my favorite things about our town.

here is a list of some of the things that i love about tuscaloosa. it has been an adjustment moving to such a small town after growing up outside atlanta, but lately i have truly felt like this is home! (that might have something to do with buying a house...)

the arboretum. the old golf course turned into nature preserve with walking trails with a lake.

tuscaloosa ampitheater. very cool venue by the river.

weekend special at tazikis. 

my heart will always be with our old townhouse and the rest of the tornado victims.

one other thing that i love about tuscaloosa is the campus. the quad is gorgeous and i love heading to campus every day and talking with students about having a relationship with God!

happy birthday blog!

this weekend our blog celebrated it's first birthday!
how fast does a year go by...? i have really enjoyed blogging, it's kept me motivated to try new recipes and take more pictures.

here are some memories i captured on the blog this past year:

who could forget millie versus the butter. i still laugh when i think about this.

i love my chair re-do. and thankful we saved her after the storm!

these chicken philly sandwiches were amazing. healthy? prob not...

one of my favorite crafts was my lima bean wreath...before it fell and broke into a million pieces.

we were blessed with a white Christmas here in the south. i bet it was my first one.

we took a group of student to new york city for spring break for a missions trip. such a fun week in the city.

i pretty much forgot millie's first birthday.

then of course there was the tornado with lots of posts dedicated to that.

and the exciting news of buying our first home!

i am so thankful for each and every one of you who keeps up with our lives through this blog. i really enjoy sharing life with you and will continue to blog about what's going on here in alabama!

fruit dip.

i had some friends over this week and wanted to have a little treat for them. so i picked up some fresh fruit and make this fantastic fruit dip!

the recipe is super easy too:

8oz. frozen whipped topping

7oz. marshmallow fluff

8 oz. cream cheese

vanilla extract (maybe about 1 teaspoon or so)

then mix them all together. i used my hand mixer and it turned out perfectly.

i got my fruit from the grocery store, but i am so excited to go to the farmer's market soon. i just have to mentally prepare myself for an early morning...not sure if i am ready for that :)

Linking up to:

Serenity Now Blog

what i'm pinning

i love pinterest. especially my iphone app.

i get the majority of my crafts/idea/recipes from other people...now that i stalk pinterest i feel more crafty.

first up is this yummy recipe for potato chips and ranch dressing. i think it's healthy too, that's just bonus!

Source: foodformyfamily.com via Alana on Pinterest

remember my post about our salvaged stump. i found inspiration!

Source: tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

gorgeous!

this is a cute idea i've seen floating around pinterest. my mom saved the paper from our wedding day, we need to do this one!

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

we grabbed a couple windows from our old house, i would love to do something fun like this! taking suggestions for other ideas on how to use 'em.

Source: tinywhitedaisies.tumblr.com via Alana on Pinterest

show me your pinterest inspirations and follow me!

crazed dog.

this weekend i began a little craft project. it involved me using the hose in the backyard to get said project ready.

it was torture for millie to be inside while i was having fun outside, so we let her out. BIG mistake.

i have never seen her so fascinated by something. she stood in front of the hose and "ate" water until she was almost sick. after over-indulging in water she sprinted around the yard for over 10 minutes as i worked.

of course she was ready to pass out after all that activity. she decided this was this best place...of course.

the best part of her being out of control..? a sleepy dog the rest of my saturday afternoon.

i recounted this story to my mom and she reminded me of millie's adventure under the deck. what a trouble maker.

exciting craft project to come...as soon as i finish :)

someone's obsessed.

it's pretty obvious from this blog, justin and i love our dog [and the fact i bought a journal with her face] we talk about her way too much and spoil her like a kid. sometimes she is even sitting in my lap as i blog...she is 50 pounds.

i know that she loves us too. see these pictures i snapped of her while justin was cutting the front yard.

she even walked further down the window sill...what a dare devil.

1. love her. and hubs for cutting our massive (to us) front yard.

2. we need window treatments, badly.

3. excited to finish unpacking/putting together furniture this weekend.

customized journal.

have you ever heard of paper coterie?

me neither! but they had a fantastic coupon code [and still do]
so i decided to get justin and i both journals...all i had to do was pay for shipping.

i knew justin wouldn't want a journal with his face on it, so i put a picture of the next best thing.

millie! and they come in this cute box pictured above.

it turned out even more precious that i expected and they are both super great quality. there are lots of other options on the site, go check it out, use your coupon code and get something special!

plus i just head that coterie donated their resources to put together this cookbook that benefits the Red Cross....all proceeds go to help the victims of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. even better reason to support them :)

painting.

last weekend my parents came to see our house and help us paint. so thankful for their help and little tips to help us along the way.

