james and jessica

hey mrs kent

2012-02-18T11:54:00.003-05:00

'hey mrs kent...'

(in a very quiet, don't-freak-out-but...whisper voice from one of my sweetest little girls)

'there is something sticking out of your belly and i think it might be your baby's foot'

me - actually, i think that's just my belly button

girl - hmmmm....

it's really cute now when they tell me how huge my belly is, but i'm really hoping it doesn't continue after i come back from maternity leave :)
with 3 weeks left, i'm washing sweet little baby clothes today and trying to believe this is actually going to happen!

in other baby news...i'm an aunt again! here's my brother and his sweet little boy hayze - a valentine's baby. so excited they'll get to grow up together!

36 weeks

2012-02-12T16:43:00.003-05:00

4 weeks to go!
absolutely crazy.

i can't believe we've got less than a month to go and i'm so thankful to still be feeling pretty great!

huge but good :)

now we're definitely starting to see a sock line at the end of the day from some ankle swelling and my wedding band is a bit too snug these days (though now i'm really glad i kept forgetting to get my engagement ring re-sized because it's just perfect now).
i'm really praying he'll be late so i can work for the next 4 weeks - people say i'll be changing my mind in a couple weeks, but the longer i work now means the less i'll have to go back in may before summer break (do you hear that, baby c?? take. your. time.)

things are starting to come together - we've officially graduated from birthing class and our little nursery is almost done. i'm in some serious nesting mode, like clean-out-every-drawer nesting. unfortunately we just moved, so things haven't really gotten that unorganized, but that doesn't keep me from trying.

so 4 more weeks...that's 4 more saturdays to sleep in for the next like 20 years. at that thought, i think i'm going to take a nap :)

lampshade makeover...success or failure?

2012-02-10T11:33:00.000-05:00

do you ever have those projects that you're just not sure about?
that's what this little lampshade makeover is.

we had a big, white drumshade right next to all the bright, colorful pillows in the baby room and it just wasn't working. i had a pot of orange dye going to dye some clothespins and decided to try out {this little tutorial} on dying a lampshade. this shade is actually cracked on the back because i'm horrible at moving shades apparently and i've been meaning to get a new one so i figured that dying it couldn't mess it up.

(coincidentally, i left the clothespins in for too long because i got distracted and they turned a pinky-red instead of orange, so it was more like 2 fails. but i'm totally using them still...)

nothing too technical. i just painted it on with a paintbrush and gave it about 3 coats. in the end, it's a bit streaky and i can't decide if it's one of those "oooh-hand-dyed-in-india" looks or a "homemade-dyed-in-the-kitchen" feel :)

either way, it's staying for now and i crossed one more thing off the to-do list (but i am keeping an eye out for something else, just in case)

and how cute is that little giraffe?? thanks to the sis-in-laws, i've got quite the chic animal collection. love.

a martha bookshelf knock-off {aka my hubby is awesome}

2012-02-04T12:55:00.002-05:00

while we were home over christmas, i text james this picture of a martha stewart bookshelf that i loved

and this is what he made me.
no plans. no tutorials. just a cell phone picture. he is awesome.

i so love it.

and while we're on the topic, he made 2 A- and 2 A's in the first semester of his doctoral program. i'm quite proud.

AND he spent his 29th birthday last week eating hamburgers at the hospital cafeteria and going to birthing class.
and didn't complain at all.

he's definitely a keeper.

pillow progress

2012-01-27T14:10:00.005-05:00

what goes in a big white room with a brown striped rug, an orange swirly rocker, and a green polka-dotted bed skirt?

lots and lots of really bright pillows, of course

a whole daybed of pillows to lounge on
i do love me some patterns

thankful for a snow day + the weekend + mlk day off school to get these done.
sometimes when i'm walking by the room, i just stop to look...
and get really excited
and then get really nervous
all at the same time.
is that normal?

really glad the sewing is done because i'm getting quite large and crawling around on the floor cutting things out is not as easy as it used to be. pinning the bed skirt on last week left me sounding like i'd just run a marathon. not to mention that i kept getting stuck behind the rocker...
it wasn't a pretty sight.

alright, things are going on the walls this weekend!

the baby has a bedskirt

2012-01-22T12:42:00.000-05:00

my parents gave me the most beautiful, wonderful stack of fabric for christmas and i've been having so much fun cutting into it this week.

i wanted a modern-ish, boy-ish, straight bed skirt for the daybed and baby bed in the nursery and, lucky for me, that's an easy-peasy project. i used amy butler's lotus full moon print fabric and made it pretty much like i made our bed skirt {here}. this time i used velcro to attach the skirt to the bed frame like {this little tutorial}

so an hour of ironing, hemming, and velcro-ing later and walla

it's all starting to come together...7 weeks and counting!

covering the glider

2012-01-15T15:39:00.000-05:00

now that we're back from christmas, i'm in full-fledged nesting mode. james asked this weekend if this was a baby thing or if our whole lives would be filled with constant projects. i told him i wasn't sure yet :)

we found out we were pregnant right before we moved, so my mom was sweet enough to let us steal her glider. the only problem was that it didn't quite match the rest of our fabric. i've actually had this orange fabric wrapped around the cushions oh-so-(not)professionally for a couple monthes now, trying to get over my fear of curves. surprisingly in the end, it didn't take long at all. now don't go looking at those curves too closely or anything, but you know i don't really go for perfect on my projects :)

easy enough - i doubled up my fabric and cut roughly around it,pinned it on pretty tight, sewed around it, and then tried it on. i added big brown buttons to break up the pattern a little and distract from my less-than-perfect curves and i kinda love them.
less than an hour later and all done!

now for all the time i saved on the glider cushions, i spent that and more trying to cover this little booger...

we definitely needed a footstool to go along with it and since the ones that glide were about $100 past our price range (seriously?!), they were quickly out of the question

when i brought this home from Goodwill, james said it was one of the ugliest things he had ever seen. and it was so very true. it was even yellow-er and plastic-y-er in person. but it was only $5...

this was lots of trial and error. more errors than anything. the saddest part - i spent several hours folding and ironing and re-folding and pinning and sewing and re-sewing pleats only to finally sew them on and realize it looked way too girly. grrrr.
but oh well. it's done. and we've got a place to put our feet. and i'm totally loving that little dog print! does it go with orange swirls? probably not. but that's kinds how i like things :)

and now we officially have a place to rock

31 weeks

2012-01-12T22:58:00.002-05:00

once a girl at church told me she only had 9 more weeks to go and i thought she was kinda crazy because 9 weeks is over 2 months and 2 months is a long time. now that it's my life changing forever in only 9 weeks, it seems like tomorrow. wow. i now get it. 9 weeks isn't all that long. and i think i'm ok with that.

a little crafting humor

2012-01-11T18:38:00.004-05:00

oh. my. goodness.

these make me laugh so hard.

but seriously, james says things like this to me all the time

Happy Wednesday!

kindergarteners...

2012-01-06T07:40:00.000-05:00

mrs. kent, you're belly is so big that you're going to have to scoot the seat in your car so far back that you won't be able to drive anymore. You won't even be able to put your seatbelt on and somebody else will have to drive you to school!

oh, and mrs. kent, you talk like a cow.

what?

i mean, a cowgirl.

errrr, thanks?

true story

good thing they're so cute

new year's goals

2012-01-04T13:21:00.007-05:00

do you do new year's resolutions?

i used to not. i'm more of a cross-it-off-my-list-as-soon-as-possible, hate-to-fail kind of girl. so new year's resolutions weren't exactly successful type things for me.

but a couple years ago i realized that in december, i don't want to be in the same place that i was the january before. i want to grow and change, even if i'm not completely successful. one of james' favorite phrases is being intentional. it's a growing process for sure.

so last year i typed out my list of goals and taped it in my calendar. was i 100% successful? ummm, no. if back messages were a love language, that would be james'. and ironically enough, i'm horrible at giving them. they really hurt my hands a lot. so he certainly didn't get one a week, but i'm pretty sure he got more than if i hadn't put it on there. i wrote a letter a week until about june. and then we moved. (that's what i'm blaming it on at least) but i did learn to be more intenetional about snail mail, cause who doesn't love to get real mail? there are some things i actually finished and some things i just got a little better at. (1 book a month - does it count if i read 4 at the beach this summer??) either way, the list kept me focused on some goals.

so now i'm off to work on this years'. some of them will be repeats. i'm certainly hoping to lose a little weight this year, specifically 7-8 pounds in the middle of march :) one might be just to survive until we can sleep through the night again. please tell me that can happen again??

