Updates and House

 Sorry it's been a while since my last post. We have been busy here in Waco! Grant's parents came to visit for Thanksgiving and we had a great time. It made being away from "home" a lot easier!

Last weekend two of my girlfriends from Columbia flew to Austin and I met them there for a girls weekend. We had a great time and it was so good to see them and catch up! We had a great time. 

In other news, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!! After months of looking and a few heartbreaks, we found the perfect home! We feel so fortunate to be able to buy this home and we are very excited. It is a house that we can grow in and can stay in for many years to come. We are scheduled to close next Tuesday so keep your fingers crossed! We really don't have to do much to the house other than some minor yard work and some painting on the inside. After 8 months of apartment living and living out of boxes, we couldn't be happier to be getting into a home again! Here is a picture of the house.

                                      
                                       
                                     
                                      

We will be coming to Greenville for Christmas and are really looking forward to seeing our friends and family! I will post more pics of the house once we have moved in and gotten some things done! 

Of course I can't write a post without this sweet girl being included :-)

Back to Reality

Last week Mom and Dad came to visit! We had such a great time and it was fun to show them around Waco. It was sad to say goodbye to them yesterday but we are excited to see them again at Christmas! Thanks for everything Mom and Dad! We miss you already! Here are a few pictures from their visit.

SO excited about my parents being here :-) Dad got this action shot on his new camera!! 

Dad and me. That is Baylor in the background. 

Me and my girl on Halloween :-)

                                    She has been a little sad since her grandparents left. . .

I took this picture on my way home from work today. Beautiful sunsets here in Texas. .

And you would never know it is November here!! The weather is absolutely fabulous!!

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month. My dear friend Jill is working hard to make more people aware of this terrible disease in honor of her mom. You can show your support by wearing purple or if you are in Greenville check out Jill's blog for more information on what she is doing to help.

 We are looking forward to Grant's parents coming to visit in two weeks!! I love having visitors :-) I hope you all have a great week!

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a really good weekend! The weather was a bit warm for the end of October (90 degrees on Sunday!!!) but it was nice and relaxing. We went to dinner and a movie with some friends on Saturday night. We went to see Argo. If you haven't seen it, you need to go. It was really good!!

On Sunday, Grant had to run up to campus to get something from his office and after that we walked around campus for a while. This past week was fall break so campus was really quiet. The campus is really pretty and we really enjoyed spending time there on Sunday. On campus, there are swings hanging from trees in different spots. We hung out on this one for a bit :-)

We went to see the bears and they were both out pacing in their areas. I felt bad for them because it was so hot! They really are cute :-) I'm not sure if this is Lady or Joy

When we got home from campus, we went to the pool for a little bit because it was so hot! I never thought I would be at the pool and hot at the end of October. Gotta love Texas!! View from my chair.

I went to Bath and Body works this weekend and found out that my FAVORITE smell is back for the holidays!! I found it last year and when I went back to get more they were sold out and I was so sad!! For those of you that know me well, you know when I find something that I love, I tend to hoard stock up on that particular item. I have no idea where I got that from (MOM!!!!!!!)  :-)   I only bought two candles but I am sure that I will be back soon for more. If you haven't smelled this scent, you need to. And if you don't like it, you can mail it to me!!!

My "color of the week" this week is Blue Slate. Last week it was black. (I never thought I would paint my nails black but Grant talked me into it and I really liked it!)

And of course, Bella's weekly picture. She is so funny! She keeps us laughing all of the time. Her bed is a little bit like a couch. It has an armrest on the back of it. This week, she has been sleeping on it backwards with her head on top of the arm rest. Last night I looked over and she had brought one of her babies on her bed with her and was snuggling with it! Sweet girl.

Hope you all have a good week! Mom and Dad are coming to visit us on Saturday!!! We are so excited. This will be the first time we have seen family since we moved and we are so ready!

Weekend fun!

This weekend we decided to head to Dallas for the day on Saturday. I have never been to Dallas and although we were only there for a few hours I really loved it! It is like an oversized Charlotte, and for those of you that know me well, know how much I love Charlotte!! There are two big malls there but we only went to one while we were there. We didn't realize that yesterday was the Texas vs. Oklahoma game and it is played in Dallas. There was tons of traffic and we were afraid that we would get stuck in it so we headed home early afternoon. On our way to Dallas, we passed this truck. This is very common here in Texas.

Yep. Those are pigs. . . 

Most of the drive from Waco to Dallas is pretty boring. Mostly farm land and not much to see. When I saw this, I knew we were there!! 

THE BIG D!!!!!!! (and I do mean Dallas!) -Grant 

We went to lots of stores. . They had every store you could imagine!! It was a little rich for my blood, but I just pretended I had lots of money yesterday :-) I did get my very first pair of TOMS. I have been wanting some for a while and finally got them yesterday! I am very excited. 

The mall was four stories and even had an ice skating rink on the first level. Yes, I said ice skating rink.. There were kids everywhere having a great time! 

Today the weather was beautiful here in Waco. We went to Cameron Park this morning for a hike/walk and then headed over to the Baylor campus to walk around.

 The bears were out having a snack so I got a few pictures of them. They really are so cute! 

