For unto us a child is born...

Merry Christmas!!

May you and your loved ones experience the grace and love that God shared with us so long ago in the birth of His Son, Jesus.

Enjoy this season and may you have a wonderful 2008!!

What's Important?

The two greatest commandments are

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matt 22:37)

and

Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:39b)

Knowing that God is a relational God (read Genesis 1:26 and let me know if you see "me" or "us" in the verse) it would stand to reason that since we are created in His image that we are also relational people. All you have to do is look at the two greatest commandments above to be reaffirmed of this. Rick's brother Paul left a comment on one of his blog posts and said, "... what God wants from me is fellowship, not my 'good works'."

One of my favorite things is being with other people, laughing, goofing off and loving on them. I always said that if I could get a degree in socializing in college then I'd be golden! I CAN NOT wait for Christmas to get here. I know that some of you are panicking right now because I said that, but it's true! Christmas means that I get to see my mom and my brother, I get to spend time with them doing things we love, I get to see extended family - related by blood or by Christ - we get to eat together, exchange gifts, go to movies and just goof off! And I'm going to love every minute of it. The best part about all of it is that we'll be doing what God has called us to do... to love our neighbor as ourself.

Not every Christmas has been great, nor will every Christmas in the years to come be wonderful. The Christmas after my dad died was the worst so far. Although, even from that, I have fond memories. On Christmas eve each of us would get to open one gift. Well, in 1994 mom opened one, I opened one and Matt opened one. We all looked at each other and said, "Let's open one more!" Sure, why not? Then we looked at each other again and said, "Why not one more?" OK, great! Before we knew it, we had opened all the gifts!! It cracks me up to think of us sitting in our den floor with our gifts and wrapping paper everywhere and it not even being Christmas morning yet.

The point I'm getting at is that I need to learn to enjoy just BEING. God is the great I AM, not the great I WILL BE or the great I WAS. While He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, He is always in the present and pursuing a relationship with us RIGHT NOW. So, I need to put aside all that I'm doing and let Him catch me and love on me. It's my fault that I've been running away instead of towards Him, but I'm changing that. Right now. If I'm going to be running, it might as well be into His arms instead of away from Him. Without Him I get no where. With Him, I go where He wants me, which is right where I want to be anyway. I just pray that you'll do the same!

It's been a while...

I know, I know... It's been way too long since I've posted and I hate that. And I could give you plenty of (good) excuses but I'm going to spare you. Instead, I'm going to give you an update of the last month or so in pictures. Besides, that's what everyone wants anyway, right?

Nov 3 - Robert and Lindsay got married!!!

Mid-November - did pictures for some families at work

Nov 19-23 - spent Thanksgiving in DC

Nov 24 - watched Clemson beat USC with some Gamecock fans :)

And now it's December... we've had the cabin weekend and our Upward Christmas party but you will have to wait on those pictures. I'll get caught up soon!!

for the love...

Luckily I've been on here enough so that I at least know where to click to add a post and stuff. Otherwise you would not be reading this right now. Why? Because when I logged in while in Ukraine, the website came up in Russian - or Ukrainian - and I couldn't read any of it.

For example, where you see the title of this post, the title of the box should just read "Title." However, while I'm typing this, I see "Название:" Do you think I have any idea what that says?? Clearly I do since I just told you... but I couldn't pronounce that right now without my little phrase book if my life counted on it. Ahh!!

It's ok though... my very witty and talented friend in Ukraine is looking into it for me. I've given him my username and password so he can get in and look at it to see if he can switch it back to English. I'm trusting you, Sasha!!!! :)

Short Trip to Europe

It's Sunday and I'll be home tomorrow night but I wanted to post a quick recap of the past few days.

Wednesday - arrived in Paris at 6am and went to the hotel. Myrna and I took a 2hr nap since we got almost zero sleep on the plane! From there we went and bought metro tickets and headed into the city! Stopped in Montmartre, had lunch at "my" café and then went on a hunt for Moulin Rouge. I have zero sense of direction but we followed my instincts anyway and after asking a couple of people we actually found it! From there we went to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and ended at the Arc de Triomphe followed by dinner at a café on the Champs-Elysées.

