yard crashers

this post is primarily for my mom (gotta love Pam Bram!)...a couple of weeks ago we hired some people to get our yard back to neutral...a HUGE project since our house was not lived in for quite a while before we bought it. it was hard to find the motivation to start since it was so overwhelming, but maintenance sounds a lot more doable!



the front yard, the grass seeds are starting to sprout now



side yard, we can see the gate for the first time ever! and yes, our hydrangea is massive!



backyard, a major improvement! and hi penny!

slowly but surely we're getting there!

yum!

we had our friends Brooke and Jarrod over for dinner last weekend and I was excited to try one of the Pioneer Woman's newer recipes and oh. my. goodness. you have to try her stuffed shells! so easy if you have a little time on your hands and so good!

I also made the easiest cookies in the world! ready for this?

a 15oz can of pumpkin. a box of spice cake mix. a bag of chocolate chips. mix and bake at 375 for about 14 minutes.

okay, they're not the prettiest cookies, but I will pick easy and tasty over pretty any day!

on another note, our good friends Chris and Aubrey had sweet baby Sutton last week! he is just perfect and we are excited to watch him grow up!

I'm heading to the lake this weekend with my mentor/small group, looking forward to some refreshing Jesus time and girl time! Ricky will stay busy with our sweet pups, football, and possibly a Chinese buffet...

and i won't rub it in, but it felt so good to watch k-state win big!

new (old) buys

i don't know why, but for some reason i have been intimidated to check out local antique stores/flea markets. but i had a vacation day i had to use or lose, so i finally bit the bullet, and i'm so glad i did! here are my finds from a classy flea in marietta, great store!

i've been wanting a china cabinet since we moved to our house, and i got a great deal on this one!! not too big, not too small. the finish is really cool but i'm thinking about painting it a light sage green. can't wait to fill it with mama jo's china!

great deals on these too, the white will look great in our bedroom!

i had a couple of other places on my list to check out, but i decided it was too dangerous to my wallet, one stop was enough for today!

a georgia weekend

we had a great bram fam weekend! my parents flew in on friday afternoon, and we got slapped in the face by atlanta traffic...oh well, more quality time! but after a looong drive home from the airport, they finally got to meet their other granddog!

penny is so polite. ricky was embarrassed that i raised such a lap dog, but she won over my parents, for sure! minus the whole barking at them when they got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, we have to work on that one!

we spent friday night at taco mac watching ku lose, and ricky's parents got to stop by and hang out for a while, so fun!

we headed up to athens on saturday to catch the georgia game! unforch, we got there a little late and missed the first quarter, but we got super cheap tickets! it was fun to show my folks sanford stadium (92,000+, my mom's first time in a stadium bigger than arrowhead). it was approximately 197 degrees and the dawgs didn't look too good, but it was a fun experience. though the bramletts all agree that the atmosphere is better at the bill, wildcats forever! ricky doesn't agree, but there's just something special at a place where the whole stadium feels like the student section! oh yeah, and mom & i completely loved the people watching. did you know that girls in the sec where dresses at football games?

we wrapped up saturday with some ridiculous cajun food at henry's louisiana kitchen in cute downtown acworth, so gooood!

we had to drop off my parents this morning at the airport, so a short weekend, but we made the most of it! see how much fun georgia is? you should come visit.

thanks for a great time mom & dad, come back soon!

improvements

quick home update! here's a couple things we've accomplished in the last few weeks:

bathroom lighting went from something like this:

to this:

i have no understanding of photography/lighting, but this was the best shot i got! and we're finally out of the 80's :)

and our bedroom went from this:

to this:

eventually we'll get curtains...but for now i'm loving "cinderella's castle"!