One Year!

It has been a whole year since I married the love of my life! I honestly can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Everyone said it would go fast and it definitely did. We have had an amazing first year of marriage. Here a just a few pictures of our first year as husband and wife! <3

In the car, right after the ceremony!

Moody Gardens in Galveston

 Our tickets

 At a buddy wedding

 Same wedding, different picture

 Another buddy wedding

 Being goofy

Start of my big girl career

 Thomas graduated!!

 Happiness is being married to your best friend

 All the Abernathy animals

Fish pond where he proposed! We had to stop and take a picture last time we were in College Station. I am just so happy to be married to my best friend. There is absolutely nobody else I would want to spend the rest of my life with. I love you, bee! 

#jessandtombuyahouse

Yep... You read that right! We're buying a house! I haven't really posted much about it in case something fell through or we didn't end up getting this house, but everything seems to be progressing exactly how it should be! Praise the LORD!! I'll just give a little recap of how we found this house and a few other details. We knew that we didn't want to be in our rent house for more than a year. We didn't like the thought of paying so much to live in a house that wasn't ours. We love our house right now, but we wanted something that is ours. We wanted a place that we could paint and change the cabinet colors if we wanted. We also wanted to get out of Mansfield. Mansfield is great and will always be my home, but Tom and I are ready to make a home in another town.  I started talking with my Realtor friend, Brenda, at the beginning of the year. I told her the things we were looking for in a home and some places that we saw ourselves living. I began receiving links to homes for sale in Burleson, Midlothian, Waxahachie, and (yes...) some Mansfield. I would occasionally send Tom links to the houses I liked and he would tell me his opinion on them. Over Spring Break, my sister and I went with Brenda to look at four houses. Three of the houses were great and I liked things about all of them. The fourth house was terrible. I walked in and immediately walked out. That weekend, Tom and I were going to look at the three houses again, but never got around to it.  A couple of weeks passed and a house that I liked popped up in my email. I sent it to Tom and told him that it also had some land (something we both wanted). It was about 30 minutes away from where we are now. Both of us agreed that it was a location we were happy with. I set up an appointment with Brenda to see the house on April 6. As soon as we walked in the house, I knew it was a place I could see myself raising a family. Tom told me that he felt the same way. We walked through the house and fell in love. The next day we made an offer. By the end of the day, the sellers had accepted our offer and we started the loan process. Everything happened so incredibly fast! Our inspection was last Saturday. I was very concerned about this, just because I am a worrier. Everything was fine, though, and God reassured me that this is where we are supposed to be. Right now, we are in the "pending" stage. The mortgage company just ordered the appraisal and then we will continue with the extremely long loan process.  We will hopefully close the week after our first wedding anniversary!   I am so thankful for Brenda. She has been so helpful and selfless during this whole process. She has driven checks all over the place. She has set up appointments. She has answered all of our questions and made us feel completely at ease.  If you're on Instagram or Twitter follow me (@jessab12) and be looking for house pictures under the hashtag: #jessandtombuyahouse 

The field of wildflowers in our backyard! 

Adios 2013!

Hey y'all! Happy 2014! I have a hard time grasping the fact that it is already 2014. 2013 absolutely flew by. I thought that I would post some highlights from 2013 so I won't forget them!

• In February Tom and I adopted Barli.
• On April 12 we celebrated our 7 year anniversary.
• On May 18 we got married and had a fabulous time celebrating with family and friends.
• In June I was hired to teach 8th grade math in Arlington.
• In July we were approved to rent a house in Mansfield.
• In August we moved into the house and Tom graduated from A&M.
• Later in August I started teaching!
• In September Tom started his job at Polk Mechanical.
• On September 11 Barli had her leg amputated.
• Throughout the fall we went to a few Texas A&M Football games (Rice, Vanderbilt, UTEP)
• We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in Mansfield.
• Christmas day we ate lunch at an Asian buffet

We have been so incredibly blessed this year. We are so looking forward to see what 2014 has in store for us. I have absolutely loved having these 2 weeks off of work. I definitely needed to have this time to reflect on the first semester of school and what I need to do differently in order to be the most effective teacher I can be during the second semester. Teaching has been a completely different experience than I was expecting. Please continue to pray for me during this second semester. I appreciate it, y'all! 

