life.

I'm not sure what happened to my desire to blog, but it has totally vanished in the last few weeks (months). I still want to have our little lives recorded, but I've been struggling to prioritize the time...it seems like there's always something else that trumps sitting down and cranking out a post. So much has been happening lately, so here's to hoping I can get it into gear over here!

The biggest thing happening in our lives right now is a MOVE!!

Yep, our family of three has relocated back home in Abilene! Rob and I have been throwing this idea around for a little while, and we decided to take a leap of faith. We had planned to let Rob finish his school year in Temple and move this summer, but a job opportunity presented itself, he interviewed & started a week later. It's been a complete and total whirlwind, but it's been amazing, too. Our house went on the market mid-January and is now under contract which is nothing short of a miracle, quite frankly. Temple is the last town in Texas still considered a "Buyer's Market" it seems, so we feel blessed to be where we are with the sale of our home & are praying all goes as "planned" now.

My parents have graciously opened their home to us until we can get into something of our own, and I think it's safe to say that Jaqs is enjoying living at GG-Pop's for the time being! We're on the house hunt here, but we're grateful to not have to rush to get into something immediately. Rob and I keep referring to ourselves as "boomerang kids," my parents only THOUGHT they got rid of us...mwahaha ;)

I'm so excited about finding our next home and making it our own, so y'all don't mind me blowing up your Pinterest feeds with home inspiration! This will be our FOURTH home in almost six years of marriage, so yeah, we're hoping this next one has some longevity to it! 

Exciting times, my friends! God is so good. All the time.

big day!

The Dunnam's are one of the coaching families moving to Temple from Abilene, and we are so glad about it! The Sunday before last, Cassi & Aaron came to stay with us for a couple days while they did some house-hunting. Well some crazy things happened, and a couple days turned into the whole week! It was so much fun to have friends here, and Cassi and I had some fun when she wasn't searching for their perfect home. She helped me with some projects around our house, we made dinner every night, and ran around town with Roxanne.

Cassi is pretty much an expert when it comes to painting furniture, so I definitely took advantage of that! We (yes I helped..some) painted this desk, and it turned out so cute! I'll show you the finished project once the room it's in is complete.

(Mom...Dad...are you reading this? ;))

The day after the Dunnam's found their perfect home, we decided to take a short road-trip to Round Rock for some 'window shopping' at Ikea! Roxanne joined us for this momentous occasion...and momentous it was...my FIRST-ever visit to the mecca of home furnishings. We had so much fun getting ideas, and I even picked up a few things I already knew I needed.

We spent over 4 hours in there...that translates to over 4 hours of talking.

We were parched! Our little excursion wore us out, but it was a blast!

Anyway, all this to say they're MOVING HERE TODAY!!! If you could, would you say a little prayer that things work out as planned? They have a few days left until they're home-free, and I know they're MORE than ready for things to just be done and to be HOME.

Roxanne & Coach got their home this week, and it's going to be awesome!

Check her blog for updates on that.

Now we need the Berna's to get here! Not much longer!! :)

PS - Ness doesn't generally rock the goth look..but she does make it look good!

And we need this girl to get here! Then we'll be complete!

I know this season is going to be an adventure with friends NEW and old.

Fun times ahead, girls! I'm looking forward to it :)

ketchup.

The Saturday before we moved, my mom & her bestie made our "Saturday ritual" even more special by putting together a bag of some of my favorite things! We had lunch at my favorite place and did a little shopping, of course!

I'm going to miss every-Saturday lunches with these two! Just love 'em.

Tuesday was the big packing day! We picked up the truck bright and early and got after it. Will (Rob's twin) came over and helped us a TON. Couldn't have done it without him.

We packed, organized and had the thing loaded up in about 3 hours! We were so thankful to have friends and family there to give us a hand! Thank you, thank you helpers!

We spent the night at my parents' house on Tuesday night and headed out early Wednesday morning. Thank goodness we didn't have to load up and leave on the same day.

Here we go!

We arrived to a hot and humid Temple, TX! We are used to the heat, but the humidity will take a little adjusting to...we have lived in DRY west Texas, after all!

We unloaded what we could ourselves, then some of Rob's kids came over to help with the furniture after school. They were so great! I can already tell they're going to be so enjoyable to be around and for Rob to coach.

We unpacked boxes all day Wednesday, Thursday and finally finished up Friday! All of our furniture is in its place, all of the boxes are empty, but I have nothing on the walls just yet. Since we bought a new home, I want to make sure I get it right the first time ;)

On Friday evening my parents pulled in to town! We were happy to have some company in our home! My dad helped Rob mount the TV, put things away in the attic and do a few other jobs around the house on Saturday morning.

