christmas eve

so i'm back tracking a little bit here, but that's ok. i was able to spend christmas eve with some close friends of mine, brian, delia, and their son luca. i went to their christmas eve service with them and then we went back to their house and proceeded to make home made egg nog and glazed pecans. the egg nog turned out great! (nicely done brian) i made the glazed pecans with this nut roaster that brian got delia for christmas. the box "claims" that it takes 10 minutes....yeah right. 1 hour later and two burns on my fingers the pecans were finally done! were they worth it....? i think so. they were some of the best glazed nuts i've ever had. i had a great time having "girl talk" with delia while brian finished wraping gifts. then we watched "it's a wonderful life" while eating our nuts and drinking our nog :-) we stayed up entirely way too late, but we had a great time as always. thanks bri and del!

it's a wonderful life...is it???

as i sit here this morning, i'm trying to pretend that it's any other day but christmas day. i mean, i would have never thought that i'd be spending christmas day alone. waking up to a big house on christmas morning by yourself is not what i dreamed for me. can i just say that being far away from your family stinks! as i sat watching "it's a wonderful life" last night with some friends, i couldn't help but relate to george bailey. everything he dreamed of and had set out to do, never happened. i feel that way sometimes. oh how i wish god would give each one of us a glimpse into our lives. what would things look like if i was never born? has my life really made an impact on other people around me? how would my life have turned out if i'd taken a different path? what kind of person would i be if things would have gone MY way? it's hard to know. we can only imagine and imagine away i do. i question god this morning as i sit alone. for those of you that know me well, know that i thrive on people. i get my energy from being around people, so being alone on christmas morning is torture for me. i don't know god's purpose in allowing me to be alone this morning. i'm sure it will make sense some day, years from now when i look back on this christmas in 2008. i'm sure i've offended someone in being so "negative" on christmas day, but i hate being fake. i'm all about being real. when it comes down to it, i have lots to be thankful for, but i'm still sitting here on the couch all alone and that just plain sucks. merry christmas!!

holiday baking

so...most of you know that i LOVE to bake:-) i think i could do it every day! i've been a baking fiend over the last week. this is what i've made so far...pumpkin dip, peppermint bark, ginger snaps, christmas cutout sugar cookies w/icing, buckeyes, white chocolate covered pretzels w/sprinkles, and these peppermint brownie balls. i made the cutout cookies with my girls. we had a blast, although we were totally over the decorating by the end of the night. :-)

i love surprises!

so a couple of weekends ago i flew up to indy to surprise my best friend allison. i had been talking with her husband and mom over the last two months in order to make sure that she would be surprised and have the whole weekend free. it worked out perfectly! she was in complete shock when she saw me and then she started to cry. oh how i love surprises!!! it had been over a year since we had seen each other and i was in some dire need of bonding time with my best friend. i had a blast hanging out with her and being able to see her whole family :-)
not only was i able to surprise her, but i was able to surprise my whole family as well. i didn't tell any of them that i was coming. my mom was throwing danelle, my sis-in-law, a baby shower that sunday so i drove up to my parents house and surprised everyone at the baby shower. it was so much fun!!! it was great to be there for the shower and to be with danelle :-)

song writers..

i am amazed by song writers/singers. i love to sing and am grateful that i am able to use that talent that god has given me, but i am not a song writer. i wish i was, but i have to realize that, that is not one of my gifts. i so admire song writers. i wish i could write lyrics that inspire and move people as they do me. as most of you know, i am very passionate about music. music can have a way of moving and speaking to me so much. i love how it can make me laugh, bring tears to my eyes, pump me up, inspire me, but i love it most when i can relate to the lyrics and the artist that wrote them. there are times in which i feel like certain songs kind of sum up my life story. it's amazing to me how much music moves me. i cannot imagine a world with out music.

