Happy Halloween!

I work at a hospital, and every year they do reverse trick or treat. We go to the pediatric unit and give treat bags to those kids who can have them. It's a way to cheer up the kids and they can get all dressed up if they feel well enough.

They encourage those of us who go to hand out treats to dress up. I could not figure out at all what to dress up as. I wanted to create a costume with items I already had so.......

I went as a Airline Stewardess!!!!!

I made the hat out of card stock using the template I found here. I just wore a white shirt, black pencil skirt, and a scarf I had from around the house. It was so fun to dress up for the day!

We had such a great time with the kids. Seeing their faces light up was magical. I am so blessed that I got to be part of that.

What did you do for Halloween? Have a safe and fun night!

Love Always,
Alix

High Five for Friday

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Lauren at her blog. I love doing this every week, it reminds me how truly blessed I am.

1) My manager brought all of us Starbucks last week for no reason. I am so blessed to work with such great people.

2) This is a set of stickers and a poster to decorate for our benefits fair. The theme is Safari. Once again best. work place. ever. ( I am never to old to use stickers or color :)   

3) Getting Gelato with my sister-in-law Bethany (Katie). I have talked about Bethany before, but I just absolutely love her. She is such an inspiration! She is in her last semester of nursing school, and a great example of a Godly woman.

4) Just made tamales with Ben! We will see how they turn out......

5) I got to see Kim, my best friend from college, and her husband Rob. Rob is a wedding photographer, and they were here to photograph a wedding. (He is an amazing photographer by the way! You can see his work here. This is the end of my shameless plug.)

How was your week?! What fun did you have?

Have a great weekend!

Love Always,
Alix

Encouragement

From the Jewels of Encouragement Blog

en·cour·age 

tr.v. en·cour·aged, en·cour·ag·ing, en·cour·ag·es

1. To inspire with hope, courage, or confidence; hearten.

2. To give support to; foster: 

I think encouragement is so wonderful. I love to encourage others and be encouraged. Plus encouraging others can be so simple! (How many times can I use encourage in a paragraph?!)

Encouraging someone doesn't even need to require a lot of effort on your part. Here are a few ways I like to encourage or ways I have been encouraged.

1) Send someone a random text or email. 

It doesn't need to be long, and it doesn't have to be eloquent. All it needs to be is uplifting! 

2) Say something kind.

This can be said to a stranger, your coworker, your neighbor, really I mean anyone. Everyone needs encouragement! 

In college I had a random stranger tell me I looked pretty. I struggle with self confidence, and that one stranger completely made my day. I vowed from then on to do the same thing to others. 

3) Give a gift.

I love to give gifts. It makes the recipient feel appreciated and shows you care about them.

 

Gifts don't have to be extravagant.  Ben once gave me a rock he found that was shaped like a heart. It showed me that he was thinking of me even when I was not with him. It was so thoughtful, and I still have it to this day. 

4) Pray

Everyone could use your prayers. This the BEST thing you could do for anyone. 

I read this verse the other day that reminded me we all need encouragement.

Hebrews 3:13
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

 There are days I am so glad to have people that God has placed in my life to encourage me through. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and encourage (this is the last time I will use that word in this post promise!) someone! 

Love Always,

Alix 

High Five for Friday

It's Friday! I'm linking up with Lauren from My Grey Desk!

1. Finally finished the painting for my wall at work!

2. My attempt at doing a stripe on my nails. 

3.After five health related set backs this year I finally ran three miles last weekend!

4.My Husband went running with me this weekend. It meant so much to me. 

5.Opened an Etsy shop called All the Sparrows. The name stems from Matthew 6:24-26. I really love to paint, but we just dont have room on our walls for all the paintings! I thought I would try selling one and see how it goes. 

How was your week? 

Love Always,

Alix 

Happy Friday!

Linking again with Lauren at From My Grey Desk

1) Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque NM. I got to see my family wich was a blast.
2) I finally got to meet my cousins two month old daughter Dakodi. She is so cute and wonderful.
3) These guys always make my week better.
4) My sister and I have way to much fun together.
5) I got to see some of my best friends last week. I loved getting to spend time with them. We meet together once a year to hang out and catch up. I just love them!!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Love Always,
Alix

Hot Air Balloon Fiesta!

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Albequrque NM. It was a blast!

On top of such a cool event, I got to see my family. When I say family I mean my Gram, two cousins, my cousins fiancé, my other cousins two month old daughter, my sister, brother, my brothers girl friend, my parents, and of course my husband. I was not kidding, half my family was there. It was AMAZING.

I loved seeing my siblings and Anna, Jake's girlfriend. We are all so goofy, and thats why being together is fun! I just love seeing my parents, as you can see below part of our goofiness comes from our father!

We saw the mass acention of the balloons at 7:00 am Sunday. We got to the park at 5:00 am ( that's 4:00 am AZ time!) The early morning was worth it! Watching the balloons go up was sereal and peaceful. ( I apologize for grainy pictures it was dark)

After that we hung out with family. My cousin Suzie arrived from West Virgina with her daughter Dakodi who is two months old. She is such a good mom and Dakodi is so sweet. After seeing them for a bit we headed back to AZ.

On Monday Ben and I drove to Tucson. We stopped to see his parents. I'm so blessed to have them in my life! They gave us even more delicious produce from their amazing garden. Like I said I am so blessed they are so generous.

We also stopped in Phoenix for Wildflower Bread Company. We also went to an outlet mall in Anthem to pass the time. We walked into the Ann Taylor Outlet and I tried a few things on and loved them! I gave Ben my three favorites. I was deciding what one to buy when I was changing. When I came out Ben had taken all three and had purchased them for me already. I have a great husband who is tricky!

It was quite a lovely weekend! How was yours?

Love Always,

Alix

How to Find Joy

Yesterday as I left for work I was praying for a good day. I get in my car and it won't start. Crud. After cranking it three times it finally started! The day didn't get any better from there. I had new responsibilities placed on me at work, I spoke to a very angry person on the phone, I strained a muscle in my hip.... I could go on.

However, all the bad things that happened is not the point. I prayed that God would just get me through the day. Then my devotional from the night before came to mind. This devotional reminded me that we need to find our joy in God, not in our circumstances. Nothing is constant in this life accept God. All the problems that we encounter usually sort themselves out, or God helps us to deal with them.

Needless to say God gave me an attitude adjustment at the end of the day.

The only problem with my car was the BATTERY!( My lovely husband changed it in the dark last night. Thank you Ben!) The angry person apologized, and my hip feels much better today.
My new responsibilities will take some time to adjust to, but I can do it!

God got me through it. He always does, and he taught me a much needed lesson. God has to be my Joy!

This won't be easy, but it will be worth it.

Love Always,
Alix

Where Is The Instruction Manual?

I started blogging back in July. I find myself confused on what I want to write about. I have seen so many wonderful bloggers with such talent and purpose. Where am I supposed to fit in?

I guess this just is part of the journey and adventure. I see beauty and inspiration everywhere. I long to make a difference, I'm just not quite sure how to do that yet.

I began blogging for myself, and it's truly changed my thought processes and given me a new perspective. Maybe that's where the difference starts.... in me.

I'm in a little rut, but I know with time and a few prayers He will get me through.

Love Always,
Alix