::DIY fall wreath::

I did it. Melissa and I made our very own DIY fall wreath! And mine is hanging up on my front door at this very moment. I am amazed at how it turned out.  It was a blast getting together with Melissa, making our trip to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to gather all of our needed supplies, and making our wreaths. (I will be going back to Hobby Lobby very soon. So many fun things there to decorate our house with and great prices!)

{my door}

Well, Brian is gone and I'm currently listening to pandora and scoping out pinterest. Love it! Something peaceful about this moment. Isn't music amazing in that way? {Gungor radio} is my current station.

What a week!

Purple Mums

In no particular order, here is what has been going on this week:

gardening. Brian and I fixed our flower beds which were mostly dead and dried out. We went to a local nursery and purchased shrubs, mums, snap dragons, mulch, and potting soil to redo our flower beds. I'm definitely not a gardener, but with Brian's help it looks very nice. And I love the beautiful colors! Flowers are just very happy to look at; they tend to brighten up my day. Hopefully I will be able to keep everything alive while Brian is gone in January.

washington trip. Brian's grandfather past away this weekend so Brian is flying up to Vancouver to be with his family. Trying to make all the arrangements was a little challenging but everything has fallen into place. And I'm especially thankful to my new friends who are helping me out while I'm car-less (Thanks Sarah and Melissa!).

subbing. I'm submitting all my paperwork on Thursday for subbing and attending an orientation so that I am good to go for subbing. I want to have this back up in case the Third Grade teaching position doesn't work out.

laundry. We have so much of it due to our lack of washer and dryer at the moment! Thankfully, Sheppard Inn (the inn on base) has allowed us to wash our laundry there until our household goods arrive. I have divided the darks and lights and now there ready to be washed!

saturday. Guess what? Our household goods are scheduled to be delivered!!! Finally. Although I do have to say we have learned a few things from this move. First of all, what items are necessary to pack with you in the car you drive over yourself. We didn't really think our stuff would take 3 1/2 weeks to get to us so I simply back items I didn't want stored in a garage. Second, to make use of the family readiness center which offers families items to borrow while you wait on your household goods. We purchased a few things that we could have borrowed for free from the readiness center. And finally, maybe next time we will consider moving it ourselves.

business cards. Yesterday, I created a cute little business card for subbing to hand out at the schools. This will be helpful in getting my name and number out there to teachers.

fall wreath. I am most looking forward to this! (well, aside from our household goods arriving) Melissa and I decided to DIY (Do it yourself) the fall wreath I posted earlier. On Wednesday, we are going to Hobby Lobby or Michaels to pick up our supplies and then we are going to create some beautiful festive wreaths. I hope they turn out well! I will post pictures of the creating process and the final product.
  
I wonder what else will happen this week...

{holidays}

Holidays are just around the corner... well, practically. Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then Christmas! I am eagerly awaiting their arrival.  This will be the first Halloween that we get to have trick-or-treaters. Yes! I need to go out and buy some candy.

For Thanksgiving, we will either be here in Texas or try to travel to Arizona. Hopefully we will get to make the trip to Arizona but Brian does have to take leave unfortunately. And we don't know his work dates yet for that holiday so we have to wait on looking at tickets until we know that information.

But what I'm most excited for is Christmas! I love this festive fall/winter wreath from Etsy.

I don't know if we will buy one this year... but I love it! They have so many fun ones on etsy right now. I also cannot wait to set up my nativity sets.

This one I have started collecting pieces for the last couple years and I think I have everything now except for the backdrop. Each piece has been a gift from family members. Setting up the nativity is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. It is a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas. I also bought another nativity on our honeymoon in Cabo, which I'm looking forward to setting up as well. While all this holiday stuff may seem a little ridiculous to you because it is so early, I can't help but be so excited! And we are also planning to send out a Christmas card this year!  More to come on this.

{Nothing Day}

Today is a nothing day. Nothing much to do around the house, nothing scheduled, and pretty much I get to do simply nothing. I've decided nothing days are what you choose to make out of them. I decide to get ready, search for job opportunities, make a few phone calls, try to be available by phone while all our household goods are being packed up, watch a good movie, make some lunch, visit with my husband when he comes for a quick hello before he heads back to work, check email, enjoy my comfy new couches while reading a good book, consider weeding but decide not to tackle it today, spend time enjoying the company of God and simply enjoy the nothing day because I know the time will come soon when a nothing day is all I wish for. Isn't it funny how life seems to cycle that way?

Anticipation

Lots of anticipation is going on in my head right now. Anticipation for tomorrow and all the church activities going on. Anticipation for a Third Grade job posting I found yesterday and applied for. Anticipation for our household goods to arrive.  Anticipation for buying blue pillows for our couch, silver and purple pots for above our kitchen, and a rug for our living room.  Anticipation for what next week will look like.  And simply anticipation for the future. Feels good to let it all out. While there is lots to look forward to, this causes my anticipation.

