Locks of Love

As of this afternoon, my head is 10 inches lighter! It's been over a year and half since I have had a significant length of my hair cut. I began growing it out because I was ready for a change, but once it reached a certain length, I decided to continue growing it out in hopes of donating to Locks of Love. There have been many times that I've been *so* tempted to chop it off, but the temptation would taper and I'd let it keep growing. Just a few trims here and there. About a month ago, I found a special reason to donate this month and was excited when I took a ruler to my hair and it was long enough to meet the 10 inch requirement and leave me with some to style!

Meet sweet Noah Graves & his mom Adrienne, dad Jason, and sister Emily. I first met the Graves family during the 5 months that they were "living" at The Children's Hospital in Denver. They were a part of my Red Rocks Church Family and our church community was providing them meals at the hospital. I was blessed to take a meal to them on December 13, 2006 and had a chance to visit with them and share dinner together in Noah's hospital room. We spent some time getting to know each other and we prayed over little Noah together. I was so touched and inspired by this amazing family and how marked their lives were by God's hand. The grace and transparency with which they live their life, especially their journey with Noah, has touched my heart and impacted my life. On January 12, 2006, at 7 months old, Noah went to be with the Lord. But, in his short little life, he touched more lives than most do even when they live to be 100. Adrienne recorded in detail the family's incredible journey on her blog and continues to share her insights into God's love and grace in their lives, after they were forever changed by their son, Noah. I have to warn you though, if you start reading their story, you probably won't be able to stop! Be prepared for your heart to be changed too!

On January 12th, the one year anniversary of Noah's arrival in heaven, Adrienne and 8 of her Denver friends will be donating their hair to Locks of Love in his memory. She invited others across the US to join them, and I decided it would be a perfect time for my cut, to honor Noah with my donation. Since I am leaving tomorrow for Daytona, FL for my 6 week long New Staff Training with Campus Crusade for Christ, I decided to cut a week early.

Here are some before shots:

The cut!

My new do!

This was the first cut I've had in Austin, but I went to a hairdresser highly recommended by my sister in law Carita and friend Jocelin. They both always have awesome cuts, so I trusted their stylist to take me short! My sweet and very cooperative hubby shot some pics for me of the cut. I'm so happy with my new hairstyle...it might just be one of the best cuts I've ever had. It feels great to have a lighter head of hair and a little more bounce. It was time for a change! I'm looking forward to experimenting with different ways of styling it, especially since I have naturally curly hair.

I'm even happier to package up my ponytail for donation and drop it in the mail tomorrow. Sweet Noah, in your memory, may another precious child of God have a tangible need met in love.

A Bit of France

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior! Several times throughout the holiday season, I intended to post, but just never got around to it! I guess I was having so much fun enjoying quality time with friends & family that I was too busy living life to write about it! Truman and I had a wonderful first married Christmas! I enjoyed some much needed time at home with my family, and all of the Christmas tradition that came with it! I am thankful that I was blessed to grow up in a family with many traditions, especially around the holidays, that hold sweet memories for me. In addition to all of the fun Christmas festivities like driving around town to check out Christmas lights, baking Christmas cookies and watching some of my favorite holiday movies, we ate a lot, played my brother's new Guitar Hero until our fingers were tired (mine at least, not Trumans!), and pulled out some old family movies (which Truman got a real kick out of!)

Another fun and unexpected surprise came of my time in Ohio! Back in 2001, I spent part of my summer studying in Europe. I saw 5 countries and numerous cities and loved every second of it! Paris was one of my favorite parts of the trip, though with only a couple of days, my stay there seemed much too short! The afternoon that I visited Notre Dame, I spent some time wandering along the River Seine and checked out some of the local artists that set up along the river to paint. I purchased a black and white oil painting on canvas from one of the artists to take back home. Since I was living with my parents at the time, I didn't have a place to hang it and we stored it in the basement with some of my other belongings until I moved out and had my own blank walls to fill with art. When the time came for me to pack up and move, we were unable to find my painting. I knew it was somewhere in the house, but even after several years it hadn't turned up. While I was home for Christmas, my mom came up the stairs and said, "I have a surprise for you...guess what I found?" It didn't even occur to me until I saw the rolled up canvas tied with a black ribbon that she had found my painting. It fits perfectly with the colors and decor of our new house and I can't wait to frame it and find the perfect spot for it!


The same day that my mom gave me the missing French painting, I headed out to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping. While searching for gifts, I happened upon this t-shirt and it was too perfect to pass up. This girl loves all things French & vintage, so it was an obvious must-have, on a very appropriate day!


I have some fun things to share coming up this weekend. I took a few before shots today and am looking forward to sharing the "after" shots tomorrow! I also have a little project I've been working on this week that I'm looking forward to blogging about. Stay tuned...

