Lately

We have been busy lately as usual! Here are a few things we have been up to:

1. We have been involved in the same Core Group (small group) at our church for the last 3 years. The people have become some of our closest friends and we have enjoyed watching everyone and their families grow. This year we are the leaders and it has been great! It pushes me way out of my comfort zone, which is good for growth. God continues to bless our families and friendships. Yesterday some of us participated in "Baskets of Kindness" with our church and a local mission partner. We put together baskets with food for families to have for Thanksgiving, then we had the privilege of delivering 2 baskets to different families.

2. This year we are having Thanksgiving at our house. My mom and stepdad are coming here to celebrate with us. I'm so excited to be able to host a holiday at my house for the first time ever! It has been fun planning the meal, putting together the table decorations, and shopping for the food. I bought a turkey for the first time in my life! Hopefully we will get a little shoping while they are here, and of course we will eat well and watch LOTS of football.

3. The exciting thing in our life lately is that we are getting granite countertops installed tomorrow! We have been wanting to update our kitchen for a while, so we decided to start with the countertops. We are using a company in Atlanta that was recommended by a friend and they have been wonderful so far. We went to Atlanta to pick out our slab last week which was lots of fun and interesting to see their warehouse. We should be able to use our kitchen again on Tuesday. I hope everything goes well! Hopefully in the near future we will be replacing the floors and appliances. Kudos to Chad who did all the research and made all the phone calls to find us the cheapest company!

4. I have to brag on my husband for one more thing. Let me start by saying that he is not naturally handy, but he is trying really hard to learn. After 3 years of our doorbell not working, he fixed it! I'm so proud of him for persevering. It worked for a while and then the other day it stopped again. We think we know what the problem is now, so he will be fixing it again soon!

*Update: He fixed the doorbell after I typed this! It's working again.

Sew Much Fun

I know that is a cheesy title for my blog, but I thought it was appropriate. My first sewing class was lots of fun and very successful. It was just me and a friend from our core group, Karen, along with Chris, our "instructor." Chris was very patient with us as we are both very much beginners in the art of sewing. We started out by refreshing our skills on sewing a button and then quickly learning how to hem pants. That's all thanks to me since I brought my whole wardrobe to be fixed according to them. Then, we cut out all the fabric for our pillows and began making the cording. Chris finished up by making one of my smaller pillows so we could see what we were going to do next time we meet. I went to Hancock Fabrics today to pick up a few things for my new hobby. Luckily, they were having a sale for Veteran's Day. Many things were 50% off! Now, time to go practice! I will post some pictures once all the pillows are done.

Ready for the Holidays

The James household is ready for the holidays! The holidays are always great for us because we both have time off of work and we get to spend alot of quality time together.

As I'm writing this Chad is at the Alabama State Meet recruiting athletes for next year. I'm trying to get some things done around the house today as usual. We'll see how much actually gets done! We have been very busy lately! There has been alot going on at school that I have had to help out with and Chad is winding down the cross country season. They have one more race next weekend and then they are done racing until the end of January.

Tomorrow I am starting a sewing class and I'm so excited about it! One of the mentors in our Community Group is a wonderful seamstress and has agree to teach some of us the basics about sewing. I'm really looking forward to learning how to sew so I can make things for around the house, gifts, and hopefully children's clothes one day. I'll keep you updated on how it is going.

For those of you that don't know, my mom had surgery last Wednesday to remove a benign tumor on her ovary. We were all very relieved to hear that it was benign! God once again showed us that He is in control of everything and we just need to trust Him.

We are going to Houston for Thanksgiving this year probably for the last time because my dad is moving to Florida! He has been out of a job for a while and finally got an offer in Melbourne, Florida. He has already started working there, but will go back to Houston to be with us for Thanksgiving. I'm sad that this will be the last time for me to stay in the house I grew up in.

I've already begun my Christmas shopping and I have found lots of presents that I'm excited to give! I'm about half way done at this point and I'm hoping to finish early as usual. I love getting my presents wrapped early and under the tree to admire.

Halloween

Chad was out of town for a cross country meet for Halloween this year. I invited 2 of my new friends from work over for a girls Halloween night at my house. We had so much fun! I made a big pot of chili and chocolate delight for dessert. We carved pumpkins, which you can see below, ate, played the Wii, and watched a movie. Unfortunately, we only had one group of trick-or-treaters so we had ALOT of candy left.
On Sunday, Nov. 2nd, our Community Group had a Fall Party where we dressed up in our Halloween costumes. We dressed up as Olympians! We had so many clothes to choose from that it was hard to decide what to wear. Here is a picture of us and our Core Group at the Halloween Party.