as offish as it gets!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Well, it's as official as it's going to get - WE'RE BASICALLY HOMEOWNERS!

Offer accepted? Check!
Inspection complete? Check!
Loan approved? Check!
Appraisal in? Check!
Closing? Tentatively Halloween!

I can't believe it! We are so beyond excited and can't wait to turn this adorable house into our home. I've officially nailed down the look I want for the guest bedroom, so I can check that off my list. Now I just have to figure out the rest of the house - yikes.

Matelyn sent me this dangerous/amazing link last night - www.nomorerack.com. I bought new queen sheets and four curtains for the new guest bedroom and only spent $60!

I'll be sure to keep you (and by you I mean Debbie and Kelly) updated on the transformation!

Help me. I'm poor.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

"Help me. I'm poor." was the quote of this past girls weekend in Charlotte, and by no means was it poor. I am so ridiculously blessed with the people in my life I could never be poor. (That sounded so cliche, but I had to incorporate 'poor' somehow, and that's as witty as I could get.)

We've had this plan tripped for awhile, but since Anna got engaged we planned an engagement brunch for her. And of course we had to watch Bridesmaids - which brings me to the inspiration for this weekend's quote... BEST PART OF THE MOVIE. 


But seriously, one of the best weekends ever. Somehow our group of girls from college never (knock on wood) has drama. We only see each other a couple times a year, so we're just not going to waste our time with that nonsense. The weekend consisted of a lot of laughs, a few deep convos, a lot of drinks and a LOT of calories. My favorite!

Reunion!











Maria, Whittney and I pulled the short straw and had to sleep in the ATTIC on Friday night. No joke. It got so bad that I just grabbed a sleeping bag and slept on the hardwood hallway.


On Saturday we threw Anna an engagement brunch at the cutest place, Pewter Rose.








best of friends



bridesmaids!


After brunch we were all still exhausted from the night before, so we changed into PJs and spent the rest of the day and the whole night watching football, eating a lot of pizza and wings (Bro Time!), drinking who knows how many bottles of wine, and laughing. Oh yes, lots of laughing. We all voted that Saturday night just hanging out was the best by far. Who needs a bar?





Can't wait for our next reunion in AUSTIN for Anna's bachelorette!

ms150

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Bakers have participated in the MS150 at Callaway Gardens since 2004, and Adam and I were finally able to join them this year.

Team Coke up and at 'em on the first morning!

While everyone else rode, Adam, Debbie and I volunteered. On Friday, we volunteered at a Check Point for the kids' ride - and boy were those kids a hoot!

After our volunteering duties were over, we hung out and waited for the group to come in from Day 1's 60 mile ride.

Meagan and Nathan!

Dave and Kels!

On Sunday, we volunteered at the Coke Break Point while the riders finished off the weekend with another 30 miles. (Seriously, this picture looks like a painting, but I swear I took it with my phone.)


Watching all these riders made me jealous, so I had to try it. Maybe Kelsey wasn't the best choice to pull my weight on the tandem - I'm not the best student.


Thanks to the world's best FIL for spotting two adults on a bike!


All in all, a great weekend for an even greater cause!

yet to be named, Girls Night

When I'm not freaking out about what colors I'm going to use in our new house, I'm having fun! I decided to start a monthly get together with my girlfriends, and September was our inaugural party. We ate, drank and swapped scarves! Everyone was instructed to bring over at least one scarf for the swap. Those leftover we're donating to the Genesis Shelter.

I made a Chardonnay Sangria thing to drink, and my own version of skinny jalapeno poppers. Everyone brought an app to share and their own booze for when the sangria ran out.

Chardonnay Sangria Thing (because that's it's official name)
1 bottle of Chardonnay
1 cup of White Grape juice
1 cup of Club Soda
Sliced strawberries
Combine and enjoy!

Skinny Jalapeno Poppers
12 jalapenos, cut in half and seeded
8 oz of light cream cheese
12 pieces of turkey bacon
Use a spoon to scoop cream cheese and put in half a jalapeno pepper
Wrap with 1/2 piece of bacon
Place on baking sheet
Bake on 350 for 15 minutes

Seriously - it took me maybe 20 minutes to prep everything. So easy!

Scarf fashion show!

Ruthie wanted to be one of the girls.


Excited for next month's party - Halloween themed!

House update: The inspection went well and the seller has agreed to fix everything we asked. We're getting closer!

signed, sealed, delivered (it's not yet) ours

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Y'all. BIG news on the Baker front. We are buying a HOUSE!

When we got married, I started making a must-have/would-be-nice list for our future home. And now that we're currently renting a house, I was able to finalize that list. I highly recommend renting a house before buying one - almost all of my must-haves have come from my experiences here.

