06.19.12

I haven't posted in a VERY long time, but I thought I would start back since school is out and I have some more time on my hands. I've decided to go with a new format for each post - a picture from each day and a post to go with the picture.

I've recently started decorating our house, which has been a ton of fun. And it's been really nice to finally have somewhere that feels like home, somewhere to make OURS. We've moved around A LOT the past couple of years and haven't been able to plant our roots anywhere.

I went thrifting yesterday, which is one of my favorite ways to spend the afternoon. And I found a couple things for the house. Along with a pretty awesome shirt. One of the things I found was this pitcher, which has initials carved in the bottom, which makes me think it was handmade. We have this huge bookshelf from IKEA that is a pretty huge disaster zone right now and it looks perfect on one of the shelves. And it is slowly turning into something we can stand to look at every day.

It's the little things that make a house a home.

from us to you. :)

  

The holidays have been very busy for us, as has getting back into the swing of things with school since I've been pretty sick for the past week. I'm not sure when I'll start back posting regularly, so I just wanted to share a few pictures from Christmas and say that I hope everyone had a very wonderful holiday season and happy new year! :)

I hope you are all able to reflect on the past year and go into 2012 with a fresh outlook and new goals. And that you have a very blessed new year.

From our family to y'all, thanks for following and sharing in our lives with us! And we can't wait to see what's in store!

family weekend.

There is a lot going on, but I just wanted to stop in and say hello. :) I hope y'all had a good weekend and got to spend time with family and friends!

Nate's grandpa came down from Minnesota this past Thursday and stayed with us until Sunday. Then we took him down to stay with the rest of Nate's family in SC. He's celebrating 90 amazing years of life this month and it was really great to be able to spend this time with him.

(thanks for the picture jen!)

How did you spend your weekend?

the MOST wonderful time of the year.

I love Christmas and I love decorating, but I'm not one of those people who likes to go crazy and cover the house with kitsch or theme it up or go with a ton of gitz and glam. Not that those are bad things, I love seeing all different kinds of decorations and think they're all great! But I try and keep things simple. That's just how I like it at home. And I've been slowly adding things around to get us in the holiday spirit. Because this is absolutely my favorite time EVER.

So I'm sharing with y'all because it's Christmas...and why not?! :)

our front door. (i keep the wreath and change the decorations out with the seasons.)

our back door. (i made this for $6 total!)

our windows at night. i love candles. :)

we're ready for all the cards! (totally stole this idea from pinterest.)

love came down.
(this manger scene has been around for as long as i can remember. i had it in my room and used to turn it on when i went to sleep. and i hope our children can do the same.)

Now I just need to put up some lights and we'll be good to go. :)

How do y'all decorate?
I would love to hear about it! And if you have pictures on your blog of your decorations, PLEASE link back! It would be great to see how you make your homes special for the holidays and how each of you make the decorating experience unique to yourselves.

future architects.

So my kids can do some pretty amazing things. I love teaching four year olds because they're learning and discovering SO much about the world.

Four of my boys who couldn't work in a center with each other without fighting the whole time at the beginning of the year built this massive structure TOGETHER today. :)

And one of the youngest children in the class built this all by himself. He said it was a "spooky house." He sat in the block center for a good thirty minutes working on it without saying a word and then he came over saying, "Mrs. Bredeweg, Mrs. Bredeweg! Look at my spooky house!" I LOVE it.

And then I got to help one of my boys write a letter to his cousin today. At four years old, only three months into school, he's already wanting to write sentences. Together, we wrote "I LIC U BCOS U AR ALWAS MI FND. U HAV A LOT OF LEGOS." Most of these kids are writing their name and drawing pictures still, but for him to be wrapping his mind around the purposes of writing and running with them like this is just so great!

Days like today that remind me that even though I'm waiting on my license to come in and the classroom isn't "officially" mine, I'm still playing a HUGE role in these children's lives and I still am their teacher. And they're learning! They're working together and problem solving. They're hearing letter sounds and associating those sounds with letters and beginning to make words and understanding that those words have purpose. And I know I sound lame, but those things still make me so excited!

