giving thanks.

Went to H-town for Thanksgiving. We had about 20 come to Grandma's house for lunch--a delicious smoked Turkey & all the yummy sides you can imagine! My personal favorite was the sweet potatoes with marshmallows! I think I was the only one who ate them, but that was ok--more for me! :) It was a great few days--shopping with my sister, eating LOTS of food & just getting to hang out with my family!

One great story--Bonnie & I went to Anthropologie (one of our favorite stores!) Wednesday afternoon when I got to Houston & of course the first place we go is the sale closet in the back--we get several good things to try on & trade most of them back & forth between our two dressing rooms. The ladies who worked in the dressing room were getting quite a kick out of us & asked what sizes we wanted & then said they'd go back & get whatever was in the "back closet"--(Bonnie & I dubbed it "the secret closet")--whenever there was only 1-2 of an item left they had to take it off the floor. So she comes back with a huge pile of clothes of things that were marked down to like $10! It was awesome! We both tried almost everything on--laughing so much & just having an absolute blast! Best day at Anthopologie ever!

Well I definitely have a lot to be thankful for! Not just great sales at Anthro! My wonderful family is the biggest blessing in my life! My parents, Bonnie & Robert helped me so much this year with the whole home-buying & moving process. I definitely could not have done it with out them! I have great friends & a fantastic job--the Lord has provided more than I could ask or imagine through it. I have a lot to be thankful for indeed. Here's some pics from this weekend.

Bon & I

Silly Grobes.

Whoop! Ready to go to the game!

The fam.

This Old House

Any day now Operation: New Bathrooms will begin! While there's so many pros to owning an old home, there are also some cons! Not really cons, but challenges--opportunities to build character right? Only one of the 2 bathrooms in my house has a shower & a few weeks ago I discovered is has a leaky shower pan. The only way to fix this requires the entire thing to be torn out & rebuilt. So while one bathroom is being ripped up why not do the other one right? The other bathroom in my house is only a bathtub. It has a window in it & is lined with fake tile. It was in the list of things to re-do around the house someday. Well that day is quickly approaching. A lot of people have asked if I'm going to do it myself. Seriously? No way.

Shower with leaky shower pan.

Bathtub with a window in it, fake tile & no shower head.

Because the floors are already black & white, both the standup shower & the bath/shower will be tiled in white tile with a black & white checked accent border. Pretty basic. Kevin the tile guy is supposed to start tearing things out this week & hopefully will start tiling/rebuilding during the week of Thanksgiving. I'm super excited to have TWO working bathrooms in a couple of weeks! If buying a house didn't make me feel like a real grown up, remodeling two bathrooms surely does! :)

Fun group pics.

If you know anything about my former life (with Worldview) one of the things I loved to do was organize group pictures. It was the highlight of my Monday morning each week. Last night we decided to take a group pic to send to Mwangi, the Compassion boy we sponsor in Africa. They turned out pretty good--notice it's the college boys (the leaders!) in the back that are the ones misbehaving.


And of course, a silly picture...


Aren't these kids precious? Those are my 7th grade girlies in the front left--I just love them!

Oh and an update on the "Big Dance" that I blogged about a few weeks ago...one of our youth leaders created a facebook event for the performance next weekend...so far over 400 confirmed attending and over 700 maybes. This thing may be out of control, but it's going to be awesome!!

Halloween

I got to go to Midland this past weekend to see friends & visit my old stompin' grounds. :) Bad weather in Houston delayed my flight from an 8:45pm departure to an 11:45pm departure! Fortunately it was a direct flight & so I arrived in Midland a little after 1am. My sweet friend Sarah picked me up despite a stomach bug she was battling! But thankfully she was able to take the day off on Friday & we both slept in & watched tv until mid-afternoon when we got up to go have a late lunch with another friend & then got ready for a party our friend Caroline was having that night!

Sarah & I on our way to lunch.

Sarah, Dawn & I had decided to be "3 Peas in a Pod" for the party. Sarah & Dawn did an awesome job putting the costumes together! We stuffed some really big green shirts with HEB & Walmart bags & Dawn's mom made us a pod that put the finishing touches on our costumes!

3 Peas in a Pod

The best thing about our costumes was that they were so un-flattering that it completely freed us up to eat as much as we wanted! Or at least that was my favorite part of it! :) The party was fun & everyone had great costumes on!

Me & Hilary (Hi Hilary!)

Me & Caroline

Peas, bacon, eggs & a hotdog!

Bert, Ernie & 3 Peas in a Pod

Even though it was a super quick trip, it was super fun! I sure was blessed with good friends out in West Texas!