A Southern State Of Mind: 2013

Friday, December 27, 2013

Thanksgiving

I REALLY wanted to get into our house before Thanksgiving, so we could host it this year. It's really one of my favorite holidays. I love cooking and spending time with family :D. We hosted Thanksgiving when we lived in Raleigh a few years ago and my dad was able to come. We had Johns family and my family and it was amazing. It will always hold a special place in my heart- especially as it was my dad's last Thanksgiving. I am so glad we could all be together for it :D

Anyway, this Thanksgiving we were able to host again! In our new home :D my family couldnt come, but my in-laws did! John was in charge of the turkey and I made the sides. John parents also brought lots of food too. John did an AMAZING job on the turkey. It was one of the best turkey's I have ever had. His company gives their employees a turkey every year for Thanksgiving and ever since then, I've put him in charge of it. haha. This year he looked up a fantastic recipe and used it as a guideline. He will continue to always be in charge of it now! haha. He doesnt mind though, he likes helping.

We ate a HUGE meal and just spent time together. I maybe took a nap ;D. I was up late cooking the night before! haha. It was a great holiday and I look forward to hosting it- hopefully every year! :D

Seriously, look at this bird!!

Working his magic!

In our new diningroom!

SO.MUCH.FOOD!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Martins!

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!

I have to say that again- WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!!!!! Praise the Lord! I still just cant even believe it. I feel SO incredibly blessed. It's amazing to pull up into the driveway of my HOUSE!

So, obviously the past few weeks have just been a whirlwind. I have SO much to share too!

First of all, I was start off by saying that our Lord is faithful and true. I dont think I would have survived this without the comfort of knowing He is in charge. As it got closer to our closing day, John and I got more and more excited- duh. Well the hits from Coastal just kept coming. I will say this and picture me yelling it from the highest mountain top: DO NOT GO THROUGH COASTAL TO GET YOUR MORTGAGE. Seriously. A story for another time.

However, WE CLOSED!!! We LOVE LOVE LOVE our house!! It's just perfect. We moved a LOT of our stuff in the day we closed and we slept in our house for the first time that night :D

KEYS!

First morning in the new house!

We spent the next day also moving and Krystal and Josh came into town. They were going out of town for work/vacation and we offered to keep Bailey while they were gone. Bailey is spoiled now :D That's what aunts do, right? ;D Carter LOVED having her! and so did we :D She is a sweetheart. It was especially helpful because she kept him busy while we moved and unpacked. I also think it made the transition less stressful for him.

Doing what they do best- PLAY!

Love this girl!

They wore each other out!

CUDDLES!

I love this picture of her!

After we moved in, we did our best to unpack what we could quickly. We still have stuff to unpack- but its coming along! It really has been a whirlwind. Buying a new house means there is LOTS of stuff to buy! We had already gone and bought our new fridge and washer and dryer- YAY! and they were getting delivered the day after we closed.

When our fridge got here they scratched it up kind of bad. We bought it from the scratch and dent store, so it was already scratched, so I didnt care TOO much. Luckily, it was on the side you cant see as well. BUT THEN, we went to Lowe's the next day and saw that our fridge was on sale for the same price we got it for at the scratch and dent store, BUT not scratched AND brand new! I called Sears the next day and told them we wanted to return it (it actually was working kind of funny too). They asked why and we told them about the scratch. They wanted to know if we wanted to pick another one and we said no. Then they wanted to know that if they could get us a new one, if we would keep working with them. I told them possibly and he said he would have to see if he could do that. Well, we got online and found that it was actually a Samsung sale, so everywhere had it! When he called back he made a big deal about "pulling strings" to get us a new one. I told him that it was actually on sale new everywhere and I had 15% off at Lowe's on top of the sale. I asked him if he could match that price and he said, yes ma'am! haha. He called back a little later and told me that they would also still honor the tax free credit we had since we bought it tax free weekend. AWESOME! We got a really expensive fridge for more than half off!!!!

