Hot, Hot, Hot!

The last few weekends have been pretty quiet around here. We can’t get out and do to much work because it is so dang hot! We are finally in the 100 degree days and you can definitely feel it when you are outside for awhile! I can’t wait for the fall when we can spend more time outside working (we need to build a deck for the cabin and put together a storage building). But in the meantime we are trying to stay cool and still try to do a few projects in the mornings on the weekends. One of our projects was to hang our microwave/vent hood. This should have been an easy project as we have done this before but nothing in the tiny house turns out to be easy =P. If we would have screwed the microwave in to the existing cabinet it would have hung down too low close to the stove so we had to tear out the existing cabinet and rebuild a new one for it to hang from. It took way too long but it looks nice now!

This was the before:

This is what it looked like as we were tearing it out – that back part came out too and then Shannon re-built a new cabinet out of sturdier wood and cut the door for the front to fit.

Here is the finished product! I think he did a great job!

I only helped a little bit on the microwave project since the boys and I were mostly in the way. =P I wanted to take them outside so Shannon could work but it was so hot so I decided to run up to the Dollar General and grab a kiddie pool. I grabbed a pool, some water guns, and buckets and they were set. Its amazing how far $25 can go at the dollar store! lol! We had ourselves a nice white trash swimming pool but they loved it! haha

The next morning they did some driving around in their jeep. They also love to spray the water hose. Glad we are not on water restrictions!

      

Later in the week we found out a new snowcone place opened in Gunter! We went and tried it out and it was so yummy. At $1.25 a piece you can’t beat the value! It was such a cute place too and the owners were so nice! If you are in the area check it out and support this small business!

The next project was to make a new mailbox. We bought a crappy mailbox from Home Depot when we first bought the land and it had been hit by a few cars and was pretty beat up. Shannon had this old safe someone gave him a long time ago that he didn’t have the code or key for. He came up with the great idea to make it into a new mailbox. It would be super sturdy since it is made out of thick steel. When he went down to his dad’s house a few weekends ago they cracked the safe and then reconfigured it. It’s amazing what they can do with metal. After he got home he spray painted it and got it all put together. I think it turned out great!

The finished product below. Don’t mind the dirty fingerprints on it =)

You can see the old mailbox in the background here all leaning over. lol

It is very roomy on the inside. It could hold most of the amazon boxes I get.

I love how he can come up with new uses for old things! He is so crafty.

We also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this past weekend. We had a date night at a restaurant called Harvest in downtown McKinney. It was so yummy and the place was beautiful! Then we went to Cabela’s (I know… we are weird) and to a movie! I am so lucky to be married to such an incredible man. He makes me feel loved and special every day. He works so hard for our family and he is such an incredible daddy! I am blessed! I love him more and more every day!

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Let Freedom Ring!

We had a great weekend spending 4th of July at Shannon’s parents house on the lake. This year I was actually dreading going out of town. We have so much to do at the land, Shannon didn’t get any extra days off this year, and I hate car trips when we can only stay for a short time. BUT I am SO glad we went ahead anyways. Even though the car trip sucked and we didn’t get to stay that long we had so much fun and I just love the awesome memories my boys will have of 4th of July with all their cousins. We ate lots of yummy food, went swimming in the lake, roasted smores, and had our own personal fireworks show thanks to Uncle Tim. Tristan will be staying down there all week and I am a little jealous! haha! When I told Tristan that we might not go down to the lake this year he said “But we have to go to the lake! It is the only time I get to eat as much catfish as I want!” haha we know what his priorities are! I posted a bunch of pictures from the weekend on my facebook page but here are a few of my favorites:

I am so glad we were able to take the annual cousin picture. I have done this every year since Logan was born. Look how much they have changed from the last two!

I hope I can keep the tradition up for many years to come!

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Fastest sell ever!

So, two weeks ago we listed our house on the market and within 48hours we had three offers and one of them was a cash offer! We decided to take the cash offer but the only catch was they wanted us out ASAP. We had to scramble to get all moved out (which meant giving up my birthday weekend celebration) but we got it done. On Monday we closed and we have officially sold our house! It took exactly two weeks to list it, move, and sell it. It was crazy! It’s such a blessing that it went so quickly and so smoothly. I am also extremely relieved that we were already moved in to the little cabin so that we weren’t homeless and scrambling to find somewhere to live. With the equity money we can pay off our land, pay off the water meter and electric and still have some left over to go towards the new house! We are going to take a few months to let the dust settle from paying things off, save up a little more money, and relax. We feel like we have been doing non-stop work for the last 6 months so we don’t want to rush right in to building the new house. I need a few months to rest! haha. The first few weeks in the cabin have been pretty good! Adjusting to life in such a small space has been easier then expected. The few inconveniences are really minor and especially when you think about all the money we are saving. It also takes 5 minutes to clean the whole house =P. lol! We are excited to have this awesome guest house for our friends and family to use when they come visit us too. That will make it all worth it. I just can’t wait to look at our windows and see our new house being built right in front of us though. That will be awesome! This next year is going to be an exciting one for sure! Here are a few pictures of the boys saying bye to the house. It was a bittersweet moment saying goodbye to our first home. We came in as a family of two but are leaving as a family of four…lots of memories there!

My parents were nice enough to watch the boys most of the weekend so we could move. I have missed them so much over the last few months – we have been working every weekend to get the house ready to sell and then moving and we have been apart a lot. I am excited to spend more time as a family over the next few months. After we picked the boys up from my parents house Saturday night Logan started to get sick and he had a nasty stomach bug with a fever the whole rest of the weekend… poor guy! I hate to see him sick but it was nice getting lots of extra snuggles.

Finally, my sister was in town this past weekend too and although I didn’t get to spend too much time with her because of moving it was nice to see her the little bit that I did. We went to cheesecake factory for my birthday brunch and got to have a little bit of fun. She will be back at the end of July and I am looking forward to spending a lot more time with her then!

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