Remodeling is finished! for now...

So the remodeling has come to a hault! This past Friday night the workers left at 6pm....so Ryan & I immediately began moving our furniture into our new master bedroom. We can truly call it a master bedroom now that our king size bed & night stands actually fit in there! :-) The picture you see below is across the room..you can see we have recessed lighting, a new remote control fan(it was a lil' dusty in this pic...I have since cleaned it!) and the two white plates you see on the wall to the right is ready for a flat screen t.v. ! The Direct t.v. guy was here this past Wednesday to get us set up w/ cable since we haven't had it for the past 8 months that we've been here. While he was here we went ahead & had him run a cable line down the wall so we could install a flat screen one day & not have cables hanging everywhere! (the key is...ONE DAY!...Ryan & I will have to make some more sales before that happens!)

REDDDDDDDDDDDDD....if you know me well, then you know my favorite color is RED! So I took the plunge & painted the main wall you see when you walk into the room, red. I love it! It's called Fabulous Red...in case anyone wants to run home & paint their house this color! :-)

Yaaaayyyyy..the night stands fit beside our bed! The goal was accomplished! :-) I haven't gotten my new comforter yet, but it will be black & white w/ red accent pillows.


This is across the room again, but with our dresser set up! Oh..and we are planning on getting blinds...the faux wood ones....until then we have the cheapy one's we can put back up.

Here's a shot of our closet empty!

Here's a shot of our closet full! And we still have more to put in! But I will say...it's working out just fine to allow Ryan to use it with me! ;-)

Another shot of the closet. That drawer you see is my jewelry box! How cool is that? You just pull out the drawer & it has a velvet lined jewelry organizer that fits in there! I had to have that.

Here's a view across the room of our closet door on the right & the opening to the left is the entry way into our SOON to be master bathroom! We are taking a remodeling break to get some more cash flow before we proceed with the bathroom. It's still a half bath so we can still use it like we have been, but eventually it will be a double vanity sink w/ a toilet room & a walk in shower. I'll keep you posted as to when that happens.

On a side note....after our fun filled Friday & Saturday moving back into our new room we went over to Ethan & Keri's (our friends from church) & fellow Auburn fans, and watched the Auburn game on pay-per-view. That was fun...as Ella sung Glory Glory to our Auburn a gazillion times for us :-) & Baylee sung the Auburn fight song for us repeatidly. :-) They were great cheerleaders!

Then today we got horrible news that Ryan's dad was headed to UAB hospital ER b/c he cut off two of his fingers on the lawn mower! So we met his mom & Dad and family up there. He was mowing the yard & somehow Mama Key got talked into or volunteered to mow too! So they both were on seperate lawn mowers when her's got grass build up underneath. Butch came to help her & was telling her how to disengage the blades (this was her first time mowing that we know of) and he put his hand down there too soon & lost half of his index finger on his right hand(dominant) and down to the first nuckle on his middle finger. He is having surgery so please pray everything goes smoothly, with no infections etc. His only concern was that he wouldn't be able to cast a rod to fish or shoot a rifle! He will be able to though...he'll just have to get used to this first. Thanks for your prayers!

Remodeling Phase 2 & Bro' comes to visit!

So, the remodeling continues...this is their 2nd week at work! This first picture is the view down our hallway into our master bedroom. There used to be a hall closet at the end of this hallway, but now it opens up to our master bdrm!


Then if we proceed into the room (this is your guided tour) :-), and take a left you see the walls they put up! The door on the right goes into MY walk-in-closet (I have yet to figure out where Ryan's closet is?) :-) The doorway on the left is our master bath. Remember...currently we only have a half bath in there...where the light is shining out of the doorway by the window, that's our half bath...which will be one big walk in shower! I have figured out I have expensive taste when it comes to tiling this shower, b/c the only tile I like is glass tile...and well...that's like $20 a sq. ft versus ceramic tile for $3 a sq. ft! Anybody know of a cheap place to get glass tile...let me know!

A closer look at the opening to where are bathroom door will be shows you our "toilet room" :-) as I like to call it! To the left of that 2x4 is Ryan's old closet(I guess he could still use that as his closet!) He can just hang his clothes in the "toilet room" !!! I am a genius!

So..if you are standing in our new bathroom area and look across the room you see a big open space like below! We have 3 big windows in our room! I love all that natural light! You can see they have put up sheet rock & base boards..it's coming together!

Amidst the remodeling you'll see how much I love my family b/c I allowed them to come bearing friends this past weekend and stay with us! :-) When you have an adorable 10 month old nephew who's tagging along..you just can't turn 'em down! My brother is the youth minister at Central church of Christ in August, GA. So he brought his youth group to Birmingham for the Southern Evangelism Conference that was nearby. So..the chaperons stayed with us! Pictured below are Todd & Melanie Gay, Mason Hinote, Savannah Burns, Jamie Cohan, Lauren & Jeremy Hinote.

