Christmas Time and a little extra :)

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. One of my new year's resolutions is to blog more. Look back after the new year to see what all of my new year's resolutions are! Anyways I have been very busy putting my house in order before the holidays. I moved in on November 30 and have almost lived there a month! I love love love my new house! My new couch and chair arrive tomorrow and am looking forward to decorating the living room and kitchen.  I have had many visitors come to see me at my new house! Here is a picture of the Christmas lights Derek put up (little does he know next year we will have clear lights on the house :) ) and my tree.

Back to the topic at hand... Christmas Time. Derek and I went to Oklahoma the weekend before Christmas. He was finally brave enough to go to Oklahoma and be around my family for 48 hours. Here are just a few pictures from Oklahoma. This is a house close to my dad's. Each year they decorate like crazy. I had take D by the house because i love it.

Meet Sadie, the newest addition to my family. My dad and Diane came up to Columbia two weeks ago to get her from Jefferson City. She is only 7 weeks only in this picture and is a Great Pyrenees and the next time I see her she will be so big!

Nannie decided to do a white christmas tree this year with purple and silver decorations.

We came home late Sunday night to spend Christmas Eve with Derek's family. It was a wonderful holiday. We ate breakfast and had mimosa's before seeing an afternoon movie. Then enjoyed dinner, wine, games and presents. The only downfall was that Jeff (Derek's father) was called into work for a short period of time.

On Christmas day D had to work :(. I spent the day lounging, watching movies and playing with my AWESOME  ipad mini D bought me. That night we ate crab legs and opened presents.

Below are a few of the other gifts D got me and one from my nannie (the flower dish brush).

And here is one of my favorite gifts from my dear friend Cortney. She got me a new house ornament for my tree. I am so glad she thought of this, because I did not! I love it because it has some sparkle and is red and green to match the rest of my decorations.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! and have a happy New Year!

A little bit of this/A little bit of that

The days a flying by! Only 19 more days until I am a homeowner! So much to do and so little time!

Last week I went to look at my house, the hardwood floors are down, but still no appliances, carpet, or fixtures of any sort. Let's hope it gets finished this week to have the inspection before Thanksgiving.

While I am waiting for my house to be done I have picked out new living room furniture! Next will be to find a fridge tomorrow. Here is my couch:

I also bought this accent chair,

 

but in this print.

My new furniture won't be delivered until December 29 . :( Now I'm in search for a rug that will go with, and accent decorations. I am hoping to find a teal throw blanket, and some pretty fake flowers to go into a teal vase I already have.

In other news here is the pumpkin Derek and I carved for Halloween. Can you guess what it is?!?! 

That's right a pirate! And here is my cute little flower niece. 

We had  a nice time trick or treating around their neighborhood. She was such a great sport with all of it!

Being Homeless

I was officially homeless on October 1! I moved all (well almost all) of my belongings to a 10 x 10 storage unit. Thanks for my amazing sister, Derek, and his parent's some of my items have found a temporary home in their houses :). It is amazing how much stuff I have accumulated over the past three years in my apartment. It was sad to say goodbye to my "home", but I was very excited to start my journey to find my house.

Here is a picture of my storage unit, packed to the brim! The empty spaces are now full with cleaning supplies and a few boxes of clothes.

My title for this blogs states how I feel. I feel like I am homeless. While I know I will not have to sleep in my car or rent a hotel room, I do feel homeless at the moment. I miss my bed, my room, my house. While everyone has been super nice to me about keeping my stuff and me, I feel homeless....I am ready for my house.

 I have only been homeless for 18 days, and am happy to say I have found my new home. Here is my house. I am under contract and will close on November 30!

It is still being built. I got to pick out the wood floor for the living room and hallways last week. Today I went and picked out my carpet for the bed rooms today. I am starting to shop for my fridge to match my stainless steel appliances, and yesterday I got the exciting news that I have an address :). Tomorrow I  begin the process of signing my life away with my loan. It is also exciting to be in my home for my favorite holiday, Christmas. I love to decorate for the season and am so excited to put up christmas lights on my house! Stay tuned for more pictures of my house in the weeks to come.