Happy New Years!

christmas crafts links

2011-12-28T17:37:00.000-05:00

i'm not all that creative. i'm muuuch better at just copying people who have way better ideas than me. so here are some of the projects that i totally copied this year:

a gel transfer puzzle on popsicle sticks from {here} for mary brooke. (btw - make sure to use the right copier. i tried to print out the pictures on our printer at home but it didn't work, so i used a copy machine and it was much better)

chalkboard coasters from {here} i totally made myself some too and love them. crazy cheap and super easy (sorry to recipients :)

freaky or fun? i'm still not sure. family puppets based on {this} idea but i printed out pictures of our faces onto fabric using {this} tutorial. i'm still not sure about how these turned out but i do know i love printing straight onto fabric. so easy! put them all in my favorite little drawstring bag from {here}

some tissue pouches for sweet grandmothers using {this}

lots of infinity scarves using {this} tutorial (that i forgot to take a picture of...) these are so easy and quick. i might have made myself quite a few as well...

some great (free) printables from {here} btw- i love these little $5 frames from walmart - plastic frame but real glass and a mat - score in my book, especially when i take the time to spray them with a little oil rubbed bronze paint.

i've had a picture of this chalkboard taped in my calendar since the spring that i tore out of the newspaper. plus i love any gift that "requires" me to buy new power tools. i'm sure my neighbors agree.

and now that i'm looking through all my pinterest boards, i'm remembering all the crafts i meant to do but apparently never got around to. there's always next year, right? (so don't go a-lookin around my boards, em and grace...) but can you even craft with little boys around?? i'm not getting nervous or anything... 10 and a half weeks and counting...

merry christmas!

2011-12-25T05:16:00.000-05:00

ikea hack - my striped rug!

2011-12-19T16:18:00.001-05:00

i love stripes. a lot a lot. i've pinned about a million striped rugs for the baby room but sadly, they were all out of my tiny price range. so why not just paint one?

this was one of the first projects i knew i wanted to do for the baby room... and the one that i was most nervous about. but i also realized it would be a lot harder to do this really huge and pregnant, and since i'm growing by the hour these days, i made myself get it done before we left for christmas. and it felt oh so good to mark this off the nursery to do list.

like most projects i'm nervous about, i procrastinate by reading about lots of other people who have done it a lot better than i ever could so there are some great tutorials
{here} or {here} or {here}

i stareted out with ikea's erslev rug that was only about $50, so i figured if i really messed it up, it wouldn't be too horrible.

i made a (really) rough sketch to figure out how many stripes i wanted and ended up going with more stripes. so i divided my 98 inch rug by 11 stripes

and started measuring and marking on the rug. i was really nervous about making these straight, but since there were already lines in the weave on the rug, it ended up being super easy. i quickly quit measuring and just starting counting the little lines (35 for each stripe) and put a pin to mark each stripe

next came the tape which, again, was a lot easier than expected since there were already lines on the rug. i wish i'd used the thicker painters tape and after going over the line twice while painting, i ended up going back to double up the tape which helped a lot.

i used just regular wall paint and added a little water. i read that the rug would soak up paint, but for real - it soaks up the paint. i ended up using almost 2 quarts.

i used a foam roller and it went on pretty well. i tried to avoid going back for a second coat but ended up doing it and really glad i did. the second coat took less that 10 minutes and made it look really even.

side note - i was really nervous about starting this because i'd read that it takes forever but since i did easy stripes, it didn't really take that long at all. i can definitely see how a more detailed pattern would take more time, but it's oh so worth it.

oh. my. goodness. does pulling up the tape give anybody else a heart attack?! make it or break it time

and i loved it. but it looked a little too perfect. a little too painted.

so i broke out the sander and sanded down the paint. it let the grain come through a little more so that it didn't look too painted which i really liked. i was also really nervous that it would be really crunchy feeling when we walk on it, but sanding it down helped this and now i don't really notice much of a difference walking between the painted and unpainted.

yay! i'm so loving it. it's definitely not perfect. (and boo for dark pictures. i'm not a fan of the sun setting at 4:20.) but i think it's a great start for our little nursery!

a completely free gift for 5 year olds x 20

2011-12-12T08:43:00.002-05:00

old scrapbook paper + copied homemade doodle pages

+ a seam down the middle

and you've got cute little tiny notbooks

add in the nasty crayons they've been using since august, popped in the oven for a few minutes

and out comes ginormous multi-colored crayons (cuter if you use a fun mold, but we're going for free here)

put it in a sandwhich baggie with some more old scrapbook paper stapled on top

and you've got 20 completely free little christmas happies that will occupy 5 year olds for approximately 3 minutes.

i love spraypaint

2011-12-10T17:37:00.004-05:00

before - cute but definitely not for our little guy

after - a lot of spray paint and a little shade make-over and i'm liking it. a little jonathan adler-ish? no? oh well, that's about as close as we're getting :)

a happy thanksgiving...a little late

2011-12-08T09:01:00.001-05:00

have i mentioned how much we love having people come see us? it's really just our excuse to drag somebody to the city, show them all our favorite places, and then force them to try out some new part of the city that we've never been to before. we're nice like that.

well, since we couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving (for the first time - so sad) my parents made the trip up to see us! we, of course, drug them to the city not once, but twice as well as taking them to my school, my first trip to babies-r-us, and the land of nod outlet! plus i let my mom cook us thanksgiving dinner :) don't you want to come see us!

on the first day, we took the train into the city because it's just a fun experience

and then rode the water taxi - one of our favorite little things to do. it was cold, but so thankful it was sunny both days we walked around! much better than right now...

we walked over to Navy Pier for lunch - one of our favorites

and even made it almost all the way down to the end this time

me and my dad rode the ferris wheel

and had fun getting freaked out at the top

then we went over to the John Hancock building and actually went in this time!

i think it's the 2nd tallest buildings in the city and has awesome views because it's right in the middle of downtown

all the christmas lights were up on michiagan ave, so everything was especially pretty

on black friday, instead of braving the crazy people at the stores, we braved the crazy moms-with-strollers at the Science and Industry Museum. despite crazy-people, the museum was awesome. they had a huge christmas-around-the-world exhibit with tons of beautiful trees decorated.

one of the coolest exhibits they had was of the development of babies before they're born, week by week. it was quite fitting for us :) so absolutely amazing

we finished the night with awesome food and a last trip to the egg.

we had lots of fun and between baby furniture, early christmas presents, and multiple trips to the grocery store, they left our apartment a lot more full than when they came. so thankful. now we're just counting down the days until we can get home for christmas!

sewing paper

2011-11-27T16:16:00.001-05:00

does it get any easier than that? i think not.

for my classroom, i needed some bright, cheap, & easy decorations. and cheap.
so what's cheaper than free paint chips? i also threw in a pack of cardstock and ended up with lots of fun stuff to hang on the walls that i'm pretty sure no one in my class has noticed except for me. but it makes me happy, so that's all that counts, right?

easy peasy - cut out shapes

string them through the sewing machine

and walla! fun little banners

oh how i love easy projects

24 weeks

2011-11-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

it's so fun teaching kindergarten with a growing belly. this week, my favorite comment was from one of my little guys who said, "your belly is really getting humongous. i mean, just look at that thing!" they certainly don't hold back.

since it's getting dark about 4:30 here, i finally broke and headed up to wheaton's gym last week. while messaging my aching back, i glanced in the mirror and realized, i'm sooo not in college anymore. at least there was one old professor in there who was struggling worse than me. but barely.

but really everything is going great and i'm so very thankful. i'm afraid i'm one of those annoying people who loves being pregnant. there's definitely odd stuff going on, but when he flips and moves, it's just totally amazing. i'm so thankful for those little kicks.

less than 4 monthes to go and i'm afraid they're going to fly by just a little too quick. better hit up the movies while we can.

covering a lampshade

2011-11-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

so these little lampshade projects are all over the blogosphere and look simple enough, right? well, i had a some serious trouble with actually getting this thing finished. it took me weeks and i'm usually way too crazy to let things go for weeks unfinished. i'm totally blaming it on the baby.

it all started with this ginormous lampshade from ikea. i'm pretty sure lampshades are the hardest things to move. seriously. ours have gotten crushed everytime we've moved. i'm obviously not packing them right. so we picked up this big shade from ikea to replace one that got crushed but then it didn't fit the lamp. and then i lost the receipt. so it sat there on the guest bed forever before i realized that it could probably fit over the awesome, 80's, apt grade fixture we had going on over our table. and then it sat for some more while i tried to work up the energy to actually start this project.

excuse the horrible pictures. i'm more writing this so if i ever try this again, i won't forget how to fix all the mistakes i made.

first, i taped a bunch of newspaper together and traced the shape of the shade onto the paper. i might have done this 3 times before i got it right. again, blaming it on the baby.

