N.T.S.

N-ot T-oo S-habby Ha! Coach and I watched a dumb (ok I might have thought it was actually pretty funny) movie this weekend- Cedar Springs huh you've never heard of it? I have no idea why you wouldn't have?! Maybe because at the theater was the first time I had ever heard of it! It's with Ed Helms, one of The Office guys, and one of the characters in the movie always made acronyms for everything so I figured I would follow his lead today!

What's my NTS project? Night Stands! I did this a while ago but never posted anything about it so I figured I would now. I found two side tables and a coffee table on Craigs a while back and bought all 3 for $40. I planned on making the two side tables into night stand for our room and the coffee table into well, a coffee table! Creative huh? Anyways please take a look at how beautiful they were when we picked them up:Beautiful huh? Can I just say Coach looked at me like I was from another planet when we showed up at the sellers house to pick them up...eh I don't really blame him they are pretty hideous BUT after some ripping of the tacky curtains, primer, two coats of paint, glazing, and new knobs they looked like this:

Much better right? Well for some reason I don't have a totally completed picture of them but the knobs we got for them from Hobby Lobby work perfectly- I'll post a fully finished picture another time but for now NTS right?

There may be pain in the night but JOY comes in the morning!

I think I have said before how in love Coach and I are with our church Small Group. It is so sweet how personal the Lord is and how He puts certain people in your life for so many different reasons. We fully believe that the 4 other couples He has placed us with are by no means a coincidence. The reason I am on this "soap box" if you will is because lately we have had some hardships in our small group, some really big things that all the couples are going through right now and it is such an amazing thing to see little glimpses of why God put the 10 of us together. I know on so many occasions these couples have been so encouraging to us and what we have gone through, I only hope that Coach and I have also been able to provide comfort and speak Truth to them as well. Anyways the reason for this post is just to say that I know there are so many people out there struggling with things and I just pray that they have a close knit bond with some of their brothers and sisters in Christ to help them through! This verse has been heavy on my heart lately and I pray that it might encourage someone today: "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5

Wonder Wife

Is there such thing as a wonder wife? Is there a woman out there that is good at all of the "wifely" things that we should be good at, and fun at the same time? I don't think there is. I think every wife, every woman has something that she hates doing, is bad at doing, or just plain refuses to do. I think I might have more than the average wife but can I just say my number 1 wifely duty that I loathe is LAUNDRY! I just. hate. doing. it. The only thing I enjoy about laundry is the end when it is all clean, folded, and put away- I just don't like doing any of the steps to get it there. Seriously, if I could pay someone to do one chore it would be laundry-hands down. Coach always says he knows I have too many clothes because I never do laundry and yet I continue to pull out clean things to wear (oh-uh he is on to my clothing addiction) We were talking at small group the other night about this issue, is there something that you wish you could learn how to do, learn to enjoy doing, or at least learn how to do it in the most efficient way when it comes to you wifely roles? Or is there something that your sweet husband takes on and you are so grateful that he does? Don't get me wrong, my favorite thing in the world is being a wife to the most wonderful husband ever, and I love every second of it but let's face it we aren't all Miss-Martha-Stewart-June-Cleaver's! I'm more like Martha Stewart with a nasty secret in my closet, ok so Martha Stewart had that too- at least I won't go to jail for my overflowing laundry basket! Ok, that was low- I love you Martha!

Inspired

I have been reading some amazing blogs with very low cost home decorating ideas and I have been so inspired lately, and thought I would share some of my projects. My first project was to tackle our dresser and chest of drawers (which up until last year I always thought it was called "chester drawers" not chest OF drawers oops!) They were a hand-me-down from my grandmother-in-law, which don't get me wrong we LOVE free stuff especially furniture. We will just say they weren't exactly my taste so it was time for an upgrade, except we didn't want to spend the money, so in came the creativity. A borrowed sander, a trip to Lowes, and a couple days later and voila: new bedroom furniture minus the cost!

