road tripping

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Tomorrow morning, very very early, Adam and I will be embarking on a 21 hour road trip to Massachusetts.  We are both so excited to see his family and to be able to spend time with them! They have lots of fun plans for us including a day trip to New York City on Wednesday :)

We are also going to see Wicked on Broadway that night!!  so excited.  I also plan to eat a hot dog, and a pretzel in New York while we are there (both from vendors).

Needless to say, it may be a couple of days before I can post again, depending on when and where we can get internet  connection on the road.  We plan to break our driving up in two days with a night in either Ohio or Pennsylvania.

I have not packed a single thing yet, and Adam has challenged me to make at least 15 mixed CD's for the road.  Fun Fun!!

I'll be back with road trip photos as soon as I can :)

I love you all!

xo

janel

reading...

So, our next step while we wait for our Home Study Visits (after vacation) is to read, read, read.  We were given a list of suggested books that pertain to adoption.  We have to have  a list of these in our file.  There is a section on Open Adoptions, Adoption Issues, International Adoptions, and Biracial/Transracial Adoptions.  Fortunately, we have read a lot of the books on the list but the ones that we haven't we ordered.  

(We do have a 20 hour drive coming up this weekend)

Here are some of the books that we have read:

and we also made a list of all of the children's books that we have for our children about adoption...

I personally, have read all of these :)  I love children's books...like love.

If you have any suggestions on adoption books for parents or children or even family members I would love to hear them.

If you need some recommendations for these kinds of books, these were all pretty great.

Back to reading!!

xo

janel

a labor of love...

Well my friends, this has been a long time coming...

Our Home Study Application is DONE!!!

40 pages later...this lovely application is ready to be handed in.

We have been so blessed to be working with such an amazing social worker.

She is really helping us progress on the right track with our adoption so far.

We are turning our application and contract in tomorrow.

Since Adam and I are leaving for Massachusetts and New York this Saturday, we will start our Home Study visits the week we get back.

Please keep Adam and I and our future baby in your prayers through this process. 

Things are finally moving forward and I want to give all of the glory to God.

We are really really excited.

xo

janel

crafty day

Last week my sister, my aunt and I had a fun fun day of making copper enameled earrings.  These earrings are simple and beautiful and it only takes a few hours to crank out a lot of pairs.  I made mine to send to blogger friends who I don't get to see very much.

Here are some photos of the tools, and the process.

Enjoy!

And here are some shots of the finished products!

What do you think?

We had a lot of fun and made a lot of beautiful things.

xo

janel

so far...

Remember this little project list for July?

Here is what I have accomplished so far:

1.  This cute little art piece with a heart around Adam's city in Massachusetts and a heart around my city in Missouri. love it.

2.  This is my favorite.  These are keys from the two places Adam and I have lived together so far.  We will hopefully be adding another one to it real soon!!

Does anyone want to send me some drift wood for the mobile?  There is like NONE in St. Louis and I love the look of it better than just plain old sticks :)  That is the next project I want to tackle.  

I also got super crafty with my aunt and sister the other day.  We made tons of enameled earrings together.  Check back for a post on that later but for now, here is a little peek:

Alright, I am off to church!

Have a great day friends.

xo

janel

harry

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This afternoon we are going to see Part 2 of The Deathly Hallows.  It is such a bittersweet feeling.  I'm excited yet I am so sad that it's over too.

I have marathon-ed myself silly this week with the previous Harry Potter movies and I am ready.

Has anyone seen it yet?

xo

janel

homestudy

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For the past week, I have been spending every single spare minute on our Home study Application.  I have become kind of obsessed to be honest :)  When I'm not working on it, I am thinking about it.  This home study is helping us get one step closer to our forever family!!  

There are so many supporting documents needed, autobiographies written, and essay questions to answer.

  I am loving every single minute of it!!

My goal is to have everything finished and turned in before we leave for Massachusetts on July 23.  See, when I write it on my blog, I become accountable.

Wish me luck.

If it gets quiet around here this weekend, you now know why.

love.

xo

janel

a busy bee

This week has been busy so far and it's only Wednesday morning!  We have been packing errands in like crazy but we have also been making time for fun things too.

Fun things such as:

1.  Shaved Ice dates with my dad:

This was actually my first time having "shaved ice."  I thought it was going to be a snow cone but seriously shaved ice is soooo much better than a sno-cone! Delicious!

2.  Garage Sales!

A sweet older woman that we swim with at the pool invited some of us girls to shop her garage sale early last night.  Check out the treasures that I found!

The vintage jewelry box was .10 and all of the jewelry... $1.

score!

3.  Wearing my beautiful new Jeffrey Campbell sandals with all of my dresses this week!

I call them my twinkle toes...

They are so comfortable!!  

The rest of my week includes, picking up Adam's new glasses (oh my golly he looks so cute in them!! I can't wait to snap a photo of him in them), dentist appointment, decorating for VBS next week, finishing The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and cleaning for our open house this weekend.  Oh yeah, and I can NOT forget...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2!!!  That must get squeezed into the schedule at some point FOR SURE!!

I hope all of you are having a great week so far, and staying cool (100 degree days here).

loves.

xo

janel

Project List

The other day, my dear friend Katherine posted her DIY to-do list.  I loved her list so much, I decided it was about time that I made one for myself.  Not only do I love a good list, I also feel so much more accountable after I make them.  Here are some lovely projects that I really really want to get done before the summer is out.

1.  I want to make a mobile, just like this one.  It is absolutely amazing and would look lovely in our home :)

2.  I have so many pins around my house, hidden in drawers, jars, etc.  I get so many pins from friends, with purchases, and such.  They don't have a specific purpose but I love little pins so much.  Because of that, I want to make something like this with them:

3.  This is absolutely amazing and I have already went through boxes and found the key from Adam's apartment in Kansas so that I could make one of these for us! love.

4.  I also must make something like this for our home :)  A little Massachusetts heart and a little Missouri heart? Yes please!

5.  How cool is this light switch time capsule?  You type up your story and glue/tape it inside one of your light switches for a future tenant to find :)  When we redid our cabinets in the kitchen, I wrote a little little for the future to find and tucked it behind the cabinet before it was installed.  I think I definitely want to do this too, more detailed. It is something that I want to do from now on in every place that I live:

I have at least 6 more projects that I want to complete in the next month, but these are the ones that I will start with :)  What are some cute projects that you want to get done soon?  I would love to see them!

xo

janel

toys

When it comes to toys and dolls for our someday child, it is really important to us that they be special.  We are firm believers in supporting handmade, and we have begun collecting little treasures from many independent artists and shops for our little girl.

I had received a lot of emails after I posted the above photo from readers wondering where we had gotten some of our little dolls.

I decided to write up a little post sharing the beauty, detail, and uniqueness of each of them, along with their shop information :)

(The link to each shop is underneath each photo)

Here are all of little Pita's new friends anxiously waiting for her, just like us:

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So there they all are.

Aren't they amazing??  I know how much love and time went into these, and it warms my heart to think of all of the love and joy they will bring to our some day little girl.  Are there any shops that you know of that have sweet little toys or dolls that I need to look  at?  Do you have a shop that sells things like this that I need to visit?

I would love to hear of any indie shops that you shop for your little treasures.

xo

janel