Resolution Recap of 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

As 2012 is coming to an end, I figured it would be a good time to look back at the resolutions I set for this year.

1. Find a forever church home. Y'all - we did it! We may have cut it pretttty close to the deadline, but Adam and I have found a church that we love! We're so excited to start getting more involved, and love that there are so many other young couples.

2. Be more patient. I can definitely tell a difference since the beginning of the year. I may not actually be more patient, but I recognize when I am about to lose it and try to talk myself through it.

3. Run a half marathon. Done and DONE. I don't like saying never, but I will never do that again. My knees hurt SO bad afterwards, and since my mom has terrible knees I don't want to speed up that process for me (at least that's my excuse). Seriously, I haven't ran since the half marathon in April. (Which is going to have to change since we're running a 5K in January. Barf!)

2012 had its ups and downs, but we continue to thank God for ALL of our blessings! Some of this year's highlights include: me getting a new job, Adam starting at KSU for his Master's, Adam coaching baseball and softball at Lassiter for the first time (this is TOTALLY his calling and I'm so proud of him!), buying our first HOUSE and so many great times with our family and friends. I went into 2012 thinking there was no way it could top 2011 (it's hard to top the year of our wedding), but I am once again blown away by how truly blessed we are!

2013, we can't wait!

end of the year catch up

Saturday, December 29, 2012


Yowza, I've been bad about updating for basically all of December. Since there's only 2 days left in 2012, I'm going to cram everything into this one disorganized post...

Attended Dallas and Chad's engagement party on December 7. (Adam is a groomsmen in their June wedding.)



Celebrated Madi's graduation with a MASTERS on December 8 with dinner at Pure Taqueria (boo!) and out at Johnnie McCracken's.





Adam made homemade pasta for Debbie's birthday dinner at our house on December 9.



Took a cooking class at the Viking School on December 14. It was meant for Debbie & Dave, but Debbie got the flu and they couldn't cancel day-of, so we just had to take their place.



Joined in the revelry of Brandon & Taylor's wedding at Vinewood Plantation on December 15. Great time catching up with old friends.




6th Annual LHS Baseball Christmas Party at the Pounds' new home on December 16.


PPSC Christmas Party at Jillian's on December 17.


Very Merry Hen Christmas on December 18.



Drove through Lights of Life with Adam and Ruthie on December 19. I've been DYING to go to Lake Lanier's lights since we moved here in 1998. Since Lights of Life is literally 2 miles from our house (and free),  Adam and I settled for that. Little did I know that it was only about .01 miles long. We drove around twice and were still out of there in 10 minutes. Ha! Still had fun with my little family, though.



Traveled to AUSTIN, TEXAS for Anna's Bachelorette last weekend. If I had the energy, this would deserve it's own post. I'll just say... it was amazing. I can't even sum it up into one word or phrase. So excited to celebrate Anna & Danny's wedding with this fabulous crew next month!






Celebrated Christmas Eve with church (times 2!) and family time.


Woke up Christmas morning in our new home! It was so wonderful to wake up just the two of us (plus Ruthie!) and keep it low key. We kept up the tradition of wearing tacky hats (Adam was a cowboy and I was a dinosaur) and we chowed down on some monkey bread and mimosas.





Then we headed to my parents' house to open presents, followed by dinner at the Bakers - with my family and the Causeys. Some seriously awesome family time was had. We ended Christmas by seeing Django Unchained with my dad and Mitchell - Adam says it's the greatest movie he's ever seen.



Enjoyed some good ole high school fun with Christine, Dominica, Erik and Adam at our place. Munched on unhealthy holiday food and played immature drinking games. Loved every second of it. (Check out our new curtains in the picture!! Thank you to Debbie for the fabric and Meagan for making them!)


Caught up with some other high school friends to celebrate Whitney's engagement!


Yesterday was also eventful (shocking, right?). First, we tried to change our address on our licenses - turns out all of Cobb County had the same plan. We didn't feel like waiting in either line (yes, we went to two different DMVs) so that was a fail. Then we decided to take Ruthie to the dog park... and she got attacked by a pit bull. FANTASTIC. The stupid dog bit off a tiny part of Ruthie's ear, and it turns out injuries on a dog's nose or ear bleed the most. We got home and patched her up, but our bathroom looked like a scene from Dexter.

FINALLY, we went to Cirque du Soleil Totem at Atlantic Station!! It was my Christmas gift from Adam and we both loved it - seriously mind blowing. Then we went to eat at Mi Cocina in Midtown. Holy cow - best Mexican I've had outside of Texas or California. Can't wait to go back!



I'm out of breath just typing all of that! I honestly didn't realize how busy we were until I typed all that out. Whew! We are certainly very grateful for all of these wonderful blessings of friends and family we receive year round - but we're especially thankful this time of the year. Here's to 2013!

praying for newtown... and others

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

It's seems a little frivolous and shallow to discuss what's been happening in the Baker house in light of what occurred in Connecticut on Friday. So that download will occur on another day.

My list of prayers surrounding the Sandy Hook School shooting in Newtown, CT is too long. Too long.

When I hear "Columbine" I, along with most Americans, don't need any explanation. Unfortunately, Shady Hook is going to have the same infamy.

