Our First House

I wanted to wait until this summer, when we were about to move to Tunica, to blog about our first home- mainly because I wanted to have a reason to be all emotional and sentimental. I guess now is as good as time as ever though! 

We looovvveee our house! Not just because it is our house, but because it is exactly what we need- nothing more, nothing less. We wish we could just take our house to Tunica with us, but, alas, that is not possible. 

Let me walk you through....

When you pull into our subdivision, Keystone Cottages, you will find our house- number 40.

When you walk into our house, you pretty much see the half of the entire house. Our house is only 600 square feet, but like I said- it is exactly what we need!

Our living room and our kitchen are kind of one room, and I honestly love it that way. The only thing I would change is a place to put a dining room table. Needless to say, we have gotten a lot of use out of our TV trays!

Our laundry room is off to the side of our kitchen. One of the bonuses of renting in a college town- ALL appliances were included with the house.

Off from the living room is our master bedroom (and the only bedroom in the house).

Off of the bedroom is our one bathroom with our huge (at least to us) walk-in closet.

Needless to say, we love this house. I have told Landon multiple times within the past few weeks that I am going to shed a couple tears when we have to move. I'll enjoy the last few months we have left in it!

Landons Birthday

We were lucky this year to be able to celebrate Landon's birthday the entire weekend this year! That is a benefit of being married and having birthdays :)

Friday, I surprised Landon with an overnight trip to downtown Memphis. When he came home from his internship, his bags were packed and his clothes were ready for him to put on for our night out on the town.

We checked into our hotel, Hampton Suites on Beale St, before we went out to dinner. The hotel was SOO nice!! Shout out to my dad for helping us land a great deal!

After we checked into our hotel we went to eat at Bluefin and stopped and got some dessert at Starbucks! I seriously recommend Bluefin to anyone- good food and GREAT atmosphere!

Saturday we started out our morning with a drive around Harbor Town in Memphis- seriously one of the cutest places on earth! We went shopping and got him some very cool clothes. We also spent sometime in Guitar Center and eating lunch at Chick-Fil-A.

Sunday, he lead worship at church and his parents surprised him by coming to see him. We went to their house for a birthday lunch. It was soo good to see our family!

He finished off his birthday weekend with.... homework. Boo!

But we had a wonderful weekend together!

Marriage Retreat

So a couple of weekends ago, on February 17th and 18th to be exact, our church held a marriage conference for any couple that wanted to sign up. It was soo much fun and I can't wait until next year when they have it again. We had it at Comfort Suites in Southaven (very nice facilities and friendly staff!) Friday night and Saturday until noon. 

Our church believes in the biblical role of marriages in families and families as the basis of our church. We were thankful that Curt Liles (TheLife Oxford) and Eric Hankins (First Baptist Oxford) were able to come speak truth into our  lives on biblical marriage. Some of the points that I am still chewing on today, a month later:

1. My husband has a HUGE responsibility to love me and our future kids as Christ loves the Church... no pressure. 

2. As a wife and a future mother, I can't be manipulative and raise my children on a battle field. Small battles become big wars... Nothing is worth the destruction of our marriage.

3. My value and worth, as a wife, comes first and foremost from Jesus.

4. I can not be selfish and self-seeking, but rather I need to be servant hearted.

5. I have to be reminded of who I was in sin, and who I am now in Christ and not live be the flesh, but rather by the Spirit... DAILY!

Some fun pictures from the weekend...

Late night run to Steak N Shake with my hubs!

Thankful for my marriage to seriously the most selfless, funny, and godly man I know!

Casey and Mitzie Fitzgerald

Brandy Barrett

While I couldn't possibly get pictures with all the wonderful couples there, here are a few! Both Casey and Brandy serve faithfully on the praise team with Landon!

Btw, we won a Malco and Red Lobster gift card- score!!!!

And Hunter and Hilary won the grand prize... a very awkward story by Bill Murdock.

V-Day

So now that Spring Break is finally here, I actually have time to sit down and blog. Some of these blogs go back to happenings a month ago, but at least I am getting them on here!

Our first Valentines Day together was special for us because not only was it our first one together as a married couple, but our first one together as anything but boyfriend/girlfriend!

Landon got me these beautiful flowers. I know it might be cliche but i LOVE flowers!! 

We did not want to fight the crowds, so we just stayed home and enjoyed a relaxing, quiet evening.

My husband made me a sweet coupon book, redeemable at anytime. They all had to do with stuff I liked... "One free movie night" , "One Ice Cream date to Twisters or Ya-Yas" , "One free picnic date"., etc.

I gave him grilling accessories, which he uses all the time :)

We cooked Shrimp Alfredo for dinner and had chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream for dessert. The Alfredo was DELICIOUS, but we can't do it a lot because it is expensive. 

So besides the fact that I almost burned our house down when I was trying to pull the garlic bread out of the oven, our first Valentines Day was a success!!