Oh Sweet Fall

Monday, August 31, 2015
Holy Hocus Pocus! It's almost officially fall. I'm so stinkin' excited!

I told Jordan just the other day that I'm a little worried there won't be nearly as much fun and festive things to do in Mt. Home like there is in Fayetteville.

That's a real concern for me, friends!

I even got online and started searching for things to do around here like Pumpkin Patches, Bakery's, local Coffee shops, etc. (If you live in the Mt. Home area and know of some awesome local places to go...hit me up on social media!!)

To help you relate, we don't even have a Starbucks. That means I can't get my basic girl on and have my Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte fixes.

So, this past weekend we explored the town. Drove around for about two hours to see what it has to offer, we tried a local pizza joint, even house hunted a bit.

I don't think we will ever stop exploring our new area but to keep us from getting too comfortable on the couch this fall, I decided to turn my chalkboard into our fall bucket list.


Hope you are all planning festive fall things to do! Have a wonderful Monday!

XO,
Kelsey

Nicholas Sparks Moments

Saturday, August 29, 2015
This week has been a little lame. Not much has gone on so when Jordan got home on Friday, I wanted to change that.

A couple hundred yards from our house is an old dirt road that used to lead to a resort restaurant. It has been closed for years and is now overgrown and crazy but you can still see the markings of the old road.

It's so mysterious and pretty so we decided to take a page out of a Nicholas Sparks book (more like me. Jordan's brain doesn't work that way) and take a romantic walk to see where it took us.


After walking through a tunnel of trees, it opened up and lead us to a small stone bridge that went over a tiny creek. Josie of course went straight down to the creek to splash around for a bit while Jordan and I stayed close behind taking in the scenery.

The walk was gorgeous and unreal. We felt like we were in a romantic comedy (I say romantic comedy because my husband is the one that finds a funny shaped rock and makes dirty comments about it).


But, reality romance doesn't always match movie romance.

After our beautiful walk, we got home and immediately found hundreds (yes - actually hundreds) of tiny ticks ALL over us. The next two hours were spent quickly bathing Josie and ourselves along with taking tweezers to each other.  

It looked a lot like this...


I don't remember Noah and Ali spending the night picking ticks off of each other after their romantic strolls? 

I guess Nicholas Sparks moments don't always happen like they do in the books/movies. Ah. At least we tried!

Have a wonderful weekend!

XO,
Kelsey

Pottery Barn Knock Off Witches Broom

Monday, August 24, 2015
I love witches!!! It's my go to Halloween costume.

          One, because I can't ever think of a good Halloween costume.

          Two, because I already have everything for a witch on hand at all times.

          and three, because it's the best Halloween costume anyways! Duh.

Regardless, I told Jordan that right now we live in the perfect house with the perfect amount of creepy for Halloween and I'm going to take full advantage of that.

So, I came up with a fun, easy and extremely cheap Halloween decoration to put on the front porch.

A DIY Witches Broom!

Pottery Barn is selling theirs for $129. This broom, only cost me $3! Save yourself $126 dollars without losing the awesome front porch decor.



Here's what you'll need....
     A long stick (for the handle)
     String from around the house (it won't be seen)
     Raffia (I bought a three pack from Hobby Lobby in the fall section that was 40% off)
     Some hay or many small sticks from around your house (both will work!)

Living in the country has its advantages. I was able to grab almost everything I needed for this in my own backyard but even if you don't live in the country, get creative! 


Step 1: 
Take your pile of grass, bundle it all together and lay it on the ground.

Step 2:
Make an opening towards the top of your bundle and place your handle (large stick) down.

Step 3:
Bundle the grass evenly around the stick then use string from around the house to tie it together tightly.

Step 4:
Take your Raffia and wind it around the string. To hold it there, pull the end through one of the loops used to wrap around the broom.

Step 5:
For a more secure knot, take a glue gun and start gluing away at whatever you think may be lose or wherever you think may help to hold it in place. Then lastly, cut the remaining Raffia off, hot glue it down and...

Voila!! Your DIY witches broom!


Happy witching!!

XO,
Kelsey

Our Weekend in Fayetteville

Sunday, August 23, 2015
SURPRISE!!!


My parents threw my little sister a surprise birthday party for her 10th birthday. She was so dang cute when she walked through that door and we all popped out. She was so excited that she teared up. HA!

My Mom invited her closest friends over for swimming, pizza, cake, and a sleepover.

It didn't take the girls long to start pushing each other in the pool with their clothes on and then chase each other and the little kids around the yard.




This is our friends son, Jax. How stinkin' cute is he?!


Finally, after a lot of running, swimming and screaming, it was time for some delicious Ricks Bakery cake and presents.

Side Note: If you live in Fayetteville, Arkansas and have never been to Ricks Bakery, you are missing out!!!





Saturday when the girls were being picked up, one of Regan's friends brought her puppy with. Josie and Scotch LOVED each other! I've never seen her have so much fun and puppy smile so much. I couldn't resist myself. I had to take a few pictures of all the cute puppy action!



"Look Mom! I made a new friend!" Haha. 

