Thankfully Thankful

Every year as the weather begins to change I find myself in a nostalgic mood. Fall is the best time of year and I often catch myself feeling more grateful for the people in my life. I don't know if it's because Thanksgiving is nearing and you often have those conversations around the table or what but I continue catching myself taking moments to reflect on how grateful I am and decided this time to quickly write some of it down.

It is extremely easy for me to get wrapped up in the negative and I have to consistently remind myself around October to take a deep breath. October is a busy time at work and I catch myself feeling burnt out. Between commuting, working late, conferences, and life, I begin to feel emotionally and physically exhausted. However, regardless of how busy and crabby I get, I know when I walk through the door Andrew is there. There are weeks we go without seeing each other for longer than a millisecond as we run out the door but once the dust settles we are still in stride with one another and no matter what season it is- I am extremely grateful for that.

Someone's sleepy. 

An integral part of our family are our dogs-Alba and Bailey. If you follow me on any social medias you are fairly acquainted with them. They truly are our kids and when they're not around we are lost without them. Over the summer as we prepared for a vacation and had dropped them off to be dog sat at Andrew's brother's house. That evening we decided to go on a walk which we frequently do with the dogs and we both discussed how a piece of our life was missing without them there. On top of Andrew being behind that door every time I come home I know one of them will be there to greet me.

How could you not be grateful for these two?

Believe me- there is a ton more I am grateful for! Remember I said October was busy? Maybe I'll be able to carve more time in the future to continue to share things I'm thankful
for. Until then....

Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel

Friends! Guess what? Our kitchen project is {almost} complete and I am in LOVE! 😍

As I shared a couple weeks back I decided to take on painting our kitchen cabinets and boy has it been a project. See original post here. This project has been something we have talked about doing since moving into our house back in March of last year. After much procrastination I hit the ground running and it has been an endurance test ever since. 

For those that don't know my husband, he absolutely DREADS painting. He will essentially do any other home project except that and I have learned to not force it because I will have to redo what he did to appease my begging. So that means I took this project on my own with little help. Andrew did end up helping to take some hardware off and I even got him to paint some of the finer detailed areas.  Now, the reason I prefaced this post with being {almost} complete is because there are some touchups that need to be down but our kitchen is essentially back together!

From my initial post I was asked by a couple people the process we went through so I figured I'd share what we ended up doing to get to our finished project. When we began conversation about painting our cabinets we started researching best methods. There is a lot of debate on whether you need to sand your cabinets down or if you can prime right over them. After researching via blogs, conversations with friends who had taken on this scale of a project, etc. we ended up opting for the no sand method, however were diligent in our priming of the cabinets. 

Prior to priming we wiped down each cabinet to remove any excess dirt and grime with a warm washcloth. I realized a couple things when doing this:

1. Our cabinets were kind of dirty...whoops. 

2. Rather than wiping them all down to start, I learned as the process was going that I would need to continue wiping them down as I made my way through the entire kitchen to remove excess dog hair, dust, etc. 

3. Our dogs shed A LOT! I knew this going into the project and we vacuum fairly often to keep all the dog hair at bay, however throughout the project it didn't matter how much I wiped the cabinets down in between coats, I always seemed to come across dog hair somewhere! 

After our initial cleaning of the cabinets I began priming using Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 and a foam roller similar to this one. Now in our initial research there wasn't a specific primer we came across but talked with our Home Depot to see what they suggested after hearing different concerns about not sanding (i.e. yellow discoloration, etc.). To avoid this we opted for two full coats of primer. 

Once each portion of the kitchen was primed we moved onto painting. Similar to the primer we chatted with the individual at Home Depot and opted for Behr paint and primer in-one. Using the same type of foam roller... with a new roller head I began the painting. Unfortunately, this process was a little longer than the primer. Which is where my endurance was tested. One of the things I learned by painting our bathroom vanities first was how long paint needed to "cure" to the cabinets. To help speed up the process we laid all the cabinets out in our spare bedroom and left a fan on them to dry. Luckily, this past week I had a planned getaway to the lake with some friends from grad school. I was able to finish up painting last weekend so they were able to sit all week while I was gone and dry before putting our kitchen back together.

