Yikes! It has been such a long time since I've blogged. Here are a couple of recent pictures of the living room. It's a work in progresss, but a lot closer to being finished than the other rooms in our home! Let's see....to catch everyone up: We've had company every weekend in November! My two girlfriends Lindsay and Ashley came up the first weekend in November and we had a blast (even though it was a short visit!). The next weekend we had my mother for a few days--which was awesome! She really helped us get our living room and dining room in order and I had so much fun with her! The weekend after that we had Derek, Jennifer and James come up. We had so much fun hanging out--until I got sick Saturday night with the stomach flu!!!

I had about two days to recover from the stomach bug--then it was on to Thanksgiving! We spent the day at the Lake with Tim's family and had a HUGE dinner that night at his cousin Tonya's house. I did get up at 4:30am the day after Thanksgiving to get to Home Depot to buy our Christmas tree!!! It's not as fun when you live 45 minutes from the shopping, but I was able to get everything done by 10am!

The month of November completely FLEW by! We celebrated Tim's 28th birthday, enjoyed all the vegetables from the garden and had a housefull of people! I can't wait to see what December brings! We'll be home for 5 days at Christmas and I'm so looking forward to spending some time with friends and family.

FINALLY!

Our living room is finally painted! Can I please tell everyone how excited I am! Tim and I got started Saturday afternoon about the time of the Georgia game and we finished around the 3rd quarter of the Tennessee/ Alabama game. We now have 2 whole rooms down and 8 more to go. I was actually "lucky" to paint because my husband is a perfectionist! He is an excellent painter and has a hard time letting anyone else help out (which I can understand). He very nervously handed me the roller and gave me about a good 10 minute lesson on how much paint to get on the roller, how to put it on the wall and then how to blend. I will say this was the very first time I have ever painted an entire room without 1 single drop of paint on my clothes, hair or even the floor! I was taught well! I'll post the pictures of the room later on this evening.

Random Things

Mandy Thrasher has now "blog tagged" me! I am next in line to share 5 random things about me:

1) I will be more than happy to share a few pet peeves: People who DO NOT silence their phones in church! Seriously, can you not go an hour and a half without talking to someone? Also, people at the bank who wait until they get to the teller to fill out their information.
2) I love to read cookbooks! I read them cover to cover just like a book.

3) I might be the only person over the age of 5 that still loves colored sprinkles! I can't eat vanilla ice cream without them!

4) I lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 great danes for 4 years. After living in a home with them I have no idea how I ever did that!

5) I still do not know how to properly apply eye shadow! I try about 3-4 times a year whenever a party/ event calls for it....but it really never looks right!


Now I tag Jennifer Anderson and my sister Heather!

Dining Room Makeover

The top photo shows our dining room a few days after we moved in, the middle photo is a picture of our curtain fabric and the last picture shows our new lighting and painted walls! We've had a busy couple of weekends that have included painting, re-wiring, and FINALLY unpacking all of our china! It's slowly coming together and I'm hoping to have my curtains done in the next week. It feels so nice to have one room almost finished!

On a side note, I went to a ladies brunch this afternoon at the church we've been attending. It was so nice to have an afternon of fellowship and to meet new people. There was such a wonderfully diverse group of ladies there this afternoon and it felt like I was at home!

Home Improvements

This is the living room looking in from the dining room. The girls aren't loving the fact that they now have to sit on the floor. It's a daily battle that Tim and I are determined to win!

This is our master bedroom! I seriously can't tell you how many colors are truly on the walls in this room. There are 2 more colors to the right of the bed and looking at the wall across from the bed (both are NOT pictured!) As many of you know decorating's not really my thing. My mom came to the rescue and helped me out tremendously! The next step is paint, paint, paint!

I'll post pictures of the dining room when it's finished! My Aunt Margaret took me to a hole in the wall fabric store last weekend to help me pick out fabric for the dining room. We have recovered the chairs and picked out the paint colors---just need to put it all together!

