little things in life, it always calls for the camera to come out! He’s just so cute!!!! Enjoy a few pics of the adventure of Bokeh and the Balloon! :)  This first one was when he thought I was coming to take it away! He has quite the personality!!

Oops! Fell over the edge!  Caught ya!! For those that are going to ask… he’s a Bichon and Poodle mix:) He’s full grown and he doesn’t shed. The sette’ is from Target online (2 years ago) and the rug is from pottery barn. Also, this is the room in our house that will be decorated last! But it’s a great place for random pieces of furniture that don’t have a home yet! :) Pillow from Target!  Post balloon pop… a little sad but it was fun while it lasted! 

I think this is such an awesome ministry for Emily to be involved in because it’s reaching students at a critical time in their life when they’re making really big life decisions.  What better time to have a godly role model in their life, right?! Her whole house of girlfriends from college had been involved in CRU during their time at VA Tech and so it wasn’t too surprising that they wanted to continue to serve in that capacity after college. The CRAZY thing was that ALL of her roommates that she graduated with decided to serve with CRU their first year out of college! Some are still at Tech, some are serving overseas and Emy is serving in Pennsylvania at the regional office. It’s been amazing to watch her leave everything she knows in VA and start and new life in PA….. by herself! Sure, she has friends up there NOW, but when she first left to start her new job, she was starting from scratch. Michael and I started from scratch when we moved to Richmond but we had each other. Emy left for PA just trusting that this is where God wanted her to go! …….. and I think it’s been VERY obvious that she has been in the right place.

Emy is in charge of Fund Development and she spends time helping different campuses raise support so that they can continue to serve their students. She also serves on West Chester University’s campus and works with college students! Now, it’s one thing to move somewhere new and get acclimated, it’s another thing to move somewhere new THRIVE socially, professionally and spiritually! I’m so SO proud of her. Everything that she has had a hand in has been amazing and I’m SO thankful that she has found her groove as a northerner! :) Emy has recently decided that her work in PA isn’t done and that she wants to continue to serve as an intern for another year! I’m excited for her because I think that after ALL that she’s accomplished in her position, it would be somewhat sad to not carry on. Emy is home right now raising support and meeting with the people in her life that have decided to partner with her in ministry both prayerfully and financially. I know it’s a little stressful for her because she has to raise enough financial support to cover her costs of living for the entire year but I selfishly love having her around these few short weeks!! I miss her when she’s in PA!!!

Tonight we’re having everyone over to the new house for a big birthday dinner!! (And more than likely, Emy will be cooking her own birthday dinner because she’s an amazing chef! :) We bought her a little gift but I just really wanted to do a blog post dedicated to her because I love her and I think the world of her…. and I want my blog readers to know how awesome she is!! :) I’m so proud of her and what she’s doing for the Lord. I’ve learned a lot just from watching her take huge leaps of faith and trusting God along the way. During the next few weeks she’s really trusting that God is going to provide financially so that she can serve for another year. This is a non-profit and so everyone on staff with CRU is responsible for finding people who believe in what they are doing and are willing to partner with them. Michael and I have been supporting Emy this year and I can honestly say that there is something so rewarding about GIVING instead of spending money on yourself. We’re excited to partner with her again this year and if you are reading this and you have a heart for CRU or college ministry in general and want to partner with Emily or give a gift to her ministry, you can email her at: emily.james@cru.org  or visit this link : https://give.cru.org/0655550

Emy I love you, I’m so excited for you and this awesome season of your life and even though I hate that you live 4 hours away… I’m so thankful that you are where you’re supposed to be!!! Love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY!!! I’m off to buy balloons and stuff!!! :):) And here’s a little picture of my family… because of love them… and this is one of my favorite pictures of all of us! (Well, Bokeh’s haircut is a little bizarre but besides that, it’s my favorite!)