Long Time No See

Hey y'all! Sorry it has taken me so long to write again. I have been so incredibly busy! Thank You, Jesus, for these next 5 days off school!! I desperately needed them (and so did the students!). I have so many things on my mind right now. I feel like making a list. Lists calm me down and help me feel like I have slightly more control than I really do. 

• I love looking at stars and finding ones that I remember from taking astronomy in college. Tonight I found Venus and it comforted me. I guess it made me feel better because I know that I am not alone in this crazy universe. God created so much more than what we can see or even fathom. Here's the picture I took of Venus. 
  
• 3 years ago today I found my princess kitty. I can't believe that she is 4 years old! 
• We don't know Libby's or Barli's exact birth dates. I decided that the day I found Libby (November 26) would be her birthday. When we got Barli, we decided to make her birthday the same day as Libby's. We know Barli was born sometime in November, so November 26 sounded good! haha
• Teaching is the hardest thing I've ever done. Like ever. I don't know how people do it for 30+ years.
• I really, really, really love being married. It's like having a sleep over with my best friend every night. I am so glad that I found someone who I can share silence with.

Our Home

Remember this post? I spent the last month or so trying to find a place for me and Tom to live. I knew I wanted it to be close enough to family, but far enough away that we could be on our own. It's hard to find somewhere to live when you're searching from 3 hours away! I am so thankful that we have a real estate friend who was awesome enough to help us by sending daily emails with info on rent houses. 
That's how I found this super cute house in Mansfield. I knew it would go fast because it was such a good price, allowed pets, and was in a good area. I messaged my friend and set up a showing to see that house and a few others. When she was setting up the showings, she couldn't get the information for any of the other houses I had requested to see, except for the Mansfield house. God totally had His hand on the situation! I did get to look at 2 other houses when I drove up to see the Mansfield house, but they absolutely didn't compare! 
The house was everything we were looking for. It has a huge garage, a beautiful back porch, large backyard, and a skylight in the master bathroom! I knew that I wanted to apply for it, but I was in DFW and Tom was in College Station (and in class all day away from his phone). My real estate friend, my sister, and I went to the property management place and got to talk to the managers about what we needed to do to be in this house. They said that in order to be considered for this house, you had to fill out the application and pay the application fee and security deposit by cashiers check. That afternoon was so hectic. We drove all around Arlington getting everything needed to apply for the house. The company was nice enough to take just my application since Tom wasn't there to sign anything. They said we could email it in. So that's what we did! When I came back to College Station the next day, we filled out Tom's application, scanned it in, and emailed it to the property management company.   We got a call yesterday afternoon from the company saying that we had been approved and that we could move in August 1! We were ecstatic!! So now we are trying to figure out how we will move all of our stuff from College Station to Mansfield while Tom is in class. HAHAH I know that it will all work out in the end, though. I might just be sleeping on a blowup mattress for a little bit ;) Even if I am, I will be praising God for giving us this amazing opportunity to be in the town we love, near the people we care so much about! 
 I am so excited to be moving in to our home in just 11 days! 

Choosing to Laugh

I'm a mess, y'all... I have lost [and found] our marriage license TWICE in the past week... I can't make this up. I think that I have really bad wedding brain still. I also think that it has something to do with getting a job and filling out SO many papers. I usually don't mind paperwork, but it was a beat down for sure! I am really ready for the school year to start and for things to get back to normal. We don't know where we will be living in August which is really scary for me. I know that God will make sure that we have somewhere to stay [probably with one of our families for a month] and that I shouldn't worry about it, but I am SUCH a worrier. I keep this verse close to my heart at all times

I am a woman of God and I don't need to worry about the days to come!! I can focus on being a good homemaker and wifey right now! I don't need to let the worry of tomorrow overshadow today. This doesn't mean that we won't be working to save money [and maybe make a little money] these next 6 weeks, but that I won't be consumed by that worry. God has so much in store for us and I can't wait to see what happens in the coming months. I am thankful to have God's Word to comfort me when I worry. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to laugh at the days to come!

Changing My Name: How I Legally Became an Abernathy

Today I officially changed my last name to Abernathy. The process wasn't all too terrible. I didn't really know where to start, but a couple of pins on Pinterest helped me out. The one that I liked the most was from a lady in Kansas. They do things a little different here in Texas (DPS instead of DMV, anyone?), so I knew it wouldn't be the exact same. I looked at the SS website and they have a link that is just for how to change your name. It was so helpful! I found  this page about a week after the wedding. In order to change your name, you have to have a legal document (marriage license) proving that you need a name change. (I guess they got tired of people trying to come in and change their name to "Princess Banana Hammock" :D please tell me you know where that is from!)

