it's fall!

 Last time I wrote it was mid August - now it is almost October!

I love the month of October. It is definitely one of my favorites.

Cool weather. Boots, scarves, and sweaters. Pumpkin spice lattes. Fires (in our new fire pit!) and s'mores. Football. Pumpkin patches. and Halloween!! 

Things have been pretty crazy lately. Laura has moved in officially and we have 4 pups in the house now (she brought Mork from my parents). School has been insane, as it always is at the beginning of the year. Josh went to Florida and came back with a truck load of stuff from his parents who sold their house. We are in the process of setting up another guest room. Things in the house are coming along!

Here are the major events that have been going on in the past month and a half.

We ran a race called the Ridiculous Obstacle Course.

Josh took this to mean dress as ridiculous as possible.

We saw a ton of people fall on the obstacle on the right, but Laura and I made it through without getting knocked off!

     

Team Freedom Flags and Eagles!

So much fun! Can't wait to do it again next year.

We (mostly Laura) re-did the guest bathroom:

I went to the beach for my friend's bachelorette party:

The next weekend, she got married!

    

      

     

     

Josh went to Chapel Hill for the first time ever!

We had lunch at one of my favorite places on Franklin Street, walked around the whole campus, went to the basketball museum, and visited the kissing bench :)

This weekend we have made a fire pit and run a 5k (Joshua ran a 15k)

I made my fastest time for a 5k in forever and got 3rd in my age group!

    

This is what I plan on doing the rest of the night. Plus making s'mores.

Life has been so busy! I am hoping I can start prioritizing, making time for school work, running/working out, cooking, housework, and blogging. I guess one of my most favorite months is a good time to start! Happy Fall!

in with the new.

I have been so busy since my birthday, I haven't had time to blog. My sister has basically lived with us the past 2 weeks. The first week was spent doing all sorts of house fix ups and this past week was spent working in my classroom. It is really coming together! Can't wait to share pictures. As much as I have enjoyed time off, I think I am ready to get back, as weird as that is.

This post is going to be dedicated to the casa!

we finished the cabinets:

I love how bright the kitchen is now! It is a million times better in my book. And it feels good to accomplish something from start to finish.

Now we just need new counter tops and I will be happy. We can't afford any more "big" projects right now though (the only other big thing we are going to do soon is replace the door in the kitchen area to the outside), so that will be down the road. And two sets of outlets on the window side of the kitchen stopped working. If it isn't one thing, it's another as they say!

pantry make-over:

Laura took everything out of our pantry, took the shelves out, cleaned it, painted it, cleaned the shelves, put them back in and organized all of our food. That girl is a miracle worker.

Josh also got a cool touch light that is magnetic and we have one on each side so we can see!

laundry area make-over:

Again, Laura cleared everything out, took the shelves down, painted, cleaned the shelves, put them back up, and organized all the shiz. I love how everything turned out and everything now has a place! (sorry for the crappy iphone picture)

We also took off the solo door that was on there, and replaced it with a curtain, which I love. Josh also replaced the light bulb inside this nook. Total, we probably spent about $100 updating this area.

entry light up-date:

We spray painted this ugly gold fixture with metallic black (what we had on hand) and cleaned the covering. It is much better now! It was a funny process trying to spray paint it without getting paint everywhere on the ceiling. I also spent one whole evening painting the edging of the kitchen/laundry area ceiling. Glad that is done!

living room updates:

I hated the color we originally picked out for the living room. It was called riesling, which looked like an off white to me but turned out to be yellow-y. yuck. We decided to repaint those walls with a soft grey that we bought a few gallons of because we like it so much. It is a nice neutral color and isn't stark white, so Josh is happy.

 before - the yellow walls (the night we first painted the living room):

after - the nice, fresh, bright walls! (ignore the messy coffee table)

I am already so much happier with the living room. Now we just have to get rid of the gross yellow/brown ceiling and replace the hideous fan and we'll be all done!

We (Laura) also hung some shelves:

 and I changed out the curtains to some grey striped ones we had in the other room and I love these ones waaaay more :)

kitchen decor:

We got this set up from ikea and the blinds from lowes and now the area above our sink is looking so much better! Josh replaced the light above the sink too but I don't have a picture of that, so I'll save it for next time ;)

bathroom sneak peak:

We painted one wall a soft yellow (looks way more yellow in this picture) and the other walls grey to lighten up our downstairs bathroom. I will show the final product in another post because we started sanding the cabinets to repaint them and Josh bought a new faucet and a kit to redo the sink. So excited for it to be finished, hopefully this weekend!

Laura just got to my house from babysitting and we are planning on painting the upstairs guest bathroom. She primed it last week, and we are painting it grey (shocker I know) but we have special plans for the cabinets! Can't wait to share all of these completed projects. Good thing we have all this to keep us busy with the house because we cannot spend any more money on updates for a while!

The final reason this post is called "in with the new" is because Laura has a new best friend...

Rue!

She was abandoned in a parking lot, Laura's friend's mom found her, and this sweet (neglected) pit bull mix won her heart! 

She and Chili are already BFF :)

Off to be productive and enjoy my last weekend of freedom. I officially start work back on Monday!