We then walked over to see where Grant's new office will be. They are renovating one of the old buildings on campus and he will be moving next year. There were not many people around us and it was very quiet. I heard someone walking behind us so I turned around and guess who it was?!? Britney Griner!!! For those of you that don't know who that is, she is the star of the women's basketball team. This is now the second time we have seen here on campus. I thought it was so neat and I thought about going over to ask for a picture with her, but just snapped one as she walked by instead :-) 

And of course, I can't write a post without including our precious girl!! She really wanted some of my burger last night. And of course, I gave in!! 

Have a good week!!! 

 Clare, are you impressed??!! Two posts in one week!!! Good luck tomorrow! I will be thinking about you and am so excited for you! xoxoxox

We are still here!

 I have been pretty slack with the blog lately. We have been pretty busy between work and hanging out with new friends. Things here are going really well. We still haven't found a house. It has definitely been an emotional process. We have until the end of February when our lease runs out so we are hopeful that we will find a great house before then.

Friday night we had dinner with Grant's graduate assistant and his wife. We had a great time and it was nice to get out for a bit. We ate at a Mexican restaurant downtown called Ninfa's. It was so good!

The weather this past weekend was WONDERFUL!! We woke up Saturday morning to 50 degrees and it never got above 60. The weather was still this way today and we are loving it! It is supposed to get back up in the upper 80's this week so we are enjoying it while we can! 

Waco has really beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I think it has something to do with the sky being so big and open here. They are always so pretty. This was a sunrise one morning last week on my way to work.

And this was a sunset on Thursday night as we were walking into dinner

I have really been obsessing having fun with nail polish lately. I paint my nails a different color about every four days. I can't leave Target or the grocery store lately without picking up a new fun color!! Here are my nails from last week.

Jill....if you are reading, the next picture is for you! A lady that Nick works with knits beanies at work. When Nick told Grant this, he had to have one! Thanks, Nick. Grant has worn this beanie every day this week :-) 

Speaking of Jill, she has a new precious baby boy Hayden!!! What a sweet baby. I can't wait to meet you Hayden!!

And I can't write a post without including a few pictures of our sweet Bella girl!! It rained so bad last weekend so we decided that Bella needed a rain jacket. She was as excited to wear it as she looks! 

Me and my sweet girl :-)

BUT, the most EXCITING news of the week!!  My first pair of cowboy boots!!! I guess I am a true Texan now. Just got them yesterday :-)

Have a good week!!! 

Slack and Stressed

I know. . I have been SUPER slack with our blog lately! I have been working a bit more and we have been house hunting hard core. I think we have seen about 20 houses. We had it narrowed down to two homes. One was the new build that I posted about last time. The other was an older home that needed a bit of updating but was priced REALLY well. We met with the builder of the new home and he said that we could come in and pick whatever we wanted. We liked that. Picking our cabinet stain color, granite, flooring, etc. We were really excited about it but we decided that it was just a little to expensive for us and we didn't want to be house poor! After talking about it, we decided we wanted to make an offer on the older home. I called our realtor and asked if we could go back the next day to get measurements of the flooring so we could get an idea of how much it would cost us to replace it. When she called to set that up, she was told that the house had sold that morning! We were very upset for two days after that. On Saturday, we were ready to start the house hunting again. We met our realtor that morning and saw about 5 homes in an older established neighborhood. We love the neighborhood because it has lots of trees and hills (which is very rare in Texas!!) We found a home that we really fell in love with. It was a beautiful brick ranch and had lots of space. The thing that we loved the most was that the house had loads of character.

We really fell in love with this house. The living room sold it for me. I.LOVED.THAT.ROOM. I could see us spending all of our time in that room now and in years to come. I could see kids playing in that room. I mean. . . if we have kids :-)

We went back the next day to see it again. Our realtor noticed while we were there that the sellers disclosure noted that there had been repairs made to the foundation. They had the repairs made the day before they listed it which was a huge red flag for us. Here in Texas, it is not uncommon for homes to have foundation issues. With new homes, it is required that the slab be an engineered slab designed by an engineer. All homes in Texas are on slabs. So, with a new home, you get a better foundation. We went back and forth last night debating on whether or not we wanted to move forward with the house knowing that there had been/were foundation issues. After asking our family and some friends, we made the decision that we just couldn't buy the house knowing that because we would constantly be worried that something would happen with the foundation. And here we are again . . . Lost another house that we loved. So, we found a new listing that just came on the market yesterday that is in our favorite neighborhood in Waco. It is a newer neighborhood, lots of houses and lots of younger families. We said we wanted to live there since our first visit here. We went to see the house this afternoon and really liked it. It was built in 2007, 4 bedroom 3 bath, all updated of course and really pretty. It is a little more expensive than we wanted so we are just debating if we want to spend that. Here are some pictures of the house.

What do you think? We would probably paint the den/kitchen to something a little lighter to brighten up the room. One thing I really love is that the entire house has the custom plantation wood shutters. They are beautiful.

This house hunting experience has been very stressful and emotional. It is such a big decision and we want to make sure we are making the best decision for us now and the future. We really don't want to have to move again any time soon! We know that it will all work out and we will find a great home, it's just a process.

Everything else is going well. Grant is still enjoying Baylor and enjoying his class. The weather here has cooled off a good bit and has been really nice. We have also had a lot of rain which is a blessing! And I can't leave out Bella. She is doing great. Just as sweet as ever!