we're getting ready for summatime!

Wow, sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been too busy with other projects. 

Caleb has finished his second semester at Michigan. Woohoo! I am so proud of him! It was a lot of hard work, but he managed to pull through with some stellar grades. He will be doing research all summer and resume classes in the fall. Yesterday we talked about some of the research he is doing and I was actually able to understand some of it! Research is hard work. I commend anybody who decides to go into it.

I got busy with church right after my trip to Hong Kong. I now help in the young womens program. They are ages twelve to eighteen, but I'm specifically over the twelve and thirteen-year-olds. They are so cute! I am also helping with their girls camp preparations, and we only have about a month left before camp. So I'm being kept super busy with that. 

Now that the weather has turned warm, everything has begun to bloom. It is sooooo purty. I've been enjoying the plants and seeing what surprises our garden beds have for us. There are a bunch of perennials on this property, and it's been fun to see them return. I have a lifetime supply of hostas. I think those are my favorite out of all the plants I have. My mother-in-law found some bleeding hearts in one of the beds. They're so unique.

My mother-in-law came for a day and helped me with splitting plants and transplanting. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it. She has taught me so much about plants and gardening. I don't know what I would have done without her. In our front yard we extended the beds further out away from the house and transplanted daylilies.

Before of one of the beds

After

 I just ordered some limelight hydrangeas that I will be planting behind the daylilies. It will be a while before they get tall, but I have time. We'll be here at least five years anyway...

We also started a garden! I have a picture here of the seedlings before I planted them:

I couldn't plant them all because our plot was not big enough, so I gave some away to family and friends. Starting seeds is so much fun. It's fun to see them grow and get big. We've planted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, lettuce, radishes, onions, broccoli, basil, and some other herbs like sage and culantro or something like that. I think we were a little ambitious for our first garden, but since we have the space and a gazillion seeds to try, we might as well, right? 

Another thing about summatime....grilling. Caleb and I knew we wanted to buy a grill. We have this amazing backyard deck; it would be a shame not to have a grill. So Caleb went on craigslist immediately and found one for forty bucks. What a steal! It's a really nice charbroil charcoal grill and smoker. Caleb said its priced over $200 retail. Could I say no? I guess not... The seller also gave us his leftover charcoal and smoking chips. Man we're lucky. We grilled some wings while my mother-in-law was here. They were sooo good. 

I know these aren't the greatest food pictures, but man....they were amazing. The first picture was of our hot wings. The second what just without the hot sauce. Caleb is getting pretty good at grilling. 

Well, now that the thunderstorm is passed, I think I'll go out and work on my yard. Hope you all are having a good week!

<3 Jessie

Home Makeover

Hello There!  After many weeks of hard work, most of our big house projects are finished! Come see:

Before

After

Before
Actually the stairs were covered in an ugly blue carpet, but this is what it looked like after we took the carpet off. We already repainted the walls here.  

After

Before

After

Before

After

After

Before

Before

Deacon watching me brush my teeth

After

After

Before

After

Before

After

There are still more projects to be done, but we've kind of slowed down now that winter is coming and Caleb has started school. We are immensely grateful for the family members who came to help us out! We would have never been able to get this far without their help!

As for me and my HOUSE, we will serve the Lord

Joshua 24:15

For the few readers we have of this blog, if you don't know already...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE.

Yeah I know, if you're in shock, that will probably last for the next couple of days and then you'll forget and move on with your life. I'm still in shock and it's been about two and half months since our offer was accepted. I already have some friends who have purchased homes, but it's still completely different when it's you. This is such a....grown-up thing. It's weird. I almost feel like this is a more grown-up thing than getting married! That sounds outrageous, but it's probably because of all the financial planning we've had to do for this purchase. Anyway, Caleb and I are very excited to move into our new home and do some really cool home projects to update the place. It's going to look spectacular!

If you haven't taken the time to read Joshua 24:15, it's basically the title of the blog post. I'm excited to move into our new home where I can create an atmosphere of peace and love. If I ever have friends or family over, my hope is that they will always feel welcome.

The home is actually a duplex, and so we'll be renting out the larger half to some of our friends here in Provo who will be moving to Michigan as well. Not only are we new homeowners, but we're also new landlords...another weird grown-up thing. crazy...

Here are some photos of the house:

Front enclosed Porch

We're not fans of the mint color, so we'll be getting rid of that.

Nice large deck in the backyard

When we get there I'll probably take some more before and after pictures and show you in a later post. We are driving to Michigan next week! I have a lot of things I need to get done before we go, wish me luck!