new home!!!...kinda.. :)

On June 1st, 2007 my boyfriend, Scott, surprised me with a ring box!!! I was ECSTACTIC!!! I opened it to find.. a house key. Lovely!

I was still very excited because we had been house shopping for "him" a home for several months. We found a home he loved on Beech Street in an old neighborhood on the Arkansas side. We would go get a sno cone at night and go sit on the front porch and talk about the house and our future and scope out the area. We fell in love with the house. Before I knew it I was driving by the house on my lunch break and dreaming of it being our home together. It was not much to look at but he saw the potential that I didn't see. I like to see fast results and I knew that it wouldn't be a quick fix up. But, I was soo ready to get engaged that I was ready to settle for whatever to get the ball rolling! SO this is the home he purchased!







a little rought.. right? But, on July 4th, 2007 he popped the question in "our home" and I couldn't have been happier!!! He told me that he wanted this to be our home and build our lives together here. It doesn't get much better than that! So.. the process began! We have taken a thousand pictures of us redoing the inside over the past couple of years showing all we have done to make this old house our home. We are very attached to our home and have made it our own. Yes, it has been a very long process, but putting sweat and tears (literally) into it has made us very much appreciate it and proud to call it ours.

As you can see, we've been busy! I will upload the pictures of us working on the next post. We had lots of help from both of our families and couldn't have done it without them! We still are not 100% done. I've decided remodeling is a never ending job. We need to touch up in alot of places, paint the front door, get a new glass front door, replace the back screen door and stain the fence. If we can ever get a weekend when it isn't 100 degrees then we may get that done!

busy busy

Summer is offically here! And boy have we stayed busy! This weekend will be the first weekend for Scott and I to be home together in 4 weeks.. and I can't wait! Here's a quick run down of what we've been up to..

Hot Springs with the bestie!


We had a blast shopping, eating, being pampered and just catching up! I'm pretty sure we're going to have to make this an annual or semi-annual trip. :)

Oklahoma City to spend some time with the Mentzel's!




Mama and Molly! This was Molly's first trip to the pool and she LOVED it!


Scotty! We got to catch the Big 12 Championship game! (Which the Aggies won and Erik was very proud!)

and this past weekend.. we had a family reunion at Caddo lake, then I went on to Tyler to spend the night and some time with my cousin Jennifer (far right) and her daughter, Katy. Then Sunday afternoon I hit the road to Dallas for the birth of baby Cohen!



Here's us fab 5 the night before Cohen was born. LOVE this picture! But back to Cohen.. he is beautiful. We are all in love with him. He is in each of our prayers every day and I can't stop thinking about what all the Marshall's are having to go through. My heart has been very heavy for them these past few weeks. I'm sure everyone reading this knows the story but if not go to:
http://www.inthiswonderfullife.com/



June is personally one of my favorite months.. not only is it fun summertime, but it's my BIRTHDAY! I had bunco on my birthday and Scott had a softball game. I was a little bummed out that we were so busy on my day, but he made it extra special when he surprised me with these cute pedifores at our luau bunco! Such a sweetie! He also took me to lunch and my boss let me off early so I went to get a pedicure before bunco.. it was a great day! AND I got an Iphone!! not bad.. not bad at all...



Maybe next time it won't be a month before I post again :)

congrats cuz!

These are my cousin's, Jessie (left) and Lara (right)

We went to Shreveport for Jessie's baccalaureate service. She'll be going to Louisiana Tech next year. Lara just finished her first year there and loves it! They are one year apart and such sweet and beautiful sisters. Love them!



Scotty loves them too! :)



Here's me with the girl's after lunch at Strawn's. It was some good home cookin'! I can't believe it was my first time there!



And here's my lovely family.. plus Paul's new girl, Natalie.



Isn't she a doll? She is so sweet and makes Paul happy, so I'm happy. :)
** notice Lara in the back trying to ruin a cute pic ** haha gotta love her!

easy quick dinner!

I recently blogged about my love for basil and tomatoes. But what I didn't mention was this wonderful, easy and oh so delicious recipe I threw together!

