Call the Midwife

"I just don't see where God fits into any if this."
"God isn't in the events Jenny. He is in the response to the event. In the love that is shown and the care that is given."

"What peace can she know now? You will feel better than this. Maybe not yet, but you will."
"Will I?"
"Yes. Just keep living. Until you are alive again."

Jenny, Sister Julienne, and Mrs. Ruben on Alec's death
Season 3, Episode 4

This was a painful episode to watch, but I love the beautiful words that sprang from the tragedy. I find they are so true of all difficulties in life. God is there, just keep living, push through, and He will see you through.

Work Party

We had a goodbye party for a woman at work and it was held at the Botanical Gardens. I've been wanting to go since before we moved to San Antonio. I absolutely loved getting a quick glimpse at what the gardens have to offer! Right now there's a Lego exhibition, as well as scarecrows for fall. They have movies on Fridays and all other kinds of wonderful things. I snapped a few pictures with my phone!

Red Anthuriums

Sculpture

The red and blue chairs are GIANT

So peaceful

Pomegranate

Lego Orchid

Lego Lily Pads, Frog, and Koi

I don't know what this is, but the coloring is beautiful

"Germinating Acorn" that took over 15,000 pieces to create!

Lovely red flowers

Lego Bee

Lemon

Grapefruit

A Saturday Together

Since Zack was heading back to Denver for a week, we made it a point to have some fun together over the weekend. We went to Chik-fil-a for the first time (not impressed), drove around Alamo Heights (most beautiful homes in San Antonio, my favorite part of the day), stopped by Whole Foods (full of hippies and rich people, a new experience for sure), and went to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Guardians of the Galaxy (which was great, duh...don't know why we waited so long)!

Field Trip

Emily and I got to go on a little field trip for work. As we were making our way to our destination we saw this! It's the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower. Perhaps when my mom comes to visit we can make a little trip and go to mass here. It's amazing on the outside, and after a little research I see that it's gorgeous on the inside too!

4Runner, 4Problems

Our Runner has been through a lot the last few weeks!

First it was the brakes

We started off our Saturday at a church BBQ

Then we went to O'Reily's to get some rotors

(we had some, but the were the wrong size....this project took 3 weekends, ridiculous)

Check out this license plate!

Finally, new pads and rotors!

Z is a stud!

This dude always came over to talk to us after he got home. He's a trucker and has some...interesting...thoughts on the world.

This car randomly appeared, and then promptly disappeared

Then it was vandalized

....ya, I cried, and then USAA paid to get it buffed out.

It's still not perfect though. :(

Then the AC went out

...and once again Z came to the rescue.

It was not a fun drive to work and back that day!

All that's left now is to get new tires and a new starter, or new contacts at the very least.

It has needed to be replaced for a long time.

We'll get there, along with some other fun cosmetic things we would like to do.

FOOD IS GOOD

It's been cooling off (not THAT much, this is Southern Texas we're talking about), so I went a little crazy with the cooking and baking recently. I just want it to be the holidays already (almost there)!

100% homemade sourdough

(starter and all)

Sourdough sandwiches and chili!

Chicken and Bacon Wild Rice Soup

(SO GOOD)

Oatmeal Flax Seed Muffins

Sneaky "renovation"

Zack went to Denver on a work trip this week and unbeknownst to him I took on a project. I overhauled a bookcase, built a new bookcase, ripped the TV off the wall, hung shelves, organized the office, and did a few other things. It was a crazy busy week, but now that it's all done I absolutely LOVE it! Apologies in advance for the crappy photos. I took all of them on my phone.

The bookcase before

Primed

Getting the first coat of paint on it

First coat, plus a peek at the new bookcase

Just messy things

Complete!

How it looked when Zack got home, he was not happy :p

What happens when you take a TV mount off the wall

it's all fixed now :)

Organizing the office (aaaahhhhrrrrrgh!)

Zack's refreshed space :D

 

Kitty approves!

The living room in all its cozy glory!

(side note...I thought the foggy glass would hide things better, but I still think it's really cool)

New Couch

A year ago when we moved to San Antonio we immediately started shopping for furniture to replace the stuff we couldn't bring with us from Idaho (mainly a dining set, a bookshelf, and a couch) and we sat on ((literally)) hundreds of couches. It was probably a really bad idea to look for a new couch, but I was (and still am) concerned about contracting bed bugs or some other foreign nasty from a used couch. So one of the first weeks we lived here we waltzed into Ashley's Furniture and found THE COUCH. Only one problem, the price tag. Well, fast forward to a little over a year later and we finally caught the couch on their Labor Day Sale! It still wasn't cheap, but it was SO worth it! We were both so excited all week leading up to the delivery, it was a little silly. Now that it's in our home we've already spent a few hours on it watching YouTube videos and Forrest Gump! We love it!