Micah and Christine

After finishing the Final last night I decided to take a cozy break. I turned up the heat really high, cozied up under a blanket, and made myself a treat. I made this simple stovetop hot cocoa recipe and drank it with some delicious chocolate-dipped spice Moravian cookies. Yum!

When she was here we showed her around a few of the sights around our area, then took a weekend trip to Charlotte, NC. In Charlotte we went to the Billy Graham Library, Discovery Place (another one of those museums through our reciprocal membership), then stayed at Embassy Suites and enjoyed some custom-made omelets for Breakfast. We also went to the gorgeous Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens and finished the weekend by taking Mom to Ikea for the first time. 

It was a fun, full weekend... A great opportunity to take a small break from the regular demands of work and life. One of my favorite moments of the weekend was a small, simple one. Here's my Mom at Wendy's with a Carolina Burger. 

That's what Carolinians call a burger all the way- chili, slaw, mustard, and onions on a burger. It's pretty delicious. So here's my favorite picture from the whole trip: My Mom and husband eating a Carolina burger. 

Happy Birthday, Mom! Hope I didn't embarrass you too much!

The whole family worked really hard this weekend to get the house ready for someone to come in and poke and prod. Micah and I painted closet doors, and Charlotte grabbed a paint brush to join in. We have let her pretend to paint doors and walls before, but this time became more complicated because she wanted to actually dip her brush into the paint bucket!

We have made a lot of improvements on the house, so we are hoping to see a return on our investment. Regardless of the number, though, the house is now delightfully clean and organized. After spending lots of time on final projects for my classes, I am so excited to come home here to sleep. 

Here's our Master Bedroom. I love this room. I love that it was the first room that Micah and I painted together in our very own house. I love the lights that I purchased from Ten Thousand Villages my first birthday living in North Carolina. I love the comfy bedroom set from my Dad's house. 

The flowers above the bed are probably my favorite part of the room. I saw them at Target one day for $14.99 each. I looked at the pile of ceramic flowers on the shelf and thought and thought... and knew that I would want 7 of them in the arrangement you see above. But I just could not justify spending over $100 on them. So I sighed a little sigh and put them back.

A couple of months later I was at Target and saw a few of the flowers, on sale for 75% off. I started digging through the Clearance racks and found... exactly 7 of them. I hesitated for only a moment, then purchased the flowers for $26.25. 

Love them.