{ Back to routine and a new kitchen }

I woke up around 6:30 AM yesterday morning, and decided to stay up and not give into the temptation of slipping back into a deep sleep.  I've been indulging lately, sleeping in until 8 and enjoying every minute of it.

But.....come Monday morning, hubby goes back to work and the 5:30 wake up calls begin.

I got a cup of coffee and sat down in the living room.  The house was dark and quiet, outside the wind was blowing strong enough to get my wind chimes dancing.

It was pure bliss.  Just that quiet moment, sitting in the darkness, watching the wind chime, sipping on hot coffee.

{ We did it, we closed on the house }

Oh my friends, I am beyond happy right now.

At noon today, my husband and I closed on this house, it is now ours.  The feeling is surreal, I still can't believe that we own our own home, that we never have to move, that we can do whatever we wish and that we finally can put down roots for our ourselves and mainly for our children.

Its been a long month and a half, the stress, the back and forth of paperwork, the worry, and thrown in, family coming in from overseas.

To say I'm physically and mentally exhausted, is an understatement.

But, I am forever grateful to my wonderful God who has not only provided this beautiful home for us, He managed everything, moved mountains and has done things that we are still shaking our heads at, in disbelief.

I have so much, but sooooo much to tell you all about, but don't have the time right now.

I just wanted to come in and thank all of you who have prayed, send positive thoughts and indirectly followed our journey.  It means the absolute world to us.

I promise that soon, very very soon, I will be back to full time blogging again, and you will get to follow us on our new chapter, changing, painting, pulling carpets here and there, and making this home truly our own.

We are off to celebrate.  Much love to you all, sending all of God's blessings to you and your family.

{ Friday and Saturday }

Hello friends, I was going to blog yesterday but didn't get a chance, had a busy day.

Our family arrived around 4:30pm and shortly after we went out to dinner.  We have a Mexican restaurant just up the road and hadn't tried it yet, and Mexican is my absolute favorite food to eat, well, aside from Portuguese of course.

Had a wonderful dinner, delicious food and it wasn't very expensive either.  We came back to our house and played a few card games before calling it a night.

Woke up this morning to a winter wonderland.  If I tell you they were some of the biggest flakes I have ever seen in my life, would you believe me?

My goodness, they were huge.

It came down pretty hard for about 3 hours.

But after a few hours, it all stopped, the skies opened up and everything melted away.  I kinda wish it had stuck around because I do love snow, but oh well, maybe next time.

Spent the rest of the day distressing some furniture and stripping down and re-staining our new dining table.

If you're wanting to remove paint or varnish to refinish something, this stuff works wonders, really. 

We have a pretty big table so it did take a while to get it done, and we did it two times to make sure that we got everything out.

It wasn't a quick process with all the applying of the stuff, letting it sit for an hour and then stripping and re-applying, waiting again and doing the same.  But we did manage to get it all stripped and re-stained.  All that is left is for hubby and I to put on the polyurethane and it will be done.  That is coming tomorrow!!!

In the meantime we painted the side tables in my green living room, and then used sand paper to distress the edges and corners.
 
The table above, we added a layer of antiquing paint which gave it a different finish.  After putting it in the living room, we decided that it didn't look quite right, so we kept them just as the one below and put the table above in my daughter's room.  It looks much better in there.

In the coming weeks, I will be painting my big DVD shelves in white and then distressing them as well, my plan is to have all the wood furniture in that room looking the same.  Can't wait to see it done, and I'll be sure to share the process with you all.

I did inhale quite a few painting fumes and it's produced the biggest headache ever, so I've taken some motrin and am calling it an early night since the family has already left to return home.

It was a nice day, lots of laughs, lots of work but overall productive.

Tomorrow, I have housework to tackle and the usual cooking, and speaking of cooking I have some recipes I need to upload here to the blog, so I'll try to get to those tomorrow.

Hope you've all had a wonderful Saturday.  I'm signing off for the night and hopefully getting a good night's rest very shortly. :)

{ Home Sweet Home }

I woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine streaming through the kitchen windows, and there really is nothing more glorious than early morning light, is there?

The first night we moved in was Friday, but we didn't have internet set up here, so I couldn't get online or give anyone an update.

It was quite strange, I think I was just so tired and sleeping didn't come easily the first night.  Then I thought I heard all sorts of noises and my crazy brain was thinking "oh no, is this house haunted?" Hahahaha

Amazing what an exhausted brain will do to you.

But that was just the first night, I've slept amazingly well since then, and no, no strange noises at all.

One of the things I am most loving about this house, aside from it reminding me of a farm house or an Amish house, is the fact that the windows allow for an insanely amount of wonderful light to come right in. 

Right??? I don't know if it's the set up or the white or what, but it just immediately brings to mind an Amish house. If only that were true, I would be one happy girl.

Well minus the dish addition which you would never find in an Amish home.

I've been slowly unpacking.  We have moved most of the things into their places, but there are still a few boxes in the garage, and those will be unpacked slowly as we go.  There is no need to rush or overdo it.

And there are my girls enjoying the back yard.  You should have seen them the first day, running around like crazy out there.  Oh and guess what???  We have two pugs right behind us and the owners turn out to be an older couple, who the husband actually worked with MY husband back when we were stationed at this base.

My word, what a small world isn't it?

Sunday for Father's Day, we didn't really do anything.  My husband and I never really buy each other gifts or go all out for this day, we believe that it should be celebrated every day of the year and not just one specific occasion.

But Jasmine wanted to make something for daddy, so she made him those yummy brownies above.  All by herself.  My girl loves baking, and that thrills me.

Later that night I sat up in bed and relaxed, worked a little more on my crochet blanket and watched some TV.  Oh and Karen had asked me for the pattern for the blanket, you can find it here.  Super simple and really fast to make.

While I was doing that, my daughter came up to lay with me and watch some shows, and she even brought us brownies, all nice and warmed up with a scoop of Neopolitan ice cream.  YUM!!

Now back to the house.  This is the Hallway window upstairs and I absolutely adore it.  Isn't it beautiful?  Don't mind the screws next to the flower vase, my husband was hanging up his military stuff.

Yesterday it rained all day long, it was quite a dark day, but I enjoyed it.  We needed the rain and it felt good.  I just love the smell of rain don't you?

Now let me show you one of the walls in the living room.  It's not finished yet, as I'm sure you can see by the random items on the shelves, things that really don't belong there, but you can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like.

I'm debating whether I want to keep the video cabinets as they are, or paint them white to match the other shelves.  Decisions, decisions, what do you think?

A little peek at the kitchen.....

My white shelf has finally made it's way into the house, and I think it's a pretty cute place to hang my aprons. 

So, the house is coming along nicely and slowly, but that is ok.  I have something I am planning for a wall in the kitchen, but I will show you that when it's done.

The living room also isn't finished, I'm having a bit of a hard time deciding where certain things will go, and I also have an idea for the wall above the TV, but I need to get some things together first.

As I finish this post up, my husband has gone to the old house to pick up the turtle, yes poor thing was still there, and to also grab a few last minute things. 

This weekend we will go in and give it a good clean, it's pretty clean already but I want to wipe down the walls and the blinds etc.

As for today, like I said, I'm not doing any moving myself, I have lower back pain and can't lift anything else.  I'm waiting for the repair man to come in and fix my refrigerator, it's defrosting and leaking from the freezer to the bottom area.  Not sure what time he'll be here, but once my husband returns, we do need to head to base for some grocery shopping and for him to do his job at the commissary real quick. 

Dinner tonight will be some Cheese Tortellini with tomato sauce and some garlic bread, nice and simple but yummy too.

I do hope I haven't bored you with all my rambling on about the house and the neighborhood and whatever I'm keeping myself busy with. 

Oh, before I forget, I have a few reviews coming up and a Lucky Leaf Giveaway too, so keep an eye out for that.

I better get moving, having a wonderful rest of Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow with more chit chat :)

New place!

Oh my friends, I'm so excited.  Guess what?  We have our new house ready to move into.  YAY!!

Yesterday afternoon we went to check out a house that was for rent.  I honestly didn't think that I would be returning home an hour later, with keys in my hand.

But it was just one of those where you walk in, and it feels like home.  That and the fact that the homes around here are going so fast right now, being PCS season and all.

It had everything we wanted, and more, and we decided to just lock it in and be done with it, instead of waiting to see another and risking losing this one.  We ARE just 3 weeks away from the day we want to move out of this one.

The Lord as usual came through in a big way, providing us with a beautiful home, a quiet wonderful neighborhood and even a spot for me to garden in. 

This area hasn't really been used at all, the previous tenants used to throw their compost in there, so with some cleaning up and tidying, I think I may just have a gorgeous veggie garden :)

Now THAT I'm so excited about....and I got my bigger kitchen with loads of storage, my dishwasher and my pantry.  What more could I ask for?

I will be organizing that pantry with storage bins and mason jars etc.  Can't wait to get in there.

But yes, what more could I ask for????  Oh, well, maybe a hot tub?  Uh huh, I said it, a hot tub.  Wow!

It's not running at the moment and if we want to get it running it will be at our own cost, but we would like to eventually get it working.  Only problem is that we have no idea whatsoever how to even go about doing that.  If you have one, or have any tips or advice, I would really appreciate it.

I'm already envisioning some beautiful fairy lights strung all around the fence, and some gorgeous greenery in there too.

And speaking of greenery, I am in love with the green walls in the living room and the stairway.

Just beautiful.

Oh but let me quickly show you the backyard, it's pretty big and has a nice deck which will be perfect for summer barbecues.

Of course the front of the house is beautiful too, I have rose bushes along the front walls and all around.

We're slowly getting everything moved in, which if you're a military family you understand that it's something we don't do at all.  All our moves have always been very fast and done in the matter of a day or two.

It feels good to know that I can take my time and go at a slower pace.  Last time we moved, my husband and I moved everything alone and it took us two full days and well into the night of moving and pushing and pulling and carrying.  It almost killed us and I was sore for a week after.

Will be happy not to have to do that again.

But there you have it, I wanted to come in and share the news with you.  As we continue with the move, I'll take you along with us, and then of course I will show you the house once everything is in.  How exciting!!!

Hope you're are all having a wonderful Saturday and enjoying your long weekend.  We are not doing anything in particular, just staying home and relaxing, but we may do a picnic at the lake on Monday, we'll see, nothing is decided yet.

Anyway, I'm going to watch a little TV and pray for this crazy wind to go away so that I may stop suffering with these wretched allergies. 

God Bless,
Sandra