Life Update: all of July

Oh my goodness- this month has flown. Seriously where did it go?

I didn't even know where to start this update so I went to my camera and my phone... It's the only way I'm able to keep up!

This is how we spent nearly everyday- looking out at rain. It rained literally the whole month.
I think I mentioned this is another post, but Luke took a marker to my sofa. I quietly had a praise the Lord dance that we didn't purchase the baby blue sofa that I so desperately wanted (please note that was BEFORE children- oh my how life changes). Thankfully the microfiber just wiped clean.
Next I left off in Mississippi here- we had visited Josh's dad and we were getting ready to head to Arkansas. Here's Luke and Emberly ready to meet their Nana.
I always know Luke is about to fall asleep when his arms take their position over his head. 
It was pretty cool that as we were crossing the Mississippi River so was a train. It was going pretty fast in the opposite direction and Luke just about flipped out. I almost stroked out with the train, him going nuts, and me trying to remain calm (I HATE bridges). 
Emberly met her Nana-
And we all had a blast swimming. This seemed to be the turning point with Luke- he now LOVES the water- even after falling off his float and his daddy "saving" him. (p.s. we don't believe in arm floaties b/c of the false sense of security). I used arm floaties as a child and didn't know how to swim until I was 10. 

We spent a day shopping- we came across this AMAZING cupcake boutique. It was a chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake. SO good. 
And check out this little sign. It's pretty cool that they give the same respect to pregnant/new moms as they do to the handicapped!
Josh and Luke rode the 4 wheeler. Luke LOVED this thing! 

And the last night we were there G-pa set up the big screen outside and Luke got to watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates fireside (they had a fire pit going) while swimming in the pool! He thought that was the best ever. 
After a week in Arkansas we headed home. We left Sadie at home with a sitter and when we walked in my entire floor was literally BLACK with all her fur! It was funny. So I spent the better part of the evening cleaning. This photo doesn't do it justice. 
We settled back in at home and Josh and Luke took advantage of cooler July temps and camped out one night. 
Emberly still likes sleeping on her boppy (a no-no- I know!). 
She is holding her head up really well and all she ever wants to do is look around so I figured we'd try her in the boppy. We tried Luke around 2 months too. 
We moved alot of things to storage and I mentioned in a HFFF (high five for friday) post that we have decided to rent our home. 
We made sure to get a large unit because most of our furniture will be stored until we find a place to live. It was hot moving everything. 
Sadie thinks it's the dog days of summer too...

In honor of summer I got high lighted... I love my hair light in the summer!
Josh had 2 interviews planned last week, so we packed up and headed to Atlanta. Sadie came with us. We figured that if we end up moving in with my parents, that she'll need to get used to their 2 cats. Funny thing? We used to have a cat- Molly. When Luke was born she became a little too much to handle so we gave her to my parents- so Molly and Sadie had quite the reunion.
While Josh was on an interview on day I packed up the kids and took them to my grandparents' grave. It was one of my 101 goals to do this. I think it's important to start this young. Luke won't understand it now, but he'll remember the day that we watched the ducks and cleaned away the spiderwebs.

You can bet we hit up the local playground and apartment hunted in our spare time.

Other than those updates we are planning a moving sale, writing up a lease, and praying for guidance! We have decided to rent an apartment for the time being... maybe for 2 years? But we won't move in until we have the guarantee of a job- so until then we'll live with my parents assuming our tenants sign the lease. Ahhh so excited to see the light at the end of the "we're finally leaving Toccoa" tunnel!!

Like I mentioned in a previous post- the whole blogging thing just isn't happening right now. We are so busy tying up loose ends here that I can't possibly be doing projects at the pace I was able to earlier this year. I miss it like crazy so I will be back- and it'll be fun to do projects for an apartment!! I have done some things around here that I will get around to blogging about later. Also Princess is finally sleeping through the night so as soon as I make up the past 2 months (actually like 5 months) of sleep I'll be a little more motivated. I put little man to bed at 8:30, princess to bed at 9-9:30 and I crash. Normally that was my project time... also, she doesn't sleep more than 30 minutes for naps so I'm lucky if I'm able to take a shower by dinner time.

I can't believe it's almost August!

High Five for Friday!

Let me just say that just because blogging hasn't really happened this week, that's not an indication that things haven't been happening. I didn't even do a Life Update last week- I'll just have to save those photos for the end of the month.