Thursday - flew to Kiev, had a meeting with a guy about Upward and then flew to Odessa. Oh, on our way to Kiev, I sat next to a Ukrainian guy who is fluent in Russian, French and Polish. I had a French newspaper so he knew I spoke French and halfway through the 3hr flight, he began to talk to me. Now, I didn't understand everything he said b/c my brain started hurting after a bit. Plus, we were close to the engines so I couldn't hear him really well anyway. The gist of it is that he is 60yrs old, has a wife, 3 children and a granddaughter. He's been flying back and forth to Africa for the past 10yrs for work, which is how he knows French. At some point he started talking about the Iraq war and the fires in California and all kinds of stuff. Sadly I didn't ever fully know what he was talking about so I mainly just listened! I felt so bad but he was so nice!!

Friday - MY BIRTHDAY! :) We slept in a bit, headed downtown and met a friend for lunch. We wandered in and out of a few stores and then headed to a football match. This was my first pro soccer game to go to and it was exciting! It was two Ukrainian cities playing and so of course we were pulling for Odessa. Sasha and Regina even bought me an Odessa scarf so that I could be a real fan. Odessa won 4-0. There were 2 red cards given to the other team and at least 2 yellow cards to a couple of different players too! After we scored at one point, the cheering section got really crazy and lit a couple of red flares and while we were watching them we started seeing yellow and blue chairs flying in the air! We think a fight started in the midst of it all... it was nuts!

Saturday - a guy came to Odessa from Lubni (?) to see Sasha and Regina's Upward soccer games so we spent the morning with him and Sasha told him about Upward and his experience. That afternoon we headed to the gym for their last games of the season. It's been raining like crazy so they haven't been able to play on the fields for a few weeks. The games were a blast and the kids have had so much fun.

Sunday - we went to church this morning and after the typical 3 sermons came home for homemade pizza. A missionary that used to live here was in town so he and his daughter joined us for the afternoon. Now we're about to leave to fly to Kiev and we'll fly back to the states tomorrow.

Pictures will come when I get home! In the meantime, thanks for your prayers... for the churches and Upward leagues in Ukraine and our travelling safety!

Doombah Chickensquirt

Sometimes when you have a stressful day or week, you need some silliness to break up the day. If we are honest, we have a lot more stressful days than not. Here is your dose of humor...

A. Follow the instructions to find your new name.

B. Once you have your new name, leave me a comment with it and your “old” name. If you want to email this to people, put your new name in the subject box and forward it to friends and family and co-workers.

And don't go all adult - a senior manager is now known far and wide as Dorky Gizzardsniffer!

The following is excerpted from a children's book, Captain Underpants And the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names.

So…

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:
a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name t o determine the first half of your new last name:
a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:
a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOUR NEW NAME IS... and leave your real name too :) !!

Remember that children laugh an average of 146 times a day; adults laugh an average of 4 times a day. Put more laughter in your day.

It has been the longest week ever...

You know when you're waiting on something and each day you think that will be the day you receive it? But then the end of the day comes and you realize it didn't come that day either? Yeah, that's been this week. ugh. It's ok though... some things are just out of my control and I'm trying to exercize some Daring Dependence on God. Luckily He knows that I'm a work in progress!

One thing I DID get this week was a replacement for my phone! YAY! I had a scare though as I left the store... I had sat in the parking lot for a few minutes resetting as much as I could so that it was "my" phone again. I pulled out and onto the road and opened my phone to see a text I had just received. But the screen was blank. Ok, maybe I'm imagining things. So I close the phone, the outside display shows me the time and everything as usual and I open the phone again. Nothing. Are you kidding me?? I pull into a parking lot to see if I can figure it out before running back to the store. The only option I had was to pop out the battery and put it in again. Praise the Lord it worked! Good night, did I really need that minutes after I had picked it up and days after I had broken the first one?? Negative, ghost rider! But, all has been good since. Whew!

sad...

