Five!

Five years ago today, Paschal and I tied the knot.  Its hard to wrap my head around how five years came and went so fast.... I'll be 29 in May... which sounds crazy, because I still see myself as 25.  To be honest... these last five years have had a lot of ups and downs.... we've been through a few emotional roller coasters, but I know these next five years are going to be our best yet.  Paschal and I have come so far. He can now do his own laundry... mind blowing isn't it?  Do you ever think about where the next five will take you?? Five years ago I didn't have a dishwasher... and now I have one with a fake stainless steal front.... Its only up from here people!

I love this picture from our rehearsal dinner.... I'm wearing my Mom's wedding dress.  

Doesn't Paschal look so sweet.... we were so young.... Glad to know that God's plan was bigger then our own and that we fought to hold on, because life is about to get really good for us...  

~Betsy 

House Hunting ~ Rosemary Beach, FL

Do you know how many trees that would have to die and how many children I would have to put up with to get to this level of living??? I think it would be impossible... but, if it ever becomes possible (a girl can dream, right?)... I want to live like this

This can't be real... 

You can see the whole listing here... and to top it off... its not even on the beach.

~Betsy

House Hunting ~ Lake Blackshear

Paschal's not a big "lake" person... unlike me who grew up with Lake Lanier in her back yard.  He would rather have the beach.... but this little cottage is too cute... perfect size and layout for a lake house....   

$289,000 / 2,108 square feet

~Betsy 

so sad...

so sad..  that people actually buy these for babies

these are are listed under girl jeans:

Jeggings... really?? Those aren't appropriate on 90% of the population... let alone a baby.  

Where did our standards go? Why can't babies be just that... babies!

~Betsy

My day off wasn't exactly a day off...

I took the day off work to finish up / stress over / work on adoption paperwork. Here's a little snapshot of my day. I'm so much happier inside my house... I wouldn't mind staying home, inside these walls, doing "home" things, for a long time. Being home makes me happy...

The. Paper. Work. Never. Ends. really... it never ends. 

Okay... So, I had an epiphany.  This chair was my Dads.. he got it in the late 70's. It originally had black/gold/cream stripes.  Mom recovered it in the 80's with this blue/white stripe.  Since I'm a hoarder I couldn't let them throw this chair out.  While sitting in the soon to be nursery today (side note: I love to sit in Baby P's room...makes me feel calm and at peace) it dawned on me.... WHY NOT TURN THIS CHAIR INTO A GLIDER! why not? Its a little low... but once I add the glider attachment it will raise it up several inches, plus with new stuffing and upholstery it might work out.  Did I mention it had an ottoman too?? 

Now on to the pups... just because.  You have to admit... they're some good looking puppies...

Sweet Molly... crossing her legs and watching the cars go by.  Ignore the baby clothes, blankets and Moses basket on the soon to be gone mattress

Last... I rearranged furniture.  We use our dinning room or at least want to use our dinning room, but its so small... but we have a huge formal living room we NEVER use.  So, we switched them. 

Above is the old FL and new DR.... New dinning room table, eventually :)

New office space.  I need to hang the butterfly prints and get the chair recovered... and a rug... the list goes on and on... best decision i made this week, next to not working today, was moving this furniture.  Do you like the mess in this picture?? you can see a little bit of our "about us" book on the floor by the butterfly prints.  Hopefully this new setup will lead to me actually giving piano lessons...one adventure at a time, one at a time...  

Just waiting on our Garganos to arrive... it seems to be the only thing arriving on time (hint hint spring!!)

~Betsy 

rocking chairs.....

Now, lets talk about swivel gliders.  Paschal was E.P.I.C. at Brooks furniture Saturday   He kept saying... lets go to that old store and get a rocker.  It wasn't till he pointed at the patio/front porch rockers that I realized he had been talking about Cracker Barrel.... he honestly thought those were the only rockers available... I now see where he got the "under $100" idea.  

After talking to the sales associate for a bit and looking through the store.... we made the unanimous decision to NOT buy a rocker/glider.  I can't justify wanting a $700 glider (not even including the ottoman) and wanting to stay home next year.  Even now, typing "$700 glider" seemed wrong.  So, the Paschal's owe a big thank you to Google... because after a few searches.... this is what we found: 

Mrs. Wiggle Bottoms

Apparently you can turn ANY chair into a swivel rocker or swivel glider... for around $200, maybe less. I found this website (here) that sells the attachments, with instructions.  Also Mrs.Wiggle Bottoms has picture by picture instructions.  Can you believe that chair is from Ikea? Its around $199.  Now, all added together (ikea + glider attachment) we're still looking at $399... but then I remembered something... again.  Mamoo had a really nice recliner that wasn't bulky or masculine... it had been at her new house and maybe, realistically, only set in a few times...that chair is only a few days away from being recovered and turned into a glider.  We're going to put it in the living room (where the leather chair is now).  This still leaves the babies room.  After asking a lot of friends "How often do you use your nursery rocker?" and hearing a lot of "You sit, rock, feed, play in your living room... rarely in the nursery"... I've decided to forgo a glider for that room.  Again, Mamoo had another treasure we hadn't noticed or paid attention to until now: 

She had two of them... this one is a bit different but the color of the wood and shape are close enough.  The had a back and bottom cushion, which I hope to have remade in a white to match the nursery... Paschal and I took turns rocking in the chair to make sure we weren't just settling because we're cheap. Surprisingly  this chair is perfect.  So we're down to the price of fabric, re-upholstering, swivel attachment.  

Sunday, I had not one doubt that the decision to use an old wood rocker and to recover/make our own glider/recliner was the right one.  Which is a HUGE step for me... a couple of years ago I would of lost it at the thought of not being able to have what others have.  Adoption changes everything.... it puts your "wants" into a whole new perspective (the word "healthy" also changes for you too... you go from wanting a healthy blonde haired blue eyed baby, to just a baby... ).  Oh, and I've decided to make the baby bedding.... I'm just not okay with a $97 bed skirt... wouldn't you rather buy $97 worth of clothes (if you're like me and only shop at old navy and target.. $97 can go a long way) that you can have for longer then the two years that crib bed skirt will get used? 

This post is getting too long! (is it "to" or "too"... I hated grammar in school)

~Betsy