Thank you Pinterest!

If you haven't been on Pinterest, you haven't lived. Period. End of story. Pinterest helped me plan almost every detail of my wedding and now that that's over, it helps me cook, clean and decorate our house. I had seen a project a couple of different times that I had been curious to try, so last Sunday I decided to give it a shot. Office stores like Office Depot or Staples sell what they call "engineering sized prints." Basically these are HUGE prints that you can get for like ZERO dollars. Seriously. I felt like I was stealing from them. The largest size you can get is a 3" x 4". I was looking for a large picture to go over our new fireplace, so we decided on one of our wedding pictures and I headed off to our local Staples to get it printed.

I selected a 2" x 3" and was so blown away by the quality of the print. You can only get them in black and white, but that totally wasn't a big deal to me. My next stop was over to home depot to pick up some foam board to mount the picture on. Pinterest instructed me to pick up a sheet of foam insulation and have it cut into the size you need. I pick up one piece of insulation and had a very helpful man cut it into 3 3" x 4" sections. The whole piece of foam cost about $10.00. I also grabbed some spray glue while I was there to use to glue the photo down. When I got home, I had Clint help me cut down one of the sheets of insulation to be the right size.

I love having a handy man around!

This is the part where I forgot to take pictures, and the part where I learned a tip that wasn't covered on pinterest. When gluing the picture down, I started on the left side and sprayed the glue in about five inch sections so that I could slowly lay the picture down and wouldn't get any nasty air bubbles. I continued to spray and lay until I reached the far right side. Then, we just had to flip the picture over, duck tape a piece of wire in a loop shape and it was ready to go! The only place where I will do something differently next time is that I will be sure to not spray the entire board in glue and just spray the outer areas. By spraying the entire board down, it warped slightly and now has a little bend to it, but I don't mind it right now. The picture looks BEAUTIFUL and all together only cost about $15.00 total! Such a steal!! 

Sorry about the yucky camera, but look at that beautiful picture!

Until next time!

Xoxo,

Clint & Kate

Our first Southern Adventure

One of the things that we had been most looking forward to when we found out we would be moving to Georgia, was the proximity of where we would be living to so many neat places. We are only about a 30 minute drive to downtown Atlanta, a two hour drive to North Georgia, a two and a half hour drive to Savannah a 4 hour drive to Panama City and Hilton Head and only 6 hours from Disney! Our plan coming down here was to be sure to take at least one weekend trip per month to explore our new surroundings. With all of the hustle and bustle of getting our stuff settled, we decided that our January trip would be up to the city to explore. So, we called upon our trusty tour guide from afar, Lori Timm. Lori and I worked together a few years ago and have remained close friends and she is basically an expert on all things off the beaten path about Atlanta.

For our first visit, we decided to focus mainly on food and drink with one extra stop thrown in. We drove up to the city in the early afternoon and made our first stop at Six Feet Under across from Oakland Cemetery. As far as we are concerned, this is a must go for anyone in the Atlanta area looking for a unique place to eat. You have the option to eat indoors or outdoor on the upper deck overlooking the beautiful historical cemetery. We feasted on alligator bites, catfish poboys, and buffalo chicken sandwiches all washed down with a couple of cool drinks.

Biggest catfish po'boy in the history of po'boys!

Our next stop was to hop on over to the Oakland Cemetary where Bobby Jones, the legendary golfer as well as Margaret Mitchell Marsh, the author of Gone With the Wind are buried. It was an architecturally beautiful place, that you could simply get lost for hours in. However, with the temperatures reaching almost 80 on that beautiful January day, Clint and I decided to take a quick tour only and then make our way to another refreshment stop.

Bobby Jones

Margaret Mitchell Marsh

Beautiful overlook of Downtown

After we finished up at Oakland, we headed over to the Georgia Tech campus to a little bar and grill called Cyprus. Since it was such a beautiful day, we selected a seat out on the patio and enjoyed the weather and each other. We can't thank Lori enough for being such a great tour guide even all the way from Germany. We are really loving the city and will probably be spending many more weekends exploring its many neighborhoods! 

The view from Cypress

Until next time!

Xoxo, 

Clint & Kate

    

New house = New Stuff

I am learning very early on, that marriage is truly all about compromise. It is about sometimes having to do things that you don't want to do in order to make sure that your spouse is happy. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing that makes me smile bigger and feel better then when I know Clint is happy. Which is exactly how I ended up with some new things that weren't exactly my first choice, but have already started to grow on me.

When we moved from the apartment, we did not have a washer and dryer. We know coming into the new house that this is something that we would need to purchase. Call me old school, but I was totally content with my top load washer and dryer with only a couple settings and none of those fancy platforms. However, apparently my husband was not so impressed with my squeaky ways. Long story short, we ended up picking out a new pair of front load appliances from Sears. I have to say, he was right. They are very nice and I finally feel like we've moved into the 21st century. 