Columbine occurred when I was in middle school, so I don't remember it having a big impact on me. And Adam and I don't have kids, so while it was heart wrenching to hear that so many tiny lives (and guardian angels in the form of teachers) lost their lives in Newtown - I could not (and hope to never have to) relate to their families' pain. However, when they released the names and little faces of all those that lost their lives on Friday morning, I lost it. That paired with the fact that Adam said "those shots must have ripped through their bodies" just about knocked me to my knees. (Side note: Adam knows guns and wasn't trying to be insensitive, he was absolutely disgusted at the type of gun used.)

This brave blog post (http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html) is one of the greatest things I've seen come out of this tragedy. I have to agree wholeheartedly. Guns are not the issue, untreated mental illness is the issue. I'm not going to turn this into my soapbox about "guns don't kill people, people kill people" - but there were zero guns used on 9/11.

As I type this, I just recently learned that an childhood neighbor died early this morning. Sean Callahan was only 24 and died while protecting and serving... as a police officer in Clayton County, Ga.

I am so saddened by these unnecessary acts of violence over the past few days. I am so sorry for those whose lives are permanently flipped upside down.

I'm going to finish with this....Andy Stanley was on a local radio show, The Bert Show, yesterday morning and brought hope to my heart. I love when people, like Andy, have the ability to comfort the masses with Scripture without offending anyone or - for lack of a better phrase - shoving Jesus down my throat. He spoke so eloquently and I was just so impressed and comforted. Here is a link that will take you to the conversation (you'll need to scroll down a bit): http://thebertshow.com/ctshooting/.

"Jesus wept."
John 11:35

house pictures! before and...progress

Saturday, December 1, 2012

We've been having such a fun time turning our house into a home, but boy is it a process! We're not even close to being done, so I can't justify calling these "after" pictures. Here are a couple of the big things we're going to accomplish in the next couple months (just to keep in mind while you're judging us)...
  • Curtains! I've already picked out my fabric for the living room/dining room, but still need to pick some out for the master bedroom. My fabulous in-laws are treating me to curtains as my Christmas present! (Seriously, I'm getting old. I am so excited about CURTAINS!)
  • As you will notice, we have just about nothing on our walls. We want to wait until we put the curtains in to commit to spots on the wall. 
  • It's December, which means our house has started to become overcome by Christmas decorations. This is not how our house is usually set up.... or maybe it is.
  • I'm definitely claiming the whole "Sorry for the mess, we live here" thing. I conveniently decided to take my progress pictures while Adam was putting up Christmas decor/making lunch.
Side note: All of the paint we used is Sherwin Williams.

And now....for the big semi-reveal!

Living Room




That awkward long couch-thingy does not go there. In fact, I hate it there so much that I contemplated moving it just for the picture, but I'm too lazy. It usually goes parallel to the window (where the Christmas tree currently is). I pretend it's my reading nook, but it's really Ruthie's lookout station.

We painted the living room/dining room and hallway Essential Gray, and we love it! It looks great in every lighting.

Dining Room


Check out that obnoxious yellow paint - YIKES.



Kitchen


(Didn't do a great job catching the same angle here. Whoops!)


We covered up that gold and red paint with Lemon Verbana. Kind of a weird name for a green, right? Anyway, we love it! It looks great with the black appliances and trim, and the tile. 




I didn't take a "before" picture of this, but I just love how it (very simply) came together. I got that "B" at Michael's, but Ruthie got a hold of it. Luckily, we had some extra black trim paint so I just re-painted it. And Adam bought me those pretty dying roses. Guess I'll have to get fake ones. And that bar came from Ikea when we moved into our first apartment. It's somehow found it's place everywhere we've lived. 

(Does anyone have any ideas for Ruthie's food area? That blue Tupperware is NOT a cute look.)

Guest Bathroom


I didn't do a great job on this "before" picture, either. I love that funky green tile, and we happened to just have that green shower curtain. Not sure what I want to do with this bathroom, yet...

Office


This was their baby's room... now our office. I don't have a vision for this room, either. So we've just kept it as-is. (Turns out that wallpaper is real wallpaper so it doesn't just peel off. The paint is also oil-based, so normal paint literally just slides right off. Needless to say, we're saving this for a rainy day...)

Guest Bedroom




I'm obsessed with this room! We have a lot to do - starting with a bed frame, but I have big plans! Stay tuned for this little sucker. The color we used for this is Watery (not Sherwin Williams' most original idea.)

Master Bedroom



The color we used in this room is Mink - love it! Again, a lot of work to do in here, but so far so good.

Master Bathroom


Nothing new or exciting here - just our toiletries added. Don't know what to do with the Master bath/laundry area, yet...


We did add curtains to the closet, so it's not all up in our business every day. (Also, this flash REALLY accentuates those creases in the curtains. Ay caramba.)




This little nook goes out to the back deck. Convenient since Ruthie's crate is right here, too!



I got this shower curtain at Target, and I LOVE it! Now I just need to figure out how to work the rest of the bathroom around it. Any ideas?


We LOVE our deck and big backyard! Adam is already dreaming about having a TV out there. (Psh, dreaming is right.)

Well, that's all for now! Adam and I are so excited to make this place our home for the next while. However, we have to keep telling ourselves that it's a continuous work in progress, and we can't expect to get everything done right now. We are so very blessed with this house and are so excited for the next years we spend in it!
 
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