Anyway, I was also told that buying a house is different than just about anything else you'll buy (that could quite possibly be the most ambiguous statement I've ever written). I was told to make a list (check!) and when I found a house that met all the criteria... STOP. I've found it. I have to be honest, this wasn't exactly hard for me. Adam and my mom found the house we're currently renting all by themselves. They brought me by once and I kinda shrugged and said "sure!" I am not into this whole hunt. (Another example, I bought the first wedding dress I tried on. I did try on multiple ones after that - so fun! - but I just knew right away and didn't feel the need to waste my time.)

Adam and my mom found this little gem, too. And guess what? It's the first house they took me to look at. Do I sense a pattern here?

I can't wait for Adam to build me a front porch. :)



I love it, I love it, I LOVE IT! It's so adorable and the perfect size for us. I love the kitchen, and the hard woods, and the location, and the back deck, and the back yard, and the master bath, and the laundry room.... you get the idea.

Ok, I'm sure I've already said too much. I don't want to jinx it! It's not ours until the closing date at the end of October (and God knows so much can go wrong between now and then). Pray for a smooth closing process, please! In the meantime, I'm overwhelming myself trying to pick potential paint colors. Any advice?

P.S. Kelly - I was actually sitting here debating whether to tell you pre-post, but thought it would be more fun (for me, probably not you) to find out on HERE! So sucks for you if you don't read this for another month or so.

adios summer

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

I could totally get used to these family-filled holiday weekends. Adam and I were lucky enough to welcome summer with exciting new adventures, and we said goodbye to summer content and happy.

My parents went to Miami for the long weekend to see the Enrique/J.Lo concert, so Adam and I house/pet sit for them. Is that situation backwards, or what? To be honest, I love hanging out at my parents' house - they usually have tons of junk food and booze, so I was excited to have free reign and no judgment while I consumed ALL OF IT. You can imagine my disappointment when I arrived Thursday evening to find only random condiments in the fridge and one drinks' worth of Grey Goose in the freezer. You should have seen me in Publix... I practically danced through the aisles grabbing every salty, junky food I could get my hands on. Self-control at the grocery store is something I usually pride myself on, but I gave myself a pass. After all, this food wouldn't be in my pantry, so the calories obviously don't count. Right? Right.

Ruthie thought it would be a fabulous idea to not sleep at all on Thursday -  she just wanted to pull an all-nighter with Phoebe instead. Phoebe, on the other hand, was completely content hanging out in her kennel, sleeping like a gem all night. And I kind of forgot about Rico most of the time. He's almost 10 years old and cannot be bothered by Ruthie and Phoebe's antics. He basically begged me not to get him out of his kennel in the mornings.



The next morning Phoebe decided it was cuddle time... on the couch... with me. There were a couple times I thought the 100-pound, 100% puppy was going to smother me. But after a nice walk with Debbie and her pups, Ruthie and Phoebe were pretty worn out the rest of the day (Amen!).



I had a super-productive rest of the day on Friday. And by productive, I really mean I ate a lot of salty stuff and watched cable all day long. Oh wait, I also painted my nails. My kinda day off! Mitchell made it back around 7pm (his first trip home from college) and then we patiently waited I fell asleep waiting for my cousin (Michael), his girlfriend (Maggie) and their friends to arrive for the weekend!

Saturday we were up an at 'em to get ready for the Braves vs. Phillies game. We utilized the Nalley Lot for the first time, and holy cow - we have been missing out! Talk about prime time tailgating. We were literally a stone's throw from the stadium.


My handyman built this cornhole set. Pretty impressive, huh?

Adam and Maggie talking teacher talk. Nerd alert!

Cousin Michael and his fab girlfriend, Maggie




The guy behind me caught a foul ball and let me take a picture with it. Cool, I guess?



Other than the fact that the Braves lost, it was such a fun day! Couldn't have asked for better weather, better company, or a better baseball team. Saturday also turned out to be the first day of College Football, so after the game we raced back home to catch a couple games. Talk about sport overload!

Sunday, ah Sunday. Sunday was one of those days you just look around and get butterflies thinking of how great God is. It was a perfect day, topping off the perfect weekend with some of my favorite people. I smiled all day long. At one point, we pulled out Table Topics and one of the questions was "If money wasn't an issue, what kind of party would you throw?" I could honestly say that I would want Sunday repeated. Sure, I'd like to have all of my favorite people there, but a handful was enough for me.



Cornhole got a lost of use that weekend.

The 'rents came home to a full house. Dad, the entertainer, brought out tequila shots for all.


We stayed up past midnight just sitting on the porch talking. Perfection.



Some exciting things in our little family have started brewing, but I'll have to save that for another post. This one (as most) is already too long. Spoiler Alert: I'm not pregnant.

Another happy ending to summer 2012 - my wonderful friend, Anna, got engaged last week! Congratulations to the future Ackers!



 
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