Our Savannah Souvenir

Back in December, I told you that Drew successfully completed basic training and safely made it home. Hooray! What I did not tell you is that between his graduation and our return to Texas we took a trip to Savannah, Georgia. If you aren’t familiar with this beautiful gem of a city, then you absolutely need to add a visit to your to-do list. I had been once before, on a week-long trip with a fun group of social studies teachers, but Drew had never visited, even though he had lived in Georgia for several years. I was so excited to plan our trip so I could show him why I had immediately fallen in love with Savannah, and since we would be there just before Christmas, I knew there would be an extra sense of excitement in the air.

The holiday decorations and atmosphere were exactly what I had hoped they would be; they made the evenings that much more beautiful.

I love white lights, and these were strung across the street for blocks in each direction. It was gorgeous.

After Drew’s graduation ceremony on Fort Benning, we enjoyed lunch with his parents and then departed for the opposite side of the state, arriving at our hotel just before dinnertime. I spent a somewhat ridiculous amount of time researching and choosing the hotel for our long weekend and I am glad that I did. We were on the western edge of the historic district, not on busy Bay Street, but within easy walking distance of everything. It was THE perfect location for us. Plus, we paid a little less than what we would have for one of the Bay Street hotels, but we got much more for our money.

B Historic Savannah Hotel

For our first evening in Savannah I wanted to get Drew down to see the river as soon as possible, so I made a reservation for dinner at River House Seafood. We got a little bit lost while finding the restaurant, but we had fun along the way. Since Drew was still wearing his uniform, a street performer played the U.S. Army Song as we walked down the street; I was pretty proud to be on the arm of my soldier.

The entire weekend was amazing and so pleasant. The city was adorned with white lights and Christmas decorations. The weather was beautiful and, although the pre-holiday season is a peak time for tourism, it didn’t feel too crowded or busy. As we browsed through shops and tourist attractions, we hoped that we would find some special souvenir by which we could remember our trip. We contemplated Christmas ornaments, art prints, coffee mugs, and other trinkets, but nothing seemed to excite us. Instead, we took lots of pictures, walked miles back and forth across town, indulged in delicious lunches and dinners, and enjoyed being back together again.

We loved watching the container ships go up and down the river. They are quite an impressive sight.

Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was beautiful.

We enjoyed a peaceful stroll through Forsyth Park after Saturday evening Mass and before going to dinner.

I wonder if the army is looking for super models?

Waiting for our walking tour to begin. We highly recommend Free Savannah Walking Tours.

Posing with the statue of the Waving Girl.

Everyone recommended that we dine at The Olde Pink House and we are so glad we did. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip because the food was incredible and the staff went above and beyond our expectations.

An unforgettable memory: Drew's plate of congratulatory strawberries courtesy of The Olde Pink House. He would probably like for me to note that he now has a full head of hair.

On our drive home we were lucky to see this fragment of a rainbow - a beautiful reminder of the many blessings in our lives.

We left Savannah feeling happy and rested, wishing we could have stayed longer, and already wondering when we would return. Stopping in Birmingham to visit Drew’s parents broke up the journey home, and we pulled into our driveway less than one week after leaving Fort Benning. Since we were immediately thrown back into real life, it took us a while to get completely unpacked and nearly three months later I feel like we have yet to catch a break from piles laundry. Anyway, being back under one roof again was great but also stressful. I found myself more easily irritated and I wondered if I was just having a hard time readjusting; it can be tough to transition from being a team, to having to be a one woman show, and then going back to the team again. My husband is unbelievably patient and understanding, but I know my moodiness was affecting him, and I was even annoying myself!

Don't get me wrong, I certainly have my cranky days here and there (who doesn't?), but perpetual irritability was not normal for me and as the days wore on, I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew the cause. So, after my morning shift on December 22^nd, I went home and took a pregnancy test. The instructions on the package said to wait at least two minutes, and up to ten, for results. I swear to you, not thirty seconds later, there it was: PREGNANT! Just to be sure and to help the shock wear off, I took another test, even though it was expired and, once again, POSITIVE!