What is it about what you do that makes you excited?

shoeboxes!

So I haven't posted on our OCC Project in awhile, but I have a short update. We've FINALLY started getting all of our shoeboxes together. We're going to local shoe stores and asking for any extras they might have. By doing this we don't have to spend any money on boxes or containers and we're able to put all our money toward the items in the boxes.

On our first trip, we only got three boxes, but it was still exciting! And super encouraging because the manager told us to keep coming back every few days. And of course, I took a picture to commemorate the occasion.

On another note, the wonderful Laura over at unpunctuated life has joined up with Nate and me in our challenge and wrote a great post about her experiences with Operation Christmas Child and what she and her husband are doing to give this year. You should definitely head over to her blog and check it out! And maybe it'll inspire you to get involved too. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. ;)

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." - Nelson Mandela

moving day!

So. Now that we're pretty much settled I figured I would start updating y'all on the craziness that has been the past two weeks.

Our moving day was Saturday the 20th. We had hired movers. And my awesome friend Mary had come up from Columbia to help me out with the cleaning and unpacking and arranging. I had to start work on that Monday and had to go get a TB test read that day, as well as go to the sheriff's department to get my background check and fingerprinting done. So we had decided that Nate would stay at our apartment to wait on the movers (who were supposed to arrive at noon), Mary would head to the new place and turn on the power so the AC could start doing its thing, and then I would take care of everything for work before going to meet Mary.

Sounds simple, right? You would think.

I'm leaving the courthouse to head to our new house when Mary calls and tells me she can't get the air to come on. After talking to her some, I find out it's because the power won't come on. We try everything we possibly can to try to get it work and nothing happens. So I call Nate. At this point, it's 2:00 and I'm expecting the movers to have gotten there by now. When he answers the phone he tells me their morning move is taking longer than expected and they don't know when they're going to be there. Then I tell him our issue with the power, so he calls the electric company and tells me that someone will be out within the next three hours to fix whatever's wrong.

Fast forward to about 6:30. Mary and I have been waiting four and a half hours in a hot, powerless, empty house with a smoke detector that is screaming at us because the battery needs to be changed. And Nate has been waiting all day on the movers, who have gotten lost twice, to get to the apartment.

Abby and I waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

FINALLY, the guy came and fixed the power situation around 7:00. And the movers found Nate. And at 9:30 that night, they made it to the house. We pushed and pushed and pushed and helped them unload everything as fast as we could and they were gone by 11:00. 

Needless to say, we didn't get even half of what we wanted to done on Saturday, but thank God that we did get moved in. And nothing was broken or lost. And we had the help of our great friend Mary, as well as our wonderful, loving family (who came on Sunday to help clean) - which made a HUGE difference. So despite all the insanity of the weekend, we definitely were blessed!

And here's one of my favorite things in our new house.

The lights over our kitchen table!

If you read all of this, then I am pretty impressed. And appreciative. It means a lot that you would take the time to invest your time in our lives. :)

I'll update y'all soon on the rest of the move, the new job, and hopefully get some pictures of the new place posted! And I'm slowly working my way through all of your blogs. I've missed so much in the past couple of weeks!

quick one!

Just a quick post to let y'all know that we FINALLY have internet now!

We are also officially moved in and almost have everything in its place. Which means pictures will be coming SOON.

And I have completed my first week of work. We successfully made it through our first day of school with the first group of kids (we do staggered start) and I'm pretty excited to see what the year has in store!

Regular blogging will be back in session very soon! :)

fill in the blank friday - 6!

1.   My most favorite birthday was   probably my 24th birthday, because it was my first birthday spent with Nate when we were married and my first birthday spent in our first house. :)

2.  My worst birthday was    probably the year my friend got my cat stuck up in a tree. That might have been my sixth birthday?

3.  My favorite birthday memory is     just getting to spend time with family and friends.

4.  The best birthday present I've ever received was   my new purse!

5.  The  best birthday present I've ever given was      ...I don't know. I guess you'd have to ask the people I've given presents to!