cut it out

and tried it on for size. woohoo! this one finally, sorta fits

fabric was a whole other hold-up on this project. i finally settled on this suuuuper cheap blue from hobby lobby after i realized there was a pretty good chance of me messing this up. it's not my favorite shade of blue, but it goes with the curtains we already had and it actually looks better with the light shining through it. so i pinned my pattern on and cut it out, leaving tons on the edges 'cause i was so nervous.

i used my favorite sticky spray to get the fabric on (don't fear for baby - it was a well venilated area and i had extra fabric wrapped around my head as a mask. real cute.) i love this stuff because i can just pull it up and start over when i messed up. lesson learned - you can spray too much of it and get dark spots through solid fabric. thankfully, it ends up that you can't see them when the light shines through.

i just sprayed the edges under too, but now i wish that i'd just cut them even with the edge of the shade. at this point though, i had no idea how i was going to finish the edges, so this worked.

i ended up making some far from perfect bias tape that's not really cut on the bias for the edges. don't be jealous of my golf-towel-on-the-counter ironing board.

then i hot glued it on. once i hung it up, i realized how bad the inside edge looked, so i made one more strip and hot glued it to the inside edge.

so to the fun part:

before:
i gotta a little antsy and forgot to take a before pic, but just imagine this on a gold chain. it was lovely.

and after:

not perfect, but much, much better.
now james is figuring out if we could spray paint that gold chain without taking it out of the ceiling and without our landlord noticing...

a little art

2011-11-07T21:06:00.001-05:00

the day we found out we were having a boy, i was itching to find something boyish.

enter goodwill: $1 frame with a sweet mountain picture and a $1 pack of eric carle cards that just happen to say 'it's a boy'

side note - i have a slight obsession with eric carle. when i pull one of his books out to read at school, my kids say 'we knoooooow, he's your faaaavorite author/illustrator.' (ok, we're still working on the illustrator part) but just look at his pictures! the colors, the animals, you can almost feel the texture through the paper! there is a reason i teach kindergarten.

a little blue paint and 2 minutes later, we've got a little bit of art for our little guy. i'm sure he's totally going to love it.

easy peasy lemon squeezy - my favorite kind of projects

we're having a...

2011-11-06T13:25:00.000-05:00

baby boy!

and super, super excited about it.

visitors!

2011-11-01T12:03:00.000-04:00

my sweet friend abby from chattanooga came to see us last weekend! it's so fun exploring new places with friends, especially when they don't mind you dragging them to school meetings or hitting up every garage sale and thrift store within 30 miles. doesn't that make you want to come see us! plus it was all part of her birthday celebration. yep, she's that good.

after all the fun of school meetings and thrifting, we of course had to make a trip downtown.

taking the water taxi from the train station to michigan ave is one of my favorite things to do. it's like getting one of the big water tours for $2, without all the interesting chicago facts of course :)

we hit up navy pier for the first time which was lots of fun. side note - there were real camel rides for kids outside the pier. definitely not expecting that one.

we ate our very first chicago hot dogs and they were great. mine was totally plain, not exactly chicago style, but james and abs raved about theirs too.

we also tried the huge ferris for the first time and it was awesome. the best $6 we've spent in chicago.

it's the best view of the city shoreline for sure

but definitely a little freaky at the top. i loved it.

we hit up michigan ave for some maternity clothes, drooled over cute kids decor at the land of nod, and tried on every vest at patagonia before we - literally - ran 12 blocks in 12 minutes to make it back for our train home. preggo running 12 blocks in boots was so not attractive. but cars totally stopped to let us pass. or maybe they just stopped to laugh at me. either way, we made it. and had a total blast doing it.

thanks, abby for making the trip! it meant the world to me and happy happy birthday!!

20 weeks

2011-10-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

whoooa! helllooo baby bump.
it just appeared one day. last sunday to be exact. totally crazy.

20 weeks already?
i feel like we've hit a major milestone
we're half way there...
now this whole thing needs to sloooow dooown!
we've got lots to do in the next 20 weeks -
like learn how to raise a child.
that's not scary, right?

i'm so thankful to be feeling great these days.
i started feeling some little kicks and flips this week! is there anything better than that? it's amazing.
it's sorta, kinda, slightly starting to feel real now with the kicks and the belly. but not really.

we're still totally amazed that this is all happening. excited doesn't even begin to describe it - like shout-it-from-the-rooftops giddy excited. this is such a fun time in life right now and we're trying to soak up every minute.

but it would still be ok with me if the next 20 weeks went by a little bit slower.

wheaton

2011-10-17T11:02:00.000-04:00

i love living in wheaton.

i love the little parks to walk through

and the hardware store down the street

and the gorgeous wheaton campus

i love the saturday market with flowers and veggies and crafts.

i love the most perfect sized library - not too small but not too big. plus you can check out magazines :)

i love the several ice cream stores downtown

and old buildings

and even the sound of the trains coming through.

i love the rows of little shops and restuarants

and brick roads.

i love the old post office 1 block over

and that there's a church on every corner, because it makes us Bible-belters feel more at home.

i love living close to the train station so we can ride the train into the city.

and i love, love, love fall because it's absolutely amazing.

but most of all, i love that all of this is in walking distance. our apt is a bit dated (to say the very least) but it's worth it to get to walk down to the library or post office or ice cream or the hardware store. because if we're going to live a 1,000 miles from all our favorite people, then we might as well live somewhere interesting and different and fun. and for now, that's worth a dated apartment.

the best kind of surprises

2011-10-07T17:30:00.000-04:00

it was one of those mornings.

i stayed up 2 hours past my bedtime and hit snooze as many times as possible.

got dressed in the dark and put my shirt on inside-out (for the 2nd day in a row)

ran out of time to pack a lunch and had to risk it with cafeteria lunch (scary).

my eyes wouldn't open all the way even after being awake for almost 2 hours.

my maternity pants wouldn't stay up and my non-maternity shirt wouldn't stay down.

and then i remember - 4 minutes before kids arrive - that i left all my copies in the copy room.

so i ran / waddled down to the copy room, while holding my shirt down and pants up, grabbed my copies and noticed a package. and then i took a double look because that handwriting looked so familiar and it made me miss home. and then - oh my goodness -i know that handwriting! i got a package at school!

really, what's more exciting than this? on a wednesday morning?

tons of my favorite bonne bell, footie pajamas to die for, teeny tinsy little socks, and sweet notes that make me smile

have i mentioned i have the best sister-in-laws ever?
ever.
they're amazing.

nursery ideas

2011-10-04T08:50:00.000-04:00

i might have a slight obsession with looking at cute baby rooms...

but, come on, what else am i supposed to do for the next 5 months??

source

17 weeks

2011-10-02T17:44:00.002-04:00

fall...

2011-09-30T20:52:00.002-04:00

beautiful leaves

jackets and scarves

space heaters

all in september

we're not in mississippi anymore

kindergarteners

2011-09-27T11:18:00.004-04:00

i think teaching kindergarten with a baby on the way is going to be lots of fun.

one girl already told me they'll probably have to slice me open to get the baby out, complete with a hand motions all the way across my belly. ouch.

girl 1 - "mrs. kent, your belly SURE is getting big"
girl 2 - "i guess it's just that baby in there"
girl 3 - "i sure HOPE it's that baby in there making her so big"

another boy said "your belly is getting so big, you're going to need to get some ETERNITY clothes real soon!"

here's to hoping i don't need clothes as big as eternity by the end of this...

happy sunday

2011-09-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

You created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139

thoughts on baby

2011-09-17T06:21:00.001-04:00

source

* surprised? so were we.

* famous last words - "there's NO way we could move 1000 miles across the country from everyone we know, start a new job / doctoral program, and have a baby.

* it still doesn't seem quite real yet, but words can't even describe how excited we are

* after having to wait 13 loooong weeks for a doctor's appointment, i was a bit excited. james really appreciated it when i started the count down from 72 hours.

* hearing the heartbeat and watching that little baby flip over and over was amazing. and weird. but mostly amazing.

* i always thought it would be detrimental to give up diet coke when i got pregnant. like forking over my arm - my right arm at that - but thanks to a couple months of nausea, all i want to drink is water and milk (really, milk? i've never wanted to drink cups of milk before) oh well, problem solved.

* i have a whole new compassion for those who are sick while pregnant. so, so thankful it stopped right before my kids started school. so thankful.

and last -

*i found my first gray hair.

a little surprise...

