Thoughts for August

It's Friday, and I'm having my lunch break at work, which means just half a day to go until the weekend! I have been thinking about some things we need to get done/ will be doing in the month of August, and honestly, there is a LOT! So, time to try to organize all of these things a little bit.

1. The huge thing we'll be doing this month is moving to Kentucky. However, since our house is not complete yet, we will be staying with my parents until then. My parents have a spare room that we are able to stay in, but before then, we need to get it ready. My mom would like the carpets shampooed and the walls the be repainted, and I'm all for that, but before we can do that, the things in it have to go out. So, today on the first day of August, we are doing just that. Also with moving, we've got to pack everything.

2. Packing is such a large task, I think that it needs a bullet point to itself. So far, we've got our spare bathroom, half the kitchen, and the dining room packed... but the list of what we still have to do is endless. Since we are only staying with my parents for a short time, we plan on just using our large suitcases for our casual clothes and then hanging our work clothes, so that will be easy. Hopefully tomorrow morning I will get the blankets and candles that are in one of our closets boxed up. Preston is off this next week so that will be helpful in getting a lot of it done. I'm trying to figure out a way to take a day off just for packing, but I've got lots of appointments next week so I don't know if that is do-able.

3. Start ministry at our new church. Preston's official first day is August 10th, however we are going to meet up with some of the youth group and sponsors tomorrow. Also, next weekend they are having a church picnic they have invited us to so we are hoping to go to that. We are very excited to get started at this church- good things are coming, I can feel it.

4. We need to officially buy our house! Our offer has been accepted and the contract has been signed, so now we are going through the other steps working towards closing. We were shooting for closing some time in the last week of August, however it's likely to be middle of September. But I am hopeful, so that is why it's still listed in my August thoughts. And if we don't actually close this month, we'll still be doing several things to contribute to closing.

5. Speaking of our new house, this month we will meet with the builder to pick out the finishings. I'm excited about being able to pick and choose what kind of things are going into our house and I cannot wait to see the final outcome! Also excited to see the drive way cement, it is gravels right now.

Well, I only did 5 things, but I feel that those 5 things to do this month are pretty huge.... crazy to know that by the end of next month we'll be in our new house!! Wooo!

Prayer, Faith, and Moving

Earlier in the summer, a church from my home town contacted Preston about the possibility of him being the youth minister there. We are currently living an hour away from this church, so we would definitely be moving. We prayed, we talked about it, we prayed, we talked about it, and then we prayed some more. The decision was on our minds constantly for weeks. I think that God was already working on our hearts.

We decided that Preston should at least meet with the minister from the church to find out more details. I was anxiously waiting a call at work from Preston to hear how it went... the 2.5 hour meeting went great and the potential aspects of the new job sounded great! Could we really make it work though? We're currently in a parsonage, so moving would mean adding bills. What about my job... keep it, change, what to do? Where in the world are we going to live? I wish I had written down all of the questions we had thought about and discussed, because through the past few weeks, God has answered nearly all of them.

We continued to pray about the possible transition, that God would guide and direct us, showing us His plans for us. Staying in our current jobs would be the easiest thing to do, no job change, no added bills, no moving (for the 5th time in 3 years). The thing is, ministry isn't easy. Actually, a lot of the time, it's really hard. As we continued to pray about the situation, we began getting answers to our questions. Preston had a meeting/interview with leaders of the church, we got a better glimpse of the church by walking through the building, looking at classrooms, fellowship hall, etc. One thing that we've learned is this church is moving forward, and it seems that God is going to use us as a tool there.

Through many talks and discussions about the possibility, Preston and I agreed that moving and ministering in Kentucky is where God is leading us. This past Sunday, Preston formally resigned as of August 3rd at our current church and Zebulon (the church we will be moving to) announced that they have hired a youth minister. As for me and my job, I am going to continue working at my current job and will commute.

We've debated between buying and renting and we want to buy a home. We have rented since we've been married and we're so stinking excited ready to have our own place, something that we own and can do with it what we please. The house hunt has been going on for several weeks... we've looked and looked, and we have now found one we are very interested in.

Please pray for us friends, that we will continue to have faith that God will work all of the details out, and that we will find a definite place to live. There are some uncertainties, of course. Moving and a new job always brings uncertainties, but that's where faith comes in. If God put it on us that we were meant to do his work at this church, then it will work out, even if we aren't sure how just yet.

Family, prayer, and a whole lot of faith will make this move all that we have imagined and more.

"And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

In Honor of Our Anniversary...

