Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with love!   Not only is this Valentine's Day, but this is the day that 18 years ago my sweet husband asked me to marry him.  He had worked at the bowling alley all night, and I was in a nightgown with a cow on it that said Love Me Tender watching an I Love Lucy marathon.  He came by to bring me my present.  He told me to close my eyes and when I opened them he was on one knee with the ring box opened in his hand.  He said, "I didn't even get you a card, but if I did, it would say, "I love you Kathryn Anne.  Will you marry me?"  I was so shocked I couldn't speak!  He looked at me and said, "Are you going to say "yes"?"  I then said yes about 1,000 times!  I have never regretted saying YES.  I love you BHW with all my heart.  Thank you for everything!  Happy Valentine's Day!

This was Jemma's Valentine to pass out at school.  Beth from Home Stories A2Z did these last year and I knew I wanted to do them!  They turned out so cute and all the other moms were very impressed!  Thank you Beth!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

Cleaning up

I have been going through the house and just starting the process of cleaning out and straightening everything up.  I had so many ideas that I was going to do this year and now we will be moving!  We have lived here for almost three years and I have said that it seems at three years is when I feel like I "know" my house and know what I want to do.  Oh well, I already have lots of ideas for a new house!  I thought I would show you a few pictures of our house now as I am cleaning and photographing for our sale!  Yes, I am taking my own pictures of my house!! 

Want to know what is crazy?  Now that I am about to leave, I am getting calls about my photography.  I was asked by my realtor to do photos for other realtors of their homes for a set price.   Then I was contacted by a children's clothing boutique to shoot their clothes on kids for their advertising!   Of all the luck... well, it just makes me more determined to start of on the right foot in Minnesota!  Hello, my name is Kathryn and I am a photographer.  Thank you very much!

To kick of the house tour, we will start at the front door.  I haven't edited anything so beware!

I love the C shape to our staircase.  The office is to the right.  I refuse to show it.  We have a lot of furniture in there that is too big for the room.  We just aren't ready to give it up so in my office it went!  I will be rearranging and cleaning out this room next week!

To the left of the foyer is the dining room.  This set is very special to me.  My mom passed away in 1997 and she didn't really have much of anything in the sense of "hand it down".  When she passed, she had a small life insurance policy that was mine and her husband's to split.  I decided I wanted to buy my dining room set with the money so I would have some to give to my children from their grandmother.  Every time I look at it, I think of my mama and it makes me happy to know that Jemma will have this little bit of her too.  

I love my big fancy schmancy picture!  At first glance, I was like "that is a big ol' picture of fruit!", but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.  It was from a store that was going out of business.  It was priced at $975 but I got it for $300!  I know that is still a lot, but I figured I couldn't even frame something that big (and this baby is big!) for that price.  It was one of those pieces that I knew I would regret if I didn't get it and I just love it!

Through the dining room is our kitchen.  I thought I would love the cooktop on the island so I could talk to the family and all that jazz... I hate it.  I hate that it interferes with my space on my island which is where everyone congregates.  I feel compelled to clean and scrape the sucker all the time because I can't stand for any spots or marks on it.  I definitely won't have an island cooktop next house.  That is for sure!

This picture is for all my rooster loving ladies!  Do you spy him?  He is nestled in the fake (gasp and egad!!!) greenery.  The greenery was on top of the cabinets which didn't look as bad, but I moved it for Christmas and never put it back!  I hope my next house has double ovens.  I love those bad boys!!!  

I am out of here for now and going to bed!  I will share the rest as I take pictures for the realtor!  

I still can't believe I am moving!!!!  Thank you for all your sweet comments and words of encouragement.  It really means a lot to me!  Just know that I am dragging all of you through this with me so get ready!

A New Chapter...

Hello everyone!

I have some news to share today.

We are moving to...

Am I excited?  Ummm... not yet.  It is really cold there.  Really, really, really cold.  It is 61 here today in Charleston and I am wearing a jacket in the house.  It is going to take some adjustment that is for sure.  

I love Charleston.  I love the South and all things southern.  It is who I am.  I love my palm trees and my ocean.  Will I miss it?  Absolutely.  I am so much closer to family here than I have been in a long time and Minnesota is so FAR away from family, but hey... that is what planes are for.  Right?  

Am I so proud of the BHW that I can hardly stand it?  ABSOLUTELY!!!!  He will be a director at his work and one of 6 that will sort of be running the place!  How cool is that?  He has worked so hard to be a director and when the automotive industry tanked, he was unable to reach this level as quickly as he should have, but he never gave up.  Through his dedication and work ethic, he has made a great name for himself, and he has always persevered  to achieve his goals.  I am very proud of this man who sets his sights for the stars and works hard to reach them.  

