Wagon Wheel

Headed down south to the land of the pines
And I'm thumbin' my way into North Caroline
Starin' up the road
Pray to God I see headlights
I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Pickin' me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight
So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train
Hey mama rock me

And I gotta get a move on before the sun
I hear my baby callin' my name
And I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free

Wagon Wheel is one of my favorite songs of all time! It brings me back to the time I spent working on a dude ranch in Colorado.I remember singing this song every Saturday night at the "Hootenanny." SO FUN! Someone would play a banjo and I would play the tambourine. Oh the memories!  I loved that time of my life! I was so carefree and just loved making new friends in a new place. Colorado is a beautiful place.

I found this piece on ETSY and I knew I needed it for our new home in North Carolina! Reclaimed barn wood is just so beautiful and it looks great in every room.

-Ally

Wordless Wednesday

My new chairs for the formal living room!

-Ally

The Future Reckman Household

As I'm trying to wrap my mind around this BIG move to  about North Carolina, all I keep thinking about is that Jeff and I will be buying our first home in less than 6 months. That is crazy, but I'm so excited it. Buying our first house will be the biggest experience of my life so far. I'm telling you, I live for decorating! I live for projects on the weekend. I live going to Lowe's just to look at paint colors!

After working all day, all I want to do is hop on the ipad and start looking at the real estate available in Raleigh! Here are some of my favorite that are in our price range: Will they be available in 6 months? Probably not but a girl can dream right??


I would live on this porch! Sweet tea, coffee, and long talks with Jeff

Cute house will lots of character!

This last one is my dream home! I love everything about it. It has been on the market 180+ days therefore I would imagine the sellers are eager to sell! :) Don't worry, I'm doing everything I can to convince Jeff to jump on this!

House hunting is so fun online. I wonder what it will be like, when we are actually doing it. Hopefully its a great experience. :)

The to do's

How do you stop your brain from spinning? Ever since we heard the news that we were moving to Raleigh, my brain has been going a mile a minute. All I have been doing is making list after list of things I have to get done while still living in Iowa and things that must get done in Raleigh. OH BOY! Currently I have four lists going. They include: 1)finances, 2)cleaning that must get done at our old house before turning in the garage door openers and keys, 3)Jeff's list of things that he needs to do immediately in Raleigh, and 4) my list of things to do in Iowa.  Here are three of them I have going at the moment (you don't care about my finances)

OCD?
Crazy?
Yes, maybe a little bit, but I always say "If I don't write it down, I'll forget and it will not get done." I look forward to crossing things off and relaxing when it's all done! :)


To end this post, here is a beautiful picture of our new city!


-Ally

Life is sweet....

Oh my poor blog......it has been a while since I have visited you! There has been so many things going on in my life that I've hardly had time to do much of anything except work and take care of my household. So yet again, I vow to do a better job at writing everyday or at least every week! Maybe I should try to be more realistic.

I don't even know where to begin to describe how crazy this month has been for Jeff and I. To start things off, my dad got an infected toe. He was very sick from it, but is healing and doing great now. He has returned back to work, which makes him happy and quite frankly not as grumpy (I still love you Dad). Living in Iowa, doesn't make going to see my parents that easy, but Jeff and I literally dropped everything two weeks ago and hit the road, with Lola in tow. It was a great trip. The night before we leave, Jeff's boss drops a bombshell......"YOU ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA!" I say that with the thickest Southern accent I have! Jeff and I both said "WHAT? Really?" Of course we had put in for the move but didn't expect the news to come so soon! :)

So imagine this......12 hr drive to Arkansas with Jeff's work phone plugged into the laptop so we can have Internet on the interstate, Lola's head resting on the keyboard, I'm typing frantically to find us a place to live, got my iphone in my right hand, pen and paper in the left hand, and Jeff is driving with earbuds in listening to Dave Ramsey's podcast. It was go time and I was on a roll!

Jeff's start date is May 1st. At the time we had one week to find a place and have Jeff go there while he was in Raleigh for a work trip and sign the lease. Well, the good Lord provided and we found a place! :) A GREAT PLACE! It's a two bedroom apartment with 1150 square feet. I'm dreading moving from a house back to an apartment but I can tough it out. We only signed a 6 months lease. Once we get down there and settle in, it will be house hunting time. YAY!

Okay so we have a place to live: the lease is signed, deposit made, Internet hooked up, electricity turned on. All in ONE WEEK! Th next step was getting the movers here in Iowa to pack up our stuff. Again the Lord blessed us and they came yesterday and are here right now packing everything up for us. Jeff's company pays all the expenses of moving which only makes this move that much easier. The stuff will be delivered to our new apartment on May 4th. We did end up having to get a storage unit to store all the things that will not fit in the apartment. I have collected way too much stuff in the last year!

In the midst of all this, Jeff's Grandpa Reckman passed away at the age of 90. This is Jeff's dad's father. He was a precious man whose smile was so genuine. Fred had a love for his family and fishing. At visitation last night, there was a slideshow of some pictures. They captured so many memories that I know the family will never forget. Grandpa Reckman is now in heaven, rejoicing with Jesus and the angels. God is good all the time!

There's the update! Raleigh here we come! In all the craziness, this is the first time, right now, sitting on the patio while the movers are moving things out, that I have truly thank God for all his blessings. He has provided us with everything and has prepared us for this move. I'm beyond ready for this new adventure. And more importantly I'm ready to live near the beach!!!!

30 by 30 List

Happy Sunday! It's a drizzly, wet, and slightly cold day here in Iowa. It's the kind of day when you stay indoors, snuggle with a warm blanket, watch football, blog, facebook, and pinterest! Haha! Don't all of those sound absolutely wonderful?!?

Recently my mind has been racing about things I want to do and get done before I turn 30. Its causing many sleepless nights and many "to do" lists laying around my house. To give my mind a rest, I decided to compile my lists, ideas, and dreams into ONE list of 30 things I want to do by the time I turn 30. I encourage everyone to do this, if you haven't already. I keep asking myself....."Do I really want to put a time frame on it? Should it just be called a "Bucket List?" I decided on the time frame because I'm OCD and it will help me stay focused.

Currently, I'm 26 years old. My birthday is August 17th. This means I have 31/2 years or 1,333 days to accomplish everything on my list. :)

1. go to Europe.....(London, Paris, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Ireland, Venice)
2. buy our first home.
3. become consumer debt FREE (all credit cards and automobile)
4. move to Nashville, Tennessee.
5. parasail over the ocean
6. lose 20 pounds from this body
7. run the Bix (all 7 miles with my good friend Jodi C.)
8. renovate an entire kitchen
9. create my label.....Honeysuckle Lane
10. sew my own stock pile of cloth diapers
11. have Baby Reckman #1
12. go to Hawaii
13. meet Dave Ramsey
14. ride in a hotair balloon
15. save money for Lola to have surgery on her throat
16. go to the CMA's awards
17. learn a little bit of French
18. design a nursery that is magazine worthy
19. teach Kindergarten
20. rent a 10x10 and sell some of my creations
21. go on a cruise with my whole family
22. visit California
23. volunteer at an animal shelter
24. ride two days of RAGBRAI
25. travel to Atlanta to see the Young's
26. snorkel
27. ride in a helicopter
28. buy myself a labtop
29. grow a garden
30. swim with the dolphins

There's my 30 by 30. SO MANY THINGS but I can do it. What's on your list? Make it and start doing things that make you love your life.

Keep Calm and Call On

Happy Monday! It feels good to be sitting here in my comfy chair writing this post (dinner eaten and workout done). I think I am doing rather well keeping this blog up-to-date. To say the least, I'm quite proud of myself.

With that said, am I the only one that is happy that Christmas has come and gone? I absolutely loved traveling to Arkansas and Louisana to see all my family and friends. Jeff and I had the best time, but Christmas is so busy, stressful, and tiring. Maybe its because I made it that way or maybe I put too much time and effort into make every present perfect because of my OCD. Who knows.

This Chirstmas the husband and I decided to make a lot of "homemade" gifts. We painted 2 landscape rocks, built 2 corn hole sets, made a set of 8 garden stones for my parents, 2 sets of picture coasters and frame and matted a poster for my brother! This is clearly why Christmas was SO busy...hahaha. Wow! It sure seems like a lot more when you type it out. Handmade gifts to me are so speical, but also hard work. Next year, we will still make these homemade gifts, but we will definitely start in August! :)

Here are some pictures of some things we made:


These aren't the ones we made, but they look identical. Silly me forgot  to snap a photo




WOOOO PIG SOOOIE



Corn hole set for one of my best friends.



Love for St. Louis Cardinals





















Over and out for the night! New coffee table pictures tomorrow!