Saturday, December 19, 2009

Taking a minute...

I'm feeling a little bit bad about not posting for such a long time. This isn't going to be a fun post probably because I can't access any pictures, but I still felt I should get on here and write something. Things have been very crazy lately and I keep hoping that things will miraculously some how get back to normal before Christmas. Ha, ha! Anyway, we've been in the new house now for about a week, and I've accomplished painting the kitchen...pictures later...and I love it. It took a couple of days for me to feel that, but I really do love it. It's a fun house, a house with quite a few quirks. As in tonight, I found a plug in the garage that only works if the garage door is open. It happened to be the plug that I had plugged the Christmas lights into that I had spent a few hours putting up outside in the cold, only to have Jared close the garage door and all my lights go off. So I guess tomorrow I will be in search for a decent plug around here that works correctly. The house is cozy, and it's the kind of house you want to stay in for awhile. That was very important to us. We have all of our Christmas stuff up, except the LIGHTS! So, now it's just unpacking the rest of our stuff, and trying to get things in order, and try to cram in some Christmasy Traditions. I am looking forward to Family, food an dour trip to San Antone.
Alot has happened since I last posted, so I suppose I will have a bunch to write about when we finally get the computer set back up. Until then, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a very, very Happy New Year!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

True Pioneer's



I wish I could be more like this couple.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

My own Haunted House!

Well it's not really mine, or haunted....but I thought it would be fun for Halloween anyway. Some of you know this and some don't but I have had my eye on a house for a about a month now. No we don't have ours sold yet, but nonetheless I love this house. I have told some of you about it, so I thought I'd post some pictures of it. I have always loved old houses! Something I must have inherited maternally. I love the history, the character, the creaking of the wood floors....all of it. This particular house was built in 1891, yes it 118 yrs old, yes that's old, and yes it needs a lot of work. Somehow, I tend to look past all of that to see all that it COULD be, and I like a good project. Anyway, I let all of you see for yourselves and you can tell me how crazy I am.

This is the big front porch.

The entry, as soon as you walk in the house. This isn’t the best picture, but there’s old tin on the ceiling that the P.O. (previous owner)painted purple. And in the bottom corner is the top of the old piano that comes with the house.

This is the living room, it’s much bigger than this picture leads on.

Now this room looks the worst. This I guess would have been a parlor of some sort. It had two big pocket doors that divided it from the living room, but the rude P.O. ripped them out with the original mantles (three of them) in the house. That's all old wallpaper falling off the walls.

This is from the parlor looking into the living room, missing pocket doors and mantle ahead, but I guess the nasty rug's included. They left it behind.

This probably was a bedroom, it’s right off on the entry. And that’s the fourth fireplace. It’s all brick and it works.

Ah, this kitchen has sooo much potential.

This is the actual dining room it has a door way that joins the kitchen, and then that’s a lovely pink and purple bedroom on the other side.

This is the main bathroom in the house. It has a full wall of built-ins and a claw foot tub. There is another half bath on the other side of the sink wall, but I think it should be made into one bigger bathroom.

This is the outside of the kitchen and a nice little shack. It looks kind of rough, but it’s much better inside.

This shows the exterior of the brick fireplace, and some nice detail work at the roof peak.

This is the front yard. There are lots of pecan trees, a walnut or two, and a peach tree in back. That’s the old well house in the background. It is built with cement and stone. It has two small windows and door on the side facing the street. It has been painted white on the inside, and has a workbench with lots of shelves. It’s actually a lot less scary inside than I had expected.

This is other end of the house, the outside of the parlor. The attic widow at the top is a stained glass in need of some work.

Well, you all kind of have an idea of what it looks like. I can’t tell you why I like it so much. I think that I think it would be so rewarding to see it transformed and taken care of again. Please tell my what you think. And if by some crazy circumstance I end up with this house, I will start a sign-up sheet for a painting party, food included:)

Friday, October 2, 2009

.... and After!

Okay, I said I would post the final pictures of the house after all of the renovations from this summer.

So, here's the before of the kitchen. Remember how messy...yikes!

















And the After......ahh, much better!
 































Okay, this is the teenie tiny bathroom off of mine and Jared's room. So, I guess Mater bath, but it's not very Master-like. I have never really liked it until now, and I LOVE my new shower. The After picture looks dark because my batteries in my camera were almost dead and it wouldn't flash, you get the idea though.
 




















If you remember, we also put a new fence up this summer.
















And this is a picture of Jackson's room. Both boys were sharing the room at first, but we put Colin in Jackson's old room so that the house would show better.













Okay, now that I'm officially frustrated with this New post window, why is it SO difficult?, enjoy the pictures.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Yay for Fall!

Well, needless to say, I'm really behind on my blog. REALLY. So with that in mind, this will probably be quite a long post. We have had a lot going on it seems. Since putting the house on the market a little over a month ago, just keeping the house suitable for showing has taken a good amount of my time. Seeing that I haven't posted since July, I guess I'll start back with the beginning of August and talk about all that has gone on since then.

