Happy Halloween

vest: old navy  shirt: american eagle  leggings: jcpenny  boots: kohls

This is my ideal comfy outfit for a chilly Fall day, like today.  Tonight I will be spending my evening sitting on my couch, eating Chris' delicious chili, watching Survivor, and greeting the one adorable trick or treater we'll get. 

Despite yesterday's post, I wasn't a total Halloween scrooge this year. 

This year I found out we were going to a costume party the morning of, so I had about 2 hours after work to figure out a costume.  Thanks to a borrowed hat and shirt from my sister-in-law and the Target dollar spot for some big glasses, I was Where's Waldo?

Now if only I could control Chris' costume choice.  I will happily say I didn't have anything to do with his costume, as he chose to be some annoying character from South Park. Which I am the farthest from a fan of.  But I am impressed with his robot making ability.  

Maybe once I have kids I'll be able to control what costumes they are.  At least for a few years, right?

Happy Halloween!

Abbrevs

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dress: target (recent clearance)  boots: dsw (similar)  scarf: ? 

First let's acknowledge my need for a haircut and color.  

Well it's only going to get worse because my appointment isn't until November 8th. 

Second I've attempted pattern mixing again and am much happier with the result this time. 

And third I think it's time to talk about my dislike for certain words and phrases.

I have a pretty large hatred toward a handful of them.

Two of them being "reimbursement" and "it's all relative."

And I guarantee I'm not alone in my need to cringe when I hear the word "moist."

But I also have a dislike for abbreviations.

Now I will have to say when I saw the episode on Happy Endings where one of the characters uses all kinds of abbreviations and calls them abbrevs I thought it was pretty funny.

Okay really funny.

But the daily use of them in real life.  I am not a fan.

When I read blog posts that make me laugh I sometimes think about writing LOL but just can't bring myself to do it.

I feel the same way about the words cray-cray or adorbs or delish.

I do have to say there may be about three people that I've seen that can pull these off and I am not one of them.  

And lastly I should be embarrassed to admit that I spend too much time deciding if I should center my text or put on the left.  I wish I was just j/k. 

Blessings and Curses

jacket: old navy (similar)   shirt: tjmaxx (similar)  tee: target  

Do you ever read something insightful, hear good advice or encouragement and kind of wish you didn't hear it because you know it applies directly to you? 

Because sometimes it is really hard to believe and live out that advice. 

That is how I've been feeling after I read the book Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequiest. 

I had read this book awhile ago and wanted to read it again, as I felt like it would be applicable during this stage in my life.  And I was right. 

In a chapter about blessings and curses, Shauna writes about a friend's hardships and how it seemed like God was being cruel that year, but how she knew that he was not. 

"What I know now is that his (God's) kindness burns through the deepest betrayals and invites life from death every chance we let him.  There are things the explode into our lives and we call them curses, and then one day, a year later or ten years later, we realize that they are actually something else.  They are the most precious kinds of blessings." 

I find myself many mornings having a mini pity party for myself as I have started a new round of fertility treatments. 

My mornings involve lots of different medicines and my breaks at school involve insurance phone calls and dr. appointments, my blog rolls and facebook feeds are filled with pregnancy updates and announcements and my thoughts are constantly filled with anxiousness and uncertainty for the future. 

There are many days I look at this current place I'm in and feel as though it isn't fair.  

And it is easier to be upset and annoyed at this place where God has me.  

But I have a choice daily. 

". . . but more often than not, there is something just past the heartbreak, just past the curse, just past the despair and that thing is beautiful.  You don't want it to be beautiful, at first. You want to stay in the pain and the blackness because it feels familiar, and because you're not done feeling victimized and smashed up.  But one day you'll wake up surprised and humbled, staring at something you thought for sure was a curse and has revealed itself to be a blessing - a beautiful, delicate, blessing." 

While I can see some blessings that have come from this trial, I have yet to see this season of our life as beautiful, but I am waiting.  I know some day I will get there and that gives me hope. 

While I fail all the time, I am working on this daily. 

 Daily choosing to accept this place where God has me, and daily searching for the blessings in all this.