Coming along

My kitchen looks a million times bigger today because last night J hung the microwave and I supervised helped as best I could. We purchased the black Kenmore microwave off of Craiglist for a $75 steal back at the beginning of March and I am so pleased with how it looks in our kitchen. Pictures to come soon since I could J wasn't in the mood for pictures last night and neither was Buddy... oh the men in my life do not like cameras.

Look at all of that counter space now!

I'm so thankful that we are slowly making progress! With the microwave hung we are now pretty much done with the kitchen minus decorations for the tops of my cabinets, which will come A LOT later once I decide what I want to put up there. We decided last night to start a list of projects in the house and as we do them mark them off so we can see our progress, I'll probably start the list today and put it on the fridge tonight.
So far:

• New Fan in Living Room
• Hang old Living Room Fan in the Master
• Hang Microwave
• Purchase rug for Living Room
• Hang pictures in Living Room
• Re stain New Sofa Table & Dinning Room Table
• Paint railing for stairs
• Recover Dinning Room Chairs
• Hang up Hanging Baskets on Porch

We're going to J's parents house on Saturday night for a cook out, I'm pretty excited about it since my favorite brother in law is going to be in town! I'm trying to figure out what to make, any suggestions? What's your favorite dish to bring to a cookout?

Maybe I'll test out our new Ice Creamer maker, this sounds delicious!
Vanilla Ice Cream with Fruit Blend

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 recipe Mixed Berry Blend or Nectarine-and-Toasted Almond Blend

Preparation

1. Beat eggs at medium speed with an electric mixer until frothy. Stir together sugar, flour, and salt until well blended. Gradually add sugar mixture to eggs, beating until thickened. Gradually add milk, beating until blended.

2. Cook egg mixture in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, 15 to 20 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 170°. (Mixture should be thick enough to coat a spoon.)

3. Fill a large bowl or pan with ice; place Dutch oven in ice, and stir occasionally 10 to 15 minutes until custard is completely cool. Transfer mixture to an airtight container; cover and chill 8 hours. Stir in whipping cream, vanilla, and desired fruit blend.

4. Pour mixture into freezer container of a 1-gal. electric ice-cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. (Instructions and freezing times will vary.)

Gravity

Things are starting to fall into place so quickly! I've gotten 7 RSVP's so far for the wedding and the invites only went out 2 days ago, thank you for your promptness. We close on the house this afternoon! Pray for us not to stress about anything and for things to go smooth sailing, I can't wait to get started on fixing it up for us :) I know J can't wait to get his hands dirty with the house! Rachel bought me a cake and sparkling wine to celebrate being a home owner last night, she's so sweet!

Photo Challenge Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Oh John Mayer, I love when you sing and play guitar.

Otherwise, I kind of think you're tool and a smooth talker.

Random Fact Thursday:

Asparagus is one of the primary vegetables noted for containing Glutathione, an antioxidant. Glutathione (GSH) is found in the body and is important in fighting against diseases like Cancer and Alzheimer’s. Although foods like asparagus do not contain Glutathione GSH, they do assist the body in producing it. While eating asparagus may not directly cure cancer or your morning hangover, it can increase the glutathione level and possibly help the liver clear toxins faster, making the healing process more efficient.

Thanks, MSN & Bing!

Home

We got an email from our mortgage broker yesterday letting us know that there is a distinct possibility that we can close on the house a week early. Praise the Lord! I'm really hoping that we get the chance to close early.

Welcome to our home. Isn't it beautiful?

Ephesians 3:20-21Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen

It needs a little work, but we're so excited to be able to fix things ourselves and make our first home the best it can be for us. I've been thinking of making this blog about all of the thing we will do to the house, sort of our journey through a first home. The entire home buying experience has been pretty easy, unlike what we had heard before. My Dad and his team of people over at Allen Tate have been great so far. Keep us in your prayers as we move forward with this huge and very monumental step we are taking :)

24

Whelp. I turned 24 on Sunday and honestly, it felt no different than the day before. J bought me some beautiful roses that morning and threw me a dinner party with all of our friends who could make it at Outback that night. He told me last night he bought me yellow since I'm his best friend, what a sweetie.

Friday night, went out with some friends and went bowling and I bowled my very best game- a 126 (I'm listed as May, har har) I was super proud of myself. Although J, refered to on the score board as Jerm still beat me by 2 points.

Mom and I went and met with the baker for the wedding cake and we came up with some glorius ideas that are not only ridiculously amazing and will look fantastic but cheap as well. The baker is letting me make all of the cupcakes and she is going to ice them and make our cake topper! The price for this is more than 1/2 off! I'm leaving the details of the cupcakes a secret until after the wedding :) Lets just say there will be a variety!

I ordered our marriage counseling book yesterday it should be in the mail by the end of the week. I got it off of Amazon.com for $11.99 its called, "Getting Ready for Marriage Workbook." We're supposed to go through it and then meet with Dennis, our officiant again atleast twice before the wedding to talk through things that we might have issues with, work out the ceremony and pray, pray pray!

Last night and today I definatly felt more like a 24 year because officially, as of this morning J and I put in an offer on a house here in the Thrill. I was freakin out nervous while driving away from our showing yesterday, praying constantly asking God if this is what he wanted, to please give us wisdom to know how to handle this situation and to please bless it if this is of him. Lots of tears went down on the car ride to meet J for dinner to discuss what we wanted to do and then this Aaron Shust song came on and I was at peace, praise the Lord!

I am not skilled to understand

What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior

My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be

Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

Those first few lines of the song really sunk in, as a human I really am not skilled to understand what God has willed or what he has in store for me. I know for sure that with our house situation, I don't know the outcome but I do trust my God and I know that what he has planned is way better than what I ever can imagine! I've learned this so many times as God continually shows me that I AM NOT IN CONTROL, HE IS.