I was positively pregnant.

No wonder we had struggled to find the perfect souvenir when we were in Savannah; we had the best souvenir with us the whole time, we just did not know it. :)

Proof positive! (Pun intended.)

Introducing Baby Smith, due August 27th!

Our 9 week ultrasound photo
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Craft Closet Makeover

When I initially interviewed at The Container Store I was assigned the task of choosing an area in my home that needed organization and selecting a product from the store to solve the problem. I chose the craft area of our apartment and now, one year later and in our house, I have finally gotten it done!

You know I love to be crafty. I am happiest when I am painting pegs or crocheting a blanket or scarf. It is hard for me to just sit still without also working on a project of some sort. This innate craftiness manifests itself by the many supplies that sometimes get out of control. Felt, paint, paper, markers, wood, fabric, and yarn everywhere. Here at the house, I am lucky enough to have an entire closet that we have devoted to craft supplies. Sadly, it isn't large enough to fit everything, but I knew it had the potential to hold quite a lot. Once it got to the point where the door couldn't really be closed and boxes of supplies were scattered about the floor, I knew I had to get to work.

Oh, the shame! Yvette and Drew, I don't know how you put up with this for so long.

 

I had initially planned to tackle this challenge in November, but instead I redid Drew's clothes closet, because I am awesome like that. However, I had already removed the only existing shelf from the craft closet and that served to exacerbate the overflow problem. Drew is two months into restarting his quest to complete his bachelor's degree, and since the "office" and the "craft room" are one and the same, I needed to get organized for his sake.

Off to The Container Store I went for some shelving! I planned to sort and organize all of my supplies into clear shoe boxes and stack them on the shelves. Upon realizing that some of the shoe boxes would be quite heavy and that I wanted easier access to them, I determined that adding three more shelves would be ideal. I also had the brilliant idea to install a very short shelf at the bottom where we could store broken down boxes for mailing gifts to family throughout the year; they take up so much less space this way!

Five shelves was the initial plan.

Eight shelves made for a much better solution.

Some of the shoe boxes needed a little bit more help getting organized than others. The Like-It Bricks were a great choice to get our office supplies all tidy. The bricks can be divided and, when stacked, the top brick can slide back and forth. These shoe boxes make me happy. :)

I also LOVE the gift wrap door rack that I installed. I frequently sell wall and door racks to customers and, although they are quite popular, I was skeptical about whether I would like it. Our gift wrap and ribbon had no organization whatsoever before this, and since they were stored in several different places, this is a tremendous improvement. Now everything is together and I have room for even more supplies!

Over Door Gift Wrap Organizer

The clear boxes make it fairly easy to see what is inside each one, but for the sake of convenience, I bought chalkboard labels and chalk ink pens so that I could label each box. They are erasable, so I can rewrite the labels in the likely event that my crafty interests change in the future. The closet looks packed, but it is orderly and I like it that way. Everything has its place and I now have two empty drawers in the dresser I use as a workspace - perfect for yarn and fabric and works in progress.

All things crafty are easy to see and easy to find!

I am a happy crafty camper!

Disclaimer, because you never know when people will freak out over nothing: I do work for The Container Store, however, I receive no benefit for talking about my job or the store's products on this blog. Unless you consider getting great joy out of sharing something I love a benefit.

Welcome Home, Drew!

Keeping up with the blog has been really difficult for the last four months for a very important reason:

Last December, Drew enlisted in the National Guard and began attending once-a-month weekend drill exercises here in Arlington while he waited to be sent off to Basic Training. On the morning of this past August 4th, I dropped Drew off at the airport and we began a four-month adventure. He would have a week and a half of in-processing, followed by ten weeks of Basic Training, followed by six weeks of Advanced Individual Training. I would be trying to stay busy at home and keep our house from falling apart.

It was so tough to write posts for the blog because I did not want to announce that he was gone. I felt like that would have been the equivalent of standing on the roof shouting, “Hello, creepy people of the Internet! The man of the house is away from home! Come on over!” Maybe I am paranoid, but better safe than sorry, I guess. I will share more about my experience in later posts, but for now I will spoil the ending by announcing that my incredible husband is now home again, he is an Army National Guard Cavalry Scout (Hooah!), and our house is still standing (Victory!).