We moved alot of things to storage on Monday. This would have been impossible without the help of our neighbor babysitter! I feel like our life is so strange and busy yet slow all at the same time. I've had to reschedule Emberly's 2 month appointment twice. I'm just ready to be settled somewhere!!

Josh's income runs out at the end of this month. I'm hopeful because of all the interviews we do have lined up/irons in the fire so to say. But at the same time I just need to trust that the Lord has everything planed out! Trust is so scary! Thank goodness we learned to live on one income this year!!

Here are my week highlights!
1. I am opening an Etsy store! Stay tuned for details. I'm going to start with travel baby wipes cases (personalizing them with vinyl) and I'll go from there. I am going to start really small simply because our life is pretty cray-zay right now.

2. Josh has an interview today. It's a big one. It's a Federal job, so we have our fingers crossed. But we're trusting that if it's not where we're to be that the Lord will show us where we should be.

3. We put our home up for rent this week. As soon as it's rented we will be living in Atlanta. We did meet with a real estate agent to discuss selling,  but at this time we are set on renting. The numbers just make more sense. After refinancing last year (it was the right decision!) it set us back a little bit with closing costs. In the long run it'll be worth it. Now? Not so much. Thankfully we've decided to rent wherever we end up to continue to allow me to stay home, so here's hoping all our ducks are in a row.

4. I am so sick of packing/unpacking/ life getting back to normal and then packing again! I hadn't unpacked my suitcase from our Arkansas/Mississippi trip and I had to pack again (we'll be spending the weekend in Marietta for 2 interviews and a job fair).  It's also sad to be packing our house up. And it's weird. Part of me thought we'd be here forever.

5. I painted my toe nails silver! Metallic is my new favorite thing!

I'm not sure how regular blogging will be these next few weeks. I sure do miss it, so I will be back once this dust settles!

High Five for Friday!

It's Friday again (even though all our days are totally running together)! It's weird having Josh home all the time but I know I'll miss this time- and Fridays will be exciting again sometime (hopefully) soon!

1. It was time to go pants shopping. I'm at the awkward stage where I've lost most of my baby weight, but I haven't lost enough to fit in to my other capris/shorts. We're in Arkansas and figured we'd take a day (while Nana babysat) and find some capris/shorts for me. The 1 pair of capris that fit me had worn a hole through. We spent 2 hours at a local mall trying on pants and let me just say I AM DONE with malls! The style that's "in" is skinny crops and I.hate.them. I hate feeling restricted on my calves... so I reluctantly bought 1 pair and just kinda said ehhh to them. I wasn't opposed to shorts, but I hate the cut-off raggy look and that's all they had. We jumped over to Target and I immediately found a pair of shorts, a skirt, and 3 shirts for $9 more than I spent on the original pair of capris. They will be returned STAT. I do believe that's the last time I'm going to a mall anytime soon.

2. Along with finding some great clothes at Target, I tried on some sandals and debated buying them... I decided against it and then as soon as we got home I regretted it... ever do that?? They were on sale and I was SURE I would never see them again- until I found them on the website (for $1 more) but they are BOGO 50%off! So I actually saved more online! 2 pairs for $20 plus free shipping, plus 5% off- yes please!

3. We're heading home tomorrow (10 hour drive) and although I'm excited about getting back to a routine, it has been super relaxing to not have to cook, or do dishes, or vacuum. We're heading home to pack some of our house and move boxes to storage. We'll be meeting with our agent this coming week!

4. Josh has some interviews set up for next week so we are both nervous/excited about them!

5. I can't contain the excitement I feel when I walk past school supplies knowing I don't have to go back this year! I love school supplies, and I loved teaching, but this time of year was especially stressful!

Dirt Cheap

As you may remember this place is a HOT mess. 
But the potential is so there. I'm not really sure why this place makes me so happy? It's cramped, there's stuff EVERYWHERE, kids are screaming, and there was even a mullet sighting. I think the thrill of the hunt comes when you get to the register and the stuff rings up SO cheap!!

