Moving to Tennessee

Ok....we are officially in Tennessee! We are celebrating being here for one month now! Life has changed so much in that past month, and I wanted to walk you through some of the big changes! To preface..there will be more pics of the new house decorated as I complete rooms, but I wanted to show you what they looked like during the process!! =)

This is what our living room looked like the day before we moved! The Razorbacks were playing baseball that day and Kyle didn't want to miss it, so the TV was packed last! It's the important things!!

This picture doesn't even sum up this moment! Thank you brother for capturing this sweet moment without us knowing! The good-byes were hard! As this picture was being taken, Mom reminded me of a saying I always said when I was little, "My can do it!" She said I was Miss Independent and never wanted anyone's help. Right as Josh took this picture, she looked at me and said, "Remember Sissy, 'My can do it!'" It was such a sweet moment!

This was at 6am on Tuesday, June 12th and we were about to head out of Little Rock!

The muscles of the moving crew! =) Couldn't have done it without Josh!!

                                      

Like father....like son!!

The sleep medicine the vet gave us for the pups KNOCKED them out. They were so loopy and confused! When we would stop to walk them, they would just wobble around and end up laying down in the grass. It was so sad and hilarious at the same time!

Saying "Hello" to our new home state!

The evening we arrived we unloaded one mattress and set out the rugs to flatten. If you remember, we came during spring break and set one whole room up, so all we needed was the one mattress for the other room to all get a good night's sleep. 10+ hours is a long drive! *That was Kole running through the house!

The movers got there at 8:00am and were completely finished with the moving truck at 9:38am. It was incredible!!!

Kyle helping the movers out along the way!!

Here is the living room...the couch was upside down so we could nail in the felt pads so as to not scratch the hard wood floors!

Kyle's office upstairs...notice the chair and ottoman are laying upside down! That's how the movers unloaded them...haha.

Our master bedroom upstairs...we have the 2 dressers in, but no bed yet! (However, we did sleep wonderfully the night before on our new memory foam mattress)

Kyle took this picture of me because I was so excited to have all of our bedroom furniture in our actual bedroom and have space leftover! (His chest of drawers was in our office in Little Rock because it all wouldn't fit in that room)

Kooper and Kole seem pretty settled in!!

This is the bonus room/game room above the garage! It is a project in and of itself...needless to say!! This was about 2 days into the move! It does look MUCH better now.

The kitchen pretty much unpacked and organized!

The guest bathroom upstairs...I had just steamed my new shower curtain! (I was really excited about this curtain...fell in love with in when I saw it at Target!)

The picture is exciting because we can now fit 1 car in the garage. My school supplies are occupying the other side right now until I get a job, so Kyle has to park outside until that happens!!

The master closet...I AM IN LOVE!!!!

Saying good-bye to the Penske!! I was not sad to see it go...that meant we were finally in our new home!!

The first family pic at our new house!! The pups love their new yard so much!!

We were invited to a Urology Resident dinner our first Friday night, so we finally got a chance to get out of work clothes and get all fancy for the first time! We had an amazing time and met so many wonderful people while we were there!

Now that it is a month in, we are completely settled minus a few pieces of decorations here and there and the game room! There were a lot of rooms I did not get pictures of yet, but they will come! I hope to update soon with the whole house all finished! Kyle is loving his job, but is super busy! He gets up early and comes home late! I am staying busy by working out, cleaning, cooking, running errands and doing everything I can to stay out of this heat right now!! =)

We are blessed beyond belief and thank God everyday for these awesome blessings! We love our new house and are meeting some wonderful people along the way!! These 5 years are going to fly by!!

The Past Few Months...

So much has happened the past few months, and I am terrible at keeping this up to date! I am making myself promise to try since so much will be changing in the coming months! Since it would be impossible (well...not impossible, but take forever) to update you since last August, I will start with this past March!!

My Mom decided she wanted to run/walk the Little Rock 5k, so Kyle, Josh and I decided to join in the "fun"!! And by "fun", I mean...let's get up at 6am to go jog in the cold with 1,000,000 other people who are way faster than you! That sounds "fun"!! I did end up having a great time and met some awesome people along the way! I'm not sure if I'll do one again, but I can at least say I have be in a 5k now....mark that off the bucket list!!

Kyle recently decided to pick back up his hobby of shooting, and what do you need in order to shot?? Oh yes...guns!! He purchased 2 new guns over the past few months. When we were up in NWA, he taught me how to shoot. I can't say I'm great, but I am not terrible!

He really wants me to enjoy this hobby with him, so to persuade me, he bought me a PINK P22 Walther! I had told him the only way I would own a gun is if it was pink, and he researched until he found this one! I suppose we will be having dates at the shooting range now! =)

As many of you know... we have a new home that we will be moving to in just ONE month!!

It is hard to believe it is so close, and what a ride it has already been! 

Our new house we bought in beautiful Knoxville!

We went out on Spring Break to move one load and to have the fence installed (which I am IN LOVE WITH)!!! Here is a picture of us standing in front of it one evening while we were out there!!

The fence making its way up...the company was so detailed and did an amazing job!

