A New Year, A New Look

John and I have been wanting to redecorate the living room for a while.  It's always nice when you find one piece that gets it all started.  We found this trunk at a local antique barn.  We decided to take the TV off of the mount on the wall and put it on the trunk.

That way I could decorate the mantle.  I have changed my mantel so many times already, I love it!  This is how it looks currently.  I'm sure I'll piddle with it again.  Everything was complete except our pillows.  We couldn't find any anywhere that were the color scheme we wanted.  Finally one night I ran up on one on Etsy and had to stop my self from buying a $30.00 pillow.  Yes.  It almost happened.

I called mom, and we discussed what we could do.  The next weekend we left for Hobby Lobby and spend about $30.00 on fabric and created all of my pillows.

The smart part was we just sewed envelope pillow cases to cover the ones that were in there.  Very resourceful.
These are the finished products!  A special thank you to my mom for being so fabulous and figuring out the logistics of this project and for teaching me so much about sewing.  Because of you our living room is bright and cheery and just the way we wanted it!

We Are Here

We had a large eye opening, life altering change happen to our lives recently. We decided what was and what wasn't important in our life.  It hit us straight between the eyes like a ton of bricks.  We were hanging on to things in our lives that weren't important.  Things that kept us from God and from each other.  One foot in so to speak. We all tend to do that every now and then.  It's amazing what God can do in your life if you 100% full heartily let Him.  We are currently doing a study on how the gospel changes everything.  Every week there is a different specific topic.  We've had how the gospel changes marriage, the gospel changes sex, and the gospel changes finances.  We have seen all three of these things majorly change course over the past 4 months Once we gave everything to God, we started to see change.  Change of things that have never been before.  We have sincere joy for life, a constant strive to serve God every moment, a need to not be selfish to each other, and a true love to serve and disciple with others.  This is a monumental point in our marriage and we are so excited.  We look forward to being true to God, to one another, and to others.  We are here and ready to serve.

2011 Year in Review

We celebrated the first of the year in Gatlinburg with the snow.
We enjoyed two of our favorite singers in concert--Lady Gaga and Brad Paisley
My Granddaddy went to be with Jesus. His funeral service and burial I will never forget. It snowed so much that day and it was gorgeous.
I ran my first marathon and then another one in honor of my aunt.
I successfully ended my first year of teaching, took the show choir to Atlanta to compete and won, and began an even more successful year 2.
Grew the show choir and added another choir. Had a Christmas concert with no snow with show choir in phenomenal uniforms.
Turned into a red head then back to blonde. It was fun.
Was a part of the largest production in Robertson county as Marian Paroo in The Music Man.
The twins turned 16.
Made a few new friends that are real and dear to my heart.
Began to get heavily involved in our church.
Learned how to be honest with ourselves.
Learned many, many things. And then some.
Our marriage experienced that the gospel truly changes everything.
For this we are so thankful.
On the Books In 2012...
Disney World...masters degree...amazing marriage...and who knows what else God has planned! We can't wait to see!
Happy New Year!