Overwhelmed

That’s how I feel these days. Just overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by buying a new home, by packing up our current home, by working in a new place that I’m trying to love (Columbia = garnet central, yuck!), by living in in hotel…

… by being loved more than any one person has ever been loved in the entire world. I have never been so overwhelmed by how blessed I really am.

Let's start with these two.

My parents are the most loving, generous, thoughtful, selfless people I know. They have an immeasurable love for each other and have spent the past 26 years teaching me to love as they do. It’s ridiculous how awesome they are. I’ve always been overwhelmed by their generosity, but the level at which they give of themselves has become more evident in my adulthood. I only hope I can give to others like they have given to us.

I’m also overwhelmed by this incredible group of people.

Last Friday night, Ryan & I were supposed to meet our friends, Greg & Suzy for dinner. When we showed up (20 minutes late), we discovered over 25 of our friends had gotten together to throw us a surprise going away party. What’s even better? This is just part of our Sunday School class from church. Not even kidding. We have the best church ever and I’m going to miss these people like crazy. If you're anywhere near Greenville, you've got to check out this church.

We spent the rest of last weekend celebrating my grandma’s 84th birthday. She was so excited to finally have her 21st birthday (she’s a Leap Year baby)! I absolutely love spending time with my whole family.

We wrapped up Saturday night with some quality time with these two – our best friends Josh & Jamie. Although we won’t live 10 minutes apart any more, we’ll make more of an effort to see each other!

I’ve never been so overwhelmed. God has blessed us with an incredible family, wonder friends, a new home and a chance to make history with this State Farm agency Ryan will be opening in May. Maybe being overwhelmed isn’t so bad after all.

Our New Home

So many people (okay, two people) have been asking for pictures of the new house. It'll be ours in just a few short days - we close this Friday! Check her out :)

Rainy Day

Living Room - 25 foot ceilings!Yikes! How am I supposed to change those bulbs??

FINALLY we get a fireplace!!

Hallway that leads to the 1/2 bath & basement

Kitchen

Dining Room

This is the view standing in the breakfast eating area.

Guest Bathroom

Guest Room - those shelves will go (they remind me of porcelain doll holders)

Guest Room

Master

Master Bath

Master Bath

1/2 Bath on the Main Floor

The view as you enter the basement.

Full Bath in the Basement

Bonus Room

Basement Bedroom

View of Backyard from the Top Deck (off the breakfast eating area)

Backyard & Bottom Deck

Staying Neutral

I’ve always loved color. I love seeing it, I love wearing it, frankly, I love everything about it. Color can change your mood. {It’s proven - don’t chalenge me on this one.} But, lately I’ve fallen in love with all things neutral. I’ve found so many pictures on Pinterest and houzz.com that make my heart sing!

Our new living room is a whole lot of beige. All beige, except for the white mouldings and mantle and the black in the fireplace. I’m choosing not to even acknowledge the white fan accented in brass. Well, I guess I just did, but that’s the first thing to go! I almost died the first time I walked this room. I practically yelled, “It’s so sterile!” I’m pretty sure I offended our Realtor because I later found out he told the owner to paint the entire house this color. 2700 square feet of builder grade white. Yikes.







The strange thing is, the more I go in this room the more I love it. I’m not sure if I’m beginning to love it because I know it will cost $400 to paint, or if I’m actually growing fond of it. I’ll stick with the latter and show you why. All of these neutral living rooms speak to me. I’ve finally realized that neutral doesn’t have to be boring! If you layer different textures & hues of neutrals you can create an pretty fabulous, comfortable and inviting space. Here are a few of my favorites.

traditional family room design by other metros interior designer Anna Baskin Lattimore Design

traditional living room design by seattle architect Paul Moon Design

traditional family room design by chicago interior designer Michael Abrams Limited

We can always throw in color with drapes, pillows & rugs, but for now, this is a good jumping off point. Now… for a new couch…

The Reason I Love George Washington

What can you get for $1?
Not much.
Well, not much that’s wonderful.

But I’m about to rock your world...

BOOM!

Since the winter of 2005 Ryan & I have been ranking McDonald’s ice cream all over the Southeast. We’ve probably demolished ice cream at more than 50 McDonald’s and we’ve ranked them all.

Lexington is tied for 3rd with Barnwell.

Belton is 2nd.
Powdersville is 1st.

It’s VERY tough to make it to the top of the Grubbs’ favorite ice cream list. First and most important is the texture. If it has even an ounce of grainy-ness it’s out of the running. That’s the #1 way to ruin a McDonald’s ice cream. McDonald’s is known for having the creamiest ice cream, so that’s the standard to which we uphold it. We also judge it on how long it holds its shape on the cone and how well the cone can be “packed.” Ryan coined this phrase when he was a young tot. His favorite thing to do is to “pack” the ice cream into the bottom section of the cone, then eat that section in one big bite. It’s awesome to see the satisfaction on his face every time he does this. I can't put into words how much we love this tasty treat.

So there you have it, America. Go out & buy the best ice cream that $1 can buy. Visit one of our top 3 locations. I promise you won’t be disappointed. And just for reference, if you write a complaint letter to a McDonald’s telling them their ice cream isn’t good… they don’t care.

My Love's Big Day

happy birthday ryan!

Today is Ryan's 26th birthday! Happy Birthday to the love of my life!

this was taken on his 21st birthday!

this is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us - taken 2 halloweens ago

this is one of our first pictures... when we were just 19 years old

Here's to the last 8 birthdays spent together. I can't wait for many, many more!