Last night Andrew and I slowly got everything back in order. Another thing we had read through our research was to make sure to mark the cabinet for where it belonged in the kitchen. For the most part our "marking" method (i.e. leaving all the hardware in the cabinet it belonged to, etc.) worked. However, there were a couple that wouldn't seem to line up perfect which is where some of those touchups will be needed. 

As the cabinets were getting painted I began losing patience but am so happy with how they turned out and am glad I persevered! See photos of the finished project below:

**please ignore the dishes in the sink... I told you I've been gone all week....

Another thing I learned as we went through this project was how unorganized our kitchen really is. Having to live with the cabinets off for multiple weeks made our kitchen look cluttered but has now encouraged me to work on some sort of method for keeping organized- so be on the lookout for what I end up doing! As I have already shared, I am extremely pleased with the way they turned out and am even more excited for when we finally get all the appliances replaced to stainless steel and get around to installing our backsplash.

It's funny. As I went through this project I kept telling Andrew I never wanted to see a paint brush again but now that it's complete I'm already looking forward to my next project.... they say the grass is always greener right?! After Pinteresting and Facebook videos... I'm thinking a new headboard?! 

Kitchen Project

Holy cow.... this past year has been a whirlwind! However, when summer comes around things tend to slow down and Andrew and I are able to revisit projects in the house. This time around we -more like me- have decided to take on painting all our cabinets.

When we first moved in we decided to start with a bathroom vanity to test the color, process, etc. before taking on such a large project. After completing the bathroom I decided I wanted to move forward with the kitchen but knew it would be a bigger time commitment so like anything else- I procrastinated... until today. 

I had slowly started to do our master bathroom and finally told Andrew I needed to finish it up so we can finally put everything back together. Especially since come August there will be essentially no time to do ANYTHING. 

Our plans for today initially included a bike ride, trip to the pool, and making ribs. But with the rain the first two were out of the picture and we suddenly had a day with nothing planned. Now for Andrew, this is his kind of day. Sit in front of the TV. Watch ESPN. A couple movies. He would be in his glory. For me, that would drive me up a wall. So I decided there is no better time than the present and the kitchen painting began. 

Now, I am nowhere near finished but actually remembered to take some before photos to share. My hope {fingers crossed} is to finish up priming this week/weekend and move on to painting next week/weekend. 

I've told Andrew after the cabinets are done we can work on doing some of the other projects (i.e. backsplash, counter tops, updating ALL appliances to stainless steel, WOOD FLOORING) but I know those are a little down the road. For those who have seen photos of our kitchen before you'll notice one of the appliances is not what it used to be... we FINALLY got a new dishwasher! 

I think I finish ever blog post saying I hope to continue but as things get crazier it's usually the first to go. I love that people follow enough to ask for a post... wink wink STEPHANIE!... so I'm hopeful I carve out time to keep up on sharing happenings in our life. Even if it is just what we had for dinner! 

Until next time! :) 

Latermoon

Woah! This time last week we were just returning from our trip to Mexico. This was my first time traveling outside of the country and it was quite the experience.

Shortly after Andrew and I got married we decide we wanted to plan a honeymoon. Since we got married and immediately moved and I was starting a job we decide to postpone until this summer. This helped us have some time to save and really think about the vacation we wanted. After pricing out different places we finally found an all inclusive trip for 5-nights in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on Groupon and decided that's where we'd go.

After waiting almost 8 months the day finally came and holy moly was it a blast! We did three different activities and a lot of lounging by the pool.

After almost a full day of travel, we arrived at the resort around 3pm local time and lounged by the pool before eating dinner. That evening we walked the beach to scope things out and then called it a night. Being at the airport by 3am was a doozy and we were beat.

Our second day we decided to plan out the remainder of the trip. Since most of the things needed appointments we scheduled to start the activities the following day so we could have full days the rest of the trip. This allowed us to sit poolside before taking another walk on the beach tuning into the NBA finals game that evening after dinner.

