the day pigs flew

My parents house has been for sale for almost 3 years.  I'm not talking about like on and off for 3 years, or like ignore-all-the-suggestions-the-realtor-gives for 3 years, or make-a-half-youknowwhat-attempt at selling for 3 years.  I'm talking about give-everything-you've-got for 3 years, constant home updates, price reductions that make your heart drop, try and get them on an HGTV show to "sell this house," and live-like-you-live-in-a-showroom-because-of-constant-showings kind of 3 years.  I think we've had half of Texas praying that our home sells for most of the past decade.  We have had multiple offers on it come in the past 2 months but all fall thru, but alas- we accepted an actual contract, went thru the inspection process, and jumped thru hoops of fire with the buyers and now my parents are happily "homeless" and no longer the owners of my childhood home.  It has been so interesting to see The Lord's timing in all of this as the house hasn't sold, has sold, and my parent's look for a pre-existing home or a lot to build on.  I cannot wait to someday see what the Lord's purpose in this timing is- why now?  why not months or years ago?  I cannot wait for my parents to be in their future home- on land for future grandchildren to play & swim, for grandmas and guests to stay for however long because there is room, for my dad to work & office in peace & quiet (ha), & for them to cook & relax & play in wide, open, airy, perfect space.  He knows the hearts of my mom & dad and I have to remind myself that His desires and plan for them is even greater than theirs!  In the past 2 weeks, my parents have found a house in what has the potential to be the most amazing home for our growing family of 8, 9 in January when Matt & Maddie marry!!  This home will require several months of renovations and continued living at Gammy's home for the majority of that (I think) but it's so exciting to think about what may be to come!  My parent's offer was accepted and now we are just waiting to schedule an inspection, however, we are already excitedly planning the reno and working with my uncle on the house plan.  My developing love of interior design is just giddy over all of this!  I will be living at home for the next year while Karl is away and am happy to be distracted by the excitement and fun of a reno and redesign!  So, right now we are praying for an awesome inspection and for a quick and smooth closing as well as an easy reno and redesign with no hiccups!!  It's so hard to not get crazy excited about our home finally being sold and being at this point with a new home because the deal is surely not finished, so, just remembering that He is in control and has been thru this whole process.  And can I just go ahead and summarize the major events going on in our lives right now... never a dull moment: homelessness (kind of but not really, THANK YOU GAMMY!), major home renovation, planning a wedding, deployment for Karl and relocation for me, Emma's busy senior year.  I thought last year (ummm, planning 2 weddings simultaneously while Karl was deployed and I was finishing college and our home was for sale) was a big year.  Praise The Lord for multiple blessings (and trials...) and the ability to handle them all at once!

Happily documenting my way thru life, don't want to forget a thing!
Hannah K.C. Burton

Sunday treat

Weekends at The Burton house normally consist of me waking up 2-3 hours before Karl, even before church on Sundays, however I got a special treat this past weekend! Karl woke up when I did and made us one of his favorite breakfast treats before church. It was so delightful to get to spend that early morning time with him in the kitchen and this was my first experience with his homemade donuts, although I swear my dad used to make some version of these (even though he denies it).

 loved him fixing breakfast while I got to sit back and enjoy a cup of this.

Now we're back to the workweek (for Karl, anyway) and me starting my pre-Korea to do list!  Cannot believe it is almost September!
Hannah K.C. Burton

P.S. Couldn't post about weekend festivities without acknowledging that yesterday was August 28th... Karl's fake honeymoon birthday.  This time last year I (and my mom) were freaking out thinking I/we forgot his birthday because I literally thought it was September, not August.  I will never forget that... funniest/most ridiculous 24 hours of my life that included but was not limited to my mom scrambling to plan a birthday party for Karl while we were away on our honeymoon... after our August 21st wedding... how on earth did I think it could've been September 28th already?!?  I am my mother's daughter.

The funks and the tanks

In 6 weeks my parents will be wrapping up a short work week to fly to South Carolina to help Karl & I pack and move out of our first house and into a very large, climate controlled storage unit. That's at least how I mask their visit, which is actually solely to help me gain the mental stability and emotional strength that I'm already starting to lose over this whole thing. A week later Karl and I will be on our way to spend some precious time in Texas before he leaves for his South Korea jig. All this to say that Callie, my older sister, just got on a plane to head back from Sumter and I'm sad. She was our last (planned) visitor here in our first house... Next comes less fun things- like cross-country drives and goodbyes. So I'm extra sad. I love company, especially sister company, and my time with her was full and fulfilling and emptied my very full lonely-tank that somehow filled in the two weeks between her visit and Emma's. So I'm in my normal company-just-left funk but it's deepened quite a bit by this next-comes-Korea funk. So just having to rely on Jesus to explode that lonely tank and rescue me from the funks.
Planning to share all the happies about Callie's visit tomorrow! And trust me, there are A LOT!
Hannah K.C. Burton


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31,536,000

One year/365 days/8,760 hours/31,536,000 seconds of marriage- WOO HOO!!  Happy one year anniversary to my hunkiest husband, I love you Karl!!  I feel like our wedding was one second ago which is strange because this past year has been filled with 365 of the longest days of my life.  Yes, sitting home alone in a strange city and having to resort to talking out loud to yourself (thank you, Aunt Suzie for the advice) makes for some extremely long days.  Long days, yes, but rewarding and wonderful for sure- I wouldn't trade this past year for anything in the world.  Karl and I started dating this month 4 years ago... still fresh enough to be embarrassed by some of my early dating decisions... like bursting into tears in my towel while on my way to shower at the Pi Phi house every time he called from basic... can you say, "cliche?"  And taking pictures like this...

Well, here we are 4 years after we started dating and one year into this marriage jig... fortunately I'm about 15 lbs lighter than when we started and maybe, dare I say, 15 years the wiser... or maybe just 15 years more mature... oh the joys of stress, college, wedding planning, and having to grow up (a little).

this is us on our very first date... coincidentally also the exact site of my sister & her fiance's first date and engagement location... a lovely spot that Sundance Square parking deck is.  Or maybe just a good place to makeout.

Shall we continue this walk down memory lane?  OK OK OK, you don't have to beg...

Our love blossomed in Fayetteville in the fall of '07.  I mean, clearly.

horseback riding had a lot to do with it... jk.  worst.date.ever

we made it thru basic the winter of '07... more traumatic for me than Karl. 

my trips to visit him frequently ended up with me sitting in my car for 12 hours a day Saturday & Sunday watching his flight get punished for something dumb and me never actually getting to see him.  Awesome.

He trained in Biloxi MS (hope we NEVER live there) and I visited him over Valentines in 2008... he gave me diamond earrings... obviously I was then committed.  

family Spring Break 2008 to see Karl in Biloxi- thanks for sacrificing, Cuppetts

OK so this is a cool one... when Karl was traveling from Biloxi to Wichita Falls, Texas for more training they all rode a bus and drove non-stop... well I was at home for the summer in Arlington and got a call at about 1 am from Karl telling me that his bus had stopped at the IHOP just down the street from my parents house!!  That was awesome- we had just been praying that The Lord would just provide fun to our relationship and it wouldn't be about just getting thru the time in between seeing each other... so it was so neat and a big, loud answered prayer... needless to say I jumped up and went to see him at IHOP!

The summer & fall of 2008 were especially nice- Karl was training just an hour and a half away from Arlington so I got to see him more than usual!

Karl finished all his training a year after he started- in the fall of 2008!  My mom and sister went to see him graduate although I was stuck in Fayetteville working my way thru my first semester of hell nursing school.

For 2 years Karl did a program that allowed him to come "work" in Fayetteville during the fall!  It was wonderful!!

Late fall of 2008 Karl was assigned to Shaw AFB as his first permanent duty station... I visited him early spring 2010... and we're still here... still. still.

Karl & I traveled for the first time together to visit his family in Washington state in the early summer of 2009

I learned quickly that he's definitely my favorite traveling companion... and that we both love Twilight and reading the same books together!

Late summer 2009 (after traveling to Africa with Maddie) I went on my last family vacation as an unmarried lady... my whole family knew about my upcoming engagement except for me... such a fun time in Mexico!

OMG our engagement.  Biggest surprise EVER.  I was totally blindsided by this... I mean COMPLETELY!!  I was expecting it would come that October or December but nope... on July 30, 2009 we were engaged in Sumter!  Even though I give Sumter a hard time, I think it's so special that we were engaged here- this place will always hold a special place in my heart and being proposed to here just adds to it!

I arrived home after the engagement to a surprise engagement party that Karl was Skyped into... how pitiful, huh (the Skype part I mean)?

Karl has been at every family weekend since we started dating... we have missed most holidays together but family weekend has such a special place in my heart- The Razorbacks, football, Pi Phi 5K, and the whole family being together is just precious to me!!  I remember really feeling like I could see a light at the end of the tunnel during this time- I was in my final year of school, wedding planning, and just soaking it all in in the fall of 2009!

January of 2010... blah.  Karl deployed for 4 months.  While he was gone I finished the hardest semester of my life, planned our wedding, graduated college, went to our wedding showers and received gifts on both of our behalves, celebrated holidays, found a home for us, moved all of my belongings to South Carolina, won a wedding contest, celebrated my sister's engagement, cried but not too much, grew up a lot, and made a lot of memories that didn't have Karl's face in them- that was the hardest part.

June 1, 2010 Karl came home- best/weirdest day ever.  We had to reacquaint ourselves and that is just plain weird... going from small talk on the phone and writing letters to being able to hold hands and look at him without him being all pixely.

One year ago today... I never thought that day would come!  Best day EVER!!

Our first vacation as a married couple, honeymoon to Mexico!

We made our first home together... and still are!  I have learned that I will always be tweaking and lusting praying for contentment over where I live and how it is decorated.  It has been so fun to develop this space with Karl!  Even just thru this one year, we have already changed so many things about our house!  Already a different headboard, side tables, bedspread, curtains, dust ruffle, and mattress than this picture shows!!

4 weeks after our wedding, my sister Callie was married to Jeremy!  It was so fun to be apart of her wedding and for Karl to get to be there too! 

Fall 2010 brought a spontaneous trip to DC with some of the fam

This summer (2011) we took a family vacation to Mexico with our new family of 9!  It was a blast uncovering what our new normal looks like, I wouldn't change a thing about it!

The real highlights of this year have been just getting to live life alongside Karl for the first time ever.  See for yourself...

and the bulk of our first year of wedded bliss has brought simple pleasures that are new to us both... things that we haven't gotten to experience together because of our constant cross-country separation, things I don't think I will ever take for granted... like having smores just for fun after dinner...

and dyeing easter eggs together...

and Karl mastering the fine art of putting the duvet back in the cover after it's been washed {he's in there}...

and brewing beer at home just for fun...

and celebrating Valentines together with by decorating our very own home...

and playing Scrabble... and beating my husband big time...

and having weekend company of parents, sisters, cousins, and friends...

and going to away Razorback games and watching my non-sports-fanatic husband cheer like crazy for my beloved Hogs...

and watching Karl study for the first time (my first time to watch him study... not his first time to study :) )...

and watching my husband mow our yard...

and getting to take care of my husband while he's sick for the very first time...

and getting to fall asleep next to this sweet face every most nights {when his work doesn't steal that from me}...

and getting to go to the pool just for the heck of it on a hot summer day...

and getting to meet for his lunch break {ok this has only happened like twice but it's worth mentioning! }...

and getting to have a Harry Potter marathon...

and getting to get into current events together and watch them on TV together!

and have morning coffee with him...

and go on dates with him every week {what a novel idea}...

and bake for him for the first time!

I can't wait to see how we grow and are shaped this next year... a difficult year it will be no doubt, Karl leaves in less than 90 days for South Korea for a whole entire year.  Trusting in The Lord to intertwine Karl into my year and me into his in ways we cannot imagine, despite our cross-oceanic separation.  Praising The Lord for this past year and how much I have gotten to learn about Karl and marriage and trusting The Lord simply because I cannot do anything else.  Still doing that last one, by the way.

Happily in love and ringing in my second year of marriage with Karl and Callie in town for the week!   More on some anniversary celebration later... because we have some fun plans!