Someone told me it takes 10 years to decorate a new house that is a decent size and I thought to myself, “Have you been to IKEA?”.  haha We love that place! We have made some hefty furniture purchases for the pieces that need to last forever but for the accent pieces, IKEA is the way to go!!! Michael is making his second trip in two weeks to IKEA tomorrow to pick up a few things! We need a loyalty card there… seriously, we’d at least get a free LACK table or something! Anyway, I’m realizing that the decorating process in this new house will be an on going project and I’m going to have to be patient. I have also realized that if I don’t share pictures until the house feels DONE, it’s going to be 5 years old before anyone sees it! So I’m adopting the Young House Love approach of showing rooms as a “Work in progress”.  So while this isn’t a huge peak into the new house, it’s a start! We just got our living room furniture in from Bassett and we LOVED working with them!! Enjoy a little snippet of the living room area!!

Our living room is two stories and opens up to a loft area! The arch and the columns were a standard part of the floor plan and it’s one of the main reasons we fell in love with this house! We also love that random walls are curved. It would have been cheaper to make those foyer walls meet at a square point but I love that they made it look more custom with that little corner nook! We have a similar nook in our bedroom! (Another reason we love Eagle!) The foyer leads into the living room and the kitchen and morning room are on the left! More of those later! It’s not close to being done but it’s definitely getting there!! 

Well that’s how I feel about our new house! Youth group gals have texted to meet up this week and instead of going to Starbucks, I want them to bring Starbucks to me because I just want to be a homebody right now!! I’m hoping this is normal! :) I’m sure I’ll write more about this later but when you build a house, it’s kind of an emotional process!  We have pictures on our lot with NOTHING there but DIRT and now we’re living in a house that we custom designed!! Don’t laugh but it feels like we’ve watched this house “grow up”! …. and we have! So much of our lives have been invested into this massive project the last 6 months and now we can FINALLY enjoy it!! So that leads me into this month’s goals:

Personal Goals:

1. To stay home some! I want to enjoy being in our new space and have the time I need to make it our own!

2. Decorating, duh! We’re hosting a “Coaching Reunion” for all of our past Coaching friends from this year and I want the house to be ready! But lets be honest, 3 weeks after moving in, it’s not going to be perfect. However, we’ve made GREAT progress already!!

3.  Take one room at a time and get organized! Our sweet mommas organized our kitchen and so that’s a big room that’s already done! The bathrooms and laundry rooms need some work though! :)

4. We have a week to get the little house ready for renters!! Must. Start. Cleaning!!

Business Goals:

1. To shoot our beautiful June weddings well!!

2. To make final edits on Bridal Guide!

3. Coaching Reunion and a little special project associated with it!

4. Announce some fall coaching dates!

We’re looking forward to….

1. Being HOME!

2. Getting our new mattress in!! It can’t come soon enough!

3. Having friends over to the new place!!

4. Getting the TV installed! I know that seems like such a “Guy” thing but I’m excited about it because I don’t like having this big black box in the middle of the living room! :)

5. Graduations! My small group gals are graduating soon! Crazy!!! Hannah, Amber, Tori, Bailey, Julia and Alia, I love you girls!

Thanks Amanda Hedgepeth for the pic!!

he runs back to where we were sitting and takes our place so that we can’t sit down again…. he usually does this with a toy in his mouth. I’m telling you, he’s smart! It’s the poodle in him! :)

Since he’s pretty smart, he notices when we’re about to leave IMMEDIATELY. There are certain things that really trigger his fear of being left behind. The hair dryer, keys, shoes, etc… If I touch any of these things, his tail is down and he starts to get nervous. Once we’re about to step out of the door and he doesn’t see his leash, he starts to shake. It’s really quite sad. So with all of this moving that has been going on, Bokeh has been somewhat confused! It was like we were getting ready to leave CONSTANTLY. We were packing and taking stuff to the trailer and he didn’t know what to do. FINALLY, on the last day of packing, he seemed to get the hang of what was going on. He grabbed his Mr. Polar Bear and made sure he took it to the truck before we left for the new house. :) So cute!!

He literally just followed everyone around all day! Every picture I took, he was in it somewhere!  We had quite a crew of movers! My family, Michael’s family, my brother’s girlfriend Madison, etc. It was so wonderful not doing this by ourselves…. we would still be moving if we didn’t have their help! He grabbed his one final toy before we left!
He’s moved in!  It was a long day:)