I lOVE the freezer on the bottom, the french doors,

and the extra middle drawer! It's absolutely amazing.

It's HUGE!

I am seriously so proud of finding such a great deal :D I also LOVE my washer and dryer. We decided to go with front loaders and they have been awesome. We also got those from the scratch and dent store and got an amazing deal too!

We also had to buy blinds for the ENTIRE house. haha. Not cheap. We actually ended up buying those on black friday. We were not planning on it, but we went to Lowe's to buy a ladder they had on sale (REALLY cool ladder) and decided to go ahead and go for it. We also got a shopvac. LOL. It was an expensive, but fun trip.

So much stuff in the car- I'M TRAPPED! haha

working hard!

The ladder is awesome- seriously. it goes very,

very tall and can also be used as some scaffolding! I hung those all by myself :D lol

I have very much enjoyed being a homeowner thus far. The projects are fun! Our neighbors are all really nice too. We've slowly started meeting them. Carter already had a best friend next door too!! Garland- he's a black lab about the same age as Carter and they get along great! There really are no words for how amazing it feels to come home to my own space- nobody else's. it's all mine :D Thank you Lord for our amazing house :D

More to come! Lots to catch you up on :D

Monday, November 11, 2013

Friday Favorites!

Of course this is late, but better late than never :D Here are my favorites for this past week! there were A LOT!

Appliances- John and I have been looking at appliances for the house for what feels like FOREVER. Well, last weekend was tax free on appliances and we finally made the plunge and purchased what we needed! I am BEYOND excited about them :D

Julies Wedding- There will be a much longer post on this later, but Julie is now married! Her wedding was beautiful and we are SO happy for her :D

Me and the bride! :D

My handsome hubby!

Leftover flowers I got from the wedding. They were SO pretty!!

Our song- My handsome hubby played our song at Julie's wedding and pulled me onto the dance floor. I sure do love that man. It was really sweet of him :D

Dancing with my father-in-law- I love that we always find a way to dance together weddings :D He is always so much fun to dance with and this time was no different :D Love you Pops!

Dancing with Uncle Scotty- Uncle Scotty is Johns Uncle that has been really sick. They were not sure he was going to make it for awhile and he was even in Hospice. Well he has been graduated from hospice and has been doing much better. He was able to come to the wedding and dance with the bride! He even saved me a dance. It was so very special :D

Spending time with Johns entire family and mine!- Yes, yes. I know most of these are wedding related, but it was so much fun! Johns ENTIRE family was there so it was nice to catch up with them all! My family was able to come too and so it was just a great time all around. Never feels like enough time, but it was really nice to see everyone :D

NO WEEKENDS FOR A MONTH- I am not working any weekends for a month! I am SO very excited about this you dont even know! In fact, because of the move I dont work a full week this month either. haha :D

Walk thru/appraisal- Our house appraised for a little more than we are paying for it! Just a little-but I'll take it! :D we also got to do our walk-thru of the house last Thursday!! It's SO PERFECT :D We got to go around and learn about the house and tag things we wanted them to fix or touch up. Our final walk-thru is right before close this Thursday. I am beyond excited.

Almost finished!

The back..

My first flower!! :D

Luke- He came into town for his brother's birthday and we were able to snag dinner with him. It's always good to catch up with old friends!

Cars are all fixed- The Tahoe needed some love and care recently. When we were in Miami the anti-lock brakes stopped working. So we needed to get those fixed. Johns cousin that is a mechanic said they can fix the piece in the part that broke for a whole lot cheaper than replacing it all. It would just a take a week since the piece had to mailed off. Well we decided to to do this before we move since we'll both need cars then. So we took it last week and got Snoopy all fixed up now! We also took the mustang in for an oil change and came out with 4 new tires. Apparently, they were so worn that we HAD to replace them. We knew when we bough the car they would need to be replaced within 6 months, but the 6 months snuck up on us! haha. Of course this all comes at a time when we are buying a house. OH well, at least everything is taken care of and both cars are all fixed up now :D It's a huge relief!

