Bringing the blog back?

Hi there...it's only been 9 months.  Oops.

Several people have asked me when/if I was going to post again.  I never intentionally meant to stop blogging, it just kind of happened. And boy, has a lot happened since last October.

We've done the working day-to-day life. We've traveled to a few fun places visiting friends and family. Seen people get married and have babies...the usual.The first half of 2015 has been a great one so far.

The biggest news since the last blog post, which you probably already know from social media, is that we are pregnant(!!!) and expecting to meet our new little one sometime in the next month.

We are so thrilled. In the beginning of my pregnancy I was very anxious because of our previous miscarriage. I was tempted to keep things to myself and not ever post about it....I was inhibiting my excitement "just in case" something happened. But I eventually realized I don't need to be fearful, learning to trust God more and more.  And it has been FUN to share my love for this little one with the people around us and enjoy each day we are given with him/her so far. We pray for many more!

Most people think we are crazy for not finding out the gender. I thought it would be kind of hard to wait, but it has been SO MUCH fun and totally doable.  Putting together the nursery I wanted to make a gender-neutral, kid-friendly space, but also one that wasn't totally themed & gimmicky. Basically I wanted it to still flow with the rest of our house and be able to return back to guestroom some day.
This was the room pre-nursery as our main guest room:

Now: The walls we painted an almost-white, lighter shade of blue. The crib we got from Craigslist. The rocker, bookshelf, and dresser are from Ikea. The geometric curtains and mirror were already hanging in the room before.

The rug is from Land of Nod and might be my favorite thing in the nursery. The picture doesn't do it justice, it's the perfect blend of colors that is fun and goes with everything. 

The bear hug and fox den prints are from here, antler and feather prints are from here, flower photo by me.

Poster from a show of one of our favorite bands (that we happened to go see while pregnant).

A different, bigger house project we did this year was renovating our kitchen nook. 

This is what it looked like when we first bought the house, except no furniture and the color was actually more of a lime green:

I knew I never wanted to keep a second table in there since we have a large dining room. We also needed a little more storage space in our kitchen. Prior to re-doing it, it felt mostly like wasted space. 

Now:

David built the cabinet boxes custom-sized to what we wanted (counter depth on the fridge side, and narrower on the opposite side). He also stained some 2x4s for the top (in the distant future when we re-do the whole kitchen we will carry over the new counter tops here). The doors we ordered online. The gorgeous raw-edge open shelving up top was done by a local guy where my parents live for an insane deal. 

We have a coffee/tea bar on one side, and an adult bar and wine fridge on the other side.

I'm SO happy with how it turned out.

David and I also just celebrated our 5th anniversary. Because of sweet friends, we got to spend a few days at the beach for a free stay and it was wonderful. It continues to be true that I love him more and more every year.

Maybe next time I check-in here we'll be introducing our new family member! We appreciate any prayers for us for health, safety, and peace during this time.

It's the little things.

Little things around that are bringing me joy:

The start of Autumn

Seeing childhood friends

Noonday Jewelry

All pieces fair trade, handmade, and beautiful!

Purple pansies

Kayaking with a dear friend

Pretty pottery

Vase made by my Uncle. Candlesticks and platter are McCarty, only made in Mississippi.

Pictures of my grandparents

What i'm reading

What i'm listening to

What are you enjoying?

Vacation

I'm back from hiatus. I took a break because of, well, life.  Since I finished school, I pretty much studied every day for my board exam until I took it (and I passed, wooo!).  Now i've started my first "real world" job and i'm loving it.

Before I took my exam though, David and I took a long vacation. 12 whole glorious days.  Since we've been married, one of us has always been in grad school. We've never had time like this, David even requested the vacation days off last year.  And it also happened that one of my good friends was getting married in out West during the same time. So we started off in California and ended in Colorado.  A perfect trip of memories to look back upon and i'm so thankful for it. Enjoy a few of my favorite pictures:

 San Fransisco

Sonoma

Monterrey/Carmel/Big Sur

Denver/Estes Park, Colorado

That's all, folks!

Well, it happened. I have finally completed my Masters degree in Occupational Therapy. 

It feels surreal. I don't think it has sunk in yet...although it sure felt nice and strange to sleep in this morning. I remember crying tears of joy when I read my acceptance letter to school in the mail. And I teared up again driving away from my last day. Thankful. I'm just so thankful.

I'm thankful that we moved across the country to Georgia, to a town we had never visited.

I'm thankful that my husband was nice enough to agree to do the above statement for me.

I'm thankful for our church and the immediate friends God put in our lives once we got here.

I'm thankful for my classmates.

And even though I never would have wished to gone what I went through having a miscarriage, and having to take a year off of school, I am thankful for that year. The time I had to invest in my husband, family, and friends, I am thankful for that. What God taught me bringing me through that hard time, I am thankful for that.

I am thankful for all of my wonderful new classmates.

I am thankful for the amazing clinical experiences I had and having the best supervisors I could have been blessed with.

I'm thankful for my parents and all of their encouragement. And for my mom for making me want to become an OT in the first place.

I'm beyond thankful for this guy. He has supported me in every way, loved me, put up with me, and kept me sane. 

As I look back over my these last few years, I can see how the Lord provided again and again. And for His love and rescuing, i'm thankful for that more than anything.