The following morning we got up, ate breakfast, and made our way to go parasailing. This was the activity I was most excited about! Before leaving for our trip many people told us everyone would be on "island time" and boy were they right. Our appointment for parasailing was noon and we weren't taken out of the boat until almost 1:00. After waiting and hour in the heat we were ready to go and unfortunately the ride wasn't the smoothest and my stomach started to get upset. Thankfully I made it through parasailing and was able to enjoy the view from up above the ocean!

 

The next day we designated for snorkeling. Andrew had already gone before but I had never had the opportunity so I was pretty excited. Prior to getting in the ocean they noted we might encounter jellyfish and to not freak out if you get stung... UMMM... I was a little nervous. But all was well and we got to see some really cool fish. On the way to the reef we were able to see where the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean meet. 

The area we were staying in was mountainous right before hitting the ocean so a large part of the scenery were rocks, cliffs, etc. 

After being in the sun for the majority of the first part of our trip we decided to just do a glass bottom boat tour our final day. We were able to see a lot of the scenery along with fish. At one point our tour guide told us a Mexican shark was coming up underneath the boat. Little did we know, it was just someone snorkeling nearby!

It's been a week since we've come home and we've already started talking about our next vacation! Life truly is better by the beach. :)  

Living Room

One of the first projects we decided to take on when we moved in was the living room. This is the very first room you see when you walk in the house and we want it to make a statement. Unfortunately, it has taken some time. Especially balancing work, life, and everything in between but here is a quick update on where we are at.

This past weekend I celebrated my 25th birthday and I wanted nothing more than to get our living room painted. So Saturday we did that... spent the ENTIRE day painting with the exception of a break for lunch and dinner. And my husband absolutely HATED it. He's realized home projects aren't for him but I'll leave those stories for future posts! :)

After the entire day painting Saturday and a large portion of Sunday we FINALLY got the living room done. Now we just have decorating to do!

We decided after 4 different colors to go with Behr Burnished Clay for the living room paint color. We still have to extend this into the kitchen since we don't want to make it too choppy by changing the paint color in each room but Andrew has decided to take a break from painting for now.

Here are some photos of the process!

This photo shows some of the colors we went back and forth between. 

Our Humble Abode

Per my last post, Andrew and I are slowly getting settled into our new home. Throughout the entire process one thing we failed to do was take pictures. Anytime we told people we purchased a house they responded by asking if there were photos and we sadly had to say no. That is, until now!

Obviously, this is a work in progress. Both cosmetically- hence the two different paint colors on the living room wall and an unfinished painted bathroom- but also organizationally. There are still plenty of things to be unpacked and hung but we at least we can say we're out of our apartment and can now invest our free time into the house! Until then, here are a couple photos of the interior.

Our home is ranch style so directly when you walk in you have entered the living room. The living room has high ceilings which makes the room look "UUUUGEEEE" (in my best Donald Trump voice).

To the left is the kitchen/dining room area.

This leads out into a fairly decent sized yard which is one of the most exciting things about our home. We are ecstatic to be able to just let our dogs out to run! Saturday morning they spent a large chunk of the morning outside playing and by the end of the night you could tell they were worn out!

Off of the kitchen is what we are using for now as our laundry room/pantry. Eventually I think Andrew would like it to become only the laundry room and figure out something else for a pantry. But that will come with time. Across from this room is our second bathroom which has gotten it's first coat of paint!

Continuing down from the kitchen are our two spare bedrooms. Currently, one is serving as a guest room while the other will serve as an office and/or workout room when we get everything put together.

If you go across the house to the right when you first walk into the living room is our master bedroom. It is a decent size and has really great vaulted ceilings. There is a huge window that lets in some great light. Our plan is to get this room painted shortly after we get the living room complete. One of our favorite things about this house is the master bathroom. Not only is it huge with a walk-in closet but it also has an amazing jetted tub! 

Since moving in on Thursday we have loved being homeowners and were grateful for all the helped we received in the moving process from Andrew's brother Brian and all of my family! We would not be as far as we are now if it weren't for their hard work. I would also like to thank everyone for the well wishes throughout this process. It has been great seeing how loved the two of us are. 

Home Sweet Home

Part of my hiatus from the blog included Andrew and I searching to buy a house. The whole process happened so quickly and has been an amazing experience thanks to our wonderful realtor.

