One of the things that I love about my house is the pantry. I think that with every home that you own, there’s always that one area that you love and know you’ll probably never have again. In our last house, it was a beautiful exposed brick fireplace … in this house, it’s the pantry. Hands down. It’s huge!!!

Since beginning The Grocery Game over 3 years ago, it’s been fully stocked. I’ve posted pictures occassionally and many of you have asked to see exactly what is in there and how it is organized.

So, without further wait, here it is: The Pantry Tour.

I can hardly believe that, as of Saturday, we’ve lived in Texas for four years. It truly seems like yesterday that we were packing boxes and babies (still in diapers) and heading out into a future that was clear as mud.

Avery & Piper in 2006

It was a time in our lives that I can look back on now and smile. We were stuck in a rut that was beginning to consume us, trying desperately to break loose, but hitting major obstacles at every turn. Moving to Houston, we knew, would either kill us or make us thrive. Thankfully, it has been wonderful.

Texas has not felt the economic crunch that so many other states have. Our educational system isn’t facing the deep cuts that are prevelant nationwide. And, we’ve been blessed to have surrounded ourselves with people that have given us wise advice so that we’ve made smart decisions that are now working to the benefit of our family.

People always seem to ask if we’ll ever move back to Tennessee. I can honestly answer “no”. Our times there were wonderful & we have such fond memories, but Texas is our home now. It feels right to us … We love it.

Avery & Piper in 2010

Our children have lived more years as Texans than as “Volunteers”. They were potty-trained here, started school here, and have no memories of living elsewhere. That still seems so weird to me. Time really does fly!

There’s a bumper sticker that says “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as soon as I could.” I agree 100%.

God bless, Texas. Thank you for being so good to us!!! Here’s to many more years, memories, & good fortunes!

Many times in a natural disaster you can say “Well, unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard about …” But, actually, this time – it seems a lot of people HAVEN’T heard what is going on in Tennessee.

Life is not good for one going through a disaster when the media is bombarded with two other HUGE news stories at the same time. They started the day with the oil spill in the gulf and about the time that TN went belly-up, the bomb was found in Times Square.

This is a picture of the house where we lived in Nashville. Thankfully, water never got inside. It lacked about 5-6 inches.

I lived in Nashville for nearly 7 years. When I talk about “going home,” I’m usually talking about Tennessee – even though it’s not technically my home. I loved the time that I lived there and many dear friends are still in the area.

Moving 15 hours away, I’m dependant on Facebook to keep connected. I’ve seen millions of pictures and posts of neighbor helping neighbor. It’s awesome to see, but anyone that has lived through a disaster knows … the worst is yet the come. Families facing clean-up, loss of possessions, jobs that are no more – the list is endless.

How can you help?

Text RED CROSS to 90999 and make a $10 donation from your cell phone! Nashville Area Red Cross is providing shelter to over 1,200 in the Middle Tennessee area. Relief work will be on-going!

During the big freeze a few weeks back, I wrapped our gas pipe instead of the water pipe.

Such is my life.

Typical.

Thanks to Thrifty Decor Chick I got a little motivation to organize our home office this past weekend.

Our office has been the dumping ground. A true dumping ground. It’s the room where everything that we don’t know what to do with finds a place to live. It’s the room where we throw it in and shut the door before it finds it’s way back out. There are MANY fully packed boxes. (All office/scrapbooking supplies! We’ve unpacked the rest of the house.) I was tempted to just put the boxes out on the curb for the garbage man to collect, but luckily I didn’t … I found both kids baby/hospital pictures in one of the boxes.

My rule was “Everything finds a home. Either in this room or another room or in the garbage.” It worked. It took all of two weekends, but it worked.

This space is going to be a home office/scrapbooking room. I have a lot of organizing elements to go on the wall. I’m debating on exactly what to use. (If you have pictures or links to great sites for this, comment me!)

(You know I love you if I’m showing you the before pics!)

BEFORE

AFTER 1 WEEKEND OF WORK

AFTER 2 WEEKENDS OF WORK

There is still a lot left to do to this room, but every box is officially unpacked and 95% of the things have found a home. We can still manage to purge more and I’m sure we will.

