Our Home: One Year Later | New Landscaping

On June 19th, we had our 1 year anniversary of being homeowners! Things have been so busy, I'm just now getting around to doing a 1 year house recap. Since we just finished our landscaping a few days ago, I wanted to share our big transformation first! I am embarrassed of the before pictures but you'll easily be able to see the difference! After hiring the company, said there was no way I was getting in there and taking care of the yard - and you can tell.

We decided last fall that we'd pay someone to come out and professionally re-do our landscaping at some point because we had a hard time removing some of the plants we had. We finally got around to starting the bidding process a month or so ago and last week, they finally implemented. We wanted everything very clean and simple and that's exactly what we got. Hopefully this will also provide us with minimal care lol

Here are some of the before and after pictures.

Please ignore the weeds in the driveway... we've got to kill those

I'm obsessed with how open the side of the house now is and I'm so glad we didn't replant anything or keep any of the plants

We can finally see the lake through the tree and Gardenia plant!

Hopefully this sod comes back to life lol they still have to sod at the corner of the house

We are so excited about this change - and I'm sure our neighbors are too ;) We still need to re-sod a lot of the front yard and we really need to pressure wash the driveway and sidewalk but it's coming along well :)

How adorable is this pineapple flag?!

Linking up with Jessi.

Weekending

We had a great but busy weekend this past weekend! Our landscaping was finally finished on Friday - minus the sprinkler they broke and the re-sod that we added on the day before but we love it! I will finally be debuting the new landscaping this week with my kick off of our year house update :) Friday evening, we were hoping to go over to the baseball game but when I got home, Stephen was SOUND asleep after waking up at 2am for launch. I ended up letting him sleep and we just watered the new sod and made frozen pizza for dinner.

We woke up fairly early on Saturday and I got to work cleaning the kitchen while Stephen worked on ordering some birthday gifts ;) Around lunch time, I headed over to Cocoa Beach to meet up with a friend for Acai Bowls and some great catch up! Afterwards, I met up with Stephen at the mall to check out some things for his birthday gifts and then I ran a few other errands before coming home. After trying to get rid of a massive headache, we ate dinner and headed outside to work on the yard. I watered the new sod while Stephen fixed the sprinklers. Afterwards, we relaxed before calling it a night.

Sunday, we woke up headed to church, ran to Publix and came home and worked. I spent all day cleaning the inside of the house and Stephen spent all day working on the yard. We also put up the outdoor fan and new carriage light - FINALLY. We've had these since Mother's Day and ran into some snags but Stephen finally got it installed last nights. We finished up around 7:30 and made a fun cheese plate for dinner then we watched some of the Olympic final trials for diving and swimming. I can't wait for the real Olympics and I'm so glad Stephen bought us an antenna for our main TV!

My mom got me this adorable pineapple flag for an early birthday gift and I LOVE it! It's currently on sale for less than $10 :)

We still have to install the top cap back into the ceiling - there was a giant white square that Stephen painted

Ignore the circle under the light - Stephen was using that as a brace while the caulk dried

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Last week before July and getting a 3 day weekend!!! Linking up with Biana.

Five on Friday

One
While I was in Atlanta for my business trip last week, I was able to run over to the Vineyard Vines Outlet store with my mom and oh my goodness, did I hit the jackpot!! My mom wanted to take me birthday shopping and I kept telling her I wanted to go to Vineyard Vines first to see what I could find there and I'm so glad I did! All clearance items were an extra 60% off so everything I got was between $20-$40 which is ah-mazing for Vineyard Vines. I wasn't able to find everything online but I linked the items I could find.

Pants - Snagged these for $24!

Sweater - Snagged this for about $30 and it's got Cashmere in it

They had a tunic version which I adored but it was too short :/

This one was pushing the short limit with the side slits but I couldn't pass it up! I'll probably sew the slits a little

Tunic - Forgot to get a picture with it on

Love the buttons on the back!

