1, 051, 200

 1, 051, 200 minutes.

That's two years. We promised forever two years ago yesterday.

(Funny story- I didn't even realize that I started last year's anniversary post the same way... I was even going to add the video for the song again. Le predictable.)

How do you measure a year?

Our second year of marriage has been measured in:

- Leaving our mark during our anniversary trip to Pigeon Forge {June 2012}

-Making cutesy apple pie for our now traditional Atkins July 4th Fireworksapalooza. {July 2012}

-Sweet love note in my lunch box on my first day of school. {August 2012}

-Celebrating Ashley & Tim's marriage. {September 2012}

-Adopting our sweet princess Autumn. {September 2012}

-Welcoming the most precious nephew ever to this world! {October 2012}

-Voting in my first presidential election. {November 2012}

-Waiting for Santa, a family ornament, and starting our own tradition. {December 2012}

-Celebrating the new year with an early birthday present for Josh. {January 2013}

-Having the Atkins family over for supper & playing Guitar Hero for hours. {January 2013}

-Getting in the Word together and Josh cooking breakfast each morning. {January 2013}

-Greeting at our church on Sundays, Dunkin Donuts in hand. {February 2013}

-Becoming foster parents for sweet puppies in need of furever homes. {February 2013}

-Valentine's day love notes. <3 {February 2013}

-Discovering our emoji keyboards. {March 2013}

-Tackling yard work & rediscovering Josh's carving on the tree in our front yard. {April 2013}

-Celebrating the success of our very first deck garden. {May 2013}

-Getting nursed back to health by myself and his babies after mouth surgery. {May 2013}

-Savoring rare Cracker Barrel breakfast dates together before running errands. {June 2013}

-Ending this year of marriage with a perfect anniversary gift. {June 2013}

Last year we meant to go to a fancy restaurant for supper. Instead we ended up at Mellow Mushroom and loved it! This year, our celebration was low key. We met for lunch, exchanged cards, and cooked supper together. I'm not normally a card person when it comes to holidays, but I do love exchanging cards with him because they will one day be such a neat love story to leave behind for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We ended the evening looking back through our wedding photo book and, just like last year, we wrote down a lesson this year has taught us.

This year's lesson? "Be content in your circumstances; not complacent, but content." We must be good stewards and trust God in regards to our finances, careers, infertility struggle, and relationship.

As we continue on this journey together we cannot wait to see what the future holds!

Two years. And hopefully many, many more.

-A

Summah To Do

Summer vacation is finally here!!!! 

Along with a little extra sleep, taking my time eating lunch, spending quality time with people I care about, and actually going to the bathroom whenever I want, I always get excited over the prospect of new projects around the house!

On deck for summah time we have (along with some photos for inspiration)-

*FINALLY painting the kitchen cabinets! I'm so ready for this y'all.

source

*Doing a switcharoo with the office/spare/bonus room. I need more sewing/crafting space and the current office will become a lovely man cave/dog room. We have a dark blue/teal-ish paint to use that I would love to use and incorporate Josh's love for all things Clemson with some bold orange accents, and I'm seeing it paired with some bold reds and neutral textures for my craft/office space. {yeesh, backslashing much here?!}

office space. source

man cave. source

*Painting the bonus room, man cave, & spare bedroom

office space in bonus room. source

man cave. source

spare bedroom. source

*Painting our deck using Behr's new line of deck over paint (follow the link for a great review!)

Behr deck over paint. source

*Possibly building some furniture for our living room & kitchen

ana white coffee table. source

ana white farmhouse table. source

 So that's the plan. You know what they say about plans... but it will be fun to see how everything plays out!

What are you up to this summer?

-A

Life Lately

I've had a bunch of little things I have wanted to post about lately, but the motivation to do a bunch of separate posts is nonexistent so I'm just going to cram them all into one and give you lots of pictures to sum up life lately. :)


Here we go!

First up are two little thrifting makeovers: a little $2 mail box and $4 bread box.

 A good scrub, a few coats of white spray paint, and some tlc and this box has helped cut the mail clutter and finish off our little "command center".

Before- hook missing

Before

I used a tiny screwdriver to remove the hardware on the box.

I would have preferred wood filler to even out the missing hook, but this is what we had.

Let it dry, lightly sanded it- all better!

A few coats of spray white paint & primer in one.

After!

Love our command center!

A good scrub, some white spray paint, and two new swanky knobs and the bread box was brought back to life! We love this thing and it is now one of my favorite things about our kitchen.

before

plain jane knobs

Hello gorgeous!

Knobs came from Lowe's

 On May 11th of this year I got to help host a baby shower for a friend I have had since Preschool! She and her hubs welcomed a sweet baby boy to this world on 05/24 and I loved being able to help get them ready!

Outside. Before the rain. :(

Sweet little favors my twinsie made!

My gift- a diaper wreath!

About the diaper wreath- it was so easy! A little time consuming, but will be my go to gift for baby showers now. :) The diapers are tied with balloon ribbon around a duct taped pool noodle (we couldn't find a wreath form large enough and the noodle was only $1!) and I got the idea to make a little pea pod out of the washcloths from Pinterest. Everything is tied on except for the blue ribbon that came with a sticky tag and I did have to glue gun the "G" in place.

floating tea lights, lime slices, baby's breath, clear vases and blue mason jars were easy and beautiful decor!

I had to take the opportunity to snag a picture with mah man. We don't take enough together!

Y'ALL! My twinsie and brother in law made this beautiful cake! It looked and tasted incredible!

 We have lots more babies in our deck garden now!!! Can't wait to try out zucchini lasagna and eggplant parmesan and pickling cucumbers- and don't even get me started on the tomato sandwiches!

Baby zuchinni

Our better boys are growing like weeds!

Teeny baby green pepper

Lots of baby cherry tomatoes!

All cucumber vines on deck! :P

sweet williams flowers on the left, basil in the middle, stevia on the right. love my herb box!

Finally, I can't wait to spend a few summer days being lazy with these two-

Such a hard life being spoiled rotten

Until next time,
-A