Back in January and after the kidney stone mishap, Andrew made a comment- completely joking- that he wanted to buy a house so we would have a hose to be able to wash the cars. However, this joke was a seed planted in both our minds and began to grow into something larger. A couple days later we received a note from our landlord asking about re-leasing our apartment and that rent would be increasing by $30. Yes, I know what you're thinking- $30 isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but if you add it up over 12 months and then however many years we stay in Kansas we figured it might be worth looking into a mortgage.

The house buying process was completely new to me but Andrew had some experience from buying a house back in Belton a couple years ago. Lucky for us we got connected to our AWESOME realtor who worked with us around the clock to make sure the experience was a positive one. Within the first two days of deciding we wanted to look into buying she had set-up 6 showings for us that coming weekend.

After looking at the 6 homes we fell in love with a house that was a little out of our price range but we decided to try and put an offer in anyways and test our luck. Unfortunately, someone else put in a more appealing bid and we didn't get the house. However, right after we looked at the 6, Andrew and I had stumbled across a house we wanted to check out if the offer wasn't accepted. The next evening Stephanie scheduled a showing and we decided to jump right in. The house was in our price range and had practically everything we were looking for. That evening we submitted an offer and were off to the races!

The whole house buying process was very anti-climatic. You put in an offer... wait... hear about your offer... wait.... start the loan process... wait... BUT our wait is finally over and we are now homeowners in the city of Eudora, KS as of 10:30 this morning.

Of course, with recently attending the Home and Garden Show and Andrews obsession with HGTV we have a list of projects we hope to complete and are excited about the potential the house has. It's a great starter home and we can't wait to begin making memories in a place we can finally call our own.

**note: we took this photo during our final walk through last week. It was per Kansas weather with strong winds and some rain sprinkles.

Home and Garden Show

This past weekend Kansas City was hosting the Home and Garden show downtown. The headline speakers for the event were Chip and Joanna Gaines from the show Fixer Upper.

Before marrying Andrew, I had never watched a show on HGTV. It just wasn't something I was into. Honestly, I didn't watch much TV unless it's my girls Shonda Rhime's TGIT. Anyways, soon after we got married I quickly was introduced to the Property Brothers, Flip or Flop, and House Hunters and I've grown to really enjoy watching these shows. Unfortunately, I've never had a place to really do the things we've seen on these shows but the prospect of having somewhere soon allows me to start gathering ideas.

My mom had mentioned the show Fixer Upper and I decided to give it a shot and have fallen in love. I enjoy the show not just from the design perspective but also the dynamic of Chip and Joanna. Some of my favorite parts of the shows are when they are being interviewed and being completely genuine and authentic with one another and often times it reminds me of Andrew and I's relationship. There has never been a time Andrew and I haven't been able to sit in a room with absolutely nothing to do and not have a good time. We both act goofy, are 100% comfortable with one another, and have shared laughs over some of the stupidest things.

When my mom shared on my Facebook that the Home and Garden Show was in town and that they'd be headlining we decided to get tickets and -try- to see them speak. We got to the show when doors opened at 10 and got seats for the talk at noon and it was well worth the wait!

Chip made sure to add humor to their story while Joanna shared the passion of their journey on Fixer Upper.

Seeing Chip and Joanna was truly an enjoyable experience. There were many laughs had and it was a great Sunday spent with my mom.

2016... 3 months later

Holy moly- 2016 is in full gear!

Andrew and I's first married Christmas was one for the books! We learned a lot about one another and had our first "crisis" as a married couple. Three days before Christmas, Andrew found out he had kidney stones. This wasn't the first time he'd been stoned BUT it was far worse than the last time.

