(Not Quite So) Wordless Wednesday

This is my cousin's new little one, Isabel. Isn't she adorable?!? She's also the one sleeping in my arms in the new header (which I am not sure that I like, by the way...what do you think?). The picture quality is not the best (user error), but I still like it. And I love these little feet, too:

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!

Wait, Wait... that's the line I was going to use a few weeks ago. Oops. It seems that I may be a little late. Oh well. Better late than never, right??

In all seriousness, I can't believe that another Christmas has come and gone. Sometimes it seems that time just moves too quickly, and I can't seem to keep up. I had great intentions to do some blogging throughout December documenting the season. As you can see, I didn't quite make that happen. But, I did want to share a few pictures with you. Maybe I will find time to do a little more catching up soon. Until then:

Decorations at my house

Christmas day with the extended family

Thank You!

...to my friend Kristy for sending me these adorable burp clothes!!

NO, there is no baby on the way for me. Definitely not. And not for my sister and brother-in-law either (though I would have been thrilled with that Christmas surprise.) My sweet friend has been making these as gifts for friends of hers that are having babies, and she sent me some to sell and put toward Peru support. Wasn't that precious of her?!? I think so. Almost as precious as these cutie-patootie burp clothes are. They make me wish that I had a baby to use them. (Sort of. Or maybe just a friend with a baby to send them to. Or a sister with a baby. (No pressure, though, Pam and Jeremy) )

Anyways, I just wanted to say Thanks! to Kristy and let you know that there may be an online auction or something coming this way soon...

I love this one!

They're so soft, too!

Prayer Letter Link

Hey friends!

Merry Christmas! I am sorry that I have been ignoring my blog lately. I promise that there are catch-up posts to come complete with pictures of what I have been up to - maybe even today. For now, though, I wanted to let you know that you can read my latest Peru update letter here.

If I have your address, you can expect this letter to show up in your mailbox in a couple of weeks, but just in case you couldn't wait that long...

Love and Merry Christmas!!

Happy Birthday, Pam!

Today is my sister Pam's birthday! Yay! So, here is my ode to her:

(Except, of course, that I don't know how to write an actual ode... SO, how about a top ten list and some pictures?? Yep, that's a better idea!)

Top Ten Things I Love About My Pamela:

1. She answers to almost anything.

Pam has many, many nicknames - many of which I randomly made up. The list includes (but is not limited to) Pammie, Pammie Poo, Pammie A, Pamela (her actual name, but in this version said with a Spanish accent), P, Peep, Pame-Lu-La, LuLa, and some others I am sure!



2. She is HILARIOUS!

I mean, seriously hilarious. She makes me laugh all the time. She has a sort of dry sense of humor, and just says funny things all the time. I love it!


3. She sings in the shower. LOUDLY.

I love that you can hear Pam singing in the shower from the family room in my parents house, which is located on the opposite side of the house. I love that she doesn't care what other people may think about that. I love that her shower selections often include the most random songs from the recesses of her brain. I especially love when those songs include random old hymns that she hasn't otherwise sung in years. I think that God probably enjoys her honest worship of Him in unashamed fashion from the shower!


4. She dances in her car. While she sings. At the top of her lungs.

I often say that I am sure that other motorists must really enjoy pulling up at a stoplight next to my sister. Chances are that she's putting on a little show from behind the steering wheel.


5. She is a friend to all.

My sister is the greatest friend! She loves people so well. She is especially great at including everyone. She is so kind and generous in her relationship with others, and I love her for it!




6. She doesn't care what other people think.

Pam has always had a bit of a free spirit. She really doesn't concern herself much with what other people may think. (See numbers 3 and 4 above). What you see is really who she is, and I love that about her!


7. She is amazing with children!

I mean, amazing. She loves kids and they love her. She is going to be such a great Mommy one day (hopefully soon! - but that's not a hint or anything...). One of the things that I grieve most with regard to moving to Peru is the prospect of missing my sister have babies and become a Mom. (Don't worry, though - I've already informed her that she will have to Skype from the delivery room!)



8. Her sense of style.

Throughout the years, Pam's styles have included some interesting things... From all the florescent wear of her childhood to the cheerleader shorts and sports bras of her teens (in the house anyway) to the funky T-shirts of her twenties, I love this girl's ever-changing style. And we shouldn't forget all of the socks, mostly courtesy of Grandma.


