The Final Count Down...

We are counting down the days over here until moving day! We are furiously packing our PODS, finishing last minute projects around the house, running errands and telling Arkansas friends good-bye. The plan is to fill the storage system with everything but the big stuff. So for the past few weeks, we have been packing up books, household items, knickknacks, etc. and slowing filling up the PODS. Our furniture definitely will not all fit. If I had to do it all over again, I would just let movers do it ALL but oh well. It's pretty much done now. The movers will be here on Monday to load up the rest of our stuff and furniture. It's almost here! By this time next week we will be sleeping in our bed in our new house!

B & I have basically been packing this house for the month of January and there are quite a few things that we have learned in the process: 

1. Set hard dates and timelines for planning and packing and stick with them!

2. Make sure you have a strong marriage before attempting a move. Moves definitely put stress on each other. Try not to take it out on each other. I might have threatened to kill B a total of eight times in the last 3 weeks. hehe. (Sorry, babe)

3. Pray over each step over the home buying process. This was a biggie for us. 

4. If you can afford it, PAY FOR MOVERS! And let them do it all! 

5. Always be prepared with toilet paper. :) (This one was my husband's advice. Can you tell?) You might find yourself needing some while looking for houses. And when your house is on the market, if you're not living there currently, be nice to potential home buyers and leave them some tp. ;) They'll love you for it. 

6. Don't get too stressed out. Remember to take breaks for fun stuff. 

Meanwhile...this is what I'm dealing with inside. Seriously every time I pack a box, Hazel jumps in. She LOVES boxes...no, she is OBSESSED with boxes!

Happy Wednesday! Hope y'all are having a great week!

Its Closing Time...

So it's official. We now own a home in Ruston, Louisiana. The hubs and I drove down, dogs in tow, to close on the house today and sign a bagillion papers - can you say HAND CRAMP! And who's idea was it to put my FULL name first, middle, maiden and last name on the documents? Not a good idea. For our next home I shall sign my initials on all documents or at least "C.B. Buie." Geez! I seriously felt like I was signing for days. Anyway, after a couple of self hand massages to get the feeling back in my thumb, we were handed the largest group of keys I've ever seen on a non-janitor. Seriously. ALL of these keys go to our new home. Ridiculous. 

To the person who will own our home that we currently live in, if you happen to be reading this, don't worry- you are only getting two keys: one for the front door and one for the back door and that's ALL. None of this 10 key ridiculousness business. So our first order of business is to change all the top locks on the doors to deadbolts. I can't imagine trying to get out of the house when it's on fire and first of all trying to locate the key in a blaze of fire and second trying to locate to correct key for the correct door. I would most definitely be a pile of ash on the floor before I found the correct key for the right door. It really is ridiculous how many doors are in this new house and the fact that they each have their own key just baffles me. Can you say paranoid much? Someone REALLY didn't want anyone to figure out how to get in or to get out for that matter. 

As I mentioned before we brought the dogs down today to let them walk around the property, get a feel for things, mark their territory, sniff things out. I think they're going to like it here. Conner already found a napping spot in our bathroom. It's a good thing the hideous wallpaper doesn't bother him as much as it does his mother. We have definitely got our work cut out for us in the wallpaper/painting department. (more on that in future)

We met with a friend of mine today who is going to put in a fence for our dogs. That really is top priority because our house backs up to several acres of dense woods. We couldn't have our doggies get lost. They would probably get a taste of the country life, start chasing rabbits and never return to us. We'll keep them spoiled rotten and inside dogs as long as I can. 

Sometimes, well more like everyday. lately I have woken up with a feeling of being completely overwhelmed then I remember how silly I am being. I am worrying about replacing the carpet in my office or what vet to use in a new city when there are way bigger problems in the world. The truth is we are blessed, happy and thankful for not only this change in life but an opportunity to do something greater with what God has given us. 

I know I've been writing a lot about moving, packing, moving, closing, and well... moving lately but this is our life lately. Thanks for sticking around! Life is about to get a whole lot more exciting in Ruston, Louisiana when the Buies move into town! ;)

Photo-bombers!

So how difficult is it to take pictures of your house with two photo-bombing kitties? VERY!  Seriously every room I went into the cats would RUN in and jump in the picture. I swear they are doing it on purpose. 

Here's Hazel, literally sprawled out on the dining room table rolling around like she teasing me. When I try to grab them to put them up, they run away. I think they are playing a game and they are definitely winning. 

