Tuesday Night Ramblings

I'm sitting here on the couch next to a mountain of clothing waiting for the monster of a washing machine to yell at me again. I should be folding, but I'm tired. If there's one thing I've learned about owning a house - it's a LOT of work...and this is still the fun stage.

I had great ambitions today - REALLY great ambitions today:

...there's a backside too.

Sometimes I think there just aren't enough hours in a day - other times I realize that I have a horrible sense of time and there's just NO way that I can paint a laundry room in 30 minutes. Apparently, I can't even paint it in an hour - apparently it took about 5ish hours. My feet our swollen, I'm covered in paint from head to toe, and I ran out of paint with a few necessary touch ups needed; but I bet you can't tell.

Ta Da!

Well, that's gonna be there forever

Spiderman's got nothin' on me! Booya.

I love that we're FINALLY getting to the point of putting up our decorative things.

We've been hard at work getting things painted - because a couple of days in a house painted white drove me nuts. I have NO idea how people tolerate that & sometimes I wish I had the ability to...I just need color. The hubster does too and that is just wonderful.

Here's our yellow kitchen - that is waiting for a table & chairs, bar stools, a new refrigerator, a new trash can (we have, we just have to re-mount it under the sink), the removal of the wonderful HD bucket, and some fall decorations ;)

The monster washing machine is calling me again, so I best be going before it breaks or ruins the new paint job in the laundry room.

Until next time,
S

Saturday Shenanigans, Sunday Funday & All Its Crazy!

It's Sunday (although almost not) & my has it been crazy as we get ready to move in a few short days. This is way bigger than I think I ever expected, mainly because I don't think I expected us to be here so quickly.  Due to words said to me in my past, owning a house just never seemed like a possibility, but I am so blown away, blessed and amazed by God's provision through our entire lives, our relationship, our marriage and just everything, we will move in to our very first house before we were anticipating even starting to look. I think I have reached the denial portion of this moving into a house thing.

A month ago, I was totally accepting of the moving into a house thing. A month ago I started packing. And now, we are 1 day away from signing papers, 2 days away from receiving keys and 3 days away from moving in and I am sitting here going, there's so much to do, but we can't really be moving into a HOUSE can we? The moving thing seems normal - the house thing seems surreal. But here we are, days away from moving into our first house - the apartment in complete shambles, the bunnies a little more curious and a little more on edge because we destroyed their home with boxes they aren't allowed to play with. I bet that's how it is with kids too. Yes. Yes. I just compared our bunnies to the likeness of children. They're toddler attitudes are at least similar. The moving ability is extremely easier than that of a toddler (at least I assume because I have no real experience with that one yet and hopefully when the time comes, we won't have to move with toddlers).  Anyways...

Saturday we had our final walk through. I had no idea what to expect. Well, we pretty much walked through the house. I guess that's why they call it a "walk through". Then we spent a long time talking with the tenants, D and AM. They are seriously SO sweet. They are supposed to move out the 31st so we can move in the 1st - and even though they are having issues with the property they are moving into - they have assured us that they will be out on the 31st, even if it means staying in a hotel for a night and they are taking care of all of the cleaning for us (which I don't think is required of them as they are renters in the house), but it's great knowing that they have removed 2 hornets/wasps nests for us, sprayed for bugs, had the gardener come out, the pool guy come out, and are getting the carpets professionally cleaned for us and personally cleaning the the rest of the house. I really don't feel like that should be their responsibility as renters, but AM said that she is so excited for us and very happy that we are the ones getting the house and not an investor or another family. She even brought up which room would be best for a nursery...even though that is not happening for at least a few more years.

A also told me on Saturday that we are being gifted a pool guy for a couple months while we get into the swing of things, which is awesome - one more thing we don't have to worry about while we get used to living in and owning a house (Thanks!!).

We've ordered address announcements which should be here in the next few weeks - hopefully we ordered enough.

And did I mention the apartment is a disaster? Because it is. But Pocket is determined to climb on top of the boxes so that adds to the cuteness and entertainment around here these days. I may have already mentioned that in an earlier post, but it really is entertaining.

Today we spent mostly packing, then decided to roam around Costco, The Room Store, and Home Depot. Walked out of HD into a monsoon which was wonderful- I like to pretend we live somewhere tropical when that happens. Went to church which had an awesome and convicting message on living a life of faith daily, not just when it's convenient and then In N Out for dinner because I didn't throw the crock pot meal in the crock pot. Genius. right here. Thank you.

