the big move

After boxing up our house in Abilene and filling the UHaul to the brim, we were on the road to our new home. We had a 15 hour caravan from Abilene to Hohenwald. Thanks to Misty, Laura, Bob, and Lourene for helping us travel! We could not have done it without all of their help, and it wouldn't have been nearly as fun! Misty and I had lots of fun sister time--we talked, laughed, cried, and sang! 

welcome to Hohenwald!!!

a piece of downtown

Our precious sisters filled boxes in Abilene, helped load the UHaul, took off work and Christmas break, made the drive, and stayed with us for the first few days. We LOVED having them here to unpack boxes and help us get settled in. We had so much fun with them, and we miss hanging out with them every day or two in Abilene. We have the two best sisters in the world! Aren't they cute?!! And, they are just as sweet as they are cute. We love them so much!

house

church

school

our christmas in pictures

Jackson 

Roby

Abilene

 playing with new christmas toys:)

celebrating five years of marriage with it's a wonderful life at the paramount!

acu christmas party with the petersons

goodbye bulldogs...hello cubs!

In December I said goodbye to my sweet Bonham family. I'm going to miss both the teachers and students. This picture is of me with my first grade teaching team (except Deb, who couldn't be there) and the fun cake at the sweet going away party they had for me! Bonham is a wonderful school with teachers who love their students and go above and beyond the job requirements to meet their needs. I learned so much during my time at Bonham. I was there five and half years; it is the only place I've taught until now. This week, I'll begin a new teaching adventure. I got an interim job teaching fourth grade here in Hohenwald. I'm looking forward to a new challenge! Thanks to my time at Bonham and the wisdom I gained from veteran teachers, I feel equipped for the job. Sure, part of me is nervous to spend my days with ten year olds, rather than six and seven year olds, but mostly I'm excited! Bonham will always be home to me, since it was my first school, but I'm looking forward to becoming part of a new school family! I spent one day there last week and was greeted warmly. The kids are so mature and independent:) I'm thankful for this new opportunity! 

bed and bath

Our first major home renovation was definitely not planned. We came home from my parents' on Christmas day a couple of years ago to spend the night and head to Keith's parents' the next morning, only to find the pile of towels on the bathroom floor soaking wet. Upon further investigation, we found that the carpet in our bedroom was also soaked. Merry Christmas to us:) Needless to say, we did not get to make the trip to Jackson that year. As it turned out, there was some sort of leak under the tub, so we had to remove the tub and all of the tile surrounding it, and Keith and I are not what you'd call handy. We did the demolition all ourselves, and had the new tub and tile put in by a professional. But, during the process, and with the help of my precious mom and our super sweet sisters, we decided that if the rose colored tile was coming out of the tub area, for a fresh clean look, it might as well come off of the vanity too. So one thing led to another, and before long, not only did we have a new tub and tile, but we also had a new sink and vanity, and pretty new paint in the bathroom and bedroom. Oh yeah, because the water made its way into the bedroom, we had to take everything out of there and take out the carpet to let it dry, and if you have to take everything out of a room, you might as well paint! Let me tell you, that was one crazy week that we will not forget! Redoing your bathroom is tough when you just have one, thankfully our sisters let us shower at their houses. We made lots of new friends at Lowe's and ended up loving our bathroom and bedroom!

bathroom

our bedroom

guest bedroom/ hobby room/ office/ catch all:)

new wall that gave us an entry way 

(probably would have made more sense with the living room pics!)

Hope you've enjoyed touring our first home. We're still hoping the right people will come along and want to make it their home. 

house for sale, kitchen edition

It has been a BUSY month since I last blogged, but before I move on to Christmas, the big move, and life in Tennessee, I thought I'd finish posting the pictures of our house in Abilene so that it's properly documented on the blog:) I don't have any more from before the renovation, so I'll give you a little history. The kitchen had primary colored plaid wallpaper, which we asap after moving in:), colorful (different colors than the wallpaper) striped carpet, peeling paint on cabinets, old mustard yellow sink, and faded/stained countertops.

my new red kitchen with nice new big pantry and plenty of room for the table!

freshly painted cabinets, pretty new counter tops, and nice new sink and faucet

house for sale!

Our home, the only one we've know together as married people, is for sale. Any bloggers out there in the market:) It's been on the market for about a month now. We're hoping the right people will want to buy it, make it into their home and love it as much as we have. So spread the word, house for sale!

We've done some work on it over the past 5 years while we've lived here. I haven't always been good about taking "before" pics, but I thought I'd share a few "befores" and several "afters."

living room before:

living room after:
with wood floors instead of maroon carpet, new paint, cream and khaki instead of dingy white and wood paneling, a wall torn down where the couch is (you can see the old wall to the right of the tv in the before pics), and less clutter!

the rest of the living room before:
(was the "dining room")

the rest of the living room after:

(we moved Keith's books in here from the extra bedroom and moved this little table in here from the kitchen)

the old wall that separated the kitchen and living room

the living room side had our desk, but since we have laptops now we don't need it. we moved a lot of desky stuff to the extra bedroom

kitchen side of the old wall:

I'm getting sleepy and still have papers to grade, so I'm going to have to call it quits for tonight and call this post..."to be continued" More to come on our house....have I convinced any of you to buy it yet:)

purple white, purple white, fight, fight, fight

We had so much fun supporting the ACU wildcats this season. They. were. awesome. I usually don't get too interested in football, I just go to games to be with friends and people watch:), but it was so much fun to see everyone so excited...you've never seen so much school spirit! It was especially fun to cheer them on with ACU friends and family!

check out that scoreboard!!!

with Tara (and Jack in the background!)

Mark, we didn't get a pic of you:(
with Emmy

with Misty

Clarks and Petersons