I'm BAAACCCCCCKKKKKKKK

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on August 10, 2014***

Never fear, I am here.  Sorry to have basically fallen off the face of the earth in the last 6 weeks.  I was finishing up my 12 credit summer school session (YUCK!) and then was on a blissful 12 day vacation with my hubby and his family to Myrtle Beach, SC (YAY!).

We got up early to go watch the sunrise on the second to last morning :)

Of course we got back a couple weeks ago but I had to catch up on life from being gone so long.  Anyway, this week on the blog will be a couple different posts so stay tuned for those.  

Hubby rockin' the tank and the aviators on the way home.

So on the way to Myrtle Beach we made the drive in 3 days.  The first day we went from our home in Temple, Texas down to Houston, over through Louisiana (which by the way has the WORST DRIVERS EVER), into Mississippi and down to Aaron's aunt and uncle's house in Ocean Springs, MS.  We stayed the night there with them and had a blast catching up with family.

Growing Up or Growing Old?

***Originally posted to cregarstyle on July 1, 2014***

Well....I have a feeling that this is going to be more of a ramble than a conscious flow.  It's official, yesterday was my birthday and I am 24 wonderful years old.  Or is it years young?  As my husband says "you're almost old".  I like to remind him that I will always be younger than him.

As my "special day" went on I realized something.  This was my first truly adult birthday.  Some could argue that I have one more year of youth (I'm still in college and will graduate next May!).  But to them I say, when your birthday falls on a Monday and you spend the morning mowing the lawn and the afternoon working on math homework instead of spending the day hanging out with friends and laying by the pool, you're celebrating an "adult birthday,"

Summer + School = Death

***Originally posted to cregarstyle on June 21, 2014***

It's official.  I hate summer school.  To be completely fair, I don't think there is a person out there who enjoys summer school, but I am just about burned out on my educational pathway at the moment.  For those of you who don't personally know me, let me bring you up to speed on my wonderful 7 year educational journey.

I graduated HS in June of 2008 and was just as eager as any other graduate to head off to college and have some freedom.  I had lived my entire life in Portland, Oregon and was beyond excited to start a new life in Towson, Maryland some 3000 miles away from home.  I loved every second of it.  I went to Towson University as a Nursing major even though my heart was really in Athletic Training.  After the first semester of loving college, but hating school, I changed my major to Athletic Training.  However that was a 4 year degree from the time you start the program (which only starts every fall), which meant I would be on the 5 year plan to a Bachelor's degree. OH THE HUMANITY!  If I had only known that it would really take me 7 years to graduate instead of the 5 I would have just done it.

Let the Races Begin!

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on May 29, 2014***

On the night of my bachelorette party, surrounded by some of my closest girlfriends we made a pact.  A pact that I am sure will not hold up considering the state we were in when we made it, but that isn't relevant to the story.  We promised to train for and run the Disney Princess Half Marathon together next February.  Now this is a huge race in Disney World, but it was especially exciting because I live in Texas and my bridesmaids (and other wonderful girlfriends) are scattered across the country.  They live in Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington DC.  Obviously the training we are going to have to do apart, but the idea of meeting up again next February and running 13.1 miles together dressed outrageously like our favorite Disney Princesses sounded so wonderful.

Unfortunately, follow through isn't just a problem of mine, but seems to be a problem for my best girls as well.  Not to worry, I don't love them any less.  Plus, if you make a pact and you're not in your right mind I don't think it holds any validity.  However, I told my husband of the plan to run the half and he was all on board for me to do it, with or without my girls.  I love and hate this about him.  He is the most wonderfully supportive man, but if I had been looking for a way out of running, I wasn't going to find it with him.

TX House: Living Room Make Over

***Originally posted to cregarstyle on May 28, 2014***

As the largest room in our house, and the first thing you see when you walk in the front door, the living room has a huge impact on the flow of the house.  Remember the living room from the post about our house?  If not here is a refresher of what it looked like when we bought the house in May 2013.

Holy beige, Batman!  I mean beige carpet, beige walls, beige tile around the fireplace.  Remember that the furniture in the photos above is the previous owners.  We were fortunate enough to own a wonderful leather couch circa 1990 in the perfect color...beige!  After 6 months in the house I had lost my mind looking at the never ending stream of beige.  I spent at most a week thinking about colors for the open living spaces (living room, dining room, and kitchen).  I settled on one color for the kitchen/dining room since they share a wall and a second color for the living room.  Are you ready for the drastic change that paint can make????  

Our Texas House

***Originally posted to cregarstyle on May 27, 2014***

Well it is time to dive right into it.  I want to do a post about what our house looked like when we bought it just over a year ago so that when I do my other entries about the things we have changed you will have a good baseline.  I am not going to pretend to be one of those fantastic DIY bloggers with an amazing talent for making drastic changes that look professional on a minuscule budget by doing it all themselves.  That just isn't going to happen so I hope no ones hopes are going to be demolished by that.  What I can promise is that all the work will be done by me (or my husband and his friends if I can convince them to help....free beer and pizza usually works).  Its not that I have some mission to take over the world by doing it myself.  It's simply that we can't afford to pay anyone else to do it.  I am a full time student and am looking for part time work, but thats hard to find around a class schedule...but thats a whole long post in and of itself.  Aaron works for the Army and we do pretty well, and I feel very fortunate that he can provide for us so I can get my degree...but its not enough to fully renovate our home.  So DIY here we come :)

Our little home is 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and has just shy of 1400 square feet.  It has wonderful 12 foot ceilings in the living room, kitchen, master suite, and one guest room.  I fell in love with the ceilings when we toured the house because it made the space feel much bigger than the 1400 sq ft that it is.  However, when it came to painting...those ceilings are the death of me.  Nothing like having to climb up on a tall ladder to paint an extra 2 feet of wall when you're afraid of heights (well more like afraid of falling off the ladder).

Anyway, lets dive into photos...remember these are from the listing so everything you see is from the old owners and they were in their 60's.

What Happens After "I Do"

***Originally posted to cregarstyle on May 24, 2014***

As a little girl your whole life is spent thinking about the magical day when your Prince Charming comes to whisk you off your feet and take you into "happily ever after."  Exactly 6 weeks ago my long term boyfriend (turned fiance) and I took the plunge into married life in front of our family and friends.  It was an incredible day spent with those who love us most.  

Photo from Brittany Morgan Photography

However, after months of build up, anticipation, planning, crash dieting, pulling my hair out, and prepping for the wedding the day was over in a flash.  We went on a "mini-moon" for 5 nights and spent some amazing time together.  But for the amount of anticipation and preparation that went into April 12th, not a whole lot went into prepping for April 13th-eternity.