Home Redesigns

Once again, it's been a while... I apologize, but really, I should stop apologizing, because it's probably an expectation by now. Maybe I will make it a New Year's resolution next year to be better about posting... But then again, maybe not. We shall see!!! So this summer, it came time for me to repaint our bedroom. Some of you may remember from this post what my bedroom looked like as a single gal. In case you've forgotten, here's some I remembered to take after I finished the prep work...

Yes, I definitely pulled out my CDs and had them blasting on Bryan's computer while I worked. He was gone to a friend's bachelor party for the weekend, so I had no interruptions and had every intention of getting the job DONE. You will see on the right side of the bed where I tried out different colors. We couldn't decide between yellow or gray, so I got those little sample things at Home Depot and tried them all out.

You will see on the left side where I was trying out different gray shades for the wall. It really took us a while to decide, but we finally just went for it. And I LOVE how it turned out...

The wreaths above our bed are actually from our wedding. Instead of our initials, they had some bows on them. My mom took those off and added the initials for me. I love the way they turned out. The burgundy/wine and orange colors are obviously not in our bedding or anything, but I love the way it all ties in really well.

The mirror used to hang in my dining room, but my aunt graciously loaned me a china cabinet that is perfect in there. At first, I wasn't sure about the silver of the mirror with the gray walls, but then I brought it in and loved it. I bought the two silver lamps and threw those on our bedside tables and viola! I think it looks very grown-up. I still need to change the drawer pulls on my dresser. I tried some silver ones, but they were too small and looked funny. I may try to go for some burgundy/wine glass ones, but really, that's a minor detail to me! Before I painted our bedroom, I actually painted our bathroom. I just realized that I don't have any "after" pictures, and it's not clean enough right now. So maybe later... Honestly, it didn't change much - it was a teal color that was very "beachy" and now it's blue. No biggie. Something else Bryan and I did this summer was hang a BUNCH of pictures in our living room. I collected frames for several months and then we chose our favorite engagement and wedding pictures to hang.

The sign in the middle was obviously our starting point. We pulled the couch way out from the wall and laid out the "big" items on the floor: the Bebouts sign in the middle, the two wedding shadow boxes, my bouquet shadow box, the wedding/marriage canvases, and the largest pictures. Then we went down in size and laid them everything out. We had to take the frame colors in mind and it took us a while to finally have it the way we liked it. I decided not to be too picky when it came to hammering the nails into the wall. I just "eyeballed" it and made it work. It's definitely not perfect, but I absolutely love it! It definitely helped the house become more warm and cozy (in my opinion).

While my mom and I were shopping for various things for the wedding, I tried to think of ways that some things could be used after the wedding. I didn't want my parents to spend all this money on stuff and it only be used for a few hours. Yes, it was an important day, but I didn't want to waste money! My sister made these yarn letters for the candy bar at the wedding and I decided to hang them in my kitchen. They are above the door that leads into the dining room. They're not very noticeable since they're so high, but they make me smile.

I absolutely loved both of our wedding cakes. I loved the look of mine - it wasn't too extravagant (except in size) and it was very pretty. We spend a lot of time on Bryan's cake and it was worth it. He wanted a drum cake, and I was very nervous about how it would turn out. But in the end, it was awesome. Since we didn't end up putting any cake pictures on the wall in the living room, I decided to change out some frames in the kitchen. These frames used to hold pictures of fruit, but I was trying to personalize things a little more and make Bryan feel more like the house was "ours" instead of "mine".

I know you can't see the cakes very well, but one of these days, I'll get around to posting my "great wedding update" and they'll be there for sure. (Can you believe we've been married for a whole year now?! Craziness!!) And one more update I recently made in the kitchen that you can't see if you just come over...

I don't have a lot of drawer space so these used to just sit on the shelf in the cabinet by my oven. But thanks to Pinterest, I found this idea and thought it was the perfect solution since these usually got thrown into the cabinet and it looked disastrous. My measuring spoons have obviously seen better days - I've asked Santa to find some new ones for me. ;)

Well, that's all for now. Bryan's parents are getting me new countertops for Christmas this year, and we've talked about making some other changes in the kitchen. Stay tuned to see how that works out. I'm pretty excited. Also, I will tell all of you that I promise to try to post part of my great "wedding update" before Christmas. Ideally, I'd have all of it done by then, but let's not set the bar too high. Then we can all get excited and be surprised if it does. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I spent the entire week sick with the flu and still don't feel like I've completely recovered, so that put a damper on all of the festivities. But we still had a nice time with family. Now 4 more weeks until Christmas break... I hope I can make it!