Then my brother & SIL arrived from San Antonio! We haven't ALL been together since their wedding, so it was fun to be with my family. We headed to Home Depot for some flowers and plants to add to our existing landscaping. My brother is a golf course superintendent, so he's kind of an expert on the subject! Handy, huh?! He & Nicole bought all of the supplies as a house-warming gift to us. So generous! THANK YOU so much!

My parents also got us some yard and home necessities as a house-warming! How spoiled are we?! We are definitely blessed to have the families we do.

We got busy planting once we got home!

The bushes were already there, so we just wanted to add some color to the beds! I can't wait to see everything in full bloom...it shouldn't be long now :)

It was so nice to have everyone come and stay with us...we had a blast! Looking forward to much more of that in the future.

Here are a few not very good pictures of our house.

I promise you more when I have the walls more complete! :)

My handsome hubby was such a good moving partner!

Wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. I love you Bobby!

up to my ears...

I'm seriously slacking on the blog, and probably will continue to do so until we're done with this move. My apologies in advance!

As of right now, I'm up to my ears with boxes...

(no we don't drink that much ;) picked those up from work!)

I feel like I've made some good headway, but we still have a lot to do!

We close on our NEW house tomorrow. Then we get the moving truck a week from that, and we'll be on our way to T-town. Pretty crazy!

Thanks to Pinterest, I've got all kinds of ideas and DIY projects brewing in my noggin, so I'll probably be blowing up your reader once we get settled!

For now, I just wanted to say 'I'm still here'!

shattered dreams

I love to watch HGTV. I enjoy just about every show they have, but one of my favorites is House Hunters. Rob even loves it (not that he'd ever admit to it).

With our recent house hunting experiences, I realized that I'd never make the cut as an HGTV house hunter. It's a tough realization, but I just have to accept it.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. I could never choose from 3 houses. I like options.

2. I don't use the word SPACE enough.

Have y'all ever noticed how much they say that?

"Oh this is a nice space; I love this space; this space is perfect; I'm not sure if there's enough space in this space."

3. I can tell if a house is a contender about 30 seconds after walking in the door. They'd never get a 30 minute episode outta' me.

4. Rob & I always split directions after going in. Then we holler at each other from opposite sides of the house. Annoying much?

5. I'm way too dramatic. On our first Temple house hunting adventure, I couldn't even speak for fear of crying from disliking the houses so much.

6. I would not be able to stand in a bathroom/closet/bedroom and analyze every single detail. I either like it, or I don't like it. Black and white.

7. I'm just not sure that we dress snappy enough. Oh the sweater vests and coordinating polos you see on that show. It's amazing, really.

I'll just go ahead and stop there - 7 is a good number.

I sure am glad we found our perfect-for-us house in Temple, and hopefully our house hunting days have been put to rest for a little while!

In the meantime, I'll brush up on my describing words, and maybe, just maybe we can apply to HGTV when we're ready to buy our vacation home in Fiji.

(Ha, yeah right. A girl can dream big ;))

Miranda!

The girls and I had a blast at Miranda Lambert on Thursday!

We decided to go big for our "last night" together and rode in style! So fun.

Our driver (thanks Mr. G!! ;)) for the evening obliged us and took a picture for us after our YUMMY steakhouse dinner.

Sheri, Vanessa, Me, Cassi, Mandi, Lexi

After dinner, we got fired up for the concert!

Don't mind the bling in my mouth.

Josh Kelley & Justin Moore were the opening acts.

It was dark in there, so all my pictures are pretty terrible,

but here's Miranda in all her glory.

Pink geetar and all!

She put on a great concert! We had so much fun singing along with every song :)

Girls~

I'm so thankful that Cooper HS brought us all together. I just know this wasn't really our last night together...we have way too much fun together to let it end here! I'm so blessed by each of you in such different ways. Thank you for your friendship, for making me laugh, letting me cry, helping me grow, and for showing me the ropes of being a c-wife! Love y'all!

our new, NEW home...

This summer, Rob and I will be married for THREE years, and we are making the move to our THIRD 'together' home. It seems slightly crazy, and maybe it is, but this is our life. Wouldn't have it any other way. I knew when I married a coach that nothing would be permanent, and we are about to embark on our first move for the love of the game. There's something very exciting about a new adventure, in a new town, with new people. We'll really be clinging to each other as we won't have our families right there with us. They will be there in spirit and probably will be visiting often, but I won't be able to just go to my parents' house when Rob's working late into the night. We'll find our "new normal," and I know my friends will carry me through football season! They always do.

So our first house: "The Jackson House" is how we refer to it now. I bought this sweet little house at the age of 19 and lived in it alone for over a year until Rob and I married. I LOVED that house. Just an adorable 2 bed, 1 bath, tiny home. But I was so PROUD of it. We have a lot of great memories in this home. It was the first home I lived in away from my parents, Rob proposed to me in the kitchen of this house, and we lived there for the first 2 & a half years of our married lives. I'll always think of it fondly, and I just know we'll drive our kids by this house in the future and say, "this was your parents' first home!" And they'll probably act like they don't care, while my eyes will be filling up with tears as I think of all the happy times and love held inside those walls.

