Whirlwind Year!!

So I realize I am not great about updating my blog...but I think I will try to start this up again!  I have so many things going on that would be lovely to blog about...and yet I do not make the time.  So here it goes.

I was recently talking to my dearest friend about the craziness of my life over this past year and was amazed with all that has happened...therefore I will do a little recap.

One year ago, I just got back from Arizona on a "spring break trip" with my parents and their foreign exchange student--Minsu.  We had a great time.  At that time, Joe was student teaching in Stillman Valley, coaching baseball, and we were living in an apartment.

This is me and my parents in Sedona

Shortly after returning home, Joe and I decided we would move into a friend's home that they had decided to rent out.  We were so excited!  More space of our own and a fenced in yard for Elsie!!  We moved the end of April and week we moved, Joe was also offered two teaching jobs.  Joe accepted his first teaching job at Rockford Christian teaching HS Science.  The Lord provides and were were so grateful!!

Our charming little rental house on James Ave....swoon

We enjoyed summer in our new house, spent lots of great time with friends, went to Lake Geneva, etc. It was a great summer.  Joe played softball with friends and we even had a garden in our back yard.  I officially am great at growing zucchini!  School started for Joe in August and he is a great teacher!  Things got off to a great start.  Then we added some more excitement to our lives!

We are having a new addition to our home... expecting a baby May 25!!

So this got us really thinking about the future and start saving $$!!  Time to figure out where we want to live more long term.  So save we did. 

Then Joe's sister got married in December up in Michigan...we had a great time at the wedding...and I still fit into my bridesmaids dress (had to order a bigger size!)

When we got back from Michigan we had our 20 week ultrasound....

We are having a girl!

So we decided to start looking for a house.  This was next on our agenda.  So one weekend in January, we went with my parents and looked at 7 houses in one day...and fell in love with one particular house.  We put an offer in on the house the following day and it was accepted a few days later {after quite a stressful week!} Praise the Lord!!

The new Mullikin Home

We just closed on our new house on March 1st and have already done so many projects in our new house.  We painted 6 rooms and the hallways and put tile flooring in our kitchen and various other projects along the way.  This weekend I have a baby shower and Joe's family is coming to stay with us.  Its hard to believe in just a year so much has happened!  We are feeling very blessed and excited to welcome our new bundle of joy into this world!! 

Although it has been a crazy whirlwind of a year, it has made me so grateful for all I have.  We have so many wonderful friends and family that have supported us and cheered us on this past year through all these new adventures!!  Life is truly an adventure and I'm so grateful to share this adventure with my best friend, Joe. 

Stinky dog!!

So now that we are in this new lovely house with a yard, Elsie is loving life to the max! She wants to be outside pretty much all the time, and when she is inside she is sleeping because of all the action she has and outside. She runs in big circles in her new fancy fenced in yard and sniffs every square inch of the place. Her favorite outdoor activity of course is finding the stinkiest little spots in the yard and rolling over and over again in them. She starts out by sniffing... Then she will paw at it a little then roll on her back and wiggle wiggle wiggle. Tonight was her fourth bath in a week and a half!!! We are running out of dog shampoo and I think she may have some dry skin soon. So tomorrow my lovely husbands mission is to find some doggy wipes or spritzes we can use in between baths.

Here is Elsie after tonight's bath. She was a little chilly!

crazy ikea trip and failed dinner

So today Joe and I decided to take a little trip to Ikea after work... since living in our new home, I have decided to get a few new things to make the place feel more like our own.  We have had this chair from Ikea for almost three years (since we got married), and it has seen better days!! So we got a lovely new cover for it in red, and now its good as new!! Hurray.  We also got some new window treatments... all in all, I believe I was much more enthused about the trip than the hubby was...but he sucked it up and still drove me there and back... I am grateful.

Oh we also got a new bed skirt...I had a little mishap with our last one before moving.  I decided I would be a good little cleaner and wash my bedskirt before we moved so by the time we got to the new place I could just throw on my nice clean skirt... well despite what the directions on the bedskirt said... after placing it in the dryer, the polyester in the platform portion of the skirt melted thus rendering the bed skirt useless!  Wah wah... So now we have a new one and it is 100% cotton!  Woo hoo!!

