words can not describe, but i'll try...

...to write to you about a truly glorious weekend.

in trying to describe it in a nut shell, i could say they swept me away like on the ya-ya sistehood movie...or it is like i was in the secret life of bees movie-living amongst amazing women who love me so much. i love them. they inspire me. each and every single one of them.

of course, for the sake of respect to mr. leif...he is the reason that i invited these 4 AMAZING women came down to see me this past weekend.

you see...he had to stay in st. louis for the weekend because there were some big things going on at his project for work...

and i just couldn't be alone :)

from left to right: my momma, mom(2) (mr. leif's mom), my aunt joan, & my aunt marce

it only makes sense to give you a little preview of my 2 weeks leading up to this weekend...

• 10-12 hour days at work
• at least 2-3 hours of homework at night
• class 2 nights a week
• having to miss bible study because of the previous 3 things
• pretty much a recluse in my own home...and for those of you that know me well, you know that i thrive to be around people, friends, laughing, hanging out, etc.

so, based on those details...i was about 87.3% ready to 'throw in the towl', yep ready to either quit my job or quit my masters degree...me a quitter?? not usually...but that was about to be the reality of my response to the overload of stress.

i only share that with you because i have to say that after these 4 women left on sunday...i felt like i had been swept off of my feet and taken to some sunny island for a retreat. yes, they listened to me, gave me advice, and loved me.

moving on.

this is my momma.to say we connected so well this weekend would be an understatement. she and i are so alike. we knew this. but it was made clear throuhgout the whole weekend that we are...

'like mother-like daughter'

• she drives fast - i drive fast
• she loves music and is mesmorized by a good piano man - music is my passion
• she loves to sing, out loud - i love to sing out loud, with a pretend microphone too
• she is fond of red wine - i am totally a wino as well
• she is never home and always on the go - i am in more clubs, organizations, bible studies, masters classes then i can count on 1 hand
• she likes ice cream - i like ice cream
• she is competitive - i am competitive
• she likes to have a good time - i love me a good time
  

friday...

we started it off on friday night by going to thomas.

our night quickly progress into deep discussion...food...wine...and of course picking out music. i didn't realize my momma(2) was this into music too! she totally rocked on picking out playlist after playlist for....

the guy below, the piano man at thomas :)

see, told you my mom is mesmorized by music. she had to watch those keys move!

around midnight we headed home to my big sissy.
i know i know...you are thinkin, "what??? she flew in from san diego with little gingie!?!?"

nope. sad face.

we skyped with her....into the weeee hours of the morning :)!!!!!

all five of us sprawled out on my bed ooooing and ahhhhhhhing over little chub chub :)

i miss my sissy so much.

saturday.

a 2:30 lunch at hoolihans.

yep at 2:30 we finally left the house...

we totally slumber partied it up and lounged around all moring in our pj's.......eating mom's bran muffins :)

after hoolihans...it was on to parkville!

such a cute town, and only 15 minutes away!

although i am not this crazy fanatic western fan...(my bff amanda is...kinda)...i truly fell in love with spagetti western. go on. click that link...it isn't the store's website but it takes you to some one else's rad blog...and you see more about this crazy amazing store.
it's filled with vintage western type stuff. and it is cool. so very cool. and it is cheap. me like cheap.

my momma got the cutest vintage dress, $6 and $10 for gingie, and marce snagged a coon hat for baby hudson!!!!

ok, look close in this picture...see the lady with the red vest? that's the owner. she is so neat. her husband is a bass guitarist in a band...and once a month they open their shop up and block of the street in front for a huge concert...and supposedly it's loads of fun.

can't wait!

i may or may not have gotten a FAB piece of furniture from this store...
it could be green...and totally antiquish/vintagish....
have i mentioned yet how much i love my aunts and mom(s)....oh, i do i do i do.

moving on...

