Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patty's Day, everyone! Hope the fun of the holiday is making your day a bit better, whether it be just seeing pretty greens everywhere, drinking a green beer, or an excuse to go out with your friends.

I made these for my little childrens yesterday to let them know how lucky I am to have them in my class. Any excuse to give a treat, right? ;)

We also made these little "magical" leprechaun hats to catch a leprechaun...

{idea from The Teacher Wife}

Right now, I am on my way to Kansas City with my good friend, Christie! We are going to our friend Mary's wedding reception tonight! Mary is Irish and proud, and I've always thought of her on every St. Patrick's Day, so it is very fitting that we celebrate HER this St. Patty's Day!

Yea for a girls weekend road trip!! * I'll drink to that! {yeah...yeah!}

Catch-Up Post from Long Ago...

I can't believe I didn't blog about this?! I mean, I know I was in a major {Rachel Zoe voice} bloggy funk, but seriously?

Ya'll know of my love for Chick-Fil-A? Yes?

Well during our first grade persuasive letter writing unit, our class decided we should write Chick-Fil-A and try to persuade them to build a restaurant in Van Buren. The kiddos told them all of the things they LOVE about their restaurant, and I pitched in my opinions to, because lets face it, I love all things Chick-Fil-A. We told them about everything we love from the ketchup dipping packets to the crispy waffle fries to the "my pleasure" response you get with anything you request! And we gave them many reasons for why a Chick-Fil-A in VB was a win-win idea.

Anywho, one day I get a call in my room from our school secretary, telling me Chick-Fil-A has called. WHAT?! I knew Chick-Fil-A was pretty darn good about community involvement and whatnot, but I really didn't expect a phone call. I was hoping for a returned letter at best. Turns out, they wanted to throw us an ice cream party! And they did! We let it be a complete surprise to the kiddos. They were shocked and so completely excited that their letter had not only been received, but their ideas were heard. And they were excited about the ice cream. Duh!

They were pretty excited about their little cows and cow hats, too. This was around Christmas time, hence the cow elf hats. :)

But that wasn't the end of our Chick-Fil-A Story. The managers from the Fort Smith Chick-Fil-A, who were sooo nice, sent our letter on to Chick-Fil-A headquarters in Atlanta. We were excited that our letter would be making another trip. A couple of weeks later, we received a box from Atlanta.

It was full of pencils, little cow animals, Chick-Fil-A stationary, and coupons for free nuggets and shakes! It also had a letter in response to the one we wrote, saying they would be building a Chick-Fil-A in VB in the near future! Woohoo! We can't wait!!

As a teacher, I am very proud of Chick-Fil-A, and thankful that they would take the time to write a group of first graders back, letting them know that their voices were heard and can make a difference. So eat more chikin, peeps!

Favorite Instagram Photos

Are you guys on Instagram? If not, you should join. It makes you feel like a good picture taker anyway. It is one of the reasons I don't take as many pictures with my camera anymore though. It is just so much easier to snap them with your phone! Follow me on instagram! My username is ccollyge. What's yours???

sleepy dukers...

fire!!

a day at the park with my loves.

duke + petco = gawkers

rudy toody shake your booty

Speaking of taking photos with a PHONE. As you might have read on FB, my phone with cray-cray. Minutes before my 5K on Saturday to be exact, which gave me a pit in my stomach and almost made the throw up. Running? Without music? That is enough to make you sick. Anywho, my phone wasn't responding to touch. I couldn't get the little slider unlock thing to work. I temporarily figured out that I could double tap my home button and control my iTunes since it was active, but I couldn't change songs. Torture- but better than no music at all. I listened to Forever Young like 5 times before I could finally get it to change songs. Anywho (I say that a lot, don't I? I think it is my ADHD - I bird walk a lot).

Anywho... :)

So after the race, I figured out that when I double taped my home button, the camera icon also came up in the corner, so I could go to my camera app, then exit from there. Only my phone began to do things on its own. No lie. Like pull up my contacts and randomly add them to my favorites, pull up safari and go to pages on my bookmarks, pull up my camera, switch over to video, and video for a few seconds...I kid you not. It was possessed.

So off to my friendly AT&T store I went. Two workers there attempted to unlock my phone with no success, and even witnessed that there was a ghost controlling my phone. They suggested that I completely reset my phone from iTunes. Mmmmkkk...so I go home and do that. {2 hours later} My phone still will not unlock, only now everything is erased on it and it is speaking foreign languages to me.

Dustin took it back today for me to tell them that suggestion was a FAIL. And they basically put it on apple and gave no suggestions. Sooo....

Suggestions anyone??? I think I will take it to Gadget Grave tomorrow and see what Cole can do with it. If you're ever having technological issues and are in the FSM vicinity, it is the place to go. But if they don't know what to do with it, I guess I will be calling Apple.

Pooie!! Life with no phone stinks! I'm having withdrawals, but maybe it is a good thing. I hope the loss of my phone makes you appreciate your phones a bit more. Hug them a little bit tighter tonight. :)

Okay, okay...

I've been reminded by many of you that I did not post a picture of the outside of the house. Well...here she is.

Most of you probably have already seen it on FB. It is my fav pic of the house.

Here are some other outside deets.

We got a fire pit a few weekends ago and have really enjoyed sitting outside watching the fire. Dustin is a pyro, so he loves it - can't hardly get the boy inside. We've got a lot of things on our to-do list around here for both the inside and outside of the house. We scooped poop (or Dustin scooped poop), picked up fallen branches, and pulled weeds last weekend - lots of weeds, and plan on building a flower bed around the part of the yard that backs up to the carport.

Kind of a random post I know, but just wanted to get this picture up. We've been busy lately, just not very busy taking pictures. Matt and Jessica came to visit us last weekend, I went to NWAFW with Hayley, we celebrated Mimi and Papa's 69th wedding anniversary and Braelyn's 2nd birthday, and Mom, Tiff, and I ran in a 5K yesterday. I promised to get better at posts and pictures didn't I? Hmmph. Sorry to disappoint!!

Living Room and Master

The living room is what you walk into when you come into the house. It isn't exactly the way I want it yet. It still needs some curtains (maybe sheer olively green to pull the olive green from the rug, but keep it light and airy), pillows with some color, and another end table. Plus we still have to conceal the cords from the TV. And I've got the same light fixture dilemma in the living room. Embrace the historical aspect of the lighting or out with the old and in with the new?

Rudy is leading the way to the master loft.

New carpet was on the agenda, but may be postponed for awhile. I had something monotone, but with a design picked out.

If you're wondering where Duke was during all of this picture taking, this was the place.

The closet leads you into the little master bathroom.

It is small, but very cute. I love the color...

...and I absolutely love the shower!

That's it! The "new old house" home tour is complete!

Come visit us sometime! We'd love to have ya! :)

Basement and Storage Spaces

This is a little nook on the way down to the basement.

Warning: Man Cave Ahead

This is going to be the office area. We need a rug and we left the chair at the parentals.

It flows into another living space.

We are going to paint these built-ins white to go with the rest of the trim in the house. This is a spring break project for me. There is built in surround sound, but we have to hook up the new receiver we got. That's on the honey-do list.

We finally have a place for all of that Razorback stuff!

I'm not sure what to do with that plain space above the fireplace. Ideas?

This is the "Get crunk and do crafts room." Dustin's shot glasses are in this basement closet, along with my crafty, wrapping stuff.

This little nook is a cedar closet that is in our guest bathroom. It is huge. Not quite sure what to do with it! Right now, I've got my wedding dress and the cat liter in there. Those are two things that should be stored together, right?

Our alarm system, and a close up of how well the curtains go with the wall...as promised!

This is the hall closet underneath the loft stairs. Our house is actually 3 levels, with the master bedroom being upstairs. The stairs you saw above were down to the basement. Again, this closet is pretty deep. I'm very impressed with the storage in this old house.

hallway shot

broom closet in the hallway, off the kitchen

I love how Rudy tries to get in every picture, kind of like his brother Duke.

In addition to all of these nooks and crannies, there is also a 2 car garage and 2 car carport, and the whole attic floor of the garage is floored. This kind of storage in an older home is just unheard of, and was definitely a selling point to this house.

As you can tell, we love our new, old house! Come back tomorrow for the final post of the house tour - the master bedroom and bathroom, and the living room.

Guest Bath and Bedrooms

This guest bath was formerly a third guest bedroom in the house. That is why it is so huge. The previous owners had their own funky mirrors in this bathroom, and took them with them, so I tried to make due with what I had. The round mirror is something that was above our couch in our old house, and I repurposed it for the bathroom. I for the other mirror that is propped up from Kirkland's for a steal. I should've taken a close up of it, because it has some pretty detail.

The bathroom has some work to be done. I can't decide if I want to paint it or not. And I think I want to go more modern in here. Maybe a striped shower curtain, and definitely new towels - maybe a geometric pattern. And I am on the lookout for the perfect desk or hutch at a flea market to redo/paint. We shall see.

This was their baby girl's playroom. It was super cute. However, the color is not too awesome for a guest bedroom. For now, it must do. I would love to get a headboard for the bed, since it is just a mattress and box spring - I've got my eye on one from Pier One that is on sale right now. And I just need to decide whether to keep the bedding or not. It is the comforter we got when we registered. I L.O.V.E. the light fixture.

And this was their baby girl's nursery. Hence the pink chandelier. As you can see, it is now our baby boy's room...and crap room. We've got lots of paperwork strung about that we need to sort through. Everyone has a junk room, right? Just say yes.

I can't wait to transform this room into the room of our future little one.

All this talk about babies and y'all are going to think I'm keeping a secret from you!

Nope. Just got the fever.

Downstairs basement and storage spaces tour coming tomorrow.

I know you're excited. Ha!

Kitchen & Dinning Room Tour

Our living room is one of my favorite spaces! It was already painted this chocolate brown, too. Bonus! The only new thing in this room is the rug, which I'm in love with.

Corky and Dustin hung the curtains yesterday, and if possible, I love them more than I did in our previous home. They needed a darker wall behind them, and the chocolate brown just ties in perfectly. I should've gotten a close up for you.

I'm not sure what to do about the light fixture. It is from the 1940s and is original to the home, but of course I can't help but picture a beautiful new pendant light or candle chandelier here. What do we think?

My favorite things about the kitchen are this cute chandelier, the cabinets - especially the glass one that displays my cutesy stuff, and the big stove.

Come back tomorrow to check our the living room, guest bedrooms, and guest bath.