Pretty new washer and dryer

The second compromise that I have made since being in the new house was one that did not go down so easily. We knew that we wanted to get a larger couch to put in the living so we could move the smaller couch out into the formal living room area where there wouldn't be as much traffic. As a woman, I thought that a couch, love seat and an overstuffed chair would look fabulous. My husband thought that we needed a sectional sofa with plenty of room, lots of recliners and maybe some cup holders. Such a typical man. Cue marital battle. We went to store after store after store and could not agree on one piece of furniture. Clint had fallen for a large dark suede sectional and I was lusting over a lighter burlap inspired couch and loveseat. Usually my husband is very flexible and easy going. But, not this time! It took me some time, but I finally decided that if it was that important to him that we get the couch that he liked, I would suck it up and buy it. And so we did. And as I type, I am reclining back on my comfy sectional wondering why on earth I don't listen to my husband more often. (Don't repeat that). Until next time!

Xoxo,

Clint & Kate

Happy Birthday To Me!

Oh yeah, in the midst of all that crazy moving, I had a birthday! I am now officially a quarter of a century old. Or as Clint would say, just a day closer to putting me in a home. He's the best husband ever. Since I had such a terrible day on the 28th, we celebrated my birthday by pretending it was actually on the 29th. We had dinner at the French Market in Locust Grove which is one of our favorite places now. 

Yummy peanut butter cupcake

Also, I am so beyond blessed with two little angels for cousins. I mean seriously!! Come on, have you ever seen two more adorable little ladies?! They are such a wonderful part of our lives. I was surprised with this adorable video on my phone from them. I just love them to pieces!

Boxes, and paper, and junk! Oh my!

When December 31 finally rolled around, I woke up with a little more pep in my step. It was finally "officially" moving day. The movers who had taken our stuff over two weeks ago were finally set to arrive at our house with all of our stuff. We figured it would be a pretty quick process. We didn't really have that much stuff and not too much of it would need to be moved upstairs. Boy were we wrong! I am still sitting here wondering where the heck did all of this junk come from and how on earth did we store it all in our tiny apartment?! And then I start to have flashbacks of our guest room bursting at the seams and I push it all back into the back of my mind....so frightening.

Boxes piled to the ceiling in the formal living room

More boxes stacked to the ceiling in the guest bedroom

Overall, the unpacking process was fairly smooth with the only downside being the fact that it was still FREEZING in our house. But picking up boxes and moving furniture and all of the other activities throughout the day helped to keep the blood flowing. The number one thing we learned - the moving company didn't play around when it came to wrapping your fragile items.

The paper mountain begins

They must have killed an unbelievable amount of trees just to send us to Georgia! Such a waste. Not that I'm complaining that none of our stuff got broken. It was such a blessing to have my family down there to help us unpack. My mom is a master unpacker. She set to work straight away on the kitchen.

Before I knew it, it was slowly starting to resemble the kitchen that we had left behind in Peoria! My heart started to smile and I just felt that we were going to be very happy here. The first day of unpacking was very successful and we made a lot of progress. Clint kept especially busy as the paper smasher.

Please enjoy a few more photos of our brand new house in its very primitive state. I can't wait to start sharing new pictures with you as we make it feel more like a home!

Formal dining room looking into the formal living room

Master Bedroom

Living Room

Until next time!

Xoxo,

Clint & Kate

Ice, Ice Baby

When we woke up on the 29th of December and headed over to the Hampton City Hall to turn on our utilities, all seemed right in the world. We were in our new home, my family was down there with us to help us get settled in and all of our belongings were going to be delivered on the 31st. However, once we left the Hampton City Hall, all was a mess in the world! The gas was not administered through the city like we had originally thought. Instead, we had to contact a gas marketer and they had to contact Atlanta Gas Light and they had to come out and turn our heat on! What a disaster. So we called up the gas company that our Realtor recommended and were told that the earliest they would be able to send someone out to turn on the gas would be January 3......WHAT?! No heat, no stove and no hot water for six more days. This had to be a joke. We fought, we pushed and tried to make up an emergency that would qualify us to receive emergency gas turn on service with no luck.

This news wouldn't have been as terrible, if it wasn't unseasonably cold in Georgia. Our house was hovering right around a cool 49 degrees when we had gone to check on it that morning. With no light at the end of the tunnel, we decided that the only solution for us was to buy a space heater and hope that would help. My parents picked one up for us and told us it was our "house warming" gift. Literally. They are so full of jokes sometimes. We needed to get in the house and get it all cleaned so that it would be ready for the movers to come on the 31st. So we cleaned. And we froze. And froze. And froze. We checked back into our hotel for an additional five days and kicked ourselves for not being more prepared. A mistake that we will not make again.