Forgot a picture with this one too

Two
I'm looking forward to being home with Stephen this weekend and I'm hoping we'll be able to catch a baseball game tonight! We had SO much fun the last time we went and we've been wanting to go again. Stephen has a launch today so I'm hoping everything goes well and he'll be able to get a nap in after work so we can go! (He has to wake up at 2 am for work :/)

Three

We're FINALLY getting our landscaping done and we are so excited! They started Wednesday and they ended up running 2 days late - so they'll finish up today. We don't care that they're running late - we are just so excited they're almost done!! I'll hopefully be sharing our new landscaping next week when I kick off our year-in-the-house update :)

Four
Stephen planted a pepper plant a few months ago and has been so diligent with watering it and trying to keep it alive. He's done a great job and now there's a little pepper growing!! He was so excited when I told him there was a pepper so I had to get a picture with him and his plant :)

Five
Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I don't watch basketball... it's so boring watching it on TV but after hearing Lebron James was on the Cavs, I couldn't get this kid out of my head! He's so funny!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Can't believe this is the last weekend in June!!!!

Thoughts for Thursday: The Orlando Tragedies

Last week has been pretty rough for the city of Orlando... it's been very hard for me to comprehend and digest everything that's happened within the last week or so. I wanted to write about it but please note, I'm not a good writer and not very good with capturing all my thoughts.

Saturday morning, while staying with my Sister-in-law 2 weeks ago, I woke up to the news that The Voice contestant, Christina Grimmie had been shot and killed after her Orlando show. I never watched The Voice so I did not know who Christina was, yet it was so hard to hear. She was so young and a crazed-fan came and took her life too soon.

Then I woke up Sunday morning to another Fox News alert saying there had been a mass shooting at an Orlando gay bar. I couldn't believe that something so tragic happened the very next night after Christina had been shot in Orlando. I ran out to tell Lauren and we watched the news for a little trying to digest what happened. Throughout the day I kept getting alerts of the death toll rising, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. It was so sad to hear that so many people's lives had been lost due to an extreme terrorist. I didn't fully comprehend the gravity of the situation - and still don't but it's been hitting me a lot more within the last few days.

While in Atlanta, there were all sorts of Orlando United things all around - on the screens at the mall, on the radio, on the TV's, etc. and I had to keep reminding myself I was in GA and not FL. It was so touching to see other cities banning together to support Orlando and try to spread love and hope instead of hatred. There was a vigil in Downtown Orlando Sunday night and over 50,000 people showed up!! 50,000 people!! We did not attend but I heard it was amazing. All of those people in a tight place and nothing but love was shown.

Let's back up a few days to Tuesday - I woke up to news that a sweet, little boy had been dragged into the water and killed by an alligator at Disney. Once again, another tragedy in Orlando! I kept thinking "What in the world is going on in Orlando!!!" It was like the city couldn't catch a break! I watched the news with such sadness - I couldn't stop thinking how this family was at the most magical place on earth and yet, their lives were changed forever.

Living in Florida, I know that you have to assume there's a gator in every body of water but I quickly realized a LOT of people don't know that! Let's be real here, the child was standing in ankle deep water - I would assume that he would've been fine standing there. I also would've assumed that Disney does a pretty good job of keeping gators out of their water. I know they won't be able to get them all out because it's FL and they appear everywhere but I assumed the risk would've been reduced. This was literally a freak accident and it is so sad that a little boy had to lose his life over it. I can't image what his family is going through right now.

I know this post is pretty heavy and probably not very well written to capture the depravity of the events that recently happened but I am just now starting to digest all that has happened. With all of the sadness surrounding these events, people have banned together to support one another and have shown so much love and support for the city of Orlando.

Linking up with Annie

Catching Up

Things have been so crazy busy around here lately that I ended up taking about a 2 week break from blogging. I'm not going to lie, it was kind of nice not having to worry about the blog but I missed interacting with everyone and jotting down my memories! Without further adieu, it's time to play catch up with an extremely long post!

