13 years!

For our 13th wedding anniversary, we didn't go on a trip. We didn't go on a date. We didn't go out to eat.

We stayed home. It was Memorial Day and so neither of us had to work (awesome).

Jay made breakfast for us. Bacon, eggs, and waffles! Delish.

We drove by the house again. (quit rolling your eyes)

Standing in the spot where his bedroom will be.

 Landri refusing to get out of the picture.

  Landri standing in the spot where HER bedroom will be.

We went to a couple of furniture stores to window shop. So far, my favorite places have been Carter's Furniture, Haverty's, and Rooms to Go. But we desperately need to win the lottery :)

Then we came home and relaxed, made homemade ice cream and burgers to put on the grill later that night.

 Mema's Ice Cream Machine (estimated to be 15-20 yrs old!)

  Helping cover the canister with ice

 Braden was in kid HEAVEN!

 YUMMMMMMM

No dates. No trips. No gourmet meals. Just family time. All day long. Couldn't think of a better way to celebrate 13 years as a family :)

 

 

AMAZING Birthday!

Going in to this day, I wasn't expecting a lot. I was kind of devastated because it was Braden's field day and I had just found out I wasn't allowed to use one of my vacation days because we had to give seniors their exams early and subs were not allowed to do that (whatever!!!!!). I cried and was so upset because I had already missed his school's Mother's Day Tea because of a stupid yearbook deadline and now this.....

And then my department chair said she would cover my fourth period class so I could stay a little longer after my lunch (which I had planned to spend at his school....a whole 30 minutes :p). Braden was sooooooooooooooooooooo happy to see me and even happier that I was getting to have lunch with him!

And then I had another surprise for him: He was going to spend the rest of the day with me at my school! He was a little overwhelmed by my kids at first but was so happy to be there sharpening pencils, playing on the computer, writing on the white board, etc. One of my seniors immediately came over to help him and spent the whole class with him. So sweet!

After school we picked up Landri and Jay and went to celebrate my bday at Outback :)

Braden discovered a l<3ve of Bacon Cheese Fries

Landri eating some "Mac and Cheese"

 Making Silly Faces

On the way back to the house, we drove by our lot to see if anything had changed. We do this about 2x a week lol.........But Jay had been there the day before to turn in a check for our upgrade selections and nothing had changed. But it was my birthday and OMGGGGGGGGG they had "broken ground"!!!! The frame for the foundation was there: ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!! Is that not the coolest thing you've ever heard?! Needless to say both of us were screeching in excitement and the kids thought it was awesome to finally see SOMETHING happening to our plot :)

After that awesome moment, we went home and had some cake and ice cream!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

 Make a Wish!

 Red Velvet from the Hubs

Great way to ring in 33 years :)

Choices! OMGFUN!!!

So, last Thursday we had a meeting with our builder to select our brick...and then we get there and she breaks out the upgrades' sheet because we are not only picking out brick but she wants us to go ahead and select our upgrades.......OMG.

I mean Oh. My. Gosh! We didn't think that was gonna happen for another month! I mean, don't get me wrong, we already knew pretty much exactly what we wanted, but we had a million questions. Long story short, two hours later and me leaving Jay and Braden so I could go pick up our daughter AND return, we still had not picked brick LOL And our kids were definitely not going to put up with us looking at color, tile, and floor samples......so we had to go back Friday and Saturday separately. Ahhhh, the joy of living in a city where you have no babysitter. But it's KINDA HARD to complain when we were doing something that three years ago seemed an impossible and cruel dream.

So, here are some of the things we chose:

BRICK EXTERIOR

(example of what our brick looks like finished and the color trim/garage door we chose)

COUNTERTOPS (Venetian Gold) & CABINETS (Traditional Walnut)

FLOORS (Travertino Noce and the neutral carpet)

CARPET TILE

 

KITCHEN BACKSPLASH

SHOWER TILE  DECORATIVE STRIP (the rest will be the same tile as the floors)      

 OIL RUBBED BRONZE MOEN FIXTURES

 GAS STOVE

WASHER/DRYER

REFRIGERATOR    

Are we excited?????? YESSSSSSSS!!!!!

And then we went back on Sunday (after turning in our choices on Saturday) since the constructions crews were gone to show the kids what the inside of our house would look like unfinished.

 Standing in front of the "model" of his future bedroom

 and his "model" closet

 Braden was f-a-s-c-i-n-a-t-e-d

 Showing them what our kitchen will look like

 I love them <3