We had to leave before they completed it, but the owner sent us a few pictures of the completed fence for us to see.

This is the view of the Smoky Mountains from our backyard! It is an amazing view and one I look forward to seeing everyday!!

Here are a few exciting things about Knoxville:

This is where Kyle will spend a lot of his time during our 5 years there....the University of Tennessee Medical Center!!

This is where I will spend a lot of my time during the next 2 years....the University of Tennessee! I just got accepted to their Graduate School for Educational Administration! I am super excited about the opportunities that will come from this! All of my classes will be online, so I will never actually go to the campus (which will be new and interesting for me)!

I also want to make sure to list my New Discoveries that come with our journey, so here are the ones I have so far:

1. Knoxville does not have Krogers! =( 

2. There is a Target about 10 minutes from my house! =)

3. There is a huge Tanger Outlet (think Branson x3) only 30 minutes away!! =)

4. There are a million different restaurants to try!

5. I'm am to OCD to pack a house up...this will be my biggest struggle!

6. Leaving friends is going to be harder than I thought!

Kyle and I are definitely praying about this journey and asking for your prayers too! It is going to be so bittersweet!! I "promise" to try and keep this updated as much as I can over the next few months!!

Until next time...

Getting Healthy!

To preface: Sorry for all the different fonts...that's what happens when you copy and paste from the internet!! So please ignore...

I know that you are supposed to make New Year's Resolutions on January 1, but as teacher...our New Year starts in August! So in honor of my New Year, I have decided to join.....

I am super excited because I truly believe it will help me learn how to portion and eat healthier during the school year. I have to tell you the dinner I made the other night that was fabulous and only 7 points!!

Baked Chicken

1 spray(s) cooking spray

1 pound(s) Chicken, breast, raw, without skin & bone, four 4 oz halves

1/2 tsp table salt

1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

1 tsp olive oil

2 tsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste

2 tsp rosemary, fresh, chopped

2 tsp parsley, fresh, chopped

1/4 cup(s) canned chicken broth

1/2 medium lemon(s), quartered (for garnish)

• Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a small, shallow roasting pan with cooking spray.
  
  
• Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken to prepared pan and drizzle with oil; sprinkle with lemon juice, rosemary and parsley. Pour broth around chicken to coat bottom of pan.
  
  
• Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Garnish with fresh lemon and serve. Yields 1 chicken breast half per serving.
• 
  
• AND........
• 
  
• Creamy Corn
• 
• 2 tsp butter
  
• 1/4 cup(s) scallion(s), minced
• 2 1/2 cup(s) frozen corn kernels, or fresh corn (no need to thaw frozen corn)
• 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup(s) fat-free skim milk
• 1/8 tsp table salt, or more to taste
• 1/8 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste
• 
  
• • Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add scallions and sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Add corn and sauté 1 minute to heat through (or slightly longer if using frozen corn). Add flour and stir to coat corn and scallions. Add milk and bring to a simmer.
    
    
  • Reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, until mixture thickens, about 10 to 12 minutes; season to taste with salt and pepper. Yields about 1/2 cup per serving.
  
  
  These two put together turned out to be such a yummy dinner! I am super excited about this journey and how healthy I will become!
  
  
  In other news.....Kyle left Sunday for Birmingham, so I have been riding solo for 3 days now! Kyle is having a great time and has loved everyone he has met so far! I am gearing back up for school with 2 more meetings, then I will have to be there from August 8th on! I cannot wait to meet my new kids and get into a normal routine!!
  
  
  I hope you all have a great week and try to stay cool in these crazy hot days!!

Every Accomplishment Starts with a Decision to Try

“If you wait to do everything until you’re sure it’s right, you’ll probably never do much of anything.” – Win Borden

So I could not be more excited for our dear friends Cheska and Brett!! They just received news yesterday that they are moving to New Jersey where he will be working in a church in the technology department! This is something they have really been praying about lately and this amazing door opened a few weeks ago. The Lord stepped in and took over the rest!! What an amazing journey to go on...

So here is a little history about Cheska and Brett and how we know them so well! Cheska is actually Kyle's best friend growing up. They have known each other their whole lives and have been close that whole time. Brett came around to our weekly game nights about 3-4 years ago. They had met at camp and she really wanted for the "game night crew" to meet him to see what we thought. Well, we immediately fell in love with him and his humor.

They have been such a big part of our lives over the past several years, and so we headed out tonight to wish our farewells to them as they prepare to leave! They are not leaving for 3 weeks, but since Kyle is leaving Sunday...we wanted to make sure and get our hugs in!!

Before I show pictures from tonight, I wanted to recap just a small amount of all the memories we have together! I could add hundreds of pictures, but I just added the main ones!!

Melissa, Kyle and Cheska getting their pictures taken together as best friends (2007)

"Family" Christmas - this sums up everything about our friends (2009)

Moe, Kristen, Brett, Cheska, me and Kyle at Cheska and Brett's Wedding Rehearsal

Floating the Buffalo (2008)

Camping Trip (2010)

4th of July (2011)

These next pictures came from our different weddings!!