And lastly on this random rambling bloggy post - have I mentioned the wonderfulness of freezer meals? Totally have to utilize this and get into the habit of it before we start having munchkins. It's fantastic. I spent a couple hours on two different days preparing meals that could be frozen for up to 3 months and either tossed into a crock pot or into the oven. It has seriously been amazing! I think this was the first time that A went out of town that I actually ate a legit meal instead of some store bought freezer meal or Ramen noodles and it has kept the cost down on the restaraunts on the couple weeks before our move. I LOVE it. It's healthier, there are left overs which are great for lunches, elevensies, or midnight snack/meal.  (FYI that's probably the only LOTR reference you will get out of me - mainly because I think that's the only part I was awake for in 2 of the movies and I haven't tried the 3rd one yet, gotta actually see the entire first 2).

SO that's all that's happened. I feel like this was a very informational post. Hopefully I will be able to post a recipe or something soon. I keep forgetting to take pictures.

 Loves to you all my family and friends and random internet people who come across this!
-S

Oh - did I mention we sign tomorrow, get the keys Tuesday or Wednesday and move in on Wednesday? Cause that's what's going on. I can't wait.

And we have some paint colors picked out.

God's Blessings

This time a year ago, we were beginning to pack up our things to move out to Arizona. Next month we will be Arizona residents for 1 year. Next month we may have a house and I am thankful and blown away by God's blessings on us since moving out here.

So here's to a chaotic few months of paperwork and boxes and (probably) less frequent posts,
-Sara

House Hunting

    I've decided to start journaling about our house hunting experience. God has blessed us so much these past few years and this is just another example of it. We weren't expecting to be close to looking for a house until August, but here we are at the end of June and about 3 weeks into house hunting all because of God's amazing providence! We would not be ahead of our plan had it not been for God - and this is another great example of how much better God knows than we do!

     I've fallen in love with two houses so far - we didn't get the first and we're waiting to hear back on the second. I am most thankful that God is protecting my heart and that, even though I immediately start moving in in my head, He is keeping me grounded and emotionally detached - something Anthony and I were pretty concerned about when we started talking about looking for a house. Thank You, God, for that answered prayer!

     The whole house hunting process is very intriguing to me, and while I would like to be able to just find a house love it and get the offer accepted with no wait time, that is not how it works - not even in the fairytale I tend to convince myself I'm living in.

     It's been fun - it's been stressful, but we're patient and know that God has His perfect timing and His perfect house for us to get started in. Plus it's fun to look at houses, see how other people decorate (at least the houses that are still occupied) and then start imagining how we would paint it and decorate it, what rooms would be used for what, what patio furniture are we going to get, what appliances do we like. I think I like the imagined decorating most right now - so much so, that I am currently re-organizing our apartment from TOP to BOTTOM to de-clutter and see how we might want to decorate our future house - where ever it is and whenever we get it. I think that's a funny thing though - I resigned myself to dealing with our random boxes we didn't have room to put in a proper place when we moved into this apartment and now I'm determined to make it work in an aesthetically pleasing way all so I won't have to re-organize and re-decorate our house a gazillion times (a million might still happen though).

So here's to happy house hunting, the hope of the future, and God's timing.

 Love to you, my friends,

      Sara

Oh Hey California - why you so cold?

It's kind of freezing here. I packed shorts and tank tops and probably the thinnest jacket I own. Hahahahaha. But it's been a blast and while I don't want to leave the familiarity, I can't wait to get home to our baby bunnies :) While A has been being a wonderful, amazing, hard-working hubster and has been busy at work, I have been able to spend time with friends and family and even go to Knott's with my sister which was a blast. There was pretty much no one there, we did almost everything you could do there minus perilous plunge, some of the kiddy rides, and the rides that were closed which unfortunately included montezuma's revenge. But it was a blast. Nothing like riding Ghost Rider in the back :p NOT the smoothest ride ever. We were both blessed to be able to see old friends and we are constantly reminded that this is just one more step toward our future goal.

And this whole time I haven't been able to stop from thinking of how incredibly blessed by God we are.  :)

So here's to future Cali trips and to looking forward to the warmth of AZ! (I shall regret that statement in a few hours).


