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Sunday, October 30, 2011

How to Fix Your Monday in One Easy Step

Friends.  Tomorrow is Monday. And Mondays are hard.

Here is my attempt at saving Monday's reputation.

I can't give you a day off, warmer weather or a longer lunch break, but I CAN give you...


a tiny baby in monkey pajamas!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 How about two more?

  How about DOUBLE THE BABY IN MONKEY PAJAMAS!

 You're welcome.

I am such a nerd/madly in love.  I have looked at these photos over. and over.and over.

Love and do they make those p.j.'s in my size?
H.







Saturday, October 29, 2011

The other day, I realized that I love this season because the flowers from the summer and the autumn foliage are starting to overlap.  We haven't had much frost yet so our front porch is an eye-catching mix of pansies, impatients, gourds, and tiny pumpkins.  Not to mention all those maple leaves.  

I wanted a totally different color for some of my fall things.  This year, I went with purple.  Hooray!  (Yes, I just hooray-ed purple.  Ha.)

     My parents have had a tiny red shed that looked like a miniature henhouse/barn.  Man, I loved taking pictures in front of that thing.  However, the years and the weather have not been kind to our dear shed so my husband and my dad ended up tearing it down while my father had a new one built (for the record, this one does NOT look like an adorable red henhouse.  Boo for modern upgrades).  

     However, the craft/antique store near my parents' house took the leftover shed-wood and made these adorable black crows.  Hooray for small town-living (where people 'find out' you tore down your shed) and new-things-out-of-old-things!  


 Love and Christmas is next!
H.









Soul officially lifted

     In some ways, this fall has been like a breath of fresh air.  Being a school teacher, the start of the school year and the changing weather is sometimes accompanied by a busy schedule and a fair amount of stress.

     I don't know if it is the changing of grade levels, other differences at work or positive life changes, but  I have fallen in love with this season.  In many ways, it feels like a weight has lifted.

However,  I also greeted October with a nagging feeling of dread for reasons I'm sure I will get to later.

Lately, my soul has been lacking.  Have you ever felt like your soul needed something, and for the love of Pete, you can't quite put your finger on it?

This morning, I looked at Scarlett, and Scarlett looked at me, and in that moment, I knew that our souls needed a Pumpkin Spice Latte (me) and a trip to The Dog Park (her). 


I was right.

I hope you guys had a great weekend.

Love,
 H.

Friday, October 21, 2011

My husband lost his job, and the beat goes on.

Good News:  If the above title has you scratching your head, you might want to go here before you read the rest.

You're welcome.

Lots of you have asked, off and on, about Tim's job search. It's sweet. Really.

      For a long time, we have felt that Tim was eventually "supposed to" get to the point (career-wise) where he would be able to make his own hours.  This would give him the flexibility to spend time with the kids we don't have (haha) and expand his role with college/career ministry in the church.  It was something that was important to us, but not something we anticipated happening in the near future.

And then Tim got laid off.

I have honestly been putting off writing this post for a long time.  Sometimes it takes a lot of effort, you know, to get it all down.

And then I read Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech, and it was fascinating.  In short, he gives details about how dropping out of college and getting fired from Apple helped him in the long run.  How x couldn't have happened without y...and so on.

And it reminded me of us.

So. Here we are.  Where is "here" exactly? Our plan?  Oh. Is there a plan?

     For now, Tim has been painting houses and staining decks, and it's been pretty lucrative.  He has a few other church-related things on his schedule, and then the next step involves substitute teaching and selling life insurance (which involves "leads." I promise we won't ask you to buy life insurance. Ha)... among the other fantastic business ventures he has rolling around in his head.

And we are at peace.

This plan?  It's working.  God is helping us to connect the dots.

Our prayers have consistently been centered around Tim finishing school and paying off our credit card debt.  We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of our credit card debt.

Friends. We're close.  We're very close.

And finishing school?  The picture speaks for itself.
     Just this week, a friend and member of our college/career sunday school class was having car trouble, and Tim was able to spend the day helping him get parts and fixing the problem (cause he's so awesome and handy like that)

....not something he would have been able to do had he been working a regular 9-5.  Further proof that flexibility in his work schedule is important for his specific ministry.

     Our most recent prayer has been for firewood.  You guys. Our house is heated with propane and DANG propane is expensive (hence the majority of the credit card debt), and firewood helps us save money like you wouldn't believe.

Yesterday, Tim put a painting bid for a historic property not too far from our house.

What was lying in the front yard...?

Oh...nothing really...you know...just...

 tons and tons of seasoned wood.

Tim recently got a phone call from the homeowner - he got the paint job  AND the wood is ours for the taking.

Life is weird sometimes, but the beat goes on.

Love and anyone got a wood splitter?
H.

This is Part One of a blog series here at Yours Truly, H.  The theme is Good News.  If you are interested in guest blogging your own Good News, please email me at holls_y {at} hotmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!
Linking up with Casey

Saturday, October 15, 2011

A Half Birthday Post

      My husband and I are exactly 1 year and 1 week apart.  Did you know that?  It's really fun.  I like having our birthdays so close together.  I like to think of this here blog as a scrapbook of sorts, and I realized I NEVER posted pictures of my husband's 30th birthday last year. Sigh. Last year, April was lost on us.

       Seeing as how we are roughly 6 months away from celebrating once again, I thought showing these pics. at the 1/2 way mark would be appropriate.

We had an "Open House" of sorts for several friends and family.  It was fun making tons of food, and seeing people we don't see nearly as often as we'd like.  I went with a "rock and roll/music" theme.  All the clowns were booked.  Just kidding.


 Looking forward to many more birthdays ahead.

Thanks for sharing this space with us.

Love,
H.



























Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Blessed are the feet that bring good news

 Friends.  Bloggers.  Countrymen (women?).

I am proud to announce that Yours Truly is now accepting guest post submissions.  I'm really excited about this new venture, and I can't wait to see what comes of it.

The theme is, "Good News."  Go ahead and get creative.  Tell us your new favorite recipe (i.e. Good News: The Garlic & Herb cous cous* was a hit!)  or just something new you've learned along the way.

Please do try to keep it "family friendly" or I will wash out your mouth with soap.  Don't think I won't.

Include a photo or 2...or 3 if you like!

For the love of Pete, please use spell check/watch yo' grammar.  Unless you think I might think it's funny.  Then anything goes.  Cause you know, this is all about me, right?  I'm kidding.  This is about you and how awesome you are with your adorably-adorable good news.

Can't wait!

Here's my good news.

Tim's third eye/double nose implant/mouth reduction
 was a rousing success!  
Thank goodness for modern medicine! 
If you're still interested in submitting even after I gave that ridiculous example, please email me at:

holls_y [at] hotmail {dot} com


Love and I'm ready whenever you are,
H.


*the auto correct turned "cous cous" into "cows cows."  How much do you love that?

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Have Raccoon, will carry kitty.

One of the things I love about my sister is how much she cracks up at animals.  When I first introduced her to Pinterest, we stumbled upon this little gem in my parents' computer room.  She laughed non-stop for about 10 minutes.




Raccoons on Pinterest?  Oh, she was hooked.

One of my boards on Pinterest is labeled, "Stuff Heather's going to love..." The other day, I realized about 75% of those pins are just animals doing funny things...like this...



Who doesn't love that when they're thinking about Monday?

So, here are a few pins that may give you some insight into our hilariously weird relationship. The last one's my favorite.






Source: imgfave.com via Holly on Pinterest



Source: imgur.com via Holly on Pinterest


Sorry for the lack of posts.  My schedule has been off lately.  It's weird how you can sometimes feel as if you are doing nothing and everything at the same time, right?  Sometimes, you just want to choose watching Restaurant Impossible and eating delicious chili with your husband instead of blogging, right?

Love and I guess they're ALL my favorite,
H.