the "formal" living and dining room was a dingy green [or blue based on where you were standing]. praise the Lord for previous owners leaving their leftover paint from the other living area. we painted this entire room for free....except for the cost of primer and have enough to paint the hallway. 

double score.

the boys priming. made a huge difference.

welp, i guess i didn't get an after pic. but it looks great, trust me. i'm sure i will post lots of pictures once we get everything set up!

next up was the guest bedroom that was a little too purple for our tastes. i was way too excited to get that color outta here to take any pictures.

again, the previous owners left paint that matched the other bedroom [now justin's office] so of course we were going to use it...not sure the official name but it's a great color!

the color isn't as dark as this picture makes it look.

next up, the hallway. it's all primed and ready for a coat of paint...i'm glad or i am sure we would procrastinate on this task.

friends.

our friends joel and kitty stopped by on their way home from spending time with family and friends in mississippi. they work for campus crusade for Christ at the university of south carolina and we got to know them this summer at Greek Summit. we were excited to see them for a couple of days!!

they brought us the cutest housewarming gifts!

you might not be able to read the small writing, but it is our favorite verse. psalm 34:3 "glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together"

how precious is this? kitty made it!

we spent the day showing them around tuscaloosa and some of the areas damaged by the tornado. you might think we are terrible people, but we walked around the devastation and grabbed wood to craft. they were going to bulldoze the stuff anyway, we wanted to repurpose it!

on another note, i saved this stump. i want to use it for a side table...anyone have tips or a link on how to do this? :)

that night justin and joel decided they were going to build a fence in the backyard. at first i was skeptical, but they did a fantastic job! it looks amazing & now millie can run around outside.

while the boys were putting together the fence, kitty, another friend sherry and i hit up almost every single furniture/consignment/thrift store in town. 

we found one major score...a dining room table. it works perfect in our dining area and now we actually have a place to sit and eat without millie breath on us.

so thankful for good friends like joel and kitty. they encourage us to seek the Lord in deeper ways and continue to wrestle with what it means to follow Him with everything!

read her post on their visit!

moving is tiring...

we have been in our house for a little over a week.

moving, unpacking and organizing is exhausting. even little millie thinks so....

will be back this week updating you on all the fun projects and visitors we've had so far.

so blessed to have our house and blown away by the generosity of others!

it's official...

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS

whoop, whoop

please don't steal my fingerprints from this picture... :)

justin and i got the all clear this afternoon to head into our house, so we immediately hopped in the car to our new home!

we are so thankful to have our own space after a summer full of transition! we appreciate your prayers, gifts and love during this journey.

welcome!

the kitchen cabinets are getting repainted and will be hung tomorrow.

the main living room.

i am not the best at taking room shots, they are harder than they appear...

taken from the breakfast nook area, this is the dining area and 

another living room we will use as formal study

we are so blessed by God to find this house, we look forward to furnishing the entire house as we find furniture and other items. i can't wait to start crafting/sewing/etc in my laundry room [which is huge, i love it] and justin has the third bedroom as his office!

we are excited to move everything in tomorrow!!

mary's mountain cookies

i almost forgot to post about these amazing treats we had in fort collins.

we spent our sunday walking around old town, eating, shopping, and going to church...pretty much my perfect day.

after dinner we were craving something sweet, so we stopped in mary's cookie store.

look at these precious cookies...mine was two chocolate chip cookies with cookie dough in the middle. justin's was chocolate chip cookies with vanilla buttercream icing.

to die for. and oh-so-sweet.
neither of us could finish ours, so we saved them for breakfast. breakfast of champions.

national staff conference.

the main reason we went out to colorado was our biannual staff conference with Campus Crusade for Christ.

during our trip we got to hear from our leadership on various topics, mainly CCC's name change. if you haven't heard, Campus Crusade for Christ is going to be re-named "Cru" in the US. justin and i are both truly excited about this new name as Campus Crusade had negative connotations and no longer accurately described the ministry...we have ministries for families, military, professionals and many other contexts around the nation.

as i mentioned before, we were also blessed to hear from francis chan, david platt and other Christian leaders. if you are interested you can watch some of the videos on the US Staff Conference website.
Campus Crusade celebrated it's 60th anniversary while we were out there, it was truly a blessing to see how God has used the ministry during those years.

there is something special to be surrounded by 5000 people that have the same mission as you, to bring glory to God and introduce others to Jesus in their ministry focus.

during the conference we had a few sessions with everyone who does campus ministry, including professors, college ministry [like justin and i] as well as high school ministry. one segment was dedicated to real stories, ones that were tough and hurt to tell. justin did a great job sharing about our story and what God has brought us through these past three months.

[sorry the picture isn't the best, i still haven't mastered my camera...]

we loved our time in colorado and are excited to get everything started back up in the fall!