The Final Product...

Here is a picture of my latest creation. I just love it! I sewed it together about 2 weeks ago and all I had left to do was sew the button holes and buttons on. Well, I thought that would be easy, but the buttonholes turned out to be very difficult to do on my machine. I had to play around with my machine a bit, but I finally got it and they ended up looking great and being pretty easy to make after some practice.
I hope to make many more of these in the future! I already bought some fabric to make for my new foster niece (more on that later). I have a similar pattern for a boy, but with shorts of course. Hopefully I will be brave enough to try some with trim, pockets, and other decorations.

I know my grandmother would be very proud of me and I wish I could share it with her. She is the first one that inspired me to want to sew and she and my grandfather bought me my sewing machine a few years ago for Christmas. She also gave me lots of sewing items to get me started.

For those that don't know or have not heard, my grandmother is not doing well. She was moved into a nursing home on Jan. 31st of this year and since then has gone downhill quickly. Her alzheimers is progressing at a very quick pace. She had a seizure about two weeks ago and has not been the same since. She is unresponsive and is not eating. The doctors have recommended that hospice be called in. Please pray for her to be comfortable and pain free. Also, pray for my grandfather during the difficult time.

On a happy note...I have a new foster niece and nephew!! Teah and Ryan have been foster parents for a few weeks now and they LOVE it! I am very excited for them and I can tell how much happier Teah is already. To read more about them, look at their blog. The link is on the left side of my blog under The Doyle Family. Izabella (Bella) will turn 4 in about a month and Greg is 12. It has been so much fun to hear about them so far.

Chad is on his way back from a track meet right now. I had a nice relaxing day today. I worked out with a friend this morning, went to the grocery store, worked a little around the house, and sewed for several hours. It was nice to have a large amount of time to devote to sewing, I sure feel like I got alot done.

Tomorrow is Easter and we are excited to be able to go to our church for the first time on Easter. It is such a wonderful day to celebrate Christ's resurrection. I just made us a reservation for a lunch buffet tomorrow after church!

Sorry for the long update all at once. I'm off to bed now!

New and Improved Front Yard

Here is what we did last weekend:

First we (meaning Chad) tilled the soil. It was so funny watching him because the tiller was so powerful that it nearly pulled him across the yard at first. He did a great job!

I forgot to take a real before picture, but this shows mostly what it looked like before.

This is after all the tilling took place. We found some wires that ran right along the driveway so we dug them up, dug a trench, and reburied them deeper in the soil.

Chad the tiller man.

Chad decided that I was a better raker. Since he did the tilling my job was raking. That sure did make my back sore!

We finally got all the soil evened out and had a mess to clean up.

This picture shows what the yard looked like after we laid the sod and trimmed the edges. As you can see we also made a small flowerbed around the mailbox. We thought it would give our house a little more curb appeal.

The final product a week later and after lots of rain.

Here is our yard now. We are very proud of all the work we have put into it. I planted flowers around the mailbox, but we are still looking for something to line it with. We are thinking maybe some small rocks. Also, we can't wait for our grass to turn green, it is still dormant right now. We still need to plant some annuals in the flowerbed by the house and that will give it some more color. Even though it was hard work and took a long time, we enjoyed doing it together and learning as we went!

Sewing Project

I thought I would share my latest sewing project. I made some burp cloths for a friend in our Core Group that just had a baby. Actually, I bought the actual burp cloths and then decorated them. The green one with brown polka dots is made with ribbon and then piping on each side of the ribbon. The piping was a little difficult to work with, but it turned our really cute. The one in the middle is made with polka dot fabric with rick rack around all the edges. I used stitch witchery to make the fabric stick to the burp cloth. That one was the easiest to make in my opinion, but it was also the last one I made so I felt like I had the hang of it. The blue striped one is the first one I made with a little help from a friend and I really like it as well.

It was difficult to find cute ribbon and fabric for boys! I didn't want it to look too girly. I already have some very cute things for some girl burp cloths so I'm looking forward to making some soon.

I have moved everything up to my new sewing room, which is just an old desk in one of our guest bedrooms. It is already much easier to get in there and sew since it's already set up. Before, I had to pull the sewing machine out and set it up everytime I wanted to sew. It should be much easier now. I just need to organize all my things so I can find them easily.

Hopefully, my next project will be a little girl's jumper. I'm a little scared about making clothes, but I'm going to give it a try. I'll post a picture when I do it!

Just a little spring break update...this afternoon Chad and I worked a little in the yard. We sprayed something to kill all our grass/weeds in the front and backyard. Our plan is to till the soil on Friday and then lay sod on Sat. We'll see how it goes! I also pruned all our plants in the front yard, watered them really well, and pulled our potted plants out of the garage. It already looks so much better! I'll update this weekend on what all we were able to accomplish.

Spring Break

This week Chad and I are both on Spring Break! While he will still have to work, we are hoping we will be able to enjoy a few days at home working around the house and on our yard. Since he is away so much on the weekends we don't have much time to work together around the house. Our yard is still in need of some serious attention!