9. Her ability to win at Scrabble.

I actually don't love this trait at all. Because she always wins. Always. Which means that I don't win. Which I don't actually like too much....


10. Her love for Jesus and desire to share that with others.

My sister loves Jesus. She lives a life of love that shows that so well. She and her husband Jeremy have left their families and warmer weather of the South to make a new home in North Dakota so that they can share the love of Christ with people there. I am so proud of her. Her kindness and love for others are an example of how Jesus tells His followers to live, and are an encouragement to me to live that way, too.




Happy Birthday, Pamela!! I love you, and hope that your day is great! Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

I love these guys...

How many guys does it take to light the pilot in my gas fireplace??


Apparently, it takes four out of the five guys in my community group. The fifth decided a better idea would be to sit back and record the antics on his Iphone. A smart choice.

Did I mention that I love these guys? They are seriously some of the most hilarious, fun, and Godly men that I know. And, my living room is now much warmer thanks to their efforts. Thanks, friends. (It was entertaining to watch, too.)

Remembering

The Christmas season is a time for remembering. It is typically a time of traditions that naturally lends itself to remembering the things that you have done in the past. Today, though, I am remembering for another reason. A year ago today, my Grandma Lahey left this earth and went to be with Jesus. It was such a sad day for us here on this Earth, but a glorious day for her. I can't wait to get to see her again some day.

I have actually been thinking of her a lot lately, not just because today is an anniversary. This holiday season is a time that she loved, and I will always remember that. This Thanksgiving, I remembered that Thanksgiving last year was the last time that I really got to talk to her. We typically split our time on holidays between both of my parents' sides of the family, so we went over there for dinner last year. I don't remember exactly what we talked about, but I am sure that our Christmas lists were among the topics of conversation. My grandma loved Christmas. She loved giving. She gave extravagantly at Christmastime, and she loved to sit back and watch all of her children and grandchildren open their gifts. It was hard to get her to sit down and open her own. By the time that she died on December 6th of last year, most of her Christmas shopping was already done. It was a bittersweet time to sit down and open the gifts that she and Grandpa had chosen for us after she was already gone. I remember that she had hand-crocheted my sister some hanging kitchen towels, and tears flowed when she opened them. It was difficult to think that Grandma would not be around to make any more of those hand-made gifts. I still have one of the tags off of my gifts with her handwriting on it on my refrigerator. That handwriting that was both so pretty in its loopy cursive and often difficult to read at the same time. She used to send us handwritten letters, and I loved getting them. I loved how she would update me on what everyone was up to. She never forgot a birthday - there would always be a card and a gift in my mailbox without fail. She often send cards and gifts for other holidays, too. There are so many things that I will remember. Here are some of the other things:

~the way that she would tell us to, "Be pretty, girls" when my sisters and I were arguing

~pinatas at every holiday. Yes, every one. (I don't remember where this tradition started. Maybe Aunt Annie or Mom can comment and help me out here...) It was very difficult to "graduate" from participating in the pinata. As we got older, we learned that the candy was OK, but the little slips of paper with numbers written on them were the real prize. Those were for all of the things that were too big to fit in the pinata. She made sure that there was something for everybody - even if that meant we had to do a little switcheroo after the prizes had been distributed (Zach didn't have much use for the hair barrettes after all...)

~her Christmas tree, and the way that all the gifts never actually fit underneath it. There were always way too many!

~her collections of bells and Gone with the Wind memorabilia.

~the fact that anything you "collected" became a collection for life. I think I still have some of those ceramic masks somewhere...

~Salted pecans and peanut butter cookies with the Hershey kisses (that she called "silver bells") in the middle at holidays.

~the big Easter egg hunts. I especially remember the year that she had a separate egg hunt for the adults. They had so much fun!

~the way that she was always traveling. I could never keep track of whether she was in Florida or Missouri, or somewhere in between. I still have a hard time keeping up with my Grandpa!

~the way that she always kept my Grandpa running. There was always a new job to do. I am sure he wouldn't have had it any other way.

~her love for others. She always included everyone. She always made you feel special.

