TGI Fall Break!

Last week was a loooong exhausting week with report cards, conferences and family stuff as well. I am so relieved to have a week off to catch up around the house, sleep in and do some fall baking!

Despite all of the craziness last week I was able to accomplish some things. Like creating these fall decos...

Thank you, Pinterest.

Thursday night we had Dan's sister and her family over for supper. Nephew Nicholas loved the eggplant parmesean!

We love Gia! I love this picture of Dan, he looks so uncomfortable :)

Bro in law Jim got a new puppy, Amber. And my mother in law got a new dog too, Leila. So did sis in law Sheila, Tucker. 3 new dogs in a matter of 2 days, sheesh! We will stick to one thankverymuch.

Hannah showing off her new Halloween scarf at the party Saturday.

Saturday we celebrated nephew Joe's 4th birthday at "Uncle Jim's party house" sans Dan who was busy going all Pan Am on us. It was too cold to swim, finally!, but we had a great time at the Robot Birthday party!

Sis in law Sadie made the pinata! What a good mommy :)

Joe, how old are you? "FOUR!"

When I arrived home from the festivities, this little number was waiting for me in my mailbox...

Handmade by my bff Sabra to bring us good luck! Thank you so much!

Today after brunch at my sis in law Trish's house, the boys went golfing, the kids stayed with Grammer and the ladies went shopping! We bought matching scarves at Kirkland's and I found the cutest Halloween headband to wear to school, my kids may think I'm nuts but whatareyougonnado?!

The budget doesn't allow much for shopping sprees currently, but after wearing a hole in my "ratty and old but I still consider them good" jeans I had to add something to my wardrobe. Especially since it's only 85 degrees! (Detect sarcasm). Luckily, Sadie found me a pair of skinny (I use the term "skinny" loosely) jeans that I could wear with boots for only $8! I figure it's a bad idea NOT to buy them, right? I also found another pair of less skinny jeans that were on sale and I combined that with my $10 Gap rewards and bought those as well. You can't beat 2 pairs for less than $20, am I right?

Please tell me I'm right :) The good part about handling the finances in the household is that you don't have to justify your purchases to your husband (like all 3 of my sis in laws were planning while hemming and hawing over new boots etc. during the shopping spree), Dan calls me the CFO. The bad part is that you have to justify it to yourself! Since I know the account to the last dime, I have to convince myself that spending is justified, hence the bargain shopping. My goal is to not pay more than $10 for an item. Of course I spend more when I need to, but if I'm picking up a top I really don't need I can justify it if it's less than $10. This typically works out for me and by the time the $10 item is falling apart I'm usually tired of it anyways.

Now I have the rest of the week to rest, relax and wear new jeans around town! I can't tell you how excited I am to grocery shop during the day on Monday, I'll feel like a Real Housewife of Gilbert :)

It's the Small Things...

It's amazing how small acts of kindness can go so far. The road hasn't exactly been smooth for team Sarti recently but the kindness of others has truly meant a lot to us.

That being said, I can only hope to provide the same love and support to my dear friend from college who lost her father yesterday to a rare form of cancer. We are all here, ready to love and support her. With her permission, I'd love to tell the story of a kind and generous man and father, at this time my heart and prayers go out to her and her family.

Speaking of kindness, I want to thank a friend and fellow blogger Amber Tyson for her generosity. I contacted her a while back through her design business Ramber Designs about a gift for us for our 2 year wedding anniversary. She has some amazing products for families, parties, babies, you name it.

Well, we decided something for us would have to wait because of some other things that have come up but I did decide to purchase a similar product for our friends Ty and Tori as a wedding gift. When she was working on the custom "Established" sign for the gift, she text me a picture of another sign asking if I liked the design. Low and behold, it was this!

As a thank you for the business and in an extremely generous gesture, Amber created this for us as a gift. I was so touched that she would go out of her way for us, it truly means a lot to me. It is now hanging on our wedding wall or "shrine" as Dan refers to it and it makes me so happy every time I see it, thank you Amber!

If you are looking for a custom gift, invitation, party decor etc., PLEASE check out Ramber Designs, she will take great care of you. I plan to place many more orders! I can't wait to hear from the bride and groom once they get back from their honeymoon to see how they like theirs :)

Once again, much love and support goes out to Alicia from my family to yours. We are so sorry for your loss.