Welcome to the family

Hi everybody, my name is Lilly. I was born in East Point, GA and have recently made a big move to North Carolina. The sweet lady who cared for me promised she'd be taking me to a place where I could live inside and have lots of fun! I'm pretty sure that she forgot to tell me about the 2 GIANT dogs that I would have to share my new home with, but that's just fine. They look kinda funny to me and sometimes they make really weird noises. I've learned that since I'm a great deal smaller I can move a whole lot faster! And what makes me laugh the most is that I can go from underneath the couch, sneak up the stairs and make it back into my room before the dogs know that I'm gone! Boy this is going to be an adventure---stay tuned, cause my mama said I might get to blog again soon.

Blessed

I'm dedicating this blog as sort of a huge THANKS to God for all that he has done for Tim and I over the past few months. I got back from running with a friend yesterday and it just sort of hit me how blessed we are.
Our lives took a turn back in early March when Tim started talking to me about moving up to North Carolina. I was very much against it at first---I mean, who wants to leave the comfort of home, great friends, family and job to go and live 500 miles away? So the praying began. It was very simple: open the right doors for us, help us to listen to You. Once we found our house in April it began to sink in that we were REALLY moving away! It was then that I realized that I had no friends up here, no crossfit (our gym where we've worked out and trained for over a year), no home church, NO TARGET or anything else that I'm used too. My praying grew a little more specific: give me just one friend, help us find a wonderful church, please let me find a job, help me with homesickness...what will I do without a Target around?
It's now close to the end of September and Tim and I feel a little more settled in. We've been able to meet some really nice people up here! We've found a church that we both really like, I've got a couple of girlfriends (not just the one I had prayed for), we've found people that are into fitness like we are (and will do the bootcamp we're hoping to start in a couple of weeks), I now have a job (yay!!!), I have someone to run with in the mornings, I haven't been really homesick in weeks---and the last time I went home to GA I really missed being up here! And lastly, Target's only 40 minutes away, and Wal-mart's not THAT bad.
God really is good, and He absolutely has the best interest of all of our hearts. He does hear us when we pray, but chooses when the answers come. He is full of love and wants the best for us. He expects us to listen to Him when He speaks and to follow where He leads. It's so simple...yet why do we sometimes make it so hard? I've learned that just because God may not answer a prayer in a week (or in 4 weeks) that it's ok. He probably has answered it in a way that I wasn't aware of...an even better way. I encourage you all to stay steadfast in your prayers, because God really and truly is good.

Family

Here are mom, dad, Brody and Caroline

Here is Brody and his "trick"...and yes, that is his passy in his mouth! And of course, a picture of Caroline during the best part of her day!

For the past few days I have been blessed to spend some quality time with my precious niece and nephew. I recieved a phone call from my sister b-e-g-g-i-n-g me to come down and help her watch the kids so she can pack up her house. Any mother out there knows how difficult it is to really get something done when you have 10 month old babies discovering a whole new world on their knees.

Mornings at the Jenkins' house start off with a bang! "Quick, get the bottles heated...change those wet diapers...get that shoe out of her mouth, don't let him eat the dog's food!" Brody and Caroline started crawling a couple of weeks ago and have officially taken over the house. My sister and brother-in-law are moving in the next week to a new (and much better laid out) home! I wish them all the best on their new journey :o).

"Hanna"

This morning Tim and I woke up to lots of wind and rain as Tropical Storm Hanna makes her way through our town! It's just so crazy to me that we would get a tropical storm up here, but we are only 90 miles west of the coast. Today will be one of those fabulous days where we can both sit on the couch and watch football all day long. No painting the outside of the house, no picking vegetables from the garden.....just pure laziness!

To catch you up on this past week: I'm still waiting to hear back about substitute teaching. I did apply for a position at a bank up here and it went really well. I'll hear back sometime early next week and hope to have a job by the end of next week. I'm most excited about this because it's one of the FEW jobs that actually pay well above the $6.55/hr that all the other jobs pay. No wonder Taco Bell has been looking for a manager for 6 months now!

Tim's been doing really well! He had his picture taken for the newspaper this week introducing him as the new physical therapist in town. Who knew I married such a celebrity?!? While he's been off at work I have been given a "honey-do" list at the house. As if me being a domestic goddess wasn't good enough, I'm now stripping wallpaper! I was slighlty dreading this task, but once I got into it I actually enjoy it! Who knew?

Well, I'm off to the couch to finish my coffee and see what's happening on ESPN. Ya'll enjoy your morning!