Here's how I did it:

Sorry I didn't take any pictures during the process so you will just have to listen up good...First I had to remove all old hardware and get to sanding. I sanded with medium grade sander and I will admit this part was a booger, not my favorite step that's for sure! After the sanding was done it was on to the primer. I bought some spray paint white primer and sprayed it down. The primer doesn't have to look pretty just give it some coverage. Once the primer dried it was time to paint- I used Behr Matte Churchill Hotel Lace for the paint. Since I primed it I only had to do one coat + some minor touch ups. Then came the "antiquing" look. For this I used Valspar glaze. All you do is apply where you want the antique look and then wipe with a dry rag until your desired look. Then apply new hardware- I thought about just painting the old hardware but one was broken so we just upgraded hardware. This was the most expensive part of the project because we had to buy 14 new handles, but well worth it I think! Any ways, I hope you enjoy and maybe you will be inspired to start a project yourself!

I will update later this week with another project that I recently finished also- I think you are going to like it!

Four Christmases

So you know the movie Four Christmases? Well that is real life for us. Both mine and coach's parents are divorced so for the holidays we make four rounds. It gets a little crazy but I am not complaining because there are so many people that have no one to spend the holidays with...so I think too many people to have to visit is a blessing. I know this post is a little late but I still wanted to share a bit of our holiday season with you. We started the rounds on the 23rd at my Father in Laws house. It was so much fun, breakfast dinner, family, and presents! Unfortunately I did not get any pictures from that night because I hadn't yet received my wonderful new camera! Anyways I think someone got some pictures and hopefully at some point I can get my hands on them. After that is was off to the Mother in Laws house on the 24th. We had a blast hanging out with the nephews all day and opening presents. Then off to the grand in laws were there is always an amazing feast which includes shrimp cocktail, Chick-Fil-A nugget tray, fruit trays, and sooo much more. I don't think I actually sat down and ate I mainly just shoved all the appetizers in my mouth and then went in to a food coma only to wake up for more presents.
After that we headed back to our house to wait for Santa to make the rounds. Christmas morning I got Coach all to myself...well I did have to share with the pups, but it was a wonderful morning none the less. After our lazy Christmas morning we made our way to my Mom's and low and behold it started SNOWING! What? I know! A white Christmas in Georgia, can you believe it?
Well ok you can't really tell in this picture but I promise it is snowing!

Uh...these three men steal my heart! Especially the one on the right!

See I told you it was snowing!
Then last but not least my Dad's for Christmas dinner.
Where we had a delicious meal compliments of Mr. Blackwelder. We were also very entertained by the XBox Kinect, watching the snow fall, and hours of the now-to-be-made-annual dance party...so fun!
Don't let the brother in laws face fool you, when the cameras were down the boys hammed it up, they just didn't want to get blackmailed I guess!

So there it is, our tale of Four Christmases. I hope your Christmas was just as wonderful as ours! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family members to spend it with!

Christmas Craft

I love crafts and projects, really I do! I feel so accomplished after they are done and my favorite is seeing something at a store and emulating it for 70% less than you would have paid for it in the store! My sister says the word craft makes her throw up in her mouth a little so I guess not everyone is like this, but if you like crafts you should try this one for Christmas. My friend told me about it and she tried it first- nice to have guinea pig friends, just kidding! Anyways hers turned out so good I had to do it for myself! Basically how you start is with a styrofoam cone (any size) I think mine was 10" tall maybe. One pack of coffee filters, I bought the non-bleached natural color because the neutral color matched most of our other existing Christmas decor, but, my friend did the white and it looks amazing too. You can also soak the white filters in water that has any color food coloring in it to dye them a different color. The last few items you will need before starting is a glue gun and some scissors.

Then you just start filter by filter. I folded the filters into 4ths- I would fold once into a half moon shape and then again into pie slice shape then fold the tip add a little and a dab of glue then onto the styrofoam. You just continue around the base like this and eventually...

you will end up with this:
a coffee filter Christmas tree! So fun and such an inexpensive Christmas decoration. It took about 1 1/2 hours but I had my coffee in hand and a cheesy Lifetime Christmas movie on T.V. so it was time well spent for me!
I had a few more Christmas projects that I wanted to do this year as well, but it's a little late in the season now so they might just have to wait until next year. I am looking forward to having some time off and doing some DIY projects around the house-of course I will update the blog if I end up getting around to them.