2011-09-08T16:13:00.001-04:00

exploring

2011-09-07T12:00:00.001-04:00

now that we're finally settled in and school's off to a good start, it's about time i start working on some projects. i figured there had to be someplace better than hobby lobby for fabric, so i goodled 'fabric in chicagoland'

and this huge store kept popping up. yea, it looks a little sketch, but it had over a hundred good reviews. i was also prepared to dig and sweat because that was in the reviews too...

so on labor day, i drove the 40 minutes into the city and found it.
it was impressive. rooms and rooms of fabric. for cheap. like under $10 a yard. sweeet.

plus notions galore.

tons and tons of buttons

any color zipper you could think of.

piping

and all colored lace

tons of shelves of ribbons

and tassels

plus rows and rows of fabric, plus piles and piles on top of that.

sadly, i didn't find the amazing fabric i was dreaming of to recover some craigslited chairs, but i didn't leave empty handed. and it was a great little exploration.

happy day

2011-09-04T14:33:00.000-04:00

oh yea

2011-09-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

we're now official illinois-ians

but have no fear - one of my kindergarteners today asked me why i kept saying ya'll. im clinging to those southern roots.

ikea's rast makeover

2011-08-29T04:36:00.001-04:00

somehow, in all the moving, we didn't make it up with with our bedside tables.

problem 1 - i put a lot in the big, 3 drawers of my old table, besides the lamp on top and all.
problem 2 - there were about a million other things i wanted to get for our new place besides bedside tables.

so on our first trip to ikea, we picked up these unfinished Rast chests for about $30 each.

if you google 'ikea's rast makeovers' you'll get a ton of awesome ways people have finished these chests, but the most popular, by far, is some version of *this* makeover, based on one originally found in Style at Home magazine. I needed something quick and easy, so we went ahead and copied it as well.

after we put them together, james hauled all the pieces down to the parking lot for me. i primed and painted the drawers with benjamin moore's chantilly lace and stained the outside piece. now this wood isn't exactly the highest quality, prettiest wood, so i'm glad we just stained the outside piece.

i tried to make the cheap little knobs look pretty, but there was no helping them, so i ordered these knobs from *here* for a serious steal. unfortunately, when we got them, i realized i bought the wrong kind to fit into the pre-drilled holes in the drawers. to fix it, i ended up tossing the back piece and just using the square pulls.

and the finished product -

i'm super pleased with how they turned out and - even better - love all the great storage in all those drawers.

happy day

2011-08-28T14:34:00.000-04:00

cherishing this promise today

look who came to see us!!

2011-08-22T19:17:00.000-04:00

Gracie!!!
sweet grace made the long trek to see us this week and we had a blast with her. ok, we actually did a whole lot of nothing, but we were so happy she was here!

our only plans the whole week were to go downtown on saturday and, of course, it was pouring rain when we woke up sat morning. but that didn't stop us.

we tried out the water taxi this time (in the rain) and it was so fun! definitely better than walking the 9 blocks to the magnificent mile. great views.

it meant the world to us for grace to drive all the way up here. thanks for coming gracie! we love you!

new school... again

2011-08-18T23:41:00.003-04:00

i started school this week and can i just say, i hate being the new kid? because of my intense fear of walking into a room by myself, "meet and greet breakfast" sounds a lot like "chinese water torture" to me.

surprisingly, i'm still alive and here to say i made it through.

this is my first go-round at a christian school and wow.
really wow.

we started off wednesday morning with praise and worship led by the youth group's lead band and finished the day off with an early screening of the new movie by the Love Dare guys, Courageous. Popcorn, drinks, and movie candy were definitely involved. (by the way - you have got to go see this movie when it comes out! it is aaa-maaa-zing. take everybody you know. amazing.)

although i've always had it in my heart, i've never started the year with such a passion to serve the Lord in my job. needless to say, i'm really enjoying my job -

and the kids don't even come for another 2 weeks!

lazy sunday afternoon

2011-08-14T22:44:00.003-04:00

yea right.
my hubby is amazing.
i'm more just nail and go.
he's more measure, check it twice, and use 3M strips to avoid holes.
his walls look way better than mine.
and the best part?
he didn't complain once.
even though this wasn't the only wall of pictures he hung.
yep, he's amazing.

where did all my time go?

2011-08-12T10:36:00.003-04:00

umm. to pintrest. i'm pretty sure hours go by without me knowing it.
not really, but close.

i used to have tons of saved bookmarks on my computer of all my favorite projects in blogland, but then everybody started raving about pintrest. it sounded like this heaven of a place where you can bookmark all your favorite stuff on the internet and check out other people's favorite finds.

problem was, you had to have an invite to join, so i'd just stare awkwardly like the one left out of the party.

UNTIL one of my favorite bloggers offered to send out some invites and she actually sent me one! it was a good day.

so if you'd like an invite, send me your email and i'll pass it on! i think i can send out 10.

but just remember - i warned you - your time will start disappearing.

the last box...

2011-08-08T11:47:00.005-04:00

has finally been unpacked.
and that makes me happy.

all the others have actually been unpacked since last week but this particular box was making such a great bed side table that i hadn't gotten around to unpacking it. and what-do-you-know, the shower rings i've been looking for were in the bottom of it, of course.

for the first time since we got married 4 years ago, all of our china and wedding gifts are actually in our house instead of storage. for some reason, that also makes me happy.

so just watch out. i could throw a fancy-shmancy party at any given moment.
as long as i wasn't actually cooking the food.

ok, off to now organize the closets that i threw everything in last week when unpacking.

our first trip downtown

2011-08-06T12:41:00.000-04:00

this week we hopped the metra train a block from our apt and rode the hour train downtown with absolutely no plan what-so-ever, cause that's kinda how we roll around here

we had a blast wondering around and looking like tourist

we made our way down to michigan avenue and millennium park

and took our picture in the bean, of course

we were totally impressed with how clean and safe chicago is and how nice the people are

anytime we asked for directions, people were so nice to help and point out the way. one man on the L even let us follow him all the way back to our stop.

we had a blast and can't wait to go back for more exploring. high on my list - navy pier and sears tower

gotta love ikea

2011-08-03T04:17:00.000-04:00

and my amazing husband who put all this together

and only had one extra teeny tiny dowel at the end of this.
how impressive is that?

progress

2011-08-01T20:33:00.003-04:00

slowly but surely we're unpacking and getting settled in.
so now all my sit-arounds need to be sat

and the pictures need to be hung

we'll get there eventually!

we made it!

2011-07-30T14:20:00.000-04:00

12 hours of traveling on wednesday and 3 more on thursday morning, and we finally pulled into wheaton! it's even cuter than i remembered.

this was my view for 15ish hours. i'm just glad i wasn't the one driving the uhaul with no cruise control. poor james. thankfully the uhaul got a wopping 8 miles to the gallon :)

we got to cross over the MS river twice in one day. once james almost got run into the river by a huge 18 wheeler. it was a bit scary for both of us.

and then we were finally in illinois. only 350 more miles to wheaton...

in all our moving and driving, i've become a huge fan of gas stations that have sonic ice. it got me through the last couple hours on wednesday.

fyi - don't drive from ms to illinois for the scenery. i'll save you the time - this is it between mississippi, tennessee, arkansas, missouri, and illinois. pretty farmland, but not too entertaining.

and then we were finally here. the kents flew up to help us move in and this is what our apt looks like now. off to unpack more boxes.

happy day

2011-07-24T14:04:00.000-04:00

note to self

2011-07-22T09:47:00.001-04:00

i love love this room

source

27

2011-07-18T14:52:00.000-04:00

what's better than celebrating a birthday?
how about celebrating for 4 days
so fun

day 1. car filled with balloons from james

and transformers in 3d with gracie and james

day 2. amazing italian with my fam

day 3. steaks on the big green egg

and birthday cake, picked out by james

day 4. pizza and ice cream with sweet friends

i've got a feeling 27 is going to be a good year.

happy day

2011-07-17T14:32:00.000-04:00

the beach

2011-07-07T12:16:00.001-04:00

i love, love the beach

love

and am already missing it.

lately...

2011-07-03T11:58:00.000-04:00

i can't believe we've been home for a month! it's been awesome getting to hang out with family and friends and soak up this time before heading to chicago at the end of july.

it's been especially fun hanging out with this cutie

a couple weeks ago we headed back to chattanooga for kirk and cole's sweet wedding

and had a blast hanging out with joy and jason for the weekend. when we lived in chattanooga, joy fed us at least once a week. seriously. so now we're just adding more to our tab. it's ok with me 'cause that means we'll just have to keep going back to try to make it up to them.

slow down, summer!

indoor s'mores

2011-06-30T00:08:00.000-04:00

as amazing as s'mores are, it's way to hot in ms to sit around a bonfire. so my mom came up with these indoor smores.

mini graham cracker crusts, and couple pieces of hershey's chocolate in the bottom, and a ginormous marshmallow on top (have you seen these? they're amazing!) pop 'em in the oven for a couple minutes and eat up. i tried to shave some chocolate on top to make them pretty, but it just melted into chocolate strips. oh well.

so good and a lot cooler than sitting outside by a fire. yum.

look what i got...