6.  Birthdays are   a great way to celebrate life and growth, how far you've come and where you're going. They're great times to spend with loved ones and show them your love with gifts. They're also fun when you're the recipient! :)

7.  My favorite age so far has been   26 definitely. I know it's just started, but so far this year is starting out to be a big one and I can't wait to see where it's going! 

If you want to join up, go here to 'the little things we do' and follow the instructions. And have fun! :)

 

Oh, and speaking of birthdays and celebrations, our blog has officially reached ONE HUNDRED POSTS! 

 

Also, little Miss Cocoa Beans turned TWO YEARS OLD this past weekend!

 

 

We celebrated with a birthday haircut!

And here she is with her gift. She LOVES it! :)

We also have some big news coming up, but I'll wait and save that for later. ;)

So, is anyone else out there as obsessed with your dogs as we are?

i carried a watermelon.

So, how was your Fourth of July weekend? What did you do that was special?

Nate and I had some craziness; but overall, ours was pretty good.

On Thursday night, Nate and I were on the way to get dinner and run some errands when we experienced some pretty serious car troubles. We had to call our friends, Ryan and Steph, who were AMAZING and came all the way to the mechanic's to pick us up. But it was a blessing in disguise because we got to go to dinner with them when we hadn't seen them in at least a month. :)

On Friday Nate got a call from one of the guys at the shop. Me, being the GENIUS that I am, locked the car using the security system and didn't leave the key FOB with the key. So of course, when they tried to get into the car they couldn't. So Nate had to come all the way back home to get the rest of the keys and take them over to the shop.

After that trip, we went to our new favorite spot - JASON'S DELI!

Nate is in LOVE with their salad bar.

And I am absolutely addicted to their Chicago Club.

smoked turkey, bacon, provolone, organic spinach, roma tomatoes, smoked red pepper cilantro aioli, herb focaccia. <3

Pretty yummy.

We went down to Columbia this weekend to see the family.

On Saturday morning, Nate and I shared a watermelon that was quite delicious.

chloe jumped in my picture.

nate loves his knives.

After our tasty breakfast, we spent the day with Nate's family. We went shopping with his sisters. He actually came too! I got a pair of silver sandals from Payless for only $6 and a pair of nude flats from Target for $12. Which was SUPER exciting because I love love LOVE shoes, but don't like to pay a lot of money for them. And you just can't find shoes as cheap as you can find clothes.

We were supposed to go to my grandma's house with my parents for dinner on Saturday night, but her power went out, so we all met and went out somewhere instead. After dinner we got to go by my parents' house and look inside! They're doing a ton of renovations and aren't living there right now and we didn't think we'd be able to go in because the hardwoods had just been redone. But we did - and it looks great! I can't wait to see the finished product! :)

On Sunday we went to church and lunch with Nate's family. His sister, Jen, and her husband brought their little girl over so we could give her the birthday present we got her. We had to miss her third birthday party because it was the day Nate's back went out and we had to rush to urgent care. :(

Being the teacher that I am, I have to get her a book every year. This year was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. And we just happened to find a floor puzzle to go with it on clearance!

opening her gift!

working on her puzzle with aunt "smeshmie"

all done!

We also had a belated birthday celebration for Nate. And his mom baked his absolute favorite. Carrot cake. It was AMAZING.

After all of that, we packed up all our things, loaded up the dogs, and headed to my grandma's house for our second try at dinner. Everything worked out and she fixed a wonderful meal consisting of roast, string beans, squash casserole, homemade rolls, tomatoes, and quite a few other things. And for dessert?

homemade cherry cobbler!

We came home Sunday night and spent our Fourth pretty low key. We had some stuff to figure out regarding the car situation and we were exhausted from our long weekend with the family so we ended up heading to a small farmer's market and getting a ton of fresh, local fruits and vegetables and then finishing up our grocery shopping, fixing dinner and eating together and spending a relaxing night watching Cosby reruns.

But we had a great weekend full of family, friends and celebration. We had watermelon, ice cream, cake and cobbler. We got to worship freely in a church of our choosing. I'd say we had the perfect celebration of our Independence Day. :)

chloe says bye! :)

gettin' crafty.