Christmas music yay or nay?

Let me just tell you how much I love Christmas music...a lot! I don't know if it is because of the actual music, the fact that I only get to hear it one month out of the year, or the fact that it drives coach crazy by the time the first week of December is over, but I sure do love it! Makes me wanna bake some cookies and string popcorn- did your family do the popcorn garland thing? Mine didn't and I have to tell you, I am not sure I really get it! Putting popcorn on a string and then hanging it on your Christmas tree? Weird, right? If someone knows how or why this became a Christmas tradition please enlighten me!
Happy Christmas music listening! Mariah Carey's Christmas album will always be #1 in my heart!

June 29th...That's not good!

So I am finally back on my blog for the first time in forever, June 29th to be exact...that's not very good blogging huh? In my defense...the Mr. and I have been so busy we are just trying to keep our heads above water right now. All positive things but a lot of positive things at one time doesn't leave very much of that...time! Anyways I am going to start getting back on the blogging train today with a little family update cliff notes style!
Mr. and I both got new wonderful jobs, we have moved to a house in Cumming, we are part of an amazing small group, Mr. got a position coaching high school basketball which he loves (and from now on I will refer to him as coach-which he doesn't love this so much, but I do so the name stays!) oh and now it's back to Christmas time again, anyone know when that happened?

There is the cliff notes version of our life since my last post! Stay tuned for just a few of the 345,654,980 random thoughts that fill my mind daily... I know you will be waiting on pins and needles for the next post!

The Name Game

Ok so I know I am not the only one who has been out some where, heard a mom call her son or daughter and think really? You named your kid that? Well let me tell you about the name that I heard at the park today. A cute little girl was named....Oralee! Really? Really? Who does that! Now, don't get me wrong for those of you who know me well you know that a) I LOVE different and a bit unique names and b) I am a southern girl born and raised so naturally I am a huge fan of slapping a -lee -ann -kate or -beth on the end of almost anything, except Ora! I mean can you just imagine this with MY last name? Ha! Anyways, just thought I would share...and I would love to hear some of the "really?" names that you have heard lately!

Night of Worship

Mr. and I, along with our entire small group went to a night of worship and communion last night at our church, North Point. It was so amazing. The music was great, the fellowship was even better, and the overall experience was so neat. Just to see that many people with hands in the air worshipping our Lord will give anyone goosebumps. Not to mention there were two little girls (prob. around the age of 8 or 9) standing next to us in the aisle of the church singing their little (off key and out of tune) hearts out to Jesus....talk about a tear-jerker! I can't help but to imagine that the Lord was just smiling down on that place the entire night. It was a night that was very much needed and I can't wait for the next one!

Favorite song of the night:

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful you are,

And how great your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,

Oh how He loves us,

How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh! how He loves us,

Oh! how He loves us,

Oh! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If grace is an ocean, we are all sinking.

And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don't have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about, the way

He loves us,

Oh! How He loves us!

"He COULDN'T love us MORE, and He WON'T love us LESS." -Andy Stanley

What does it mean to seek the Lord?

Just read an article by John Piper about seeking the Lord and it really got me thinking about myself and if I am truly seeking the Lord so, thought I would share:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2009/4163_What_Does_It_Mean_to_Seek_the_Lord/

I am TRI-ing!

The Mr. & I thought that it would be a great idea on Sunday to ride our bikes from our house to my mom's house (8 miles away) and then swim when we got there and just get my brother to take us home later. Turned out not to be such a great idea, we got caught in a monsoon and had to pull over at a school and wait for my brother to come rescue us only to find out the bikes wouldn't fit in his car......maybe we will look at the forecast before hitting the open road next time!