Orange is the new black- I started this show and finished this season already. haha. IT. IS.SO. GOOD!

Hurricane Game- John won VIP tickets to the Canes game last week! We got to sit in the VIP section and it came with food and drinks! The seats were really good too and there were individual TVs at the seats! So we got to put those on the other games that were going on and watch hockey live. It was a blast :D Fun date night for sure :D

Our seats! You can see the TVs

Love this man to death:D

DELICIOUS. Probably some of the best Pulled Pork I have ever had.

Seriously. It was smoked just right.

We WON! haha

Hope you all have a great week!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Friday Favorites

Say what?! It's not actually Friday..BUT IT IS MY FRIDAY! :D I am SO excited about that. I mentioned we have a few things going on this weekend and besides all that I am just exhausted. haha. So here are my favorites from the week because I will be too busy to do them on Friday :D

1) Shoe shopping- I mentioned I went shoe shopping with my mother-in-law yesterday. It was definitely a highlight of the week.

2) Movies- John and I have been able to watch a bunch of movies lately. I forgot how much I enjoy watching them! We watched Now You See Me this past week- really good!

3) Weather- The weather has been amazing lately. I love the fall and this week has been perfect fall weather. Sunny most of the time, cool in the mornings and evenings and a great temperature during the day! I wish it would stay like for a long time, but I know winter is coming. bahahaha (For all you Game Of Thrones people) But seriously, cold weather will be here soon, so I have to enjoy the weather the way it is now!

4) House- Our house is scheduled to be finished next week! We get to do our walk-thru next Thursday at 1pm. SO excited! We'll get to have them go through the house and fix whatever we think needs done. I cant believe we are only 2 weeks away!! At the same time I feel like it's taking forever. haha :D

5) Brier Creek- We are getting our car worked on this week, so we are sharing until it's done. So I walked across the street this past week to look for shoes! I didnt end up finding any until yesterday- haha. But I did find some new clothes! I love that we can walk across the street right now for anything! I'll miss that for sure. But it's fun while I can :D

Anyway, have a good week! :D

On my mind today...

Few things on my mind today:

Timing- If I wake up just a little bit earlier, even TWO minutes, I feel like I have SO much more time in the mornings. It's just 2 minutes, so really? But it's true. Not sure how, but it's totally worth. I made myself get up two minutes earlier than I planned this morning and everything went more smoothly. I need to do this more often. haha But really I need to get up even earlier. I'd really like to start reading my bible before work- good way to start the day.

Scents- It's amazing out certain scents remind you of specific things. Some of my perfumes and body sprays really do this! I was putting on some pear lotion from bath and body works and it really reminds me of starting this job last winter. My Dolce and Gabana perfume will always remind me of when I student taught. I know that this happens to everyone, but I just found it interesting this morning. Every time I wear the pear stuff I think back to wearing it last winter. haha.

Mother-in-law- I am beyond blessed to have such an amazing mother-in-law. I have a great father-in-law too! But most people always hear of difficulties between the wife and mother-in-law. I dont have any difficulties with mine. In fact, I LOVE to spend time with her. She is so funny, down to earth, kind, and just one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet. She will do anything for you at any time. I find this to be uncommon among most people I know, so I feel very lucky. I got to shopping with her for shoes last night and I just really enjoy her company. She is really easy to talk to and I really love our conversations. Anyway, I'm glad to be apart of that family and have these people in my life. I couldnt imagine my life any other way.

This weekend- Is going to be C.r.A.z.Y. Julie is getting married! yay! so we will get to do lots of fun wedding festivities and see lots of family! So there is a LOT to do for the wedding. And John and I are both in it. This weekend also happens to be energy saver tax free weekend on appliances. Well we happen to need to buy a fridge and washer and dryer. We've been looking constantly, but the prices change every week. So we have to go narrow down what we want and make these purchases this weekend. So, there is just a little bit going on. haha. I'm excited about it all! Just going to be busy.