House Updates

I really thought when we moved into our new house we would get so much done in the first year, but time goes by so quickly and there is still SO much I want to do.  We've only painted two rooms in our house and we still haven't hung up all the pictures and artwork either.  Here are a few pictures of some recent updates we did in our house (before pictures to come shortly):

We revamped our guest room with new paint and a new duvet cover.  We also moved my craft table into the guest room.  Here are a few pictures of the newly updated guest room:

When we bought our house the kitchen had a stove top and a separate wall oven.  The wall oven was so tiny I didn't think I even had any pans that would fit in it!  So, the very first thing we did was take out the stove top and install a new range.  I wanted to take out the old wall oven and add shelves for my cookbooks.  Chad took out the wall oven and converted the space to hold our microwave and a shelf for cookbooks.  Unfortunately we never took a good picture of the wall oven before it was removed, but here's the converted space:

Fall 2013 Pictures

I love fall in our neighborhood.  With so many trees, it is just beautiful when the leaves start to change color.  I don't love having to deal with all the fallen leaves, but it's worth it to have the shade and see the changing fall colors.  Also, my Mom usually comes to NC in October/November for my Grandmother's birthday.  Here are some pictures from fall and my Mom's visit to our house:

Fall Cat Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the cats this fall:

Roxy and Sandy relaxing on our bed.

Sandy sleeping on the very edge of the chair.

I have also been trying to get a video of Chad and Roxy dancing.  It sounds crazy, but she LOVES to dance with him and will do it for a really long time.  These two videos are pretty short, but they show off Roxy's dance skills!

Halloween 2013

Normally we carve a pumpkin every year for Halloween, but this year we just did not have time to go to the pumpkin patch and get a pumpkin.  In our new neighborhood the only child is a newborn so we don't have trick-or-treaters anyway.  I also had to work Halloween night.  Originally I wasn't going to dress up because I really didn't have time to come up with a costume, but when I was getting dressed that morning I had an idea.  So, I decided to be a Plaid Cat!

Me as a Plaid Cat!

Roxy and the Plaid Cat.

There were two other cats at work on Halloween.

October Beach Trip

My Mom lives in Hawaii now and she usually comes back to NC twice a year.  She usually tries to come in October for my Grandmother's birthday.  This year, unfortunately, my Grandmother's brother passed away not long after my Mom got to NC.  But, it was fortunate in a way because Chad & I were already planning to come to Wilmington to see my Mom and Grandmother, so we were also able to be there for my great-uncle's funeral too.  Even with the funeral we still had a great time being at the beach and seeing family.  Here are a few pictures from our October beach trip:

Gunner's 1st Birthday

Chad's cousin Jarren and his wife Brystle's son Gunner turned one in October.  Jarren used to work for Chad and so we were happy to be able to attend Gunner's 1st birthday party.  They had the party at a pumpkin patch in Monroe, NC, so there was a lot to do there.  Here are a few pictures from Gunner's 1st birthday party:

Jimmy Eat World Concert in Asheville, NC

We saw Jimmy Eat World in Charlotte in August as an early birthday present for me.  I had such a great time at that show that when I found out they would be back in NC in October I convinced Chad to go see them again.  He is such a great husband - he doesn't even really like Jimmy Eat World that much, but went to see them twice because he knew it meant a lot to me!  They were playing at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC, which is where we saw them for the very first time 3 years ago.  They are such an amazing band and are so great live.  They really rock out and played for almost 2 hours!  Unfortunately my camera was kind of acting up and I didn't get very many good pictures.  But, the show was amazing and it was so great to get to see them for a second time this year!  Here are a few pictures I took at the show:

Patio Furniture Update

We wanted to get new patio furniture for our deck now that we are in our new house, but patio furniture is ridiculously expensive.  So, we decided to update the patio furniture we already had.  We painted the frames of our furniture and got new outdoor pillows that matched.  You can't tell as well in these pictures, but the pillows match so well and really make the whole set look even better.  Here are some pictures of our updated patio furniture - and I have to give Chad the credit he did all the painting!

