Rainy Days

This week has been full of them. Perfect weather for cleaning, warm suppers, hot coffee, crocheted baskets, Bible study, and lots of school work for my sweet husband. Boo to that last part. He has many assignments this week plus the rough draft of a paper. Last night we were talking about how nice it will be to be finished with this degree. Our evenings and mornings will look so different. Honestly I can't really remember what they looked like prior to the start of school. I know one thing is for sure ... we were getting way more sleep. Ha! Oh how we're looking forward to a regular bedtime again. :)  

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Officially Mr. & Mrs.

Spontaneous Trip to the Beach

Wrapped Up Pretty

The journey of my first granny square blanket!!

My little sister

God gifted me with a little sister twenty-one years ago. I honestly don't remember much of her arrival since I was only five years old, but I'm sure I was excited about this little sister of mine, especially after two little brothers. ;) We shared a room until my senior year in highschool. There were times that I took this for granted and there were times that we didn't get along. I regret it very much. But overall, I would say it was filled many lovely times of crafting, barbies, dolls, dress up, and rolly-polly's in a shoebox. I am so grateful to have such a sweet sister!! And I'm hopeful that our relationship will only get sweeter as the years pass by.

 We celebrated Saturday evening with a family dinner. The brothers had to work that evening, so it was just the five of us (Dad, Mom, Brittany, Tony, and I). Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, okra, green beans, and cheddar biscuits graced our plates. Gifts included a cute sleeping shirt, Mac giftcard, and her own granny square blanket. We watched some TV, picked out makeup, talked about various things, sipped coffee, and enjoyed a slice of made.by.mom Mint Cheesecake -- Yes, it was very good!! The celebration continued with a Sunday trip to the Zoo. Tony & I didn't attend, but I know they had a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing pictures!!  

Growing Tastebuds

Growing up I was never a big fan of beans (green beans being the exception), specifically their mushy texture. I remember telling mom, "they taste like bad/rotten mashed potatoes."  Over the past couple years I have s.l.o.w.l.y. been acquiring a taste for select varieties as long as they're within something. Like my parents chili, black beans sprinkled over a taco salad, garbanzo beans mashed into hummus, and lentil soup. I know lentils aren't quite a bean ... but that texture is close enough. Ha! My most recent addition is lima/butter beans fresh from the farmers market. Earlier today I sat on the porch, shelled all the beans, washed 'em up, and simmered them in water with some olive oil and onions for 20 minutes. A little pile of beans graced my dinner plate tonight and I ate every single one of them. Yay! I let my mom know shortly after of my accomplishment. They are not going to rise quickly to my "favorite" list, and I don't think I could just sit and eat a bowl of them by themselves. But maybe one day. :) In the meantime, my pretty tomatoes, herbs, and cous cous helped distract my mind from that texture.

Pretty Local Produce

I was so excited when dad told me about a little local farmers market open on Wednesday mornings, and even more excited to bring home quite the variety of goodies this afternoon. I brought home a small head of cabbage, two tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, yellow squash, cooking apples, butter beans, turnip greens, crowder peas, beets, and a huge sweet potato - all for $14!!! I'm thinking this will become a weekly trip. I even see a pretty homemade market bag in my future and maybe even some muslin bags to store the veggies in the fridge. I have to be official, you know? :)

Simple Tip: Water with Ice

In an effort to get more use from my herbs during the winter, I potted some basil and thyme. They are now sitting pretty in my kitchen and have made friends with my display of sea shells. And to keep watering simple and efficient, I've been feeding them an ice cube a day. So far so good. :)

I also put together a pretty display of mums, lantana, basil leaves, and zinnas.

Over the weekend

Friday evening we traveled to Virginia to proclaim the gospel along side others. There were many tracts handed out and lots of one-to-one conversations. And it's always nice to catch up with our VA friends over late night pancakes from IHOP. ;)

Saturday evening all the girls got together for a "Chrissie Party". There were lots of sweet treats, pretty gifts, fun games, and some great girls!!

Sunday we celebrated 92 months of togetherness!! That is almost a hundred. :) We had a great worship service in the morning then lunch at home. In the afternoon we went to a local park to pass out some tracts and Bibles. We enjoyed watching all the squirrels collect their food for winter. They would search the leaves for fallen nuts, crack them, dig a little hole for safe keeping, then pat dirt and mulch all around it with their little paws. And one of the funniest things was when they heard a loud noise, the squirrels would all get real low on the ground and start doing an "army crawl" of sorts. Ha! After a while we picked up some boston creme pie ice cream and shared it in the parking lot. Lovely!!

That evening, Chris & Brittany cooked supper for the family. Spaghetti carbonara with salad and garlic bread. It tasted fabulous!!! We all gathered around the big table and enjoyed the food and fellowship. Only Matthew was missing. :( We sipped on coffee, talked a lot, admired all the pretty wedding stuff that is starting to pile in the spare bedroom ... I watched my dear brother Joey embrace his soon-to-be wife with a big hug, expressing that he can't wait for the BIG day. Only twelve days away!!

My dad has been setting lots of butterflies free over the past few days. Tony & I were able to let three out. And I was even able to capture the first flight of one of the butterflies on video.

We ended our monthiversary with some star gazing on the front porch and lots of hugs and kisses. I am so grateful to God for my sweet husband! :)

Colorful Striped Baby Blanket

Picture credit goes to the very talented Hailey!! :)

Fancy Neutral Peach

Sip of Champagne dress, Strategic Planning jacket, Enviable Status bag, 

Retrograde Braid bracelet, All that Glitters is Gold wedge, Jamie & the Giant Peach scarf, 

Comes but once a year

Labor Day weekend that is ~ the extended three day weekend. :) Which, I guess you can say ours officially started Thursday evening when we drove down to see how Hurricane Earl was effecting our surf / vacation spot. The waves were huge and my pictures do not do justice. As the sky grew dark, the waves were consistently licking the bottom of the pier. And with each wave, the pier shook. We know because we were up there with the other spectators. ;)

Enjoying my PB&J sandwich under the pier.

Tony went to work on Friday, while I cleaned an prepared for company that evening. We were so glad to break bread with Don & Belinda! Sweet fellowship indeed! We had mexican lasagna with all the sides and peach cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Saturday we slept in .... it was soooo nice! Tony did school work, we went to his parents house for a while, then joined a few friends at the beach. We had a great time hanging out. The guys surfed, I watched and walked along the sand while listening to "The Little Princess" on double speed. It is such a sweet story of grace and generosity. The evening sky was beautiful and our pizza dinner oh so good. :)

 Sunday morning we went to church with Tony's family. Seven year old Cayleigh was saved a few weeks ago (she called me that very night to tell me) and was being baptized. It was a sweet celebration!! After church we both did a workout and made our way to the local park to proclaim the gospel. Then we celebrated all the September birthdays at Tony's parents house. Young Marshall prayed the blessing over the food and also thanked God that Cayleigh is saved, that she was able to be baptized, and prayed that she will continue to learn more about God. Oh, how I praise God for our little neices and nephews. May God continue to do a great work in their hearts.

In the eveing we spent time with my family!!! Watched a movie, examined all the monarch butterflies that dad is raising, and talked about various things. :)

Monday we woke up at 4:15am, enjoyed a bowl of scrambled eggs together, packed the car, and were in the water surfing by 6:30am. We surfed with the rising sun 'til 10am. We had so much fun in the water together!! After a lunch of waffles, we both tackled some "labors" around the house. Specifically school work for Tony, and a completed striped baby blanket I'm selling locally. :) Labor day weekend ended with the both of us very sleepy and cuddled in bed.