Playing Catch up!

I know I've been a little MIA this past week with all of the holiday hustle and bustle, but just for the record I think it was worth it! Me and steven had an amazing first Thanksgiving together and a great 4 day weekend to go with it! We are way more blessed than we ever deserve to be and I'm so terribly thankful for that.

These bad boys... well, girls were one of the most exciting part of my weekend! (since most of it was spent doing NOTHING, glorious nothing...you can understand how this was the most exciting part, haha)

That's right ladies and gentlemen.... we officially have Longhorns!! Now I know that may not seem very exciting to most of you out there, but to someone who is slighlty obsessed with living on a farm and being a homemaker this is good stuff!!

We also decorated our very first Christmas tree as Mr. and Mrs. and spent the rest of the weekend curled up on the couch watching Christmas movies amd making ornaments (between Steven's epic Skyrim adventures of course) Like I said... great weekend!

I'm so blessed to have a husband who lets me have the fun, whimsical Christmas tree I want!! More shots of our house slowly becoming more and more "Christmasfied" to come!

Now I'm going to get my daily dose of apple cider in and think about doing some work (or get caught up on all my blog favorites...)

Happy almost December!
Love-Lea

Pinteresting Wednesday

I've been a little off lately in my routine, but hopefully this will be the begginning of me getting back on track. I've been waiting for life to slow down a bit to get back into the swing of things and try to have order in our life again! Luckily, we should have two vehicles again by the end of today and a 4 day weekend, thank the Lord.  I'm hoping for a calm, easy, breezy December. ( besides all of the holidays and parties and gatherings... but I love those so they don't really count!) So we'll see!

This week's theme is ...... Thanksgiving! ( real shocker, huh?)

lovely table decoration

festive treats!

Fancy smancy

Giving thanks is always in style

Love this craft for the kids!

Happy pinning!!

-Love-Lea

Love-Lea Creations

New creations just in time for Christmas! Check out the love-lea creations page for updates!

Thoughtful Thursday

Sneaky Peeky!

Here's a sneak peak at just a few love-lea Creations that will be at the open house on Saturday. If you're free stop by and get some Christmas shopping done early!! There will also be order forms available for customized creations.

Life lessons

I don't even know where to start so I'm just going to be honest.  My heart is breaking.

We decided that getting Hank wasn't the best decision for us right now. From Steven's truck needing much more work than we thought and not realizing how new and delicate our marriage really was, it just wasn't the right time to bring another living thing into our household.

I am so terribly sad. We just weren't ready for that kind of responsibility.

Our house is now a little bit quieter and little less smelly. It doesn't really seem that great.

In my last post I said I was thankful for a God who makes all my wrongs right in his own way and boy did he ever! I have learned so, so much from our short little week with our hanky panky that I know it wasn't all a mistake.

If I would have just listened and been honest with myself in the first place I wouldn't have this ache in my heart now. What did I expect to happen when I voluntarily stepped out from underneath God's umbrella of protection? Everything to go smoothly? If that were the case then I would never need to listen to Him.

Luckily, He knows how to make all of my wrong, selfish decisions work for the greater good.

I was worried that when I gave Hank back to the breeders that I would never know what happened to him or where he went. (It's crazy how much your heart can change and grow in 6 days) But now I don't have to worry! A lady in our office that I get to see everyday fell in love with Hank when he came to visit on Friday and was really excited about buying him from us. She even bought all of the accessories we bought for him. I know they will be so very happy together and she'll be able to provide everything he'll need. She even went out Friday before she came and got him and bought him all kinds of goodies. She said I can see him whenever I want and there'll even be a week in December when she'll need a puppy sitter!

Hank will still be in our life, which makes me extremely happy, we just won't be the ones that he relies on or needs, which makes my heart very heavy.

I am so embarrassed to be telling this story and I know my posts have been very bipolar, but that's what happens when I think I can make decisions by myself. So thankful my God is a loving, grace filled God who fixes what I mess up.

