ROWEN :)

I was able to spent the day with my nephew Rowen on Thanksgiving ( and the couple days after :)

He is growing like a weed and he loves to talk to you and smiles all the time.
Enjoy a few pictures of him :) He is sure a joy and a blessing to be around!!

Verse I need to live by more often!

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers - Ephesians 4:29

Sometimes I have just let my mouth go,( not necessarily bad, but just don't know when sometimes to be quiet and let things ride themselves out.... ) unfortunately I have had realize how guarded I need to be these days.....
Lord help me to remember......

Really Woolly

I received a card in the mail while I was back for Thanksgiving break from a dear friend. The name of the cards are "really woolly". Let me tell you a little bit about this card, and how special it is to me.

Right before Thanksgiving I was diagnoised with Hypothryoidism. Which means that I will be spending quite some time at the doctor in the next few months to really determine what is happening to my body. For now, I have been started on some medicine and will go next week for my first visit to the endo doc. I have spent quite a bit of time on the internet trying to get a grip on what exactly this is. Well, when reading the types of people this affects, I was not in the groups at all, and was even more confused until I came to the line where it said " can come during pre menaposaul stages ", so that has me even more freaked out as I now have what seems to be three strikes against me for wanting to have kids.
- having most of my ovaries removed due to the cysts
-having polycystic ovary disease and the dr's telling me for the past three years that I have a very limited time to get pregnant.
-now am showing signs of going into menapause.

so.... needless to say I was very frustrated, and holding and being around my nephew all weekend was great, but made me think that I may never have that chance.

So, back to the card. The little info from the creator about the card on the back says " The one who loves me most-even at my wolliest- is my shepherd! It was in such a "woolly" time that HE helped me see how much He really loves his sheep. Raising a family and other daily adventures causes me to leap into the Shepherds open arms and trust him for dear life! Figuring you might need the same encouragement I find in him, I scribble them down, then I smile as a dear friend paints the Shepherd's woolly flock into life in his pasture of promises. I hope you will be encouraged by his failthfullness too."

The inside of the card says "when things seem to be unraveling, just remember who is knitting all things together for good!"

Thanks Andrea for this little pick me up /reminder that God works for the good of those who love and trust him, and who have been called according to his purpose!!!

I know that things seem to have not gone in the way that I want them too, and as hard as it is, as frustrtated as I am, I cant help but continue to trust him, he knows the desires of my heart.

I ask that you continue to remember me in your thougts and prayers as I will continue to trust him......
Warm Blessings

Operation Christmas Child

Each year our church partners with The Samaritanspurse and we send shoe boxes to kids in third world counties for Christmas. I believe this year our boxes are going to Haiti, which is interesting to me. As I just returned from the DR, we were about 2 hours from Haiti. I learned that a lot of people from Haiti come to the DR for a better chance at life. Kinda like how the people from Mexico come to the US for a better chance at life. However, the DR seems so poor and dirty ( unless you are on the resort :) I cant even begin to imagine what Haiti looks like.
Anyways, I am excited to have my box all complete........ it was a challenge for me as I kept seeing things that I would like to put in my box, and I over bought, but managed to get it all in... thank goodness for some great tape :)!! My box is for a girl ages 5-9. Do you think she will like the stuff I am sending her?????



Phew, I got it all in the box..... :) Merry Christmas little girl.....

Happy Veterans Day

I want to take a minute and thank my brother Heath for his work in the ARMY. I have cousins in the military line too. I love you all, and thanks for all that you do for our country!

So...where will you be on New Years Day???

I had to "borrow" that title from a dear friend...

Anyways, I will be in Pasadena, California... at the ROSE BOWL!!! That's right...
I entered a contest at work in which I had to come up with something artistic explaining what donation met to me. I used the story of a dear little boy, Matty who had liver cancer and even though got in remission, he needed a new liver. Matty knew that in order to get a new liver a little kiddo like him had to die. He was scared and did not want that to happen for someone, so he began to say things like.... "If I get to be 5, I want to take a spiderman backpack to school, If I get to be 5, I want a Sponge Bob birthday cake....... he NEVER said when, but rather if... Matty did get his liver and it gave him two extra years at life, unfort his cancer cam back and he had his arm amputated, and then it came back a third and final time in his brain, and he passed away.
Well, his story inspired me and I tell families about Matty all the time. His mother was kind enough ( and I thank her dearly) to send me pictures, I was able to create a story board telling his story. My project went up against 4 others and I unamously won.

SO......... my dear friend Lecia and I will head to Cali on the 29th of Dec, take in all the festivities of the float ( this means perfectally arranging the roses just right ), getting to be a part of the parade, and then the football game!!! Donor Alliance ( my comapany ) is paying for the whole trip!!! This is a huge honor for me and I am super excited. I will update with more details as I get them. For now, Enjoy my favorite shot of Matty, for with out him and his courage and his battle he fought, I would not have this awesome opportunity. Thanks Matty!!! I love and Miss ya!

Final DR update

The final days of our trip were filled with fun as well. We played volleyball, soaked in the sun, looked for a wedding ring in the pool ( one of our friends we met there were on their honeymoon and he lost his ring playing vball ) it was found :) phew!!!!!!!! and just continued to enjoy the company our of new friends. The highlight of the last few days was our trip to Ocean World. This is kind of like a Sea World here. They have shows with the dolphins, sea lions. Then you have the chance to scuba, snorkel, swim with the animals. I decided to take scuba lessons and then I would get one on one time under the water with a dolphin for 45 minutes. Once I was all geard up ( about 70- 80 lbs extra with the weights and tank) I got to go under the water for the first time..... Well, needless to say at about 4 feet, I began to freak out and thought I could not breath, when I was in all honesty doing just fine.... but was just breathing really fast.... I popped up to the top of the water and my instructor was saying I just needed to take deep breaths and that I would be fine. So I tried it again, and again.... after the 4th time, I decided that this was not for me. I could not do it. I was sooo mad at myself, but I just could not do it. My little dolphin buddy was like...... are you not coming to play...

So, Ash had already decided her thing she was going to do was to swim with the sharks and sting rays. They removed the stinger from the sting rays, but kept the teeth on the shark.... hummmm!!! So I decided to join her. Our shark was named Snoopy! She was about 80lbs and was 3 years old. You actually sit on a step in the water and they place the shark on your lap ( the teeth were at my thigh ugggg!!!!!!!!!!!!) Then you get to feed it, and then snorkel with it. Ash asked if she could hold the shark and the guy let her, no one was able to capture that on camera, but I was there, and saw her holding it. My camera unfort ran out of battery byt this little nice lady from the UK took pictures for us and emailed them to us. But we still bought the actual pictures too.

We had to say goodbye to our friends from DC, NY and NJ, all who we miss dearly already. But we will forever have the memories...... all of them.

The last day or so Ash and I began to get sick from either the food or the water ( which we did not personally pr purposfully drink, but they wash everything in that water, including the fruits and veggies ) we took the sickness back to the US, and finally after about a week and some meds for me, We are better and are constantally talking about our wonderful trip :) So glad I was able to share these memories with my little sister!!!