thankful thursday {link up}

{Link up your own Thankful Thursday post below...}

This Thursday I am thankful for...

1) Christmas music.  I officially made the switch on my Pandora station yesterday... and I forgot how absolutely happy Christmas music makes me.  I mean, seriously... how can you not love some good ol' traditional Christmas tunes?

2) Cracker Barrel.  Because sometimes this is the closest to southern food that I can get.  Louisville is not the south... just so we're clear.  Lance and I have yet to find a true "meat'n'three" here... so on those days when you can think of nothing else but chicken'n'dumplins... we rely on Cracker Barrel to come through for the win... and you can't beat their awesome table games:)

3) Just because flowers.  I came home from community group this week and was welcomed with a bouquet of pretty flowers, the sweetest card ever, and a completely clean kitchen.... all "just because."  Just because flowers are the best kind, if you ask me.

What are you thankful for this week? Grab the Thankful Thursday button from the right sidebar and link up your own post below. Be sure to visit the other Thankful Thursday participants and share the love!!

Also linking up with:

The Fontenot Four

First Day of My Life

Lovely Little Whimsy

fashion favorite :: the layered roll-up

I've been noticing a reoccurring trend in my wardrobe this fall... the layered roll-up.  

No, this is not a new menu item at Taco Bell... although, if it were- I'd probably order one;)  But rather, I've been digging the whole button-down-shirt-and-cardigan look.  It's nothing new to the fashion world... this preppy style has been the look of country-clubbers for decades now... but for whatever reason, this season I've been embracing the layered roll-up...

layered roll-up meets open cardi...

layered roll-up meets country club pearls...

layered roll-up meets belted cardi...

layered roll-up meets grays & greens...

What about you?  Have you been embracing any new fashion favorites this fall?

Linking up with The Pleated Poppy.

top 10 :: things i'm looking forward to doing before 2013

Can you believe that next week is Thanksgiving?!?!  THANKSGIVING people!!  I feel like this year has absolutely flown by!  I know people say that all the time... but seriously... where did twenty-twelve go??

And there are still quite a few things I'm looking forward to jamming in the last few weeks of 2012... such as...

1) Closing on our house.

2) Starting renovations.  {image source}

3) Finishing a few really old projects. {image source}

4) Revealing a new photography website and logo.

5) Paying off 2 credit cards.  {image source}

6) Hosting our first Thanksgiving.  {image source}

7) Submitting our dossier adoption paperwork.  {image source}

8) Decorating for Christmas... even just a little bit.  {image source}

9) Organizing and creating a system for our personal photos.  {image source}

10) Wrapping Christmas presents. (and buying them too!)  {image source}

What about you?  Any last minute projects on your 2012 to-do list?  


Linking up with Angie at Many Little Blessings...

adoption update :: roadblock #1

If anyone ever tells you that adoption is easy... they are liars.

On Friday we encountered our first major roadblock in the process.  Back in September we had our fingerprints taken and mailed to the FBI for our formal background check.  Well, on Friday we finally received our results.

The first thing we noticed was that mine and Lance's letters looked pretty different from one another...

Lance's...

Mine...

If both of our FBI background checks came back clear, you would think they would look the same... right?  

We opened Lance's first...

All clear.  Good to know Lance doesn't have any secret arrests that I didn't know about:)

But now that leaves mine...  Why were my results in a big fancy envelope??  Did the FBI know about the time I tried to steal a tube of purple lipstick from the dollar store when I was 8??  Crap, do speeding tickets go against your background check??  dum, dum, dum....

No criminal record... but apparently I'm a really crappy fingerprint taker.  "The quality of characteristics is too low to be used."  Ugh.

Yep, looks like someone gets to take her fingerprints again.

Adoption is hard work people.  The process is long... the paperwork is ridiculous... the cost is high...
but one day... one day... it will all be worth it:)

my portion forever.

{image source}

For the past several evenings I have been participating in our church's redemption groups.  It's kind of like a form of group counseling that God has given me the privilege of being a part of.  You can read about my first experience (as a participant) here.

I have participated in redemption groups a handful of times now.  Both as a participant and as a leader.  I didn't want to do it this time around.  I felt overwhelmed, burdened, stressed, and... well, just a plain hot mess.  I felt completely unfit to care for/counsel anyone else, as I often feel like my own life is unraveling at the seams.  But the truth is, in my own strength, I am completely unfit to care for anyone else.  In-and-of-myself, I have nothing to offer.  I cannot heal the hurting wounds that some of these women have experienced.  I cannot take away their heartache.  I cannot relate to all of their pain.

But HE can.

And for that I am grateful.