We now know what having a puppy REALLY means and we know that one day we'll be ready, just not now. I never thought I'd be giving up something I loved so much, but I know God has other things in store for us. Who knows, maybe one day we'll get a little puppy from Hank!


I'm embarrassed to have failed and to not have been able to listen to myself, but failure is the best way to learn and learn I did! I am going to keep his pictures and I hope his smell takes a while to leave our couch. He was a fun little part of our lives that I don't want to just push aside. If I just forget all of this ever happened it would've been completely pointless, and Hank will never be pointless

Thankful Thursday

Well this week has just been one for the books! ( And not in a great way) Besides not having a great night sleep since last Thursday this week has been even more exhausting. Let me break it down for you...

MONDAY
Steven's truck wouldn't start
We had to go get my mom's car so I could have something to drive
Late to work
Went home at lunch to let hank out and realized all of my house keys were with Steven....
Called Steven's mom to let me in our house
Realized that Hank's new food was hurting his tummy and he had quite the accident
Washed Hank and his toys and cage at lunch
Didn't have time to eat = popcorn for lunch
Worried about Hank all afternoon
Steven came home from work a little early because I had given his mom back her key...
Found hank had made a mess again! poor guy : (
Cleaned up the mess and made dinner for my parents so they would come look at Steven's truck
Came to the conclusion that his truck had to be towed
Had a terrible night trying to get Hank to go to the bathroom in the rain. Ended up standing outside with him

TUESDAY ( a little better)
Got to go home at 10:00 and 3:00 to let Hank out. MUCH BETTER!
Still struggling with whether or not we should've got him
Almost lost the only house key I have...3 times
Spilled water all over myself at lunch
Found more mouse poop...on my cook books!
Went and got the "old fashioned" mouse traps because our other one's weren't working.
Took ALL the food out of the cabinets and set traps in the kitchen and laundry room.
FINALLY caught that mouse!
Caught it on the cabinet, and it only caught his leg.... of course.
Then it ran towards the stove and got caught under the metal burner ( it wasn't on of course, just ridiculous)
Steven had to get it with tongs (gross)
Actually slept decent with the exception of taking Hank out twice.

WEDNESDAY
Got to go home again and check on Hank
Still struggling with whether or not we should've got him
Found out Steven's truck is going to cost A LOT. great...
Deep cleaned the kitchen at lunch and tried to give Hank attention.
Ran out of time = popcorn again.
Steven had to work late
Hank was being quite the little butt head all night!
didn't art...again.
Cried all evening about what we should do with Hank and the truck. ( Stress and lack of sleep FINALLY took over )

THURSDAY
And here we are....

Like I said... WHAT A WEEK! I'm soo ready for it to be over. If I can just make it to December I might be ok.

Even thought this week started out this way I'm trying to focus on all the things I can be thankful for. And this week has actually taught me a lot!

Thankful for:

-Steven's truck breaking in the driveway and not on the highway

-Being able to drive my mom's car

-Having a dad that made all the necessary phone calls to get the truck picked up and fixed

-Steven for being so loving and macho all at the same time, for dealing with me and my emotions night and day, for waking up with me when I can't sleep, and for helping me and supporting me in the decisions I make

-Having a job that is so close to home

-Having the most amazing support system in my parents and

Steven. I know I can get through ANYTHING with them there.

-Catching that mouse!! Now I don;t have to be worried it's gunna crawl across me at night.

-A God that loves me and still provides blessings even when I don't listen to a word he says. He makes all my wrongs right in his own way.

Irresponsible...