It is a new chapter in our lives and I am happy/scared/excited/sad and already cold!  It is a great opportunity for the BHW, great schools, and a new home to decorate!

I adore Terry (I feel like I have known her my whole life!) from La Bella Vie and she said this when I was bemoaning my fate one day to her...

"I can sure understand not wanting to move to Minnesota especially after living in beautiful Charleston. A place on my bucket list; a picturesque, charming town that they write about in novels, but imagine this..."On Golden Pond" which is kind of what Minnesota is like from what my in-laws tell me and just as lovely and picturesque in its own way...you know I've heard it called "the land of 10,000 lakes" so there must be a reason for that :o)

Also, you'll have all four seasons including a snowy white Christmas, perfect for baking cookies, cozy little girl sleep-over's and family snuggling in front of a warm fireplace that won't cook you out of the house because its 100 degrees outside :o) One thing is for sure like you said, where ever the three of you are will be home..."

Debbie from Debbiedoos said,  ""God puts you where you are meant to be."  

She is so right!  Now I just have to wrap my head around it!

I have always said that as long as the three of us are together, we are home.  So it is time to buy winter wear and a snow blower because we are on our way!  We are looking in the towns of Lakeville and Prior Lake.  The BHW will probably leave in May but Jemma and I will stay until June so she can graduate from her Kindergarten class.  I will drag all of you along with me during this time so stay tuned!

I am joining Suzanne from Privet and Holly at her Monday Moments chat at the water cooler!

A Valentine Mantle

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to join Beth at Home Stories A2Z for her Valentine Mantle party so here she is all gussied up and ready!  I have actually had this mantle up since January!  I figured after Christmas the little mantle was sad to have all her bling go and she needed a little love!  

I bought the frames at Walmart for $3 and $5.  I used a typewriter font for the letters.  This is how the BHW and I have always written I love you to each other.  It is even engraved in our wedding bands!

Jemma's sweet handprint

This is a tiny vignette on our end table.  A lady came to a local store to do silhouettes of children.  She whipped this out in about 10 minutes!  It was amazing to watch her and I couldn't get over how much it looks just like Jemma!  I love it!

We are feeling the love around her and getting ready for Valentine's Day!

I am also linking up to Jenni at Dear Lillie!  This is her first ever linky party!

A Little Getaway!

Last weekend the BHW and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary with a one night getaway to Savannah, Georgia.  It is only an hour an a half away so we thought that we be a neat place to go, but not too far away especially since it would be the first time ever we have left Jemma overnight.  Yes, you heard me right... the first time ever!  I know... I know... she is 6 and we need to do it more often.  Trust me.  I totally get it and can't believe it has taken us this long, but we have never lived close to any family who are the only ones I would have trusted when she was little!  Now that she is bigger, we felt comfortable leaving her with our friends' nanny who we carpool with.  Jemma had a great time and so did we!

We stayed at the beautiful Amethyst Inn.  It was built in 1888 and was just lovely!  We stayed in the Dahlia suite which had this gorgeous canopy bed, a small kitchen and bath, and a little sitting room with a pull out couch (perfect for another trip with Jemma!).  It was cozy, comfortable and romantic.  The floors and rooms were all beautiful.  The kitchen had been totally redone and I was in love, but unfortunately my pictures of the rest of the house weren't able to download.  Read below for the deatils on that!

Jane, the owner, booked our dinner for us at the Chart House and we were not disappointed.  We took a pedicab there and were escorted in by the manager who welcomed us and informed us that Jane had ordered the fried green tomatoes as an appetizer as a Happy Anniversary gift!  We were treated wonderfully and the food was delicious!  I had a crab stuffed baked shrimp with risotto and the BHW had a lowcountry sampler of fried oysters, caramelized catfish and deviled crab.  We finished the dinner off with a raspberry peach cobbler. Oh my word!!  It was all so good!!!  It was so nice to sit at a dinner and just enjoy each other's conversation for almost 2 hours.  We missed Jemma, but had such a lovely time being together.

Fried green tomatoes with shrimp salsa, jack cheese and cajun buttermilk ranch... Oh my!!!  

Guess who we called????