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 
     -Psalm 73:26

thankful thursday {link up}

{Link up your own Thankful Thursday post below...}

This Thursday I am thankful for...

1) My new Kentucky driver's license.  Yep.  It's official folks.  I'm a true Kentucky resident.  My Georgia license is no-more:(  I was sad to see it go, but it was way past time... the address on my old license was 4 houses ago... oops.  No more Georgia peaches... now I have a license that boasts rolling hills and a picket fence... horse country.  Oh, and did I mention that I'm now apparently 5'6"??  Yep... I shrunk 4 whole inches right there at the DMV.  Small typo... but we'll have to get that fixed next time...   

2) Lucky Charms.  I know that at some point in adulthood you are supposed to start eating really lame, boring cereals like Raisin Bran and Grape Nuts... but I just can't do it.  I thought once I hit my thirties it would happen... along with becoming a morning person and taking vitamins... but nope.  Just can't do it.  All of my favorite cereals are either chocolate-something-or-another or include lots of colorful marshmallows.  Don't judge.

3) The little things.  Specifically the little ways that my husband loves me so well.  Sometimes it's the smallest bits of affection that can make us feel the most cared for.  I was having a rough day earlier this week and Lance came home from work with a Dr. Pepper for me and put some ice cream in the freezer... what can I say?  The man knows me too well:)

What are you thankful for this week? Grab the Thankful Thursday button from the right sidebar and link up your own post below. Be sure to visit the other Thankful Thursday participants and share the love!!

Also linking up with:

The Fontenot Four

First Day of My Life

Lovely Little Whimsy

project organization :: project life photos

Once upon a time... long, long ago... I decided I wanted to jump on the Project Life bandwagon.  I've always been an avid fan of memory keeping... specifically capturing the everyday moments of life.  I'm really good at taking lots and lots of pictures... but not so great at actually printing my photos and putting them in some type of album.  Enter Project Life.  It's an awesome memory-keeping system designed by Becky Higgins with the purpose of simplifying scrapbooking.  

Only problem??  I'm a tad behind.

Like 7 months behind.

Yeah...

I've been doing a great job of keeping a bunch of shit... ahem... I mean, precious memories.  I've even been doing a pretty decent job of printing my photos... but I haven't gotten much further than that.  See that box in the bottom right corner of the photo above?  Yeah... that's my July and August photos... unopened.   Some might call it hoarding... I call it documenting life:)

Well.  This past weekend I finally decided to tackle the massive pile of photos and stuff.  I opened that box of photos.  I sorted through months and months of memorabilia.  I purged through the bits and scraps of paper.  I separated the photos and stuff as best as I could... by month.

But then my OCD kicked in and I took it a step further.  I separated the bits and pieces by week.  When I actually work on my Project Life album, I document our lives week-by-week.  So, it made the most sense for me to go ahead and separate things into weekly piles.

I folded sheets of paper in half... jotted the week down with a sharpie... and even wrote the exact dates in the upper right corner.  Then, the real fun began.  I tucked all the bits of memorabilia and photos pertaining to each week right inside of the folded sheet of paper.  Then, before you knew it, I went from this...

to this...

Some might call it crazy... I call it progress.  

Now... if only I could make some time to actually sit down and start doing some of this...

Sigh... soon.  Very soon.

top 10 :: christmas craft ideas

I know it's just November 6th and all... and Christmas is still several weeks away...  But let's just get real people... it's NOVEMBER 6TH!!  Christmas is only 7 WEEKS AWAY!!!  And it's never too early to start working on some Christmas crafts!  Here are a few that I'm loving and hoping to try this year...

1) reindeer gift tags

2) book page trees

3) sweet & simple pinecones

4) button Christmas tree

5) joyful entrance {source unknown}

6) gift wrap gift

 7) bright & cheery trees

8) advent crate calendar 

 9) december daily

10) colorful window display

There you have it... guess I'll be busy this holiday season.  What about you?  Are you thinking about any Christmas crafts yet?  Or at least thinking about watching Elf or Home Alone??

Linking up with Angie at Many Little Blessings...

and Lena at Lena B, Actually...

weekend festivities...

Happy Monday peeps.  We enjoyed a fabulous low-key weekend... date nights... birthday parties... lazy mornings... it.was.perfect.  

 We tried a new sushi restaurant.

We went to see Flight at the movie theatre. 

We went to a moose-themed birthday party...

...for this adorable one year old.

We took a peek at the new Louisville Anthropologie store. 

(sigh... so much prettiness & temptation in one store)

 We ate at Smashburger (first time) with friends. 

 I cleaned & organized like a crazy person.

(more on this soon)

What about you?  What did you do this weekend?