Beautiful January Day

Well it's been some awesome weather. Exactly the way I like it. Sunny with cold, crisp, fresh air.

Ruby and I went to the park in Farmington with my very good friend Bobbi and her two girls Kylie and Hayley. Then we went to Chick Fil A for lunch and the play place. Ruby's first "play place" experience. She LOVED IT.

I knew it was time to go home when I looked over and she was crying, putting on her shoes. I asked the girls what happened and they said "nothing, she just started crying". So home we went. We both had a good nap and great night.

Happy New Year!

Ok I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I have a confession. I started gfit this morning. Errrrrmagurrrd... It's something I've wanted to do since I first started hearing about it. And now they're in Fayetteville and classes are a mile from my house!!!!

One of my closest friends is on her 5th month and LOOKS. AMAZING. She shared her before and after with just me so I know what it's done for her. Anyway, if any of you know me you know this family needs some positivity. I signed up for it almost two weeks ago so I didn't really have a choice not to do it unless I wanted $100.00 down the drain. This morning was weigh ins, measurements, pictures. Tomorrow the actual workout starts. The trainer who started it seems to be super motivating and encouraging no matter what your story is so this should be perfect. I'll try not to talk about it in every post.

Then this morning Jared says to me "Happy New Year! This is the beginning of 2013 for us.". Just what I needed to hear. I have to say I have the most amazing husband in the entire world. No joke.

Ok and on a Ruby note, she is doing fabulous. I PROMISE to do a Ruby post very soon.

Love,

Sarah

Katie Couric and The Simple Life

Well the lady drives me slightly crazy but I still find myself recording and watching. After watching yesterday I have never been so happy I did.

It was all about living a simpler life. Less makeup. Less beating yourself up over gaining a few lbs.. Less reading every single magazine that "after 3 minutes in you immediately get down on yourself". Less name brand. More family time. More reading uplifting books. Going to church.

Ok so if any of you who watched know I've added a few things. One lady on there actually went an entire year only doing the things her husband does. No makeup, no shaving, no shopping, no hair products, etc etc..

I could never not shave. Ick. But I am thinking of the things I want to do to live a less stressful and more simple life. I've already taken Facebook out of my life. Now I'm thinking eyeliner? Ha! I know that sounds so petty...but I absolutely hate the crap and barely even know how to wear it.

I don't know what I will do to start. But it brought a lot of things up that I have never even considered being a problem. I don't know if that makes sense to any of you. But it does to me.

Maybe get RID OF ALL THE "STUFF" I don't use that just sits around because I think I "need" it. We'll see....

I will keep you posted on how it's going. Prayers for me and my family please!

Love,

Sarah

I'm late posting about Christmas. Sorry! But here it is. Christmas Eve was spent at Jared's Granny's in Mountainburg. That is what we do for Christmas Eve every year. The adults have a Dirty Santa game and the kids draw names. Of course Granny buys for everyone which she should stop but we are also so thankful. Ruby had a blast. She just played her little heart out with the kids. It was so crazy to me that one the kids running up and down the halls and playing in the playroom was mine. This was Jared and I's 10th Christmas together and probably my 7th there. It is so crazy to see the ones who were running up and down the halls have turned into young adults who are more interested in our conversations than the playroom. We came back home that night for the first time in years too. I wanted Santa to visit Ruby here. I don't know what we'll do next year because we were slightly rushed. But it was a great morning. We had fun opening our presents from each other and Santa presents. We then headed to Mom's house. She always makes about six breakfast casseroles that are to die for, waffles, biscuits, and juice. Yum! Then we opened presents there too. Grandpa Rick got to come home for Christmas too so that was awesome. I love Christmas morning at my mom's house. We then did my dad's side of the family at my dad's this year and that was a blast too. SO MUCH FUN. I got this awesome new camera from Santa (Jared) and the battery was finally charged so I was in everyone's faces clicking away. We ate and did presents there too. We always end Christmas at The Inman's for filet mignon and all the fixings. OMG. SO DELICIOUS. I wish I had one right now. Angie always out does herself with food. It's always so relaxing and warm (Gene LOVES the wood stove). I got my pj's on the minute I walked in and just sat. It had started snowing earlier in the day so we had already decided to stay in Alma. We had to trek down to Briana's because Jared had to work via satelite and Gene & Angie do not have wifi. So off we went..... I can not describe how incredibly blessed we are. Our truck was completely loaded down front and back with no room to spare. We could barely even see Ruby in the back seat. God is so good to us but not only because of the material things. I mean hello, did you read the fact that we had FOUR CHRISTMAS'!!!!????? All with family we love so very much and never get enough time with. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too. I'm sad it's already gone.

