breakfast club

i've been so blessed lately with the Lord giving me some real amazing friends...we created this awesome group called the breakfast club (b/c we LOVE the movie, there are 5 of us, and we're all kids of the 80s!) i think the Lord has brought them into my life at just the right time, especially in light of all that I am going through with learning how to not shop, all the things behind my hiding and how that has effected my life. i'm so thankful for them. i know that i have not shared all the depths of my soul...but isn't that what the journey is for? isn't that what life is for? time...friendship deepening and growing? i know that i have so much more to say and i know that it is so hard for me to always share...but i'm so thankful for these women who hang out, stick in there with me and love me as i share my heart, or listen to their heart. they are a gift and i love them.
michele, chrissie, julie (audrey too!) and gina (even though you we not able to make to today), i really love spending time with you and am so glad the Lord has given you to me at this time in my life. I hope i can be as much a blessing to you as you are to me.

outside the box

so...i don't know if any folks are checking out my other blog (which i think this weekend i'll just move to this one...in an effort to simplify my life) about not shopping...but i'm constantly amazed that most of the time, i've not really missed shopping (for clothes, shoes, jewelry, frames, etc..). i just wish i had a few more white t-shirts...because this blog (http://mymamamadeit.blogspot.com/) is A.MAZ.ING! she and i would be soul mates. at least in regards to all things JCrew and Anthropologie. She looks at the catalogues and takes their ideas and re-creates them in clothes that she already has. She's my hero right now in my no shopping experiment life. it's giving me new ideas and new life for old things. hopefully this weekend i'll have some time to work on some fun ideas i got off her blog and that the clothing exchange night i have planned with friends (where we all bring clothes that we don't wear any longer but that are in good condition, we exchange) will provide some more fun items for me to take and re-create!

i've become such an outside of the box thinker in regards to all things in our life...food and food prep...clothing for our family...cleaning supplies...all in an effort to stick within our budget...and praise the Lord-we are doing okay.

if only our transmission and coolant in our accord would hop on board and not be broken : ( i wish i could think outside of the box on that one!

how are you thinking outside the box? they say the recession is over...but how can we continue to be good stewards of what we have in plenty and in want? i know that this season in our life and taught me more than i thought...but i don't think i'd ever change where we are at right now. i wish the debt was gone, but i also know that the Lord has used this to re-orient our minds and marriage to think about each purchase, down to the soap we use. do we need this? do we already have this at home? can we share, give, exchange or borrow to fulfill a need we have?

as always, thanks for listening to my processing...please comment and let me know how you are thinking outside the box...and i'll show you the jewelry and shirts i re-create hopefully sometime next week...i'm going to take advantage of my evenings and instead of watching lame TV shows (except the office and 30 rock!) i'm going to sew and make things...i'll let you know how it goes!

A.MAZ.ING

Okay...a kind gentleman in one of my 709 classes mentioned that he loved Chicago style pizza. I quickly said, "Ryan LOVES that...someplace called Gioda...Gierido...something like that" He quickly said, "oh yeah...that place is epic. I found a place out here....you gotta try it!"

long story short...this said pizza place is none other than Tony's Little Italy on the corner of Bastenchury and Placentia...across the street from our elementary school and down the street from my in laws house!! this deep dish pizza was EPIC! perfection! the perfect consolation for our car breaking down (yeah...our accord finally lost it's transmission and also has a crack in the radiator or coolant crack or something....Lord-please provide!)

So...I swept my hubby and kiddos into the car and with $22 in my pocket, we got a medium deep dish pizza with cheese, pep and pinapple. i brought two apple juice boxes, a bag of carrots to split for the kids (just so in my mind, they somehow get a more rounded meal) and ry and i split a coke and spent $22 (including tip!) yahoo!!

www.tonyslittleitaly.com

1808 N Placentia Ave
Placentia, CA 92870-2300
(714) 528-2159

GO!

fixin...

so...thought i'd change up the blog a bit...give it an autumn feel...i just wish the weather was following as well!!

i'm soo behind on uploading photos...sorry fam and friends. here are some from the weekend get away to our annual fall family festival with the Stumps and Daus...it was sooo fun! the blog design is actually inspired by my friend michele who LOVES owls : )

how are you celebrating fall?

katrina and her pumpkin

this amazingly talented (and sort of awkward) family who sings old barn-ish kind of music

lunch at the barn

three of the five girls that we now have in our group!! (note the skirts, i made them for all the girls...it's a scarecrow fabric (thanks heath!) and some other coordinating fabric from the hoopers...i made 5 skirts for FREE! to celebrate fall. what else was i going to do with a couple yards of cute scarecrow fabric??!

i LOVE that will is wearing ry's hat and his hand is just on his chin...i love my two men!

the girls posing in front of an old mirror...

dunno what she's smiling about as i captured this...maybe just the fact that she was with her bff's all weekend? ah...i love emmy's smile!!

bedtime storytime before the sleepovers begin...thankfully all kids were tuckered out and fell asleep FAST both nights...thank you GOD!

Tree climbing...

Arts and crafts...

Corn maze on the first day we got there...we all did it, i just thought the photo of will and ry was cute. they made it all the way through

could ellie BE any cuter?

oh man...these ladies are going to break some hearts someday!!

it's been a while....

How we felt upon dropping off both kids to school....Ry:Stoked, Aly: Sad....


Grandma Linda and Will in his classroom on his first day of school



Ms. Monica and Will (monica is his preschool teacher....A.MA.ZING lady!)

Em at her desk starting her first day of kindergarten!!

Could this backpack BE any bigger??!!

sorry!! it's been a while...like a month-ish!! here is an update in brief with photos:
Em started full day kindergarten...big deal!! I think we are still adjusting to that schedule. She is learning SOOO much! I'm so proud of her....

William started preschool and turned 4!!!...in fact I need to pick him up in about 20m! HE LOVES it! I LOVE seeing him bounce off to see his friends with his backpack on. They are all such fans of each other (all his little buddies!) I just love it. He is such is own person and I love seeing that come out more and more.

I am teaching at Talbot this fall. I have four groups of classes facilitating mentorship. It's challenging and fulfilling all in the same vein. and oh...i turned 35!

Ry is just working here at Biola right now for the moment. I say that because he had two jobs for a bit, but we left that job to free up more time for us to find what is next, but we just don't know if we can live on his salary alone (I barely make anything and i have no clue what i'm going to have in terms of classes next semester, so we can't totally depend on me quite yet, someday soon i hope!) so we are praying and considering him getting another job...we'll see and keep you posted.

we'd appreciate your prayers...it has been quite a few months, especially this month. as we face some rough waters, we are ever reminded that a surrendered life in Christ is not always the easiest road, but the road we must take towards being transformed into his likeness. if you want a more indepth look at our journey/my journey....check out:
http://www.conversantlife.com/alyssalow

until next post...
aly for the lows