How to Change Your Name:
1. Wait until you have your marriage license back (anywhere from a week to a month after the wedding)
2. Fill out the application for name change on the SSA website
3. Either go to your local Social Security office with a picture ID and proof of citizenship, along with your marriage license and completed application, or mail all of the above to the address listed on the website. [Here are all the specific types of documents you can bring]
4. Your new SS card will be mailed to you in about 2 weeks!

Since we didn't have our marriage license back until about 2 weeks after the wedding, I had to wait to do anything. I didn't want to mail all of my things, and I live close enough to the office to justify driving there. I waited less than an hour (not bad!) and the lady I worked with was so nice! I also decided to change my name on my drivers license while I was in the area and that was pretty easy also. They also just needed proof of my marriage in order to change my name on my license.

Now that those 2 major things are done, I can change my name on my bank account, resumes, and all my job applications. This part is probably going to be more tedious than legally changing my name. I thought about getting a new email address, but I have so many things linked to my current one. I hope that this was helpful to someone! Let me know if you have any questions.

Summertime Cleaning

It's hot, y'all... Like really, really hot. Barli (our sweet Boxer puppy) has decided that the best way to beat the heat is to burrow underneath the storage shed in the backyard. I have no clue how she even figured out how to dig her way under there, but it is not a good thing! She gets so dirty and with the crazy speed at which she is growing, she could easily get stuck. Right now, she's passed out in front of a fan while Tom and I take a break from doing lots of chores around the house. So far we have sold some old video games and an old Xbox at the pawn shop, got Tom's free suit from Men's Wearhouse, started to clean off the back porch, done the dishes, and cleaned one bedroom. Tom's family is coming into town this weekend for a wedding in Katy, so I want the house to look awesome! We still need to do lots more cleaning, but getting started is the hardest part! Tonight I am taking a break from cooking and we are going to Chuy's for happy hour with my old roommate, Amber. I am excited to have a night off from doing dishes! haha I also think we have enough leftovers for me to not have to cook all weekend. I am proud of how much cooking I have done since we got married. If you know me, you know that I do not enjoy being in the kitchen, but recently I've discovered that I love doing wifey things for my hubby! I guess it was just the motivation I needed.

 A couple of the recipes that I've made recently are this pizza casserole and pasta with spinach and tomatoes. The recipe for the pasta is a little confusing, so here's what I did! Instead of using 8 oz of penne, I used the entire box (16 oz). The recipe calls for half a jar of spaghetti sauce, but the instructions say canned, diced tomatoes. I opted to use the diced tomatoes and since I did twice the amount of pasta, I used twice the amount of everything else.  

2 cans diced tomatoes

6 oz cream cheese (We used reduced fat)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tsp garlic powder (We used a lot more than that, but we like garlic!)

1 tsp dried basil (We used some Italian seasoning instead)

1 cup spinach leaves

We left out the Parmesan cheese (mostly because we didn't have any...) but followed the rest of the prep instructions. I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as Tom and I did! We had lots of leftovers and it tastes just as good reheated as it did the first night. 

New Beginnings

I honestly have no idea if anyone will actually read this, but hey! I have decided that I want to start writing down my thoughts and feelings since I've gotten married! I will probably write about how things are going in our marriage, recipes, and everyday things that are going on with us!

 I am so incredibly happy to [finally] be married to my best friend! These past 2 weeks have been so lazy and relaxing. I definitely needed it after the stress of the wedding. I don't remember much for our wedding day. I'm hoping the pictures help jog my memory!  When I get the pictures back from the photographer I will post my favorites here and on facebook! I really can't wait to see them. Hopefully only a couple more weeks!

Living in College Station for the summer in a house that isn't completely ours to decorate or rearrange is frustrating, but living here for free is worth it. I am anxious to have a place that is ours where we can decorate how we want, hang pictures on the walls, and not worry that someone will come walking in the door at all hours of the day.

Well, those are just some of my thoughts for today. I'm sure I'll write some more later this week! Libby is meowing for her dinner now <3

Jess