October Mountain Trip

We decided to take a weekend mountain trip at the beginning of October.  We stayed in Crumpler, NC, which is just north of West Jefferson, NC.  We were hoping for some cooler weather and getting to see some fall color, but it was warmer than expected that weekend.  We did get to see a little fall color while we were there and overall it was a fun weekend.  We started off by visiting an apple orchard in Morganton, NC on the way to our cabin.  On Saturday we visited Blowing Rock, Boone, and West Jefferson.  Here are some pictures of our weekend mountain trip:


Here is our trip to the apple orchard:



Here is the cabin we rented:



Here are a few other pictures from our mountain trip weekend:

Coupon Savings in September

As you probably know already from this blog, I LOVE to use coupons and get the best deals I can.  Normally I post pictures of my great deals when one of the supermarkets does Super Doubles or Triple coupons.  At the end of September I got some great deals at Target and Harris Teeter by just combining sales and coupons.  Here is a picture of what I got that day, I got everything pictured for $18.59 and SAVED $27.59!

September Babies

We had 3 friends all have babies in September this year.  Our new neighbors, Matt and Hope, had their first child, Molly, on September 16th.  We visited them and took them a meal that weekend, but didn't get any pictures to share.

Chad's oldest friend Josh and his wife Kelley had their first child, Jack, on September 26.  Here is a picture of Josh and Chad holding baby Jack:

Our good friends Becca and Jason had their 3rd child, Ethan, on September 27.  Here are some pictures of us with baby Ethan:

And I didn't take this picture, but I HAD to include it.  It shows Becca & Jason's older 2 children Braden and Katie visiting baby Ethan in the hospital.  They are both wearing their "big brother" "big sister" shirts and are obviously VERY excited about Ethan:

Joel Salatin at Duke Divinity School

Joel Salatin is my hero.  He is one of the smartest, most articulate, and awesome people I've ever encountered.  I was SO excited to get to tour Polyface Farm last year for my birthday - it was honestly one of the best moments of my life getting to meet him!  So, when I found out via Polyface's Facebook page that Joel was speaking at Duke Divinity school I knew we had to try to go.  It was cool too that the weekend we saw him speak at Duke was the same weekend we visited Polyface last year!  And seeing how we are die-hard Carolina fans (Chad especially), it takes someone like Joel Salatin to get us onto the Duke campus!  Joel was at the Duke Divinity School as part of a faith and food conference called Summoned Toward Wholeness.  I really wish we could have attended the entire conference, but I had to work that weekend and Friday was my only day off.  Thankfully you could purchase tickets to just Joel's talk.  He is such a great speaker and I want to type up my notes from his talk, so when I do I'll add them to this post.  Here are some pictures from our visit to Duke:

Jessica's Birthday Weekend

For my birthday this year we decided to go on the Know Your Farms tour.  For the past few years it's been held on the weekend around my birthday and so we usually have other plans already, but this year I decided that was what I wanted to do for my birthday.  We were only able to visit 2 farms on Saturday, but it was a lot of fun and I  hope we can make this something we do every year.  We visited Thomas Bee Farm and Hoffner Organic Farm, which is in the Organic Valley co-op.  We are thinking of getting honeybees ourselves soon and it was really interesting to visit a local dairy too.  I love visiting local farms and supporting local farmers, so it was a lot of fun!  Here are pictures from our farm day visit:



And for my birthday Chad totally surprised me with a Kitchenaid mixer! I have been wanting one for years, but they are pretty expensive. I was so surprised and can't wait to use it!