Wedding: Rehearsal and Dinner

As promised for over 8 months now... here is another wedding post. I am so grateful to my family and friends for the memories I hold of my wedding weekend. It was more than I ever imagined and I hope that I will remember that weekend forever. We had our rehearsal at the church on Friday night. My bridesmaids bought me a wedding cake headband with a small veil - that is what you see on top of my head!!

Dr. Ross and Lee telling us - Kristen, me, Dad, Bryan, and Mark - what is going to happen and asking questions about what I wanted to happen. They were both wonderful in making sure everything about the ceremony was exactly what I wanted!

Still figuring out what will be happening when during the ceremony!

Here's a nice view of that ridiculous hat - me laughing with Bryan and Dr. Ross, haha.

My flower girl practicing for exactly what she did in her beautiful dress during the wedding - hilarious!!

I think Bryan would have been fine if this was the only time we had to do this!! Pictured: Brittany, Kristen, me, Bryan, Mark, and Jeff

After the rehearsal, we went to the Marietta Country Club for dinner. The food was amazing, and we had a fun time with family and friends.

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen all shared a story of times spent together with us. It was so fun to share memories.

Special thanks to Terry Wright for the photographs from this night that we will always remember. And thanks again to our family and friends for supporting and encouraging us at all times!

Summer

Okay friends, I have majorly failed at this whole blog thing. I always think of posts I want to write and I imagine the whole thing in my head, but of course, I'm not around a computer at that time or I don't have the time. It really stinks and makes me look like a terrible blogger. Oh well... all I can do is apologize and tell you that I'm just living my life!! This summer has flown by. In fact, I'm somewhat in denial that I go back to school in two and a half weeks. UGH. But, then again, I got all of my major projects done at my house. Very exciting!! It has been a good summer though. I spent my first week off doing some extra school work. We have new standards rolling out, and our system asked for some teachers to help with organizing and such. So I took the opportunity to make a little extra money and get ahead of the game. In the meantime, my grandfather was getting really ill. In fact, he went from walking to using a cane to requiring a walker to being completely bedridden in a matter of days. I spent a lot of time trying to help my mom and aunt in making sure that someone was always at my grandparents' house in case they needed us. I worked on school work, read, and talked with my grandmother. After a few weeks, he gave up and passed away on June 24. Lots of family came into town and we ate LOTS and LOTS of food. We had a good time celebrating his life and spending time together. A family friend, Fiona, and her two kids, Jack and Grace, came to visit from New Zealand for a few days. We took them on a whirlwind trip around Atlanta. After eating lunch at my aunt's house, we went to Stone Mountain to see the Laser Show. I have to say that was really more impressive when I was little. Don't get me wrong - it was fun, but they've added some strange things to it. The next day, we went to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. We ate dinner at LaParrilla since Jack said he loved mexican food. My cousin, Russ and his wife, Katie, had a baby girl, Lena, and we went to visit them in the hospital the next day before eating lunch at Chili's - Fiona's favorite from her days of living here 20+ years ago. Then, they were off to LA before heading home. They had already been to London and Paris and by the time they got home, they had literally flown around the world and flown for 54 hours!! Craziness, but fun times! We are now at the beach with my family, and having a great time. It is so nice to not have anything to worry about and be able to spend my time doing whatever I want! The weather has been great and we have enough food to feed an army, so we are all good to go!!! I know I owe you several wedding posts, but I couldn't get my pics to upload right now. I also have to take pics of my bedroom/bathroom project that I completed this summer, as well as a few other home projects, and I will do a post about all of that. Maybe with the new school year, I will make some new year's resolutions... then again, why would I set myself up to fail? We'll see what happens when the time comes!! For now, I will enjoy the sun and time with my family!!!

Catching Up...

Hello blogland!

Wow, it has been a LONG time, but I have my reasons! ;) First of all, remember when I was really sick before Bryan and I had our adventurous day at Six Flags? Well, that sickness only continued the rest of the summer. Come to find out DURING pre-planning (and band camp), I had mono!! Yuck. But no worries, I survived and I felt much better towards the middle of football season. I know, I know, that's a while after the school year started, but a lot was going on!!