They arrived Friday night late so of course we went to bed extremely late especially since Ryan & Jeremy started a marshmallow fight right as we all went to bed! :-) Our sleeping arrangements were creative since Ryan & I ourselves have been sleeping on our king size mattress in the living room. 2 girls slept on that mattress, me & Lauren slept on a Queen size mattress, Todd & Melanie got the full size guest bed with dresser drawers & hang up clothes surrounding the perimeter! At least Mason got to sleep in the quiet office in his pack n play! And Jeremy got the twin air mattress and poor Ryan went from the loveseat, to the chaise lounge, to the floor all night!
The crew got to experience Milo's our local hamburger joint for the first time. Mason had to represent FSU while he was visiting Alabama of course! With Jeremy & I together we had to hit up Starbucks at some point! Hinotes love their coffee! I wanted to let Mason try it, but since I was the one taking him home to bathe him & put him to bed...I figured that would backfire!
This picture you see of Mason pulling the straw out of my Starbucks...well let's just say coffee splattered everywhere right after this shot was taken! Poor thing had drips of COLD coffee all over his face all over my face, the wall....everywhere...but it was hularious! The next photo is of me trying to get him to bubble his lips...he is good at it once he see's you do it!


Lil' man all ready for church...how adorable! (the red spot on his head is where he bumped his head on the pew at the youth rally!)
Bath time was fun...it was short...but fun. Mason likes to splash...a lot!

Look at those precious blue eyes!

He just looks like a different fella' here for some reason? My word those teeth...how cute!

So..that watermelon I showed you last post..I finally cut it up since we had company...how bout it took me an HOUR! to cut that thing all up and 6 bowls later I got it put in the fridge! I just had to measure it....2 feet long!

It was an awesome weekend...Ryan thought I had gone crazy telling 7 people they could come to stay right after we just started remodeling! I knew it would be just fine....and it was! You just make it work is my philosophy! :-) Keep checking back for more remodeling photos!

Remodeling our Bedroom!!!

Okay...so before I elaborate on the remodeling that is underway, let me catch up on this past weekend. I went grocery shopping the other night, came home & Ryan was helping me unload the groceries. While doing so, we let Heisman out of the back yard to roam around the front yard. Well...in case I haven't mentioned it, he LOVES riding in the car! As we are unpacking the car the only thing left were our packs of water bottles....all of a sudden Heisman jumps into the trunk! We just died laughing... then we couldn't get him out! We had to persuade him ....he just had a seat and looked at us like WE were crazy! :-)





Saturday night we had our friends Derryl & Faith over for supper. We met Faith back in February at the gym we go to, she is my personal trainer there. Since then we've gotten to know her & her hubby a little better...and what a great couple they are! After dinner we decided to go to the Barons game which was fun it was a really good game & the Barons won! I have never seen the fireworks at a Barons game but oh my word...they were fabulous! My favorite part was the picture you see below...it just looked like rain! But the only thing raining were the bugs on us due to the fact that they turned out all the lights at the stadium except the one's over us! That part was gross...I am just grateful that crickets & grasshoppers don't fly! ;-) (if you know me well enough then you know I am scared to death of those "hoppy" bugs!)























Alrighty so onto the remodeling! We finally sold both our investment properties so we're able to rehab our own house now! Our house is 4 bdrm 1 1/2 bath. Well since it was built in 1959 they did things a little different!You have to see the before pictures first!
This picture shows our "master bdrm" well it's small to say the least. It would only fit our king size bed but not our night stands..so we have been using random little tables for the past 8 months. The master bath consist of a half bath...which is a hideous blue as you see below...with some cheeseball flower design in the floor tile!

The master also only has one little closet which houses all of Ryan's closthes & shoes. So then we have the room directly across from our master. It's my "dressing room" ! Both our nightstands are in there and part of my clothes & shoes are in the closet for this room but the other part is in the hall closet! We have made due for 8 months! Oh! and our dresser is in there!

The picture below of the hallway is so you can see what it looked liked before we started rennovating. The door at the end of the hall is a hall closet, then you would go left to our mstr bdrm or right to our "dressing room" :-)

The AFTER photos...or should we say "a work in progress" !!! So if you are looking straight down the hallway...you see no hall closet anymore! We had them knock out the wall seperating the mstr bdrm from the "dressing room" bedroom. Now we have one big bedroom!

The door opening on the right is my new "DRESSING ROOM" our walk in closet! Yahoooo! The door opening on the left will lead into our bathroom! We got a black granite top double sink vanity going in there.










Ryan's old closet will be our toilet room w/ a pocket door that slides into the wall. That old ugly blue bathroom will have the blue removed & it will be one big walk in shower!


If you are standing in my closet & you look across the room this is what you see! Lot's of ROOM! We are so excited to have this started! I will keep you updated with photos as it goes along! Maybe I'll even show you our temporary bedroom which is in the living room on our matress! ;-)

Savannah Banana, 90th Bday, 5yr Anniv, The Smiths!