Brian has had a relaxing morning after a full week of work, while me on the other hand, I'm ready to get something done. I'm ready to tackle something. Looks like our laundry is what we will be tackling. Since we have no washer and dryer, we will be heading over to the Sheppard Inn, which has so graciously allowed us to use their laundry room while we await our household goods. I've started a book called the Pilot's Wife which I will bring with me while we wait. I'm not sure if I'll enjoy the book or not but it looks like it should be a worthwhile read. After that, I'm hoping to go to Home Depot and Lowe's to look at some area rugs for our living room.  We've heard they are fairly cheap with some good deals. Then, who knows. Guess I will have to anticipate the rest of the day as well!

..a sneak peak..

My mom requested "before and after" pictures of our house. Beware we are missing many things and have been making due with what Brian brought over in the Blazer along with 2 bags I was able to fly over. Therefore, I will give you a very rough tour. Let's start off with our entry way...

And a flip view. From the entry way you can either go up the stairs or into our living room.

Our lovely spacious living room with absolutely nothing in it. Yet. Couches come tomorrow!

Now, if you move in a little further, there is an entry way into our dining room.

Notice our fabulous blue kitchen chairs (they will double later as outdoor event chairs). And our lonely little lily that had to be moved into the house due to the fierce wind. Brian is still not too sure if it will make it. After two moves in a months time our plants have had a rough time adjusting.  *Note to Grammy and Papa: Our mint plant seems to be flourishing here in Texas! Thanks for sending it!

Our very classy dining room table:

Zooming in on our kitchen.

In this last picture, I zoomed out a little to show you our pantry door and the start of our laundry room door. Here is our laundry room. Nothing to special, especially when there is no washer or dryer to go inside. The left side:

And the right side:

Okay, now time to back track to the option of going up the stairs when you come into our house. Our Master bedroom is at the top with a small closet on the right.

Down the upstairs hall, the first door will be our "office" but technically it is a bedroom, the second door is the guest bathroom, the third door is the guest room, and there is a little closet at the end of the hall. I didn't take pictures inside these rooms because there is nothing in them. However, the guest bedroom does have a nice walk in closet for whoever wants to come and visit us!

Yes, you may have noticed Brian's fancy pull up bar at the end of the hall for his in-the-house-workouts (Thanks, Ashur!). And I will give you a small tour of the Master Suite...

As you might imagine, Brian is not a huge fan of the pink comforter, but we are trying to make due until our stuff arrives. To the right, we have our bathroom.

In the picture above, our bathroom is by the shower and the walk in closet is the door that is partially open. I  love having a walk in closet! Room to hang up as much of my clothes as I like and space for shoes too.

And that concludes the tour. Hopefully it will look I lot more homey once we have everything setup!

A House and Home of Our Own!

Yep, its official! Brian signed our housing papers and got the keys on Tuesday for our house and we moved in on Wednesday. I cannot believe we are leaving in this spacious three bedroom house! I emphasize spacious because we don't have much to put in it yet and it is huge for just two people. But soon soon our stuff will arrive and it will start to feel like home.  Additionally, we purchased our first new couch! Which will be delivered on Wednesday. This is our big splurge for the move and it was also on my list of things I would like.  I want people to be able to come over and feel comfortable in our home. And I feel like the living room is the most cozy area to start with.  Let me tell you it isn't very comfortable to only have a blow up mattress and folding chairs to use as a reclining area.  We are pretty limited at the moment but it is kind of fun to experience our first house this way.  However, I am extremely thankful we do have a microwave and refrigerator. I want to post pictures soon of our new places but I want to wait until we have our stuff so you can see it semi-setup.

Brian and I have been making the most of our new home. The city of Wichita Falls isn't quite as small as I thought it would be but it is still tiny.  We do have a mall and most chain fast food/restaurants minus Chick-Fil-A and Chipotle. We visited our first church on Sunday and enjoyed the fellowship, however, we are going to check out a few more before we decide where to go on a regular basis.  Church hunting is always a challenging task.  We're praying God will lead us to where we should go! Last night was very encouraging because we attended the Navigators bible study (a bible study for military personnel) and we felt so at home with all the people and were blessed by the support system they have for each other. We will definitely be going again! It was especially fun for me to meet a few other wives as well as AF women. I'm looking forward to next Sunday!

Brian has today off because it is Columbus Day. While he has enjoyed his time of an extremely flexible schedule, I know he is looking forward to starting his first official duty of assisting the historian to the 80th Squadron here on Sheppard AFB.  Hopefully it will be a very interesting position and not boring.  It sounds like there is a lot of binders to shuffle through. From what I understand, Brian will be assisting the historian until Jan. 4, when he goes to Colorado for his five week training.  Following that, he will begin UPT (Undergraduate Pilot Training) in March. I'm thankful for the down time we get to have here getting connected and established here in Wichita Falls before all of the pilot training craziness kicks in. I'm praying God will be able to use both of us here!