We also got these little lovelies for our windows.. hurray and hurray!  Now to get it all put together!!

After Ikea I came home and decided to make this orange chicken stuff that we had picked up at the grocery store.  Its one of those things that you like stir fry and add sauce, make your rice and you're good to go... or so I thought.  I spent 40 minutes... yes you read that right...just trying to make my stinkin' rice!! I finally gave up on regular rice and used "boil in the bag" rice...  craziness...and then the food ended up being kinda bland...so we added siracha sauce.... all in all it was an epic fail!!  My rice ended up looking much more like oatmeal or grits...oh well.  Next time I cook I'm sure it will be MUCH better :o) Live and learn... I think I need a rice cooker!  What a day!

Yay. Moving progress

Here is day too of the move! We are making progress! My family and joes parents have been so helpful with all the cleaning and unpacking. And the amazing Jessi was like cleaning super woman today and I am so grateful!!!!

Moving day

We are moving tomorrow! So excited! So much room to entertain and for Elsie to run around!

Below is the house and the cute little mural I sadly painted over... Sorry Luke Uran!

Our move is almost here!

Only 10.05 days until we move into this lovely abode and I cannot wait... if you couldn't tell by my countdown!  We have been living in limbo as I have been packing since we found out we moved and I think it is starting to take a toll on my health ha ha.  My sleeping is so out of wack, and I'm starting to believe that it is due to this "unsettled-ness" in our current apartment.  Our dog, Elsie, is confused by all of the boxes as well and isn't sleeping through the night... maybe I'm stressing her out!  I just have something built in me to have things organized and in its place...and currently things are far from that!  I have a baby gift for a friend, but just realized all of my wrapping paper is already at our new place in a box!! 

In my garage, I currently have lots and lots of boxes, 2 bikes, tools of various sorts, and our "new to us" washer and dryer.  I'm getting to the point where I can't pack much more until right before we move...but we're getting there!  I had to repaint all of our walls in the apartment white before we moved out, so I finally finished that this last weekend.  Joe commented he thinks our apartment might echo a little more than it used to with nothing on the walls.  Crazy.

We are feeling so blessed to have the opportunity to rent this cute little place from our friends this coming year!  It will be a perfect transition out of our apartment and give our little poochie, Elsie, a little more room to stretcher legs in her very own fenced in back yard to boot!!

One Thousand Gifts

I realize I have not blogged in quite a while, so I think I will take a swing at it again.  I want to share a book with everyone that I would highly recommend.  Jessi and I have been reading it, and I feel like it has been relatively life changing.  It is called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  It is a wonderful read.  I love the way Ann writes the whole book.  It is about living a life of thanksgiving--she challenges the reader to start a journal as she did and start a list of "gifts" that God has given us that we may not see in our everyday life.  The goal is to start looking for the little things in life that we can be grateful for--from the smell of freshly cut grass, to a great conversation with a friend...things that may otherwise go on unnoticed.

She quotes John Piper and states that moving the ink across the page opens up the eyes, that he may not understand how it sheds light, focuses its lens, but he only knows, "There are eyes in pencils and pens. " There is something about writing down what we are truly grateful for that makes us appreciate it more--Ann states its like "unwrapping God's gifts" to us.

Jessi and I have been keeping little "gratitude journals" or journals of all of the things we have been given as gifts.  We were discussing how easy it is to find little gifts in days off work, or days that are beautiful out, but becomes a little more challenging at work, in the midst of stress of every day life.  That has been my challenge...to look for gifts in these times as well.

Yesterday I was able to go to Chicago with my hubby and meet up with Jessi and Luke Uran to go to the Need to Breathe concert and out for dinner.  It was so wonderful to spend time with great friends and enjoy wonderful music!!  Lots of gifts were received!!  I am so grateful...

Today I am leaving for Arizona with my parents and their foreign exchange student, Minsu, and am looking forward to a week of seeing God's little gifts in my life.  Its amazing when you start looking for the things we can be thankful for, it really does change your whole outlook on life!!