2011-06-29T11:44:00.002-04:00

an iphone!

oh happy day.

i might have jumped up and down in the store and yelled,
'this is the best day of my life!'

maybe.

james might have done the same dance because now he won't have to 'share' his with me anymore.

thanks poppy and james. ahhhmazing bday present :)

a summer skirt

2011-06-26T18:25:00.001-04:00

guess what.
i actually sewed something.
imagine that.

it was kinda annoying me that my favorite skirt at old navy never goes on sale because, even though it's just $15, i always feel better about buying things on sale. and then i saw this skirt at anthropologie which is really just the same skirt, but longer and thought i might like that better. so first round of this skirt was a long, black version. but i've actually never worn it. i think it holds the mississippi humidity in and who wants that. not me.

so for round two, i used less than 2 yards of cheap jersey from the hancocks sale table. gotta love piles of sale fabric.

first, i doubled my fabric over, laid my favorite old navy skirt on it, and cut it out, leaving a couple inches around it.

i serged up the edges to make a triangular - tube.

for the waist band, i cut out a rectangle twice as high as i actually wanted it to be on my waist (b/c we're going to fold it over in a minute) and wide enough to fit around my waist pretty snug.

i folded it over, hamburger style for all you kindergarten teachers, and serged up the edge to make a tube.

ok, this is kinda hard to explain - we want the serged edges to be covered up, so i took one of the edges and folded it over to meet the other raw edge. make sense? probably not...

now the tube is only half as tall with one smooth side and one side with 2 raw edges

now to put it all together - i definitely messed this up twice. on the 2nd skirt i did. ugh.
with the skirt still inside out, i lined put the tube over the top of the skirt, lining up all the raw edges

serged all around it

and walah! super comfortable summer skirt with a fold over band. gotta love jersey for the summer.

rock city

2011-06-20T02:01:00.001-04:00

if you drive anywhere remotely close to chattanooga, you'll start seeing the big red signs that say 'see rock city.' it's one of the biggest tourist attractions in chattanooga. i had never been but when we worked at summer camps on lookout mtn in college, james brought his alpine guys to see rock city lots of times, so he wasn't just dying to see it. but he's really sweet and knows how i love experiences, so he insisted that we go see it our last saturday in chattanooga.

even though it's all pretty much man-made and very touristy, we had lots of fun walking through the paths of trees and rocks and squeezing through spots like these

at the top, there's a great view and a pretty waterfall

he's not really stuck :)

check out this cool swing that's a whole tree carved out

there was also a great little bluegrass band at the top

rock city's claim to fame is that you can see 7 states from the top. you might need to squint a little to those 120 miles

the rope bridge was my favorite part. i loooove heights. we waited until nobody else was on it and james jumped up and down to make it swing a lot while i hung on for dear life. oh how i love a thrill

overall, it was a great experience and now i can say i've seen it

of course, we couldn't leave without proof with the famous 'see rock city' birdhouses

and now our sightseeing is complete

the aquarium

2011-06-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

last summer before we moved to chattanooga, our awesome h'burg friends gave us gift certificates to the aquarium and the imax at this great cowboy themed par-tay

needless to say, but we had a blast using them up. the imax is so awesome. we ended up going to both documentaries out right now - one about surfing some ginormous waves and one about the cutest rescued baby elephants and baby chimpanzees. plus you get to wear these awesome glasses and who doesn't look cool in these.

obviously, we do :)

we asked joy and jason to help us use our aquarium tickets and jayden definitely made the trip lots more fun.

the amount of fish they have is really amazing. and lots of them are so pretty, although we were kinda surprised at how many of them were really ugly.

the penguins were especially cute

and petting the sting rays was fun (but slimy)

the boys kept talking about fishing strategies (how terrible is that! in the aquarium!)

we really had a blast and mostly had the aquarium to ourselves on a weeknight

thanks so much, candice and friends, for such a great gift! we had a blast using it!

4 years! {plus 3 weeks}

2011-06-15T14:30:00.001-04:00

i was going to post this 3 weeks ago on our actual anniversary but our internet wasn't working and by 'our internet,' i really mean our neighbors which we 'borrowed' so there wasn't actually anything we could do to fix it, so without further ado (adu? adue? spell check is not helping me here...)

when i was in 6th grade, my mom taught the 8th grade sunday school at church and there were the 2 cutest boys in her class. every sunday after my class was out, i would race to her room to sit casually outside, waiting on them to get out. one of the boys was way too cool and ignored me, but the other boy (the cuter one) would give me the "i'm-a-cool-8th-grader-but-i'll-still-notice-6th-graders" head nod and even an occasional wave.

oh be still my beating heart.

10 years later and 4 years (plus 3 weeks) ago, i got to marry that boy.

we celebrated with a movie at the $3 theatre, the best italian in chattanooga, and some coffee at rembrandt's.

do you ever get those "i'm so glad i married him" feelings? i've had a lot of those lately. he's my calm and laughter in the middle of crazy life-changing decisions, interviews, traveling, packing, and moving. i'm so glad i married him.

it's official

2011-06-13T11:00:00.000-04:00

I'll be teaching kindergarten at harvest christian academy next year!

one of the best things about moving around the last couple years is to see God's perfect plan for us come together. the way the Lord opened doors and moved mountains for us when we moved to chattanooga changed the way that i will trust him for the rest of my life. he is SO worthy of our trust! his plan is so perfect!

once again, this job was a total God-thing.
totally, completely God.
it's so fun to watch him move!
selfishly though, i'm really glad that it all happened in may this year instead of the end of july like last year :)

long story short, we emailed my resume - my totally non-christianese, public school resume - to a family friend's son, whom we have yet to meet, who ended up working at a ginormous church - harvest bible chapel - that has 2 schools. we didn't expect anything and kinda forgot all about it. i got a call from the principal a couple weeks later, asking me to apply! so in just a few days i filled out the application, sent it back, was asked in for an interview the next week, flew up to chicago for the first time, stayed with the superintendent, interviewed, taught centers to a kindergarten class and a rock lesson to 2/3rd graders, toured the schools, went out to eat with the principal and superintendent and their spouses, visited the church, met several families that go to the school, and felt really good about it all.

and then i heard nothing for 3 and a half weeks. ahhhh!

finally i heard that in those 3 weeks, they actually closed the school where i interviewed BUT they still had a kindergarten spot {my very favorite grade} open for me at the other campus!

i kept asking james 'why did they want to interview me? with 13,000 church members who already live in Illinois, why did they want to fly me up to interview? what did they see in just a resume? why did they go to all the trouble with me?' james finally said the obvious - it was just God!

so i'm completely thrilled to be back in kindergarten and excited to teach at a christian school for the first time!

and definitely excited to not be sending out resumes and making awkward phone calls all summer, begging for a job.

o happy day.

2011-06-12T15:16:00.001-04:00

chattanooga loves

2011-06-02T22:39:00.000-04:00

mountain biking and pretty trails

rembrandt's

pretty fall colors

driving across the bridge to work

downtown

wally's and their awesome home cooked meals that were just 2 blocks away from our house

$3 movies cause who really cares if they're a little bit older - they're $3!

joy and jason
and our pizza nights. and late night cookies. and sundays. and meeting for supper when i'm getting out of cooking. and visiting churches. and finding a church.
and introducing ourselves at church as "james, jessica, joy, and jason" because it just always made people smile.

and these sweet girls

i really can't say enough. just that we feel totally blessed with their sweet friendship.

cause only amazing friends volunteer for this

normal park

and the awesome girls that i got to work with. i couldn't have picked better girls. such a huge, amazing, ginormous blessing to walk into.

talking marriage with these guys

and laughing a lot.

a classy cici's pizza (cause you can't beat a $4 pizza buffet, although the classiness of this particular one did take out all the entertainment value...)

richmont

cute 2nd graders

the mountain views

and the view from my classroom

exploring

not having much apt to clean :)

lots of snow days

casey

and our adventures to the mountain opry

and did i mention the views?

but definitely the thing we loved the most and that we'll miss the most is the sweet friends we made.
because it's always the people that make the place.

one last look

2011-06-01T22:08:00.001-04:00

so i should say, i moved so much stuff out of these pictures that james said it's not really a good representation of how we actually lived but, come on, when you live in 500 sq feet, there's just gonna be a miter saw hanging out in the living room with a bike or 2. we really loved our little apartment and have great memories of chattanooga!

and we're back

2011-06-01T09:36:00.002-04:00

We've officially moved back to MS for the summer! I only cried for about 30 miles while leaving chattanooga and we're excited to spend lots of time with sweet family and friends before making the long treck to chicagoland at the end of july.

