Beautifully Blessed: November 2013

These last two weeks have been filled with sweet adventures and memories! I am so glad I have a fancy camera to capture these moments, as I am a strong believer in the whole, "a picture is worth a thousand words" motto. Anywhoooo, let's see. The fall continues to amaze me with it's beauty and colors. I seriously cannot get enough of it! I love the trees and wish they would stay so bright and beautiful all year long. BUT, I suppose we would take them for granted if that were the case.

Two Friday's ago, my sweet momma had a procedure done on her elbow. Bless her heart, the surgery was successful but she was definitely in pain and loopy on drugs for the first few days. Thankfully just over a week later, she is recovering beautifully and is certainly on the mend. Despite the very unfortunate situation of her having to have surgery, our family greatly benefited by having some super special visitors come to take care of her. Anna, Nanny, and Rachel all came up from Louisville and spent a few days loving on momma and loving on us. Oh it was SO wonderful. Having that one-on-one time with my Nanny was absolutely invaluable and so precious. She is a rockstar! She even taught me how to bake oatmeal raisin cookies...which if you know me, this is a miracle in and of itself. Ha! Oh my goodness, I cannot say enough how much I loved having her with us and seriously considered asking mom to fake being in more pain so that she would stay longer. Ha! Ooops, did I say that out loud?

It just so happened that on the same Friday that mom had her procedure done, Darin and I had planned to travel to Evansville with Linda to visit his Grandpa Schwind. Yup, I get get the bad daughter award. Poor planning on my part, BUT my parents assured me that she would be drugged up and that there was nothing I could do but pray and check in on her. Well, after being convinced of all of that, we left for Evansville and had the BEST time! Anytime Linda is around, it's a party! :) We had the best time laughing and telling stories on the drive to and from Evansville and made some really sweet memories.

Another major highlight of this week was taking the most gorgeous walk through Central Park with my sweet love. Central Park is one of our "spots," as we go fairly often just to walk around and enjoy being outside together. Well, this one of the most beautiful walks we have had there. We got to the park close to sunset the trees seriously looked like they were on fire. It was breathtaking. We loved taking a slow stroll through the park with our adopted son...I mean dog, Chai. Oh it was so lovely. God is such an incredible artist. Can I get an amen?

The biggest highlight of the week though, was this past Wednesday. Darin had been "babysitting" Page's dog, Chai for the last few months as they got settled into their new house in Noblesville, but the time finally came for us to take him back. It was a pretty emotional day. Ha! We had both grown accustomed to life with Chai and seriously talked about him like he was a little boy who had just been adopted when we dropped him off. Yes, we have serious issues. Anywayyyy, the highlight of dropping Chai off was getting to see Page and her beautiful babies. We had the BEST time playing with the girls and loved just watching them play and live. Oh my goodness, I love them.