Hooked on Houses?

I totally am.

I could stare at houses and house plans all day long. Really I could.

I love to envision myself living there, or how I would decorate it, etc, etc.

I love my home and I'm grateful for it. I just love to look around at other homes.

Gosh, that makes it sound like I'm cheating on my own house.

Ok, so I found a site that I am now addicted to...check it out on the button there on the side. "Hooked on Houses". It contains posts about all sorts of homes. Celebrity homes, TV/Movie homes, beach cottages, etc. It talks about my favorite movie homes, and what they look like now, after the movie. Oh, I love it!

Some of my favorite movie homes are...

-Home Alone, home: This one started my fettish for homes. I would watch this movie just to see that white and red brick Suburban, Chicago, beauty.

-Father of the Bride, home: Ah yes, that one too was an early favorite. The white beauty with vines creeping up the front, and beautiful trees all around in a beautiful quaint neighborhood that you dream of raising kids in.

-Dan in Real Life: Oh, this one I loooove. I have dreamed of living in the east coast, and this farmhouse - meets Cape Cod - meets Hamptons, home, definitely falls into that dream. Love it!

-The Holiday: Ok, so all 3 homes in this movie get me excited. I love the cute cottage that Iris lives in, so lovely. I love Amanda Wood's California charmer, and Graham's elegant English home. Love, love, love! (...and the part when Iris jumps onto Amanda's bed after she first sees it...I want to jump on a hugely fluffy bed like that!)

-The Family Stone: I love the coziness of this home. I love the decorating, even though it looks cluttered...it looks homey. They did a good job reeling me in.

Take the quiz on blog to see if you are hooked on houses. I think I got all except maybe two. I'm definitely hooked.

As for my decorating style...I like clean, and fresh feeling things. I don't like a lot of "stuff". I like it simple, yet homey.

Here's what I'm talking about...

Loooooove this inside of this house. Oh my! Yes, my taste is a bit pricey...as Ryan says...lol. I can dream, right?

Love the white accents with the dark wood flooring

I love the ceiling, the tons of natural light and the brightness of it all.

another view...

Oh the ceiling...the CEILING! I love it, and I love white cabinets. That will be a must in my next home.

I love the accent colors in the kitchen...so pretty.

A fun, cozy, comfy family room.

love the craft room/laundry room. The yellow cabinets are lovely.

This is how my bed room is going to look. I already told Ryan I wanted it like this...love the white, textured duvet.

same lovely white duvet with different accent pillows...so pretty.

Sean & Bri got married!!!

Yep, they did! Love it!

It started out with Thursday May 19th. Our family put on a pre-wedding dinner at the club house in my neighborhood. It started out as a Hawaiian theme, with the cheesy decorations, but then Erin, Caiti, Sharon and I took over. We stuck with the same thing, but made it much more elegant and beautiful and saved the cheesy things for a photo booth (pics to come on that)

We had yummy Kalua pork, shoyu chicken, chicken long rice, fruit, salad, macaroni salad...all traditional Hawaii food + Haupia cake, and guava cake...so ono!

The placed looked beautiful with white decor, white lights, white table linens and chair covers, and clear glass vases filled with Fresh Lilacs that we collected from neighborhood trees (hope no one noticed us cutting them off...lol) The place looked beautiful and we were happy.

My brothers made up a song that was hilarious, and certainly didn't disappoint. They're good like that. I was so mad though! I started recording it on my camera, but half way through it ran out of memory...I was so mad! But you get an idea of what it was like...

Friday morning we all got ready and headed up to the Salt Lake Temple for Sean & Bri's sealing. It was so great to see cousins, Aunts/Uncles there. Family is so important and to have extended family there, who had traveled long distances, to support Sean and Bri meant the world to them and to us.

The sealing ceremony was beautiful! After wards we headed outside and waited for them to come out. We were worried it was going to rain that day, since it had the entire week, but we lucked out big time. It was overcast...but no rain.

Brianna's sister and I did the photography for the day (and for the whole event), it was hard work, but fun.

Here are a few from the day....





That night the reception was at 'Noah's' in PG. It was beautiful!!! I have so many of those pictures to go through, it's not even funny!

My brothers did a rendition of "Free falling"...but changed the lyrics to..."cause she's Bri!...Bri Curran!" So funny!!!

I'm so happy for those two. So happy they found each other! Love you guys!

Blah...

I have some great pics of Sean & Bri's wedding coming up to put on here. You can see some of them on my photography blog by clicking that button on the side -------------> And more details about the big event. Let's just say it was BEAUTIFUL!

Ok, now back to the topic of my post tonight.

Do you ever feel like there's so much more in life for you? Not that things are bad...but that there's something more out there and we just haven't gotten there yet, but the anxiousness for it is there? I felt like that today.

With Ryan having been out of a permanent job for the last year + I begin to wonder if Utah is even where we should be. It seems so crazy that no one is offering him a job when he has so much to offer. I don't get it. He's so talented and he's the hardest working person I've ever known.

Then I start thinking that I'd really like to live outside of Utah. I want to live out in the "Mission Field" where I have to rely on my own testimony and not those around me, like I feel at times I do being surrounded by my fellow LDS members. I want that experience where I can grow, and where Ryan and I can grow stronger together. Does that make sense? As much as I love it here and feel blessed to be surrounded by others of my same faith it's easy to feel lost in the crowd, so to speak.

Another terrible, absolutely wretched thought that I had tonight that made me tear up is that soon I'll be 34 (in a few months), which is only 6 years away from being 40. UGH! Why oh why do I feel so horrible about this. I felt this way when I turned 30...but thinking about 40 makes me feel even worse. Not that 40 is bad...but just that my brain feels like I'm 27 still. Just the thought of getting older and not having kids of my own scares me...like really bad. Like so bad that it makes me cry. Ahh! Go away bad thoughts, I don't want to think about this anymore. I want to live life to it's fullest, and be happy about getting older and basking in all it's gloriousness (really?).

Ok, I lied. I don't want to get older. I want to stay young for-e-ver!

That's all. Good night.