You may have seen some of the projects I did around the house while he was gone; I finished the pantry and I recently painted the fireplace. I also cleaned up after that huge storm. I didn’t want to change TOO much before Drew returned, but I had one more trick up my sleeve prior to his homecoming. I got an elfa shelving coupon at work and I originally planned on redoing my craft closet because it is an atrocious mess. After I got that closet designed, I decided to see what it would cost to redo Drew’s closet. In a moment of TOTAL SELFLESSNESS and pure WIFELY AWESOMENESS, I splurged and purchased Drew’s closet and am saving the craft closet for a later time.

The shelving in Drew’s closet was broken and wobbly and I didn’t want him to have to come home to such a junky space. I had so much fun with the demolition of the shelving, patching a giant gash in the wall, painting the walls, and installing the shelving that I pretty much designed myself. When I open his closet door I feel proud and accomplished and, quite frankly, a little impressed. I learned in the last four months that I am capable of much more than I would have previously given myself credit for. I would never have attempted something like this on my own before Drew left. Drew taught me a lot about basic drywall construction when we did the pantry and I was trained on elfa design and installation in August, so the actual tasks themselves weren’t all that daunting to me anymore. Having the motivation and the drive and the ability to do these things was awesome.

BEFORE

Demolition! How does someone even get a gash that large into the wall? The only explanation I can come up with is that someone must have dragged the pole that hung across there against the drywall during installation.

It's not perfect, but I think I patched that hole up pretty well!

Shelving installed!

Lower half

Plenty of room for accessories!

Upper half

Shelves

Pain-in-the-butt-to-install-hook-rack #1

Pain-in-the-butt-to-install-hook-rack #2

 

AFTER

On a more profound level, I had not fully realized just how great Drew has been for me until he left. For three years he has done nothing but build me up, and although I have always noticed and appreciated that about him, I finally got a chance to deeply feel the impact he has had on me. I think I exuded a new level of confidence that my family and friends noticed; I hope it came across as happiness and joy (and not arrogance). Amazingly, even though he was away, Drew still made me believe in myself and I think this project was a great way to wrap up my time at home alone before leaving to retrieve him. Drew loves his new closet and all I have left to say is, “Welcome home!”

Disclaimer: I do work for The Container Store, however, I receive no benefit for talking about my job or the store's products on this blog. All opinions expressed on this blog are my own and not those of The Container Store or any of its employees.

A Fireplace Facelift

It has been over a month since The Big Storm rolled through here. There are still some big branches in the backyard that need to be cut up and bundled and put out by the curb, but that will get done one of these days. The time I spent cleaning up the yard filled up my house work quota for a while, but in the last couple of weeks I have been feeling the urge to get some more projects done around here.

From the moment I first stepped foot in our house, one of the things that bothered me the most was the paint color on the walls in the first floor living spaces. And it isn't just the fact that it is an epically boring shade of khaki, but that it was indiscriminately painted on everything that wasn't the ceiling. Did the built in cabinets really need to match the walls? Were you really too lazy to paint the doors a different color than the walls? Did the fireplace really need to blend in to the terribly painted wood paneling in the family room? Yuck.

Where is the fireplace? I can't see it because someone painted it the same color as the walls.

As Drew and I prepared to buy the house we daydreamed about our future there, inspiring Drew to take a picture from the listing and transform it through Photo Shop to show me how wonderful the room would look with the changes I envisioned. Personally, I think the white fireplace, which is NOT the same color as the walls (can I get a "DUH!"?), makes the room look taller and more open and is a great focal point. Hopefully someday we can make that flooring happen, too.

Oh, the magic that is Photo Shop!

So, after months of procrastination, I decided that having a whole day off of work was a sign that I was supposed to paint the fireplace today. One of my former coworkers coached me by telling me that if the existing paint came off with nail polish remover that it was acrylic based and I would be good to go painting over it without primer. I used paint with primer already in it anyway, but it was nice to not have to do too much extra prep work. I cleaned the brick really well, taped off the edges (which I realized I didn't do so well after I removed the tape. Oops! I am choosing to blame the yucky wood panel walls), and got to work!

