I have lately been having the itch to sew and have found that when I have a project I am really enjoying sewing. These are just a few pictures of the shoes and purse that I have made, My sister always finds these awesome sights and so I stole the pattern from her for the baby shoes (Thanks Becca). I am really excited about how they turned out and can't wait to let me mom use her monogram machine to make some look even cuter. On Sunday I made a purse for myself but my sister is going to help me find some directions for a smaller clutch which I am excited about making. I have used the uphostery fabric from work to make these items and I am hoping to find more projects to use it for.

There is also a picture of my finished curtains, pardon the mess in the guest room I was working on the bed skirt and just had to move the mattresses out of the way. The other picture is my fabrics, yay! I cannont wait for my furniture to get here, 2 weeks. Sorry that i dont have much to write about. Mike and I are going to a semi-formal dinner tom night for ASDA and I am excited about getting dressed up and meeting some of his friends and their spouses/ girlfriends. Hopefully I will actually take some pics and post those also

Ice Storm in Kentucky

Well for those of you who have been watching the weather, Kentucky got a nice dose of ice and snow these past 2 days. We have fortunately not lost power yet, but as you cant tell from one of these pictures there is an omnious branch hanging over the power line that comes into our house. The crews are already out checking on things and cutting the branches that have fallen down. I have been watching the news and realizing just how bad it is in Lexington. There have been multiple fires from downed power lines and MANY people are without power. There are saying it can take up to a week to bring power back to some people so please be praying for them and us. The sun has started to come out so I am hoping this will help melt things. Thankfully I got called off from work right as I was getting into my car and Mike does not have school today. I excitedly thought this meant Mike and I could have a fun snow day, but he is in dental school so he has headed off to campus to study. How I long for the free time we had with RUF, but four years and then it will be much better, at least I think. I am planning on spending my day catching up on my scrapbooking and just enjoying being home.

One nice thing about yesterday at work was that absolutely NO ONE came in (which in my opinion it was kinda crazy we were at work anyways) and the new fabrics from Wesley Hall did so I spent about 3 hours picking out my fabrics and finalizing everything so we should be ordering some new furniture by the end of this week! I am very excited about it and think it is going to look great when it comes in. The picture shows the 4 fabrics we are using. The blue one will be on the chairs, the gold on the sofa and the red and pattern on the pillows.

On Sunday I made my first set of curtains by myself. I was a little nervous but I think they turned out great. I applied the green stripe down them because I thought it added a little something extra. They are not quite done because i am going to put grommit rings (like the pottery barn curtains) on them, but I am waiting for a coupon to Hobby Lobby to buy them. I thought this picture would give you all an idea of what they look like in the room.

We overall are staying pretty busy with school and work, and trying to hang out with friends and fix up our new place. Mikes school has definately picked up this semester, so he was glad to have today to kinda catch up on some things. Also I just had to post a picture of my amaryllis because I am so proud that it finally bloomed, a month after Christmas.

So here are a few more pics of our place for those of you who care to see it. I am definately learning I am not very good at taking pictures or writing about our lives, hopefully I will get better when we have children otherwise I think our family will kill us. If my sister or sister-in-law would also like to tell me how I can get my blog looking as great as theres I would appreciate it. My account does not seem to have all the options to change templates as y'alls do.

Life has been going pretty well here as we are adjusting back to work and school after a very short and brief break, but we really enjoyed seeing our family and meeting my new niece, Tess (you can see her pictures on my sisters blog), and getting excited about a new niece on the other side of the family.

I am very excited about the guest bedding I found on clearance at Macy's in Greenville, SC. I kind of stumbled on to it when I was shopping with Rebecca Perkins (one of my best friends from college). It was the green I was looking for and came with everything, except I do not like there curtains so I am currently looking for fabric. Mike was about to kill me when I came to the car with it (we were loaded down from Christmas) but when I told him what a great deal I got for it he was a little better with it. I am really enjoying setting up our place and slowly hanging up pictures and panting and yes I painted our bathroom purple and I thought I was crazy at first but I absolutely love it and the towel my mom monagrammed with her awesome new machine.

Moving

So we moved this past weekend and let me just say how much I LOVE our new place but hated the moving process! Although I will admit that having 10 college guys help on friday nite made it super easy and fast. We had all the major furniture moved friday night and so on Saturday our couple friends did not have too much to do except lots of small boxes and we were done by noon. This left us with the mountains of boxes and let me just say it felt a bit overwhelming so I left for 30 minutes to get some items at Walmart and felt much better when I got home.

I am enjoying having the extra space and Mike and I each have our own closet which is nice. It feels weird to be in a "grown up home" (dinig room, porch, guest room, ceilings that arent super short). I am hoping to post pictures soon so you can get some idea of what it looks like but I forgot to bring my camera cord to download them at work. I am not that proud of it right now because it needs alot of work, painting, decorating, etc. But I am looking forward to putting it all together and making curtains, with my mothers help of course.

