Sabrina Takes New York

A HUGE shout out to one of my favorite people in the world! Sabrina has the most incredible heart, and her body is pretty amazing, too! She has been apart of my family for over five years now, and I have never met someone as humble and compassionate as her. Don't let the sweet smile fool you though. She has an alter-ego that will whip you into shape. She is a trainer at BodyPlex in Grayson, and she has touched the lives of all who are blessed to know her. The greatest impact she has made is on her own life when she dedicated herself to losing weight and becoming healthy. She lost 140 pounds!

Be sure to set your DVR to record her appearance on The Today Show (NBC) LIVE on Monday, December 9. She will be featured in the Joy Fit Club to discuss her incredible weight loss journey.

Before

After

XoXo, 

One Proud Sister-In-Law

All Decked Out

First of all, let me admit the obvious and say I am not good at keeping up the blog every day. Our life isn't THAT eventful, and we are spending so much time after work with projects for the house that I go a few days without posting.

This past weekend, the dreaded "deck project" continued as soon as I got home from work on Friday evening. Shane and our neighbor Bryan began ripping out the hideous stage/deck that came with the house on Thursday night, leaving Friday to dig out the concrete posts. I try and stay as positive as possible on the blog (and life in general)... so let's just say I am glad this project is behind us, and we are extremely grateful for Bryan's help (and his sledgehammer)!

 

Before

Before

 

Demolition

 

All Decked Out!!

 

Saturday I was invited by my sweet neighbor, Angela, to a women's Bible study at a local church. Cass is a member at Hillside Methodist, so the three of us rode together. What a wonderful group of women I met. I am so blessed the Lord has placed these people in my path, and I am excited to begin my weekly Bible study on August 21.

After church on Saturday morning, Shane and I continued the never-ending yard work until it was time to grill out with Bryan and Cass and their adorable sons Jackson and Bryson. Once they left, Shane and I fell asleep watching a movie... we were both so worn out!

We took all the blinds outside and hosed them down, cleaned them with Clorox and hanged them over the fence to dry.

 

Polly and Rocky got a bath, too!

Sunday we were able to sleep in, and then my Aunt Alison came over to help measure all my windows for curtains that she and I are going to make. (Alison did the measuring while I sat in awe of all the intricacies of the sewing process) I don't even know how to sew a button, and somehow I am determined to unbox the sewing machine that Shane gave me for Christmas and make curtains for the entire house. Hey... ya gotta start somewhere... right? I enjoyed spending the day with Alison shopping for fabric and picking her brain for decorating ideas!

Alison made this gorgeous candle holder!

Check out her website filled with her AMAZING work here!

This is the rug we have in the kitchen with the fabric samples that

Alison and I picked out for the house!!

 

Sunday night, Shane finished putting up the garage door openers. I am so thankful for all of his hard work. He is so handy, and we are able to save so much money since he can fix/build just about anything!

Our weekly date night to Moe's was a blast (as always)! We love having something to look forward to on Mondays (besides the Bachelorette of course). We ordered our food on our Moe's App so we didn't have to wait in the ridiculous line that forms around the building on Mondays. I joke and say that is the only place my husband can order a naked homewrecker ;)

Shane and I are having such an incredible time building friendships with our new neighbors and making our beautiful house feel more and more like our HOME!!

Shout outs to ALL of our sweet neighbors who have made us feel so welcome and prayer requests for my poor Daddy who is battling shingles and kidney stones at the same time. :(

XoXo,
The Deck Free Blogger

Purchased: Our "Forever Home"

Shane and I are beyond blessed and excited to be in our new house. Saturday was our first night sleeping there. It has been a crazy couple of weeks between my new job, packing and going through the home buying process. Shane gets most of the credit! He packed a majority of the house since I worked so much last week, and he organized all of the loan process, coordinated the movers… the list could go on for days! 

We always leave notes for one another on the mirror... this is the last note I left Shane at the Covington house.

 

On Friday, Shane had the day off of work so he was able to get some more packing finished and run a few errands before we met at the closing. I got off work around 2, and we went to Starbucks first because we were both just SO exhausted. I must give a MAJOR shout out to Jay Zalauf with Citi Bank and Mo Sanford with Sunrise Reality. They were AMAZING to work with, and I recommend them both! Mo was the realtor we used for the Covington house as well, and he is incredible (besides the fact that he is an Alabama fan)! Jay was such a pleasure to work with. He even brought us each a gift at the closing to congratulate us and offered to take us to dinner next week! What great customer service!

Jay (left) and Mo (right) are THE best!

 

The closing went flawlessly, and afterwards, Shane and I headed straight to Acworth. I was STARVING, so we stopped for pizza and beer at Johnny’s. When we got to the house, we each unloaded a car full of stuff, and then headed to buy the fridge.

Unlocking our door for the first time. Shane carried me over the threshold!

By the time we got back to Covington, we were both so tired that we decided to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to finish packing before the movers came. I had to head to the new house by 7 so someone would be there for the fridge to be delivered.

I was surprisingly emotional when it was time for me to leave. It was hard to leave our starter home. Shane and I walked back through the house and reminisced about our favorite memories there. We decided to leave a note in the attic.

 

 

 

My sweet parents came to the new house to help do a deep cleaning before the movers arrived. I was so excited to show them the house that Shane and I have worked so hard to purchase.

Here are pictures before the movers came!

Dining Room

Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen

Laundry Room

1 of 4 bedrooms

1/2 of master

Kitchen

Guest Bath (upstairs)

Guest Room (downstairs)

Guest Bath (downstairs)

Curb view

Bedroom

Master Bath

Formal Living Room (we will use as an office)

 

Foyer

 

There is a large bonus room as well that will be Shane's "Man Room"

 

 

Shane and I have been saving and praying for a long time to be in a house that we could raise a family in with good schools and still be close to work. We also prayed that our neighbors would be welcoming and we could become friends and have dinner parties and pool days. I am so glad we decided to Let Go & Let God… He is so good! Our neighbors are INCREDIBLE! I met Angela and Stacy first, and they each brought us a meal. They were so welcoming and kind. We invited Angela and her husband Steve over for drinks after they brought us KFC. I am so excited to meet more neighbors and become friends with everyone.

BIG thanks to all who helped us this weekend, especially my Mom, Dad, Shawna and Mr. Bill.

Let the decorating begin…

XoXo,

The Homeowners

 

P.S. Some of the pictures compressed weird and uploaded sideways... I will try and fix later.