what a haul!

Tonight Nate and I were out looking for some stuff to decorate the new place when he decided to see if there were any toys on sale for our Operation Christmas Child project. Sure enough, we found eight frisbees and nine kaleidoscopes on super clearance! So now we've officially started getting our boxes ready. And we're pretty excited. :)

It was pretty awesome to find this stuff on such a great deal because we have a budget to stick to and we want to do as much as we can to help as many kids as we can with that money.

Have you found any great deals lately?

NEWS!

So. First of all. Let me say that I am HORRIBLE at doing hair - especially my own. But I did manage a decent messy bun up-do thingy that I was pretty proud of the other day for a first try. And I took a picture. I'm trying to be more adventurous with my hair and I'm slowly getting better with practice! But so far, all I can manage is pigtails, braids, and whatever you want to call this crazy mess.

And second. We have BIG news!  Those of you who are close to us already know, but for those who aren't - we are moving. AGAIN! Just to the other side of Charlotte this time - nothing too crazy. We're leaving Lake Wylie and heading up farther north. But nonetheless, it has been super crazy and super exciting.

We ended up having to move because of work, so we were going to have to break our lease four months into it. Which was going to mean a TON of crazy fees on top of moving costs. But after lots of prayer and consideration, God came through to take care of us. As He always does! A man who lives in our building had put in his notice to leave, but at the last minute ended up having to stay. When he went to the office to re-sign his lease, he found out they had already rented out his apartment so he had nowhere to go. So he had been working with the office to find a place in our building he could move to for a few more months.

At the EXACT SAME TIME, Nate approached the leasing office to see if we could find someone to take over our lease so we wouldn't have to pay all of the breaking fees. And in God's perfect timing, we all got together and now we had somebody to take over our lease and he had somewhere to live! The only catch to this was that we found out on Saturday that we had to be out of our apartment and have it completely cleaned by the 26th. Which meant we had FOURTEEN DAYS to get our lease switched out of our name, find a house to rent, get our application approved, pack everything up, move in, and then get our old apartment cleaned out.

And on top of all this, I have been going to job interviews like it's my, well, job.

Basically, life has been CRAZY.

But God is in control. And He is good. He is oh, so good. And even though things are very uncertain right now, they're starting to come together pretty nicely.

Have you ever had to do anything crazy like find a house and move in two weeks? What's your story?

wait for it...

Nate and I started the day off with a giant greasy breakfast at Hardees that was in no way good for us but it was SO GOOD.

Then we headed to the flea market and antique mall where I found a pair of Tiffany blue lamps that I thought were gorgeous but couldn't get because:
     1. We don't have a house in which to put them.
     2. Apparently mine and Nate's tastes do not agree, because he thought they were hideous.
     3. They weren't in our budget for this week anyway.
So, c'est la vie! Right? I DID manage to find a lampshade for the lamp we have that's been missing one for AGES. Anyone who has visited our apartment knows exactly what I'm talking about. So anyway. Here it is!

After leaving the flea market, we headed over to the farmer's market. For the first time since we've been up here. And we've been up here over a year now. Which is pretty crazy. We'll definitely be making the trip more often now that we've finally found it and made it out.

I found some heirloom tomatoes and was SUPER excited. And the woman who was running the booth had one sliced so I actually got to try it. I had been wanting to for a long time now. And OMG. It was DELICIOUS. I normally can't eat tomatoes by themselves, but I could definitely eat these with nothing else. And I love how unique they all look.

So what did we bring home from the farmer's market?

We got red, yellow and green bell peppers. And some romaine lettuce. And we'll be getting much more the next time around!

We also got a handmade food and water holder for Abs and Chlo. I'm going to paint it for them, so I'll post another picture once I've finished it. I'm going to try and work on it tomorrow if we don't have too much else going on.

And we ended the day with TACOOOOOOO NIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! Then took the puppies for a ride in the car to look at houses. And now we're about to curl up on the couch and watch The Cosby Show on Netflix.

So pretty much. In the words of Barney Stinson, today was legendary.

a good day. :)

Today was a good day. :)

I made it through my first week as a real live teacher alive and with no injuries. There were some crazy times, but nothing can beat the hugs and having the children hold up their work, beaming, saying "Miss Stephanie! Look at what I did!" It's a tiring job but it's worth every ounce of energy spent. And there is nothing in me that wishes I had chosen to do something else with my life.

Nate and I had a Mexican night tonight! Fajitas for two! Which is more like fajitas for about six - SO. MUCH. FOOD.

After dinner, we took the dogs for a walk down to the dock at our apartments. The weather was perfect. And there was nobody down there but us. It was so nice to have some time to relax together. :)

beautiful view from the dock.

watching the boats.

abby LOVES her daddy.

:)

her favorite place to be.

And here is a wonderful video of what happens when you try to get Chloe to do a trick.

Absolutely nothing.

 Most people say she's stupid. I prefer to say she does things on her own terms.

Anyway. Now it's 8:00 and we have the rest of the night ahead of us (and I have a four day weekend ahead of me). And it has been a good day. We are definitely blessed :)

Oh, I almost forgot. Nate just reminded me. We went to Carowinds yesterday for the bajillionth time so far this year and rode the Intimidator. And Nate took his iPod ON THE ROLLERCOASTER and took video. So here it is. In case you can't tell from the video, my anxiety level was through the roof because I thought he was going to drop it. I was seriously having a panic attack. I'm glad we have the video now, though. So yeah. Here it is. Enjoy. :)

I'll try to get to work on my trust30 post later on tonight. If not, it'll be posted in the morning.

What is something you've been blessed with today?