...with 2 new grammies on our hands (momma and aunt marce) we could NOT simply miss out on this cute store...i prefer to call it a vintage store (although its not vintage, it just sounds better then 'used' items)

never-the-less....i am a queen of used items. my hosue is filled with them.

re-use / recycle baby. although, i am not as passionate, whoops, about the recyling part.

see them!?!??!? immensely searching for the perfect buy... or should i say buy(s) :)
heather...you should go here! i will take you! colette, you are coming with us!
while the grammies were getting their toy-purchasing fix, my mom(2) and aunt joan headed over to this sweet wine house.

we had a cute little nook upstairs. wine and cheese, and a fabulous german beer was consumed...oh yeah, and some deep conversation :)
and guess what.
this was the place that mr. leif took me to for our 3 year anniversary when he popped the supprise of "hey baby pack your bags, we are goin to puerto rico in 3 days."
did you know i love mr. leif? i do i do i do

back to the city...
from there, we fufilled the lingering question of "how amazing is this chocolate bag that you are raving about lindsey?...yep. we headed to mccormick and schmicks
marce got salmon. cold and pink. marce and i share the same pallet, so you can probably imagine the laughs we had over her non-salivating mouth as this came out. don't worry the others are not picky and it was devoured :)
behold. (a very bad picture of) the chocolate bag...
and then you break it all up and eat it. heaven to the tongue. totally.
and ok, so the following 3 pictures i couldn't leave out...i thought it would be the perfect glimpse for you, my readers, to see and understand the rest of our amazing evening we had back at my house... :)

sunday...

ok.....so even though this post is becoming ginormous, i can't scrimp on sunday. i have been typing thean backspacing, then typing then backspacing because i don't know how to describe the beauty of our church. so i am just going to say Oak Hills is amazing. i can't not share with you some of the amazing things we walked away from church with. and the grace-filled moment in it, was that everything pastor russ preached was fufilling our deep conversations that we were having throughout the weekend. God works in mysterious ways, ey?!?!

taken straight from pastor russ:

• "There is an ongoingness to the Lord’s provision in our lives that assures us that He has more than enough to meet our needs. But with that comes another pledge that He will not give it to us all at once. He gives us what we need when we need it." so....“When you pray, say… ‘Give us each day our daily bread’” (Luke 11:2-3)
• and he quoted Piper...“Today's mercies are not designed to carry tomorrow's burdens. There will be mercies tomorrow for that. Today's mercies are for today's burdens. The strength to live tomorrow will be given tomorrow, not today. And it will be given. Our task today is not to have the strength needed for tomorrow's burdens. Our task today is to live by the mercies given for today, and to believe that there will be new mercies for tomorrow. Today's mercies do not include strength for tomorrow; they include faith that tomorrow's unseen mercies will be sufficient for tomorrow.”
• " Even more, God opposes this. When we pray, “God, load me up today for all the burdens and pain I’m going to face this year,” what are we after? Control? Independence? Self-confidence? God
  doesn’t want controlling, independent self-confidence to be your strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. He has something much more wonderful and sufficient in mind for you—the steadfast love of the Lord which never ceases and His mercies which never end, but instead are new every morning. It is a mercy in itself that He calls you to a life of daily dependence upon Him, lest you forget you needed Him in the first place."

amen. and amen.

thank you momma, mom(2), aunt joan, and aunt marce. i love you....see you feb 26th??? hehehe

on my fridge...

there are some things that make me smile.

espinaca dip?!!? mi gusta :)

baby Grant ....by the way, his 1st bday party is this saturday.......eeeeeeek 1 already!?!?!?!

i heart his momma :)

mr. leif and i on at our wedding rehearsal dinner.......fun night.

and even funner the next day ;) i like saying funner.

my favorite verse ;)

charlotte's sock that got stuck in my suitcase the last time i was in san diego. yep, it too is dangling from my fridge. i see it every day. it makes me smile. i am not mailing it back to them.

hehe.

i heart her momma too.

yay!!!!!!! our woman's retreat. SUCH a fun time. totally. can't wait

oh, and this isn't on our fridge, but it's a picture of me skyping with charlotte. holy cow i could just eat her. but in a good way. can't resist the cuteness.

