The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, Ryan and I went to a 60th anniversary open house for some of his relatives. Sixty years! That's amazing! We got to spend some time with his Dad and Lynn over lunch, which was much fun, and then we headed over to his Mom's for our Christmas card photo shoot. We were blessed with a beautiful {though chilly!} day for photos. Wanna see a sneak peek? Okay. You twisted my arm. Here's one of our pics:

* Monday night, Ryan worked so hard to install all the new light fixtures in the bathroom. Y'all, it looks SO GOOD. There was still so much to be done, but just the change of the lights made all the difference. I appreciate his hard work so much. He's a renovating rock star!! As for me...well, I ran around like a crazy girl doing chores that are not exciting reading material, so I won't bore you with them. Perhaps the biggest blogworthy news: it was the day of our first snow.

* Tuesday night after a good workout at the gym, we came home and rested for just a bit before Ryan headed back into the bathroom to continue the overhaul. He finished wiring the last of the lights and hung up a new storage cabinet on the wall. While he did that, I did the great hair color attempt of 2013. It was supposed to marinate for 25-45 minutes. Mine lasted 10 before I rinsed it out in a panic. I'd started to see orange again and I COULD NOT HANDLE IT.

* Wednesday night I just needed to curl up with my journal and blog and Pinterest and all things creative and comforting. Sometimes this writer girl just needs that. I curled up on the bed with all that and worked away while Ryan installed my new faucet in my bathroom. I swoon. 

*  Thursday...my car broke down {again}, I spilled chili in my lunchbox...and that felt like the tip of the iceberg! It was a long, mentally exhausting day, but when I arrived home, Ryan met me at the door and said, Guess what!?!? You got packages!! Yes indeed...my two scrapbooks and our Christmas cards had ARRIVED!!!!! That was a fun treat!

* Friday, we received the bad news that the car damage was going to be an extremely costly repair. Given that my car is 12 years old and has 153,000 miles on it, we spent the day mulling over in our minds whether sinking {more} money into repairs would be the best decision - or if we need to retire the Bekah-mobile and purchase a different car that is more reliable. This decision is complicated by the fact that I drive over 100 miles every day, so we need to make sure I'm safe and not stranded out in the middle of nowhere with a dead car! The day {following the week we had} proved exhausting, so for our date, we opted for Papa Johns, Polar Pops and Redbox. 

* Yesterday we got up early and headed outside to try to squeeze in clearing leaves out of the yard and taking down the pirogi {boo!!!} before the forecasted rain arrived. {But it never did.} Ryan worked so hard later in the day to get all the floor tile down in the bathroom - and y'all, we ran out!! So we have to try find more before we can officially finish the bathroom. But that was one packed day!

Thankfulness, Day 17: I was blessed with some pretty amazing teachers along the way in my educational career. If there was a teacher that really impacted you in a great way - say thanks to that person. If he or she has passed away, maybe you could write a letter to a family member - or even to the school itself - reminding them what a great legacy was left by that teacher!