Background Checks

When an agency tells you that they do extensive background checks, they're not lying. 5 city/county checks, 2 child abuse checks, 2 sexual offender checks, 2 SBI checks, and 2 FBI checks. All of our city/county paperwork was dumped in the mail yesterday and I hope we get those back next week. Finger prints for our SBI checks are in a week and then those will get sent off. At least they'll know we're normal people after everything is all done.

We're getting closer!

Sponsor - Stacy Sink with Thirty One

Our most recent business sponsor is Stacy Sink with Thirty One! Thank you Stacy for your donation and support!

Stacy and I connected through my husband. Once we met and got to know each other, we turned into great friends. Stacy has been with Thirty One for 2.5 years and recently got me hooked on their products. She has been a very successful business person with Thirty One has 2 consultants working with her. She hosts a number of parties every month and is always looking for new people to connect with.

When asked what her favorite new product is, Stacy told me that she loves the Around Town Tote in Very Cherry Pebble.

Their utility totes and thermals are the most favorites pieces I've ever owned. I love how strong and sturdy the fabric feels and it always comes in cute patterns, like the one below. This is my personal favorite because it's an easy grab and go bag with enough space to fit just about anything in it. 

Stacy, Steve and I appreciate your love and support! If any of our friends are interested in connecting with Stacy, check out her Facebook page Stacy's Thirty-One Ladies.

Lots of love,

The Power of 'Thank You'

I, for the most part, am a positive person. I like to smile at strangers, say, "Hello" and "Have a good day" to people on the elevator, and strike up conversations with people I've passed by several times. For the most part, I am rather introverted, but I've learned that a simple smile can change a person's day. A simple act of kindness can turn someone's day around and you'd never even know it.

Part of this process is thanking people who help us. Maybe it was the way I was raised, learning that it was of most importance to write thank you cards to those who have given you gifts or helped you in some way. I purchased a 20 pack of cards for $2 at Walmart and the Saturday after the yard sale, I sat myself down and penned about a half dozen cards.

Snail mail is a rare occurrence these days, outside of receiving bills. When one of my cards was received by its recipient, I received a very nice message in response. I was thrilled to know that such a simple act could make someone happy.

So, for those of you who may be reading this and are in the same boat we are, remember to write those thank you cards! It could make all the difference in the world to someone on the other side.

Lots of Love,

Time to Party!

The lovely Emily, the Scentsy consultant extraordinaire, is throwing a big Facebook Party to help us raise funds! Click on the link and join us for what's sure to be a good time. This is an open group, so please invite your friends and relatives. The more the merrier! We'll be talking about all things Scentsy - the big sale going on right now and all of the new items that are launching on the 1st of September, which I'm super excited about! If anyone has any questions, Emily will be able to answer them. The August warmer of the month is still on special. It and the new fragrance 'World Traveler' are 10% off through next Wednesday.

The new Fall/Winter 2016 is debuting in a week and a half. There are lots of new fragrances like Marshmallow Mint, Peppermint Rush, Crisp Orchard Air, Cranberry Garland, and more! Lots of last year's fall and winter fragrances are back again, like my favorite Very Merry Cranberry. Below are a couple of the new warmers in the catalog. There are so many warmers that are so cute. Scentsy even came out with a fun and funky retro line. The roller skates below are part of it. How cute are they?!
 

I'll continue to promote the party here, on Facebook, and on Instagram. I hope everyone enjoys it!

Lots of Love,

Another Lesson from Disney

Today's Disney lesson comes from the movie Meet the Robinsons. This movie is highly underrated and wasn't very big when it came out. I watched it several years ago and latched on to the message that the main characters explore. Lewis, the main character, is a brilliant inventor, but get's stuck helping Wilbur complete a project. Lewis expresses his frustration with not being able to complete the project and Wilbur gives him some valuable advice.

Lewis: I don't even know what I'm doing.
Wilbur: Keep moving forward.
Lewis: I mean, this stuff is way too advanced for me.
Wilbur: Keep moving forward.
Lewis: And what if I can't fix this, what are we going to do?
Wilbur: Keep moving forward.
Lewis: Why do you keep saying that? And don't just say keep moving forward!
Wilbur: It's my dad's motto.
Lewis: Why would his motto be keep moving forward?
Wilbur: It's what he does.

Image from Amazon

So, we are stuck. We're sort of in a limbo state while we wait for documents that are needed to move on with our home study. We've run into other problems as well, but we keep moving forward.There's other paperwork to prep for, other pieces that need to be obtained and we're doing it. We're moving forward.

Yard Sale Success!

Saturday morning I was up at 5:15, coffee in hand and ready to bust a move on the yard sale. I got to my parent's house bright and early, before the sun was even awake. The setup took about an hour and a half. All of the items had been sorted by likeness and staged in the garage. We setup all the tables and started dragging stuff out. I broke a sweat before 7 AM! We even had people come in to look 30 minutes before we were even officially "open."

I wish I had taken pictures of all the stuff we had. There were 3 8 foot tables were full of nick-knacks, kitchen wares, holiday items, crafting stuffs, and a multitude of other things. 3 smaller card tables with glass ware, plates, table clothes, towels, and other linens. Our clothes table was overflowing and we had a whole line dedicated to hanging clothes and jackets. All of it was donated.

