Anna's Getting Married!

My friend Anna is getting married in just a couple of weeks! In celebration of her, we headed out for some fun last night. We ended our fun with dinner at Medieval Times. Here's the proof:

Even though our red and yellow knight was not the victor, we still managed to have a good time. It was good to get to hang out with Anna again (she lives in Alpharetta now) before she heads down the aisle!

Adding to the fun was the fact that our waiter was a guy with a love for Jesus and a heart for the world. He was in Haiti on a mission trip just 3 days before the earthquake. He is headed back in a couple of weeks, so you can send up some prayers for Steven as he goes!

Why I Love...

I freely admit that I am not the most creative person. I often rely on other people's ideas to at least inspire me, if not guide me. This blog is exhibit A. I often sit down and think about posting, but I am not sure what to write about. I also often read other people's blogs and think to myself, "What a great idea. I should do that..." And then sometimes I do. I am quick, however, to give that other person the credit for the idea.

Take Julie, for example. Julie is the inspiration for this post. A few weeks ago, Julie began a weekly post entitled "Why I Love" where she talks about the reasons that she loves a certain thing in her life. I have enjoyed reading her posts about why she loves Weight Watchers Online, her daughter Lily, and couponing. She even inspired me to do a little investigating into couponing myself. So, I decided that I would steal her idea. (Hope that you don't mind, Julie!) So, here you go. Here are just a few of the reasons why I love:

iGoogle

A while back, I was visiting my friend Emily. We were checking our email and looking at a few blogs when I noticed her computer and asked her what iGoogle was. My life has not been the same since.

(OK, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but seriously, it's great!)

iGoogle is a personalized homepage that you can create with any number of different applications (or Gadgets). I have made iGoogle my homepage. My page contains my email, a Google reader that feeds any updates of the blogs that I regularly read, Twitter, a calendar, CNN.com headlines, the local weather, a ToDo list, a Scripture verse of the day, and a couple of other random things. (Including a "How to" for the day, just for fun. Today's "How to" includes tips for traveling in Patagonia and steps for publishing a children's book. Because you just never know...) Using iGoogle, I can quickly see if I have any new email, if there are any new blog posts that I want to read, or if anyone has tweeted anything particularly interesting - all at one glance. The Google Reader particularly saves me time. Since I have become quite the blogging junkie, it allows me to quickly see when someone has updated their blog, rather than actually loading the page to check to see if there is an update. I can then read the post right from the Reader without going to the actual website. I love it! The CNN headlines help me to know a little bit about what is happening in the world since I don't watch much TV. (And when I do, it's almost never the news...)

So, those are just a few reasons why I love iGoogle.

I'll do my best to make this a weekly thing. And I would love for you to comment about some of the random things that you love, too.

(Except you, Julie...I'll just keep reading yours on the blog :-)

Shout Outs

I have some amazingly talented friends. One of them is my roommate, Aimee. Aimee has been living with me since October, and I am thankful to have her here! One of the things that I love is getting to watch her use her talents to create beautiful things. She has an Etsy site where she has a few of her pieces of jewelry listed for sale. You should definitely check it out HERE!

I also want to let you guys know about a project that another one of my friends is working on. Hannah is a college student that I met down at the Midtown campus of the church I attend. She is a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart to serve others and serve the Lord. She and her mom have recently started to sell homemade granola. All profits from their sales will go toward supporting the grandmothers (called GoGos) in Swaziland, Africa. These women are taking care of their grandchildren and other children, many of whom are orphans due to the devastation that AIDS has caused in their country. Hannah's mom has traveled to Swaziland and seen firsthand the need that exists there. You can help her help these precious women by going HERE and ordering some yummy granola. Trust me - it's good! Hannah brought me some this morning, and it was delicious!

2009 in Photos, Part 3 - Events

In 2009...

...it snowed in March.




...I put my house back on the market.

...my college friend Amanda got married.


...I went to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta with my dad.


...I went to camp with some great kiddos. I flipped and climbed things and did karate. Who says the counselors can't have fun, too??




...I met MckMama at a picnic in Atlanta.


...I interviewed and decided to go on staff full-time with Word Made Flesh in Lima, Peru.


...I visited my friends in Lima. I took pictures of clothespins and vegetables while I was there.



...I got Ouidad hair courtesy of my college friend Emily.


...I cut off said hair and donated it to be made into wigs for kids with cancer. (At least it will be donated once I actually mail it...)

What events highlighted your 2009??