Last week in my home

I have lived in the same apartment for the past three years. I am in the process of looking to buy a house! Very exciting, stressful, and overwhelming. It is amazing the amount of crap I have accumulated over the past three years. Now it is time to separate items into things I will store (while looking for the house), items that are trash, items that are for Goodwill, and what I will be moving into my sister's house. My sister and brother-in-law are absolutely wonderful and I will be living with them for the next several months. I am very excited to spend so much extra time with my beautiful niece! In 12 days I will be saying goodbye to my home, in hopes of finding a house to call my own! I have to finish painting, packing and moving!

Vacation in Oklahoma

My Nannie spoiled me while I was in Oklahoma and took me shopping. Here are some of my awesome finds. I can't decide what I love the most. My new cute sandals to replace a pair that broke while in Oklahoma, my cute new black flats, my blazer or the polka dot blouse. I also got an iron! Can you believe I have not had one for the last two years?! I always throw my clothes in the dryer if they are wrinkled but after my Nannie ironed one of my skirts and it looked so nice, I'm thinking I will have to start ironing everything.

We had a fun time in Oklahoma (I feel like all I did while down there was eat eat eat!) But we really were running around shopping, eating, and visiting all of our family. Both my parents and their parents live in the same town, so it feels like we spend the majority of our time in the car driving from one side to the next. Brighton enjoyed te car ride home in her new carseat while watching Mickey Mouse on the iPad!

Nannie's doll

This is my Nannie's doll. She is 82 years old and this was her baby doll when she was little. She has kept it over all these years. I find it a little scary but think it is sweet that she still has it over all these years.

Yummy Cupcakes!

Check out these cupcakes. They are yellow cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and cookiedough in the middle! Thanks to pinterest for the super easy recipe. Make cookie dough, roll into tablespoon size balls and freeze ( or take the easy way out and buy cookiedough!) make your cupcakes as usual drop the ball of cookie dough into each cupcake, and bake as usual!

Family Dinners

For the last few weeks my sister, brother in-law, and niece have come to my house for dinner on Thursday nights. It is wonderful! We try to do dinner at least once a week and this summer we got the idea to come to my house. It is nice because I try to find new recipes to cook. Last night we had some delicious Cliantro Thai Chicken (thanks to Pinterest) with rice and broccoli. Brighton even got to have the gelato after she ate her dinner, and she loved it. She keeps us busy as she now is crawling everywhere! She loves to try and help me in the kitchen. At 8 months old she already loves the iPhone to watch Mickey Mouse on. 

On a different note, after three long weeks of work I decided to splurge and do some much needed retail therapy. I had a great evening with a great friend! I found a new dress, shirt and some things for the house. What really made the night wonderful was what we found in the dollar bins at Target. As some of you know the puzzle piece symbolizes autism and helps promote autism awareness. We happened to be looking through the dollar bins at Target when we came across some awesome deals. Check out this cool bin and note pad!! Both were a dollar a piece. I am so excited to get to our new office next Saturday and set these on my desk. We also found bulletin board trim and name cards with puzzle pieces. We cannot wait to help decorate our respite area for all the upcoming trainings in the new office! The retail therapy was a success. One more week of intense work then to pack and move to the new office! 

Very First Blog!

I am writing my very first blog. I am super excited to join the "blogging" world and tell you all about my adventures and life. I received my first birthday card today, as my birthday is next Monday. I am turning the big 25! Anyways my dad sent my card early as he is on vacation right now. He sure knows me because I got my card out of my mailbox today and went to open it only to see that on the back it says "open on the 26" (I think he got my birthday mixed up with my grandfather's whose birthday is on the 26). Anyway, how tempting to have this card ONE week early and you cannot open it?!