So, you all know I was planning my wedding. My mom and I got a TON done this summer. We had set ourselves goals and lists to do before school started back so that we didn't panic come November. And I have to say, we did really well! And it's a good thing we did, because I changed grade levels this year. I am now teaching first grade, and all I can say is that it is REALLY different than Kindergarten. I am glad I changed, but I definitely miss Kindergarten. Surprisingly, I will probably stay in first grade next year though. I think the change has made me a better teacher. Of course, I feel like I'm back at my first year again, but that's ok. It's been worth it for the most part.

So, now that you know why I haven't posted much since last summer, here's a peek of the best day of my life!! It really was a wonderful day, and I am going to start a new post on the day alone as soon as I post this one because I don't want to forget anything. Until that gets finished, here are some pictures... (Huge shout-out to Jessica Rayborn Photography)

Bryan and me outside the Chapel at the church

our AWESOME wedding party!

the ceremony

Bryan and me with Bryan's family

Bryan and me with my family

Bride's Cake - it was delicious!!

Groom's Cake - there are no words for how amazing this turned out!!!

our first dance

me with my Auburn Cohort C friends (right after we danced MMMBop for the last time!)

me with my Bible study girls


I apologize for only posting so few, but I will post more with my wedding post I promise. I want to recount the happenings of the day so that I can remember it forever. I have no regrets at all, and Bryan and I both loved everything about the day. The ceremony was truly beautiful and we think we achieved our goal of glorifying the Lord. The reception was so much fun - we both had a blast. All the details to come VERY SOON, I promise!!!

Graduation Cont'd...

Like I mentioned before, H graduated at the end of May. You can all be proud of me - I only teared up a little at the graduation ceremony. I know my tears will be flowing freely when she moves to Stateboro in August. She will be majoring in Justice Studies at Georgia Southern University. I am so proud of H and all that she has overcome and accomplished. She has only been a part of my life for two years and lived with me for most of that time. We have done everything together, and I am dreading August when she moves away. I am excited for her and know that she will have a wonderful time at Georgia Southern, but I will miss her dearly. I took her in expecting to make a difference in her life, and she has made more of a difference in my life that I ever imagined was possible. She has blessed me beyond words and taught me a lot about myself and life. Congratulations to you, H, on a major accomplishment in your life. I am so proud of you and I love you!
H and me before the ceremony
Me, H, and Bryan
H with Tim and Nicole
H with my mom and dad
H with Kristen
H with some of her close friends at her graduation party
H with her awesome cake that Kristen made!!!

And an update from our Six Flags day... they did find Bryan's phone and keys. Unfortunately, both were damaged - see picture below of the phone and my key remote had obviously popped open and the actual "machine" that unlocks/locks the doors and the buttons fell out, but I still have an extra key so that's nice and I had two remotes to begin with! So Bryan has a new phone and all is okay. I am still hopeful that we can get the pictures off the old SIM card so I can show you our adventure! :)