Yay for summer!

dinosaurs and beyond

2011-05-24T10:33:00.000-04:00

so our 4th nine weeks exhibit is up and ready! we've been learning all about dinosaurs and beyond, soooo

welcome to our paleontology dig!

here's our dig sites all set up. we really did get to go dig for fossils this year, behind waffle house, no less. it was quite exciting.

our dinosaur timeline and the different landscapes with each. i felt like i was about 2 days ahead of the kids on learning these :)

travel journals! here's where we recorded all that we learned about dinosaurs

cave drawings

and brochures to inform people all about our human footprint and how to save the planet

in spanish, our 2nd graders have been writing comic strips in spanish! so impressive!

aren't these flowers pretty?! love the creativity here

even through the craziness and rush and work, i've really enjoyed our exhibits each nine weeks. it's so fun to see how excited and proud the kids are of their work and how much they love to show it off. i'm going to miss these second graders!

o happy day.

2011-05-22T19:32:00.001-04:00

little happies

2011-05-21T07:19:00.002-04:00

it totally stinks to only teach somewhere for a year because in a couple years, i'm going to be that teacher that taught 2nd grade but nobody quite remembers my name. while i remember all my teacher's names, james doesn't remember a lot of his, so i know it happens. well, in cleaning out my fabric for the move and trying to bribe my kids into remembering my name, i made them some little happies for the end of the year - easy-peasy headbands for the girls and cute little bowties for the boys

how cute are my models?!

maxwell - the reason i want to name a kid max. too stinkin cute.

i used { the pleated poppys } no sew bowtie tutorial and it was super easy - all you need is an iron and glue gun

this one is my favorite. little boys look too cute in bowties!
i have so loved teaching 2nd grade this year. my class is really precious and i'll be so sad to say goodbye on monday!

pretty day

2011-05-19T19:02:00.000-04:00

fun days

2011-05-16T18:30:00.001-04:00

we've been soaking up our last days in chattanooga and cashing in all our gift certificates at our favorite places

like ganghis grill (james loves it when i take his picture in restaurants :)

the market on sundays

and the pizza at big river grill. oh i do love

and even though it's always packed, i do love the walking bridge

and it's pretty views

yep, that's cars beneath us. i always love a good thrill :)

such fun memories

cookies & crafts

2011-05-14T03:40:00.001-04:00

as a fundraiser for our school, all the teachers auctioned off fun activities to do with the kids. the 2nd grade teachers offered what we do best - cookies and crafts.

we got to spend the afternoon with 5 sweet girls making all types of stuff

we made flower headbands, button rings, bags, and ponytail holders

(notice the justin bieber on the bag...)

the girls took our ideas and ran with them

and i'm pretty sure we had as much fun as the girls!

happy mother's day!

2011-05-08T13:42:00.004-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to the greatest mom's we know!

You are such a blessing to us. We wouldn't be who we are if it wasn't for you. Wish we we were there to celebrate with you.

We Love you!!!

{chicago} my first trip!

2011-05-02T16:26:00.005-04:00

this weekend, we made the first of many trips to chicago and had a great time. i interviewed, we tried a church, met a lot of people, tried out chicago style pizza, and even found an apartment! we're exhausted but got a lot accomplished! woohoo!

when we stepped off the plane and the weather was 40 degrees and rainy, i'm pretty sure my sandals and light cardigan screamed "we ain't from around here!"

the nicest couple from the school where i interviewed offered to let us stay with them so we started driving and not far from chicago, this is what we saw. this is all we saw - corn fields. everywhere. it was so strange - there would be acres and acres of farmland and then an outlet mall would pop up out of no where. then more and more fields and then a huge subdivision. james was getting more excited at the prospect of duck hunting, i was getting worried. i mean, as much as i love farms, i don't want to move all the way across the country to live somewhere that looks like the MS delta, you know?

thankfully, we finally got to wheaton and it is the cutest, most quaint little town that looks like it's straight from a movie

we even found an apartment right next to downtown, a half a block from the metro, and less than a mile to james' school. and get this - it even has a (drumroll please...)

DISHWASHER!

can you believe that? a machine that washes your dishes. oh i'm so excited and promise to never, ever take it for granted. not quite as good as a dishwasher but high up on the list - we've got 2 bathrooms! i forgot to ask about an ice maker, but if it has that, then all my dreams have come true. seriously. was God in this or what. oh and we've even got 2 bedrooms so we're expecting lots of visitors, ok?? it set right in the middle of these cute little houses, but fortunately for us, the apt has some sweet 70's style brick on the front and sweet 70's style brick = affordable, if you know what i mean. it couldn't have gotten any better.

we had to stop by the apple store because we forgot our computer charger and they let us plug ours in for a min

and i'm already of fan of their pizza. i'm actually a fan of any pizza but theirs was exceptional

i was a bit nervous about my southern draaawl. it only gets higher and more slow when i'm nervous, so you can understand an interview might not be my best representation. well, we touched down and i though 'i sound just like these people! we've got nothing to worry about!'
apparently "ya'll" gives us away.
and apparently we say "ya'll" a lot.
the low point might have been when i was teaching the kindergarteners for my interview and asked them if they liked to read poems. they all shook their heads and said they'd never read any poems and i was a bit surprised because a lot of K reading is based on poetry, so i read them an example and suddenly they knew what i was talking about.
fyi - don't say poeeeeems, it's more like e like in egg to those northerners :)

we didn't have any time to sightsee downtown, but james indulged me by just driving through

i'm not gonna lie - we're both a bit nervous about the weather and all, but we're trusting God has a perfect plan for us there!

plus MS is only a plane ride away

lately...

2011-04-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

the other day james and i were talking about how fast time goes by (yea, we're quite exciting) anyway i said

"i feel like i just graduated college yesterday but i've actually been out of college for as long as i was in!"

james said "i'll be fifty before i can say that"

and it's pretty close to true...

what can we say...we value education :)

we're headed to chicago tomorrow for interviews and apt hunting, so start praying now!
and i reeeally hope it doesn't look like this anymore...

amazing

2011-04-24T10:00:00.001-04:00

it's the little things...

2011-04-18T16:18:00.001-04:00

before...

after!

huuuggge difference i know!!

ok, so it's not the biggest difference ever but just look at those curved corners. i do love them. and all it takes is a few little punches with this little thingy-majig. $6 plus 40% coupon makes me happy.

it's the little things, you know :)

mary brooke's birthday

2011-04-16T06:17:00.000-04:00

a couple weekends ago, james and i headed home and got to celebrate MB's first birthday party! she is the cutest. thing. ever. james says i say that about every one of her pictures, but she's the smiliest baby ever. too cute.

so emily is one of those natural party planners. anything she does ends up gor-geous. put her and grace together and they're ready for a magazine shoot. seriously. they can throw stuff together and it turn out perfect. and mary brooke's bunny birthday party was nothing short of picture perfect.

perfect tablescape and party favors

i love the tissue paper pompoms in the tree! so whimsical

homemade strawberry cake was amazing and how cute is that cake topper?!

bunny marshmellows!

this was one of my favorite things - the picture tree. em printed out pictures from mary brooke's first year and grace threaded them onto string to hang in the tree. at the bottom, grace added these awesome hanging vases to weigh it down a bit. it was so pretty! and so fun to look back and see how much she's changed.

MB loved the tractor! (although she didn't ride by herself :)
i wish i'd gotten a better picture of this quilt that sabrina made for her - it's absolutely precious! you've got to have a good friend that will make a quilt for you. that's big.

her first bit of sugar!!

definitely a big hit

and sweet family came all the way to see her

aren't emily and grace impressive? and we couldn't have asked for a prettier day. everything was perfect and we were so glad we got to be there to celebrate mary brooke!

so little time...

2011-04-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

good news - we've found the best mexican food ever

bad news - we only have 7 weeks to try everything on the menu

the perfect day...

2011-04-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

for a bike ride.
raccoon mountain is definitely one of our favorite places in chattanooga

i didn't even bust it today!

being silly

finish it off with some sonic

and you've got a perfect day

little happies

2011-04-08T22:25:00.005-04:00

last weekend, we had one of those fun crazy weekends with wedding showers and birthday parties and suppers with awesome friends all in one day. it was great. last minute (of course) i whipped up some of my stand-by favorite projects.

i love { made's } hobo bag pattern. i've based several bags and purses on this pattern. it doesn't take long to make and (hopefully) it useful

all filled up with lots of activities to keep little boys occupied on road trips

for the wedding shower, i went with the ruffly dishtowels. super easy project that'a fast and fun. i love grouping lots of patterns. add some utensils and all done!

we're soaking up our time with sweet friends here in chattanooga and loving our crazy weekends.

i forgot...

