Less than 30 days

We are officially within 30 days of moving into our new house- YAY! The day can't come fast enough. Contractors have been working hard over the past week to get the house ready for a July 1 closing. They've painted the brick, painted the outside trim, put up gutters, painted the walls inside and the trim, finished the tile around the tubs in the bathrooms and finished all the shelving in the closet. It really looks like a house. If only the air conditioner were installed, I would totally take a pillow to sleep there!

The paint on the brick is a darker cream, cafe type color. The gutters are chocolate brown and the shutters will be mocha brown.

Other non-house things going on...I officially found out that I will be teaching 6th grade English next year. I'm really excited- I can't wait to be in the classroom again! And I LOVE my new team- Joanne, Crystal and Kristin, amazing teachers. I can't wait!! I also started doing a bootcamp-type workout with Joanne. Last week was our first week and, um, let's just say I could barely walk all week. It feels good when the soreness wears off and I think it will make me feel healthy and have more energy for next year. No pain, no gain :)

This past weekend my mom and dad partially moved into their Oxford house. It is a wonderfully calming home. They moved in a bedroom set, a few sofas, rocking chairs and the kitchen table. Of course Dad brought lots of DVD's and books for his office. I can't wait until they are here permanently!

That's all for now. It is time for bed...another day of bootcamp tomorrow!

End of Year!

This past Friday was the official last day for teachers. YAY! What a school year! I've made some wonderful new friends and enjoyed my students and coworkers so much. It also gave me the chance to fall in love with teaching again and I'm looking forward to (hopefully!) being in the regular classroom next year.

All of us out to lunch at Kabuki on our last day. You can't tell but the "cool" people in the middle have on their sunglasses :)

As for a house update...the house is really coming along. They put in the cabinets this week and started painting the outside. You can see in the pictures that we have a variety of brick colors on our house so those will all be covered up with paint. They should start painting the inside this week as well. Besides paint, all that's left is countertops, light fixtures, carpet and hardwood floors. We are SO excited for the house to be ready!!

Almost done bricking. You can't see the different color brick with this shot but...

Different colors! There are probably three or four different colors on the house.

Kitchen before cabinets and floor....














And after!


This weekend Richie and I are having a movie night with some friends (girls will see Sex & the City and boys will see The Strangers). We will all go out to eat and then split up for the movie. Saturday night Richie is taking me to the Melting Pot. In addition to being one of our favorite restaurants, the Melting Pot holds many memories for us- it's where we had our first date after getting back together and where Richie proposed. I am so excited to get dressed up and go out to dinner just the two of us. Naturally we'll take the classic pose at the table so I'll post a picture on Sunday.



Otherwise everything is coming along with the wedding. Invites went out last week so check your mailboxes! I'm using my free time to do all the last minute wedding things (which are many more things than one would have guessed!). I think only 41 days left...wow! Can't wait to see everyone :)

Wedding Shower

This past weekend was a blast! My mom and dad were in town to buy their house, my dad had an interview that went super great, it was my mom's birthday and we had our couple's shower.

My parents officially own a home in Oxford and it is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! I will take pictures this week and post them here. The house has huge stone steps leading up to the front. A huge porch on the front of the house overlooks the lake. I know we are going to have many relaxing evenings enjoying the new place!

Dad and the principal at the high school hit it off. In fact, his interview was a long 3 hours! Mom even got worried and made us go look for him. Thankfully they got along and we all have our fingers crossed that dad is in Oxford teaching next year.

We had a great turn out for the shower on Saturday. Of course there were many people we missed...We celebrated in the private room at Taylor Grocery. For those of you who have yet to visit Oxford, Taylor Grocery is an older restaurant that looks like it is going to collapse at any moment. Though I don't eat catfish, I've heard theirs is some of the best. Personally, I love their vidalia onion salad dressing :)

At the shower we played a game called 'Who Knows the Bride Best?' My parents asked me questions about myself and then asked Richie the same questions. They also filmed Richie answering his own set of questions and me guessing his answers. It was hilarious! Let's just say we found out Richie's favorite body part of mine is my ears and he thinks I like his arms best, haha. We had so much fun and hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as well. Now we are just counting the days until the wedding!!

This is Taylor Grocery- the non-falling down looking part :)

Some of our guests playing the game.

Me and my sweet mom.

Me and my dear, dear friend Jennie.

Forecast: rain and endless standing

Today was a rainy day in Oxford. We had hoped they would be putting up the brick on the house but the weather has delayed that step. They separated the brick and prepped the house for the bricks but had to give up once the rain started. Unfortunately the forecast calls for rain tomorrow as well so we probably won't have brick until next week.

In the meantime, we hope to see the cabinets delivered in the next day or two. They are also hopefully going to start putting up trim and/or painting. Only six weeks until July 1, the goal for closing, so keep your fingers crossed for the weather to cooperate and for everything to move on as planned.