Selfish, impatient. Those are all things that describe me right now. If you've checked out facebook lately you already know we decided to get Hank. Good decision, bad decision? Not really sure! I have no way of justifying what we decided. I could try but everyone would be able so see right through it. We were just tired of flippy flopping around the decision. If we decided yes, I'd get anxious about money and training. If we decided no, I'd get super sad and just start looking for other dogs. (non of which Steven would've liked) So Friday afternoon I emailed the breeder and told her we had changed our mind, then all night I wondered if we should really go or not. Finally, Saturday morning after laying in bed talking and talking and talking about it, Steven made the executive decision to make the trip to Skiatook to get Hank!

What. A. Drive.

( I know what you're all thinking while you're reading this, "Lea, it really sounds like since you couldn't make up your mind and it was making you anxious that NO was the obvious answer...")

It's not that easy people!! A tiny, precious, wrinkly puppy was involved! I could just see him running around the house, taking naps, and just hanging out with us. ( I could also see him being really demanding and draining some of our bank account.)

Luckily, we'll only have to live like we're poor until our next paycheck, haha. Sure, we may not get to put as much into savings as we normally do, and we're starting over in our student loans fund (which don't have to be paid until January, yay!) but in the end it came down to either paying off student loans two months early, five years down the road, or get Hank now... our decision is obvious.

But much to our delight, he's been the best puppy so far! ( all 28.5 hours haha) He loves his crate, he tells us when he needs to go out, and he sleeps alllllllllll the time. Best 10 week old puppy award goes to Hank!

I really think he'll be good for us though, give us a routine we both desperately need. We need structure! haha The only thing I regret is not praying about it more. We just made a huge, slightly spur of the moment, long term decision without including the One that knows what we really need. This was definitely a lesson learned... I'm just praying that God uses this circumstance to teach us and bless us in other ways. I mean, this could've been his decision all along, I'm sure he would've just liked to have been the one to tell us though.

Sorry this is so long, and I'm really grateful if you've stuck it out this long. I just wanted to share that life happens to everyone and not every decision we make may be carefully thought out and executed, but how are we going to learn anything if we don't "fail" every now and then...

So with out further delay.... I'm proud to announce the newest member of the our household.....
Hank Rockefeller Stone! I hope you love him as much as we do!

 He wasn't so sure if he wanted to come in or not!

After a looooong car ride

Socializing with Roger... they were really indifferent about each other. hah

Hanging out with papa Steve!

One of his many naps today

Happy decision making everyone!

Love-lea

November, November!

Here's just a little update from our Halloween party last Saturday. I'd say it was a success!!

Shaggy and Velma!

We also have super girl, an owl, little red riding hood, Zombie Bonnie (&Clyde), a raccoon, Alice in Wonderland, and a Jellyfish!!  I really wish I would've gotten more pictures of everyone else's costumes...oops.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Now on to November!! Unfortunately I think this might be a busy month in the Stone household. At least for me. November marks the beginning of making Christmas presents, getting ready for an open house (which I just started creating for... I'm lame I know),holiday time with our families and friends, a few birthdays, and finding time to snuggle with my love. Good night! And I was trying not to have anything planned after our Halloween party...there goes that idea.

We've been  busy around our house trying to discuss Christmas budgets, car problems, and trying to make responsible adult decisions, which turns out isn't that much fun. We've spent the last week thinking, planning, and talking about getting a dog. Not just any dog... a little bitty puppy bulldog...I was ecstatic! That was, until we continued our research and discovered we were going to have to pay a pretty penny for a healthy one not created in a puppy mill. This price didn't stop us at first though! We were trying to figure out how to move some money around and what a good potty schedule would be for our new member of the family. We read articles, talked to breeders, and bought magazines. (Imagine what kind of crazy parents we're gunna be! our kids don't stand a chance haha) We even had a meeting scheduled to go get him on Saturday! However, in the end I decided that the most responsible decision would be not to get little "hank." I am at peace with our decision because I know it's the best one for us right now, but needless to say I am still quite sad. It would have been so much fun having little hank running around, but we just don't have the money or time we need to spend on him.... so, so, sad.

So this is what it feels like to really be a grown up. I'm not sure how I feel about it, I don't think I like it...