Checkers has adjusted well though and he has not been scared at all which is good. I was afraid the adjustment would be bad because he did not do well at all when we visited my parents this summer but he did great and I think he is enjoying all of the new and plentiful windows to look out of.

The couple in the middle just got engaged last night

If you look you will see Mike (the girls refused to ride on this because none of us just liked feeling our stomach drop)

A little wind blown

Chelsey and Anne

Cincinnati Road Trips

Last Thursday Mike and I went with 2 other couples to Kings Island. One of the people had gotten discounted tickets through work and organized for us all to go. We had a blast but were exhausted by the time we got home. Mike had been pumped about this trip for the past month and I was glad to find out that I still enjoyed roller coasters. I was a little nervous because I wanted to enjoy them as much as he does.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I got a call at work about the James Taylor concert in Cinn (He sings Fire and Rain, I've got Carolina on my mind, along with some other great stuff. It was a family from our church that was going and they had bought tickets for their whole family but then one son and son-in-law couldn't go. So I went with their daughter and one other friend. It was such a fun roadtrip and I felt like I was in college again going with the girls (the rest of the family had driven up earlier). It was outside on the river and was the most beautiful night. One of the girls is also going to be an intern and so it was fun to talk to her about that and the excitement as she is getting ready to start

Mike and I are both staying busy with work right now, but he likes his job and I am enjoying Starbucks. I should hopefully be finished with my training by the end of this and will officially be a Barista. I still don't like coffee after tasting 10 different kinds and they still all taste gross just in varying degrees. Next week I should start working at the furniture store. I hope this will be something I really enjoy.

Mike is officially in the air Force! Yesterday (Monday) Mike was commissioned in the 332D Recruiting Squadron as a 2nd Ltn. It was a fun and exciting event and there was a lot more to it than we originally thought. We had to pin him and then he received a coin (to do challenges with) and a nice writing pin as a personal gift from Sgt Dickey (the recruiter). We are very excited as God takes us into this new stage of life, but definately sad to be finishing our time with RUF.

Sorry there are no pics, I am out of time and they are not uploading for some reason, but I will play more with it tom.

We had a dear older couple in our church (Joe and Shirley) do the the ceremony. They have been such a blessing to us since we got to know them in January through a program in our church called dinners for 8. They have been so kind to us and really taken an interest in our lives. Joe was in the Air Force for his entire career and was excited to commission Mike. He did Air Force ROTC at UK after he retired. If it had not been for them, the day would not have been as special as it was. It felt like we had family here as they acted so proud of us and told us how special we were. Shirley baked a cake to celebrate and took pictures of everything (which I am so thankful for). She also showed me her special Air Force wives pin. Joe also kept us laughing and reminds me so much of Papa in his joking, loving demeanor.

I realize it has been forever since we have blogged, but without a good working camera we have not had to much to put up. Hopefully we will get one soon. I will try to put up more pics or update you on life a little more often. Please be praying for us as we transition out of RUF and for me a job and for Mike and hopefully going to training.

Sara Jane, Marte, Mary Ann (She lives in Tuscaloosa now but they came back for the party, it was great to see her and catch up)



HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
We hope everyone had a great new years eve. Mike and I went over to a family in the church's house (the Lee's). They are in our married couples Bible study as one of the mentor couples and we have really enjoyed getting to know them over the past year and a half. For the past 10 years or so they have always done a new years eve party so they were well prepared, even having their own custom built dance floor (they built themselves). I really enjoyed dancing and getting to know people from the church in a different environment. Mike is not much of a dancer and I think I got asked 10 times why he wasnt out there with me. But next year Christ (Lee) said he wouldnt let Mike come if he wouldn't dance but somehow I highly doubt that will happen. But you never know as my friend Sara Jane's husband was dancing alot and she said he was just like Mike until 2 years ago.
Mike and I did not get there until 10:30 as we stayed in the Zaxby's an hour past closing time to try and watch as much of the Clemson game as possible, only to get to the Lee's and see it was on there. Oh well it was quite hilarious at Zaxbys because the manager was so nice to us and just kept letting us stay there as the employees mopped the floor. And when we went to finally leave he was like ya'll can stay we are still in the back doing things. Needless to say we love Zaxby's even more now. Also we were the only people eating in Zaxby's the entire 3 hours we were there! It must not be a popular new years eve place.
Mike and I are glad to be back in KY but not so glad about the weather as the snow is coming and it is in the teens outside. We are planning on seeing National Treasure 2 this afternoon and then watching some of the games this evening. Checkers is his normal wild self and I think he is having trouble adjusting back to less people and a smaller space but we let him play in the real attic (not our apt) and I think he enjoyed that. We used to not let him go back there, but we decided that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. There are also a few pictures of our Christmas at the Caldwells and the Adams (sorry they are not in order for those people that have blogger thoroughly figured out, I am not sure how to get them in order)

