Posts Tagged ‘Try New Adventures’
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I have feathers. In my hair. On purpose. And quite frankly, they kinda rock.
I have four sections of feather extensions {two on each side}. Two are larger feathers {more of what you think when you think “bird feather”} and then the rest are long and thin {think rooster feathers}. I’d totally go for more, but, as it turns out, feather extensions aren’t cheap. Here in Austin, they average $20-25 a section. Thankfully, my awesome new stylist said she wouldn’t charge me for each extension, just one. You can buy kits, but it seems just as pricey to me, since they are geared more toward salons.
The extensions last up to 4 months. As your hair grows out, you can go back in for them to readjust the feathers {or, with some pliers, do it yourself}. Once the feathers are in, you can wash and style your hair as normal. I was a little worried the first time, but the feathers did fine. My larger feathers reminded me of what a wet bird looks like {sort of poofy and crazy} but they calmed down. I’ve been told, the feathers take on your natural oils with time and blend in completely with your hair. I haven’t noticed that yet with the two larger feathers, but have with the thinner ones.
So far, I’m in love with them. Love, love, love. Jonathan was a little shocked at first – just because I had gotten four sections and, honestly, because of my two big feathers. I think they freaked him out a bit. 😉 I figure it’s just a stepping stone to preparing him for me getting dreads.
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
One Week Before We Move
Posted on: March 24, 2011
- In: Life
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how we found a house, put in an offer and had the offer accepted in less than 48 hours. As with a lot of other life things, housing buying can be tricky. Between finances, paperwork, inspections, schedules, etc., anything can go wrong at any time. So, in an effort to not put my hope in the wrong place, or to hype anything up, I haven’t written about our move.
But it’s happening.
While we haven’t signed the closing paperwork, everything is set {finances approved, money in the bank} and ready to go for next week. We are having a few scheduling issues arise, but we think they should be smoothed over {for those of you who want the boring info – the short of it is – we are set to close on the 31st, but our locked in interest rate ends on the 30th, so we need to figure out which day to close}.
Here are just a few pictures of my favorite things in the house:
Look at that beautiful {big} kitchen! It overlooks the living room and backyard. Sigh.
The girls' room. Already painted girly pink and everything!
A playscape! Heart be still, the playscape stays! I am one happy mama {with two happy little girls}.
While we still don’t own the house, we are pretty certain everything is going to go through as expected. Which means, come this time next week, we will be in our new home, starting some wonderful new adventures! I cannot wait!
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
*If you’d like to see the rest of the house, let me know and I can email you a link to the tour {it has our address and I don’t want that on my blog}.
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This past Sunday, we spent the afternoon at Zilker Park enjoying the city’s annual kite festival. This year marked 83 years of Austin kite flying! The festival takes place on the first Sunday in March every year {with some changes made over the years due to weather}.
Getting the kite ready for air time
Hannah had a blast being part of the action
Poor Julia felt pretty crummy the whole time. This is the last photo Jon snapped before she laid down in the grass while we flew the kite.
Jon took the kite for a test flight and got it up much higher than me!
As we were leaving, we turned around and saw tons of kites in the sky. It was a very cool experience!
What fun outdoor activities are you do as spring approaches?
Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking is taking the week off Try New Adventures Thursday to enjoy spring break with her family. This post will be linked to her next week {3/17}.
I Hope My iPad Makes Me Smarter
Posted on: March 3, 2011
- In: Life
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Gone are the days that I can pour over a book for hours. Twenty minutes, sure. But hours? Never. Because of that, my reading has been limited to “easy reads”, which in my case tends to be anything more modern and non-classical. unfortunately, classics tend to be my favorites {or books written in classical form}. So I haven’t read a new-to-me classic since Julia was born {though, I have re-read a few favorites}.
Enter the Kindle for iPad:
About a month ago, I downloaded Kindle to my iPad, mostly because I needed to buy a book for church. Then I started browsing through Amazon’s Kindle collection and found a treasure mine full of free classics. I downloaded a handful with the hopes of one day reading them.
Earlier this week, I realized one day really just means never in mom world, and decided to start that day reading a new classic. Which classic did I choose?
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
According to the Kindle app, I’m only 4% through the book, but so far it is good! The app has the sentences and paragraphs broken up for “easy” reading and I can fly through a chapter in no time. It has an easy bookmark feature, taking me right back to the last page I read. Even better… if I have to quickly turn the app off, it still saves my page without my prompting! Honestly, between the girls, Jack, errands and chores, I use that last feature more than bookmarking the spot myself.
Here’s to delving back into good {but challenging} reads!
What have you read lately?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
Wanna Bag ‘O Grace?
Posted on: February 24, 2011
- In: Life
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If you drive through any major intersection in Austin you will notice one thing: homeless people. Standing along the road with signs, begging for food or money. Rain or shine, they are always there. In fact, one of the best know Austinites is homeless – his name is Leslie. He’s even run for mayor. The homeless roam the streets, and the ones near the University have earned less-than-kind nicknames. I remember in college buying bags of candy to hand out while I walked down “The Drag“.
Six years later and I’m still handing out bags to the homeless. Only these have more purpose.
Our missional community {i.e. small group} banded together to make Bags ‘O Grace – large bags filled with water, crackers, canned goods, etc., to hand out when we pass by the homeless. In each bag there is a small note that simply says: Christ Loves You. No tracks. No come-to-our-service invites. Just simply a bag full of grace.
I, personally, haven’t seen any homeless come to Christ because of the bags. But I’ve seen some incredible changes – in my life. And in my kids’ lives. At every intersection, Julia says “Mom, does that man/woman need a bag? Mom give them a bag.” It isn’t always possible – the light changes too soon, or we are too far away. But each time, it opens up conversation. Each time it allows my kids to see a glimpse of grace – giving love when love isn’t earned. It forces me out of my comfort zone to acknowledge the hurting world around me and too find ways {even small} to reach out to them.
What is your bag ‘o grace?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
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Jonathan and I went on our first real “grown up” date Tuesday night. By “grown up” I mean, our sitters {lifelong friend Melinda and her husband Preston} were in control over evening activities and bedtime. Aside from our anniversary trip, we’ve never had someone else put the girls down for bed {read: we’ve never had anyone put super-clinging-Mama’s-girl Hannah to bed}. They did splendid and woke up talking about how much fun they had {Thanks Mel and Preston!}.
Now on to the real adventure. For our date, Jonathan took me to Alamo Drafthouse – a super fun restaurant/theatre.
You have a waiter that serves you food/drinks before and during the show. You write down what you want on a slip of paper and they pick it up as they come by. Despite living in Austin before, I had never been to the Alamo Drafthouse and was super excited. In fact, I was so excited, I wore this:
{Finally, after a year, I post a picture of me in “the dress”.}
We watched The King’s Speech, which was really quite good. But what made the date so much fun {besides just being with Jon} was all the excitement leading up to it. In fact, I blushed just a little when Jon emailed me this: “I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait to be with you…. ALONE!!!!! OMG!!!!! I feel like a teenager!!!!!” Shameless flirting may, or may not, have taken place through the course of the day via email and text. 😉
When we came home, we received great reports on the girls {Hannah cried for a bit right in the beginning but then calmed straight down} that it was the cherry on top of a fabulous night.
Here’s to more “grown up” dates!
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
Blissdom – My Blogging Adventure
Posted on: February 3, 2011
- In: Life
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I’m hosting this week’s Try New Adventures for Alicia. I’m pretty excited because I’ve had so many new adventures in the last week I feel like I could easily spend the next two months sharing them with all of you. But since they all pertain to one big adventure, I thought it best to keep it to a single post.
In the last week I’ve:
1. Shared a hotel room with strangers.
{Me, Christine, Alicia}
Ok, Alicia and Christine aren’t complete strangers. I feel like we’ve formed this really special relationship over the last year. But it was pretty surreal meeting them for the first time ever last week. And I will say this: They are even sweeter in person than they are online. They are wonderful ladies and I just love them!
2. Met my blog crushes: Amanda, Mary, Jill and Ashleigh.
{Me, Mary}
{Me, Amanda}
I was so nervous meeting these ladies. In fact, when I met Jill I completely started stammering {and I only do that when I’m super nervous}. But they calmed my fears completely by being the nicest ladies ever. Seriously incredible.
3. Met Melissa Peterman {A.K.A Barbara Jean}
After Julia was born, I started watching Reba every afternoon. While I can’t vouch for all it’s content, I do love that show. And Barbara Jean {B.J.} is perhaps one of my favorite characters. I suppose I should add, that when I’m super excited to meet someone, if I don’t stammer, I make ridiculous faces. Neither make for a good first impression.
4. Spent four days at a blogging conference.
At Blissdom I learned more than my head could hold. Got pampered with manicures and chair massages. Ate delicious foods. Met amazingly awesome women. Enjoyed time in prayer with fellow Christian bloggers. And had a great time. It was such an amazing adventure and I cherish every moment of it. But once it was over I was grateful to come back to the best adventure I could hope for: being a wife and mother.