I know, I know

I know everyone says this but really I have been a horrible blogger. January was my last post, I mean really? That is so bad! I am not going to say I promise I will get better because I don't really know that that is going to happen, however, I will really try! Just a quick update on the past 6 months:
-The Mister and I added another addition to the family....a dog (I said the past 6 months, not 9 months!) his name is Ryder and he is a black Goldendoodle and we love him! Charley on the other hand loves him very conditionally!
-We also celebrated our first year of marriage! AMAZING this year has been filled with so much love, excitment, and fun. I am so very thankful to the Lord for giving me such an amazing man!
-We found a church that we love and joined a small group and we are thrilled at what the Lord is showing us through this church and the wonderful people He has put in our life.
-Mister got a spark to do a triatholon, so we are planning to do a sprint tri at the end of July.....my goal: try not to drown

Well, that is all of the big updates that I can think of right now! I will really try not to neglect the blog anymore.
Love,
The twice-a-year blogger

Can dogs tell time? If you said no I beg to differ. Example #1. Charley gets fed once a day at night when I get home from work (5:30) and you better believe that at 5:30 at night he wants his food. We know this because he likes to move his bowl right in the middle of the kitchen, just to make sure we realize that it is in fact 5:30 and time for us to put something IN his bowl.

In the process of getting his bowl to the middle of the kitchen...it is supposed to be up against the wall.

Example #2. He doesn't care what day it is...he is going to wake us up at 8:00am to go outside. Really? Sat. morning Charley?

Example #3. Around 10-10:30 at night he is ready for bed and will either pass out on the couch or growl at us to go upstairs.

What a smart dog.

On a different note, as you all know I love the Mr. and here is just another example of why...he lets me do all my crazy weekend projects! I would consider myself a pretty crafty person, like there are so many things that I see in stores or online and think "I can do that" and I usually try them. Some succeed and some don't. Oh well, anyways this past weekend project was something that I saw at a craft fair the Mr. and I went to not too long ago:

The before, a recycled window that I got for $5 at the Woodstock Market The after...art for our kitchen. I love this because you can do whatever you want, put scrapbook paper as the background, pictures, or paint it like I did. It is just a totally custom, totally cheap, homemade piece of art. I think I spent maybe $8 on the whole project, $5 for the window and about $3 at Wal-Mart for the acrylic paint. Can't wait to put up picture of this weekends project!

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" 2 Cor. 12:9

Happy Birthday G.G.

Well yesterday was my mom's birthday...out of respect for her I will not say just HOW many years ago it was that she was born, but lets just say this isn't her first trip over the hill! Anyways I love my mom dearly and I am so greatful for her. I mean if it wasn't for her the world would have 5 less amazing people in it! So here's to you Gwenny! You are such a strong woman, mother, sister, daugther, and friend! I love & appreciate you so much, and I hope that you have 55 more amazing years on this earth! (Oops gave away the secret).

Happy Birthday Mom!

My Mom and the Mr. at our engagement.

My mom and MIL at a wedding shower

The first time my mom saw me after I had my wedding dress on.

My mom and I at my college graduation.

The 5 people this world would be missing if it wasn't for Gwen! We love you mom!

We'll see how this goes...

So with inspiration from "The Biggest Loser" I have decided to set some workout/weight loss goals for myself, and I hoping that by stating them on this blog it might help me stick to them a little better!
1. I am going to do a half marathon training schedule ( I was planning on signing up for a half marathon however, I looked them up and there aren't any in ATL until like Thanksgiving) so my deadline for being able to run 13.1 miles will be May 8th!
2. I also want to lose my what I call "happy fat" (what I gained after the wedding) Scales aren't really my thing so I'm not really sure exactly how much weight that is (thankfully) but my goal for this is to have it all off before I put on my first bathing suite for the summer...I'm guessing May/June ish!
3. Make healthier meals for the Mr. and me, which for those of you that know my husband you know this might be the hardest of all three!

Anyways those are my goals...late new years resolutions I guess you could call them!
Will and I have a love hate relationship, Will Power that is...so like the title says, we'll see how this goes!