This Wednesday we had our married couples Christmas party. We have really enjoyed getting together with these 6 couples the past year and a half and it has helped in making us feel like we have friends in our own stage of life. I realized I had never taken any pics of this group this past week so I took my camera on weds. We had dinner and then a "dirty Santa" party where we each brought gifts that were from our house that had been given to us that we didnt want. Neither Mike nor I got a good gift but fortunately somebody stole Mikes so he stole these really cute Christmas hand towels for me. They have little ornaments on them and are really thick so they will be great for drying dishes. I was really excited as I have been looking for some.
Most of you know by now that Mike was accepted to UKs dental school last friday. He was very excited and I felt like he was on cloud nine all day. We received the paper work saying he had been accepted on weds. so I took a picture of him with it.
I made Checkers a stocking last weekend. I dont know if I will put anything in it but it looks cute. I was glad it turned out okay.
We also got new computers this week. RUF approved us both getting computers if we kept it under the original budget. It was great to get them and felt kinda like Christmas because we could never have gotten them if RUF hadnt allowed it. Mine is the green one and Mikes is the blue one.
These past 2 weeks have been really busy with Ministry and with Mike and dental school. Mike is going to do the Airforce to pay for school and all the paperwork needs to be turned in ASAP! It has been crazy getting everything we needed done but thankfully I think it is all in and hopefully they will accept us before they convene to accept the last people. He had an interview on thursday and then he went to Louisville to spend the night and get a physical this morning. To make sure his bad eyesight is caused by just bad eyes and not other things we had to find an optomologist that could see him today. It was crazy and definately made me think have to stop and remind myself of God's sovereignty and goodness. God provided an appt at 2 today and all turned out well.
We also had cooking baking at our house today and then the Christmas party. I will try and take pictures of the party tonight. It will be fun but I am tired and ready for life to slow down a little but I dont think that will happen until after Christmas.

Happy Birthday Mike and Reeves (it is kinda crazy my parents 2 son-in-laws have the same bday)

Well because of Sat and Sun nights being busy with RUF things, Mike and I have his bday dinner on friday night. Mike grilled out steak and I made rolls, twice baked potatoes, brocolli, and dirt cake (Mikes fav). I also gave him his bday gifts. He knew what one of them was (a grill kit) but I suprised him with another grill tool that he wanted. It is a thing you stick in the meat and it tells you what temp that meat is and how long you have been cooking it and beeps when it is done. Because our grill is 3 stories down from us I thought this would be great as it also has a pager that you can take with you and so Mike can come inside with me and know what is going on with the meat downstairs. He seemed really excited about it so I was glad.

Saturday night we had an RUF movie night at our apt and borrowed the projector from the church to put the movie on the wall. We completely rearranged the den so that all the sofas were on one side. Checkers was quite fascinated with the projector and looked at it for about 30 minutes not know whether to attack it or not.

The whole RUF group

Erica, Tori, me, and Claire
Mike, Eric, and Jeremy at lunch

Mike and I at the aquarium (sorry its a little blury)
The real live black bear

This past weekend we were in Gatlinburg for the church's college retreat. There were about 60 students from UK, EKU, Asbury, and Georgetown. It was a perfect weekend as the leaves were gorgeous and the weather was perfect. We got in around 8:30 on friday night and had a short meeting and then went to our cabins. The cabins were great as they had a bed for each person, a living area, a kitchen, and then a porch with a hot tub. There were only 5 to 8 people in a cabin so it was really nice. Saturday we had a big breakfast and then our first meeting. The meetings were neat because each campus ministry represented (campus outreach, RUF, and campus crusade) spoke at one meeting on how to reach our campus for Christ (each took a different topic- prayer, holiness, and love).

After the first meeting we went to lunch at Applewood farm and has some good homecooking and apple butter. We then had free time to go to the Auarium or the mirrer maze and then just walk around Gatlinburg. I have decided that Gatlinburg is the Myrtle Beach of the mountians. It wasn't quite as bad but it had all the tackiness and tourist attractions that Myrtle has. It was still fun to walk around though. Later that night we had another meeting and then dinner and group time (seperating into our different campuses). This was a great time of fellowship and good time to hear the students thoughts on what they saw as problems on the campus and in their own lives and how to address these things. After this we went back to our own cabins and just hung out. I got a phone call at about 10 from Mike though that there was a big bear behind their cabin. Me and 3 girls went running over to see it. It was awesome to be that close to a bear but very safe. Needless to say many other people came over to see it and it was a very exciting night.

Sunday we had a meeting and then basically left. Mike and I stayed around for a little while longer to go to the outlets because they have my formal and everyday china outlets up there. We ended up getting 2 more settings of our everyday because I was running out of plates when students have been coming over for dinner. It was a long a weekend but overall it was a great trip.