madelyn wears more than her monkey jammies, but for some reason it seems like that's what she has on everytime I get the camera out!

4. Continue to embrace a clean, green, organic lifestyle. For me this means buying all organic (and when possible local) meat, dairy, and produce, feeding Madelyn (and Matt) good clean foods (not processed junk), keeping our house clean and clutter-free, and enjoying more time outside! I am dying for it to get warm so we can enjoy all of the great outdoor activities Atlanta has to offer. For now, I try to open the windows when we can, even when it's cold, just to let some fresh air in. I think it's really important as most people don't realize the insides of most of our houses are Much more polluted than the outside environment due to chemical cleaners, dirty air filters, candles, etc...

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

On another note, we got the second follow up xrays back from the doctor today and Madelyn's pneumonia is officially gone. Thank. You. God. Oh and, she's starting to walk. Her personal record is 7 steps, but she's still pretty inconsistent. I think my screaming and cheering every time she does it may be scaring her back into crawling, so I'm trying to keep it in check.