The Sunday evening before Christmas he was urinating blood and we decided to go to the hospital just to get it checked out. Unfortunately, we found out he had a stone 10mm wide which is ultimately un-passable. So upon leaving the hospital they had us make an appointment with an urologist the following day. They were able to get him in the next afternoon and Andrew was going strong until he had to move to get to the doctors and then he was on his knees in pain. The urologist was unable to do anything due to it being so close to Christmas and told him to hold it out for a week!! -__-

That evening the pain got worse and he had to go back to the hospital. This time we decided we were going to Kansas City and hopefully they would be able to help. Unfortunately, that was unsuccessful again and we had to track down a doctor who would be able to do lithotripsy- a procedure to shock the stones into pieces that are easier to pass. To our luck, the lithotripsy machine was in Topeka and we were able to get him in to have the procedure done along with putting a stent in- all the day before Christmas Eve. Thankfully, after we were able to break the stones the healing process wasn't as painful and we were able to enjoy the remainder of the holidays. However, after spending two nights in the hospital and having to help Andrew in ways I was never prepared to help- we survived and are coming up on a year of marriage, 3 months staph and kidney stone free!

It's the little victories in life that count! :)

I've been meaning to jump back on this wagon but struggled finding time... yes, I know that's nothing but an excuse and I'm fully aware of that but I'm back in it now.

Besides Andrew's medical issues, our first year of marriage has been going great! I still get the occasional "when are you having kids" but I've grown used to it especially after my experience at the doctors.

This past month I had my yearly exam and left completely frustrated- just ask my 16 year old sister Kelly. While in my appointment, the doctor brought up Andrew and I's plans to have children. Andrew and I originally talked about waiting about 5 years before having kids so I can work for the amount of time I went to school just in case I choose and/or need to stay at home. (We are secretly terrified we are going to end up with twins- Andrew is a twin, I have twin sisters, oh, BTW Andrew's twin just had twins). Anyways, after discussing this plan with the doctor she proceeded to lecture me about my fertility and responded by saying, "I would just hate for you to miss out on being a mother because you are too busy waiting." UMMMM... excuse me? I think where I struggled most with this were two areas:

1. Andrew has not had to hear a WORD about his fertility and/or yield any questions regarding us having children
2. When I went to this SAME doctor last year nothing was said about my fertility going down but now I'm married and a whole 12 months older- I'm going to "miss out on being a mother because I'm too busy waiting."

When I left the appointment I was frustrated, devastated, and truly questioning what the point of how hard I've worked has been. I know this is something a lot of women have had to deal with but I had never been blatantly called out about it before and wasn't able to disregard this as easy as other conversations about Andrew and I's future plans.

After a couple of days of frustration I grew to be ok with Andrew and I's decision and that if we're being frank, it's not anyone else's place to tell us otherwise. If we choose to adjust our plan that is our choice and we will be ready to do what is best for us and our family.

Thankfully, I am surrounded by a supporting husband and family who are willing to support me in whatever I do and have allowed me to be successful and achieve goals I've set for myself.
At the end of the day that is all that matters and I have realized this past year how blessed I really am to have the support of those around me and they're all that matter.

A Slice of Life

I told you I'm going to try and be better about posting... so here I go!

The other day I was in a workshop for work and they were talking about blogging within the classroom and how it can help students write about something they care about. The presenter then asked if anyone in the room blogged. She seemed like she was hoping so bad that someone other than herself blogged so I raised my hand. I feel that I have started to slowly work my way into blogging and felt comfortable enough to raise my hand to help a sister out. Anyways, she was discussing how she utilized the blogs in her class and said she posted a lot of "slice of life" posts and I thought it had a ring to it so I figured I'd give it a show and share with you all a slice of life! :) These posts contain all things important in my life and blog: food, family, and work.

1. These southwestern egg rolls were a learning experience. They are probably the most adventurous thing I've tried to cook since the "calorie free eggplant Parmesan" I convinced my roommate to try in college. Can you say DISASTER? Luckily, these weren't as bad as that. I plan to make them again sometime with a couple adjustments (less and/or no frozen spinach).


2. This whole marriage thing is an absolute hoot! During my commute to work I tend to find myself just thinking about life and how lucky I truly am to have him as a husband and our two fur babies. This past Saturday evening Andrew and I just sat and laughed at each other telling stories and jokes and it was by far one of the best nights I have had since we got married.




3. Work is starting to pick up! It is outrageous that it's already August but I'm excited for the year to really kick into gear. Washburn has been extraordinary since I started here in June. I was surprised last week and "officially welcomed" with a plant.





So there you have it - a slice of life from me! I've slowly been making progress on my blog - check out those sweet buttons to the side and follow me. :)