girl, put your planner down...

a dear, sweet, long distance friend of mine said some magical words to me a couple nights ago...
"girl, put your planner down!"

you see, she could distinctly remember many monday afternoons while we were in college, when i was already asking her what we should do that weekend.
yep, only hours after the previous weekend had ended, i was already wanting to plan our next social endeavors for the coming weekend.


you might be asking how we stumbled upon talking about me needing to put my planner down....or you might not be, but i intend to explain anyways.

you see, (that's the second time i've said you see, whuuup there's the third!) i was doing my usual rambling. i ramble when i get the loaded question of, "so how's everything going?" somehow, that question prompts me to spill my ever-so-long-never-ending list of life goals/plans.

so....... i unloaded. i spilled that i am sick of grad school, and getting bored with my job, well not really bored, just overwhelmed with being the school counselor for 450+ students and trying to please all the teachers too, that i miss mr. leif, but that may will be here before we know it and he will be back home, that i plan to finish this degree by next december, that i want to somehow make it my goal to visit each of my students' houses next year because you learn so much about a child from how their family conducts their home, and that i want to visit my sis again, and ... and ... and ... somewhere she blurted out, "girl, put your planner down!"

say what???

she kindly and lovingly explained herself, and, in a nut shell, she pretty much told me to start being and stop doing. just live in the moment a little more....
i love it, and i love her.

ps......i may or may not have made a list tonight and got my planner out 3 times.
but. you gotta start somewhere right?!!!?

our house is like......

almost freaky right now.

i mean, seriously. check out my view as i peer through about 86.7% of the windows in our house...

ahhhhhhhhhhhh............icicles are e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e

(ps. i am not sure how to spell it, icicles or icycles??)

(pps. i am to lazy to look it up on dictionary.com or spell check in micro word)

(ppss. i am assuming since it is not some sort of device with a wheel, like bicycle or tricycle, that it is spelled icicle. but you can totally check me on that assumption.)

i asked mr. leif about them and the danger to our house and our gutters

(or my head when i walk outside and might just get totally stabbed).

of course, he had some long, very smart sounding, answer.

but, because. i was stalking this blog, while he was explaining, i only recall snippets of something about our insulation or letting heat out or......heck, i don't really remember what he said. so............i guess iwill conlcude that icicles are nothing more the one of the most beautiful things God has created ;)

oh yeah, and yesterday i had a snow day. yep! no work for me! it was such a great day :) i can really see myself as a stay at home wife. i slept in, visited a friend and her new baby, went to the gym, went to the grocery store, did some laundry, baked cookies, ate 5 and 1/2 cookes, and then had the other 1/2 of a cookie, and then i made mr. leif dinner.

he likes it when i cook for him, he is always the 'cooker' in the house. i usually mess up and get frustrated, but lately i have been really comin out of my shell in terms of cooking.....

speaking of shells..........

i made stuffed shells for din din.

i got the recipe from this site, and added some ground turkey and a yellow onion, and of course loaded these suckers with way more cheese than called for ;)

ok, off to wake my sleeping prince from his saturday afternoon nap!

a little somethin for my wall...

...a craft project by mr. leif and i

yes, he did help!!!

he likes to check my work and make sure i'm doing things even, etc.

....although i am more of an uneven kind of gal

...the vintage/rustic/made by me look is what i like

...but we do work together quite well....i respect his help :)

pinwheels done.

time to paint my board and add the wheelies :)

tadaa!

when i finally decided to do this project, i realized it was quite quick and easy!

capture it...

so i got a new camera.

so i was in san diego.

so i was surrounded by adorableness.

so my sissy thought she was lady gaga.

because she started singing the papparazzi song.

because i took so. many. pictures.

so here are some of them.

i have a lot to learn. but i'm havin fun...
besides...how could you not take rad pictures...when you are capturing this cute fam?? hello??? absolute cuteness. amen.