Christmas Love

This is going to be short and sweet.

On my agenda this week: Christmas cards going out, wrapping presents, and finishing up my shopping. I will be busy busy. So needless to say I am very much looking forward to my week off for Christmas!

This past weekend Jared and I took a road trip to El Dorado. My cousin BJ got married. It was a beautiful wedding. I have always loved Christmas weddings so much. I can't express how happy I am that BJ found someone who makes him so happy.

Ruby stayed with her Aunt B and cousin Tucker. They played their hearts out, talked about their elves a lot, and went to the Mountainburg basketball game. Briana said she couldn't have asked for two better kids.

Ruby is doing great. She is talking like crazy. I will TRY to post an 18 month post soon. I can't believe she's 1 1/2 years old!!!

Everyone have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sarah

Toy Boxes and Christmas Lights

This weekend turned out to be pretty great. I had a girls night Friday night in Fort Smith with a few of my awesome friends. We had dinner at a place called 21 West End. I have heard about it but had never been. It was delicious. I had a dish called chicken oscar. Basically just a couple of chicken strips but it had asparagus along with an amazing white sauce with crab meat in it. YUM! Next time I will get the steak (I tried Laina's) with "oscar" on it. Lindsey's pork loin was amazing too and I don't even like pork. Pretty fun night!

Saturday we had iHop for breakfast and went to Walmart and Lowe's. Then home for lunch (for Ruby--Jared nor I could even think about lunch after iHop). We just pretty much laid around during her nap time. I got a few packages during that time so that was fun. I love getting Christmas presents to wrap!

Saturday night we went to my best friend Emmie's house. She had us and two other really good friends of ours over with their kids. Biggest play date ever. It was so fun. Ruby was exhausted from all the fun she had. Emmie made chili verde. We haven't had it I think since before we all started having kids. Such a treat!

Sunday was pretty lazy. I was anyway. Jared got a lot done. Our friend Bobbi GAVE us an old cedar toy box that Jared sanded and re-glossed. The original plan was to paint it a bright color but when he got it all sanded I thought the cedar was too pretty to paint. So anyway he put the hardware on it that it needed along with some handles. Then he cleaned the garage and his dresser out. Ruby took a 4 hour nap so he had the time. I laid in bed watching The Holiday doing nothing. :)

Sunday night I had these big exciting plans to go eat and see the lights and Santa at the square. Well, it happened, but it was stressful! GoodNESS it was packed. Tim's Pizza was about 100 degrees and took over an hour to make our pizza. A one year old sitting still in a place where there is so much going on for that long is nearly impossible. So I was taking her out to play and walk around a lot. She didn't want to even look at Santa. She did love the lights and the animals though. She loved the animals SO MUCH! Anyway, I guess the crowds and waiting are not necessarily for the Inman's. We'll definitely eat before we go next time AT LEAST!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sarah

Something to blog about...

I've had something on my heart for a day now. I almost posted about it on Facebook but decided against it.

Yesterday morning Jared, Ruby, and I went to Walmart first thing in the morning. As we were just browsing I saw a female sheriff trying some shoes on a little boy. I said to Jared, "what is that mom doing shopping with her son with her pistol on?". He thought it was odd too. A few minutes later I see another male sheriff pass us with another child in his cart. They were just chatting away. He was asking him his sizes, then it clicked. I ran over and found Jared and told him "it's 'shop with a cop'"! Every year my dad and stepmom do it. My dad however, is a firefighter. But I knew both do this every Christmas.

As I thought about it and those kids, tears filled my eyes. I'm pretty sure Jared almost cried too. He's become quite the softie since having Ruby. He asked me how they get the money to pay for this and I told him I have no idea. I am sure donations though. We actually found a donation table at the front of the store. Ruby and I dug every single dollar bill I had out of my wallet to put in the bucket. Ruby was so sweet doing so.

The more I think about it the more I become so unbelievably thankful for my blessings. I can not imagine the struggles and heartache the parents of those children must face on a daily basis but then with Christmas time, it must make it even worse. I can't imagine how heartbreaking it must be for the cops and firefighters to witness it every year. I don't think I could do it without crying the entire time.

I have made it a point to make my donations every year to breast cancer awareness and St. Jude's, two I hold close to my heart. Not for any personal reasons. But I think I'll be looking more closely into more local charities as well.

So when you are out shopping for your kiddos, other family members or friends try to dig a little deeper into those pockets. There are so many unfortunate people closer than we realize. Christmas should be a very happy and joyful time for all but it never leaves my mind and heart that it can also be a very depressing time of the year for so so many as well.

I hope you all have a very joyous December. Remember the reason for the season.

Love,
Sarah