France and Spain

Even as I type the title I cannot believe we have gone and are back. Now I say this as a person who is still surprised (very much so) that I have visited France twice before and Spain once before. I can remember a girl of 16 who got her passport in order to be able to travel with a school group to Russia only to have it arrive a few days after she found out there was not enough money for her to go on the trip. Yeah, I cried when I tucked away my passport in my file box. (Yeah, I was a geeky kid that kept things in a file box. ) And my loving and unknowingly prophetic mom said "Well, maybe you can use it sometime later?" to which I, in my state of teenage this-is-the-end-of-the-world-dejection answered, "Yeah, sure mom, how is that gonna happen." (That ungrateful kid, your mom had just sprung for a not cheap passport and you sass her!)

Sometime later I accepted the Lord as my Savior!, I graduated from high school, I went to college at the best place for a new Christian like me to spread her wings (UT) and was surrounded by the most active and encouraging family of believers I could never have found on my own, when I sat in a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting and was told that if I gave my summer to the Lord, He could take me any place. The names of all the possible stateside vacation locales were posted on the overhead along with the international locations. I felt like I was being pointed at and asked directly what I was going to do about it. Now I am not a beach girl but those were the only possiblities that seemed available to me, because we had to raise our own funds (not meaning our own without the Lord's help, I mean without a missions board or church specifically funding us) and the money needed to go was not by any means exorbitant, but, hello, I was in college, any trip was expensive. It took my unbelieving roommate to urge me to take the leap to the locale that my eyes kept falling on "Paris". And how did she do that, well, she said "If you say God is going to have to provide the funds for you to go any of the beach places why can't He provide for you to go to Paris." And she didn't say it as a test, she said it with the child like faith in that He can do anything. And He did. (that previous three word sentence is a story in itself, but I have already gone on to much for the intro about our trip) I used the filed away passport (it had not expired) for an eight week summer mission trip in Paris, France where I truly began to understand evangelism and the heart for it, and I fell in love with France.

Top 5

Top 5
as passed on by Steph

1. 5 things under $5 that I cannot live without:
*Carmex
*Light & Fluffy Smoothie from Smoothie King in lieu of lunch after workout
*Neutrogena under Eye Cream (Yes, Steph, I too have had since my mid-twenties, that same anti-wrinkle battle going on in my head-what has this youth obsessed culture done to us!)
*plain bagel from Panera
*(the absolute best kept secret for pampering feet) Dr. Scholl's deep healing overnight foot creme!

2. 5 Favorite Movies:
In no certain order because I love my absolute favorite movies.
*Sense & Sensibility
*Shadowlands
*It's a Wondeful Life
*Return to Me
*Lord of the Rings (cheating because, the title encompasses the whole trilogy)

3. 5 baby names I love:
*uh, Sophia
*Olivia
*Samuel
*Preston
*Lorelai

4. 5 songs I could listen to over and over:
*I'm not who I was (Brandon Heath)
*In this place (Coldplay)
*Crazy in Love (Beyonce)
*Best of what's around (Dave Matthews Band)
*In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)

5. 5 people who have influenced me in a positive way, although there are a lot more:
*It must be a given, but always my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
*My wonderful David
*My mom
*My loving sister
*my dear friend Beth Hassell

6. 5 things that are always in my purse/diaper bag:
*besides the obvious, goldfish for Sophia (yeah, mommy sneaks a few)
*a play cellphone for Sophia
*Paper and Restaurant leftover Crayons
*change of clothes, because Sophia love her liquids
*Purse: tire gauge, you just never know

7. 5 Moments that have changed my life forever: (In order of occurence)
*Parent's divorce (the good and the bad and all the love that was a covering)
*Mom's remarriage and the good step-father that is still a part of my life
*Accepting Christ as an 18 yo
*Growing in Christ in college, being involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and learning that the Lord most certainly does lead us to Himself with "cords of human kindness with binds of love"
*Marrying a wonderful Godly man who loves the Lord, me and his girls, adding to that the miracle of the instant family with two sweet natured step-daughters and my most miraculous-Sophia Louisa

8. 5 obsessions I have now:
*planning our once in a lifetime(I hope not but we are going to certainly may the most of it) trip to France and Spain
*blogging (er, uh, actually, honestly reading others blogs and trying to be encouraging by commenting long-windedly)
*DVR, yeah, it rules, Commercial free since 2006
*I have got to confess this, because I enjoy the tight friendship/relationship stories minus the extreme Samantha explorations: I want to see Sex and the City the Movie and know what happens with Carrie and Big, and all.
*Jon & Kate plus 8

