Our First Visitors

Although our house looked like a construction zone this week, we swept aside the sawdust and welcomed our very first visitors in our new home.....Jeremie's grandparents, AKA "Grandmother" and "Grandad". They were one their way back to Mississippi from their Western Road Trip, which was a celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary. They had already hit up Jackson Hole, Mount Rushmore, The Grand Tetons, and Old Faithful. But they were equally excited for the next attraction to be Dallas : )  J had to work a half day on Thursday, so I actually had them all to myself, and we had a blast! We started off with breakfast and chatting in our pajamas, then I took them for a spin around the neighborhood, and  we went downtown to the JFK Museum. Later we met up with Jeremie (or "Sunshine" as Grandmother refers to him) and visited the Dallas Arboretum, which was absolutely gorgeous. There was every type of plant and flower known to man, plus an amazing glass sculpture exhibit and a pumpkin village which was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Here are a few pics from their visit!

Saturday Punchlist

There isn't really one thing that I have to blog about so I'm going old school bullet point list: 

• For all of you who are requesting pictures of the house: I would LOVE to be able to post pictures, trust me; but we're not completely finished with any one room in the house that I'm confident enough to post a picture of. The bedroom is getting pretty close, but the lack of bedskirt and lampshades still wrapped in plastic made me decide against it.  I was afraid it'd show up on Pinterest as a "What Not to Do."  
• Projects that have been completed: painted the bedroom, loft, and started the upstairs bathroom today. Changed 80's gold doorknobs to bronze. Changed 80's black electrical covers to Ivory. Changed 80's doorbell to one that is safe to touch.  It's the little things that add up to BIG $$$ and lots of time. All this being said: I LOVE our home, it is so fun finally being a homeowner.
• J started a new big project today: he is building an entertainment center! He has been very strategic in his planning and it's going to look great. BUT, any big construction project can be nerve wracking, so his prayer at suppertime last night sound like this:  "Dear Lord, thank you so much for this day. Please bless our efforts on our new project and grant me the artistic ability that I don't have to do it right."  I cracked up. I think the Good Lord did too. 
• Our new house is close to EVERYTHING, including the new Trader Joe's which is a specialty grocery store. Jeremie and I do "App (Appetizer) Night" every Friday, and we thought we had it perfected. Usually it consist of cheese, olives, salami, bread, etc. Trader Joe's has opened up a whole new world to us.  Mac n' Cheese Bites. Mini Tamales. Wantons. Twenty extra pounds. 
• I have started a new bible study on Genesis. I'm gonna be honest-I automatically thought: "Genesis....I know all the stories in Genesis"......Oh, but I hear God cracking up again......there is more packed in those first two verses than I ever even knew.  Looking forward to what it ahead!  
• The Bulldogs are undefeated. This bullet point list is now complete. 

Happy Trails from the Wells!

In Loving Memory: Our Papaw

A midst all the joys of life, we all know there are also sorrows. On August 21st, Jeremie's grandfather-more lovingly known as "Papaw" passed away. We are sad to have such an important person missing from our family, but as it was JOYFULLY mentioned so many times at his funeral, the Lord gained another member of his kingdom. Papaw LOVED the "homeplace" (in Beaumont where J grew up), and Jeremie and his Dad have followed in his footsteps; I don't think you could find 3 more people who love to walk around that pond more. Fortunately, Papaw was able to visit with his whole family in July, and even got to meet his great-grandson.  : ) What a blessing, and just another way that the Lord shows that he orchestrates all things. Thank you, Papaw for loving and leading your family......now THREE generations. : ) 

"Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  Psalm 23:6

Home. Sweet. Home.

So we are FINALLY moved into our first home!!! I am so excited to finally be able to say that we own a house. Ever since we got married, we have been house hunting, and came so close a couple times; I was devastated when those homes didn't work out.  BUT- now I see that God had a different path laid out before us! (A path that was 876 miles away to be specific.) 

We almost found this house on accident. We started looking in the beginning of July and saw several homes that just didn't work for us. They looked great online, but let's just say the photographers were really talented.  Therefore, we decided I needed to do drive-bys before actually going in. So I pretty much spent an entire week driving all over the DFW area. (I called it TourDallas.com, because I really felt like I did.)  The drive-bys weren't successful because of neighborhoods, homes being on powerlines, etc, and there was nothing closer than a 45 minute commute for J.  So that Saturday, J joined the tour and we did more drive-bys. After again seeing nothing we were interested in, we were frustrated, hungry, and honestly, both had to go to the bathroom after being in the car for 4 hours. (I admit, we were not being patient Christian examples.) Before swinging into a Mexican restaurant to drown our cares in cheese dip, a nearby house popped up on J's phone (thanks to the Realtor.com app) and we decided to swing by, thinking it was probably a waste of time. To my happy surprise, the neighborhood was adorable and so was the house.  It was an older, established neighborhood with...wait for it....TREES! Who knew they actually grow trees in Texas? 

We were cautiously excited and knew we need to move fast. So the next day, our sweet realtor, Helen, met us at the house for a tour. (Plug for our realtor: this was a Sunday afternoon and she met us literally on her way back from her Colorado vacation. She. Is. Amazing.) We LOVED the house and put in our offer the next day. Begin the waiting. I was eating chewable Pepto like it was candy. We finally got the counter back (in the middle of the night) and accepted! Inspection went well enough and we signed our lives away on August 16th! I ALMOST cried during the closing, but didn't want to embarrass J. I was that excited. 

That weekend we got to work on fixing enhancing some of the colors. Painting looks so fun and romantic on HGTV, but all it gave me was a back ache. BUT, it looks great and it was fun knowing we were doing home improvements on OUR house! 

                              

We moved everything in on Monday with the help of our little moving angels Dee and Vee. They helped us move into our rental, and they are the jolliest, hardest working movers ever. They are also cousins with Beyonce, so maybe I'll have her at my housewarming party. Couldn't have done it without them. 

 This week has still been a little chaotic with finishing the rental and weeding through boxes, but we are so happy to be here. J loves the commute, I love being settled, and Manny loves the neighborhood because it is over-populated with bunnies. All is Well(s).