Sorry so slow

I am so sorry I have really been slacking on the blogging lately. Matt and I have been super busy with moving, Christmas shopping, birthdays galore, and trying to set up the house! Not to mention we have yet to set up the internet at the house so the only time I have on the computer is a few mins here and there at work....needless to say it will probably not be till after Christmas when I can get back on the blogging train. I promise to post pictures of the house later though if you can bare with me and my boring blog. Merry Christmas!

Yeah it's alright!

Sorry for the gap of time in my posts, but Matt and I have been rather busy. So to catch you up just a bit...we got a townhouse!! Slow down now, we didn't buy it just rented it but let me tell you...that 1000 sq ft. 2 bedrooms 1.5 baths seems like a mansion to us and we can't wait to move in. It is perfect for us and we are counting down the hours till the first of December, Merry Christmas to us!

Let's just say if I had a theme song that played everytime I walked into a room this would be my theme song right now:

"Cause I've got a roof over my head, the woman (MAN) I love laying in my bed And it's alright, alright I've got shoes under my feet Forever in her eyes staring back at me And it's alright, alright And I've got all I need And it's alright by me It's alright by me, yeah yeah When I lay down at night I thank the Lord above For giving me everything I ever could dream of"

Yes we have started out the first 6 months of our marriage with very humble begininngs but it has not only brought us incredibly close, but we now also know for future reference we CAN survive 6 months of living with my mom...which Lord willing is not a fact that will ever come in handy again!

On a different note...how is it almost Thanksgiving already? This is the time of the year that I always wish we could just slow down. It doesn't matter if you are 5 or 65 Christmas can't ever get here fast enough and always goes by way to fast.

Some of my favorite things about this time of year:

Hot apple cider

Any and all Christmas music

Fall colors

Shopping

Oversized sweaters

The Christmas tree smell

Pumpkin spice latte's

Casseroles

Cheesy Christmas movies on ABC Family

A fire in the fireplace

Christmas lights

Family fun

Traditions

And there are about a million more! So bring it on Holidays...just please don't go too fast!

Fall weekends, LOVE them!

The Mr. and I had such a wonderful fall weekend! Friday night we went out to eat and to see the new movie "The Invention of Lying" (really cute movie) then Sat morning we went to my brother in laws tennis match which he won! After that we spent a lazy afternoon around the house until around 3:30 when we were off to the North Georgia State Fair to meet up with some friends. It was so much fun! We saw the tiger show, elephant show, high dive show, rode rides that make you wanna puke, ate funnel cake, boiled peanuts, and caught some of the Chuck Wicks concert. So fun I LOVE the fair! Sunday we had a very relaxing day (skipped church because of getting home so late from the fair) went grocery shopping and then to the park to run a couple miles and throw the football. This weekend was like the definition of a fall weekend and I loved every second of it, fall is by FAR my favorite season and I can't wait for many more weekends just like this past one with the Mr. hope everyone else had amazing weekends as well and I will post pictures soon!

Sew fun!

For a while now I have really had this desire to learn to sew. I have sewn before as well as used a sewing machine but I don't have a sewing machine so I never had the chance to really try different things. Well although I did not get a sewing machine (yet) my grandma has a portable one that she has loaned me for the time being. Now as I have mentioned I am not the most patient person when I have an idea in my head so naturally I rushed out to the fabric store bought some fabric and started sewing. Please keep in mind I barley know how to work the darn machine much less anything about garment construction but I did it! I decided to make a little girls dress, I love little girls clothing and I figured it couldn't be that hard because it's not that much fabric and the structure doesn't really have to be great. So anyways I made TWO dresses yesterday and I am so hooked! Career change? I love being creative and watching that creation go from a yard of fabric to an outfit. I didn't use a pattern just winged the whole thing so I really have no idea how they would look on but I am very proud of the final products! Anyways I think they are about a size 2T so if you know anyone who would want to possibly purchase them let me know

Dress 1: