A Fun (& cheap) Accessory

Last week, while shopping at Burlington Coat Factory with my husband, I came across this cute, but unique, sweater. I've seen a few people wear it and thought it looked a little strange. Usually they wore it loose so the front really confused me. Depending on the fabric, this sweater can run from $100 on down, but when you shop discount stores like BCF, it's a huge budget pleasure (as my sister-in-law would say :o)

The wrap sweater tends to be more like an accessory than an piece of clothing...it can be added to just about any plain-jane outfit and it'll jazz it up while still keeping things comfy. I found my wrap sweater for a cheap $7.00 and although I was hesitant on whether I would enjoy wearing it, the price encouraged me to venture out and find some cute ways to throw it on.

I found this helpful video that gives a number of ways on how you can sport this simple sweater.

On Holiday

Thanksgiving...this year Chris and I are experiencing something brand new: the great state of Texas, living with my brother and his family (never done that before), and playing with a 16-month-old precious little girl.
Since we tend to flip flop between the Sargent family and Gable family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and knowing that this year we were to do Thanksgiving with the Sargent's, we began planning our trip. My brother, Josh, was doing Thanksgiving with his wife's family, Jeremiah, being new to the area, wanted to stay around for both holidays, and my parent's hands were full, so they needed to stay put. As much as I would love both of my brothers and their wives, and my parents to be all in one place, we knew it wasn't going to happen this year.
So, we decided to make a visit to Texas and see my brother and his family, their new house, and the church they're serving in. It is so exciting to see everything and meet their new church family. Oh and of course seeing our cute little niece has just been a blast! She is really at a cute stage...talking, giggling, and making funny faces. It's almost scary to see my brother in that little girl's face! There is, however, a nice blend of her mother, which complements the Sargent-side features. :o)

So far today Shannon and I went for a good walk (and talk :o), the guys are busy building "something" in the backyard, and the baby is sleeping away for her morning nap. We plan to enjoy a tasty meal (huge turkey with all the usual sides), a couple games of tennis and/or bowling on the Wii, and probably a movie or an afternoon at the park.

My Thanksgiving List:

There truly is much to be thankful for, and just to name a few, I'll start with my salvation - really to be specific, I am so thankful for God's mercy, grace, faithfulness, and longsuffering. I am thankful for His Word and for the Holy Spirit's working in my life. Those truly are the greatest blessings that come from salvation apart from the peace and hope that it brings. I am thankful for family - my husband who is a wonderful man and leader of our home. He loves God with all his heart and has a great love for people and ministry. He is an example, inspiration, and encouragement to me. I am so thankful that I have godly, loving parents with whom I have a good relationship; as well as godly, loving in-laws. It wonderful having parents that set an example for us. I have been blessed with great brothers, and brother/sister-in-laws - all are fun to be around and I love them each uniquely. I am thankful for my church and all the members that make up the body; the teens we've become so close to over the recent months; our pastors and their families; our close friends; and the opportunities the Lord gives us daily to be involved in His work. There are many more things I am thankful for, but those are just a few. :o)

Another thing I am "greedily" thankful for is my new phone! Early Christmas present from Chris...and let me tell ya, it's so fun to play with! Don't be jealous...

The palm pixi...candy bar phone that's not only eye candy, but an awesome phone to own. After being content with the "free" phones for so long, I'm officially converted...I'll never go back to those average joe-blow phones again! :o)

Well, if you're reading this on Thanksgiving Day...Happy Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful day with those you're thankful for. If only we were as thankful everyday as we try to be this day, our lives would drastically change and the Lord would become more real to us than He ever before.

A Shocking Video...or maybe not.

I don't know how long this video will be available, but it's a scary depiction of Obama's love for people of the Islamic "faith."

Favorite Natural Products

 I don't consider myself to be a "green" girl by any means (save the earth? nah...:o) but I have found many benefits in using organic products over the popular, chemical-based brands. One of the main reason why I prefer using Organic or Natural beauty products is because of the quality of the product and the overall result. They are little more expensive but you don't have to use as much and you can find them on sale quite often.

Here are a few products I really like and highly recommend.

BURT's BEES WAX

Burt's Bees Wax products are wonderful, but I especially love their hand soaps and bars. They are moisturizing and if you don't care for scents, they have a lot to choose from without scents. The body bars are milky and tend to leave a softer feel and the clear bars leave a more crisp, clean feel. You can find all Burt's Bees Wax products at Walmart and some grocery stores.

THOROUGHLY CLEAN FACE WASH

I found this face wash a couple months ago and love it! I set out to find a facial wash primarily for Chris because he had been using a traditional bar of soap to wash his face. I love the name, too - "Thoroughly Clean Face Wash." :o) It has a variety of organic oils and natural cleansers which leave your face feeling squeaky clean and fresh. It's made by Dessert Essence.

NATURE'S GATE

Nature's Gate carries several products but I especially like their hand lotion. It's light but leaves my skin feeling hydrated. It's amazing when you switch back to "regular" lotion - you can really feel the difference! After only 20 minutes, my hands feel dry again. So this product is good as a body lotion. You could use it on your face, however, it may not cut it for wrinkles and fine lines.

TEA TREE OIL

Tea Tree Oil is one of the leading ingredients in most beauty products and can be used on all skin types. You can find pure Tea Tree Oil to apply to seriously dry skin, or find a diluted oil blend for all over use. This product (Dessert Essence Tender to Skin Tea Tree Oil) actually is beneficial for blemishes. You don't want to use all over your skin, but just on the "problem" areas. It not only tackles facial blemishes but also scars, etc.

JASON

Another great facial moisturizer is the Jason Vitamin E Pure Beauty Oil. Vitamin E is great for your skin. Even taking Vitamin E supplements can be beneficial for overall skin appearance and glow. There are tons of other products from Jason...I haven't personally tried them yet.

NOAH'S NATURALS

Noah's Naturals are fairly new products and can be found at Walmart as well as Health Food stores. I picked up this serum and have been using it on my face at night and really like it! It may be my favorite facial moisturizer yet. It is a few dollars more than the other brands, but is worth the extra expense.

TREE HUT

Tree Hut is one of my favorite (and cheapest) brands of body works. There are some wonderful fragrances in this line, too. I really like the body washes and body scrubs and lotions. Most of the time I prefer not to get scented lotions so I don't use the lotion that often. But they are very creamy and thick and can be very nice occasionally. The body wash and scrubs, however, are my favorite.

Scents I like: Coconut Lime, Brazilian Nut, & Almond and Honey. They also have Hawaiian Kukui and Tahitan Grass which also smell delicious, but I haven't tried them. This brand tends to be the cheapest I've seen and I feel the products are of really good quality. They are made with shea butter and have a natural richness to them. You can find these at Walmart as well.

EO

I'm still on the search for a perfect line of organic hair car products at an affordable price. I tried the Organix brand, which is nice but after a period of use, it started to leave a slight build up on my hair. The conditioner specifically weighed my hair down a bit. I noticed this after about a month's use. Now I simply rotate my shampoos/conditioners as well as wash my hair only every other day if I can help it. This has helped in the soap build up and made my hair more manageable and healthy.

I found the EO brand last month and really like it. It's completely organic and a small use goes a long way. This is one of the many shampoo/conditioner I like. It is really light but moisturizing, so don't over use. I've heard so many times that washing hair should only be done 3-4 times a week, which at first I didn't like because I feel I "have to" wash my hair everyday. I have an oilier scalp and frizzy tips. This product works well with reducing the root oiliness and moisturizing the ends but I recommend not using it daily.

MINERAL MAKEUP

Of course, mineral makeup is the best option for foundation and concealers. If you are still using liquid foundation and press powders, you may want to consider switching to mineral makeup. The cost is generally about the same and you use less. Rachel got me hooked on The Smokey Mountain Minerals brand - it is good makeup, extremely affordable and they offer free shipping. Can't beat that!

Dinner Saver

How many times have I looked in my pantry around dinner time with an invisible question mark above my head? More often than not. With our busy schedule, dinner usually has to be quick. I believe in healthy, well-balanced meals and rarely ever resort to "junk" such as chicken nuggets or frozen pizza. It takes time to plan out meals and frankly, sometimes there just isn't enough time to predict every meal for the entire week. May be this character flaw in me will improve when children come into the picture, since I'll have more home time, but for now I must work with what I got. :o)

I found this website where, instead of you searching for a recipe, you type in ingredients on hand...they find the recipes for you with what you have. It's a great idea especially when you're on the fly. Check it out next time you're at a loss of what's for dinner...

 www.supercook.com 

Another Fun Year...Great Job Girls!

Projects

Lately, I have been working non-stop on Christmas projects and today I finally saw light at the end of the tunnel.

First was decorating the bookstore and creating an order catalog for our church member. Christmas "things" are never a top-seller in Book Heaven so this year we opted to hand out order forms (vs ordering things in the store and keeping them for years to come :o) So far we have 2 ordered...I rest my case.

Second, we wanted to put together a Christmas Catalog mail out. Our graphic design artist, Sarah, did an awesome job putting that together. After literally hours of editing (in a program I've never used before) today I finally clicked "print" to the finished copy. It looks great...now to put 600 labels on them and get them in the mail. 

Another project was to put a Christmas promotional advertisement on the web storefront. I designed this banner in my new, fun Paint Shop Pro...

I designed this one first, but later thought it was too busy and opted for the blue one...

It was still fun putting it together...I usually do better on my second time around.

Be sure to visit Book Heaven for great Christmas gifts...remember the Free CD offer! :o)

Although this does not fall in line with "projects," we have a house guest for a month - Bandit, the Pastor's dog (more like Rachel's dog) is staying with us while they are away. Him and Beatrice are great friends and have not stopped playing/running around the house and yard since they've been together. Hopefully soon one of them will tucker out. He has already ruined one of his collars. Well, we actually can't tell if he slipped out of it and chewed it, or if Bea chewed it off him! LOL...I could definitely see them working together as a team to experience the wonderful feeling of...FREEDOM!

A Day of Fun & Oddities

Today was a very different day. First, it felt too much like winter. It was raining all day and very cold - about 45 degrees with not a ray of sun. I generally enjoy having a rainy day every now and then, not just because of the mood it encourages, but because it makes the grass nice and green. But the cold was a shock. It felt like last week were having decent weather in the 60's. Now I hear there is a chance for snow over the weekend...



Today we celebrated Becky's 24th birthday, a co-working at the church, by having a fall soup day. With everyone pitching various ingredients in we enjoyed a delicious, heart-warming bowl of classic Chicken Noodle Soup. What a perfect day for it...it really warmed me up. Along with the soup we had the anticipated seasonal candy corn, great desserts, and coffee.
I hope Becky has a great Birthday this Saturday!


This morning Chris and Nat went to take their written exam for Bus Driver's school and thankfully both of them passed. Now they only need to complete 6 hours of practice driving and pass the driving test and they will be signed up to drive for all the school's and youth group activities. :-) It's too bad Chris wasn't able to drive the girl's volleyball team anywhere this season.

Speaking of the volleyball team, today was a tough game. We played a team about 30 minutes from us and after arriving in a chilly bus and running through the rain towards the gym with only 10 minutes of warm-up time (where did time go!?!) they played a respectable game. Although they did not take the win this time, they had good spirits and didn't seem too discouraged. Tomorrow we have another away game, this time close to Philly (1.5 hour drive), so that will make my Friday night. We have a great time together and the away games are always memorable. Last week we attended a tournament and the ride home ended up being an hour long vocal exercise - we literally sang the entire way, LOL poor Chris - the only guy singing with eight other girls. 

My final oddity for the day was something that started yesterday. Chris noticed the baseboard under the dining room table looked a little "furry" and discolored. It was hard to tell what had happen and whether or not there was a leak from the washing machine hookup on the other side of the wall. We had the church's handy man come take a look. He removed a section of the wall (woohoo!) and discovered an entire wall rotten to the core! 

Yeah...so today they sawed off the entire wall, took out the pipe that had the hairline fracture in it, replaced the pipe and currently there is a dehumidifier sucking all the moisture out of the wood so that tomorrow they can replace the wall. There was a lovely layer of dust on everything when I got home tonight. Oh well, it could be worse...at least Bea made a friend.

My dad sent me some funny/amazing pictures tonight. It's a power point and cannot be opened as a link, so copy/paste the file, save it, and open it in power point. That could be the hard way, but I really don't know how else you can view it - it's worth it though.

asombrosas2.pps

The Butterfly Circus

This little 20 minute video has been floating around for a little while, but I finally saw it for the first time last night. It's a short film on hope and how you can use your misfortunes for good. It stars Nick Vujicic, an Australian motivational speaker who was born without limbs.

When you have 20 minutes take a look - it's worth your time.

Life is too short...

When will Beatrice stop destroying every toy she owns!? She'll be 1 year old December 5th and there is still much puppy in her. She still gets uncontrollably excited every time she sees a familiar face, she still steals socks out of the hamper and she still needs occasional naps when she gets cranky...like a little child. Oh well, Elly - it was nice knowing ya.

Bea is thrilled to have a play-mate for a month - Bandit, her beloved friend and neighbor.