Jan 13, 2016

Snow Day Binge Watching

We got our first real snow fall of the season last night. I think we ended up with about 17cms where I live just outside Halifax. Wednesdays are my day off so thankfully I didn't have to attempt to drive in to work. I hate driving in the snow, I had a couple bad experiences (including a 360 on the highway a couple years ago) and so now I get panicky every time I think about having to drive in the white stuff.

Somebody in my house absolutely loves the snow though. Our beagle, Daisy, gets so excited to run and play in it. She sticks her nose right in the snow trying to smell it and she has this cute little two foot hop she does when she's trying to get through the deeper snow. I'm kind of glad she likes it though, because if she didn't I wouldn't get out to enjoy it either. And it's really not that bad, as long as I don't have to drive anywhere!


If you're stuck inside today other because of snowy weather or just being under the weather (I swear I've had a never ending cold since Christmas) I do have a few TV series recommendations for you. These are shows that we've watched from start to finish and have really enjoyed for one reason or another. Here are three shows I recommend you check out the next time you're looking for something to watch.

1. White Collar



We just finished the final season of White Collar over Christmas and I completely bawled my face off during the series finale. This show is about a con-man turned CI named Neil Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and his partner at the FBI, Peter Burke (Tim Dekay). Neil helps Peter solve white collar crimes in order to keep himself out of prison. The show has a great mix of humour and action and the relationship between Neil and Peter feels very real. The supporting cast are excellent, especially Peter's wife, Elle (Tiffani Theissen) and Neil's partner-in-crime, Mozzie (Willie Garson) being my favourites. White Collar is available for streaming on Netflix.

{ USA Network }

2. Burn Notice



Burn Notice is another USA Network show. (Apparently I really like their programming or something.) It follows the life of burned spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) as he tries to find out who was responsible for burning him and why. It's been a while since we watched this show, and we've watched several series since, but it's one that still stands out to me. It was action-packed and kept you guessing until the end. Each show had Michael helping out someone, but also gave us another piece to the puzzle of how and why he was burned. I also bawled my face off during this series finale... (I'm a crier, it's just who I am.) And again, this show has awesome supporting cast, especially Mike's spy buddy, Sam Axe (played by the one and only Bruce Campbell) and Mike's mom, Madeline Westen (Sharon Gless). Burn Notice is not currently available on Netflix, but it was in the past so hopefully it will come back. If not, I'm sure you can find it somewhere else. (Like Amazon.)

{ commonvee @ tumblr }


3. Chuck




Chuck is another series that we watched a while ago, but it's one I continue to recommend to my friends and family. This series is more of a comedy than the other two, but it definitely has it's share of action too. It follows the life of Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), after he downloads a computer program/database into his own head and becomes a CIA asset. Full of lots of cute, awkward moments this is another show that is really made complete by the supporting cast. Chuck's best friend Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez) and Adam Baldwin as Major John Casey are two of my favourites. Chuck is currently available on Netflix, and you should definitely watch it.

Hope this helps you out if you're looking for something new to watch. I think I'm going to spend the rest of my snow day binge watching Arrow.

xo,
Sara



Jan 11, 2016

An Early Christmas Present


My husband, J, and I made the decision to adopt around the middle of August 2015. It was a decision years in the making and one that we didn't make lightly. There were a lot of late night conversations, a lot of prayer, and a lot of tears. We know that this isn't going to be an easy process, and it's definitely not going to be a quick process. There is definitely going to be a lot of waiting. (After five years of trying to conceive, I think we're pretty good at waiting, but this is a whole new situation so it's really hard to say!)

During our intake interview (a quick phone call with a social worker) the process was explained in brief. After the intake interview would be an information session. After the information session would be a 9-week training course. After the training course would be the home assessment. And then after the home assessment would be the real wait. There was no time line for how long anything would take. The social worker who completed our intake interview told me that she didn't know of anyone who had waited for more than a year to get accepted into the training course, and during our information session they explained that the seats in the course were prioritized based on certain conditions. Based on our desire to adopt two children under the age of six we figured we were in for a bit of a wait. When we were being cautiously optimistic we hoped to hear something about our course mid/late February and when we were feeling less optimistic we expected we'd be starting our course in the early spring. 

A week before Christmas Eve I took a break from wrapping presents to quickly check my email and was completely shocked to find an email from community services inviting us to a training course. I actually couldn't even open the email - I handed my phone to J and told him to read it first. We were invited to a course beginning January 11th. 

That's today. 

We're attending our first session tonight, I'm scared and excited and a lot of other emotions that I don't even have names for yet. I'm looking forward to connecting with other families in our area who are in the same phase of this journey and I'm looking forward learning more about this process and about what to expect as our journey continues. But I know everything isn't going to be easy to hear, I know there are going to be heart breaking stories and scary stories shared in this course. And while I can't claim to be "excited" about that part, I know that it's necessary and so so so important to know as much as possible.

This journey is like nothing I've ever experienced, but I love knowing we're a little bit closer to bringing our children home.


xo,
Sara

Jan 10, 2016

Book & a Cuppa Swap

I am a reader. Ever since I was little, I've loved reading. I love curling up with a good book and spending hours losing myself in it. There's really nothing better. And it doesn't matter to me if it's a paper book or my Kobo, I just love a good story. That's why I'm so excited about the swap that I just signed up for!


I love swaps in general, but with this one you're exchanging a mug and a book with another blogger. I'm excited about shopping for my partner, and I'm excited to see what I receive.

Signing up actually got me to start thinking about books I might want to read and I realized I'm sort of out of the loop. I spent probably a good hour between Goodreads and Amazon looking up books that looked interesting and adding them to my to-read list.

 If you think this sounds like fun, you need to act fast. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up!

 Oh, and if you have any must-read books to recommend I'm all ears. :-)

 xo,
 Sara