I am sad to say we do not have a group picture from our own wedding, but this is Cheska and Brett being fabulous at our Reception!! (2009)

Here we all are at Brett and Cheska's Wedding (2009)

Kyle, Moe and Brett at Kristen and Moe's Wedding (2010)

Cheska, Kristen and Moe at Kristen and Moe's Wedding (2010)

I am so happy for them and I can't wait to to go visit them in New Jersey! We love you both so much and are looking forward to all God is going to do in your lives!!

Away Rotations

Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and worn with thanks.

Thomas Goodwin

We have had several exciting things happen over the past couple of weeks that I would love to share with you. First of all, as you all know Kyle did get into an internship in Birmingham, AL for the month of August. He leaves in two weeks to work under some amazing doctors there. We also just found out that he will be spending the month of September in Knoxville, TN interning with the teaching hospital there. You may be wondering what happened to Nashville, TN....he did apply there, but they already had all their interns booked for the month of September so they did not have room for him!! No worries to us, though, because Knoxville is a great town as well. The last and probably most exciting news is that Kyle just found out that he received a 4.0 in medical school!! YEA!!! Some of you may wander...as I did....how he knows that is what he will graduate with since he still has one year to go?!?! He knows that because in 4th year, it is pass or fail! He either passes his monthly rotations or fails them!! No more tests (other than a BIG one) and no more assignments....just interning!

As I am sitting on the floor writing this up, Kyle is sound asleep on the floor here in the den. These 4:30am mornings catch up to him sometimes and as many of you know...once he lies down...he is OUT!!!! He is in his urology rotation here at UAMS right now. He wanted to spend a month in it here before he left so he would be more comfortable and knowledgable when he went away for these 2 months. He has already got to help out in some pretty awesome surgeries and has met some great people that will help to influence his future.

As much as I hate to see him leave for 2 months, it could not be a better two months with my schedule! August and September are crazy months for teachers as we prep for the first day of school and survive the first month. I have meetings from August 1 on, so I am extremely blessed that he will be gone when I am my busiest. I know that time will fly by and that the Lord is giving me strength to get through this! I will update you on how his time is going there soon!

(Please let me know when you are free though...as I will try to fill every free moment I have hanging out with anyone!! I am not a loner!!! =))

One more thing...we will find out where his residency will be at January 23! They posted the date last week!! Be prepared for more updates as these next 6 months fly by!!!!

Thanks for the prayers and support!! We could not do this without it!!

4th of July Celebration

I am so excited to update you on our fabulous 4th of July Celebration we had at the house! Since we are unsure if this is our last 4th of July in Little Rock, I wanted to have a party with some of our closest Conway friends! They came over for a cookout before we headed downtown for the awesome fireworks show!! Here is a look at the night...

We start of with the decorations for the party...of course everything had to be themed!!

Here is the deck where all 9 of us would be hanging out!

Kooper and Kole were pretty excited about everyone coming to play with them!!

A shot with the grill master...

Moe and Kristen were excited to be there and see their puppy...they had been out of town the past week, so we had a third critter running around!!

I stole the sprinkle idea from Susan, and then added blueberries to some as well! Very patriotic...

And of course...what 4th of July party is complete without the flag cake??

I got creative with the batter and decided to marble it red and blue to add some flair!! The red part was strawberry cake and the blue part was white cake with blue food coloring!

Brett and Cheska in our great spot downtown getting ready for the fireworks.

Kristen and me with sunset behind us...this turned out to be a great pic!

Kyle and me smiling...as you can tell it's really dark by now!

All of the girls...Cheska, me, Kristen, Laura and Anna

All the boys...Kyle, Brett, Moe and Tucker

Here is the whole group...we love these guys so much and don't know what we do without them!!

We hope your 4th of July was as great as ours was!! To many more...

Our First Big Purchase

Kyle and I made our first adult purchase yesterday! We bought an SUV! We have been talking about getting a larger ride sometime in the future, but now seemed like as good of time as any! We have been renting a Ford Escape every since Kyle got into his wreck! (He got hit by an ambulance...here's a pic)

Here is the ambulance after it ran a red light without lights or sirens and T-boned Kyle!

Here is Kyle's truck after it slid around in a circle...

Here is the truck from the other angle!

After he got home....we had to rent a vehicle because his window was busted and his steps stuck out really far. I was so excited to be driving a Ford Escape because it has been a vehicle I have always liked and always wanted to drive. We took it home over Christmas and fell in love with it. The space was so nice....especially with Kooper and Kole taking up the backseat.

We started searching around and looking at used ones with the end of the year sales. We searched and searched and finally found a 2008 Ford Escape that I fell in love with.

This is my new SUV I will be cruising in from now on! I loved my civic so much, but the space seemed to be getting smaller and smaller!

It is a dark charcoal color called sterling gray!! In honor of my civic, Radie, my escape's name is Sadie!!

So goodbye to Radie....

(This picture was taken when I drove it off the lot brand new 4 years ago)

And hello to growing up and making adult choices! Thanks so much to my wonderful hubby for doing our financing and crunching numbers to make this happen! I am so blessed!!