Weekend Festivities

It was fun to wake up to several inches of snow on Saturday morning! As usual, our local weathermen were a tiny bit off in their predictions, so I was surprised to see a winter wonderland of white outside the window. We didn't have to venture out, which I think makes the snow even more enjoyable....watching the snowflakes fall from my warm & cozy spot inside! We don't get the pleasure of snow often in Texas, so I'm thankful a blanket of white arrived during our time in Ohio.

This weekend, we had our family Trim the Tree get-together! Our whole family was together and we had a fun afternoon of appetizers, decorating our tree and making gingerbread houses. I had forgotten just how tempting it is to lick your fingers when they are covered in icing from trying to add the candy decorations to your gingerbread house. I think we all made the mistake of licking out of habit, only to be reminded that royal icing tastes more like the cement it functions as, and less like the sweet goodness decorating our annual tradition of sugar cookies! We'll have to bake up a batch of the yummy icing soon because playing with all of that icing made me hungry for sugar cookies that taste as sweet as they look! It's always fun to see the individual creativity of our family come out in our houses. I think our gingerbread village is a festive addition to the dining room table for the holidays!

Happy Birthday Truman! (and a short house update...)

The last couple of weeks have been busy with taking care of as much post-surgery unpacking as possible & preparing to leave for Ohio, where we are spending the holidays with my family. We are making progress in the process of settling in, but we have plenty of boxes & work waiting on us when we return to Austin! I was hoping to share some pictures of our house before we left (I'm not ignoring your many requests!), but it wasn't exactly photo ready yet! I thought I would share a sneak peak instead. Tru spotted this rug at Bed Bath & Beyond a few weeks ago and it perfectly ties together the colors and style of our kitchen & living area. It has found a spot in front of our kitchen sink. Below is the "inspiration" photo we played with to choose our paint colors from Behr.com, with the color palette we chose for our kitchen & living room. (You can see some of the blue wall peaking out in the rug photo.) I can't wait to share some actual pictures from our house once we are little more settled. We are really happy with how the colors came out!

Before we left, we received a sweet gift from our realtor, Shannon Williams, as a little housewarming surprise! I headed out to get the mail one afternoon and found this fun gift basket of goodies on our front porch....complete with personalized "We've Moved" postcards with a picture of our house.

Shannon is the owner of Tribella Realty and I would highly recommend her if you are ever looking to buy or sell in the Austin area. She is extremely knowledgeable in her field and cares a ton about helping her clients find the perfect property for their needs. Anyone that can make a tour of 30 houses in two days not a complete chore has to be a fun gal!

Yesterday was my handsome hubby's birthday and we had some fun celebrating!
If you know Truman, you know that he loves to eat and he loves good food. This year's birthday was appropriately filled with yummy eats!

The party started last Friday when some friends in Austin got together for a Celebrate with Chicken Party. Let me tell you, my husband loves him some Popeye's Chicken & biscuits!!! (I guess a year in Nola will do that to you.) We figured a Popeye's buffet was the perfect appetizer to some chocolate cake & ice cream.

We were back in Cincinnati yesterday for his actual birthday and the celebration continued! Two of Tru's most favorite foods are steak & sushi, so we headed to Carlo & Johnny's for a special birthday dinner. It was my first visit to one of Jeff Ruby's steakhouses and we enjoyed the unique atmosphere of this venue, along with some delicious steak! In the late 1940's, the building was a casino with strong Mafia connections, and the decor is reminiscent of that era.

After dinner, we headed back to my parents' home to have dessert with my family. What Tru didn't know is that there was a little dessert party waiting for him at home! My family, grandparents, and some family friends surprised Tru and we enjoyed some chocolate turtle cheesecake & banana cream dessert homemade by sweet mom. (Unfortunately, my camera skills have a LONG way to go before I can even begin to compete with Tru's. Especially on his fancy camera! Since I was manning the camera for the night and everyone scattered at the mention of a group picture, most of the action shots came out blurry, so I don't have any fun people photos to share. Sad...)

I am SO thankful for my husband and what a blessing he is to my life. Yesterday, I wasn't celebrating how old he was, but how wonderful he is! I hope he felt as loved and celebrated as he is! I missed out on sharing in the first 30 years of his life, but I am excited to share all of the future ones together. I hope you had a memorable and fun 31st birthday, babe!

Getting into the Christmas spirit!

Anyone that knows me knows that Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love every part of it....Christmas music, celebrating the birth of my Savior, baking & decorating Christmas cookies, peppermint hot cocoa, watching favorite Christmas movies again, decorating the tree, the twinkling lights, wreaths on doors, picking out fun gifts, and especially wrapping them, church on Christmas Eve, driving around to look at Christmas lights....and the list goes on.