After all of the party goers left, we all went out for lunch at some local resturants that were Jordan and I's favorite eating places and made a few stops to do a little shopping. We miss Fayettevilles restaurant options and shopping!!!

AH! That face! That sweet, handsome face!



And now my blog writing has been interrupted by a dog who decided it was a good idea to hop up on the couch and burp in my face. I think that's my queue to get off my laptop.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!!

XO,
Kelsey

Fall Favorites

Thursday, August 20, 2015
Sorry Mt. Homer's (is that even right?), but I don't think it's any secret that this is not the most stylish town in America. In fact, I have been told multiple times that I dress so "in style" "fashionable" and was once told "like model fashion."

Um... I love clothes. I love black and I really love pink, a lot! I also wear a lot of stripes and polka dots but I would never considered myself "fashionable."

In fact, I have to get my sisters help when it comes to dressing myself. Now, she's fashionable!

Anyway, these nice comments from the Mt. Homey's (I don't think that's right!!) is getting to my head.

It's grown a few sizes since moving here.

I'll be the first to admit it.

But, it's also gotten me off my butt to avoid the simple t-shirt and short outfit and dress a little nicer lately even if it's in my leggings.



Can we just pause for a second to admire my new purse! The purse I'd been carrying around for a little over a year finally snapped and I was forced to buy a new one, which in all honesty, I hate buying purses. 

I ended up finding this Adrienne Vittadini for only $23! STEAL!!!

I love love love all of the pockets (even if they do make it look slightly like a diaper bag) and my all time favorite part is the bright red interior. Yum!

Anyways, I thought it was time for a new Monthly Favorites of comfortable, fall (and stylish) clothing according to those Mt. Homians (yeah - I don't think that's right either).

One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six

Yes, Old Navy, The Mint Julep and Hunter Boots are my all time favorite places. Deal with it! :)

Now I'm off to find the right word to call these Mt. Home people!!! Have a wonderful Thursday!

XO,
Kelsey

Our Weekend Recap

Monday, August 17, 2015
It was our first weekend in our new home!

Friday night was full of binge watching Lost and New Girl. It was all we wanted to do. Sit down, get "lost" (see what I did there?) and do nothing. It's something we haven't done in weeks.

As lame as we were, we did finally decide to get off the couch and lay a blanket in the yard with glasses of wine and watch the end of the meteor shower. It was perfect!!

Then Saturday came along with a lot of sleeping, delicious meals, front porch sitting and watching Josie run like a mad dog all around the yard.





Finally Sunday showed up and we decided to do actually do something with our day! We met my family in Branson for a day trip. Sadly, the only two pictures I got was this one of my brother being oh so serious at Joe's Crab Shack and the scrumptious ice cream we got while shopping around.



It may have been a pretty low key weekend but it was exactly what we needed.

Time to go. Josie got a hold of one of Jordan's coffee mugs and is running around the yard with it in her mouth while Jordan is yelling at her trying to get it back. I live with a bunch of crazies, I tell ya!

Here's to the freaking weekend!
XO,

Kelsey

The Move

Friday, August 14, 2015
First of all, let me start this post with an apology. My writing is ALL over the place because that's exactly where my head is at the moment. :)

When it came to this move, anything that could go wrong, has (so far) gone wrong.

For years, Jordan and I have laughed at the bad luck that surrounds us. Things that are a breeze for most people end up being difficult for us.

Here's what I mean by this...

We were scheduled to move into our realtor's rental house the week of the 3rd. However, the tenants living there now are in the process of buying a house and the closing date got moved back.

That happens. We understood and thankfully our realtor is amazing and offered us to stay in his lake house for a huge discount until we were able to get into the rental house. However, we weren't able to get in until August 10th so we would have to get a hotel for the week of the 3rd. That means, instead of moving one time we would end up moving three times in the matter of a few weeks.

So, we respectfully declined and had to quickly find another house in the Mt. Home area that would allow a dog and a month to month lease. Thankfully, we found a house in the country for only $400.00 a month and is on 35 acres of land!

Not only were we out in the country (which we love) but we could put so much more into our savings every month because of the price.

Win-win, right?

Well....

We were scheduled to move into our country house August 3rd. So while Jordan headed to Mt. Home for his first day of work, I made the necessary calls to get the utilities changed into our name.

After calling the landlord, she decides to call the current tenants to be sure they are out and cancelled the utilities in their name.

Remember how I said typical things that are easy for most people aren't for us? Yeah, that still rings true.

The tenants of course were not out yet and wouldn't be until August 5th.

Seriously!?

Apparently they needed two more days to clean up the place. (clean up the place are key words for the rest of this story!!)

So, we understood and they graciously put Jordan up in a hotel free of charge until the tenants were out.

Wednesday, August 5th, rolls around. My Mom's side of the family leaves from their few days in Fayetteville, my parents head up to Iowa to help with family stuff and Jordan's parents are driving down from Iowa to help us with the move. This is also the day Jordan gets the key to the house and gets to see what it's like for the first time.

