Thursday, April 23, 2009

easter

for easter i had people over from church that didn't have family in the area and i hosted a big dinner for everyone. there ended up being 11 of us. i took care of the ham (my first time doing it all by myself) and the dessert. i had each person bring something else to add to the meal. everything ended up turning out great! thanks everyone :-)


glazing the ham

the "spread"

posing as "Martha Stewart"

after lunch i hid around 300 eggs in and outside of my house while everyone waited patiently outside in the front :-) this was my 2nd annual easter egg hunt and it was so fun to see adults turn into little kids as they scurried around every nook and cranny. michael and millie shipe swept the competition this year. millie found the most eggs...i believe her total count was 48! and michael found the large silver egg that got him a prize as well. afterwards we watched ironman. the whole day was a blast and i'm so thankful for all of my wonderful friends :-)

just moments before the egg hunt started

madness in the kitchen as they hunted for the large silver egg

the winners!! michael and millie did good!

everyone

looking forward to next year!!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

cardboard testimony

for our easter service at church, we did the cardboard testimonies and i was able to be a part of that, which i was excited about! click on the "cardboard testimonies" below...

cardboard testimonies

four wheeling and shooting


christie, me, and jen

so i'm backtracking a little here, but that's ok. at least i am updating my blog two days in a row!! at the beginning of march a bunch of my friends got together and drove up to my friends grandparent's house in wildwood. they live out in the country and own thousands of acres. we were able to go four wheeling and shooting! yes, shooting. it was my first time shooting and can i just say that it's totally addicting and it was way more fun than what i thought. i shot an old 22 and a hand gun and was actually able to hit some targets that they had set up. and then we also did some skeet shooting and i even hit a couple of those!

the four wheeling was quite fun in that you had to dodge hundreds of piles of cow poo. and we even drove right next to the cows. although that kind of ticked them off a bit :-) we were celebrating jamie's 29th birthday and we had a blast! we all want to go back soon jamie!!

i never thought i'd hold one of these!


shooting with an old 22...couldn't get enough of it!


skeet shooting.......PULL.....

jamie and i doing some fast four wheeling

the girls....you better not mess with us

the gorgeous sunset

happy birthday jamie!

after eating the most amazing meal! thanks nana and pops!


Monday, April 20, 2009

recent pics of savannah

ok...so i've been getting lots of requests to post some more recent pictures of my niece. so here they are....







savannah and daddy on easter






savannah wearing her easter dress
look at those blue eyes...she gets 'em from her mama



this is one of my favorites :-) she's so beautiful!!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

march madness

no, i'm not talking about the march madness basketball tournament. i'm talking about me here folks. the month of march was a crazy one indeed! it started out with me moving all of my stuff into the garage so someone could move in and take my spot in the house that i was living at. the home that i was supposed to move into was not quite ready yet, so i got to spend the month traveling from place to place like a homeless vagabond :-)


but it all worked out well enough. i stayed with some great friends from church, art and tammie and had planned to only stay one week with them until my appendix decided that it didn't want to be inside of me anymore so i had to go to the hospital one night and i found out that i had to have emergency surgery to remove the little guy that was causing me so much pain. there was a minor complication when they went in to remove it......because of all the inflammation, my appendix had "adheared" to my colon and they had to peel it off of it. (i know gross) they were worried about "leakage", but everything turned out just fine! i have the most amazing friends that came to visit me and bring me flowers and balloons. i am so blessed to have the friends that i do!







here is a picture of an appendix; not mine :-) although i did ask for it in a jar, but they wouldn't let me because they had to take it to pathology. i am feeling so much better than before and i only have three little scars to show for it. next monday marks a month since my surgery and i will finally be able to start my training back up for my triathlon.


so i ended up staying with my friends art and tammie for another week while i recooperated and then i was off to my friends brian and delia. they were out of the country and they graciously allowed me to stay at their place for a week. after that i moved all my stuff over to rob and melinda's place. i will be honest in saying it was a pain to live out of my car for a month, but i am so grateful for all of my wonderful friends that put me up :-) i am truly blessed!


last weekend i was finally able to move in my new house!! yay!! i am SO happy to be in a house by myself. i feel so content and happy to be living in this new house. my dad painted my bedroom and it turned out wonderful. i had several friends that helped me with the move. i am still unable to lift anything heavy so i had the luxury of telling people where to put things :-) not bad huh?



my bedroom :-) this is the accent wall and the others are a grayish color. i really liked how it turned out.





the living room...this is the furniture that my parents graciously brought down



my kitchen....i can't wait to start baking in it :-)

my screened in porch facing a "quaint" forest



yessss! i finally have my piano with me in fl. thanks to mom and dad:-)

i am settling in quite nicely in my new place. i still have a few things to organize and decorate, but it feels very much like home to me already and i am so happy :-)