I am NOT a crafty person. I love art, fashion, interior design. But I don't do crafts.

BUT we did get the dogs a new food and water holder the other weekend at the farmers market.

And I actually decorated it for the puppies!

And that, my friends, is probably pretty close to the extent of my craftiness.

Before I take off, I would like to say CONGRATULATIONS! to Heather and Ben, wonderful friends of ours. They just recently got engaged. And we are SUPER happy for them. :)

That's all.

a good day. :)

Today was a good day. :)

I made it through my first week as a real live teacher alive and with no injuries. There were some crazy times, but nothing can beat the hugs and having the children hold up their work, beaming, saying "Miss Stephanie! Look at what I did!" It's a tiring job but it's worth every ounce of energy spent. And there is nothing in me that wishes I had chosen to do something else with my life.

Nate and I had a Mexican night tonight! Fajitas for two! Which is more like fajitas for about six - SO. MUCH. FOOD.

After dinner, we took the dogs for a walk down to the dock at our apartments. The weather was perfect. And there was nobody down there but us. It was so nice to have some time to relax together. :)

beautiful view from the dock.

watching the boats.

abby LOVES her daddy.

:)

her favorite place to be.

And here is a wonderful video of what happens when you try to get Chloe to do a trick.

Absolutely nothing.

 Most people say she's stupid. I prefer to say she does things on her own terms.

Anyway. Now it's 8:00 and we have the rest of the night ahead of us (and I have a four day weekend ahead of me). And it has been a good day. We are definitely blessed :)

Oh, I almost forgot. Nate just reminded me. We went to Carowinds yesterday for the bajillionth time so far this year and rode the Intimidator. And Nate took his iPod ON THE ROLLERCOASTER and took video. So here it is. In case you can't tell from the video, my anxiety level was through the roof because I thought he was going to drop it. I was seriously having a panic attack. I'm glad we have the video now, though. So yeah. Here it is. Enjoy. :)

I'll try to get to work on my trust30 post later on tonight. If not, it'll be posted in the morning.

What is something you've been blessed with today?

two years.

So Nate and I have been married for two years now. And I almost can't believe it. We've made it out alive and both in one piece, which is good. They have been crazy years - full of highs and lows and twists and turns - and I wouldn't trade them for the world. And now we're heading straight into year number three. And I can't wait to see what it has in store for us. :)

I have been wanting to go to Savannah, GA for the LOOOOOONGEST time now. So my wonderful hubby booked a weekend for us right in the middle of downtown to celebrate our anniversary. The trip was perfect. And I have a feeling we'll be going back.

And now for the pictures...

This was the restaurant in our hotel where we had the most delicious dinner!

I was surveying all the options...

BIG. EXPENSIVE. Boats.

Pretty view. :)

Us in front of the pretty view. :)

Us again.

The hubby!

The Marshall House. I loved this hotel. But I don't know if I could ever stay here now that I know it's supposed to be haunted.

Trying to get a picture of the church...

One of the twenty-four squares in Savannah. Beautiful!

I fell in love with the trees.

And I took a lot of pictures of them!

City Hall.

More trees. :)

The city market.

I found a thrift store! And an awesome new purse!

More city market.

:)

Girl Scouts fo' life!

It took me a really long time to get a picture of the Girl Scouts emblem. So Nate napped on the bench.

It was SO hot I almost jumped in too.

Our lovely room with our big, comfy bed.

Goodbyeeeeeee Savannah!

Hello Tybee Island lighthouse!

This house was for sale. And I absolutely love it. So if someone would like to buy it for Nate and me and move it to Charlotte, that would be AMAZING.

<3

I saw this ring at the festival down by the river and fell in love with it and Nate bought it for me and I was SOOOOOO excited. :)

Nate passed out after going to the gym so he could pig out on dinner.

I FINALLY got a picture of the church. With my freaking iPod. 

The view from our hotel room!

The view from the beach on Tybee Island!

So yep. All in all, we had a GREAT trip. And could not think of a better way to have celebrated our second married year together. Now onto number three... :)