Usually, my tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving, if not the day after! My favorite Christmas CD's begin their 24 hour play time and I start making my annual Christmas cards. This year though, this midwestern girl is having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. It just doesn't feel like Christmas to me. Since this is my first year living in Texas, where our climate is a little different than Ohio or Colorado, the fact that I was sweating in capris and a t-shirt yesterday has me tricked into feeling like it isn't December at all. And, instead of a beautiful Christmas tree in my living room, there are piles of boxes that haven't yet been unpacked from the move. There is no garland, no ornaments, no snowflake tablecloth, no lights. I haven't even found my Christmas CD's that are still packed away in one of the boxes.

I decided that a little Christmas inspiration was in order! I did a little shopping this afternoon at one of my favorite Austin stores and picked out some fun gifts for some of my sweet friends. I made sure to notice all of the Christmas lights on my drove home from the grocery store this evening. And, I put together a little collage with many of my favorite sights of the holiday season. I hope it puts you in the Christmas spirit too!

Thanksgiving Revisited!

I know, I know, I've been noticeably absent from blogland for the last couple of weeks. Needless to say, things have been a little c-r-a-z-y here at the Lo house! The sad part is that I've had much to blog about, but, no pictures to post with my updates! My camera power cord is still in our room back at the house we were staying at during the transition time, and I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. My camera battery is completely dead. SO, more pictures of the settling in process will be forthcoming, but I thought it was time to at least give a brief rundown of our recent activity!

We had a good Thanksgiving with the Lo family! This was my second Thanksgiving with Truman's family, but my first Thanksgiving officially being a "Lo"! With all of the busyness going on with both us and Truman's sister and brother in law, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in Austin this year. Truman's parents graciously braved the boxes and came from Houston to stay with us for a couple of days. While it wasn't exactly a leisurely visit (we promptly put them to work), we did feed them well on Thanksgiving! My brother in law, Dennis, deep fried our turkey. It was the first time I'd had fried turkey and it was delicious! I can understand why families' try it once and never go back to the roasting method. We had much to be thankful for this year!


The real insanity began on Black Friday. My wonderful and very patient husband humored me and joined in the shopping extravaganza. I was so thankful to have company and some muscle to help! Since we had just moved into our house, we had some basic items that we really needed to purchase. With our move falling so close to the biggest shopping day of the year, we felt the need to take full advantage of all of those discounts! We were up at 3:15 and in the Kohl's parking lot by 4:00. By 11:00 am we had put in a full 7 hour day of shopping and grabbed some *great* bargains at two stores!!! While Truman vows this was his first and last Black Friday excursion, it was well worth it for the significant savings on some necessity items this year!!

My hubby actually had surgery this morning on his collarbone. He broke his collarbone a year and a half ago in an "extreme sledding" accident in Colorado. I know, don't even ask! His collarbone hasn't healed properly, so they went in to shave some of the bone off and look for any other issues. I'm happy to report that the doctor said the surgery was successful. Though Tru is rather nauseous and in some pain, he is fairing as well as can be expected!

In light of his surgery and knowing he won't be able to use his arm to do any lifting or strenuous work for awhile, we had a very full week this last week trying to get things in order around the house. In the process, I seem to have pushed a *little* too hard and woke up with extreme pain in my right shoulder & arm on Thursday night. I basically haven't been able to use my arm for the last two days! But, after some pain meds, heat & a lot of rest, it seems to be improving. With Truman's left arm out of order following his surgery, we make quite a pair right now!

I'm itching to get back to the process of making our house a home. It's still a wasteland of boxes despite significant progress. Does anyone else ever feel like settling in takes a LOT longer than one might expect? I had finally cleared out a significant portion of our living room when Tru picked up a load of belongings from the guest room where we'd been staying...and now, you can hardly walk through the living room again. We do have some fun projects in progress, including refinishing a great piece of furniture I snagged off of Craigslist, that I look forward to posting about soon! I promise more house pictures will be added soon!!!

Moving Day!

The days have flown by since Tuesday when we closed on the house! We have been insanely busy cleaning, grouting & painting and my body is feeling every one of those squats, swipes & strokes!!! A lot of progress has been made (I'll share more details in a later post!), but there is still much to be done!

Friends from our a-w-e-s-o-m-e community group from Austin Stone moved all of our boxes & furniture from the storage unit into the house yesterday morning!!!! Using their patented assembly line method, they completed the move in about 2 1/2 hours!! And let me tell you, they moved a LOT of stuff. Such a blessing. Since all of my belongings have been in storage since the beginning of March, I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to see them coming into the house. I can't wait to dig into the boxes of fun things that have been packed away!

A friend of Truman's gave us tickets to the UT basketball game tonight. We decided it was a great chance to take a break from the back-breaking house work and enjoy a little down time! I sported my very first burnt orange UT apparel, and I can't even tell you how excited my hubby was to see me in his beloved burnt orange. I'm still not convinced it's my best color, but Tru seems to like it!

Well, just looking at all of the boxes stacked around me makes me tired! Back to work....