Chad had a track meet today at Birmingham Southern College, here in Birmingham. It rained ALL day long! I went out there for about 6 hours and had to leave before it was over. They were running really behind the schedule and I just couldn't sit out in the rain any longer. I have been home for about 2 hours and he just called and he is still at the meet and the last field event is just starting! I think I may take a nap while I wait for him.

Hopefully we will be able to relax a little and get some much needed rest this week, but also be able to get some work done. It's always nice to have time to spend with him since he is gone so much on the weekends.

On a side note...we finally got our wedding album last week! We are so excited to finally have it and be able to show it to friends and family.

Costa Rica Here We Come...

After researching for over a month and for at least 40 hours we have booked our vacation for this summer to Costa Rica! We will be there for our 2 year anniversary in June. We are really excited about getting away and having time to enjoy each other without the distractions of daily life. Check out our hotel at: http://www.paradisus-playa-conchal.com/
While we are there we are planning on doing a zipline through the rain forest, hiking up a volcano, relaxing at the pool and beach, enjoying the spa and golf course, and possibly some other fun excursions!

Planning a Vacation...

Chad and I are trying to plan a vacation for our anniversary at the end of June. We have been talking about it since November, but I have had a hard time convincing Chad to do some research with me. We would love any suggestions. Our requriements are:
1. Outside the United States (even Canada, Central or South America)
2. Somewhere we could not go once we have kids or somewhere we would not bring our children
3. Outdoor activities/day trips (Chad loves the outdoors)
4. I would like to stay in a nice hotel (all-inclusive possibly)
5. Within our budget (of course)
Other than that we are pretty open. I would like to go somewhere warm and beachy since it is the summer, but that is not a must. Please help!

Cleaning Out the Guest Room Part 2...

This morning I got to sleep in and it was so nice! Chad is away at a track meet until late tonight and I have some free time to get some things done today. A few weekends ago I cleaned out our guest bedroom closet and now it's time to organize our files. That is my goal for today. Hopefully I will get in there and get busy and get it all done. I just LOVE getting organized, but I have been procrastinating because I never seem to have enough time to get started. I prefer to have a full 1-2 days to complete a large project like this so that I can get it all done and not have to come back and finish later. So, we'll see how far I get!

Jenny Wilson

When we got back to Birmingham after Christmas, we were at the mall trying to exchange one of our Christmas presents and ran into Jenny Wilson. For those of you that know Jenny Wilson, that is all I have to say. I'm sure you have a smile on your face already. She is a few years older than me and ran with us at Samford. She is probably the sweetest person I have ever met in my life and took care of me my freshman year at Samford. She has been living in Birmingham for the past 3 1/2 years and just finished Physical Therapy School at U.A.B. I can't believe I never knew she was here. We also figured out that she was in Birmingham when we got married and could have come to our wedding if we would have been in touch at the time. I met up with her on Thursday night and we had dinner and talked for several hours. It was so good to see her and catch up on her life. Hopefully, we will continue to stay in touch and see each other often.

Random Post

I haven't posted in a while and I have a few random pictures that I would like to share.

This is the puzzle we completed at Christmas only to find that we were missing a piece. We brought it with us to Chattanooga and started it there. When it was time to go to Atlanta Chad decided he just could not leave it or take it apart yet because we had made some progress. So, we transported it to Atlanta with us. Even though we tried really hard, we were not able to complete it before we had to go home. So, we then transported it back to Birmingham with us. The night after we got home we finally finished it. We were sad to find out that we lost one piece in all of the transporting. If you are wondering...it is Jelly Belly jelly beans. Wow! It was difficult!

Last year I decided I really wanted a nativity scene since I did not have one yet. After looking for one I finally gave up because I could not find one that I liked. Chad suprised me and bought me the basic pieces in the Willow Tree set for Christmas. This Christmas I got the other pieces to complete the set. I absolutely love it!

The girls in my Core Group took me (and Susan) out to celebrate our birthdays. We had a nice dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. They have been such a blessing and I am enjoying getting to know them even better. Pictured below are: Susan, Karen, Me, Dana, and Hayley (with baby #2 on the way)

After Thanksgiving, Chad and I bought a 50" plasma TV. That was our Christmas present to each other this year. Doesn't it look like Oprah is in our living room? We have really enjoyed it so far! We also purchased a media center since our new TV would not fit in our other entertainment center. We bought it from Home Decorators, which is the same place we purchased our desk and file cabinet from over the summer. I'm really impressed with the media stand, especially for the price. Plus, it really opens up our living room without the taller entertainment center.

Hopefully, we will have something better to share soon!

New Year...

The new year has begun! I can't believe it is 2009 already. We made it home from our Christmas travels, took down all our decorations, and are back in the swing of things with work.

I spent much of the day today trying to organize some things around the house and find a new home for some of our Christmas presents. Chad was away most of the day with recruits. We are looking forward to an afternoon together tomorrow between church and dinner out with friends.

After looking at the calendar today, the next 6 months are already looking busy for us. My goal is to be productive with my time, especially on the weekends so I can continue to organize and clean out some things in our house. I hope to be able to use my time wisely when Chad is gone to track meets on the weekends.

I already can't wait for the summer when things will be more relaxed and we will have more time to spend together again.

Friends..

We have so many good friends, but many of them don't live in Birmingham so we don't get to see them very often. Our friends Leah and Rick who live in Seattle were in Atlanta visiting family for Christmas. Our other friends Katie and Trey who live in Chattanooga were in the Atlanta area also visiting family for Christmas. We were all able to meet up and have lunch and visit for a few hours. It was so nice! All of them were a part of our wedding and they are very special to us! Thanks guys!

Rick, Chad, and Trey

Katie, me, and Leah

I'm 30!

Well, I can't believe it, I'm 30! Chad is very happy that he is not the only 30 year-old in our household now and he does not want me to forget it. For the last few years I have had the privilege of celebrating my birthday with Chad's family and my family so the celebration gets drawn out. It's fun to celebrate more than once! Thanks to everyone for going out of your way to make my birthday so special.

First celebration-Dec. 27th: Chad's uncle Mark's birthday is on Dec. 31st so we get to celebrate our birthday together. This year we each got our own ice cream cake. Yum!!

Second celebration-Dec. 29th: My very own homemade cookie cake-my favorite! Plus a gift bag with nothing in it. My mom wrapped a gift card in the small bag you see in the picture. When I went to open it there was nothing in it. We think the cats got to it!

Thanks for such a wonderful birthday! It is so nice to be able to celebrate with family.

A Wonderful Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! Here are some pictures:

Our unsuccessful gingerbread house

Christmas morning with Chad's parents and grandparents.

My new pashmina scarf that Teah and Ryan bought me in Prague




Dustin and Shannon-the newly engaged couple

The Pickle Game-We started this last year. My mom hides a small pickle in the Christmas tree and we take turns trying to find it. The one who finds it gets a special gift. Chad found it last year and I found it this year. So far it's a James family sweep. In the picture Dustin is looking for the pickle.

Thanks to everyone for making our Christmas so special and enjoyable!

First Sewing Project...

Here it is! I made 2 pillows this size for my couch and a smaller one for my chair, with a little help of course. They turned out well and I'm very proud of them. I hope to tackle some more difficult items soon. We took a break with our sewing classes during the holidays since everyone is so busy. We hope to start up again in January and learn to make some children's clothes.

Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas! We are so thankful for all God has provided for us in our lives. We are so blessed by wonderful friends and family who support and encourage us. We are having a great time in Chattanooga with Chad's family. We will be here a few more days and then we go to my mom's for a few days before heading back to Birmingham. Enjoy the holidays, spending time with family, and get some rest!

Our Christmas Tree

Wishing You a Merry Christmas...

The Christmas decorations are all up and we are about half way finished buying presents. Hopefully this week we will get all the presents bought and my goal is to wrap the ones I have this weekend. That way we can have a stress free week next week with not much to do.

We survived hosting our first Christmas party at our house this past Sunday for our Core Group at church. We spent most of the day on Saturday putting up our lights and decorations outside, which you can see here:

This year we added the wreaths, which I LOVE, and the lights on the small bushes. Chad did a great job cleaning up the yard and putting up most of the decorations outside. We also cleaned the house on Saturday. Secretly, I love having people over because it forces me to clean my house really well and I'm always so glad it's clean when I finish!!! Last, but not least, we decorated our tree on Saturday night and it looks so beautiful. We didn't take a picture yet, but we will try to post one later.

On Sunday I finished some last minute things in the house and made some appetizers for our party while Chad went to the Samford track Christmas party. We worked really hard on our table decor and really enjoyed using some of our wedding gifts that we have not used yet. Here is the table we set up in the study:

We also had our kitchen table set up, but we didn't get a good picture of it. We had a great time visiting with everyone and of course the guys played the Wii for a while. We would love to do it again some time soon.

We are going to Chattanooga for Christmas this year and then to my mom's afterwards for my birthday and New Year's. So, lots of traveling, but we are looking forward to seeing our family and hopefully some friends along the way.

We have officially received 5 Christmas cards as of today and we are looking forward to receiving alot more! We love seeing pictures of all those babies!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year...

I'm so happy that Christmas is so close. I just love this time of year! We are doing well with our decorating. I decorated the house before we left for Thanksgiving and we bought our tree when we got back. Now all we have to do is decorate the tree and put up the lights and decorations outside. We are hosting a Christmas party this weekend for our Core Group and I'm excited because I love having people over to our house! So, we must finish all our decorating by then. Also, our Christmas cards are just about ready to be mailed. Everyday I go to the mailbox hoping to get our first Christmas card in the mail and we have yet to receive one. Maybe tomorrow will be the lucky day. Now I've just got to start buying Christmas presents!! Better get started!

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.