FIREPLACE BEFORE:

FIREPLACE AFTER:

Dear fireplace, I am going to let you dry for a few days and then I am going to decorate you for Christmas and you are going to be GORGEOUS! Love, Angie

What do you think?

The Big Storm

Loooong time, no blogging. In the last month and a half I stained a bookshelf, got some great training at work, took a trip to visit my nieces and Sister-in-law in San Antonio, celebrated my birthday by buying a pair of cowgirl boots, went to the wedding of one of my best friends in Maryland, got more great training at work, and began attending the young adult group at my church. I also learned how to crochet, and I am a wee bit addicted. You can understand, then, how I may have been distracted and slacking in the blogging department.

Not much has changed around the house since I finished the pantry, until recently, and it wasn’t by choice. Maybe you heard about the big storm that came through Texas? If not, let me just tell you that it was one of the scariest storms I have ever experienced because it came on so fast and it was so strong. A college campus a mile from my house lost half of the roof on a huge building. One of my coworkers has a flag pole in her front yard - it was bent in half. Basically, I expected to see a tornado coming towards my house. We were without power for 64 hours which, although it was a totally new experience for me, really wasn't bad, it was just unexpected.

Spoiler alert; the house is just fine, but some of our tree branches didn’t fare as well. I have spent many hours in the last week raking the yard and braking down tree limbs and branches. 23 garbage bags later, the yard is almost clear. Anyway, as I went into potential survival mode that afternoon, about a thousand thoughts ran through my mind. I tried to replicate them in real-time style and, for your entertainment, here they are:

Last Thursday afternoon I was upstairs, being all crafty, when the wind picked up out of nowhere, swirling leaves all around the house. In the few remaining moments I had with the Internet, I checked the weather reports: severe thunderstorm, hail, wind, and possible tornadoes. My favorite!

When it pours down rain here, our driveway turns into rapids that rip dirt, grass, and plants out of our yard.

Add caption

Electricity? Forget about it. It was out within minutes of the storms arrival. Being someone who loves weather updates during storms, I was not happy about this.

“Dear God, please don’t let anything happen to the house while Drew isn't here. Or to me.”

Text Daddy, because he is even more obsessed with weather reports than I am.

“I really need to get that weather emergency box together, with our radios that get weather reports. Where is the only cheap flashlight that we own? Found it. Whew!”

It was the first time in my life that I really thought there might be a tornado in my midst. The wind tore down tree limbs and dropped them in the backyard, only feet away from the house.

The backyard aftermath

“Do I feel like going out there to get the car into the garage with the door that needs to be opened and closed manually? Probably not. The hail isn’t that big. Thank goodness.”

Grab purse, grab water bottles. Go to the bathroom. Grab dog. Head to pantry, put snacks into purse and leave it there, just in case. It’s kind of awesome that the pantry is the “safe room.” We need more snacks.

“It has been so long since I have experienced a power outage . . . MANY years . . . if we ever lose the ability to generate and distribute electricity, life is not gonna be fun.”

When you lose electricity, you eat canned tuna for dinner and you prepare it by candlelight. Very classy.

Walk laps inside the house, look out every window and pray the storm stays under control. Hold my friend's shaking dog, tell him it will be okay, it calms me down, too. Wipe rain water off the stove because, yes, it rained so hard that it rained through the exhaust fan vent.

The wind died down, the tiny hail melted, and eventually the pouring rain turned to a drizzle and then gave way to gorgeous sunshine. I thanked God and high-fived the dog because hey, we don’t have power and I don’t know what I am going to do about the small jungle that fell into my backyard, but we are alright and it could have been so much worse.

I can't begin to express how lucky we are that the branches only fell on the grass. They all missed power lines, the house, and the grill.

"I 'get' to clean up this mess!" (It was actually great exercise.)

I couldn't let those branches sit there without giving them a photo shoot first.