Last I left off, I was headed down to my SIL's house while Stephen was meeting the guys for his brother's 30th birthday party weekend in Okeechobee. While the guys roughed it in the hot FL heat, Lauren and I enjoyed ourselves some AC and the pool! I arrived on Friday evening, just in time for dinner. The rest of the night, we caught up and played with my niece, Siena.

I ended up waking up super early Saturday (go figure) and enjoyed watching some cable TV before joining Lauren and Siena once they woke up. Then, we headed out to one of Lauren's friends community pools and spent some time there before making a quick Target run. That afternoon, we worked on putting all the clothes Siena grew out of into space bags before Lauren's friends came over for girls night. We loaded up and headed out to get some Mexican food before coming home and playing some games. After the girls left, Lauren and I watched The Devil Wears Prada while chit chatting.

Seriously, how cute is Siena!?

Helping us pack away her clothes ;)

Sunday, we rallied and headed to church (we sat in the cry room which was PACKED and a whole new experience for me lol). After church, we came back to the house, had leftovers, went on a quick walk and then I headed out to meet Stephen. After picking Stephen up and getting home, I started to not feel good at all. I ended up being up all night long - the Mexican leftovers did not work out too well for me. Stephen had Monday off from work so I ended up taking a half day which was so needed.

I was trying to keep Siena entertained with Snapchat before she realized Lauren had run to the car lol Then I found out that the cry room doesn't have tinted glass... oops

Thankfully, Monday night I was feeling slightly better so I packed myself up for my business trip to Atlanta. Tuesday, I headed up to Atlanta (not before Southwest completely cancelled my flight) and I was able to see our close family friends real quick after work. The business trip was really successful and we got a lot done! 

After work one night, I was able to hop over to The Mall of GA to look for some Converses. I've been thinking about getting some for my birthday for a little while now but wanted to make sure that my feet didn't look like clown feet in them. I wasn't sold on the regular Converses but I tried on the Shoreline's and I loved them! They're so comfy, my feet don't look as long/clowny and the loose laces are the perfect touch! My only problem was deciding between the white ones and the grey ones. I ended up picking the white ones because I'll have more to wear them with and I'm worried I'll regret not getting those.

The regular Converses

The Shoreline's

After work on Friday, I drove to my parents house in TN for a quick, weekend visit! I had such a fun time with them and the weather was great! Friday my mom and I ran some errands before meeting some of our close family friends for dinner, walking around the square and fro-yo.

Saturday, my mom got us these amazing cream cheese muffins for breakfast and then I worked on cleaning out my college stuff with my dad. They were able to sell a lot of my old textbooks to a used bookstore and I threw out all my spirals and folders that I kept from my engineering classes - so nerve wrecking throwing all of that out, but when am I going to ever look at them? Afterwards, we headed out to some local trails for a quick walk then scooted over to their huge used bookstore to sell my textbooks and to browse. I ended up getting a few grilling books, a few cookbooks (one really cool, old Charleston one!) and The 5 Love Languages.

After all of that excitement, I came home and crashed - it felt so good to get a nap in! That night we were celebrating Father's Day early as well as my birthday early so my parents made a delicious dinner (which I got way too full way too fast and didn't get to eat much of it ;/) and then we relaxed until it was time for bed.

My parents' old deck was falling apart so they're building a new one - can't wait to enjoy it at Thanksgiving!!

Sunday morning, I got ready and headed back to Atlanta for my flight while my parents headed to church. We had to get one last Father's Day selfie :) Thankfully, my flight was uneventful and I was so happy to get home to Stephen again!

The past few days I've been super busy trying to get everything caught up which is always fun to do after work ;) On Sunday, we also celebrated 1 year of being in our house! I can't believe it's been a full year! I'm planning on doing a house update but I've got to get it cleaned (hopefully this weekend).

Today, we're getting our landscaping redone (if the guys ever show up) and Stephen's gearing up for another launch on Friday! Thankfully, we'll be in town the next few weekends so hopefully things slow down.

Linking up with Jessi.