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What new adventure did you try this week? We’d love to hear all about it! Link up your blog post below, and link back to Loved Like the Church. Then visit around, see what everyone else has been up to, and leave them some comment love. You can learn more about the idea behind Try New Adventures Thursday here. You can also tweet about your TNAT post on Twitter using the hashtag #TryNewAdventures.
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This week we had the opportunity to go to the circus – which was a first for all of us. Initially, I had some reservations about going; I have mixed feeling about zoos and circuses because of the welfare and treatment of the animals. But, Julia loves animals and probably won’t ever be able to see an elephant or lion this closely. So we decided to go.
Excuse the camera phone quality - We forgot our regular camera
We went with some friends, John, Angela and their little guy, Evan. The girls had a really great time. Julia was in complete awe. Thanks to Angela, we scored some seats center ring right at the bottom, so we had great views of everything. When they brought out the elephant, Julia mouth dropped. It was great.
They also had acrobats who did these amazing {although completely crazy} stunts. At one point in the show there was a woman on this small platform hanging from the ceiling. She had nothing securing her to anything and she did these twists and turns by just holding on to a bar. From the ceiling. Then they had women climbing sheets hanging from the rafters and doing synchronized twists and turns. It was really, really impressive. And really, really crazy. I suppose it’s not crazy – their trained professionals – but I’m probably not going to sign up for acrobatic classes anytime soon.
I’m glad we went, if for no other reason than to see Julia and Hannah’s faces when they saw all the animals and acrobatic tricks. It was a fun family adventure.
Have you ever been to the circus? What did you think?
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday.
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I have always loved animals. Even creepy crawly animals. Ok, ok, maybe I don’t love bugs, but I respect their life cycle and what they are made to do. But with out exception I love, love, love big dogs. Sure, I’ve come across some that are mean, a little scary, but mostly they are just big ole babies.
When we got our dog, Jack, nearly four years ago, I fell in love fast. He was such a cute puppy.
Serious puppy cuteness
Now as a 90 pound lap down {I wish I was joking about the lap dog part} he is such a gentle giant with our girls. Which makes me love him even more. We all still refer to him as “puppy”, though he is clearly not.
As this week’s adventure, I took Jack and the girls to an off leash trail yesterday. It was so much fun, until…
Jack jumped in the creek.
I don’t know if you’ve ever smelled wet dog, but let me tell you, it ain’t good. And since Jack is a “lap dog” that sleeps on our couches and beds, he was in serious need of a bath before I let him roam the house.
Thankfully we have a pretty large tub, and Jack {being the awesome dog he is} actually didn’t put up a fight getting into the tub. He either stood or sat the entire time.
Here he is before his bath:
Not too thrilled, but being a good sport.
He never once tried jumping out and just sat there while the girls and I washed him.
Here he is post bath:
Can you tell he is a little spoiled?
To make up for the trauma, Jack got extra love from the family:
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday and Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
Taking Your Kids To an NBA Game
Posted on: December 30, 2010
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As I mentioned yesterday, we took an impromptu trip to San Antonio this week. As we were heading out of town, Jonathan turns to me and says “Do you want to swing by the AT&T Center?” Now, my friends, that might mean nothing to you. But the AT&T Center is where our beloved Spurs play. I laughed and said “Sure, why not.” Jonathan’s face lit up with shock and excitement. He then asked “Would you want to watch the game if I could get tickets?” Of course! We found parking, discussed what we thought to be a reasonable price for tickets {since we’d already missed the first half}, and Jon went off in search of tickets.
After about 5-10 minutes, Jonathan comes back to the car with these:
I’m not sure what to point out first. The fact that it was a LAKERS game or that we are only TWELVE rows from the court!? I had no idea that we were playing the Lakers. In my little basketball world, the Lakers are my arch nemesis. And to only be 12 rows from the court? Seriously does it get any better?
Actually, it does.
Did you see the price of the tickets? Look really close. $175.35. Not for the pair. Just for one.
I’m sure you’re saying, “Sarah, um, that’s not better.”
But wait for it….
We got the tickets for free.
Free.
This family was coming out of the game and Jonathan asked them where he could buy tickets. They said he could have theirs, since they were leaving for the night.
So, on Tuesday, December 28th, our family went to our first Spurs v. Lakers home game. I hope there are many more to come.
Visit Alicia at Alicia’s Homemaking for more Try New Adventures Thursday and Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
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