-S

Bunnies!

Pocket has a new friend!
Internet world - meet Hershey!

He's the big dark one that looks like a chocolate Easter bunny. He's the sweetest thing ever and they are getting together wonderfully! Hopefully, he will be her bunny husband and she will be his bunny wife soon!

(don't worry, they are both fixed so we will not have a bunch of baby bunnies running around.)

I'll post more up to date pictures soon enough :)

Hooray for bunnies!

Wordless Wednesday

Tucson & blessings!

Hello Family & Friends!!
     This past weekend we were blessed to be able to go to Tucson for a few days with Tony's parents and visit his grandparents where we.....

went to this really yummy lunch place and I ordered this:

and had trouble getting half of it in my mouth -

eh - it seemed like a good idea at the time!

And we went mini golfing! [check off 1 more state on my mini-golf goal list!]

We also stopped on the side of the road and bought raw honey from a lady. It's Raw "Desert" Honey - which means it came from a cactus. It's pretty delicious!

[[not the best photo]]

And then we came home to this:

[[ it's our bunny! ]]

and the aftermath of the Groupon launch for A's business and he now has FULL books for awhile. God has blessed us so much in our short time here and we are so grateful for that! So please, rejoice with us & praise God for the work He is doing! We are excited to see what God has in store for us this year! We know that we will be moving at least 1 more time this year [next month], I have a MAC interview/audition coming up, and that A's business is growing - all amazing things! All glory and praise go to God!

We're going on a hunt....

 Today has been spent pretty much apartment and house hunting, in which I discovered that if something is described as charming, they do not mean the fairy tale, enchanted castle kind of charming. They're use of charming isn't really charming at all. In fact, by charming they really mean old, rickety, falling apart, dirty, and probably infested with some sort of bug. You don't want to live there. And so the hunt continues.

Baby, it's cold outside!

Frosty! This is what we woke up to the other morning! We could not see out our window, which is usually completely clear and we can see down past the field and intersection outside our patio. It was a shocking 34 degrees out! A HUGE change from the torturous 115+ this summer!

And we can see SNOW on the mountains! We're planning a snow day [[hopefully]] :)

Arizona: healing and growing

     Arizona has been really good for us. It has been a time where we have had to rely 100% on God and trust that He knows exactly what is best for us. We have struggled here, but that's ok. God is in control and He is doing a good thing.
     One thing it has made me face more than before is my pride and my "need" to limit myself before God. I have always struggled with pride and I am so thankful for the people God has placed in my life who have humbled me and shown me grace in the area. It has been a learning experience, but I still have WAY more to learn; I will continue to do so utnil the day I die. The lifestyle and pace here is so much nicer than what I'm used too. I feel like I can just be me and not have to worry about what I look like - what I dress like, how my hair is, how my make up is. And I think this allows for me to be more real with people. I have admitted to more than I have in the past, as I feel I have more freedom in Christ - which has EVERYTHING to do with my reaction to the world, and not necessarily the people in my life. We shouldn't hide things we struggle with because of what someone might say, that is more damaging than anything else. God wants us to be open and honest with our brothers and sisters, he wants us to share our burdens - afterall we're not in this alone.
     I am thankful for the fact that He has brought us here, I am thankful that it hasn't been stress free, I am thankful for the opportunities to break down walls, I am thankful for the opportunities to grow closer to Him, I am thankful for the ability to rejoice in Him, I am thankful for growth and I'm thankful that I have room to grow and always will.

Life with the Bunny

Meet Pocket! She's our little baby bunny! We are still fostering her, we have a couple more weeks before we can officially adopt her, but we love her. She forces me to get up earlier in the morning than I would normally get up, which is good! And she's hilarious and cuter than a button! She's active in the morning and at night and spends the rest of her day laying in her pen. She loves bananas and has grown to like celery, though I still don't think it's her favorite. She's very curious and tries to get into everything. She's recently discovered that the door to the bathroom that is always closed leads to another room and is very determined to get through it. She keeps things interesting here and gives us something to do at night that doesn't involve media. BUT, Pocket does not like going to bed at night. She creeps up to the edge of her pen, looks over her shoulder at me and the runs to the other end of the house. It's funny :)  So here's Pocket & she's a lovely addition to our little family. :)



Confidence

     It is absolutely AMAZING how God works in our lives and I cannot contain the joy He has given me this week. We have been busy lately with trying to restart our businesses out here (Anthony Colello Hairstyling & Make Up by Sara Colello) and have been working hard to get booked for photoshoots.
     Earlier in October we had the opportunity to work on a calendar shoot with Miss October and a couple weeks ago had the opportunity to collaborate with Pink House Boutique & Eloquent Photography for an advertisement that will run in JAVA magazine along wtih at least one other magazine, a window display and possibly a few websites. This past weekend we had the pleasure of working with 2 brides and 2 great photographers (31 Photography & Frank Wise, Digital Obsession) and have received some of the photos already - talk about efficiency!
     God has really been showing me a lot through all of this -in short, it's ok to be confident in yourself. I don't know where, but somewhere in my life I came to the conclusion that confidence was this evil, terrible thing. I've had bursts of confidence in my life, though I can't recall any time where I felt completely confident for an entire day, until last Friday. It's definitely freeing to get to the point of understanding that confidence does not mean cocky and that it's ok to say that you are good at something - not that I ever thought that someone else saying they were good at something was bad, I just had it in my mind that if I said I was good at something it was bad. Not sound thinking, but I have felt confident since last Friday and it's weirding me out. I want to talk with people, meet people, hand out my business cards, admit that I'm good at what I do and it is SO incredible freeing. God created me to glorify Him, and if I'm shying away from my talents that is NOT glorifying Him. He gives us talents so that we may work to the Lord and give honor to Him. I am saddened by the fact that I have lost out on so many great opportunities to do just that, but I am rejoicing in the fact that I have many more opportunities ahead of me in which I can. He has blessed us abundantly and we will use our talents to work for Him.
While we work on re-building our businesses out here, please like us on facebook, visit my website, and help us spread the word in AZ!

Anthony's Facebook
Sara's Facebook
Sara Colello - Make Up Artist

In Him,
Sara (& Tony)

1 Month!

We have made it 1 whole month in Arizona!! Woohoo! It has been a great journey and pretty easy so far - thank you God for helping make this transition easy! I have had my job for almost a month now, and while it's hard on my heart, it is always a rewarding job and I already love this little one. We received confirmation YESTERDAY that Tony's license is on its way - I must say that I'm looking forward to him getting back to work, though I'll miss hanging out on my off days. Things of note:
-I got well acquainted with Phoenix when I visited B
-Tony and I have been able to explore our town and surrounding areas
-We've given ourselves a goal to work towards for the next year
-I'm still totally slacking on our parent scrapbooks...it's been almost a year it's time I get the tush in gear!!
-I believe I have restrained myself from starting crafty projects that are bouncing around in my head because of those scrapbooks.


Oh! I survived 4 days with out my wonderful husband this month too. I feel like a stronger person from it though... I'm not one who likes to be alone.


So that is what has been going on here lately... I'm gonna try to be better at posting on here.


(also, please ignore spelling mistakes, I'm using my boss' ipad...I'll spell check it when I have a real computer at home.)


Loves to you all,
S

Storm Chasin'

     Yesterday, we went storm chasing and it was surprisingly fun! Granted, I was terrified to begin with because I don't like thunder OR lightning, but it was totally  fun. We saw some amazing lightning - it was phenomenal!   Such a great testimony of how amazing God is!

Arizona - I cannot think of something creative right now

I feel as if it's been awhile since I've updated things... Thou I'm sure it hasn't been. I haven't been on in here in a few days because I have not been feeling well but that is kind of a laame excuse. I starred my new job yesterday and I'm definitely enjoying it and A met with his new boss and will hopefully be able to start work soon...just waiting on his license :)
Other than that, things have been pretty normal here. We start our Wednesday night church group tonit which I'm excited about! And we have a frog visitor that comes around our apt door every now and again....there are also a bunch of ferral cats that hang around too. We've spent more time at this pool than we did in CA which us nice - we don't have to worry about party people too much at this pool. It's nice and quiet here :)
However, I have noticed that I do miss wearing jeans and jackets. I really really do- they are just so so very comfy! I think the only thing I wish that would be different here would be that I knew more women my age and that I would really find someone that I click with well... We haven't really met a lot of people here yet though we are extremely blessed to have such a great group of people out here that we already know from CA. I don't think I'm homesick yet -though that might be setting in, but I definitely have a desire to hang out wuth some young women like myself and have more friendships here....but that takess time.