9. 5 places I would like to go: (like there's only 5...ha!)
*Austria
*Italy
*Ireland
*Germany
*North Carolina

10. 5 appliances or kitchen tools I cannot live without:
*Our awesome gas stove
*Tea kettle
*Coffee maker
*uh, that being said, coffee grinder
*Microwave

Now because I am nosy I would love anyone to post their five and give me a heads up if they wouldn't mind sharing.

Happy New Year!

Well we had a sweet, low key Christmas season.

Yes, I had to get the traditional, "first time baby sees Santa Claus and is terrified" pic.
See, she was okey-dokey later.

A little strep throat here, a cold there, teething everywhere and yet the holiday time was spent cozily together and with dear family and friends. Thank you dear Lord! Here's to a New Year with more of the same and, as my mother-in-law toasted, a New Year with Peace. Amen.

I love blogging. But do I do it. No. It is just like the fact that I so enjoy watching Jon & Kate plus 8 and marvel at their efficiency and gumption but does that translate into me doing the same? No, I simply sit and watch and, yes, don't make the most of my time. One of my flaws. But when I read and so admire other peoples blogs I love to compliment and encourage because they are so inspirational to me. So is this a new year's resolution raising it's ugly head--oh no. I don't believe in all the "I'm gonnas". We will just see.

I know Steph made herself a "little diligence jar" and that is such a good idea but I would end up procrastinating on the jar itself. So blogging will be my diligence jar. Anyone welcome to keep me accountable. Uh, I think.

So I hope your New Year is encouraging and that I will blog again soon.

SLEEP

Praise the Lord Sophia is well. Well she was finally a 100% a week after I blogged last. What a trooper. But now her sleep patterns are so off track. And I long for sleep for her, sleep for David and oh yes, sleep for me. Lord be with us. But I am thankful this is all we have to deal with.

Tomorrow I will attempt a new addition to our (Sophia and me) schedule: Stroller striders. Exercising outdoors with your baby. I can imagine those, ummm, 25 pounds or so melting off me now and Sophia contentedly taking it all in for 75 minutes.....I am staying positive. I am not going to think about the fact that it may be quite chilly and I may cop out yet again and instead decide to stay home and practice finding the perfect sugar free pumpkin and apple pie recipes. THus adding more poundage in the taste testing phase. AH, but sacrifices must be made. Which will I make? We shall see.

Well, I not only have stroller striders to look forward to but also a Thanksgiving meal to prepare for (yeah baby, it is all going down in my territory this time), and, as if I wasn't crazy for doing that, a cookie exchange to coordinate and decorate all Christmasy for the week after Thanksgiving.

No, I am typically so not a busy person at all and all the events coming up are of my making but I have been a happy hermit too long and Sophia may appreciate a little more socializing. I hope y'all have a happy Thanksgiving and I am pretty sure I won't be blogging until closer to Christmas.
Blog ya later.

My second blog ever

My little sweet Sophia is sick. Oh. Prayers indeed. I think about the scripture in Romans where we are told as believers that the Holy Spirit interprets our groans as prayers and yeah, I am groaning. I pray that this diarrhea, fever and throwing up bug will shoo-shoo away and be cleaned out of her body and that her little immune system will be girded up for any other bugs that dare to be encountered. She is such a little inspiration to me though, as often babies are. She doesn't complain,really, only small fits when she is having a bad bout or when her fever has been way up. And this has been going on now for 8 days. But she still wants to play, love, and laugh, when the fever breaks and she is hydrated and rested. Prayers for anyone that reads this and is going through the same.

I know I will blog again with better news. I would like to blog more but I am somehow waiting for the perfect blogtime and hoping to be a perfect blog writer that I don't end up blogging at all.

Ah, well, until another time.

My very first blog ever

I am oddly excited. But I really have nothing to post or announce besides the fact that I have embarked on this new online adventure. I am most definitely not tech savvy so I will hopefully make this a more sophisticated and fun journal for my family and friends that want to check in with our little family and our news. Plus I like having this forum for a type of computer scrapbooking.....but at least this time I might actually finish something. Happy reading to all.