I'm so glad you were born...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING HUSBAND, CLAY!

Clay-

I am so happy that I am the one you chose.  You make my life better in ways that you couldn't even imagine.  You make all the happy times worth it and all the sad times easier.  I will never understand how I got so lucky, but until I do, I will thank God every day for allowing me to know love so deeply.

I love you,
Casey

I know this won't last...

...my cleaning habits.

I guess being in a new home and actually owning it has actually made me like cleaning, well at least washing the dishes.  I don't know if it's the view of our back yard from the window above the sink or singing to Lady A at the top of my lungs while doing the dishes (you're welcome for that visual).  For those of you that know me, you know that I am not the cleanest person...not.even.close.  You'd be proud of me!  I've even been hand washing the dishes instead of using the dishwasher!  I'm finally starting to feel a little domesticated.  I think that actually owning the house has made all the difference in the world as far as my attitude towards cleaning goes.

Some of my favorite moments so far:

1.  Singing at the top of my lungs to Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum while noone is here.  This house has great acoustics!  For those of you that don't know me...my dream is to be a singer.  Hey, a girl can dream, right?!
2.  Watching Hank run at full speed around our back yard.
3.  The game of 'hide from the neighbor so you don't have to talk for 30 minutes' that I play every afternoon when I get home...well, actually every single time I step out of my door.  He is just very friendly.  He even asked if anyone needed to use his spare bedroom when we had so much company this weekend!  We almost offered Coley up...but decided against it.
4.  The view from my kitchen window.  :o) 
5.  Pulling up to OUR house everyday after school.

My husband caught on fire...

OK- so that sounds a bit dramatic, but it's true.  He was welding at work and caught his pant leg on fire!  

a HUGE thanks...

Finally!  We got all moved into our new house thanks to our amazing friends and family!  We couldn't have done it without you.  Thank you Angel, Hannah, Grayson, Coley, Mama, Anne Marie, and Karl for helping us move into our house and start making it a home.  Clay & I are so grateful for you and your generosity.  We know how valuable your time is and to give it up to help us means so much to us.  We owe you BIG time!

Moving went much more smoothly than I had imagined it would.  It didn't seem like we had that much stuff...until we started to pack it all.  When we went to pick up the U-Haul I thought I had reserved one that was MUCH too big.  Oh boy.  I was w-r-o-n-g.  We filled up all 24 feet of that thing.  It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate in such a short amount of time!  I am going to make a conscious effort to minimize the things that we don't use so that the next time we move (hopefully in a LONG time) will be even easier than it was this time around.  Step 1-  only one junk drawer.  Step 2- unpack every box- find a place for everything and throw it away if you can't find an appropriate space for it!

Things we learned from moving:  
1.  Throw stuff away. Seriously, if something has been sitting in a box you didn't unpack from the last time you moved, toss it.  Clay & I both had stuff still in boxes from when we moved into our last house when we got married!  I've gone through most of mine, but I can't say the same about my better half.  
2.  Visit www.uhaul.com, rent a truck, and save time & money on gas.  Best idea we I had.
3.  Bribe friends and family to help. (can I just say one more time that y'all are amazing!?)
4.  Call and arrange all of the power/internet/water/cable transfers ahead of time because usually it can't be done the day you call!
5.  It's okay if everything isn't decorated the way you want it in the first week.
6.  Take before & after pictures...they'll be fun to look back at!
7.  Making small talk with the cable guy is awkward, especially when he calls you on your cell phone from outside your house to read the satellite signal numbers to him.
8.  Bring home the paint swatches because they look much different in your house.  :-/  Goodbye pink shabby room, hello lilac!
9.  Breathe.  Enjoy it.  Don't stress!

Thanks again to our family and friends for making this such a smooth move!  We love you!

For the following reasons...

...I am in LOVE with small towns...

1.  You can get where you need to go fast.  There is nothing better than knowing you can actually get to the other side of town in less than 5 minutes.  Trying to go less than a mile in Greenville traffic can take 5 minutes itself or more.  For example, I knew I only had a few minutes to get to City Hall in downtown Pickens yesterday, completely forgetting that 'downtown' consists of a couple streets and a couple lights.  By the time I reminded myself I wasn't in downtown Greenville, I was there.  Which leads me to reason....
2.  The people are so nice it almost makes you feel guilty.  In bigger cities, people have their own agendas, things they have to do, etc.  Other's feelings and needs often get pushed to the side in our own haste to do what we need to get done.  The ladies at the Corner Cafe were so sweet to Clay and me.  One lady walked up while Clay and I were talking about whether or not we would be able to 'customize' our order and swap something for something else.  Without hesitation, she simply says, "You can do anything you want in here."  Something as simple as that is so nice when you are used to going places that it takes an act of congress to change something on your order.  My second encounter with the friendly folk of Pickens, was with the woman I spoke to at City Hall yesterday about getting our water turned on.  She was the sweetest lady.  I walked in there about 10 minutes before they closed.  I just knew that we wouldn't get our water turned on because I was so late getting there and they stop taking work orders at 4:00.  But, being the kind lady she was, she sent the worker over to my house that very second, literally, he followed me home, to turn our water on for us so we wouldn't have to wait until the next day...and I didn't even have to ask her.  So nice.
3.  More room to run & play. (that was from Hank)
4.  Price of land and property.  With Clay growing up with land, a pond, and shops/buildings to go "fiddle" around with stuff and work on his 'projects' with his dad, it was inevitable that we would have to move out of the city and find our own piece of land.  City life just wasn't cutting it for this country boy.  I totally agree.  Being from a small town myself, I've always wanted to go back to that kind of living eventually.  It's nice to be away from the constant hustle and bustle of a city, even if it has a fairly small-town feel like Greenville does.  With Hank, we just needed more space.  A hunting dog should not have to be kept inside as much as he has to with us living here.  At our new house, he has a whole fenced in back yard and an area where Clay can work with him on pointing birds and all that other boy/hunting stuff.  Moral of the story- if you want any kind of land, at a reasonable price, you will probably have to move to a small town where the prices are actually reasonable.  We sacrificed a little on the size of our new home to have the extra land and the shop, which is completely worth it.  We have all the room we need, for now. :o)
5.  Whether you need a dentist, radiator shop, doctor, gas station, Domino's, fine dining restaurant, dollar tree, lawyer, bank- it is all within 2 miles.  Literally.  I can get to any of those things in less than 4 or 5 minutes.  It's amazing.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a city, but my heart belongs in a small town...

So blessed...

I want to start by saying, Happy Valentine's Day!  It is my prayer that everyone experiences the kind of love that I've found.  The love of my amazing husband, family, and friends is what makes all the tough times in life worth it at the end of each day.  It is what keeps me going and I am so incredibly blessed.

Today was a very special day, not only because of Valentine's Day but we bought our VERY FIRST HOUSE!!!  Clay and I could not be more excited to begin the next chapter of our life.  This blog is intended to document our journey and keep all of the people we love up-to-date with all the latest renovations and decorating that goes on!

We were so excited to be able to get started on the house today.  Luckily, we were both able to take the day off so we could do some unpacking and painting after our closing.  Everything went well with the closing and we were at our new house by 11:00 am!  We unpacked some things, took a walk around our property, and just enjoyed being in our new house together.  For lunch, I wanted to embrace the small town of Pickens and go to some cute little diner downtown.  Clay wanted to go to Pizza Inn.  I won.  We found a spot that will most definitely be a weekly dinner spot for us...Corner Cafe.  For those of you that have never been, you are in for a treat.  Friendly staff, amazing (aka greasy) food.  After lunch we went to Lowe's and picked out paint colors for our bedroom and our 'shabby chic' room.  We chose 'tiara' pink for the shabby room and 'hot springs' (blueish-greenish) for our bedroom.  We started painting our room tonight and it looks great!  We are hoping to get some more things moved in and some more painting finished throughout the week, so there will definitely be more updates!

P.S.  Clay won battle #2- what to eat for dinner...we had Pizza Inn.  It was de-lish.