Transformations

It's amazing what a little paint and new flooring can do to a house!  

Because our "new to us" home is actually a church parsonage, they renovated the house before we moved in.  We are so amazed at how much they invested in us before they really even knew us!  We feel truly blessed and are so thankful for all of the work so many of the church members did for us!  

From painting to ripping out old carpet to clearing brush in the backyard to mowing to helping us load and unload furniture to giving us an old fashioned food pounding...we have felt such a warm welcome!  

Thank you, Bro, Andy & Renie and members of Idabel FBC!  

You are living out the Acts 2 church!

Here are a few BEFORE and AFTER pictures of our new home.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

Living Room looking at entry way & master bedroom

BEFORE

Living Room looking from the entry way

 AFTER

(Living Room next to entry way)

AFTER

Living Room & Dining & Kitchen

(They removed half of the wall between the living room & kitchen.  

It opened up the whole living area!  

You can stand at the fireplace & see all the way to the boys' bathroom and vice versa!)

AFTER 

(Entry way.  On the other side of the wall where the entry table is, they built a wall for the refrigerator.)

AFTER

(Master Bedroom.  I guess I didn't get a before picture of this room.)

 BEFORE

(Kitchen.  They removed half of the blue wall to open up into the living room.

Then they built a space for the refrigerator on the right and added cabinets and

prep space next to the oven/stove.)  

BEFORE

(Kitchen.  And the most obvious difference...they changed EVERYTHING that was

BROWN to WHITE.  Lightened up the whole house!)

BEFORE

(Family Room/School Room)

BEFORE

(Family Room/School Room looking into kitchen)

AFTER

Family Room/School Room...what a difference!

BEFORE

Standing in the kitchen looking into the family room

BEFORE

(4th bedroom that they turned into a laundry room/craft room.

The washer & dryer were outside in the garage on the opposite side of the 

right wall, so they changed the pipes to work INSIDE!)

BEFORE

Laundry Room

AFTER

(Laudnry Room/Craft Room...LOVE being able to have 

washer & dryer inside the house!)

 BEFORE

Boys' Bathroom

AFTER

Boys' Bathroom

BEFORE

Evan's Room

AFTER

Evan's Room

BEFORE

Ethan's Room

AFTER

Ethan's Room

So...what do you think of the transformation?  

As for us, we walk around the house with a big smile on our face daily! 

We've Crossed the Border!

It's hard to believe that it's only been 3 weeks since we moved to Oklahoma!  We are getting settled in nicely.  We feel so blessed with our new home and our new ministry at Idabel FBC!  The people have made us feel so very welcome!  We are so thankful that the church renovated this parsonage for us!  (I'll have to show before and after pictures on another post.)

Several people have asked to see pictures, so I finally have all of my boxes unpacked and have the house in good enough shape to give you a "bloggy" tour of our Oklahoma home!

So...

Welcome to Abbey Lane

The entry way...you can see the living room, dining room, & kitchen from this point!

The living room and dining room in the back

Another view of the living room as I'm standing in our bedroom

Standing by the fireplace, you can see the dining room, 

kitchen, & family room/school room!

The dining room

Family Room/School room & Kitchen

Family Room/School room & Kitchen

(The pantry is on the left.  I have school supplies, cake decorating supplies, 

arts/crafts supplies, & small appliances on the right side.)

Love, Love, Love the storage space!

Awesome laundry room/crafty room

 

Another view of laundry room/crafty room

(it's still a work in progress..not finished organizing everything 

in there yet. Do you see Flat Ethan's wall?)

The boys' bathroom

Evan's man cave

He's very proud of his simple room...

and he does not want me to clutter it up. :)

Evan's room looking into their bathroom. 

Ethan's room is on the right, the laundry room is to the left.

Ethan's super cool room with loft bed!

Ethan's room--school area

Ethan is so proud of his loft bed that PawPaw & Daddy built for him.

He said the ladder helps him reach the books up high in his "library" (bookshelf).

Our bedroom

Another view of our bedroom

Our bedroom and bathroom

Our bathroom

I didn't want to end the tour with the bathroom.

So here's a picture of our fireplace.

We are. Truly.

Blessed.

Women Living Well {GIVEAWAY}

UPDATE...The Winner is...

domdandevdil!

 Please email me your mailing address so I can get the book sent to you!

Congratulations!

I am so thrilled to be chosen to be a part of Courtney's "Women Living Well" Launch Team for her new book that was just released today!  It's called Women Living Well:  Finding Your Joy in God, Your Man, Your Kids, and Your Home.

I have been reading Courtney's Women Living Well blog for several years now.  She is very inspirational and very honest and extremely down to earth.  She is the type of Christian witness I always dream of being.  In her book, she shares her testimony and a TON of practical ways to "walk with the King" in our daily lives.

I have had the honor to receive an advanced ebook copy and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it (when I haven't been packing or planning Ethan's birthday party or moving, etc) during the last few weeks.  Actually, it has been nice to read it after I collapse onto the bed from exhaustion at night. :)

The book is divided into 4 parts:  

1.  Your Walk with the King

2.  Your Marriage

3.  Your Parenting

4.  Your Homemaking

I will be reviewing each of these sections during the month of November.  However, if you'd like to try to win a FREE signed copy of the book, just leave a comment on this blog post.  The GIVEAWAY will end on Sunday, October 6.  

If you don't want to wait, you can purchase your own copy here.

**I was chosen as part of the launch team for this book and was given an advanced PDF copy of the book in exchange for an honest review and promotion of the book.