Last fall, we decided we needed a little more space, so we started house hunting. Nothing serious, as we didn't NEED to move...we just WANTED to. We figured we'd be starting a family any day (still praying without ceasing for that) and we wanted to be able to have friends and family over comfortably. One evening, I was searching through realtor.com like I did most nights, and I stumbled across this beauty. I knew from the minute I saw the pictures online that it was THE ONE. Big kitchen, check. No carpet in living areas: check. Garage: check. It had everything we wanted. My mom and I went and saw it the next day, and I was sold. It was during football season when I found this home, so Rob didn't even see it before we put our offer in. He knew that if I loved it, he would to. And he did. It was officially ours in December of 2010.

And that about brings us up to the present day. I can't even remember when it was now, but Rob came home one day and said we needed to talk about moving to Temple. I, of course, said, "WHAT???!!! WE CAN'T MOVE, WE JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!" Little did we know, that's what pretty much every. single. person would say when we told them. Except for our coaching family because, after all, we seem to thrive on the crazy! Anyway, after much discussion, we decided that we thought it would be a great opportunity for BOTH of us. Rob put the call in to Coach Spradlin, we took a day-trip to Temple, and it was pretty much official after that!

Moving, we were.

We REALLY lucked out with the sale of our new/current home. Some good friends of ours decided that this home was also perfect for them, and it will be their's soon. I can't even tell you what a blessing that is to me. I love knowing that it's going to a great family that will be able to give it the love that we haven't really had the chance to give it. It also provided me with the reassurance I needed to let me KNOW we were making the right decision.

So, we decided to take a leap of faith and buy again in Temple. Our first round of house hunting was downright depressing. We looked at about 20 homes, and I didn't even LIKE a single one of them, much less love. I began questioning everything...because I'm dramatic like that. We went back for round two, and it was MUCH happier. We just weren't looking at the right homes the first time!

So, without further adieu - here is our new, NEW home...

These pictures are either off realtor.com or the iPhone, so sorry they're not great, but it gives you an idea of the inside of our home :)

The entry way...

My favorite part...the OPEN kitchen and living. The living room carpet it coming up and being replaced with the same tile that's in the kitchen/dining.

I love the kitchen, and if you know me at all, you know that I NEED a good kitchen ;)

The master bath. Double vanities, his and hers closets? Heaven.

Jacuzzi tub? Double heaven.

That's all the pictures I've got for now, but I promise you more when we move!

If you've stuck with me for this entire post, I commend you. Really. I didn't mean for this to get so long, but a home is a pretty special thing, and I just couldn't shorten my feelings. This is a scrapbook of our lives, and I don' want to forget a thing about this season of our lives!

the skinny

I've been trying to post this all week, but we've just had a lot going on. I even missed WILW! Oh my. I'll do better next week...hopefully!

Moving on...Friday Rob & I took our favorite little munch to the park! She had a blast going down the scummy slides, swinging & climbing!

Rob didn't slide with the ease that Natalie did, but he still had fun ;)

After our park date, we went to grab dinner and to visit Lisa & Harold, per Nat's request. She loves being with her favorite peeps! And she adores their bathtub...of course, it doesn't hurt that Lisa always has new jammies for her either!

I think it's safe to say we all had a fun night!

Saturday night was a night of celebration for Jerrod & Julie! They had a ranch themed shower given by family friends. There was even an authentic chuck-wagon meal!

I can tell you the buttermilk potatoes and beans were YUMMY.

Rob can tell you that it was ALL yummy!

Me with the bride-to-be! We are ready for June 11th!

As soon as I find some shoes, that is.

We went out after the party and got a serious kick out of people watching. It was a little ridiculous but provided us with a lot of laughs!

Sunday was the big house-hunting day. Oy. Stress.

Unfortunately, we didn't find the one...we are going back for round two this weekend, so hopefully we will have better luck and fall in love!

I think the problem is that I find our current home so perfect for us right now. Not to mention, we JUST bought it in December, so I'm not really "ready" to part with it. But I have to. We're moving, and that's not changing.

The reason we're moving is for Rob's job. The HC he was working for at Cooper is now the HC at Temple High School, and he asked Rob to join them in rebuilding the Wildcats! Rob is honored and READY to take on the challenge.

To be honest, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of moving at first. I've lived in Abilene forever...it's comfortable, our families are here, we know this place. I've since gotten excited about the move, though. I know it will be good for us. We'll experience new things, further our goals in life and have the chance to be "us". PLUS we're going to be there with some amazing friends! I know that any time I'm missing my family, they will fill my little heart with love and comfort me! What a blessing that will be.