Feel {Great} Friday!

This Friday I am appreciative of the chance to soak up this view for as long as I wish: 

For this growing girl being the sweetest 110 lb fur-baby possible: 

And for this one being a cuddle buddy convincing me that the things on my to do list aren't as important as growing relationships with humans and canines alike: 

This Friday is a great and grounding one. So here are my reasons to Feel {Great} this Friday. Hopefully yours are just as wonderful! 

October Lessons

{Source: a pair & a spare}

October has been a full month - unexpectedly.  Of course, I expected our weekends and to-do's to be full but there were a lot of unexpected things that have happened that have really caused me to reflect on my expectations for myself.

Weekend Review

Hello Friends!

We had an awesome weekend in Stillwater, and a very productive Sunday {unexpectedly}!

Friday Evening/Night

On our way to Stillwater, we were welcomed to God's Country with a gorgeous sunset {filled with orange}.  We knew it was going to be a great evening from the very first second!

OSU Homecoming 2014 "House Dec" winner

Feel {Great} Friday!

Today is a Friday that is definitely worth having (what Friday isn't?).

Go Pokes! 

This weekend is Homecoming in Stillwater - the greatest Homecoming celebration in America {no, but really}. Keelie has been working long and hard on a "house dec" all semester and today is judgement day - and the sign that pomping is over! I will try to grab some pictures of all of the great decs, maybe some examples of pomping if I can dig some up, and all of that goodness for the weekend review on Monday. 

This Friday is great because it is another day to be thankful for: for the lessons learned, the prayers answered, and comfort sought and received. 

And because I can't resist the nephew already sporting his orange:

I hope you see reasons to Feel {Great} on this Friday too! 

DIY House Remodel - Lay Your Own Wood {or bamboo} Floor - Prepwork

Here is your slight background story.  But if you are just here for how we approached this humongous and screaming project, feel free to skip a paragraph or two.

We got married at the end of May 2014.  It was beautiful, wonderful, and absolutely perfect for both of us.  We had spend an entire 5 months preparing (we got engaged on Christmas Eve of 2013) and saving money by doing most everything ourselves.  In April before we got married, we decided it would be a good idea to buy a house.  This house was in various stages of disrepair or antiquity.  So while we Andrew did some demolition before the wedding, we Kelcie said absolutely no work on the house during the month of May.  

Weekend Review

Hello Friends!

Here is a small weekend update for you on our very hodge-podge weekend! {Friday night was date night and lay on the couch for a good catch-up binge TV show watching.  No pictures of that because I don't want to bore you to death.}

Saturday!

We decided to start cleaning out the attic - which means after 1 week of my car in the garage, it is booted back to the driveway {for now}.  It is a much larger project than we anticipated - including a new dumpster and thorough sweep.  We finished about 25% of it and found some nice treasures that we think someone, somewhere will enjoy {read: too special to throw in the dumpster but not something we personally want to hoard}.  So we plan on selling it in some kind of Etsy or Garage Sale fashion (maybe both?)

Feel {Great} Friday!

So I want to start out with what I wanted Feel {Great} Fridays to be about on the first one last week:

I have this belief that Fridays should be focused on the positive, no matter what the situation you are in or the prayers on your mind at the moment.  Especially if you are naturally pessimistic the rest of the week or have had a few really bad days or days filled with not so great news.  God gave us a chance to have hope in our lives, and Friday is just as good as any to express it!

Here is the thing: I didn't expect God to test my faith in that very stated belief so quickly.  So even though I am struggling with a heavy heart today and this week (which I may or may not feel comfortable sharing more about later), here is Feel {Great} Friday in a slightly different form than last week.

My #1 reason to Feel {Great} on this Friday:

No Work Tortilla Soup

I mentioned last Monday we freezer cooked for ourselves and some lovely recipients.

But I have a confession: we picked practically the easiest recipes in the box. 

You know, those recipes that people fawn over but you take the compliments gracefully and say to your husband after the guests leave, "if they only knew that the most work we did was open a can!" 

Kidding {sort of}. 

I get asked time and time again what my recipe for tortilla soup is (we frequently freeze and take to ill family members like it was really hard work). But we are letting the cat out of the bag, here is it!

He is {finally} here!

After 10 p.m. after 2 nights in the hospital, lots of anxious visitors, several good football games, and Maggie's hair pulling.... 

Weekend Review

So here is how our weekend went... It felt like it actually went pretty slow (how many times in your life do you get to claim a weekend went slow?) but at the same time like it flew by.  We both lived in the moment this weekend, and I think that helped!

Be warned: there are a lot of "in the moment" pictures in this post! {And quite a few sneak peeks for the new house - which the process and steps are going to start coming in November!}

Friday Night

We had our "niece" {my 9 month older cousin's child} over for a sleepover.  Goodness was she excited! We started off by reading some of Andrew's childhood books (thank you to a great MIL who kept them intact, around, and passed them down!), making Aubrie's favorite meal, and baking dessert.   There may, or may not, have been toenail painting in the color of Aubrie's choice.  Who knew sparkly purple would have been picked?

Awful painting job, but you try to paint a wiggling 4 year old playing tug of war with Lizzie {the 100+ lb dog!}

Feel {Great} Friday!

It has been an absolutely crazy week.  And while I still have intentions of getting recipes for the freezer cooking we did over the weekend, and have actually already almost finished but haven't added pictures, I still wanted to get in on Feel {Great} Friday.

I have this belief that Fridays should be focused on the positive, no matter what the situation you are in or the prayers on your mind at the moment.  Especially if you are naturally pessimistic the rest of the week or have had a few really bad days or days filled with not so great news.  God gave us a chance to have hope in our lives, and Friday is just as good as any to express it!

Weekend Review

So.... We didn't exactly get to a lot of the things on our October Goals List but we did accomplish some really productive fun things.

Friday, my lovely MIL and I volunteered with Junior Achievement.  It was the first time I have ever gotten to share the experience with someone in the room with me - I usually sign people up to volunteer and send them off on their own (with some training of course!).  So it was a great experience!

Then, Andrew and I headed off to OKC to spend the evening celebrating a dear friend's birthday.  We had so much fun that I didn't take a single picture (oops!)

Saturday, we got to go to my favorite place in the world: Stillwater, Oklahoma. I promise the air is fresher, the sun is brighter, and the world is cheerier there. We cheered on the Pokes for a win against Iowa State and got to share the experience with several great friends. It was definitely a perfect day.

Wonderful day full of ORANGE.

Monthly Goals - October 2014

In an effort to keep myself accountable and realistic about our house and life goals, I am going to attempt to document my  our goals each month.  I want to really see how much progress I made and see if I am being honest with myself.  I am also going to have a little Project Elephant {as inspired by Abbie at M is for Mama's Project Elephant} that will be nice to bite a bit off of each project each month, but if necessary can be pushed - but progress on that is important!

This month we have the following happening: our new nephew will be arriving {sorry Maggie, September birthday is no longer an option!}, there will be a new puppy to the pack {my parents' new puppy, don't get excited}, Aubrie's birthday, two days of JA, and plenty of OSU Cowboys football. It is a packed and extremely monumental month.

Foodie Pen Pals - Take 1 (September)

Being a long time blog reader, I have read about people having Foodie Pen Pals over and over again. However, in September, once Andrew and I slowed down on the house for {what seemed like only} 10 minutes, we decided to finally participate.

So this month, we were so excited to be paired with Meg from My Borrowed Heaven (who actually was getting married the week she was receiving my package - more on that later). She is originally from the Northeast and such a doll!  Now she is living in Charleston and focused her package on that - which we LOVED.

How awesome does this place look?!