and repeat after me, "There's no place like home."
Most of you know that The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie ever. As we transition from our roomy 3 bedroom/2.5 bathroom house into an on-campus apartment that screams for IKEA-sized furniture, Glenda's words keep echoing through my head. You'll see our new place later in this post, and unfortunately it's taking a little more than clicking heels to make it feel like home. We're positive and happy about the move though, it's going to be worth it! Norman already feels like home to us, it's absolutely charming. Before we get to all that though...
Ava is such a lucky little lady to have a Beene Beene and a Baba who sew pretty dresses. Thanks to Baba for this snazzy number!
When Ava was 5 months old we first had dinner with the Broaddus family. We've been close friends ever since. They will move to Houston around the same time we move to Norman, so we were excited to find some time to hang out.
Hugging her friend
Have you seen the Disney movie Enchanted? After dinner with Patrick and Courtney we headed to Barnes & Noble to browse. Ava brought a book to Courtney and as she started to read random children from around the store started gathering around her. It was so cute and reminded me of the princess in Enchanted, when the animals flock to her side, completely captivated. The little blond boy just climbed into her lap. Patrick, this magical lady needs kiddos soon.
Don't be fooled, she's plotting.
Parenting fact #78:
If you buy something sinful (like frosted animal cookies with sprinkles) in hopes of keeping it a secret to enjoy when moving stress is beating you down, your child WILL find it and expose the weakness to your spouse. Said child will also Bogart the cookies so you have none left when the stress knot at the base of your neck starts to throb.
As promised, here are the pictures of our apartment. After three days of intense TLC things are looking much better. Married graduate student housing sounds scary, but we're working hard to make it feel like home. Our housing contract states that "painting is not allowed. You will be charged if housekeeping must return walls to original color." I interpret this rule to mean, "if you paint your apartment, make sure to paint it back." So we left Ava with my parents for three days and traveled to Norman to paint. We also had the furniture removed since we have our own. It will look even better once we move our own stuff in.Showing my love in the kitchen
Splotchy painted feet after day one
Celebrating one day of painting down and the first night in our new home.
We spent two nights in our new apartment while we painted. Thanks to the Wilsons for letting us borrow their step ladder. It helped us reach high spots to paint and served as our entertainment center when we were too tired to paint anymore.
If you walk out our door and to the left 10 steps this is the view to the left. See the building next to the green "tent" playground cover? That's the childcare center where Ava and I will go each day. A beautiful little walk under a big pine tree will take us to school each morning. The law school is just about a block farther. Can't beat the price OR location of our new home!
If you walk out our door and to the left 10 steps this is the view straight out.
If you walk out our door and to the left 10 steps this is the view to the right.
Our bedroom before
Our bedroom after
(the second picture looks a little green, but the walls are actually blue)
Ava's bedroom before
Ava's bedroom after
Bathroom before
(excuse my awkward mirror angle)
(excuse my awkward mirror angle)
Bathroom after
Know the best part about having one bathroom?
Only one potty to clean!!!
Kitchen before
Kitchen after
(I plan to change the handles on the cabinets soon.)
Hallway
(first door on the left is our bedroom, second on left is Ava's bedroom, straight ahead is the bathroom, door to the right of bathroom is our pantry)
Living room before
Living room after
Dining room before
Dining room after
Entrance to the kitchen before
Entrance to the kitchen after
Josh and I have never been away from our Ava for more than one night. We were so happy to have her back in our arms late Thursday evening. To celebrate our little reunion we headed to Cafe Cappuccino for brunch on Friday morning. What says welcome back better than pancakes as big as your face?
We plan to move everything up to Norman on Tuesday.
This move is not the easy choice for us, but Josh and I truly believe that it is the right one for our family.
And really, as long as the three of us are together nothing else matters.
Believe it or not, this picture wasn't posed at all.
Apple Wheat pancakes inspire angelic behavior:)
6 comments:
Of course you will make it your own and it will be precious, Autumn! You will love living in housing: you'll make lifelong friends and can put the time you'd spend mowing the yard and fixing up the house on...FAMILY. I know you'll be blessed in your own home. And I know that Baba will keep the road between Clifton and Norman hot.
Everything looks so wonderful! Please let us know how we can help with the move. See ya tonight!
~Sarah
It looks good girl! I love the colors! We saw miss Ava on Wed, she was with your parents leaving lions park. We took Jack for his first train ride, on his first birthday! I think he had fun. I also think I may have to have some of those apple wheat pancakes you keep talking about! XoXo
The apartment looks SO good. It is amazing what a little paint can do. Thanks for sharing! Safe travels to Norman...
It's looking so colorful! I love the "bogart"ing the cookies. She is precious... Josh and I were laughing pretty hard over her photo with the cookies.
It was good to meet you at the wedding!
Great job on the painting. You have much more stamina that we do in that department. I get tired after about one wall. :) Blessings to you as you embark on this new and exciting stage of life.
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