We booked a ghost tour through Blue Orb Ghost Tours and we were not disappointed!  Tobias, the owner, was the best tour guide I have ever had!  When my BFF, Cindy, comes, we may have to drive to Savannah!  He was that good!  Savannah is said to be the most haunted city in America.  The stories were quite creepy.  I don't know if I believe in all of that.  I had a picture that one time that everyone said was an orb, but whatever.  I will say though that something happened that has sort of freaked us out.  The last home we saw on the tour was reported to be haunted by a little 7 year old girl who was tortured and killed by her father.  He would often lock her in her room for hours at a time, but on this day, he tied her to a chair, gagged her and had her such a position that the sun actually baked her.  Tobias tells the story from the square and said that after strange events, he won't go over to the side of the street that the house is on anymore.  For example, throughout the year 2011, 11 people fainted on the tour standing in front of the house.  People's cameras quit working.  He had a scary encounter there also where he felt something "go through him".  It also went through his water and when he drank it, he said it was the most foul revolting thing he had ever tasted and he promptly spewed it all over a customer.  He comped her ticket for her.  That was nice!

 Anyhoo, I crossed the street to take pictures.  The BHW did not.  He said he was good where he was!  Tobias said if I felt my camera get hot to move back over.  I didn't have any trouble at all until today.  I was trying to download our pictures from our trip and it wouldn't download half my pictures.  It said the file was not recognized.  I tried it several more times and still no luck.  I checked all my settings, took a few more and still no pictures.  When I looked at what it did download and where it stopped, I was shocked.  It downloaded all the pictures up to the point where I crossed the street.  The pictures from that side of the street and all the next day would not download.  I deleted the pictures of the house from that side of the street but kept the ones of our B&B and some of downtown from the next day.  No luck.  I deleted all the pictures and then took 2 new ones.  The two new ones downloaded perfectly.  HOW FREAKY IS THAT???????  I don't know how I feel about ghosts and all that jazz, but that is weird... seriously weird.  Cindy wants to go now more than ever!  Oh my... I think I will leave the camera at home!

The cemeteries in Savannah are quite beautiful.  We didn't visit the famous Bonaventure Cemetery from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, but we are going back to visit!

This is the house where my camera quit taking pictures.  As you can tell, I am across the street.  Not a picture one would download after that.  CRAZY!!!!

The next morning, I woke up feeling awful!  I was so congested and my eyes looked like I had tied one on.  We think it was the gas heat that sent my sinuses into overdrive.  I am still struggling with being sick at Christmas and am on my second round of antibiotics.  I actually felt bad enough to cancel our tour we had scheduled and slept the whole way home.  We got home to a little girl who had missed us and was happy to see us!  It was a wonderful trip and yes I know... we need to do it more often!

BHW... I love you with all my heart.  Thank you for 17 years of joy, happiness, and love.  You are my best friend and my soul mate.  Thank you for making all my dreams come true and I hope we have many many more years to live life and experience all it has to offer.  I love you.

Christmas 2011 Part II

Christmas morning was jut wonderful!  Santa was very good to Jemma and she got all the things on her list and then a little!  She was so excited and so cute!  I made our traditional Santa squares and we all just relaxed and played.  Some of us sat on the couch coughing and sneezing, but loved every minute of just being with family!  We had planned to walk on the beach, but I just didn't feel up to it and it rained so that took care of that!  It was one of the most relaxing laid back Christmases that we have ever had.

The next day, we headed to Tennessee to my parents where we had a wonderful time!  Just hanging out and being with family.  That is what Christmas is all about.

New Year's was spent on our street at an Oyster Roast and birthday party with the neighbors.  Jemma stayed up until 2:00 a.m.  Yes... I said 2!  We got home around 1:00 and as we were getting into bed, the t.v. was on an old Batman series from the 1960's.  She got so interested that we all curled up in bed and watched it until 2!  Then we crashed.  The next morning was chocolate chip pancakes and an easy day of playing with friends, football and relaxing.

I got a new Pandora bracelet

Jemma's Nonna made a quilt and pillows to go with her new bed for Felicity that Santa brought

The BHW got what he wanted.  A touchless garbage can!  He loved it!  I am not lying!

Jemma loved her Leap Pad and Princess castle

I love the aftermath pictures!  

Gaga got some gift cards

Poppy got a neck massager that we all liked!

This was the year of Barbies and trust me... she has played with all of them!

I love the look on her face as she opens her Barbie RV!

Gaga and Jemma always read books together

Wishing you all a healthy and happy 2012!

Best Faces Photo

I am entering in the Best Faces Photo on iheartfaces!  This was one of my favorite pictures that I took last year.  Yes, she looks very solemn, but there is just something about her eyes that just lures me in!  Have a great week everyone!