2011-04-04T14:22:00.003-04:00

a friend of a friend emailed her friend in chicago about teaching jobs and last night i read her response -
she said she hoped maybe we had connections or knew the mayor because suburb jobs are hard to come by. she has a masters and 15 years experience teaching internationally and here and she's been trying for years to get a job in the suburbs.

and just like that i forgot.

I started imagining working at mcdonalds or taco bell or shoveling snow with no coat in chicago blizzards.

i forgot how faithful God has been to us.

how he blessed me with 2 interviews in one day after nothing for months.

how he gave me a job at an amazing school with awesome 2nd graders.

how we have never, ever, not-for-once, gone without anything we have ever needed or even wanted.

so after sleeping bad and having horrible dreams all night, i read psalm 94:19 this morning

'when the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul'

i won't forget again because the Lord has an amazing plan for us and i'll rest in Him until we get to see what it is.

a book for mary brooke

2011-04-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

our little niece, mary brooke, turned one this week so i had to make a little sumthin' sumthin'. she loves books, so i made a little book with pictures of her sweet family that's totally baby proof and slobber-proof. perfect for a one year old (hopefully!)

so i printed out some pics of the fam

backed them with a a file folder so they won't bend

and glued them back to back

added some labels with names (and adjectives because it's never too early to learn, right :)
then laminated them with these awesome little sheets that you don't even need a laminator to use!

hole punched them

added a little cover and some cute ribbon and
all done!

slipcover accomplished!!!

2011-03-23T09:24:00.011-04:00

so we have this chair.
it's a lazy boy
i have a love/hate relationship with it.

but i definitely love it more than hate it. it's the perfect place to take a nap or curl up and it's sooo comfortable. it's a lazy boy, right?

but it's not the prettiest thing because, well, it's a lazy boy.

but when you're young and married and in school, any free furniture is pretty much beautiful in my eyes, if you know what i mean.

so anyway, when we got married 4 years ago, my mil and sister in laws wrestled an awesome red slipcover on it to make it match the barn and it looked great (have you ever tried to put a lazy boy slipcover on? i was wrestling just trying to get it off!) but i was ready for a change.

i've looked everywhere for a slipcover that's straight on the bottom, like not elastic, but no such luck. so last summer when dirt cheap got a huge shipment of target linens, i picked up 2 thick cotton tablecloths for just a couple bucks (total steal!) thinking i'd try to sew one. well, i'm a total dork when it comes to trying new projects and read and read and think about it and plan it but get totally scared to actually cut into the fabric. i even bought { pink and polk dot's } 'the lazy girl's guide to custom slipcovers' e-book and it was awesome with step by step directions and lots of pictures but i was still scared. and then spring break came and i finished all my other projects and got bored enough to finally try it out and - you know what -

it wasn't that bad!!!

it's sooo far from perfect but it's covered and it's bright and a good change and it was a great learning experience.
you can see the seams in one of the corners but it's nothing a throw pillow can't fix if-you-know-what-i'm-sayin
and i can take it off and throw it in the wash with some bleach anytime it needs it.

whooo that was a lot of words. on to the pictures -

before -

but really this is the before because this is what it looked like most of the time...

and after -

woohoo for one more thing off my list and fabric out of my pile!

moving prep...

2011-03-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

so we've got project eat-out-of-the-freezer going on around here. with 2 months before the big move, let's just say we'll be eating a lot of pork chops in the next couple weeks. know any good recipes?

actually it's more like project clean-out-everything and it makes me soooo happy. i'm using up all the mini lotions collected from hotels this year, eating cereal that's been in there longer than it should have, and actually planning meals around what we already have - novel idea, i know.

so right now i'm eating budget $aver sugar-free pops and, for the record, they are not good. forget the budget. spring for the fudgsicles. but you know i can't just throw them away :)

alright, i'm off to clean out some veggie burgers for lunch. yum. i'll be using lots of cheese and ketchup.

summer dresses

2011-03-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

my sweet friend abby was tired of this curtain she had in her kitchen, so we decided to make it into something new. how 'bout a little dress?
so i used a dress to see about how wide we needed it and cut two rectangles

serged them up the sides

made 2 little casings - one at the top and one in the middle

and threaded some elastic through

a quick hem

and added an easy sash
and wa-la! fun summer dress!

so this was a bit too easy to make. i could become addicted. planning to make myself a couple tomorrow...
(hope you like it, abs!)

under the sea

2011-03-19T21:16:00.003-04:00

our second graders have been busy again, working on our oceans exhibit. for the last 9 weeks, we've learned all about the different ocean layers, the animals that live in each layer, the food chain, and pollution. our learning expeditions to the aquarium have been my favorite all year and i was just as amazed at the imax as the kids were! so fun. so here's what our halls will look like for the next 9 weeks. i'm loving it!

the food chain using all recycled materials

how cute is that sea turtle!

crazy abyss creatures

check out our beach :)

definitely enjoying my days left at normal park!

it's been so long since i've run...

2011-03-16T17:45:00.004-04:00

that i forgot how to do it

and totally busted it on a busy road during 5:00 traffic right as a huge line of cars was driving by. embarrassing.
talk about embarrassing - in college i fell right in front of bulldog deli, one of the busiest restaurants in starkville with huge windows all the way down the front. blood was dripping down my leg and elbow but i had to jump up and run/limp away like nothing happened.

actually, today doesn't seem that bad anymore.
at least the weather is perfect.

lately...

2011-03-12T08:41:00.007-05:00

there's been a whole lots of nothing interesting going on around here...

i got to go to a christ tomlin concert with these sweet girlies i work with. trying to soak up all the time we've got here.

after a horrendous week with 3 midterms and 2 papers in 3 days, james is enjoying his spring break. he's perfected his biscuits and they are amaaaazing. ( fyi - they include sprite and sour cream but oh.my.goodness. they're good)

these bloomed all over chattanooga overnight it seemed and they are b-e-a-utiful!

i've been a *bit* overwhelmed this week with

report cards

oceans module

illinois school applications

and illinois teaching certification applications

but scholastic orders always make me giddy b/c i'm totally dorky like that

and there's 5 days until spring break

and yesterday was friday which means happy cart. we literally look forward to this all week.
best. thing. ever.
caffine and homemade sugar right when we think we're not going to make it to 3:00 on friday. i love the pta

i've been working on a few new projects, but nothing too interesting yet.

and we'll continue to trust the Lord when our car need a new motor and everything else that connects to the motor. He knows how much we have in our little savings account so we have no doubt he'll provide.
upside - it felt like we were riding a roller coaster on the highway when the motor went out and i looove roller coasters.
(the car in better days...)

well, with all that exciting info, i'm off to play with this. oooh yea. that's a miter saw in our apartment. our neighbors are going to love us.

chicago bound

2011-03-05T08:45:00.002-05:00

so i've been trying to write this post for a week, but truth is, i'm not all that great at writing and i'm having trouble putting into words just how exactly amazed and ecstatic we are. i'll probably use too many explanation points and smiley faces, but here goes:

james is going to wheaton and we're moving to chicago!!

we got the email only a couple weeks after his interview and about 5 weeks earlier than expected, so we were a bit shocked to say the least. in true james-and-jess style, james calmly turned to me, tossed me his phone, and said read this. he sat shocked, blank expression while i jumped up and down screaming (which i'm sure our downstairs neighbor totally appreciated).

for those of you wondering how in the world we even got started down this path, here the gist - the plan was to move to chattanooga for 2 years for james to get his masters in counseling psychology at richmont and then apply to doctoral programs. well, in december (right before applications were due) we found out that the 6 integrated (christian) counseling programs in the country will only take about 30 hours of a masters program. there was no use in james finishing his 72 hour program here if it wouldn't even count.

so last minute, total shot in the dark, not expecting to hear anything, no real hope, james applied to 3 schools.

and got 3 interviews.

oooh yea. i'm so proud.

i loooove a good adventure. and this is definitely a good one. don't you just love it when God's plan totally blows your plan out of the water? seriously. i'm overwhelmed with what an amazing plan he has for our lives. it's definitely bigger than anything i ever dreamed.

i've had an inexplicable peace and excitement through this whole journey. i know the Lord has been preparing my heart for some time because i've had an incredible peace about 2 things specifically:

1. i hate cold and it's cold in chicago
2. i hate debt and there's debt coming our way

i'm not worried a single bit (this coming from the one who, at 9 years old, was so worried about getting enough sleep at night, that i couldn't sleep at night. my parents had my bed covered in matthew 7 and every other do-not-worry verse in the bible)

the Lord totally cleared a path for us when we moved to chattanooga:

we found a crazy cheap apt that we could actually afford
our neighbor - that we did not know - let us stay at his house for 2 weeks until our apt was ready
i got a amazing job that i did not deserve. seriously. anytime i tell somebody in chattanooga where i work, they ask me how i got a job there. i can only brag on God.