i went to a concert last night, "behold the lamb of god" by andrew peterson. it's one of my favorite concerts. this was my second time going to it. he always has a bunch of different artists help him with the concert. ie..bebo norman, sara groves, jill phillips, andy gullahorn, andrew osenga, etc. the first part of the concert, the artists sing a couple of songs each and it's a very chill and laid back atmosphere. they talk in between and they are so random and hilarious. then the second part of the concert is the christmas part. andrew peterson wrote "behold the lamb of god" about 10 years ago and it consists of 11 songs that tell the coming of christ. it's amazing to see him take the old testament stories and turn them into songs. the soundtrack is amazing! one of the reasons why i like this concert so much is that it is very humble. the concert is not about the artists, it's about sharing the coming of christ, the real reason for christmas. their hearts are so genuine. it's so refreshing to go to a concert like this.

jill phillips sang a song from her new album called "all the good things". i could totally relate to it. the song is basically looking at the big picture and seeing how everything in our life is good. even when we go through crap and hard times in our lives, it always turns out good. god always brings good out of hard times. that's one of the biggest things that god has been teaching me this year. i am trying to find the good things in every trial i go through and i KNOW that he will bring good out of every situation. it's hard to see it sometimes, but we are always able to look back after time and see the bigger picture and it becomes clear to us why god did it the way he did. i love getting to the place where you can look back on those hard times with joy in knowing that god knew what he was doing all along. he always does. even when things are crumbling and failing around us, god's plans never fail. i will leave you with the lyrics to "all the good things"....



Every once in a while the world stops spinning enoughThat I can take a step back and get the pictureI see the twists and the turns, I see the patterns they formI see how perfect they are and I remember
All the good thingsAll the good thingsAll the good things you’ve done for me
Though the feeling is real I know it’s fleeting to feelOne day I’ll forget you are here and start to wonderIn that season of doubt, You’ll still be showering meWith blessings I can’t see, that can’t be numbered
All the good thingsAll the good thingsAll the good things You’ve done for me
Forgive me for my shortsighted look at this worldWhere you keep proving that you know what you’re doing
If I could see like you do with your perspective viewThe fires I’m walking through would look much differentI’d see those difficult days for who they made me becomeAnd I would count them among
All the good thingsAll the good thingsAll the good things You’ve done for me

5k Reindeer Run

so this weekend i did a 5k with one of my good friends jen. it was the reindeer run and it's for fun. there is christmas music and at the end of the race they have hot chocolate and cookies. they gave jingle bells for everyone to put on their shoes. and people dress up in christmas costumes and they have a contest. it was a really fun race and it was nice because it wasn't timed, so it was very laid back. it was 40 degrees so it kind of fit the theme of the race, but we were freezing our butts off.

halloween party

so my friends jared and jocelyn and rob and kelly hosted the most amazing halloween party!! they sure do know how to throw a party; they didn't miss any detail and the food was amazing!! the theme was hollywood glamour. i decided to dress up as an actress from the 1920's. i had a blast getting all dressed up. i live for this kind of stuff. they actually had a red carpet leading up from the sidewalk to their front door and had hired someone to take pictures of everyone "walking" the red carpet. how fun!! here are some pics :-)

oh the retired life....

so my parents were just here in fl with me for over a month! oh to be retired :-) someday....sigh
it was great to have them here and to have them get to know my life here in fl. it's hard being so far away from them because i feel like they miss out on so much of my life. it was great to have them go to church with me and meet so much of my spiritual family. they really enjoyed their time here and met a lot of people who became fast friends with them. i have recently got connected with some people in my church that i didn't know very well and people from pioneers and i just feel sooo blessed for all the wonderful people that god has placed in my life. i am so lucky!! i feel like fl is really home for me (sorry mom :-)) and i am so thankful that god has brought me here and placed me among so many wonderful friends! life is good...

some prego pics that i took of my sis in law at 7 1/2 months

family vaca to the outer banks

i really do love blogging...i'm just horrible at finding the time to update my blog :-) so back in oct my family got together in nc at the outer banks. it was my first time here and it was wonderful! my dad rented a house right on the ocean and it had 7 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. there were 10 of us that met up from indiana, georgia, and florida. we just spent the week relaxing, shopping, and taking in the outer banks. it was great to see my sister-in-law and brother (it had almost been a year!) and it was the first time i was able to see my sis since she became pregnant. so that was fun to see her belly stick out:-) we were able to take some great family pictures on the deck of our house and they turned out great. here's a few from the trip!