thankful thursday.

so i missed last week's thankful thursday post. let's be honest, it had to happen sometime, right? october is proving to be a doozie and i'm having a hard time keeping up! but here we go -- things i've been thankful for this week:

1. ethiopia travels.

our friends, katelyn and walker, are in ethiopia this week with a group from their church. it is killing me that i'm not with them. they're staying in places i've stayed and working with people i've worked with... i just hope they're loving it as much as i have. i'm not-so-secretly hoping they decide to adopt from there and our ethiopian kids marry each other and we all become family and live happily ever after.

2. texas tech upset west virginia.

if you follow college football at all, you probably know that the texas tech red raiders seemingly out of nowhere defeated the west virginia mountaineers last saturday. this likely has no effect on any of you, but at the brister house, it means i've had a husband walking on cloud 9 all week. get your guns up -- peyoo peyoo! (he hates my gun noise.)

3. this blog post.

i've said this before, but i'm not much for politics, so when i stumble across a post that actually interests me, i get excited about it. it's no surprise that jen hatmaker had something witty and thought-provoking to say about the upcoming election. i love the way she thinks and writes, so of course i was thankful for how she communicated about this topic. also, follow her on twitter -- i promise you'll thank me later.

4. pumpkin muffins.

spice cake mix + can of pumpkin = pumpkin muffins. or, if you're feeling extra indulgent, put cream cheese icing on top and call them cupcakes. don't worry, it's only october 18th and i've already made these twice. yum. enjoy!

5. small town life.
my car battery completely died on our trip back from alabama this last weekend (yes you read that correctly). we bought a new one at o'reilly's, but they refused to put it in for us -- something about volvos being complicated. whatev. anyway, we pulled into a body shop only a few minutes before they closed and basically begged someone to put in the battery for us. sure enough, this sweet man volunteered and didn't even charge us! who does that?! thank you, small town. (i offered to pay him in pancakes at syrup, but unfortunately he was a no show the next morning.)

what are you thankful for this week??