This week at work is standardized test week- FUN! Students are taking the MCT2 test over three days. That means that I get to stand for several hours, pacing the room and staring at students filling in bubbles on an answer sheet. Today I got smart and carried a clip board so I could at least keep myself entertained with making lists. Tomorrow is the last day but also, I fear, the longest day for testing. I'll have to come up with something to do while I walk the room and monitor the students...I'd be happy with just sitting and staring but that's wishful thinking!

Also this week is an upcoming visit from mom and dad and our couple's shower! Mom and Dad come from Georgia on Friday to close on their new house in Oxford. Dad also has an interview at the high school and we have a meeting with the caterer for the wedding. That's just on Friday! On Saturday we have our couple's shower at Taylor Grocery. We can't wait to see everyone and celebrate with good food! I just wish my brother could visit. I miss Doug very much and hate that I don't get to see him often. Hopefully he'll make it to Oxford a few days before the wedding so we can spend some time together. Maybe I can schedule a visit to Alpharetta this summer to get some quality time in with my bro.

That's all for now. I'll post pictures from the weekend on Sunday. For now, keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

The New House!

Here are pictures of our soon-to-be new house! On March 17th we signed a contract to build our first house! We were originally going to buy a standing home in another neighborhood and even wanted to make an offer but things got complicated when another couple made an offer the morning we were going to make ours. To think things through we drove around Oxford and, on a whim, decided to check out a neighborhood we had been to months and months ago. As soon as we drove in the neighborhood I felt at home. Thankfully some contractors were working on the model and we were able to get inside, even though an agent was not on duty. We immediately fell in love with the floorplan (I think I even heard Richie say, "this is it!"). While in the house we met one of the builders, Marty Daniels. He was very nice and explained the neighborhood to us. He even told us that the model was for sale. We were excited to hear this news as we were hoping to move into our new house in time for the wedding. As we walked through the house we found everything we were looking for. The only draw back was the location of the model home- it was the first house in the neighborhood, right next to the highway. To make things worse, Marty told us they would be extending the highway next year. Richie didn't let this bother him but I was much more unsure.
We thought about it, talked about it, called our agent, talked about it some more...then finally decided to sleep on it. The next day, I woke up still feeling uneasy about the location. We debated what would happen if our future dog ran onto the road, or a child. Or, more unlikely, what if a large truck should veer off the road and hit our house?? Haha. So, we called our amazing agent and decided to explore building.
Because we had to be in before the wedding we decided to work with the other builder, Ronnie Leggitt. Ronnie said he could build our house in only four months- just what we wanted to hear! We signed the contract that evening and the house has been flying up ever since!
Today, just about 7 weeks after signing the contract, they delivered the brick. The drywall is up, sanded and ready for paint. The cabinets are ordered and are on their way. We've had the house prewired for surround sound and an alarm (I think we are one of the only people in Oxford to have an alarm but I always like to be prepared!). We are so excited and can't wait!
Just a quick overview of the house: it has a two car garage which opens into a huge laundry room. The kitchen has double ovens for all of my baking and cooking with a large center island for visiting. Attached to the kitchen and breakfast area is a hearth room. The hearth room has a fireplace and a TV nook just above. There is a door from the hearth room to our screened-in porch. I have a feeling we'll live on this side of the house! On the other side of the stairs is a dining room and family room and down the hall is the master bedroom, master bathroom and another bedroom and bathroom (future nursery!). Upstairs are two bedrooms, an office, a bathroom and a storage/bonus room. Lots of room for growing! And lots of room for guests so come visit this summer!

This is the back porch that will be screened-in. We'll also have a non- screened in patio to enjoy.

This is a picture of the hearth room taken from the stairs. The fireplace is in the bottom left of the picture and the TV nook is built in above the fireplace.

Engagement Pictures

With all of the exciting things going on in our life, we decided to start a blog to keep our family far and near updated with pictures and details. Thanks to all of our family and friends for their unwavering support during this time. You are all so wonderful and we are so grateful to have you in our lives! We can't wait to see everyone in July!!

Speaking of July...the wedding is only 61 days away and time is flying by! Naturally I am behind on a few things (specifically getting the invitations ready) but we did manage to get the engagement pictures taken.

We had to drive 2 1/2 hours to Jackson, Mississippi to meet with our wonderful photographer, Jeff Chao. It was my first visit to Jackson and once I saw the Target and Olive Garden, I was ok. We met Jeff at a rest stop off of Natchez Trace. The rest stop was an older looking house with a wooden fence that was perfect for pictures. Thankfully it was a sunny day and the weather cooperated!

It took only about an hour to take 200+ pictures. Richie wanted to wear his sunglasses so half of our pictures show Richie with sunglasses, the other half sans-sunglasses. We ended up with a handful of good pictures- the long car ride was not a friend to us- and we are very much looking forward to working with Jeff for our wedding pictures! I'll post our favorite pictures from the day. Now it is off to check the progress on our house!