Mini Golf w/ Destiny & Bryson!

Goodbye Flatscreen!

Josh sticks Lady in the Tramp in the DVD player.

DVD player sucks it in.

TV shuts off.

& doesn't come back on.

We disect the TV to get Lady and the Tramp out.

Goodbye Flatscreen!

Hello Lady and the Tramp on the big box TV!

:)

Olivia Preston Black

The newest member of our friendship family!  I love this little one.   :)

Hello Spring! Update on life...

Half way through the Spring semester already. Time goes by way too quickly! I guess that happens when your schedule is jammed pack with craziness... and when you're having fun. ;) It has taken me all three months into this year to finally get used to my schedule, but now I'm able to deal with it and enjoy it! Josh is much more easy going (that goes without being said, I know). He is at work from 5:30 am - 7:30 pm, and working on his thesis! This would probably send me to the nut house, but he is loving it as always (well he doesn't love writing his thesis :/)! As long as he has enough meals to make it through the day, then he is a happy camper.

 

We have been consistently having a date night once a week, and I look forward to that night each week. Sometimes we go out to eat or to a movie, other times we'll rent a movie, cook, and stay home. Either way it's great quality time and we really enjoy hiding from the world for a night! :) We also workout together 1-2 times per week. I LOVE this time together - it's always fun. He motivates me and takes me out of my comfort zone, so I usually work much harder. Not to mention, he's so dang good lookin'! ;) 

 

Jaxjax is his typical self. Either so sleepy or so playful, but always very happy to see you when you come home. He's such a great dog. There are many more dog park days in his near future (thanks to this wonderful Spring weather), and he is excited about that!

 

A few things we are looking forward to:

College Bible Community. We are starting the College Bible Community the second week of April. It will be a place for college students to come after Church for food and Bible study. We're very excited about this and think that the Lord has great plans for it!

The Black's Baby. Hannah is due in April - ahh! Jenee and I will be driving up to Memphis whenever she is having the baby. I can't wait! I'm excited for a road trip with Jenee, to see sweet Hannah, and to meet the newest member of our "friendship family"! :) Boy or girl?!   Josh won't be able to come because of Spring football, but hopefully we'll make a trip up together in May.

TJ in the Navy. TJ is shipping out June 21st for Basic Training! He will be gone for 9 weeks, and then we will go up there (around the Great Lakes) for his graduation. Go TJ! :)

Summer Vacation. We don't have a summer vacation planned, but we hope to visit the Dickermans wherever they move! We're sad to see them leave Beaumont, but hoping that they get to move to a good vacation spot! :)

Josh's Graduation. He will probably finish his thesis this summer, so graduation in August! I know that he is so excited about this, and I can't wait for him to have one less thing to worry about. He will be done with his schooling - forever!

Mud Race. Josh finally wants to do a mud race with me! Yeah! Now we just have to pick one out! That will be So.Much.Fun!!

St. Patty's Day Breakfast!

Mom and TJ were over this weekend, and we decided to have a green breakfast for St. Patty's Day.  Green eggs and pancakes!  :)

oops...

Just found this picture and thought it was funny.

This is not the only catastrophe that I've had in our kitchen... I've also spilled Cheerios & protein powder all over the floor. 

Just a good reason to give the floor some extra love and scrubbin'! :)

Names of God

This is the big project that I mentioned here. I started it in November, but just pulled it back out last week to actually finish it.  It required a lot of work!  I have to tell you first, that this was not my idea. My inspiration came from here.  I found the picture on pinterest, and then discovered her blog.  She has some great ideas, and I particularly loved this project.  So, I took her idea and made it my own.  These pictures just don't do it justice, but with my camera this is as good as it gets.

 So I bought a cheap piece of plywood from Lowe's and got Mr. Chris to take some of the length off, to get it to the size I needed. (I have some ideas for that extra piece, too! :))  I painted the plywood white, and sanded it some to make it look distressed.  Looking back, I wish I would have chose an off white color. 

Then, Josh and I picked the names of God that we wanted to have plastered on this thing.  The ones that we love the most.  I printed them in different sizes and fonts, and then the WORK began.  I placed them on the board where I wanted them, and traced each letter to leave an indention in the wood.  This was time consuming and tedious!  I had to stop many times because of cramps. haha. You have to push into the wood really hard to leave an indention.

This is when I took the really long break from this project.  I finished the tracing in November, and then stuck it in my room and didn't pull it out again until February!  The painting begins!  I chose black and this mustard color because those are the colors that we have in our kitchen. Painting the letters was the best part.  It was so much fun to see it come to life.  Once everything was painted, I covered the whole thing with a crackle glaze.  Once it dried, I didn't like the shininess that it had, so I sanded over it.  It left the crackle, and made it look a little rougher.  I sealed it - then hung it above the table!

You really can't see the detail in these pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it or come by and look for yourself! :)  There are definitely things that I would do differently if I did this over, but all in all I'm happy with it.  We love for this to be the focus when you walk into our apartment.  It is very imperfect, but a sweet reminder of our God and King!