our new digs.

We are excited about our new house. I was a little disappointed that the previous tenants didn't take care of the place like they should have. There are quite a few touch-ups that have been done, and still need to be done. What I'm excited about, though, is the paint job. So, in this post I will give you first the before pictures of the house, and then what pictures I have of the "during stages" of the process of making this house our home. Yay for paint on the walls!

This would be in the living room, me and Mrs. Jacks talking about what we thought would be nice. The Jacks' came along to check out the house and give insight on what needed to be done. Oh, and the kitchen is behind us.

Master bathroom, which is actually the smallest room in the house besides like... a closet or something. Don't worry, the border was ripped down.

The toilet seat will be replaced. I don't do puffy toilet seats. They freak me out.

In the master bedroom. Yeah unfortunately those aren't shadows on the carpet. Those are stains. Previous tenants were nasty tar-lungs. Aka. Smokers.

Closet in the master bedroom.

Oh, we're back to the living room in this one.

Living room, with the fire place. And the blue lightswitch cover will be replaced...

Laundry room, aka Davey's winter home. For those of you who do not know, Davey is my rabbit.

Laundry room looking into the kitchen, the kitchen being where you see me and Mrs. Jacks standing.

Guest bedroom, which was pretty spacious!

Guest bedroom again. And yeah, I don't know why the carpet changes colors throughout.

Guest bathroom, which is decent sized. And not our shower curtain. :/

Guest bathroom toilet. I hope that blue isn't stained. :/

Gues bathroom again. This will be our UGA bathroom.

The dining room, and yet another shade of carpet.

Benjy's bedroom

the Bonus room, which used to be a garage. REALLY spacious.

The other side of the bonus room.

In the dining room, looking into the room that we're going to turn into Carl's office.

In the office, looking into the dining room.

And we're back to Benjamin's room. Through the door you can see the door to the master bedroom.


And NOW for the touch-ups!!

The master bedroom. I love the green. It's going to look amazing with our comforter.

The hallway/entrance way. Obviously this is not finished yet. Carl said it is like an adobe color. I like it!

The dining room. Carl chose the blue. It turned out brighter than we both expected (I guess - I haven't seen it in person yet), but we both really like it, especially with the dark wood accents.

The office is the same color as the dining room. Blue is supposed to be a calming color and all that. Again, it turned out brighter than expected, but I really do like the way it looks with the dark accents. Besides, if you know me, you know I am more of a bright-color person than a muted color person. I mean... my room growing up was lime green. Seriously!

And that's all for now, folks! I assume I will get more pictures before the day is over, and then as soon as we get internet down there, I will give you the rest of the photos, plus photos of the finished rooms with the stuff in it. Hopefully it won't take too terribly long to unbox our stuff. We shall see!

Hope you all have a safe thanksgiving tomorrow! If you're traveling, buckle up, it's the law! ;D

Love,

Kristen

feeling a bit bummed...

I don't have my computer, nor do I have Carl's. So I'll give you this link so you can check out the pictures if you feel like doing so. :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002123&l=07b23&id=1124190010

Got Carl's Christmas shopping done today. I'm excited about everything, but I can't give any details because Carl has a link to this. HA!

I miss him. He's in Fort Valley now, hopefully soon he will begin to paint after he gets all the utilities things figured out.

Sigh.

What will I do for three days?! Who will entertain me?!

Love,
Kristen

there goes the rug...

Last night was rough. Right now I am sitting in my parents' bonus room, listening to Carl playing guitar, and wrapping my head around the past night, and the nights that lie ahead. Have you ever been in a sort of place in your life where you're so content, and you feel like everything is just happening so well, and wow you can't believe all the great things that are waiting ahead for you? And then the next moment you find yourself sobbing for hours? Perhaps not, but let me explain.

I had a craving for cheese pizza last night. Ohkay we'll stop there and let me say this: this is not a pregnancy sob story, though pregnancy may also contribute to the hours of sobbing. Carl went out to get me a personal pan cheese pizza, because he's super sweet and is so wonderful to me. Well, I played games on my iPod for a while, and then just laid back to get a small nap... and when Carl came back, he put the pizza on the bed and said, "We need to start packing our stuff. We have to be out by Saturday."

If you recall in my last post I said we were hoping to get into the house the first weekend of December. Well, that was the plan. Saturday we had seen the inside of the house and then went to find paint for the walls so we could get it painted and aired out before I have to sleep in the house. But that's not this coming Saturday. That's 2 Saturdays away. We had till this Saturday, the one after Thanksgiving, to get out of the house we were staying in.

I won't give the details. I don't think it's necessary. But, try to put yourself in our shoes... with everything except a few essentials in storage 2 hours away, and a house that might not be ready to move into, at least to our standards (as clean as it can be and painted up, at least so I don't have to sleep in a cloud of paint fumes).

I sobbed, like I said, for hours it seemed. It could have been less, I don't know. I was mad, confused, stressed, worried... what would we do? Where would we go?

I prayed about it and calmed down. And then I called my parents. So we figured I'd stay up here in Winder for a few days. We were planning on going to Rome to spend Thanksgiving with the Kidwells/McBrayers anyway, so Carl's going to go back down to Fort Valley to paint our house (while living off an air mattress, the poor thing), and then he'll be back Wednesday night after services. We'll leave Thursday to go to Rome, come back Friday and rent a U-Haul, and start packing that up. Saturday we'll drive back to Fort Valley.

