Our Life in the Yellow Brick House

One year ago today was the first day Kyle and I woke up in our new yellow brick house. It's so hard to believe that already a year has flown by - it doesn't seem like that long ago. This year has been full of excitement and challenges. We have grown a lot, and I think that's why it's been one of our best years yet. As I think back to what the house looked like when we moved in , I'm reminded of all the projects we haven't gotten around to yet. Our house is far from perfect, but I think that's part of its charm. Just like us, it's a work in progress. If it were brand new and everything was perfect, it just wouldn't feel like home. For someone who is the queen of buyer's remorse, I am glad to be even more happy about our decision to buy the house today than I was a year ago. I look forward to many more memories made and anniversaries celebrated here! I hope you all had a great Memorial Day. Below is a recap of our weekend. The Reveal For those of y...

What a week this has been, and it’s only Wednesday! With the tornadoes and other things going on in our life, I am emotionally spent. We are fine and luckily the weather didn't cause any damage to our home. We just lost power for a few hours, which is incredibly minor compared to those who lost their homes or loved ones yesterday. We are so thankful for that! Instead of going into everything here, I’ll just post about some of the fun I had this weekend. Sometimes it's good to forget about whatever it is that's bothering you and just go to a happy place that reminds you about all the good things in your life. For me, that happy place is usually our family. Kyle was out of town last weekend, so I headed to Hennessey to see my nephew and attend a friend’s wedding. The wedding was beautiful and it was so nice to get to spend some time with the family. Mom, Stacy and I had a girl’s night on Friday. We went to see Something Borrowed, which was good – not the best movie I’ve ever ...

What "Mother" Means "Mother" is such a simple word, But to me there’s meaning seldom heard. For everything I am today, My mother’s love showed me the way. I’ll love my mother all my days, For enriching my life in so many ways. She set me straight and then set me free, And that’s what the word "mother" means to me. -- Karl Fuchs Sometimes you just don’t have the words, so I looked for a poem that expressed some of the things I appreciate about my mother and some of the things I know Kyle loves about his mom. I thought the one above did a pretty good job of capturing where we are today with our moms. I don’t know that mothering is ever easy. In fact, I’m convinced it’s probably the most difficult thing in the world. However, it’s probably easiER to mother your children when they are young and depending on you for everything. Once they are grown and on their own, I imagine it gets more difficult to balance and maintain your relationship. Kyle and I are so ble...

Last week I purchased stationery for myself for the very first time, which seems a little odd since I’m 25. I guess it’s a side effect of growing up in the technology age. Part of me wishes I had been born in the olden days when pen and paper were the only way people could communicate with loved ones far away. It seems so romantic. But as we all know, those days are long gone, and I suppose each of us shares some of the responsibility for that. So I’m starting a movement to bring them back – at least in my own life. For the next year I’m going to write a letter a week to someone who has influenced my life (family, friends, co-workers, etc). I think we spend far too little time thanking people for the role they have played in our lives, and hopefully this will help me do a better job of showing my appreciation. Since the stationary I chose was black and white, I thought the envelope needed a little color. So the next time you see a blue piece of mail in your mailbox, you may just be hea...