~her generosity. Though it could be seen clearly at Christmas, she was always such a giver. It was much harder for her to receive - even if that only meant someone else doing the dishes for her. She wouldn't have it!

I love you, Gram! I miss you this year, and I always will!

I'm the one in the lap :-)

The End of an Era

The sad moment has come.

The one that Gator fans have been ignoring for at least the past 3 years.

The one where Tim Tebow graduates and the Gators are left without one of the best quarterbacks they have ever known. Yeah, that moment. It's here. Sad day.

Speaking of Tim Tebow and sad days, it was a sad day today indeed when the Gators' undefeated season was thwarted by a stronger Alabama team. Sad day.

But, at least in my book, today's loss doesn't negate the greatness of Tim Tebow. I have loved being a Gator fan over the past 4 years and getting to cheer him on as he plowed over the opponent's defensive line. It was great to watch him rush into the endzone so many times, or throw that jump-pass at a critical moment of a big game. It was great to hear him publicly proclaim the truth of Jesus from the stage that his talents afforded him. It was fun to watch to see which verse he would choose to wear on his face during the game as a testimony to his faith. Mostly, it was just fun as a fan to watch him play football.

So, Thanks, Tim Tebow. Thanks for your contribution to this era of great Gator football. We will miss you next season! Looking forward to watching you dominate in a bowl game, even if it's not the one we were hoping for...

Go Gators!

(And congratulations to all you 'Bama fans that have seemed to come out of the woodwork. As much as I hate to root for a Florida rival, I will be doing just that when you play Texas for the championship. 'Cause my sister tells me I should always pull for the SEC, and she's a smart girl...)

That smart sister and I before a Florida/Vandy game a couple of years ago

So. Funny.

Confession: I love this commercial.

I don't watch all that much TV, and when I do, I don't tend to like watching commercials. But, this one is hilarious! I seriously pull it up on YouTube every now and then just to make myself laugh. So, I thought I would share the hilarity with you, just in case you hadn't seen it yourself. Or even if you have...

Welcome to the Christmas Season!

It was about time to move from the fall on to the Christmas season here on the blog. So, I decided to give digital scrapbooking a try in order to make a new header. I downloaded a kit from the Design Girl, and googled several questions that I had along the way (i.e. "how to use digital scrapbook kit", "free cursive fonts", and "how to rotate blog headers"). Once I made the first one, I decided not to stop there...hence the need for a rotating header. I had a little trouble trying to figure out the html for that one, and I think there is still a little glitch (like, every now and then no header loads...oops), but overall I am pretty proud of myself. Go ahead and reload the page and see if you get a different header. There are 6 different designs in all. Let me know what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! I hope that you had a great day with your friends and families! I was supposed to work last night, so my Thanksgiving plans were up in the air until the last minute. My dad (who is the greatest!) drove up with plans to pick me up from work on Thursday morning to drive us home. I ended up getting to stay home on Wednesday night, so I met up with him at midnight and we shared the driving through the night to get into Jacksonville at about 6am. We decided at the last minute to stay home and do Thanksgiving in Jacksonville with just us this year, which we have never done before. It was a fun and very relaxing day! My sister woke me up as the Macy's parade started and we watched it until the end (something that we usually don't get to do) before getting dressed and ready to eat lunch. And lunch was fabulous! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole (my favorite), corn casserole (I pass on this one), homemade buttermilk biscuits, and sweet tea. Yummy! Lots of props to my super fabulous Momma who made it all herself!


And then there was hummingbird cake (another favorite), gingerbread and pumpkin trifle, and cookies and cream (which we like to call "junk") for dessert. Let's just say that I should be full for a while. I am so glad that I was able to come home and be with my family! After lunch we all took a nap before I insisted that everyone get up and dressed for a couple of family photos in the backyard. (Most of us didn't bother with the shoes...)


We missed our Pam and Jeremy! My younger sister and brother-in-law live in North Dakota and were not able to make it home for the holiday this year. We saved them a place in a couple of our photos, though:



We spent the rest of the day relaxing over a game of Trivial Pursuit, a couple of Christmas movies, and Black Friday shopping strategizing. Speaking of shopping, I better head to bed! Those 5am deals are going to come early!

