on a happy note...

i'm going to be a mermaid saturday night...
and mr. leif's gonna be my fisherman.


.....
post-edit.....
.....

my fisherman :) with quinn, i mean MARIO!

well lookythere, it's ariel? the little mermaid?

and a shroom! she must be mario's wife :)

the waters rise...

this song sums up how i feel. kinda.

i find myself thinking, “when’s it coming?” i often wonder when i will face a horribly scary struggle, one that tests my faith and builds perseverance, like we are told here: James 1:2-4.

but i know now, that i am in a storm. a raging sea. he is in st. louis and i am here. it's hard and it's wearing on me. overflowing joy used resonate in my daily life. it's often easier to ignore it and go on with life, seeming happy to those around me. being successful at work and in school is how i can create a mask. but i want to write about it. so thanks for listening.

the waters keep rising and i fall deep into this battle with staying happy while he's gone. stay posititive. but it's so wearing. he is my best friend, my kindred spirit. he listens to my hopes, my dreams, my complaints, my jokes, and now i have all of those million thoughts in my mind everyday and only the only thing I come home to are the spiders :)

what a weird season in my life.
i’ve never lived alone.
i know i am not truly alone.

when i listen to this song i am comforted.

He will never let go…my soul overflows with the love He has for me and it fills me with hope.
so, as i continue to swim…….i think i just need to turn over and do the back float for a while. to rest. to admit that life's hard right now.

in the mean time…….i suppose i can talk to my laundry and blast amazing music like the david crowder band and mike’s chair.

...

it is nice getting my thoughts typed down. i like this.

hello hobby lobby, i haven't seen you in a while...

just a sneak peak

...at a fun little crafty idea that i am currently pursuing :)

i will be sure to post the finished product!!

p.s.

while i've been slaving away folding, gluing, cutting....

mr. leif has been tackling his own project outdoors, our chimney. whooooooofta. this chimney needed some work, so he is breaking away all the old cracked stucco and replacing it with some new stucco....yikes, look at those old bricks behind there!!!

change of plans...

i am not too much of a routine girl...i like to be more random. i do love to plan and be organized, but i don't necessarily need routine...it makes me bored.

however...

i was supposed to visit mr. leif at his jobsite for the weekend, to see the site, his pad (appartment), and to possibly venture into st. louis for some fun. but, there was a change of plans. he is coming home tonight instead.

it's nice for him to come.

to verbalize what he is going through, i think he still needs to 'come home' to feel like his work is his work, and not his whole life. so we will do the regular friday night hangout, fill our day on saturday with random things, and on sunday we will do church and our usual yummy breakfast/brunch somewhere cozy :)

routine is good, ey?

for mr. leif, yes. and if that brings him home to me, then i welcome routine with open arms.

he will be home in 2 HOURS!!!

so i am speeding over to hy-vee to get ingredients to make some pasta, garlic bread, and an apple pie...i hope he likes the aroma of a yummy dinner when he walks in the door!!!

this morning, i woke up to this

a beautiful view outside of my window

as i looked into our backyard

fall...the leaves have definitely started to!!!

We have these really big, beautiful trees....

in our front yard, the side yard, and the back yard...
the leaves have started to fall...

mr. leif thinks we should wait until they all fall...ya know, so we don't have to rake the whole yard mutliple times, just do it all at once...

but he changed his mind and we did some raking this afternoon :)

lots of big piles!

i totally thought we needed to jump into at least one pile.

mr. leif did not.

it was a beautiful day.

but then he had to leave :(

normally he leaves monday morning. but this week he left on sunday, boo.

good news though, i am going to visit him in st. louis next weekend! yay.

baby it's cold outside...but not too cold for a day at the park

our church is lovely.

one of the best things, other than it being completely Bible believing and totally consumed with the grace of God, is that we always have so many fun things going on. this past sunday, we had our annual tailgate party and flag football game. despite the chilly conditions, we had quite the group show up for a delish bbq, some great flag football, &total fun hang-out time.

i didn't have my cam cam for pics...but check out the fun for yourself!!!

we know how to rock it out, oak hills style....

PS...

.... and update from flag football....we found out this morning (10/18/09) in church that the person who had a 'run in' with mr. leif during the game, actually broke 2 ribs. whoops. he felt bad, but i suppose one can't help being so competitive, huh? :) in mr. leif's defense, they ran into each other and it was no one's fault, complete accident!!! hehehehe....wear pads next year???!

someone came to visit.

she did. that's celia. my little new zealander...

we had a fabulous time going to...

wine night with the ladies at spin pizza, yum and fun. did you know that you can take your own wine to spin, and they uncork it for just a buck? yep, it creates quite the lovely evening: wine.pizza.friends. book club at coco's was next, and on this night ce got to meet some of my KC besties! and silly me, i forgot my cam cam, so i wasn't able to snap.

what's a friend reunion without movies on the couch? a 'night in' fostered some good chat time, and ice cream of course...well someone hadn't ever tried sheridan's frozen custard...so i had to introduce her :)

then the weekend came. mr. leif came home (smiles). and we had fun, the three of us :)

did i say we had fun? because we did :)

next was saturday, it was lovely.

our morning was spent at the farmer's market, getting some lovelies to put on the grill. also, i bought 3 pumpkins. and 2 gourds. yay. i like how they look on my front steps.
yum, fresh, beautiful
spices anyone? friends, me and her.

and what's a weekend with a long lost friend, without creating at least one inside joke...

"bet you girls can't do a back flip!"