I hate to see our poor garbage carrier this week. I’ve used 15 lawn and garden bags throwing things away. Why in the world have we kept so much “stuff”? I’ve probably thrown away things that I’ll regret later on, but it’s gone and it feels good – so I’m holding on to that!

Here’s my dream room … This is what I’m going for. I’m especially glad that I bought Don a nail gun for Christmas. I think he’s going to need it!

DISCLAIMER – The rest of my house is perfectly clean. This room is the black hole exception. Don’t be scared that we live like this … we most certainly do not!

This is the slab to our home circa March 2007. With people all over this country losing their houses for various reasons, I feel so blessed to have been able to build this home from the ground up. We love the memories we make inside these walls and I will cherish them forever!

Next month will mark my Second Anniversary of The Grocery Game. Last night, my friend Shelly asked me what my pantry looked like.

Here’s a little peak!

This is a look into the pantry. This is my favorite space in our house. I know that I’ll never have a pantry this large again. It was the key selling point on this house for me.

The right side houses all of our paper goods, extra bathroom supplies, and at the bottom – laundry supplies. (As well as some various things for my yard sale in three weeks! Pretend you don’t see that!)

All of our plasticware is now in plastic shoeboxes. These gems were $1 at The Dollar Tree. They are wonderful. Labeling them is essential. Makes it so easy to grab exactly what we need quickly.

CVS did a huge sale on Bounty paper towels and we stocked up! It’s the best time. I can’t stand those paper towels that just spread stuff around. I have an equal amount of Cottonelle toilet paper. At last count it was 120ish rolls. We were in good shape when the stomach flu came our way in February!

The top of the center section houses bigger appliances that we don’t use a lot (ice cream maker, coffee pot, etc.). The row below that is for Goldfish, Hamburger/Tuna Helper, Potatoes, Ramen Noodles, and Muffin Mixes.

Next row is mix packets, Tuna packets, Mac and Cheese, Salsa, Sauces, and Salad Dressing.

The next two rows are more bare than I’ve seen them in two years. All canned goods. Canned veggies, fruit, pasta sauce, chili, beans, etc.

Laundry detergent is housed on the floor. I love All Small and Mighty – can you tell?

I hate to store food on the floor, but I’m too that point. (Actually, I guess I could put the appliances down here … something to think about.) These are boxes of Hot Chocolate, cereal galore, extra boxes of Fruit by the Foot, and Avery’s Snacks to take to school each day.

Other side floor holds chips for Avery’s snacks, juice (last summer I had 22 containers of juice, these last couple are left from that stockpile), Diet Coke, Popsicles.

On the left is our candy stash. I’ve got to do something else with this. I just hate to mix chocolate candy with non-chocolate stuff. It’s a mess. Beside that are more containers with Fruit Snacks, Jello, and 100 Calorie Packs.

Keep going and you hit all “drink-related” stuff. Containers for SweetNLow, Crystal Light, Tea Bags, and Hot Chocolate

Cake Mixes, Frosting, Cookie Mixes, and Baking Supplies … Yummy

More cereal!

Second Freezer. It was actually really well organized until Kroger ran a sale on frozen veggies. Those suckers don’t stack!!!

Here’s our front door. We actually have lights outside, but – to be completely honest – this is the coldest night of the year (so far) and I wasn’t interested in huffing it out to the sidewalk to get a picture. So, let’s just start with the door!

This is the tree in our Dining Room. Don decorated this one on his own. He really should do this professionally during the holidays. He has a great eye for this type of thing.

This is my little Christmas Village. It’s really gotten the shaft since we moved to Texas. In Tennessee, we had it on the mantle in the Living Room. We had all the little accessories (including battery-powered lights on the houses, a pond, etc.) – it was really “Christmas-y”. Now, it gets thrown on the entry table as a side thought. In fact, we didn’t even unpack it last year. So, it’s going on Craigslist on December 26. I hope it finds a good home.