Well, probably the biggest thing to happen was my sweet baby niece, Brittley, that was born. Yeah, I know I'm a bad Aunt for not posting about this along time ago, but better late than never. Isn't she beautiful! My brother now has two gorgeous little girls.




















I also had my Birthday last month, and thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes and gifts. I turned 26, four more years till I hit the big 3-0. That seems crazy to me, not that I don't totally feel that old already because most days, I do. Not that that's old, but feeling as old as you always think 30 is. Does that make since? Anyway, Jared was really great this year. He took me to San Antonio for the weekend, and lined up the babysitting, hotel, and everything. He even took me shopping while we were there. The Hotel we stayed in was called Drury Inn Plaza, it was right on the Riverwalk. We had a balcony that overlooked the river, and the swimming pool was on the roof of the building. It was so COOL. It was originally a Bank, so the Lobby downstairs still had all of the old bank stuff and all the old metal detail work with the original stained glass windows, it was just so pretty. We had a really nice, relaxing weekend, and I wasn't really ready to come home.
This was the view from our room. That's St. Mary's cathedral down on the left. There's a courtyard down in front of the church that leads to the river. The night we got there, there was a Jazz band playing in the courtyard. We just opened our balcony door and listened to them while we got ready to go to dinner.

This is a tunnel that you walk through outside our hotel down on the river. It's covered in shiny red tile. It was really pretty.





These are pictures from inside the lobby. You can see the old detail all over. The stained glass was my favorite. Also if you look really closely, those two panels on either side of the window say "Trust binds the Nation together, Thift drives the Nation Tomorrow." Pretty interesting, maybe they knew something back then.


This is the carpet that was in the hall, It was turquoise and brown. I know, I'm easily entertained.



I don't know how many of you watch Man vs. Food, but on one episode he visited a place called Roundrock Doughnuts in Roundrock, TX. We decide to pay a visit when we started back home. And no, I didn't eat that Doughnut by myself. Not that I couldn't have because they are really good.

A week or two after my birthday fun, we had the opportunity to go watch one of the Pre-season Cowboy games in the new *Cowboy Stadium*. It was awesome! To be honest, when Jared told me we might be getting tickets, I wasn't really that enthusiastic about the thought of going to the Mammoth of a building and walking through tons of people. And anytime I have to think about getting ready to go anywhere, forget it! I am so out of touch with my inner-girl, it's sad actually. I spend all day most everyday around two little boys, it's starting to become hard for me to be girlie. Therefore, it's a frustration now to just get dressed up. Hello, I need some girlfriends!
Anyway, after we got the boys dropped off and we're headed toward Arlington I started to get a little more excited. Parking was crazy, and outrageous! We happened to park on the opposite side of the building than where our seats were so we had quite a walk, but the building was amazing. And we actually got to experience more of the building having to walk so much, so it was okay. We were excited because our tickets said that we were on the fifth row, but when we got to our seats we were actually on the second, bonus! The Cheerleaders walked right past us several times, and we showed up on the Jumbo Tron five or six times in the first half of the game. The stadium itself really is a sight to see. It's HUGE, and fancy at the same time. We both had a really fun night, and felt very blessed to have the chance to go because I doubt we'll be able to go again anytime soon.


These were some really cool lights in side the stadium. There was so much more that I didn't get pictures of and probably didn't even see.

Now on to September. A couple of weeks ago my little brother, Chase, and his wife Jordan came to town for a weekend and we wanted to get together, so we went to the zoo. It was a really pretty day, little warm, but nice. Colin had never been, not that he paid much attention to the animals, but he loved the train ride. Jackson had a good time too. He got to feed the birds, and he loved the white tiger. We all had a fun time, I'm glad we could spend the day with the cute newlyweds.







Sunday, September 20, 2009

Keep Going

continued...







Colin enjoying his train ride, he full of expressions and funny faces. It's too cute.

Jackson feeding the birds.

This is the new, stinky, pinguin exhibit.


I love the elephants, I snapped a shot of this on dusting himself.



I'll just add some other random pictures from the last month that I have failed to post. I spent a week helping Hollie Brazell lay tile in her house, this is a picture of Jackson watching tv. We were using the basket for Colin at first, but Jackson ended up liking it much more.








My cute little mouse.




Earlier this summer/ spring Jackson and I planted some cantalope seeds in my parents garden. This was the first pick. I was suprised that the melons even grew to the size they did. I don't think Jackson was even as excited as I was about it, but oh well.

Brotherly love. Colin thinks Jackson is so funny.























Well, that's about it for now. I am still planning on posting the "After" pictures of the house since we've finished everything considering some of you may not get to see it in person before we sell. I hope you enjoy, and I'll try not to take so long to post again.