Prank Calling

I have the sweetest sister-in-law. Seriously, the sweetest, and she has a precious boyfriend named Charles. Charles is in his first year of pharmacy school in Columbia and I’m so excited because we’ll be seeing them a lot more. Ryan’s family came to Lexington today to celebrate his birthday and I got the brilliant idea to prank-call the pharmacist-in-training at work. He’s pretty soft spoken and I love to ask him awkward medical questions any time we’re together.

I called CVS & asked for Charles. As I anxiously waited for him to come on the other line, all of my in-laws were already doubled over in the car. Yes, all 5 of us sitting in our rental car… in the parking lot of our hotel. Wholesome family fun.

FINALLY he came on the other line and this is how the conversation went…

Me: “Hi, Charles. A friend of mine came in the other day and told me you were so helpful to her and that I should call you.”
Charles: Silent Pause
Me: “Well, I have this problem… It’s a… um… a have a small rash. In my nether regions.”
Charles: “Yes ma’am.”
Me: “Well, it itches really bad and I’m not sure what I can do about it. I wanted to see if you knew of some type of cream I could use.”
Charles: “Ok, ma’am. Hold on just a second and I’ll check with my pharmacist and see what she recommends.”
About 3 whole minutes went by. Everyone in the car was laughing so hard we almost got caught when he came back on the line.
Charles: “You still there?
Me: “Yep.”
Charles: “Ok, the pharmacist said you need to use hydrocortisone cream.”
Me: “Ok. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate your help. Can you do me one favor? Can you write down my name & number and have the pharmacist give me call later?”
Charles: “Sure, sure. That’ll be fine.”
Me: “Ok, my name is Amy. … Grubbs {laugher erupts in the car}
Charles: “Oh my gosh. I was hoping you weren’t serious! I already asked the pharmacist if the person on line 2 was prank calling me!”

Mission = success. I haven’t prank-called someone in years. And let me tell you – it felt awesome! You should all prank call someone this week. I promise it’ll put a smile on your face. :)

Charles & Megan

Megan & Me

Kitchen Redo - Part 1

I’ve always found the hardest part of a room makeover is deciding what you want the room to look like. Enter Pinterest. This is my (and majority of civilization’s) latest obsession. Luckily I’ve had a few months to figure out what I want my kitchen to look like. I’m always drawn to white cabinets and in a small space like our kitchen will be, white is the perfect choice. The tough part will be finding someone who will paint them. My mom & I painted the ones in our current home & that was a nightmare. I’m more than willing to pay someone else to do it! Here are a couple of pictures of the kitchen as it is now…

There are so many things I want to change, cabinet color, countertops, wall color, appliances, light fixtures, window treatments… the list goes on & on, but I’m going to try to stop there. Luckily, the floor is pretty neutral, so we’re going to try to work with it to save some money there. Below is a picture of my dream kitchen. I saw this picture for the first time and immediately fell in love.

It’s so crisp, clean & fresh – exactly how I want my kitchen to look. Obviously, many of the features won’t be the same, but this is the general inspiration for what I want. Here are a couple of more pictures of my favorites.

Because of the floor, I don't know if I'll be able to go with stark white cabinets, I may need to make them a little more antique-y white. Either way, I'll be better than what's in there now! We close on the hosue in less than 2 weeks (eek!!), so I'm hoping this will happen fairly quickly. Our first project will be installing a fence for our two sweet pups, then on to the kichen! Stay posted for more pics of the new house & my decorating ideas!

A Perfect Valentine's Day

I’m a defiant little soul. Nothing bothers me more than for someone who has no authority to tell me what to do. Case in point = I hate Valentine’s Day. The world tries to tell me to be romantic, to expect my husband to send me a bouquet of overpriced red roses, and heaven forbid, to like hearts. Ain’t gonna happen.

Thankfully, my wonderful husband knows me well. We didn’t make reservations for Valentine’s Day. We drove around for over an hour and eventually stumbled on this little gem:

Looked harmless & non-romantic enough, so I agreed. Just a fun, easy dinner. Don’t get me wrong – I love to get dressed up and go out to a really nice restaurant, just not when I’m told I have to. This place was the definition of a good time. Bad food, but a really good time. We were lucky enough to go on a Tuesday night, which if you’re a Lexington local, you know that means hard-core karaoke. After tone-deaf Gayle’s version of Trisha Yearwood’s “That’s What I Like About You,” I knew I’d found a home. I love it here & can’t wait for many more Tuesday nights and perfect Valentine’s Days.
Like my flower? All of the lovely ladies who dined at Uno got one of these. Try to keep your jealously to a minimum.

Just Another Saturday...

As if I have nothing else to do, in the middle of cleaning my house & getting ready for the big move, I found it an appropriate time to take on a Saturday afternoon project. We’re moving from an 1100 sq ft house into an almost 3000 sq ft house, so I have a lot of ground to cover (literally). We need to buy a lot more furniture…


So I bought a footstool. Yes, a footstool. Not a couch, not a bed. A footstool. It was $3.50 at Goodwill, so how was a girl to pass it up? Rome wasn’t built in a day. The same rings true for my furniture collection.

Here are the steps I took to fix up this little guy…

Before {brown beaut} - I loved the lines

I used Rust-opeum's "heirloom white." Just two thin coats gave me the amount of coverage I wanted.

Voila! Ready for the last leg of the face lift...

Earlier in the week I had a local fabric store cut a cushion to fit.

I forgot to take pics of the process of covering the cushion, but basically, I lined up the fabric, flipped the stool over, used my handy staple gun to secure the fabric to the under side of the stool, then trimmed off the excess. The stool has now found a new home under a table in our living room. I have a feeling he'll find a new home (and probably a new fabric face lift) in our new home!