Shelby and I are leaving this evening to head to Dallas.

I’m getting closer & closer to moving into my new house.  While in Dallas (Frisco, actually), I am going to visit IKEA.  I’m sure I will find way more than I can afford or need but I look forward to look around for ideas.

Sunday is NASCAR time!  Shelby and I have the best seats we’ve ever had (up near the top at the start/finish line).  I thank the season (actually lifetime) ticket holder that decided to sell their tickets for the great view we will enjoy!

I have been looking forward to this past Saturday’s football game since the series was announced in March of 2008.  The game?  The University of Arkansas vs Texas A&M in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium!

Shelby & I went to the game with our uncles Mark & Rod.  None of us had seen the new stadium up close, much less inside, so we were very very impressed by the whole experience (well, exit traffic not so impressive).

The stadium was unbelievable to see in person.  I’ve never even been to an NFL stadium so that made this stadium that much more impressive.  Here are some of the better shots from in & around the stadium.

On to some football…The game was fantastic!  Arkansas beat Texas A&M 47-19.  The game started with 2 scores by A&M so we were a bit worried in the beginning but then the offense and the defense hit their strides and off we went.  These three shots are from the 2nd touchdown (1st at our end of the field) Arkansas scored.

I love watching good marching bands.  I’ve been lucky enough to have a high school (Springdale High School) and college (University of Arkansas) alma mater with great marching bands.  Texas A&M’s is like none I’ve seen.  Their precision marching was unbelievable and the crowd gave them a great standing ovation when they were done.

The only negative about the whole evening was the traffic getting out of the stadium and back to Mark’s house in Dallas.  We had no problem getting to the stadium and into our parking spot.  We literally did not move within the parking lot for 30 minutes trying to get out.  We finally gave up that route and turned around to try another one.  It still took us another 30 minutes to get to I-30 (a mile from the stadium) and on our way to Dallas.  It then took another hour to get back to Dallas.  The great stadium and game made up for the traffic issue getting home.  It’s just one of this Grrr! moments that we won’t forget.

Here is a slideshow of several of the photos I took outside and inside the stadium before, during, and after the game.  Enjoy!

As I mentioned a few days ago, I am in the process of buying my first home.  The process is moving on along.  At times, it seems really fast.  While at other times, I feel like I play the waiting game way too much.  I guess that is the nature of the beast that is home buying.

I went by the house yesterday and took a bunch of pictures inside and out of the house.  As soon as the keys are mine, we plan on doing a bunch of painting and floor cleaning/replacing so I wanted to have a set of pictures that I can use to compare to later on.  Plus, more than one person have asked for more pictures of the house.  This kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

Here is a quick tour of the house followed by a link to a Flickr photo album with these photos and more.  I’m going to hold off sharing what our preliminary plans are for wall colors and so forth.  I do want to let you know that the paint color on all of the walls (minus trim) will be changing.  Plus, the carpeting will eventually all be replaced (with wood laminate, more than likely, in the dining room & master bedroom and then new carpet everywhere else).

Let’s start with the exterior of the house.  Right now, the yard is not fenced in (except for the sides where the neighbors’ fences are & a barbed wire fence at the back of the property line where it separates me from a large field).  It is a great shaped yard, though.  It will be perfect for my dog Gracie to run and play (after a fully enclosed fence is put up).

This is a view from the front door looking straight ahead.  The doorway to the right is the formal dining room.  The little closet ahead is the coat closet.  The staircase to the left leads upstairs.  The door to the left is a little half bath for guests.  The back room is the living room.  The 2nd picture is a view down to the front door from the upstairs balcony.  As afraid of heights as I am, I’m going to have to rely on people who climb ladders to clean and decorate that ledge.  Haha.  The 3rd picture is a view from the back of the house to the front door.

This is the dining room.  I love the light fixture.  I actually love all of the light fixtures in this home.  They are the colors I would pick (not a gold-tone person so I lucked out & have none of that in the house).

The dining room has a doorway that leads into the kitchen.  (You can see through to the dining room in this picture.)  I love this kitchen!  (You’ll have to excuse all of our junk sitting on the counter.  There is a sink in the midst of that clutter.)  On the right hand side of this picture, between the refrigerator space and the top cabinet, there is a door.  This is a good sized pantry.  To take this picture, I am standing in a breakfast nook area.

If I make a 90 degree turn to the right from where I was taking the above picture of the kitchen, I can duplicate the next picture.  This is a view from the breakfast nook into the living room.  The open glass door on the right leads to the back covered patio.  To left of the fireplace is the utility room/garage and the master suite.  I love all of the windows on the main level of this house.  There are 5 in the living room/breakfast nook area plus the glass backdoor.

Here is the master bedroom, bath, and closet.

Now, let’s head upstairs.

On the 2nd level there are 5 rooms – 2 spare bedrooms (pics 1 & 2), an office (pic 3), a bonus room (pic 4), & a full bath (pic 5).

That does it for the walk-through.  You can check out the full photo album here.  I’ll start posting during/after photos as soon as we get started.  I’m hoping that is very very soon!

If all goes well, this should be MY house within the next month or so.  The home buying process up to this point has gone very quickly.  I went to the bank a week ago Friday to get all prequalified.  I looked at this house on Wednesday and then I made an offer & accepted the counter-offer on Friday afternoon.  The house is in a great location – a quiet cul-de-sac 5 minutes from work, as a matter of fact.

The house is going to need a fresh coat of paint in all of the rooms and the carpeting will need to be replaced.  Other than that, it is a 2150 square feet house in great condition.  I’m looking forward to officially getting the keys and being able to decorate and move in!  I have a feeling the closing process is going to take what seems like forever!

Last Thursday evening, Mom, Shelby, & I saw Casting Crowns in concert at the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers.  (You can see the 3 crosses in the top righthand corner of the windows.)  I think this was only the second time I’ve been in this church (and the first was for Lindsey’s wedding).  We had pretty close seats over to the side of the stage.  Except for the sun blinding us at first, they were great seats.

Prior to the concert, I really only knew of a couple of songs Casting Crowns sang.  (Although, I did realize I knew more once they started singing them.)  One of my most favorite they sing is Every Man.  The song illustrates that there are all sorts of people in the world and that Jesus is the hope that can get “every man” through their trials and tribulations.

Here is a YouTube video (that is actually just the audio) for the song Every Man.

Here are the pictures I took during the concert.