June 11: A Day to Remember

...for us anyway. It won't be important to anyone else. And after a few weeks, we probably won't actually remember it either, but I definitely don't want to forget it - WAY too much happened today!!
First of all, let me back up and tell you that I seriously thought I was dying yesterday. I've been sick for a week straight with what I thought was a sinus infection. After a few days of meds for that, I wasn't feeling any better, and things actually got worse - my throat was swollen on one side which was affecting my ear, and it almost killed me to swallow. I called my doctor mid-week to say I wasn't feeling better and ask what I should do. They told me that it was probably viral and needed to run its course, so I didn't need to come in. So after a few sleepless nights and not being able to eat leading to no energy, I decided to go see a "doc in the box" and see what they said. I signed in and walked in and the lovely nurse practitioner told me that she could take my money, but just from the way I was talking she could tell everything in my throat was swollen and I needed a steroid shot. They, of course, couldn't give me that, so I called my doctor and got an appointment for yesterday afternoon. I got everything I needed while I was there... including THREE shots in my hips AT THE SAME TIME and prescriptions for oral steroids, an antibiotic, and a pain reliever. I wish I could say I felt better instantly, but no, it doesn't work that way. It wasn't until later last night, but I felt so much better - I felt like me again.
So all week, I really wanted to feel better for one reason - Brittany was coming to Six Flags today and invited me to come. And I wanted to go!!! So by Thursday I had pretty much told myself that Bryan and I wouldn't be going to Six Flags today to see her and I was going to have to come to terms with that. However, I was really struggling because I haven't seen Brittany since December, and even then, it wasn't for very long. And I just miss her!! But after the miracle drugs started working, I woke up feeling even better this morning, so I decided that we could go.
We get to Six Flags and are walking to the park entrance when we notice that there are LOTS of people walking OUT of the park. It has obviously rained and people are soaking wet. None of the rides were running, and when I called Brittany, they were just waiting in line for the ride to start running, but weren't being told when that would happen. So we wait until we see the rides running (with people) and go in. We road the Goliath, Bryan and some of the other guys rode The Ninja, and then we waited in line for the Superman. On the first upside down loop, Bryan's nose starts bleeding... so he's holding his nose and I still feel blood spewing on me, so I put my hand over to help cover it up. Then, we get to the end and are waiting in the flying position longer than normal. We tell Bryan to let go of his nose to just let it out - it seriously looked like someone turned on a faucet!! We finally pull up to get off, and the worker starts going crazy. Brittany asked for paper towels when we got off, and someone else came and asked if Bryan needed medical attention - we say yes. Then someone else comes to tell us that we can't leave or they'll get fired. We all look at each other saying that we're not leaving because we're waiting for medical attention - and paper towels!! So a few minutes later, somebody else comes up to ask if we need medical attention. You mean you haven't called yet?! Keep in mind - Bryan's nose is STILL bleeding while we're standing here for all this time - which ends up being a total of about 25 minutes. The ride is SHUT DOWN while they clean it up - but since they still never brought us paper towels, you can only imagine how long it took them to get the cleaning supplies and do the actual cleaning! The medic, Bobby, finally comes and after a series of more events, he takes us to the back and we get on a golf cart to head to the first aid building. Brittany and I were so excited - we saw the back side of the park and talked about how interesting it was. And of course, I took pictures! At one point, we headed up a hill, and the cart can't make it. So Bobby tells me and Brittany that we need to get off, and it still wouldn't go, so the two boys are in the front and the two girls are pushing the cart!!! I only wish I could have taken a picture of this!!! We get to first aid and Bryan (and I) get cleaned up and we are on our way to meet up with the rest of the group. So after another weather closing and some technical difficulties, we rode the Dare Devil and the Mindbender and then headed out of the park. We say our good-byes and are at the car... Bryan can't find the keys and then realizes that he also doesn't have his phone. :( So we walk back into the park to check Lost and Found, and we walked back to the Dare Devil and Mindbender to ask about them. Thankfully, my mom saved the day and brought us a spare key - we went to eat dinner and finally arrived home. We are hopeful that Six Flags will call us tomorrow to tell us that they have my car keys and Bryan's phone. And we are thankful that he has his wallet and my phone AND that he is okay! All those pictures I told you about... they're on his phone, SO if we get it back, I will definitely share them with you!

Graduation Galore

Lots has been happening in this house!!! Bryan graduated at the beginning of May, then I watched my last Kindergarten class (for now) graduate to first grade at the end of May, and then H graduated from high school a day later!!
I am waiting on pictures from my sister for H's big day, but for now, here are some of Bryan's big day...




As you can see, his parents, his brother, his grandmother, my mom, H, and I were all present for the ceremony. We went to lunch afterwards and my dad joined us at Macaroni Grill. After everyone went home and back to work, Bryan, H, and I all came home and took a nap - we were exhausted! Then we went out to dinner for pizza and trivia with a bunch of Bryan's friends later that night. It was a great day and I am very proud of Bryan and his accomplishments. He is currently staying busy looking for a job! If anybody out there has any PR/communications leads, please let us know.

More pictures to come of H and her big day as soon as I get them from Kristen!!

On another note, we are enjoying summer, but have still managed to stay busy. H is working part-time at a daycare down the road to earn some money for college. I decided to deep-clean my classroom this year while in the process of moving kindergarten supplies out and moving first grade supplies in. If I hadn't gotten sick in the middle of it all (sinus infection), I would probably already be finished. But no such luck - I am still spending some time everyday in my classroom! Of course, I've told several people that I will probably be up there more than usual anyways because I am freaking out about teaching first grade. I know there will be lots of things that are easier (i.e. kids should know how to sit on the rug, how to at least pretend how to read a book, and how to walk to the bathroom by themselves) but there are also lots of things that won't be easier (i.e. I don't have lesson plans already; therefore, I don't even know what to do on the first day of school)! Haha, but I still intend on relaxing this summer. My mom and I are busy making lists of things to do for the wedding. I am hoping to have everything knocked out when school starts so that I don't have to worry about anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that works out for us! Hope everyone is staying cool in this ridiculous weather!!