September Garden Pictures

Now that it's September we are down to just okra and tomatoes in the garden.  Our okra definitely started growing more later in the summer and the tomato plants just keep getting bigger and bigger.  I'm SO glad the okra finally took off since it's my favorite thing we grow.  Here are some pictures of the September garden:

Matthew Alive Parade 2013

One of my favorite childhood memories is going to the Stumptown parade and festival, now known as Matthews Alive.  We lived in Matthews from the time I was 7 until I was 15 so going back to the parade and festival reminds me of  my childhood.  Chad & I try to go to the parade and festival most years if we can.  Here are some pictures from this year's parade:

Why We Love Our Church!

Chad & I have been going to Mecklenburg Community Church for 11 years now and we still love it!  It's by far the best church I have ever attended.  Here are just two recent events that show why we love our church so much:

For the past 3 years our church has been doing a backpack drive to support A Child's Place that helps homeless students in Charlotte.  These are just a few of the fully supplied backpacks donated from Meck!

We recently had baptisms after each of our services - so at 3 physical locations that is 7 services over the weekend.  Not sure how many total people were baptized but at the service we attended that weekend at least 30 people were baptized and that is what church is all about!

After the baptisms they served cupcakes.  Here are our friends Becca & Jason's children Braden and Katie with their cupcakes.

Homemade

We have moved more toward making as many things as we can from scratch.  I feel like our society tells us that it's too "hard" to make things from scratch or homemade things that can be easily purchased at the grocery store.  What I've found is that it's not necessarily harder to make things from scratch, but it does require a little more planning than stopping by the grocery store.  Here are a few things we've done that are homemade or made from scratch:

This is the table Chad made for our deck so we can use it for canning and also for when we grill to have some counter space.

Our first batch of refrigerator pickles.  We didn't have our canner situation set up in time when all our pickling cucumbers were coming in from the garden.

Our first batch of homemade chicken stock - we got 7 cups of stock.

Our first batch of home canned tomatoes from the farmer's market.

First Time Canning!

We took a canning class back in early June and we finally got everything set up to can at our house.  We found out in the class that it's not recommended to use canners on a ceramic top stoves because the canners are usually bigger than the burner space and since they get so hot for so long it can crack or damage the ceramic tops.  Since we just bought our stove last year when we moved into our house we were not willing to risk damaging it!  Chad built a table for our deck and we bought a portable gas cooktop that we can connect to propane tanks.  Once we had our cooktop and our canners ready we were finally ready to can!  For our first project we bought 2 boxes of canning tomatoes at the farmer's market.  Since this was our first time canning we learned a few things to make things easier.  Tomatoes are a LOT of work to prepare for canning - the actual canning part is pretty easy.  We did one box and canned one day and then prepared the second box one evening after work and then did the canning the next day after work so it wasn't so much work in one day/evening.  I also think something like green beans would be MUCH easier.  Overall, I think it went pretty well.  It was a little stressful that first day, but we got the hang of it and in the grand scheme of things 2 days of work for a fall/winter supply of fresh, farmer's market tomatoes is definitely worth it!  Here are a few pictures from our first time canning:

Jimmy Eat World Concert

As an early birthday present, I got to go see Jimmy Eat World play on August 13, 2013 at the Fillmore.  Jimmy Eat World is one of my all-time favorite bands and this concert was my 3rd time seeing them play.  I really like the Fillmore venue because it's roomy without being huge and you can see the stage from pretty much anywhere in the building.  We got there at just the right time too - we missed the opening band and got there about 20 minutes before Jimmy Eat World came on.  They played for almost 2 hours too - it was GREAT!  It was such a great early birthday present for me, especially since Chad is not a huge Jimmy Eat World fan.  Here are some pictures from the concert:

August 2013 Garden Pictures

Our garden didn't produce as much as we would have liked this summer, but it's our first year having one at our new house so it's still a learning experience.  By August our okra FINALLY started growing more and producing, so that's great because okra is my favorite thing we grow!  Also, our tomato plants got a VERY late start, but they are finally starting to produce a little too.  Here are some pictures of our garden in August: