Turning a house into a home

You don't realize how wonderful it is to have pictures up on the walls and in frames, books on the shelves, a can opener that works, and all of your clothes in the closet AND dresser until you have to live out of a suitcase for 4 weeks.  I know that is not as long as other families in the Army, but it was long enough for me!

So after three weeks, I decided to call the moving company and ask them when our stuff was coming. Finally the movers arrived on Friday, June 15th at 1pm. I guess Marshall chose a good day to be on CQ because he missed the arrival and the chore of opening boxes and setting up house. :) But in all honesty, I think it was good that he wasn't home because then I didn't have anyone to complain to. Not that I didn't like unpacking boxes. I actually REALLY love to organize and clean. It's just that moving all of our kitchen gadgets, sports toys (soccer balls, rock climbing gear, tennis rackets, etc), and dozens of blankets into a 600 sq ft apartment can seem overwhelming. And if I am by myself, I just put on music and deal with it and take care of it with no problem. If he was there, I might have not been as optimistic because there would have been someone to unload on. So I started to unpack and I didn't stop until about 7:30am on Saturday morning. Yes, I pulled my first all-nighter of my life! And it was worth it. Marshall's facial expression when he arrived home on Saturday at 9am was priceless. "It looks so good! It actually looks like a home!!" Neither of us had slept all night, so we went to bed at 9:30am :) At least I was on his schedule for once!



BEFORE: Living Room--at least we had a super comfy couch and a nice
dining room table (maybe I should call it a living room table :) ) !



DURING: It is all here! I didn't know two people could have so much stuff



DURING: All of my kitchen toys! Somehow I left my brand new salad spinner back in Springfield.  Dang it.

AFTER: Our brand new quilt that Grandma Willis made for us!  And you gotta love our nightstand that the lamp is on...it is definitely our food storage bins! Haha

AFTER: I love the pretty view outside! Notice how green it is!



AFTER: I love our small library!

AFTER: Normally it would be clean under the TV stand, but I actually really like this picture because it shows how much Marshall loves projects.  We had just bought lots of new tools for him, and he had to start playing with them.  He even asked me if it was okay if he left his tools and work out, and I told him that I didn't mind at all! Boy I love that guy!

AFTER: I love my tiny kitchen! Some how I managed to fit everything into our cabinets! I love not having to use a gallon ice cream container as my mixing bowl, or one knife to make an entire dinner.  It sure is nice to have big kitchen towels instead of one small washcloth too!  And