The good news is our house should be on the market next week! There are still boxes everywhere, by the way. Don't let these images fool you. Our house is a wreck! Well, back to packing!

Home Sweet Home...one day

I told B today that I haven't blogged at all yet this year. So maybe my first resolution should be to blog more consistently. :) In the next few weeks there should be a lot of blog about: moving from this house into a new home, renovating our new home, etc. We are both so excited about what the future holds. As of right now, we are still in negotiations over the house in Louisiana. It is a 20 year old home so obviously it will need some work done. Our main concern though is the roof. We obviously don't want to pay the accepted price and then a year later turn around and put a new roof on it. A roofer will take a look at it and write up his report before we proceed. With each paper we sign, I pray over it and ask that God's will be done. During this process we have said that we only want this home and this move if God's hand is on it. 

In the meantime, I'm still booking photo sessions in Arkansas and Louisiana and burning up the road in between. I will be so happy when we are finally settled. 

Settled. 

And when we do finally unpack the last box and everything is in it's place, I'll hang this pretty little sign up and sigh and huge sigh of relief. 

Home Sweet Home. 

I found this lovely artist via twitter and I am officially obsessed with her work. I currently have about 10 of her favorite prints in my Etsy's shopping cart. I need to narrow it down but how? They are all so beautiful! 

Check out this lovely artist and fall in love like I did with Katie Daisy. 

Her website: www.katiedaisy.com

Her shop @ Etsy

I hope you are having a lovely 2013. I hope to bring you many more happy blogging this year. 

A Look Back at 2012:

It's time for a look back at this past year. What a great year it has been! This is one of my favorite posts to write because I take extra time to re-read just about every post from the past year. It's so neat to see what we have accomplished (or NOT accomplished), where we have been and how our family has grown.

Here are some of the highlights: 

• fostering JoJo for several months and finally seeing him find a forever home.
• going to Mexico with some of our dear friends. 
• welcoming one niece and one nephew into the world this year: Carson & Hannah

• attending our best friend's wedding: Alicia & Brian
• enjoying our brand new fire pit & patio 
• having a girls weekend in Canton - a definite must do again for 2013! We had a blast!
• spending another entire year with the greatest husband I could have asked for. Seriously. 

• going to Nicaragua again with my mom
• getting to meet my sponsored child, Alex, in Nicaragua

• deciding to move back to Louisiana! 

We are definitely looking forward to a great New Years and a year full of changes, moving, travels, and new surprises! 

Christmas Highlights: Part 2

After the snow cleared in Arkansas we loaded up the doggies and headed down to Louisiana to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. It is definitely a little more...um..what's the word... LIVELY at the Walker Christmas with four kiddos 2 years old and under. 99% of our time is spent watching the kids. We definitely aren't short on entertainment, that's for sure. 

Highlights of our Christmas in Minden: 

• being entertained by our 2 nieces and 2 nephews - It is an absolute joy to watch these children grow up, interact and explore the world around them! I also love watching my two big brothers be awesome dads! They definitely have their hands full! :)

• attempting to get a decent picture of all four kids. This is the best we got. 

 This one might be my favorite of the day. :) This is better than crying Santa pics, am I right?

Carson (8 months) and Landon (2 1/2 years)

Hannah (6 months) and Makaylan (20 months)

• eating gumbo with my family! In Louisiana, gumbo is always an appropriate dish to serve but especially on a cold rainy holiday that you are sharing with family. :)

my mom with her two oldest grandkids

Landon playing Peek-a-Boo with MeMe.

• seeing our (probable) future home again. We met with the inspection guy today and he gave us a full report on the house (35 pages to be exact). It needs some TLC but we are super excited that this might be our new home. Nothing is official yet but we are praying that God's will be done on this house. So far things have gone smoothly with the offer, acceptance and structural inspection... but of course I'll keep y'all posted! 

We are heading back to Arkansas tomorrow and it's a good thing because we are really missing our kitties, Hazel & Charlie. We are thankful for our pet sitter/house sitter with Rockin' Paws who makes leaving our cats a little easier. If you live in Central Arkansas I HIGHLY recommend giving them a call.

Christmas Highlights: Part 1

B and I are blessed to come from two pretty amazing families and luckily our parents only live about 2 1/2 hours away from each other. We spent the first part of this week in South Arkansas and the later part of the week will be spent in Northwest Louisiana. We had such a great time with Buie's mom, dad and brother the past few days. I didn't take that many pics but here's a glimpse of our Christmas with the Buies. 

