Monday, September 9, 2013

RYM-"Reign of Grace"...2 months late!

This post is well over 2 months late and I hate I waited for so long! Poo on my and my blogging, or lack there of! But nonetheless, here it is for you all!

The 2nd week in July,  Jason and I were chaperones for our youth group and their trip to RYM (if you've never heard of it, click the link)--and it was A GREAT WEEK! We both enjoyed the week so incredibly much. Jason had 8 boys in his room and Mom and I had all the girls in one room. 
On the  bus on the way down 
The theme of the week was "The Reign of Grace" and I feel like we couldn't have asked for a better theme! I believe that grace is such a hard concept for a lot of people to understand. I know that I find myself STILL being amazed and left in awe of the grace that God shows me every. single. day. Needless to say, I was so thankful that our youth, and myself was able to spend a week doing nothing but focusing on God's intense love and grace that He shows His people.  
Elbert McGowan, the RUF minister at Jackson State University was the main speaker and he was PHENOMENAL! 

Here are some pictures to sum up the week for you all! 
Gaga Ball

Some of my girlies waiting for lunch


Jason and his boys for the week. 
I love dis picture :) 
Doing a little crab catching one night
One night at RYM, our group dresses up to go out to eat. We have ourselves from L to R: Jo (from little Women), Madison, a hippie, a cow girl, another cow girl and a hippie!
Panama Jack and Hippie Ellen 




It was a great week and we loved being chaperones together! Getting to know all these youth and where their hearts are and seeing their love for The Lord was so exciting.

My hope is that many seeds were planted that week and I know that my God is faithful to complete the work that He's started!

Honey Do's

We've been home owners for over 4 months now
Jason's been living the life in the house---which will not be a home for another 75 days (until I can get myself in there!) and the days that I have been over, we've been slowly doing some decorating! 
Jason has been more than gracious by giving me an outlet to "woman up" the house some. 

Here are a few pictures of some "updates" we did before the summer. 

Task #1, the guest bathroom
(all the before pictures are from when the previous owner still had it on the market--not our decorations! but they give you a good picture of the room colors before Jason painted)

 
We wanted to get rid of the wall paper and paint the bathroom a solid color. 
Removing wall paper is a HORRENDOUS task and it took us forever. Yuck. We used a steamer which alleviated some of the labor but it was some serious business. 

in the process of painting, which was much better than removing the wall paper. 

and our finished (well, almost finished) product--we lack some of the pictures/art work I want to hang on the walls.

We also found an awesome kitchen table on Craigslist for an even better price
Our "ellis" mugs--from Anthropologie 
my cousins so happened to be moving and could no longer use my grandparents old dining room table and china cabinet set (perfect timing or what?) We are so thankful for Jonathan and Kim thinking of us when they realized they weren't going to be able to use the table any longer
We also found the winning entertainment center. 
 Complete with my Gary Walter's paintings and all
Now, I have to take a second to brag on Jason and something really, spectacularly (is that even a word?), wonderful that he did for me while I was gone the month of June. 
He took it upon himself to have a little "honey do" list for things around the house. I Skyped him one day while in California and he's painting--one of the 4 rooms we had picked out paint for! This was something we had planned to do when I got back together BUT, he surprised me and was doing it all! I was beside myself and so thankful for such a sweet, thoughtful fiancĂ©.  
 The living room was this bright, pineapple yellow color that neither of us liked too much and now we have ourselves a grayish, taupe color that's rather neutral and allows for our own "touches" of decoration.
Sorry, this is the best picture I have right now showing the living room color. 
The master bedroom was this bright, coral color that Jason did not like, at all! So now...

 it's a nice, light gray that will compliment our new bed spread we'll have once we're married perfectly!
and on to the master bathroom which was wearing the same terrible wall paper as the guest bathroom was and my sweet man took, days on days to remove all of the wall paper and paint it a lovely light sea foam color. It is beautiful and looks so big and clean!

 and after

My fiancé is something special. I am so blessed and so thankful to have such a thoughtful man to love for the rest of my life! All of this painting was so helpful and so appreciated!

And now, our most recent updates:
Our amazing, new recliner. Not only is it a beautiful gray leather that matches the colors in our living room perfectly, it fits BOTH OF US IN IT! 
 Our new lamp and one of the new couch pillows--both courtesy of TJ Max--one of my favorite stores
 Another view, with our new curtains added in as well. 
 and my personal favorite--the curtains in the foyer! They look so pretty and really added a "homey" look to the house. Jason's mom's painting looks perfect there as well! 
 to close it up, a panoramic shot of our, almost complete living room that I am so proud of! 

I promise to do better with my posts from here on out! Hopefully the 422 updates will keep coming! There's a lot of things to do to make this house into a home in 75 short days! 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

We're back! + Our First Engagement Party!

We are officially back! 
I never realized how busy/crazy/time consuming the end of summer/beginning of school is! 
BUT, I am finally getting into a routine and I am ready to return to the blogging world. 
There's so much to catch you up on and so many posts that have yet to be posted (still under my drafts tab--uh oh!) I wanted to start back sharing with you all a fun-filled night we had on August 10! 
Some of the young couples in the church threw Jason and I our first official engagement party! 
It was amazing. 
Wonderful people, gorgeous decorations, delicious food--couldn't have asked for a better party to kick off our wedding festivities. I also can not thank the hostess enough--we had so much fun and thoroughly enjoyed getting to share in that night with our friends. 
We are so thankful! 
Here are some pictures from the night:








I was amazed by the decorations! Very very thankful for all the preparation and work these sweet people put in for this celebration!

Aaron and Blair 
Love you all and so happy you all came!

Jason and his long time best friend, Brandon 
These two, man I love them. 
My man! Mmmmmhmmmm    
Love yall, with all my little ole heart. 
Love this picture!
Most all of my bridesmaids! Missing my out of towners! 
With Jason and his wonderful Mom! My soon to be Mother in law! 
This girl, my maid of honor, my best friend, my amazing sister. Love you so much and thank you for all of the wonderful pictures! 
It was such a fun party!
I can not wait to actually keep you all updated on our lives and what's going on!

Be looking for some very, very (VERY) late posts coming your way soon--bragging on my husband-to-be and how sweet he is to me and an amazing trip we went on!