Well...well...well...I'm B...ackkkkkk!!! As you will see below we have been really busy...so this is a "biggin" blog! :-) I am going to go from the most recent events backwards! (only b/c moving these pictures around on here was a pain)

Kristen , Clay & Ty stopped in Bham for lunch as they passed through...so we had a gourmet meal at Chick-fil-a...so the kids could play while Kristen & I caught up! :-) The kids & I had a little camera fun! This is Clay and his "angry" face....he still looks adorable doesn't he? :-)

He can also make the sweetest face EVER! Man...those big brown eyes & extremely long lashes!Mama better not let him give this look to any girls! :-) Here we are showing off all of our mean faces...some how I ended up looking like a rabbit!

Clay, Me & Ty...our happy faces! :-)
Our sad faces :-(
Mommy Kristen with her boys...which by the way...they are two well behaved boys! I was so impressed!
This past weekend was a whirlwind to say the least. We left for Pensacola Friday afternoon and got to Grandma & Grandpa Hinote's just in time for an awesome supper. On the menu was venison roast, gravy, rice, sweet potatoe casserole, fried okra(Ryan's absolute fave), biscuits, fresh sliced tomatoes, chicken & dumplings and my most favorite sweet tea ever....Grandma Hinote's! It was a much needed meal after mine & Ryan's high protein diet consisting of lot's of salmon, chicken, whey protein, oatmeal & cottage cheese! :-) It was the annual Conquerors youth rally at my hometown church...Scenic Hills church of Christ, so I taught the same class 4 times on Saturday! The topic was "The world tells us it's okay too..." based on Romans 12:2 Below is a pic' of me & my dad...isn't he so handsome?!

So my dad planted watermelons again and wow are they big! This is one of the three we brought back with us....this is the biggest one of all! here's the great collection of them that he supplies folks at church with, family, etc.

We had to leave Saturday afternoon to get back to Bham so I could rest before having to go to my works first annual Perfect Wedding Guide Bridal Show on Sunday. It was a huge success with 400 people and 150 brides! It was so exciting and fun! So July 26 was Ryan & My 5th wedding anniversary. All we wanted to do was fish & relax. Where's the perfect place for that? Granddaddy's farm in Cullman! 100 acres, an empty house, and a 1 acre pond with a John boat! Perfect!

This is a pic of Ryan & I with the Edible Arrangement I got him! My gift was really equal to his :-)...he let me add a few diamonds to my engagement/wedding set before my old work (Greystone Jewelers) went out of business. So I thought to repay him fruit would do! :-) The chocolate covered bananas & strawberries were our favorite. As you can tell with the leftovers Ryan has on his lip!

Of course we took our sweet 7 month, 74 lb lab, Heisman, with us b/c he LOVES it there! When we arrived Friday night it was pitch black & he still jumped straight into the water & swam till we made him get out!



Love those eyes!

So as you can see I have a little story through pictures below. I love to fish in a boat...so I got in & thought I would see if Heisman would get in? Well he did and Ryan pushed us off shore and I paddled us out to the center & tied the boat to a pole.



Heisman had to sit right by me...I was a little afraid we were going to tip over!

He then decides to test the water by sticking his paw in there...I'm getting A LOT of fishing done by the way...what was i thinking?

All of a sudden...Heisman is out of the boat & swimming to shore! Crazy dog...just couldn't stay out of that water!

It was for the best though...b/c I just casted my line the opposite direction Heisman was going...and I got a little surprise! :)

A sweet little fishy just for me! One of the two I caught that day...just so you know...Ryan only caught One! ;-) I was still out in the boat at this point...so I just took the hook out & threw the lil' fella back in. I don't like the taste of fish anyway...just like to catch them!

Ryan had his big catch for the day!

We can't believe we even caught any with Heisman swimming all day.

Ryan jerked his fishing pole maybe a few too many times on his fish...he couldn't get the hook out of the fish's throat...yes throat, not mouth! So...somewhere in that pond is a fish with a hook for a tongue ring!
Heisman slept the whole hour and half home, then went straight to the deck & slept from 7pm till the next morning! Poor thing was exhausted! My hottie hubby had to come in from the rain....but the fish where really biting after the thunderstorm!

So...Savannah Banana Morris came to stay for the weekend, 2 wkends ago, and we did a little shopping as you can see. She came in Friday night, July 18th, and we went to eat dinner at Cocina Superior..a great Tex Mex restaurant...then we went to Starbucks (of course) :-) where Emily Wright met us and we headed off to the 10:20 showing of Mamma Mia! Well...that movie was stupid....just to be honest....and that's coming from a girl that loves musical's being that my favorite movie is Annie. James Bond singing just doesn't do it for me! Then we got up Saturday to shop in downtown Homewood and eat lunch at the notorious O' Carrs restaurant where we ALWAYS get the chicken salad plate with fruit....I couldn't let her come here w/o experiencing it. Luckily for someone who doesn't like mayonaise she still loved the chicken salad...it's so great...I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't like it! :-) So we left Homewood for The Summit to continue our shoppping...and after a full day and some great deals we headed off to Trussville for Granddaddy Dollars 90th Birthday party at the In-Laws house!

This would be Jacob one of Ryan's cousins who was a lil' suprised at something...not sure just what though? :-)

This blue eyed boy is Nicholas, Jacob's little brother...isn't he precious?

This would be the whole clan that came for Granddaddy Dollar's 90th birthday celebration! It was great to visit with everyone!