Until next time,
S

AZ

     This morning at church was awesome! It was a slightly different format, lots of worship, reflection and prayer - just what I needed this morning.  I LOVE the new song that we learned "10,000 Reasons - Bless the Lord O My Soul".
     Other than that I believe I'm fighting something off - my nose, my tummy and my hips have been a bit messed up as of late....but that's ok because God is working great things here. I start my job that He has graciously provided me with on Tuesday, A has a meeting with his new boss on Tues, and we're starting in a "community" group at church soon.   While it's definitely hard some days, we still see God working in our lives in the short time we've been here & we're excited to see where He takes us!


-S

Turn Signals & Babies

     Last night we went to visit some of our friends - on the way over my turn signals decided to not work anymore... we tried to fix it ourselves, A thought that it was a blown fuse since it had suddenly stopped working; but that was not the case. There's something wrong with the wiring or something like that.... I didn't quite understand anything that was in car or mechanical terms. The mechanic has to order a part, so hopefully that will come quickly.
     I also had my 2nd interview today and I got the job! I start on the 6th and will only be working 3 days a week to start which is exactly what A and I were looking for. :) I'm quite excited.   Things are going well here... so far I feel more like a wife than in CA which is nice. I'm off to prep dinner!

--S

Arizona Day 3: Window Tint & Orange Lights

     I am thoroughly convinced that Arizona does not have yellow lights - they are in fact orange. In Cali I would have no problem going through a yellow light - most of the time you could 3+cars through them if you hit them just right... I have yet to find one of those yellow lights here. I don't even want to go through a yellow light here - the couple I've attempted to go through have been just yellow and before I get through the intersection the light is red! Therefore, they are orange lights.
We also tinted our car windows today. It's fantastic. Why anyone here doesn't have their windows tinted is beyond me.

Welcome to Arizona

      Hello Friends! Today is the 29th, which means that we have officially been in Arizona (I almost wrote Cali) for 3ish days nows -- and we got the internot set up so it's time for an update.
We started our journey out to AZ at 330AM on Saturday morning - we were officially in the truck and moving at 4:02 and pretty much didn't hit any traffic the whole time. It was a VERY smooth trip out to AZ and we arrived sometime around noon. Some "noteworthy" things on the drive out:

• The 91 freeway connector was closed when we needed to get on it - luckily there were WELL marked signage off the freeway and people to follow
• I had the priviledge of talking to the little munchkins (it was the highlight of the trip I believe).
• I ate a cinnabon for the first time -- and finished the WHOLE thing
• We found out that a school bus driver filling up at the Flying Jay station at the border (exit 1) drives 35 miles into CA to pick kids up and take them to school in AZ because it's the closest school to them! Craziness I tell you!
• The exit we needed in AZ was closed and the freeway turned into 1 lane - luckily JBenz was there to give us directions.
• I left my wallet in my car - which was 30 minutes behind us... not a big deal; but I realized I didn't have my wallet about 2 hrs into the drive and I knew it was in 1 of 2 places, the in-laws house or my car. I am very thankful it was in my car!

     
     Things have been good so far - but I'm exhausted! We were able to unpack the truck with the help of our AZ friends in about 2 hrs! We got to meet up with other CA friends who are now AZ residents and have yummy pizza for dinner with great company. On Sunday we attended church with our friends out here and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to finding a place to serve there...but want to make sure we're all settled in before I volunteer for anything. We visited Scottsdale for a bit on Sunday then later dropped off the parents (my in-laws) at the airport and I got to drive for the first time in AZ - visibility was difficult considering the height of the sun at that time - it was a learning experience. So far as I have noticed they don't really warn you about lanes merging on surface streets - that's a bit surprising when there's a truck right next to you and you have no where to drive aahahah!. We met one of our neighbors - who is pretty entertaining and offered us his patio set - which I'm pretty excited about that :) Yay for free furniture!

      I have my face-to-face interview on Wednesday, please be praying about that and then hopefully I will start my job on 9/6 :)

     So that's all that has happened. We have a couple more bigger projects at home to do; but hopefully we'll be able to run errands tomorrow so we can get them started and done.

I hope you're all doing well,
SC