i'm confident that he will do the same when we move to chicago.

it has been so cool to watch james blossom this semester in counseling (do boys blossom? maybe grow? succeed?) either way, every time i talk to somebody at his school, they're bragging on his skills. and he really enjoys all he's learning. it's such an absolute joy to watch because we've been praying for soooo long for direction. mr. ronnie would always ask - what's your passion? all james could say was - people. and we've finally put it all together. he's good at this. he loves it. the Lord has definitely made him for this. why couldn't we figure it out earlier? God's timing is perfect even when we don't understand.

james met the vice-president of richmont last weekend and guess what he said - "so yoooouuur the guy who's leaving us for wheaton - there was weeping and gnashing of teeth in our last faculty meeting over you leaving." we don't understand why it took us so long to figure this all out but i'm so so very thankful that james has something that he's passionate about, that he loves, and that he's good at. it's really a joy.
(he's so going to make me take this out when he reads it. but i can brag for a minute until then :)

so wanna hear the coolest God-thing?
we got the email from wheaton and they said the official packet would be coming in the mail. well, james mentioned to his dad that because of different living expenses, it would be great if i could make $6,000 more in IL. so the official packet comes and some of the shock has worn off so i'm nonchalantly reading through the acceptance letter and

BAM

$6,000 scholarship we didn't even apply for. totally unexpected. i mean, do you think God has this under control or what?

my prayer through this whole process has been Psalm 5:8 'lead me, o Lord, in your righteousness, make straight your way before me.' he didn't just make the way straight, he practically lit up the runway for us.

of course, moving emotions come in waves and i'm so sad to leave chattanooga. we have some amazing friends here. my school is ridiculously awesome, the girls i work with are an answer to prayer, james' professors are great, our tiny apt is perfect, the mountain views are my favorite... i love chattanooga. this has been such a sweet time for james and me and i will always look back on it and smile.

it's also sad that we won't be able to hop in the car for a weekend trip back home (although we expect lots of visitors - there's a direct flight from jackson to chicago that's only and hour and a half and pretty inexpensive so it would actually be shorter to fly to chicago that to drive to chattanooga :) family means a lot to us, and it's hard to move away.

but oh. my. goodness. i'm excited to see what's next.

in conclusion (since i'm sure that only my sweet mom and mother-in-law are the only one's still reading this) -

God's plans are so much bigger than ours.

He is so worthy of our trust.

and i'm so excited to see what he's got planned for us next.

i'm pretty sure it won't be boring.

a little ring bling

2011-03-01T10:12:00.002-05:00

i love rings. the bigger, the better. and what's cuter than buttons? especially 50%off?
put 'em all together and you get a little ring bling :)

i took the elastic band saved off of my latest shoes from target and tied it around my finger

hot glued it to the back of the button

and covered it with a little felt

and that's it! (don't look at the nails - some nail biting decisions this week)

definitely not the hardest project ever and maybe not the nicest, but my little girls at school love them and they're just a little bit of fun! who doesn't need that?

mini chalkboards

2011-02-26T10:02:00.003-05:00

so i'm on a mission to clean out my craft boxes! i looove cleaning out :)
I picked up these strange metal sign thingys at the dollar tree a while ago and finally pulled them out to craft.

i added a couple coats of chalkboard paint - my favorite

and some strips of scrapbook paper

grabbed some magnets and a little chalk

and the sweetest picture of the cutest little niece ever!
easy peasy
and one less thing in my craft box!

fall creek falls adventure

2011-02-23T22:24:00.004-05:00

we decided to take advantage of all this gorgeous february weather this weekend and head a couple hours away to do a little camping. by the time we collected all the gear we needed in the fall, it was too cold to go, so this was our first time to head out on our own.

so i have this thing about getting a little claustrophobic when i can't move my legs or toes (as in i might have kicked a cowboy boot across a store because i couldn't move my toes and i couldn't get the boot off which lead to me not being able to breath) SO when james got me this awesome mummy bag i told him there was no way i was zipping it up. ever.
yea well, when the temp hit the high 30's saturday morning, it didn't take long for me to zip that thing up and cinch it down around my face as far as it would go. i somehow survived. thank you james for springing for the good sleeping bag.

lesson 1 - charge the camera. good thing for iphones. lesson 2 - check out the campsite before you pay for it. we definitely got one right between the rv's. they were probably laughing at us while sitting in front of there heaters.

we packed up our stuff saturday morning and headed to a local restaurant for the breakfast buffet. we were totally roughing it here. then we were off to do some sight seeing

this waterfall is beautiful! apparently some of the scenes from the jungle book were filmed here and you can hike all the way down to it. it was a bit too cold for us to try, but definitely a fun spring trip.

we had a blast driving around the park

looking at the waterfalls and spotting deer (who weren't afraid of us at all) and turkeys

even the drive back to chattanooga is beautiful. we pulled over on the side of the road to snap this picture of the valley

and look what we found! james might not have carved it, but he said he means it :)

homemade biscuits

2011-02-20T21:04:00.002-05:00

so after spending our whole sunday afternoon watching an old western series on netflix, james decided to bake some good ol' homemade biscuits just like in the show. now i'm pretty much a horrible cook, so i'm way too scared to try things that require kneading, "cutting butter in" and such. james is much more brave.

and can even add some style to it

don't you all do this to your homemade biscuits?

they turned out amazing, of course. i love breakfast for dinner so james added some bacon and eggs - other things i can't cook well.

oh yea. he even did the dishes afterwards.

yea, he's one of the good ones. how lucky am i?

framed memories

2011-02-19T15:50:00.004-05:00

i was so excited when my dad found my grandmother's thimbles and i knew exactly what i wanted to do with them. of course it took me 3 months to actually get around to doing it. my other grandmother has had some family thimbles framed in her house for as long as i can remember, so that's what i wanted to do with these.

i picked up a couple little shadow boxes at ikea but they were out of white, of course, so i pulled out the spray paint

after a couple (billion) coats paint, they were all bright and shiny

i cut out a couple pieces of scrapbook paper for the back

and hot glue the thimbles right on

and that's it!

it makes me think of all my grandmother's needlepoints every time i see it! good memories

craft night

2011-02-16T07:00:00.001-05:00

friday night + hubbys gone = craft night!

fabric scraps, ribbons, canvases, modge podge, a big mess and a "late" night

= fun colorful projects!

4 years...

2011-02-14T08:45:00.000-05:00

the looong awaited, dreamed of night finally came when i was least expecting it

pretty sure there's no valentine's day activities that will ever pass up that one

happy valentine's day!

valentines ideas

2011-02-11T17:04:00.005-05:00

so you know how there are about a million super cute valentines day ideas out there and yet i still resort to walmart clearance cards every year? well i was totally pumped when one of the girls in my class actually made some of the super cute ideas!

ipods from conversation heart boxes and mini reese's

and lotion for me!

totally rockin' the ipods
huge hit

just in case...

2011-02-11T17:02:00.001-05:00

and you though christmas was over...

2011-02-08T10:14:00.001-05:00

i love christmas cards. a lot.
but since it is february, i thought it might be time to take them down

my mom always kept the cards from each year and i can remember looking back through albums and thinking it was so funny to see all my friends when they were little.

so here's what i do with mine.
1. cut out a piece of cardboard

2. modge podge some scrapbook paper and ribbon onto it

3. hole punch the top corners of all the cards

4. string them on a ring-thingy

5. and wa-la

all ready to reminisce next year

opryland

2011-02-05T09:50:00.007-05:00

once we were in mcdonalds and the girl leans over the counter towards james and said "would you like a free.." before she even finished james said "YES." i mean really, she could have been offering something really weird or odd, although she was holding one of those huge coffee drinks with whip cream on top...

anyway, my dad called last weekend and said he had an extra room at the opryland hotel because one of the people he works with couldn't make it to the convention last minute and would we like to...

um, YES. we're there.

we stopped by our favorite coffee house for some lunch on the most beautiful day we've seen in a while and then hit the road.

james didn't know what the opryland was, so he wasn't quite sure why i was so excited.
until we got there.
it is beautiful.

eating pizza to the sound of waterfalls in the background? yes, thank you

it's so huge! and this is only one of the several atriums.

we even got to run into the newmans on saturday night!

after all the fun, we had to leave so my dad could get back to work. it's all work and no play for him, you know :)

can you believe...

2011-01-29T19:05:00.002-05:00

...we've lived here for months and never been to Cheeburger Cheeburger?

thanks for helping us remedy that asap, dad

'cause brownie batter birthday cake milkshakes are amazing.