When Scott was gone to Wichita Falls, I missed cooking and would sometimes just want to cook a little something that would make just one serving for me. This is what I came up with and made probably once a week. I got some yummy fresh tomatoes from a guy set up down the road from us and made it for Scott for the first time last night and he LOVED it!

Recipe for last night for 2

3-4 tomatoes diced
2 cloves fresh minced garlic
however much basil you like! :)
2-3 tablespoons of EVOO
crushed red pepper flakes
pasta (i don't know how much and it doesn't really matter what kind, I've used all different kinds but I prefer wheat angel hair noodles)
mozarella or parmesan cheese

Boil and drain noodles

Mix first 5 ingredients in a skillet, sautee over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes. It will smell heavenly!

Pour over pasta, sprinkle with cheese and enjoy!

This is also good with tilapia. I know us ladies don't have to have meat in every meal like our men do but if you are preparing it for him you may want to make some tilapia as well! I just season mine with a little lemon pepper because the pasta has so much flavor it really doesn't need much.

I wish I had pictures of this meal, but I don't so make it for yourself and see! :)

p.s. Farmer's market opens tomorrow!!!

around the house

Tonight I got a wild hair and decided to change up my dresser in our bedroom. It's really been bugging me for awhile and I haven't been able to figure out what to do with it. Katie posted pictures today of some changes she has been making around the house and what can I say.. she inspired me to figure something out for this dresser that I can't stand to look at! She also gave me the links to some other great blogs about decorating that I scoped out for awhile today so I guess decorating was just on the mind tonight.

No, I didn't take a before picture because I didn't really think I'd end up doing anything that I liked as much as I do. Plus the before is kinda embarrassing because it was just a bunch of picture frames really. I had the box on the left in a drawer full of junk and the photo albums in it in the top of my closet. I had the jewelry box in a drawer in my dresser. I use it everyday but somewhere along the way I got tired of it so I just stuck it in a drawer. The purple vase was on my mantel in my living room, but I didn't like it there. And the flowers in it were under my bed in a "decor box" and have probably been there for a year. So, not a penny was spent! Even better!



I got this pillow at Wal-mart a couple of weeks ago for $1 on the clearance aisle. It matches my room perfect and the rocking chair needed one! (Scott and I refinished this when we were very first dating! I'm sentimentally attached to it, no doubt.)



This cute little stool serves no purpose, but it's cute.. And free! My parents had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago and one of mom's friend put some things in the garage sale that she just wanted to get rid of, so I snatched this up...



And these! I had the perfect spot for them. I love them. I thought about spray painting them but I couldn't decide what color so I just kept them as they were. Any ideas??



Stay posted for bigger changes going on OUTSIDE of our home! :)

i can't get enough of you...

BASIL!


And you...Caprese Salad


And my most beloved...


yuuuhhhmmm.. tomato! I CAN NOT WAIT for the crops to come in and farmer's market to open so I can get some good fresh veggies and some yummy ripe tomatoes! The tomatoes at Wal-mart and Albertson's just don't compare to the ones at farmer's market. Call me crazy, but they just aren't as good! Farmer's market is another one of my favorite things about spring! We love getting up on Saturday mornings, pouring a travel mug of coffee and going down to farmer's market and stocking up on goodies for the weekend. Hopefully we don't have to wait too much longer. :)

flower power

I'm pretty sure every spring I decide spring is my favorite season and then once fall comes around I think nooo.. maybe fall is my favorite. In the spring everything is blooming and it's baseball season and winter is finally over! But in the fall the leaves are so pretty and it's football season! Although I can't decide which is my favorite I am soaking up this nice spring weather while I can. Here's some flowers I've taken picture of around the yard. It puts a smile on my face to see the pretty flowers when I drive up to the house.






We got bikes! Scotty has been wanting a bike for awhile now. We finally got us new bikes a couple of weeks ago. This was one weekend we went out to Lake Wright Patman and rode. It was a blast. We felt like kids again. And it was a great workout!



HAPPY SPRING! :)