Project 365 - start

Ellie inspired me. I'm going to attempt to take a picture a day for the next year. I don't have as cute a subjects as Ellie does, but I'm sure I can find something to take a picture of every day...and it will be a fun documentation of my year. :-)

So...here goes nothing!

10-28-08: Braided hair for a crimped '80s do


10-27-08: The top of my desk at work

10-26-08: My temporary bed in the dinning room

10-25-08: UJ reading us definitions out of two dictionaries at Torah breakfast (I think one of the dictionaries was a Spanish dictionary)

Family Reunion - Take 3

Aunt Alexa and Ava - wow lots of As :-)

Friday night for dinner we had a local restaurant all to ourselves. The restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch, so we were able to have the whole thing just for us...which is a good thing since we tend to take over whatever place we're at! We are a big and loud family. It's great...a little overwhelming if you're a first timer though :-) For dinner we ate some very yummy and famous hotdogs. Travis seemed to enjoy his dinner!
Mom brought the reunion picture album that she made years ago. It was the first time in several years that she had brought it. The 3rd generation had a lot of fun looking at the pictures of little us. The clothes...the hair...what we were thinking no one knows!!

(L to R: Travis, Danny, Jimmy, Jon, and Jill)

Ellie and Nicole were having fun eating and chatting when I snapped this picture...but since Ellie was chewing they decided that they needed a new picture...
Where they were BOTH chewing!! The goofs...I think Jack was trying to get in on the chewing fun too with his little toy :-)
One of the "kids" tables.

(Clockwise: Jackie, Harry, Sam, David)

Thelma, Grandma, and Jenny catching up.
The other side of the restaurant.
Alexa having fun with Jack.
Jon and Jill taking a closer look at the old photos. It was SO good to have Jon back.

Family Reunion - Take 2

It's taken me a while to get back to posting pictures from the reunion...blame whatever sickness totally decommissioned me all week!

I'm finally feeling better and relaxing in front of the Olympics. Gotta love all the sports...I've already watch soccer, fencing, badminton, volleyball (indoor and beach), women's weightlifting, several different kinds of rowing...gotta love it!! :-)

GO USA!

Now, back to the reunion pictures...

Here's a bit more visiting on Friday afternoon at the pool.

The pool area was rather loud and warm, so there was visiting that happened in the hotel lobby. Here are Aidan and Davis meeting each other for the first time. They are very close in age and seemed to hit it off.
Grandma arrived to join in the visiting. First time she'd been at a reunion in a long time. Hannah got in on the vising too.

Ok, so this really isn't the best picture of me...but look how cute Jack is? And this was what happened a lot of times when I got a baby during the weekend...they fell asleep. