Breaking News from our Hawk's Nest: We're Growing!

Its been a-w-h-i-l-e! I have missed writing in this little blog so much. I have good reason though, and I am pretty positive you will forgive me, and I am working through not being frustrated with myself for failing to keep up with our lives via blog. Anyway, on to the breaking news! Ready?

We are having a BABY! 

I am typing those words and it still shocks me that I am talking about me and Jay. oh my. parents!?! Yup, thats us, mom and dad... wow.

We are SO excited, and a little scared, slightly overwhelmed, and very, very blessed. Jay and I began praying this summer that when we did decide to start trying to have a baby that it wouldn't be a stressful, challenging time... little did we know that God was about to rock our world with quite a surprise. I have had some thyroid and other hormone problems over the past year and we honestly didn't think a baby was possible until things were more leveled out. This was fine with us,  because in our neat little life plan we had fixing up our new house next on the to - do list {not buying baby furniture!} In the middle of August we figured out that we should have been praying for our little one and not for the possibility of a little one!

We mainly feel so blessed because God has given us a child in his time, not ours. What a relief, because my neat little life lists never work out anyway. We are just trusting God's timing and thankful for His hand in our lives.

You want the basic short and simple fact list?

Due Date: April 4th, 2012
How far along now: Almost 12 weeks!
Boy/ Girl: Jay thinks Girl, and I think I am thinking Boy... I think about it for to long and convince myself of the opposite. A doctor in our OBGYN is a ultrasound specialist so we should hopefully find out in a week and a half!
Family Reactions: THRILLED! They are all so excited and we are beyond blessed to have their love and support in our lives.
Morning Sickness: oh. my. It is all day sickness and it has been kicking my butt! It was been so, very terrible and kinda scary at times. I keep trying to remind myself that great things take lots of hard work... and Satan likes to steal all the joy from things that God has ordained. Jay and my sweet Mama have been taking good care of me and our little one.

Anyone have any tips, thoughts, or suggestions? This new mama is itching for all the information I can get!

No Bake Cookies!

Hi, my name is Katherine and I am exhausted. Too exhausted to blog recently, and too exhausted to tackle the project of editing all the many before and after photos of our newly painted up-stairs. So instead I made cookies. But to be honest I was too exhausted to even make cookies that you bake, so alas No Bake Cookies!

I am sure you have had a delicious variety of No Bake Cookies in the your life, and you may even have your own recipe {if so please share... always looking for different variations to try!} but this is our recipe and they always turn out awesome. They are Jay's favorite, and I love that they are so simple and easy!

One of my roommates from college, Leigha, made these cookies often, and I still think of her when I make them :)

3 Cups of Rolled Oats

2/3 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup Butter

2 Cups Sugar

1/3 Cup Cocoa

1/2 Cup Milk

2 tsp Vanilla

First, measure out your Oats & your Peanut Butter and set them aside. Also get a couple of cookie sheets covered with wax paper or aluminum foil will work too. {Makes for really easy clean up!} 

Melt Butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add Sugar and stir to combine. Add Milk, Cocoa, & Vanilla. Once mixed well, add Peanut Butter, stirring until melted. 

Remove from Heat and add Oats. Quickly drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheets and cool on the counter or in the refrigerator. Makes 4 dozen cookies. Enjoy!

our life updates in a random list.

1. WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE! A week ago today we signed the papers and became legit homeowners. We are thrilled and loving having our first Virginia home! {On a side note it took me 2.7 seconds to walk inside the door of our new house, up the stairs, and begin tearing Mickey Mouse off of our bathroom walls.}                                                                        

2. We have now begun what I am fondly calling "de-gold-ifying" our home. It basically consists of removing every inch of lighting, kitchen hardward, door knobs, outlet covers, and anything else you could imagine being gold in a 1980's home from our sight. It is freeing and uplifting to my soul. 

3. Earlier this week, around midnight, Jay and I decided it would be much easier to simply throw our almost-shag teal carpet out the second story bonus room window onto the driveway, instead if hauling it down the stairs and through the kitchen to the garage. It was MUCH easier! And its gone! Every inch of ugly carpet is gone. As for our rational in the timing, I really am still unsure as to why we began this at such an odd hour. I think we were hoping our neighbors would be asleep and unaware of the craziness of their newest neighbors. 

4. I am going to Bolivia. A woman at our new church opened a hospital in Santa Cruz, Bolivia about 10 years ago called Mission of Hope. I am blessed with the opportunity to go for a week in september in a surgical trip with about 30 other nurses, surgeons, and translators to assist with GYN and General Surgery procedures. 

5. I am obsessed with my new Shark Vac then Steam Mop! It seriously has revolutionized my cleaning. I know that sounds intense but it has been that amazing. It is SO easy to use and gets up lots of dog hairs and crumbs and house remodeling dust. The steam heats up quick and you just throw the mop portion in the washing machine and reuse. I really am unsure as to how I lived without this vacuum for so long. 