*Warning: picture heavy post* 

Today makes 3 years that Preston and I have been married.... 3!  It truly amazes me how quickly these 3 years have went.  So let's have a flash back of our wedding and an over view of the past years.

Preston and I were married at Coal Run Church of Christ on May 14, 2011 .

We had our reception at the East KY Expo Center, which I think was a blast!

We had a wonderful honeymoon on a Carnival cruise to Grand Cayman, Belize, Isla Roatan, and Cozumel. 

Our first home was in Grayson, KY.  We then moved from there to Tennessee where I finished my schooling and earned my Master's degree in social work.  We liked TN, but knew it wasn't the right place for us.  After living there a year and a half, we moved to VA.  We moved into one home and within a few months, moved again to another home still in the same area, thanks to Preston's job.  It is such a blessing that we both have jobs in our career field here! 

Also since being married, we landed an awesome deal on another cruise and went in Spring 2013. 

We also went with our friends to the Outer Banks in North Carolina... 

So 3 years, 3 fun vacations, 3 different states, 4 different homes, 3 college degrees, 5 different jobs, and a ton of fun later, we are here today... I have so enjoyed these past 3 years and I am looking forward to many more.  I am thankful for the one that God created for me and I am excited to see what the future holds for us! 

Welcome to our new home!

Woohoo for Friday! Hope everyone has had a great week. Preston and I have settled into our new house which is now beginning to feel like home! Even though we still have lots if work to do, I decided to take some pics (sorry for the poor cell phone pic quality) to let you see a glimpse of our home....

Wreath on our front door



Living Room



We still need to get/make a t.v. stand, but this works for now

I love this little table for some reason :)

Chloe's pile of toys, spoiled much?

What will be a game room, table is in there for a puzzle right now

walking into the kitchen

Still need to add a table runner and the window curtain

back hall/mudroom area

My mom got me these cute little pumpkins

utility closet

Guest bathroom

Guest bedroom that we haven't done anything with

master bedroom, yes, those are Chloe's stairs to get on the bed

Our stain glass window on the front of the house

Hope you enjoyed the walk through of part of our house, I left a little out until we get it finished :)

New [to us] house... so much WORK!

Hello! Just a little warning, this post may be boring for you to read, and if so, just come back when I post something else... but, I am not sure if I have shared or not, but Preston and I are moving into a new (to us) house this month. The house comes in part of Preston's benefit package from his job, so we are being tremendously blessed with a spacious house. This post is for me to be able to remember all the hard work we have been putting into it, I wasn't even going to write about it, but I want to be able to look back in a few years and see how far we've come! So...

The house is an older house, but has recently been upgraded, workers have done these upgrades, not us. Our master bathroom has been completely re done with new floor, bath tub, vanity, and toilet. Also in the upgrades, some walls were painted with a fresh white coat and others were painted colors that we were able to pick (the kitchen, dining room, and game room). Also, new laminate hardwood floors, that I love, are all throughout the house now, except for the bathrooms. The house is looking very nice, but there are some things that we still want to do before we move in. We will be working on some of it this Saturday, our families are even coming to help (so thankful)! I will be posting another post for a house to do wish list that I would like us to work on now, and in years to come.

Now that the renovations have been complete, what have we been doing? CLEANING! Every evening after I get off work I have been going to the house to clean. There were items in the house that we don't want to use, such as dishes, that we wanted to box up and store in the attic. We have got the items in boxes, now we just have to get them in the attic. At first the cleaning was over whelming and I didn't know where to start, so I made a room by room checklist of things to clean. The list had a total of 46 things for me to clean, from cleaning windows, to sweeping, mopping, and dusting fan blades, there has been a lot to do. However, as I have crossed my list off, I now have just 8 things left to clean. I am hoping to get those 8 things done before Saturday so that we don't have to worry about cleaning then.

We've also been working on things outside the house as well. This week, my dad used his pressure washer and cleaned the porches for us. He will be coming back at a later time to clean the sides of the house (brick). Preston has mowed the grass and weed eated as well, it looks so great! I am planning on revamping the flower bed that is there, well, right now it was more of a garden bed.... I pulled some of the things up and have been clearing out the space so that I can plant the bulbs I am ordering. I cannot wait to see our front yard in the spring!

I would also like to make note that in this cleaning process, I have had an in grown toe nail and I had it removed last Friday, the whole nail (ouch!!!!). So I had 2 days of rest that I didn't clean, but other than that, we have been working on it every day.

I know that all of our hard work will pay off, I am so looking forward to everything being moved in and in place (can we just fast forward to that time, please?). I'm thankful for the blessing this house will be to our family and I am excited to see what this house brings us.