A Texan Odyssey

Thunderstorms, falling leaves, soft light, fragrant coffee, cool breezes...my favorite time of year has arrived! Spending time outside is suddenly pleasant after months of intense heat, and plans for soccer matches with family, paintball with friends and cookouts with both are being made. Our weekends have been chock-full of fun lately and since Ryan's hours have been increased at work for the rest of the year we are enjoying a little more leeway with our budget. We also didn't have as big a fee as we expected from the apartment we moved out of! I am thankful for all God's blessings. Oh and we're planning a Fall Fest costume party in November and I can't wait to start shopping for costumes! Perhaps we'll be a family of pirates. ^_^

We moved into the A-Frame on August 25th and we have been so very happy there. Sean loves having his own room and we've loved not having to tip-toe around when he's asleep! (His crib was in our main living space in our old apartment.) I've had so much fun decorating, organizing, and making the house feel like a home. We do miss having internet, but we are spending more time together as a family and it just feels like a fresh new start for us! I can borrow my mom's internet from time to time to update here, read blogs, pay bills, etc., so it's not like I'm quitting the interwebs cold turkey! ;) Eventually I think it might be fun to go back to doing a few outfit posts here and there too!

We have been busy bees over here lately! I've been at the new place almost every day working on getting everything move-in-ready. My mom has been a huge help, and other friends and family have pitched in as well. Check out these before and after pics from the kitchen and bathroom of the A-Frame. We'll be moving in later this month and the days have just been flying by! I hope we can get everything done in time! Before: After: Before: After: Both spaces are still works in progress of course. We are lacking some sort of window covering in the kitchen (not to mention all of our stuff moved in as well), and still need to put decorative accents, towels, etc. in the bathroom. I knew I wanted a beachy, light feel to the house so I painted the cabinets in both rooms white, put some creamy taupe on the walls (Sandstorm by Valspar in the kitchen and Arabian Sands by Behr in the bathroom), and spray-painted the hardware silver. Both rooms got new faucets, and in the bathr...

Summer Wedding Guest by valfox Hello all! I'm just popping in to share a pretty dress that would be perfect to wear to a summer wedding! The look I put together is inspired by the TJMaxx dress I wore to my cousin's wedding last month. I can't get enough of nautical colors like navy and white together! The wedding was SO much fun. I mean seriously F.U.N. We all ended up dancing to old rock/pop classics and even doing the Macarena and the Cupid Shuffle. My mom can dance like nobody's business! Oh and my cousin and his bride make the most adorable couple ever! It is a blessing to see how much they love God and each other! They also cracked everyone up with the most amazing surprise first dance medley I've ever seen. I just wish it was on youtube so I could share the awesomeness! (Linking up to Long Distance Loving !)

A couple of days at the beach courtesy of Ryan's family? Just what the doctor ordered! It was heavenly!

I warn you, this is going to be a wordy post. My mind is racing so much that I can't sleep, so perhaps typing it all out will help? Let's see. Today we were granted permission to move into a little A-Frame house that my hubby's grandparents used to rent out. There will soon be four generations of Foxes living on the same acre of land! Ryan's parent's live at the back of the property, his grandparents' house is in the middle, and the A-Frame is up at the front of the land. A while back Ryan's hours were cut at work, and since then we've had to rely on help from family to pay rent each month. My mother and Ryan's parents have been so very generous, and we've been able to live comfortably all this time. (Our tax refund helped a lot too!) We have been waiting and praying for Ryan to be promoted to full-time, but so far our situation has not changed. We've had letdown after letdown concerning other job opportunities as well, but never stopped ...

  (Dress and shirt from Old Navy, shoes from Express, watch from Fossil, earrings from Kohl's) Date nights are good for the soul. Preferably ones starting with delicious treats and ending with new trains for your little one. Fresh soft pretzels eaten too quickly to be photographed are highly recommended also, as is enjoying all of the above with your handsome better half. Throwing all rainbows and unicorns out the window...if you and your better half MUST get a stomach bug on the last day of your three day weekend, it is very convenient if you wait to catch it until after the other recovers! Miraculously that was what happened on Monday. Ryan spent the first half of the day throwing up and feeling miserable, and then as soon as he got better I came down with the bug for the rest of the day.  I was able to watch Sean and run to the store for Pedialyte and Sprite in the morning, and then in the evening he was able to take care of me! I hope all future date...