Now, I'm a responsible person. I don't lose things, I don't break things, I always return things that I've borrowed (even if I've had them for months on end... you WILL eventually get it back!). However, it seems that with age these traits that I've prided myself on are slowly deteriorating. Yeah, yeah, I'm not really that old but I'm getting close to 30, people!

Anyway, Sunday night, this responsible young lady that you all know and love dropped her cell phone. I never said I didn't drop things... Well, I dropped it on the carpet in my apartment and it broke. It wasn't a huge deal because it was just a little crack. One of the sides where the phone flips up cracked, which caused the top part of the phone to sit a little crooked when it was open. I was laughing so hard at my "new" ghetto phone!

Well, I really shouldn't have laughed too hard because yesterday, that piece that cracked fully came off. The ONLY thing holding both pieces of my phone together is the wiring that makes it work! LOL! Luckily, I was able to take it to the shop on Monday and they are ordering me a new one and said I should have it in 3 to 5 days. So, hopefully by the end of the week I won't be toting around my sad little phone!

oh la la...!

The past month has been a whirlwind! Mid-August I got back from Canada and thought I was going to be able to take a breath, but no sir-eee bob! I may not be travelling again until the end of October but I've been all over the place doing way too much lately! I moved and had friends over and small group started back and football season started and i started coaching a 5yr old soccer team (that's where the "oh la la" comes in) and Arica was in town last week and I have a meeting tonight to start helping with the Women's Ministry at church which starts next week. Oh and my former roommate is getting married in 44 days so there are a few things going on with those festivities! WHEW! It's so much fun though :)

When Arica was here we went to see the Greens and then we went down to Atlanta because she's never been. Woohoo! I love the ATL so I was more than happy to take her down to one of my former "hometowns." We hung out with my friend Erica from high school for dinner and ice cream, we went to the GA Aquarium (more pics), visited the gift shop at World of Coke, played in Centennial Park and toured CNN.

Statue in front of Coke Museum.

NOTE: Thanks to Arica and her mad photography skills, there are actually pictures of me from a trip. Yay! I have proof that I really went somewhere ;)

Murder in the Kitchen

Last night I got in from a friend's house and was making my lunch for today. It was a typical evening and I had the bread, mayo, turkey and cheese out on the counter. I'm in my shorts and t-shirt (we had said we were going to try and work out. ha!) and had taken my shoes off. All of a sudden I feel something on my foot and look down to see a ROACH crawling over my FOOT! AHHHH!!!!!

Yep, I screamed. Like a girl. Sadly I quickly realized that no one was there to come to my rescue! A couple of weeks ago Kelly was over and while we were sitting on the coach, minding our own business, she screams because there is a roach on the wall. Being the good hostess that I am, I sat on the coach freaking out while she attacked it. Oh yeah, I also called my friend Myrna to freak about it too. Kelly loved me for that!

Well, last night she was not there. My roommate wasn't there and my husband wasn't there. Oh wait... that's right, I live alone now and I'm not married. DANG IT!! So, I had to suck it up and kill the roach. LUCKILY, I had a handy can of Raid under my sink because there was no way I wasn't going to be prepared after last time. Now, I've used Raid before, but it was mainly on ants. This is some powerful stuff!! One spray and the roach tried to run but didn't make it more than a centimeter before I sprayed him again. It was a quick death so he didn't suffer long. It took me a little while longer to get up the courage to actually dispose of him. So, I called Myrna to tell her of my bravery. She laughed. Um, hello!! I just killed a ROACH! This coming from the same girl who slept in the guest room a couple of years ago b/c a cricket was hiding under my bed! Yes, I'm a wimp. And I'm ok with that.

Ugh. So gross! Hopefully the little roachie is communicating with his little friends from the sewage pipes and telling them to STAY AWAY!! I know it's unlikely, but I can hope :)