Title.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be traveling in the panhandle of Texas and had the chance to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. My brother was actually one of the people in charge of setting up and running the college fair I was working, so we both got to see each other in action that night.

After the fair was over, he had a few things to wrap up before leaving for the night, so I stopped by a fast food place and picked up dinner for all of us and planned to meet up at the house.

Most of the time, I try to be a patient person when it comes to fast food places. I don't always succeed, but at least on this night, I was laughing about the things that were going wrong. The worker typed in the wrong meal and the machine froze up and wouldn't let them clear it out. They ran out of fries right before I got there. Chicken nuggets that were taking a while to cook... err, fry, I guess. Needless to say, I had quite a few minutes that I was standing there waiting on my food. No one else was in the restaurant at the late hour, so it lead to a little chit chat between me and two of the employees.

One happened to walk up and start staring at my shirt and finally said, "What does your name tag say?" I looked down, having forgotten that I even had it on, and quickly brushed over it: "Oh this thing. It says Admissions Consultant. It's a really weird, confusing title. I'm a college recruiter but they make it sound a lot fancier this way."

I really can't remember everything else they said after that about my name tag, but there's one line that stands out:

"At least you have a title."

Yeesh. Such a simple statement, but it really took my breath away.

Sometimes I forget just how privileged I am.

In my circle of friends, we're all educated. We have good jobs that provide for us. Even if we tease about being poor, we're not going without. I'm 27 and own a home and have nice cars. I am a privileged person, yet I probably complain more often than I recognize my blessings.

I have a title.

I'm not sure what your title is right now or what exactly you're going through, but I would encourage you to stop and look around... you never know where you'll be when you end up seeing your blessings!

Perfection.

chick fil a.



garage selling.




yogurt.




tv & cuddling on the couch.



the perfect date night!



{if only hebrew wasn't involved! such is life :)}

Tired But Happy.

Whew.

I am tired.

We're suffering from post-weekend guests depression around here.

Seriously. I can't even find where Kota has collapsed. He might be crying in the corner.

Cody surprised me and invited my parents to come stay with us ad celebrate my Happy Heart Day!

{I know... aww!}

While he was being super sweet, he may have had some hidden {selfish} motives behind his offer. Because my parents... they are some super great DIYers. They've seen their share of projects and {even better} are willing to help teach us.

We're spent the last three days knee deep in some big projects and I CANNOT wait to share them with you! {However} they're not quite finished yet so it's going to be a little while before I can showcase them on the blog. Let me just say... we made some {AMAZING} changes in our house for around $125. Seriously. You won't believe it!

So for now, we're moping around the house missing our company, bandaging our sore fingers, and dreaming about the finished project!

Hope you had just as great of a weekend!

{psst.... last chance to enter the giveaways! Click over to the blog to get your entries in!}

Oh Happy Day!

We're cuddled up on the couch, snuggling by the heater and watching a movie. At 11:00 at night.

Why?


Because tomorrow is a SNOW DAY!!!!!!



So thankful for a free day!


Hope your Tuesday is snow-tastic! :)

A Time to Celebrate

From a very young age, reading has always been one of my favorite hobbies. I always looked forward to the summer reading program at the library and would have read enough books to earn all of the prizes in just a few short weeks. In the 6th grade, I set a record for the highest AR points in our school. {over 700, but who still remembers? :)}

As much as I love to read, I don't know if I can say that it relaxing for me. I can't read for 10 minutes before bed to wind down from the day. Oh no. I get caught up in a book and will definitely choose finishing the book over sleeping, which has definitely resulted in some long days at work!

I can't remember exactly when we discovered Karen Kingsbury. I'm guessing that my mom found her back in 2005, because I vividly remember being at Iberostar in Playa Del Carmen and my mom was amazed that a Swedish lady (we could tell by her language!) was reading one of the same books she was! I think Karen first because pretty big from One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning, which were both inspired by the families that were effected by September 11. She then wrote the Redemption, Firstborn and Sunrise series with the Baxter family. My mom read them first and was hooked and eventually I read them too. I think it sums up how much I liked them by these two stories: when I told Cody we would have to name one of our sons after a character in the book and when I called my mom crying, saying that I couldn't stop praying for Ashley yet I already knew the book was written and the ending was decided!!

One of the unique things that Karen offers with each of her books is a Forever in Fiction character. She auctions off these characters to help charities raise money and to honor worthy people.

Now, I do love her books, but my mom and I have mostly switched over to buying them on our Kindles or just checking them out from the library. So I was very surprised when I received this in the mail this week:

And because my mom mailed it via media mail {which is cheaper in case you didn't know, but they only allow you to send media items, NO PERSONAL NOTES!!!} I at first didn't notice any messages to know why she would have sent it to me.

Then I noticed this:

And when I saw that, I knew something was up. I quickly skimmed through her dedication but didn't notice anything important. I continued on to the Forever in Fiction but kept thinking "No way, no way!" Many of you might currently be following sweet Kate McRae's journey. She is a 9 year old girl who is and has been struggling in a long, hard battle with cancer for too many years of her childhood life. To help the family with their extensive bills that have come with this long journey they have been on, Karen decided to open up for donations to help the McRae family. As long as she received one donation, Kate would be honored in Forever In Fiction.

As I turned the pages, I saw a 6 page list.

And one that particularly stuck out:

Last year, before we even flew off to Cleveland and knew how my surgery would turn out, my parents made a donation to Kate in honor of my life and believing that the Lord would see me through the journey. I could not stop the tears once I connected the dots and knew everything the book meant. It is handsdown one of the best gifts I have received and I am so thankful that my parents were able to get our story of the Lord's faithfulness to us Forever in Fiction!

Thanks so much Mom and Dad! Snickers!