I'll share first what I didn't get- but it for SURE crossed my mind:

My first ohmygoshican'tbelieveit moment came when I stumbled across these cloth diapers! They were Charlie Banana brand (which Target sells). I was more interested in the red one and promptly put it in my cart. The only downfall was that it was short 1 insert. But if the price was right the insert didn't really matter. The price was marked $20.99 but it was in the 70% off aisle. I had my fingers crossed when the cashier price checked it... unfortunately it rang up $14 (which is between 30-40% off) and not enough of a discount for me. I can buy new or "seconds" cloth diapers for $14 and since it was missing a piece it wasn't worth it. But still it was a really cool find!
I found this comforter and I was ready on the spot to redecorate our master bedroom. It was GORG and it felt great too. I couldn't find on it what size it was (we need a king) and we don't really NEED it. So I snapped a picture and cried as I walked away... If it was a king it would have been $25! I was also amazed at the amount of sheets/towels they had! I just love new sheets and they had some pretty gorgeous ones!
Look familiar?
I got the metal sign in the Wal-mart dollar aisle and added the vinyl myself. The price here was $2 and it was 50% off.

I am always amazed at the toy selection there. I spotted this fisher price pirate ship. The price tag was CRAZY ($70ish) and even at 50% off I wasn't willing to spend $35 on it. But it was cool!

There was this Melissa and Doug cupcake set...
and a great selection of wooden kitchens:
I didn't see as many kitchen items (towels, pot holders, etc) this time around and I was a little disappointed by that. But who knows, maybe they were buried in the pile of hot mess!

So what did I buy? 

Here's what I walked away with for Emberly. The shirt (bottom left) was marked $7 and it rang up $1.40!!!!! It's my favorite J Khaki brand. Slight confession: I went back AGAIN later that evening to check out more clothes. I didn't have alot of time to peruse the clothes and after I saw how deeply discounted this rang up I had to go back! The PJ pants (top left) was 80 cents, the dress on the bottom right was Old Navy (maybe $2), and Violet rang up at a whopping $6 (marked down from $30). And she works (icing on the cake!). We've decided that for Christmas we are doing the wear, want, need, read challenge so Violet will be her "want" gift!
I snagged these 4 shirts for Luke. The one at the top is a pool/swimsuit shirt (which I am a HUGE fan of). The 2 orange ones are blanks J Khaki brand (perfect for a Fall applique) and the bottom anchor shirt was just adorable! The shirts are size 5 and 6 but I LOVE buying seasons ahead (and for prices that beat consignment stores) I couldn't walk away!
I grabbed these winter clothes for Luke. I know he will LOVE the Thomas shirt and the pants are from Children's Place. They rang up less than $3!
Then there were other little things... 
Josh's swim trunks were $7 (from Old Navy), and the Aussie hair spray is my favorite! I'm interested to try to dry shampoo- I'm a huge fan of dry shampoo!! 

I think this is going to have to be a place I frequent when we visit family! I love this place!

Meridian Trip

We have had a blast this past weekend in Meridian, Mississippi. We've had quite a few laughs along the way and it's so fun to road trip with the family!

We borrowed my mom's mini-van (that we will buy in the next 6 months) and it was SO great traveling in such a huge vehicle! Luke LOVED sitting in the back seat.
On the trip to Meridian we passed this truck- we really like the I am second website!
and then we got stuck in terrible traffic. Of course the second we got stuck in the traffic Emberly woke up screaming and Luke had to potty. Again, I was SO thankful to have so much room to help Luke properly relieve himself (in a Cherry Coke can)!
Emberly got to meet her Grampa for the first time! He also started her Barbie collection on this trip :) He's the man behind Luke's train collection!
We had a few rough sleeping nights at Grampa's house. But isn't that face SO sweet??
Saturday morning we checked the weather and saw that it was suppose to rain most of the day so we packed up that morning and headed to the playground. Upon arriving Luke declared "This is the biggest playground I've ever seen!" Also while walking across the "shake shake" bridge he said "This place is SO awesome!"

Luke, Daddy and Grampa went to ToysRUs (actually it's called Geoffrey's here) and Grampa picked up some more train stuff. Luke was in heaven. He added to his collection, Diesel 10, Rocky, and Gordon. He also got the water tower to add to his table at home!
While the boys and Emberly were there, mommy got a shopping afternoon! I blogged about Treasure Hunt last year, and I went back (it's called Dirt Cheap in Meridian)! Ohhhh my I remember why I love that place so much. Here's a sneak peek, and my experience deserves its own post! 
Sunday we worshipped at Fellowship Baptist and hung out with our friend Jace! Josh was in Corey & Kim's wedding and Corey was Josh's best man at our wedding. Hard to believe our babies are now playing together!
We got back to Grampa's and he had set up a real train set. Luke loved being the controller and blowing the whistle. It was fun!
Grampa loves his babies!
As this post is published we will be on our way to Arkansas to visit Nana, G-pa and the aunties! Luke can't wait!