Spring wrap up

This post is an attempt to get this blog up to date. Two post in one week is a great start :)

So here is what we have been up to these past few months...

Car shopping for Ben. It was definitely time for him to get a bigger car after driving the blue jag for 7 years!

Enjoying our small group at church. There are 6 couples and we rotate hosting duties. It's fun to have a reason to get all of the Juliska serving pieces out. 

Playing golf. Ben is convinced he can teach me how to play. To date, we have been to the range once for lessons. You can probably guess how that went. He did buy me a cute outfit, so that says there was some potential right?!

Attending weddings. Two of my good friends, Keri and Melanie, got married. Keri and I were college friends and roommates for a semester at Samford. Melanie and I were highschool friends and now both live in Atlanta. 

 

I'm so excited that Keri and Casey will be staying in Atlanta! Looking forward to having more couple friends. 

It was so fun having the highschool girls in Atlanta for the weekend!

Spending time with our nephew. He is all little boy and loves to play. For Mother's Day, my parents and sister-in-law and nephew came to Atlanta. We hadn't seen my nephew since thanksgiving. I couldn't believe how much he had grown up!

He is so sweet and so much fun to be around. Wish NYC was closer!

And last but definitely not least, house hunting. It has been an exhausting few months of looking. We went through so many emotions. We had decided on a Sunday afternoon after seeing yet another disappointing house with a backyard that looked like a for real jungle that we would stop looking for a little while. It seemed like we were wasting our time and the realtors time. I was going to call our realtor on Monday and let her know our decision. That night when we got home from our small group we had an email from her. I thought for sure that it was going to express our sentiments- that we should stop looking- but instead it was to tell us about a new listing coming on the market that week and it sounded really promising. So we got in to see it before it went on the market. We were almost ready to make an offer but decided to see the house next door that was listed but hadn't been able to be shown yet. The rest is history I guess. We made an offer on the neighbor's house and we close next week. God is so faithful!

Let the packing begin...

Relaxation

We spent the past few nights recharging at Reynolds Plantation. It is only an hour or so from Atlanta so it's the perfect weekend getaway.  

The resort is beautiful and overlooks Lake  Oconee. Our favorite spot is the Infiniti edge pool. Heaven. 

In other news, we close on our house next week. We determined this will be our 7th move in 4 years. I think that is reason enough to take a vacation!

Here is to celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary and closing on our house! 

Lately...

It is hard to believe August is here and summer is officially over. Lately, we have just been enjoying Ben's work schedule which is allowing him to be home at night. Which means we have been having dinner most nights together! I know this won't be the case come October when he will be back to 70+ work hour/week.

All this cooking has made me have to spend more time brainstorming, aka meal planning. This is not my forte. But it is an area that I would love to improve in since I know life will continue to get more hectic. Eating meals at home is important to both Ben and I. But with us both working full-time jobs it can be demanding to be responsible for preparing a meal every night. So, me and the crockpot have become good friends lately. The great thing is there are websites, like this one, that do all of the hard work for you (meal planning, grocery list).

Here is one of the meals we tried this week-- Chicken Fajitas. We love Mexican and this was so easy!

We have also been able to have some fun date nights and try some new restaurants. Atlanta is not lacking in the culinary world. My bucket list of restaurants to try is so long that we may never get to all of them! Friday night we went to Two Urban Licks, which is not new to us but was kind of special since the last time we went there was almost 2 years ago-- the night before Ben interviewed in Atlanta for his job. I can still remember our discussions at dinner that night and wondering what life in Atlanta would look like for us. To think of how much has happened in those short 2 years is unbelievable. God is SO good!! We have so much to be thankful for.

And lastly, as if this wasn't already the most random blog post, we have been furniture shopping! When our sold in Chattanooga, so did most of our furniture that we had purchased. We both agreed that it wasn't worth losing the contract on the house for furniture that could all be purchased again. But these past 2 months of furniture shopping has been exhausting and there have been times when we questioned why we agreed to sell all of our furniture. We have spent just about every weekend at a certain furniture store in Atlanta. Thankfully we have had a very helpful, patient sales associate/decorator helping us. And we are finally done with the decision making and will be ordering this week! Here is a sneak peak:

The color scheme

Coffee table

Ben's "man chair" but will be in dark grey

 Couch but will it be in a lighter fabric and have a bench cushion

I can't wait until it is all here! Now just have to wait 4-6 weeks :)

Summer Vacation- part 2

We left Amelia Island and headed to Bluffton, South Carolina to spend a few days at the Inn at Palmetto Bluff. It was unbelievable and a trip we will never forget. Ben gets all the credit for this trip because this was definitely his idea. I'm so glad I let him convince me that we should go!

The Inn is located on the May River and the low country is a beautiful backdrop 

We stayed in one of the guest cottages, which was tastefully decorated. It felt so homey...which I loved.

The first day we were there, I spent the afternoon at the Spa while Ben played golf. I was in heaven. This was without question the best Spa experience I have ever had. 

I had the women's facilities to myself that afternoon, so I snapped a picture of the whirlpool tub with my phone. Total relaxation....

One morning we ventured out for a 7 mile bike to the far end of the property to see a treehouse

I am not a big fan of biking but it was hard to complain with views like this.

Clearly this was not just any treehouse...the views from the top were incredible

After all that hard work, it was time to cool off by taking a canoe ride

Or so we thought. We didn't last 15 minutes on the canoe before we started heading back. It was unbelievably hot and required way more energy/effort than we had to give at that time.

So, we headed to one of my favorite places to cool off.

I loved that they would bring you a bucket of ice water!

My favorite summer cocktail = Miami Vice

One evening we went on a sunset wine cruise on the river. It was so fun and we ended up meeting a sweet family from Birmingham who vacations here every year.

We saw several dolphins but, unfortunately, weren't able to capture any on camera. You can see Harbour Town on Hilton Head. 

Inside the little place we ate breakfast at every morning 

 The precious chapel 

 Fire pits where we roasted s'mores at night...a palmetto bluff tradition 

 The gorgeous main lodge. The wrap around porches and gas lanterns....perfect! 

 We enjoyed dinner at the main lodge one night 

 Eating dinner outside at the Canoe Club

Complimentary snacks and wine which we devoured

I cannot think of a more perfect way to celebrate our 3rd anniversary! We were both so sad to leave and cannot wait to go back.