Highlights of our time in Rison: 

• spending more than 24 hours with B's parents - Because of B's FORMER job, he only got Christmas Day off. Now that he is no longer working in retail we enjoyed three full days at his parents home, something B hasn't done in over 6 years! 

• wearing our matching pajamas - Yes, we have become one of THOSE couples! ha! 
• watching old Mr. Bean movies and laughing so hard I do the uncontrollable breathing and I literally sound like I dying walrus. It's rather embarrassing when I really get going. 

•  being entertained by our fur babies. On B's side of the family, the only grandbabies are the dogs so they get the royal treatment which really is no different than the way they are treated in their own home to be honest. :) But they do LOVE going to see their Granny & Pappy because they usually sneak them a little meat. Yum!

• the food is always a highlight as well. I swear I could eat a whole plate of Mrs. Carole's dressing & gravy and over the course of the three days, I'm pretty sure I did! 

• Another favorite thing to do when we go to Rison....absolutely nothing. There is no pressure to be anywhere or go see anyone. We put on our (matching) pajamas and lay around. We might even drift off to sleep once or twice throughout the course of the evening before getting up and going to get in bed. Ahhh... so nice.

• SNOW! This year we had a white Christmas all over Arkansas! In most parts of Central Arkansas, where we live, they had as much as 12 inches! Rison only got about an inch or two. But that was still plenty for Conner & Scooter to play in.

which brings me to my last highlight of our time in Rison...

• watching Conner & Scooter play in the snow - I swear if we moved to Colorado tomorrow they would be the happiest dogs ever. They LOVE the snow! Scooter eats it and Conner, well, he just makes it a goal to get as dirty as possible. 

This was taken about 2 minutes before we threw him into the bath tub. But I think it was well worth it...at least I think Conner would say it was. ;) 

You might be a crazy dog mom if...

you buy matching pajamas for you, your husband and your two dogs for Christmas. 

That's right, Pajama Gram offers pjs for you & your partner as well as for your fur babies. You can even get your name monogrammed on them. :)  Call me cheesy but I was *really* excited when these came in. I immediately put the dogs in theirs and snapped a few pics. Conner's fit him really well while Scooter's was a little big on him. But both look pretty darn cute! :) 

We'll all be wearing our pajamas from Pajama Gram this holiday season. 

* Pajama Gram didn't pay me for this post. I just like them! :) 

Update on Life!

One week til Christmas! How's everyone doing? I keep thinking, "Oh, I need to blog about that!" But who has the time? Am I right? So much has been going on here this last week. I'll do a quick run down to get you all caught up!

• I still have not gone through all of my Nicaragua pictures. I kind of over did it this year with pictures. If you would like to see any of my images, head on over to my Facebook page. 
• There is a huge PODS storage unit sitting in our driveway and we have slowly been filling it up. This moving thing is actually happening! 
• We made an offer on a house in Louisiana! Yup. You read that right. We made an offer! Woo hoo! 
• Oh, and it was accepted! All we need now is to go through the inspection period. Fingers crossed that everything with our future home is structurally in tact and everything look okay. I keep praying that if God doesn't want us to live here then He would close a door. So far everything has been super easy with this move. In fact, this is the first house we saw online that we loved and the only house we went and looked at in person. 
• One week til Christmas! B & I are actually headed to do some last minute shopping. I do all of my shopping early but then there's always last minute items that need to be done. And once again, I am reminded why I ALWAYS do my running around early - I HATE holiday traffic! Be nice out there on the streets! 

Hope y'all are having a great week! 

So much to share!

I'm back from Nicaragua! I've actually been back for several days but it always takes me a couple of days to get back into the swing of things...notice how I didn't say to get back into a routine. I really don't have a normal routine. But as wonderful as it is to be back, I am definitely missing all of my friends in Nicaragua. I have so many stories and pictures to share with you. I always struggle with the best way to do just that. I literally took thousands of images last week. I couldn't possibly share each one of them on my blog but I do want to share with you a few of my favorites. If you would like to see more images, just head over to my Facebook page to see lots more. Each day this week I will be adding a new album, one for each day we were there. I just added Day 1 today. Check it out here. I will also be doing a blog post about my day with my Compassion Int. child, Alex. It was such an amazing experience to meet him and his family. It definitely deserves its own post. :)

I will post more on Nicaragua this week but for now just know that I'm back and busy going through all of these hundreds of images. And to my Nicaraguan friends reading this, I miss you already!