6. I get to meet my sweet nephew in less than 2 months! I'm counting down the days till our little Gavin arrives :)

7. No Pudge Brownies are rocking my world. My bff Kate told me about this bright pink box of single serving brownies and I am in love. It is a quick, 1 person dessert that is semi-healthy and easy to make. 1 scoop of plain yogurt, 2 scoops of brownie mix, and 1 minute in the microwave. Try. It. Tonight. 

8. My biblestudy just started a new book and it is so great so far. Have you heard of "Bad Girls of the Bible"? Just like the above brownies, it has also been rocking world. I am extremely blessed by having a group of women who enjoy fellowship and God Word! 

9. This blog has been such a fun way for me to keep a log of all the adventures and changes and updates to our life. It always amazes and humbles me when I hear people share with me {in real life or in blog world} that they enjoyed reading my ramblings and thoughts and projects. If you read my tiny little blog, I would love to have you as a follower and to hear from you too! Just click on the followers link {and I will do a little dance in our newly painted un-mickey mouse house!} Thanks :)

10. House update photos coming very soon!  

Chick-fil-A "Unplugged"

One of my favorite events from our crazy 1 year anniversary celebration at Chick-fil-A was our "Unplugged" concert. Bethany had a vision and it was awesome! If I didn't think she loved us so much, I would be concerned she was pursuing a full-time job in concert planning. 

We had four awesome bands / musicians play and they all did amazing. Caleb from the band Brightwork joined us {and if you've never heard of them you should most definitely check them out!}. We also had a few of the Young Life leaders in the area who are students are JMU play with some of their high school students from Waynesboro HS. Nathan & Justin Williams who work for us at Chick-fil-A are super talented and played with two of their friends from church. It was a great variety and so fun to hear all the awesome talent. 

It was such a successful night and so many people in the community enjoyed the event that we are planning another Chick-fil-A Unplugged part 2 for October!

Also, all these neat photos were captured by Bethany! 

Cow Appreciation Day is a Big Deal in Our Household...

Did any of y'all dress up for Chick-fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day for free chicken? You'll have to bear with me for a few minutes while I share a few of our fun photos from the big day at Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro...

 We made headbands & scarves for our gang

 We were blessed with a whole "herd" from one of our favorite local retirement homes. They were such great sports! 

How cute are they? :)

 Lots of great homemade cow attire...

 and TONS of adorable kiddos in Cow PJ's

 a little angel cow!

 Love our Bethany ...

 and our Mrs. Joyce! 

 I could just eat him up! 

 Our kid cow joined the fun out on the patio

 And Miss Bailey is so stinkin' precious! 

 This "Cow"boy & his mama were too much fun too!

 a couple of Sassy Cows

Love these cute guys!

It was such a great day of celebration!

What we have been referring to as our "Week of Craziness"

My sweet friend Bethany, who works with me at our Chick-fil-A doing Marketing at Events and all that jazz, and I have been planning little Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro's 1 year anniversary celebration. 

I CANNOT BELIEVE ITS BEEN A WHOLE YEAR! 

It has taken a couple months of planning, but we are loving all that we have going on! Basically, we kicked off a week of celebration with Chick-fil-A's national beloved holiday, Cow Appreciation Day, and have had free giveaways and 2 - 3 events each day from July 8th through Saturday the 16th. All of our events went smoothly with only a few minor hic-ups, but the major challenge was keeping up with all the little details like sending out daily update emails and facebook, oh and remembering to eat dinner. 

There is lots I want to share about all the details of the week but here is a few pictures from our Lowes Kid's Clinic turned Chick-fil-A Kids Clinic...

You see, Lowes employees were supposed to come to Chick-fil-A and teach kids how to build bird houses and tow-trucks, but they canceled on us at the last minute, so we improvised. Three of us girls figured out how to make bird houses and tow-trucks and had a great time! The kids were so darn cute and the weather was perfect. 

God and I had a little chat and I informed Him that the whole week of craziness was wayyyy beyond anything that I was going to be able to pull off, and He informed me that He already knew that, and He was glad I finally had come to that very obvious conclusion. 

More craziness to come....

Happy Birthday Benny!

My Little, Big Brother is 24 today! Man, we're getting old!

 (Check out those teal shoes with the very stylish white socks.. oh my!)

So thankful to have such a wonderful brother and a great friend. Thank you for all the memories Benny! Hope you have a great day celebrating you!

new home photos {upstairs edition!}

Closing on a house is just a complicated process. period.

Even when you think it is all falling into place, something ends up happening. Of course that was true for us too. We are living / renting our new home until the middle of July. For some reason, our lender needed to see that Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro was going to make it to the exact year mark (on July 15th!). Whoever makes those final lending decisions must not be the biggest fan of Chicken, because he didn't seem to care that it had already been 11 months of a consistent growing business when he informed us 1 week before closing day that we would have to wait until the middle of July.

So, to make a long story short, we decided to rent our new home-to-be instead of our old town house since we were all packed up. It also gave us an opportunity to live in the house and see what projects we most wanted to tackle first. Its been a blessing in disguise because we have been able to narrow down paint colors and carpet for the upstairs without making a rushed decision.

We still have not "moved in" upstairs because of the fact that we are in desperate need of new paint and a carpet change. Instead, Jay, Bella and I have been "camping" on our mattress in the basement.

Jay said to me yesterday, "Do you think that one day our kids will believe the stories we tell them about our weird, little crazy lives?" Who knows if they will believe us, but it sure has been fun so far!

We really are just too stubborn for our own good... but hey, who wants to move their mattress upstairs, then downstairs for new paint and carpet, and then back upstairs? No thanks. I'll take Camp Hawkins in the Basement for 6 weeks :)

So with that said, here are the upstairs pictures...

 Exhibit A: The Pink Room with pansies stenciled on the ceiling. It is plain ugly. All there is to it. 

It also is a tiny little room, and we are pretty positive we are going to move the washer and dryer up to this room to make our laundry room more convenient {and to provide for a pantry off the kitchen}. The wall in the above picture under the shelf is against the Master Bathroom wall, so we feel like we will be able to tie into the main water line for the washer fairly easily, but of course we'll see...

 Exhibit B: Master Bedroom. It really is a great size room. The door closest to the window is the Master Bath and the white door is the walk-in closet. Its not my dream closet, but it is a pretty good size! We are thinking about a beige or toupe color for the walls to go with our bight green bedding... but we're open to suggestions!

This is the view from our Master Bedroom to the Above the Garage Bonus Room. There is also a huge window on the wall opposite the closet in the above picture. I love all the natural light in the room, but it will require some good curtains for sleeping. 

 Exhibit C: The Master Bathroom. I am sure a worse wall paper exists, but this one is pretty terrible! It feels like a dungeon in there.

I managed to avoid photographing the lavender garden tub to the right in the above picture. Our plan is to remove the garden tub and build a much larger walk-in shower. 

Exhibit D: Welcome to the jungle! We have green walls, darker green trim, and teal green carpet. There are also Frog Pulls on the closet doors. Be jealous. This will soon become a guest room and not a themed terror. 

 Exhibit E: The second full bath. The themes continue with Mickey! We have Mickey wall paper and knobs!

It will be an easy fix... the floor and sink and shower are already neutral colors. Just a nice coat of pain and some new lighting. 

 Exhibit F: The Bonus Room / Over the Garage Room / Home Gym Room / Jay's Office Room / Future Playroom. We love the room and all its potential!

So thats the upstairs! There is also another bedroom that is just white right now, that we want to paint. It will be another guest room / hopefully baby room one day. We are in the process of getting estimates for a painter to come at the end of July, and help us get all the trim and the ceilings painted white. Jay and I are having a hard time accepting the fact that we won't be able to do everything ourselves, but the truth is that we just don't have time to do it all. We do plan to do lots of it, because we really do feel like it will be fun to do together, and because Jay is so handy! Thanks for looking, and we'll keep you updated. 

Happy 4th of July Weekend! 

all that i love & all that i strongly dislike about our new home {downstairs edition}

We are loving our new home...well we're loving the potential that is our new home! I finally have uploaded the "before moving-in" pictures, and honestly, the kitchen doesn't look much different right now other than we have our stuff filling the cabinets & counter tops... but, we have a list of priorities to start making the home our own, and while the kitchen is by far my least favorite room, it is functional for now. 

 

Things I Love - the potential :)

Things I STRONGLY Dislike - Everything {especially the hideous wall paper that resembles insects crawling across every inch of wall space, and the horrible cabinet knobs with a huge brass screw through the middle of a white ceramic circle, and the terrible gray tile with brown grout, and the tiny sink that make a squeaking noise every time it is turned on.... and the list could go on, and on, and on! But, all the dislikes make me all that more excited to tackle Project Kicthen!}

 We did rather quickly remove those wonderfully, ugly silk flowers.

 This picture is very dark {sorry!} This is directly opposite the fridge from the last picture. I do LOVE the windows, and the potential for a cute little breakfast nook!

 Behind the open door is our laundry room closet. Our plan is to move the laundry situation upstairs to one of the tiny bedrooms and make more of a laundry / craft / wrapping paper {what girls out there understand how awesome an organized wrapping paper area truly is? Jay doesn't quite get it, but thats okay, his loss} room. We then want to make that closet into a kitchen pantry. I am pretty excited about that switch-a-roo!

 The Dining Room

Things I LOVE - The picture frame molding and the great white trim that doesn't need to be re-painted!

Things I LOATH - the baby pink walls. Worst choice E.V.E.R. for a dining room. 

 We also need to update most of the light fixtures. The gold need to hit the road!

I also want to paint the front door black to match the shutters. 

And, its a given, but the entry way cannot remain baby pink :) 

 We do love the hardwood floors throughout the downstairs, and all the closet space!

 The Half Bath needs to loose that beautiful pansy border...

The Living Room

I Love - All the natural light and the brick fireplace

I Hate - The track lighting and the fact that the crown molding is white while the base molding is a horrible beige color, all in the same room? We don't understand the thought process behind that one... 

We also may want to create a walkway through the wall directly opposite the fireplace into the little office room which opens into the entry way, in order to create more "flow". We're still debating that project, but its a possibility. We are excited to have a home full of possibilities! 

Thanks for touring with me! More pictures of the upstairs bedrooms & bathrooms to come!