He calls me to tell me that the landlord wasn't lying when she said it was old but that he's not sure why those tenants needed two more days to clean because the place was a mess.

While Jordan is in Mt. Home for the next day or so, Jordan's parents and I are in Fayetteville finishing packing up the house and getting it loaded into the Uhaul.

Bye bye Fayetteville home!! :(

Once Friday rolls around, Jordan joins us in Fayetteville to finish up and finally make the big trek over to Mt. Home.


After a two and a half hour drive, we finally arrive at the house.

At the beginning of our long dirt road driveway is a cemetery, followed by a herd of cows and then finally our house in the middle of nowhere.




It's certainly old, the roof slopes in, the yard is a mess, where we park has cow poop everywhere, and then we walk inside.

The smell is overwhelming, there are cobwebs EVERYWHERE, the curtains on the windows seem to be from the 1960's, the paint on all the walls are strange colors with a weird suede like finish...I could go on and on.

As much as I could have cried in that moment, I held it together and instead of unpacking, Joan and I started deep cleaning for the remainder of the day while Jordan and Dan fixed what needed to be fixed around the house and tried to get the yard and front porch in order.

We had removed the curtains that were holding a lot of that nasty unknown smell, vacuuming and shampooing the carpet, scrubbing the cabinets inside and out, cleaning the bathroom...you name it, we did it! We even asked the landlord if we could paint. We thought painting would help with not only the smell but the dark feeling that was in the place.

Our overall goal was to make the house livable!

That was until we lifted the couch in the living room that the previous tenants had left behind and found....

a dead, flat (yes, flat!) mouse with... get this... fleas jumping off of it and everywhere around it!

That's when I almost broke down.

We all stopped what we were doing, ran to buy out the store of all of their bug bombs and bombed the house.

It took 15 bug bombs to get that house in shape.

15!!!

Because of this, we had to rent a hotel room but those are hard to find when you have a dog.

So, we had to stay in a smoking room at a local Ramada. If you have ever stayed in a smoking hotel room, you know how terrible it is and how bad you and all of your belongings smell leaving it.

None the less, we decided to make the best of it. After all, we weren't sleeping with a flock of fleas!!

We picked to eat at one of the four restaurants in town (I miss Fayetteville!), enjoyed a nice dinner and break from it all, then returned to the hotel, joked about the day, then decided it was time to go to sleep to prepare for what tomorrow would possibly be throwing at us.

The next day we returned to the house and started ALL over with the cleaning.


Back to wiping down cabinets inside and out, vacuuming and shampooing the carpets, I started painting the burnt orange kitchen while Joan scrubbed down/in all the appliances and the guys unloaded the truck.

We get everything unloaded from the uhaul and decide to return it a day early.

Again, typical easy things for most aren't for us....

The location we were given to return it is suddenly closed.

What I haven't explained yet is that we are 20 minutes from town. Technically, we live in Lakeview right now and were returning the Uhaul 20 minutes away in Mt. Home.

We call the number available on the sheet hanging from the door and she sends us to another location to return it....BACK IN LAKEVIEW!

Are.
You.
Kidding.
Me.

After finally returning the Uhaul, we decide it's best to keep the laughs rolling, the smiles going and take a drive around and give ourselves a break for the rest of the afternoon (after the cows let us pass of course).


At this point in the story the day is finally over, we have eaten dinner, set up the bedrooms so we have somewhere to sleep, and we are all now enjoying a well deserved strong drink on the front porch.



The night we relaxed at the house was my favorite part of the few days because where we are in the country, you can see every star! It's gorgeous and pushed the past few days away for a bit.

Sunday morning rolls around, my parents are on their way to help us with what is needed. We finish painting, lawn work, unpacking what needs to be unpacked, and we are FINALLY set!

Living Room Before

Living Room After

 Kitchen Before

Kitchen After (before we picked up after ourselves! Ha!)

 Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Bathroom before and after

SIDE NOTE: The thing that kills me about these before pictures is that they make the place look A LOT better than it did in person!!

Well....

Until the tub fills with water to the rim and the toilet overflows all because I did a load of wash.

Yep. It doesn't surprise any of us at this point.

Thankfully, our landlord is awesome and gets a plumber out here as fast as possible to fix the problem.

Still, we chug down another strong drink and we are again rearing to go.

At this point, it's just been little things that continue but it's nothing we can't handle after the last week we've had. Plus, we keep reminding ourselves that it's only temporary and it's motivation to really dig into the house hunting.

As much as I want to start decorating to make this house feel more homey, I'm hoping we find a house in the next few months that will make decorating this place a waste of time. Cross your fingers for us!!!

Until then, Josie is going to soak it all in while she can. She loves the cows and all the running around and bug chasing she can dream of in one day.



Through all of this madness, the people that kept us sane were our parents and because of that we want to say thank you for helping with the move. I don't know what I would've done without Jordan's parents! They are AMAZING! Best in-laws, hands down!

So, here's to all of the crazy (and hilarious) obstacles that God puts us through day in and day out and to many more! We say bring it on!! :)

Until next time!

XO,
Kelsey
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