Yard Sales and Turnip Greens

I woke up bright and early this morning {despite a pretty rude sinus headache} to hit up a couple yardsales with my mom. This is the first time all year that I've gone and I'm pretty excited about what all I scored for $20. I forgot to take pictures of everything before I put everything away, but I'll try for photos next time!

Brett is a happy hubby tonight because I'm breaking out some old recipes of my grandmother's for supper. Ham steaks, cornbread, and turnip greens are on the menu followed by chocolate cake for dessert. The house smells SO good right now. :)

November 29, 2006

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. :) I've been in a nostalgic mood all weekend so I decided to take y'all on a little trip down memory lane with me this morning!

Brett and I were living in Niceville, Florida (right across the bay from Destin for those of you who only know Florida by its beautiful beaches!) and considering a move to Montgomery, Alabama. I know it doesn't make much sense, but we did it anyway. We had been engaged since July and were planning an October 2007 wedding. Certain family members (who will remain nameless) had been heckling us about our guest list (or lack thereof) and it felt like our wedding was getting out of control. Brett and I had joked about just driving down to the courthouse to get married by the magistrate and call our families and tell them after the fact! I really thought it was just an innocent joke!

Brett had a job interview in Montgomery on November 29 so we drove up to Montgomery early that morning. After his interview we decided to kill some time at the local Chevy dealership before heading home. As we were walking through the lot, we started talking about what would happen if he got the job in Montgomery. It was pretty much a given that I would move up to Montgomery with him, but I still felt weird about moving away together before we were married. I'm not sure how the conversation went from that to Brett calling the Montgomery County courthouse to find out what time they closed!

We were nowhere NEAR dressed for a wedding, had no wedding bands, no friends/family in town, NOTHING. Sure enough, we high-tailed it to downtown Montgomery and were married by the magistrate. My parents were excited about it, Brett's mom and step-father weren't. Thankfully, Brett's dad and step-mother were as excited as my parents were! In hindsight, I wish we had been a little more prepared. We were so spur-of-the-moment that we didn't even have a camera with us!

Brett, I love you 4x as much today as I did the day we got married. We've been through our fair share of storms, but we've always made it to sunnier days. I love you with all my heart. -J

Thankful

There are so many things that I am thankful for this year that I don't think I could begin to cover them all on here. This year has had plenty of storms, but we've weathered them better than I could have ever anticipated. We've truly been blessed.

I do want to take a minute and introduce you to an organization that I'm sure you've heard of, but that is near and (very dear!) to us. Compassion International is the organization that we've been able to sponsor our sweet Samuel through. Please take a few minutes to check them out (if you haven't already) and prayerfully consider sponsoring a child this holiday season. Your love (and letters!) will mean the world to a child out there. :)

Wordless Wednesday {10.20.10}

"Transforming Church in Rural America"

I was so excited when I saw this book on the Thomas Nelson website. This is a subject that is very dear to my heart and I hope to share a lot more about that in the near future!

Fear of change seems to be one of the largest stumbling blocks in small, rural churches and Shannon O'Dell tackles this subject with grace and blunt honesty. Small attendance, an ever-shrinking budget, and decades-long traditions are choking the life out of rural churches of ALL denominations. O'Dell offers fresh insight on how to overcome these obstacles and breathe new life into your church.

As someone from a church with a membership roll under 60, you better believe I will be recommending this book to everyone on our church board AND to everyone in our local ministries. Thumbs up, Mr. O'Dell!

Beautiful Things

In February I signed up to review Sheila Walsh's new book, "Beautiful Things Happen When A Woman Trusts God." I started reading it and then life caught up with me and it sat on my nightstand collecting dust. I'd much rather think that it wasn't the right time for me to read it than my priorities being skewed! When I picked it back up today, I realized just how much of an impact this book will make on someone.

Guilt. Anxiety. Depression. Mistrust. Every single one of us, at one point or another, has fought one of those demons. Sheila so openly shares her personal battle with each of these and does it in such a way that you feel like she's having a one-on-one sharing session with you. This book is a must read!

*This is a compensated review.

Where I've been lately

I haven't been blogging much lately and I have a really good reason. You see, I've been spending a lot of time with

THIS

and THIS (well, lots of them actually!)

I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend my time behind the lens of my camera with subjects like this! :)

Wordless Wednesday 09.22.10

Vacation Pictures

Contrary to what the last few posts may lead you to believe, we did get to spend some time driving up the mountain and just plain relaxing! The weather couldn't have been any nicer and I hated not to spend as much time as I could outside. It was so nice not having to deal with 90% humidity.

It didn't take long before I had a chance to try out my new 55-200mm lens. I was clear across the porch when these guys flew up. I'm pretty pleased with how the pictures turned out!

We took a break Saturday night to drive up Sand Mountain and catch a glimpse at the start of all the beautiful Fall colors. I can't believe that so many of the trees are changing already. We were too busy looking to bother taking the camera out (we're not so bright all the time!) but Brett did take some nice shots driving through Henagar and down the mountain towards Scottsboro.

Art in the Park (Part 2)

I know Part 2 is late, but hopefully late is better than never!

Two of my favorite vendors had nothing to do with art! Fresh squeezed lemonade and funnel cakes. Enough said! We spent more money on lemonade than anything else. Seriously. :)

We couldn't have had nicer weather. I think the high was right around 80 with a light breeze all day. It was the perfect day to spend outside!

The highlight of the day? Easy. :)