Needless to say, the arctic temperatures in the house combined with the nightmare that we had on our move down had me shaken. But, God is good all the time. Our realtor called us later that evening and let us know that she would be bringing over some more space heaters to help warm up the house and they were going to take some money off our rent for the inconvenience (which was totally unnecessary since it was our fault but still greatly appreciated). With lighter hearts, we agreed to make the best of our situation and to look forward to starting off a new year in our new home.

Thank goodness for space heaters!

A roasty toasty 52 degrees

New kitchen!

Entry way, formal living room and formal dining room (and the giant kennel purchased to fly Sarabi....grrrrr)

So cold!

Even colder!

Keeping toasty warm in the bathroom being super helpful as usual

Until next time!

xoxo,

Clint & Kate

Always Remember, Patience is a Virtue

I have always considered myself to be a woman of faith. In everything that I do, I put my hope into a higher power that I am living as I should and walking the path that has been laid out before me. I also believe that everything happens for a reason. So on the day that we were due to fly out Atlanta and we almost didn't make it, I must admit that my faith was shaken.

Ever since I found out that we were going to be moving to Georgia, I never questioned if this was the right place for us. I knew that if God had brought us to it, he would bring us through it. So we had planned and prepared to the tenth degree to make sure the entire moving process went as smoothly as possible. We were scheduled to fly out on December 28 on the 6:30 a.m. flight from Peoria to Atlanta where we would pick up our rental car and drive down to Hampton to meet our realtor at our new house. On the evening of December 27, we had all of our things packed back up into our bags from celebrating Christmas at home with our families in Georgia. Since our cars had been packed up in Peoria and were in the process of being shipped, my parents drove us from Decatur to our hotel in Peoria. We stopped by Clint's mom's house and said our goodbyes and picked up Sarabi and then we were off.

On the way to the airport, Clint asked the one question that we had slightly overlooked. Was there a special kennel that we needed to have for Sarabi? We had already visited our vet and gotten her some sleepy medicine and had him fill out all of the paperwork that we would need to show at the airport so that she could fly. I quickly called Delta, and told them about the kind of kennel that we currently had and asked if that would meet their requirements. To our relief, the nice lady on the phone said that since it was just a short regional flight (about an hour and twenty minutes) we wouldn't need to worry about the kennel requirements. What a relief we thought, but we had no idea how wrong we were.

We woke up at about 4:15 a.m on the 28th so that we could get ourselves and Sarabi ready for the trip. Our taxi driver met us downstairs in the lobby at 5:00 a.m. and we were off to the airport. Everything was going so smoothly until we walked up to the counter, and were greeted by the most unfriendly rep I have ever had to deal with. She quickly informed us that Sarabi's kennel did not meet the requirements to fly and we would not be allowed on the plane. We spent a good fifteen minutes arguing with her about the call that we had just made the night before, but she told us there was nothing she could do. We were stranded. No car. No flight. Totally stuck. So I did the first thing I could think. I hailed another taxi and asked him to drive me to the closest WalMart to see if we could find another kennel for Sarabi so that we could get on the plane.

To my luck, I had the best taxi driver in the Peoria area. I told him what was happening and soon it was like we were on a high-speed car chase. He drove as fast as he could to the WalMart in East Peoria and waited for me outside as I sprinted through the store like a crazy person to find a kennel that would actually work. When I got to the kennels there was one left. An extra large. Awesome. It was much bigger than what we needed, but at this point I honestly didn't care. I grabbed the kennel and ran back to the taxi. We flew through the dark streets of Peoria and arrived back at the airport at exactly 6:27 a.m. where we were told by the super nice and helpful Delta representative that we would not be able to board the place because everything was already closed up. We asked her when the next flight out of Peoria was only to be told that they were all full and she couldn't help us. The best she could do was to get on a flight out of Midway at 1:30 p.m. So with all our bags, a drugged up dog and a very angry husband, we rented a car and started the drive to Midway.

When we arrived, it was another nightmare. It had started to snow on our way up there and the car return center was a madhouse. But even through the midst of all our trouble, we did have some bright spots. A wonderful man who worked for national loaded Clint, Sarabi and I up into a minivan and drove us up to the terminal instead of making us lug our bags onto the bus. When we got to the check-in counter, another very nice man helped us get all of the paperwork done for Sarabi, get all our luggage checked-in and made sure that we were set to go. We ate some lunch and finally were able to board the plane. It was the longest hour of lives because we were so worried about how Sarabi was doing down below. But when we arrived in Atlanta, she was in one piece and as happy as a clam. We grabbed our rental car and took off for Hampton. We finally thought the day was turning in our favor, until we got to the house. Our realtor met us and started to do the final walk-through with us and broke the news to us that our heat was not working, nor was the stove and we had no hot water. "Did you turn the gas on?", she said.............no. No, we hadn't. No big deal though, we would just stay in a hotel for the night and call the gas company in the morning. At least we had all made it down safe and we finally had the keys to our new house. If we only knew then what we know now, we probably wouldn't have slept as peacefully that first night. Until next time!

xoxo,

Clint & Kate