The girls & pics of our new home

So today is our 3rd rainy day in a row! It's starting to put a damper on all the things I had planned outdoors. I was going to go up to the lake today to pick some butterbeans and tomatoes from the garden (bringing along brinkley and chloe), but mother nature is not cooperating! Instead I find myself finally downloading all the pictures from my camera, going through old clothes and debating whether or not I'm taking the long trip to Rocky Mount just to get my Target fix :o). Our town that we live in has everything that I need....just not everything that I want or am accustomed to. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the fact that a tank of gas now lasts me 2 whole weeks (in an SUV), however I do miss having a variety of shops to go in. Tim on the other hand loves the fact that there's not a lot of shopping for me to do!

Here are just a few pics from inside our new and not entirely furnished home (well, it's actually just the kitchen, living room and dining room). Oh...and Brinkley has a new "friend". We call him Teddy and she doesn't really go anywhere in the house without him--she even sleeps with him in her mouth!

Lazy day

I've decided to take today as a LONG overdue rest day. Right now I am curled up on the couch watching Top Gun. I have one of my dogs laying on top of my feet and the other one is curled up on the floor. It's cloudy and rainy outside and I think we're all thankful for this lazy day. I think what would make this day perfect is if Mandy were up here watching Top Gun with me and we had a large cheese pizza from Papa John's!

I'm attempting to upload some pictures right now so check back tonight. I wish I had more to update you on, but things are pretty quiet today.

The "country"

Well, Tim and I are now settling into our 3rd week in North Carolina. I can't even believe that it has been that long! As anyone who has moved before knows, we had a LONG, LONG week of moving. It started out with not everything fitting in the truck, 2 doped up dogs on valium and 2 excited/ nervous newlyweds on the way to a new life. After a 9 1/2 hour drive, we pulled up to our new home and anxiously ran inside to shower and eat some dinner. Oh, did I mention that the air conditioning didn't work, and it's AUGUST?!? Tim's wonderful Aunt Margaret and Uncle Roy came by before we got there to put 7 or 8 fans throughout the house to keep the hot air circulating, they made dinner for us and even vacuumed! We didn't sleep very well our first night due to the 2 pacing and drugged out dogs who had no idea where they were. They panted in our bedroom ALL NIGHT LONG! Adrenaline kept us going for the next few days as each morning we woke up with something else to unpack or carry into the house.

Our first weekend here we went up to the Lake to have dinner with Aunt Margaret and Uncle Roy. The lake is about 25 minutes from us. It feels like forever because you just go down 2 country roads for 20 miles and you are there. No interstates, no red lights, no stop signs, no shopping malls....just the open land. This was Brinkley and Chloe's very first time at the lake and I was very curious to see how they would react. The property sits on about 4 acres of land that is lake front. Brinkley was the first to get her feet wet and she stayed in that lake all evening! She and Chloe ran around and chased each other in the lake and on the land, feeling so free to have all the room to run around!

I'm sorry this is so long, I'm almost done :o)

Tim is settling into his new job. They moved to a brand new location over this past weekend and he actually has an office, with a desk and a secretary! I'm so proud of all that he has accomplished in the short time since he has graduated! His new boss is so friendly and he and Tim get along great. I am still on the hunt for a job....hoping and praying I don't have to settle for bagging groceries somewhere. I've applied at Lowes, the post office (yes, I did actually say the post office--they pay REALLY good) and have just recently put in an application for a substitute teacher. We'll see what happens. I can say though, that it has been SO nice to have had this time off from work to be able to really organize our home and get settled into the town. I've been able to fix pies, cook dinner every single night, go for long walks with Tim and the dogs and I've even started to relax. Life is so different up here, and so much better. Tim and I find ourselves so thankful for all the extra time we have to spend together; whether it's stripping paint off the front door ever saturday, driving to the lake or to Lowe's (our second home), we know that we are blessed to have this time together!

So, I do miss everyone back home terribly. But, I don't really miss living back home. This town suites Tim and I nicely and every day I grow more assured that this is where God wants us for this time in our lives. I can't wait for my family to get up here to see the town and our new house and I can't wait for my friends to visit. I'll do better about writing often so my blogs won't be too long. :o)