I guess the reason I asked if he'd take me to Winder to spend time with my family is because I felt a little betrayed. I guess I might still feel that way. But knowing we've been "evicted" for less than a good reason (in our mind) without much notice, I just couldn't stay. Does that sound bad? I guess I also just needed to see my parents, have back a little bit of that stability, that dependableness. The feeling that I'm not going to have the rug yanked out from underneath me. I mean, we have signed the lease, that house is ours now. It ain't going nowhere. It just needs paint and I can't sleep in a freshly painted bedroom. It's safer if Carl does that and I stay away for a bit. I suppose a lot of things factor into my reasoning.

I'm happy. I'm a bit burned, and it's still something that's been hard to swallow and digest, but I'm happy. Strange to say, huh? But I am taken care of.

I'm going to cry my eyes out again tonight when Carl reads the story to Benjamin. We might have to do that over the phone. I just don't like being separated from Carl for very long. I'm going to have to brag a bit and tell you that Carl has been so good to me. He takes care of me like I'm supposed to. He's so involved with the pregnancy. He reads up on my symptoms and asks what he can do to help when I have a complaint. He's just been real good to me. I am so blessed. I have a lot to be thankful for. :)

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Kristen

PS - Pictures later. :)

oh, hi!

I'm sorry for lack of update - we don't have the internet where we are staying and have to go to the library to get online for now. It's limited in time, so I sometimes forget about updating here.

The move went as well as it could I guess. We're staying with one of the older ladies at the congregation until we can get our own place. No cable TV, no internet, and no shower (yes, just a bathtub... definitely not fun hoisting my ginormous body out of), but we're dealing. We get to look at goats.... and yes, it is as fun as it sounds. :) But the good news is, we have a house lined up to move into hopefully the first weekend of December! We're being patient and optimistic.

Benjamin continues to grow and kick and punch. He's gotten into scraping across my belly with something sharp, and sometimes sticking a sharp elbow or knee straight up so you can see it poking up a half an inch! haha. it's... somewhat painful actually. But only 7 weeks left! Can you believe it? We had our first doc's appointment this past Monday and I really like the place. and the people. My next one is Dec. 1st, and we'll have an ultrasound to check on my placenta. Don't know if we'll get pictures or not. We'll see!

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Hope everyone is staying warm. :)

Love,
Kristen

farewell, for now!

I've heard the third trimester is similar to the first with the way you feel. I believe it. I've been more nauseous lately. Haven't gotten sick, but I do feel nauseous. My head is so stuffy. I don't know if that's related at all to pregnancy, but ugh! It's made my day a lot slower than I'd like it to be. In fact, now that I'm feeling halfway decent (for the time being, I'm sure), I should really get to folding (yet another) load of laundry, and packing the rest of the room.

Since we are moving tomorrow (eek!), I don't know when the next time we will be able to access the internet will be. So, in case it is a while - I hope you all have safe holidays! I'd give you all my cell in case I'm needed, or if ya just wanna text, but uhh... for one thing, I don't know where it is anyway. Another, the charger doesn't belong to me, so it will probably be dead once I do find it. And lastly, it's being cut off next week.

Time to get busy!

Love,
Kkens

oh to fill those shoes!

oh Benjy, I can't wait to meet you!

edit;




Carl was telling a joke that I didn't think was too funny...


29 weeks today. :)
& the expression was caused by Carl acting goofy.

my thoughts, on different matters

Two more days. This countdown went by ultra fast, don't you think? I can hardly believe that on Friday we will finally, FINALLY be out of Winder. You never do expect to move back home after being away for nearly a year and being married... and then things happen and you have no other choice. It really hasn't been all that bad. It feels like we've been here about a year, but we've only been here since the end of June. About 4 1/2 months. It feels like time has gone by so slowly, and yet it's whizzed past.

At our last Dr. appointment (I know I didn't give a lot of detail when I updated that day), Dr. Lowe asked us to rate our marriage from 1-10. I wonder how many other couples he asks that question, and how many others unanimously rate theirs at a 10. Honestly, I mean. Why do I rate our marriage a 10? Well because we're perfect, of course! Not really. We're definitely not perfect. We definitely have a lot to learn still. A lot of growing to do. But I think what makes ours a 10 is the fact that we are willing to grow and willing to learn, and to be patient doing so. Sacrifice. Honesty. Unconditional love. And so much more - we're willing to put it all into it. Why? Because when we said our vows, we meant them. Because we know our responsibilities and roles, biblically, in this marriage. I'll say it for those who aren't married - it isn't easy! Don't expect it to be! Expect it to be the opposite, and then get ready to work at it!

And it's so worth it. Every minute of it.

I can't wait until Benjamin joins our family. Well, he already has joined it, because he's here already... just not out in the open yet for everyone to hold and see. I'm so excited. If tomorrow was January 14th, I would be THRILLED. It won't be too much longer! I feel ready for everything, and then again I feel so anxious. Can I be a good mother? I know I can, but will I? I know I will, but how? And how long will it take to get the hang of it?

I told my dad what I wanted to do for my birthday dinner (they're taking us out since we'll have moved by my birthday, which is Sunday), and he told me I was breaking tradition because I had suggested we'd eat, and come back home to play card games or Apples to Apples, and usually we just go out to eat and don't enjoy each other's company. I shrugged and told him, "It's what I do." And it certainly is. Married at 18, pregnant at 19, and when I'm 20, I'll be the mother to a sweet baby boy. There are people my age who would say "I have too much life to live yet and to learn to have a family". But that's just it for me. This is what I want for my life. I want to be a wife and a mother. So why get started so early? ... Why should I wait?

Anyway, I feel like going outside with the camera... probably for the last time being here. Oh! I'm 29 weeks today! 11 to go! Closing in on the finish line!

- Kkens