This is our tree in our Family Room. It holds all of our family ornaments and things that we all love, especially ornaments that the kids make themselves! This year, Don added the red poinsetta’s and he made the topper! (Notice that I haven’t wrapped yet. The only presents under the tree are from Aunt Tempa!)

This is one of my favorite ornaments. It goes in the center every year!

This is one of those “much better in person things”, but I love that I am married to someone who can look at the top of our shelf and come back with something that totally fits and only costs 75-cents! The jug and the mirror live there 365 days a year – the jar with ornaments from Wal-Mart appeared via Don during a commerical break from Boston Legal.

This is our mantle in the Family Room. The garland is lit although the picture doesn’t show that very well. It looks gorgeous when the candles are lit, but again – I’m doing this quickly

This is the best part – the lights on the playset. The kids LOVE it. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but there are lights inside the “fort” so that the kids can go in at night and play.

* The kids have a Christmas Tree in their Gameroom. I’ll take a picture tonight and post it. They both fell asleep on the couch tonight watching ABC Family channel’s “12 Days of Christmas”. We left them on the couch to sleep. I didn’t want to risk waking them up with the flash.

So, now that you’ve checked out our house, head on over to BooMama’s Tour of Homes. It’s so fun to see what everyone has posted! Get ready … it’s addictive

Our water heater is in our garage. I remember very specifically the day they installed it during the building process. It has a sticker on the front – you know the one, with the red X indicating not to touch because it might be hot. I remember Avery asking what that sticker said. I’m foggy on what my answer was. Whatever it was I’m sure that it went something along the lines of “don’t touch, because it might be hot … even Mommy’s and Daddy’s can’t touch it.”

Now, every time that we pass the water heater, every time that anyone passes the water heater … be it us, friend, repairman … Avery and/or Piper (I’ve heard it in stereo many times) say “Only God and Jesus can touch that!!!” They are very committed to that.

It’s a funny balance trying to teach the kids about God and Jesus, and just religion in general. During Christmas, it’s hard to distinguish between God and Santa – both can see you all the time, both love you very much, both want you to share and be good all the time … Jesus, since he was a man, is easier to teach. But, when I hear them say “Only God and Jesus can touch that!!!” I know that at least they understand that God and Jesus have powers far beyond what us, as humans, do.

I pray every morning that they will understand the power that God holds over their life, and that they will always trust him to guide their path. That same thought speaks to my favorite scripture:

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

… and that future holds, at least for now, not ever touching the water heater

Don and I love looking at model houses. It’s been one of our favorite past times since we moved to Texas. If you know anything about where we live, you’ll know that it’s a hot-bed for builders. It was recently cited as the fastest growing suburb in Houston. It’s expected to grow by 80,000 people in the next 5 years! Unbelievable. But, with that said, most of the houses are less than 10 years old, so they are building like wildfire out our way. No sign of a recession there.

For the past two weeks, we have totally re-done Avery’s room. Gone are any signs that a toddler lived in that room. It is maxed-out-little boy. Complete with a loft bed, school desk, and cool decor – he’s sure to be so excited when he gets home. I’ll post pictures soon I promise. (PS – please don’t share any stories about how your kid fell out of their loft/bunk bed. I’m mortified of him sleeping up there.)

We thought we were home free on Miss Piper’s room. Hang some pictures, paint Avery’s old bed white for her, and she was good to go! Well, that was the plan until yesterday. I was re-inspired for her room. I’ve always wanted to do something different, but didn’t really want to invest the money because I wasn’t completely sold on any one idea. I always knew that I wanted to eventually do a Hollywood Regency style for her – it screams her name. Well, yesterday we saw two rooms that totally blew me away.

Here are the inspiration rooms:

I like elements of both rooms. I like the simplicity of the pink and brown room. It’s so clean and so fun with the “wall words”, but I love the glam of the black and green room. I think we’re going to do a combination of the two. Let’s call it “Traditional Hollywood Regency.” I’ll get back to you with pictures as I progress … but if I have my way, and can find some great bargains, our little Diva will be set when she comes home from vacation!