A Busy, Yet Productive Weekend

Well this past weekend was a true introduction to a Georgia summer - SUNNY, HOT, and HUMID!! Man it was hot!! Sunday was one of those days when you really couldn't do much to stay cool... and we decided it'd be a great day to go shopping for furniture. But to keep things chronological, allow me to begin on Saturday.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early to participate in a 5K run/walk to support the Atlanta Mission. It was a beautiful day for the race. It was sunny, but fortunately not too hot at 8:30am. It was great to get to run with Ashley! She is such a trooper! She rocked the course and finished in 30:35 - pretty dang good for someone running for two!! :) It was a ton of fun to run throughout downtown Atlanta and see some really neat areas of the city! It was so neat to see many of the men and women who have found hope and new opportunity in the Atlanta Mission, participate in the day's events! God is good!

Following the race we took a quick little snooze - I said it was a busy weekend, but ya gotta take some time to recover :) The rest of the day Saturday was spent perusing garage sales and looking through some of the furniture that came from my grandmother's house. Unfortunately, we didn't find too many pieces of furniture among those options - we found a kitchen table we like that used to be my parents = free is good! We found a couple of bar stools that we may refinish and put in our kitchen = once again, free is good! And we also found two cute little antique rocking chairs that will be perfect for our nursery! We wrapped up Saturday sharing dinner with my folks - pork tenderloin on the grill, roasted potatoes, salad, and an ice cold brewski! (Just to clarify - Ashley did NOT have a beer - just me). Great way to wrap up a busy Saturday!

Sunday we decided would be our FURNITURE SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA day!! On our list of places to check out: The Dump, Ashley Furniture, a storage unit w/ more of my grandmother's things, and IKEA!! It promised to be a very long and tiring day - and that it was. But we also found some great pieces of furniture and began to envision some of the rooms in our new home start to really come together! Below are some of our favorites:

We love this look for the family room - pretty much all of it :)

We especially loved this media center - and were delightfully surprised w/ the price tag!

Ashley immediately fell in love with this piece for the kiddo's playroom.

These lamps are so cool and unique - love them!

This chair really brings it all together in the family room - it's gonna bring that "POP"!

So there ya go - we've still got a lot of thinking and planning to do. Not to mention budgeting :) But these are really some of our favorite pieces from the weekend furniture hunt.

What do you think? Have you ever been inspired by a single piece of furniture? Do you have any favorite places for furniture shopping?

We're excited to see how things come together! Until next time...

Time Flies When You're...

Whoa, so it's been quite a while since we last posted. Unfortunately it seems like the blog is the first to be forgotten as things get hectic. And things have certainly been HECTIC for us in the last few weeks. I think the best way to get back up to speed is with a brief overview of some of the major things going on in the Jones' home (well, if you can call your in-laws basement "home"...)


My (Oliver) New Job:

So I started a new job in Roswell, GA about 4 weeks ago. I am loving it! I work for a great company called Leader Enterprises. As a fully integrated marketing agency, Leader has the capability to take a marketing campaign from start to finish and everywhere in between. I work with a specific team that manages retail promotions. It's been a blast and I am learning so much every day! I love that I get to manage my own projects and see them from start to finish - everything from the creating the promotional elements to seeing it through to execution. It's crazy when you can walk into a retailer and see the marketing elements you designed. But what I love most about the job is the company culture - supportive, challenging, dynamic, and fun! I look forward to what's in store!

Baby Jones (name and gender = TBD):

So the baby is growing and developing great! At least I think so... it's hard to tell when you can't really see the child. But based on all the kicking/moving the baby does and Ashley's cute little baby bump (growing every day), we think it's safe to say our little bundle of joy is making great progress! It's hard to believe that he/she will be here in 3 months! We did have a little scare recently though... Ashley had some cramping/discomfort that led us to worry about possible problems. She tested positive for potential pre-term labor - this got us quite worried! We quickly scheduled an appointment with a specialist who performed a couple more tests that took a much closer look at the possibility for our baby coming out before he/she is ready. We were greatly relieved to hear from the specialist that there is a VERY slim chance at Ashley delivering pre-term. He informed us that we likely received a "false-positive" on the first test, and that Ashley and the baby appear to be doing GREAT! This was such a relief!! So now we continue to anxiously await the day we get to meet this little tinker, but are glad to know they likely won't be making any early appearances.

Our House Hunt:

Well, as I stated earlier, the past couple weeks have been CRAZY!! And the house hunting process has been a major player. But - we may be coming to the end of this exciting, overwhelming, and fun process! WE ARE OFFICIALLY UNDER CONTRACT!! That's right, we have a contract on our first home! Check out the details here. We are beyond excited! It's been a roller coaster journey. We're purchasing a foreclosure, and while you'd think the bank would be thrilled to get the property off their hands, they have been anything but quick... But, we've had the home inspection and the house passed! The bank has accepted our offer! So now we are waiting to hear about our loan - and assuming we get approved - we will hopefully be closing in the next couple weeks!! So below are a few pics of the new (hopefully) casa:

 

 

There are days we look at each other in disbelief... They say 4 of the most traumatic events in one's life are having a baby, buying a home, moving to a "new" state, and starting a new job. We thought it'd be fun to go ahead and do all of them at once!! Why not? :)

Until next time....