2009 in Photos, Part 2 - Community

I have an amazing small group. We started meeting together in the fall of 2007 out of desires that each of us had for intentional community. We weren't sure how it would work or what it would look like, but we were sure that we were tired of surface level relationships that asked, "how was your week?" over and over again. We wanted to go beyond that in our relationship with one another. It has been such a blessing to share life with these friends. While we do sometimes ask each other on Mondays how the week has gone, we also study Scripture together, pray for one another, and ask hard questions. We walk with each other through difficult things. We laugh a lot. We have fun together. I am so thankful to have these friends in my life!

Wordless Wednesday: Cool Tree

Interview with Chris Heuertz

Chris Heuertz is the International Executive Director of Word Made Flesh. Though I have only actually met him once for a brief period of time, I have heard much about him throughout the time I have been in relationship with WMF. I am looking forward to getting to know him and his wife Phileena better over the years as I serve on staff in Lima. Here is a recent interview with Chris in Canada:

Sickness, and a few other random topics...

I've been sick. For the better part of the past 36 hours, I have been either in my bed, on the couch, or in the bathroom. I will spare you the details and skip to the part where I seem to be feeling better this morning. Yay! Granted, the only things that I have tried putting back into my stomach so far are Saltines and Gatorade, but so far so good. I like to celebrate the small victories in life :-)

While I wallowed on the couch yesterday, I pulled out some old episodes of SYTYCD. I love that show. I think I like to live vicariously through people who actually can dance since I cannot. Maybe some day I'll take some lessons or something. Maybe...

I am not very good at transition. My life is currently in a transition phase, and I am not really loving it. Having decided that I am moving to Peru and having communicated that plan to the majority of people in my life, I would love to be able to answer the question I get on a (multiple times a) daily basis - "When are you leaving?" I would love to have a departure date. A plan. Something. But, I don't. Not yet. And, so I wait. And I pray that the Lord would send someone to buy my house. Soon. In the meantime, I try to listen to Him and wait patiently for His timing and His plans. But, it's hard. And I am not very good at it...

Meet Bella

He's my kitty. He lives at my parents' house now, where he likes to show off his door opening skills whenever someone forgets to lock one. See??

2009 in Photos, Part 1 - Family

Happy New Year, friends!

As I begin 2010, I thought I'd take a minute (or a few blog posts...) to remember 2009 - in photos, that is. So, I thought I would start with the fam. I love my family! Here are some of our 2009 family highlights:

**Pam and Jeremy (my sister and brother-in-law) moved from Nashville, TN to Fargo, ND in May. It is sad that they are so far away, but exciting to know that they are following God's plan for them and impacting the lives of people up there in the bitter-cold North. We spent some time with them before they moved:

with Pam in Nashville

with the fam at Hanna Park

And then we spent some more time with them up in North Dakota (before it became a snow zone):





But, now the green is gone and the white has come:

Pam and Jeremy (not actually in Fargo, though...)

**Dad decided to retire from Prudential Financial in order to be free to devote more time to Christ's Starfish Foundation (the foundation that he started a few years ago) and the radio show.

Dad and I at Thanksgiving

**Speaking of the radio show, the first broadcast of Journeys with Christ also happened this year, starring yours truly as its first guest. Journeys with Christ is a radio broadcast where my dad interviews people in the community about how the Lord is at work in their lives. You can listen every Saturday morning online at 930am here. You can also check out the archives here.

**Carla continued her life as a middle school drama and journalism teacher in Jacksonville. She supplied me with many funny stories along the way. (Student: "Ms. Lahey! Did you know they had beaches in the 1920's!?! Carla: "You mean like sand and water? Yes, hunny - sand and water have been around for quite a while now.") She also continued her career as a community theater star by acting in a couple of local productions. I wish that I had a picture to share with you of that, but alas, I don't. Here are some others, though:


**Mom continued to slave away at the post office all year. She also sacrificed her house for the sake of sick children for the better part of December. With the help of lots of volunteer gift donors, Christ's Starfish Foundation supplied thousands of gifts to the children in Jacksonville and Gainesville who were in the hospital on Christmas day. Those thousands of gifts were collected and sorted in my parents' house. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that to show you either, but you should be able to find some on the website soon.

Carla, Mom and I on Thanksgiving

**I made the decision that I will be moving to Peru in 2010 to serve with Word Made Flesh in Lima full-time. In light of Pam and Jeremy being up North and my impending move overseas, we tried to enjoy lots of time together during the holidays this year.

Pam and Jeremy weren't able to come home for Thanksgiving.
We still made space for them in the photo, though...

Pam made it home to celebrate her birthday and Christmas in Florida. We spent some time visiting the Grandpas and extended fam:



I do love my family!! Looking forward to more fun family time together in 2010! (Maybe there will even be some additions to the family! I am thinking of the baby variety (no pressure), but Carla and I would be more than happy to add some husbands should God decide to send them our way...)