Saturday proved to be both fun and stressful. All of the hard work put into the yard sale was well worth the end result. Over all, the yard sale went smoothly. We received a few donations in our 'Bring Home Baby' jar. Lots of people wanted to talk about the adoption, which was cool.

So, the question I keep getting is 'how much did you make?' All I will say is that we made more than half of our home study fees. I was really impressed and never thought we'd make that much. I'm so very grateful for all the help my amazing aunt and my parents gave me. Without them, it wouldn't have been possible!

If there's any interest, I can certainly put together another post, outlining what we did for our yard sale.

We're already looking forward to the next fundraising event! More details to follow.

Lots of Love,

Generosity of Strangers

Has there ever been a day that just breaks you down emotionally? The kind of day that, by 5:00, you're ready to hit the floor running? That was me today. The beginning of the day was rough and this afternoon was no better. I came home, still exhausted, and looked into our little mail box. Inside was a light blue envelope.

My heart instantly swelled. Our first donation came from a complete stranger. I was instantly over taken by joy, sadness, relief, and an extreme gambit of emotions. I never would have expected someone who has never met me to care so much about our little, growing family. 

Kathy, who I have met while finding myself over the past 2 years on Instagram, has grown to be a dear friend of mine. Fate lead me to her and the rest of my FitFam. The "girls" as we're called, have grown to be a pretty tight-knit bunch. However, as I mentioned, I've never met any of these women face to face. I've never spoken on the phone to them, but we have traded numerous text messages, showed our support and concern when times got hard, and made each other laugh an unbelievable amount!  

This adoption is going to be hard, mentally and financially. Knowing that there are people out there, like Kathy, makes the whole process a lot easier. I love you girl, regardless if we've ever met. I could have never imagined something like this.Thank you so much, my dear @buttercup.low_carb. Words cannot express how much this means to me.

Ok, now I go get a tissue and cry ugly tears over how touching this was.

What Do You Think Will Change?

As we filled out the home study application, this question was in a series of many. Without skipping a beat, I wrote, "Everything." That answer is easily the most honest way I have ever answered. I did wonder, after looking over all of our information, if anyone else had ever answered in the same way.

I walked into the home study's office to drop off our paperwork. It's amazing how nice people can be, how understanding a complete strange can be when you look them in the eye and they show that same glimmer of giddiness over the promise of a new family member. The assistant, right after I introduced myself and we said hello, asked me to step back so she could see my tattoo. They were so nice and I could tell that it was going to be great, hopefully, to work with them. Talking to these ladies, they knew what my husband and I were getting ready to embark on.

We waited for the e-mail to come through. What if they didn't like our answers? What would they think of our unorthodox ways? Well, we got our answer today:

We're one step closer.

Yard Sale Update

We've had an amazing response to our request for yard sale donations. The hours spent pricing and sorting is crazy, but we're nearing the home stretch. My mom and I spent about 5 hours sorting through everything and trying to stage as much as we possibly could.

Here's a picture of just the stuff that's in their garage. There's more stuff in the top of their garage. Friday will be a short work day for me. The plan is to go over to my parent's house after my short work day and start bringing everything together. It's then moving stuff onto tables according what what the items may be used for. We'll be double checking the stuff for pricing.

I've made signs, so we plan on putting them out on Friday as well. One of my work friends told me about a couple of groups on Facebook where I can post the yard sale information for free. I just hope it generates enough interest for people to come browse! 

As a reminder, the Scentsy party is still going on. Check out this post if you missed it!

Sponsor - Emily Winstead

Emily and I met through a mutual friend when I was looking for a Scentsy consultant in North Carolina. It was shortly after we met that she and I became friends. It was nice to have someone as obsessed with Scentsy as I am.

What's Scentsy? Scentsy is a flameless warmer system that uses a bulb or a metal element to gradually warm and melt wax. I burned candles for the longest time, but was tired of trimming wicks, dealing with the smoke, and I wasn't thrilled at the current prices. I switched over to Scentsy and haven't gone back to candles. I love being able to flip on a warmer and in a couple of minutes the whole house smells good.

Emily has been an independent consultant since February of 2015.When I asked her why she tried Scentsy, she told me because her dogs stink! Can't all dog owners relate to that feeling? She told me that Scentsy was the only thing that could take care of the dog smell. Her favorite all time fragrance is Luna. In the fall you can find Coconut Pumpkin Pie in her warmer(s) and in the Spring she likes to melt Clothesline. Her favorite product is the Ocean Washer Whiffs. She shared these at the first party I went to and I fell in love! Like Emily, I like to use them on my towels and sheets. It makes them smell so good!

And how generous is this? Emily has setup a special party for all of our friends and family and she is generously going to donate a portion of her commission back to us. There are lots of items that are 10% off right now, so make sure to take advantage of the sale!! Once these items are gone, they're gone for good. Now is the time to stock up on your favorite summer fragrances. Click the graphic above to be taken to her website and have fun shopping!!

Thank you Emily, for all your support. We greatly appreciate your company's donation!