Meeting MckMama

This past Sunday, my friend Kerry and I headed down into the city for a picnic with MckMama. MckMama is a blogger that I have been reading for a while now. I actually first linked to her blog through a link on Kerry's blog. So, it was appropriate that we headed down together to go meet her. Anyway, MckMama has a popular blog where she posts about life raising four kiddos, photography, natural eating, and loving Jesus, among other things. Her blog has become very popular as she has openly shared about and sought prayer for her youngest son, Stellan, who was diagnosed in utero with a heart condition called SVT. While the doctors thought he wouldn't survive the pregnancy, he was born healthy. However, when he was about 4 months old, his SVT reared its ugly head again, and he has had several hospitalizations and close calls since then. Most recently, though, his SVT was healed through a successful (though very risky) surgery. I love reading the blog (mostly because MckMama is funny, entertaining, and I love her photos), and have spent time praying for the health of sweet Stellan. So, when she posted that she would be in the Atlanta area, and was planning to have a gathering to meet some of her blog readers, I started to consider going. I was a little hesitant, though, because I knew that an actual meeting would be a whole 'nother step into my blog-addiction. But, when I got an email from Kerry asking me if I was interested in going down, I decided that accompanying her was a great reason to go! So, we went. It was a fun time, even though it was a gray, nasty rainy day. It was fun to get to meet MckMama, to see those sweet kiddos of hers in person, and to even get to hold the miracle baby himself! Here are a couple of pictures of them, using a layout that I learned from this MckMama post:

Note to Self, Volume 2:

Dear self,

When driving, please refrain from veering off the beaten path. I mean, seriously, you are not good with directions. Just face the truth. You have no idea which way is north, south, east, or west unless the sun is rising or setting, and even then sometimes you have trouble. So when driving somewhere new, just look up the directions. And when you do have directions and manage to arrive at a new place successfully (say, the Trader Joe's on Peachtree Pkwy), DON'T just decide that you can figure out a different way home. It doesn't work that way. You may just end up in John's Creek, where the people at the Walgreen's look at you funny when you ask them the best way to get back to 85. So, save yourself some trouble next time and just turn around and go back the way that you came. Trust me, it will turn out better that way.

Sincerely,
Amy

P.S. You may want to consider asking for a GPS for Christmas. That might help, too. (That is, if you weren't planning to leave the country soon and would therefore not have much use for it long-term...)

Do You Know...

Do you know who is in this photo with me? I'm referring to the one in the middle. Clearly, her nametag says Jennifer, but you might know her by another name. That is, if you are a bit of a blog-stalker like myself. I have linked to her blog here on mine before, and asked you to join in praying for her sweet son. I met him today, too. Any guesses? I'm headed to bed right now, but more about this picture and a couple of overdue blog posts coming soon...

Could Be Yours...

This coming Thursday I am having a little get-together at my house. It will be a good time of food and friends for sure, but it will hopefully also be a time for people to get to know a little more about my heart for Peru. I will also be selling a few handmade items to help to start raising money for my Peru support account. Here are some of the items:

(Click on the image for a better view)

Isn't this awesome?!? One of the fabulous girls that I work with made this for me to sell. It's a collection of "doodles" that are in the shape of the country of Peru. It is made up of a bunch of different words like, "poverty", "salt & light", "compassion", "sacrifice", and lots of others. I think it's a fun game to stare at it and see what new words I can find. The amazing thing to me is that Stacey didn't even outline the shape that she was going for. She just started doodling and just formed it into the shape of Peru as she went. Amazing!

Another friend from work, Kelly, made some earrings and bracelets. Here are a few of the earrings:





I have also been making some handmade cards to sell. While I was in Florida visiting my parents recently, my mom bought me some really cute Christmas paper. We made several cards together. Here are a few:






I also have some Christmas cards that were designed by some of the youth in Lima. These are from previous years that I have left over. Money from these cards would go directly to support the ministry in Lima.






All of these things could be yours! I would love for you to come and hang out with me on Thursday if you live in or around Atlanta. If not, and you are interested in any of these things, just let me know. I have lots more cards and also some scarves that I don't have pictures of yet. I think that I am just going to sell those things on a donation basis, so let me know if you are interested in anything!

(I apologize for the quality of the pictures and the poor lighting. I was in a hurry and my house doesn't have the best lighting for taking photos.)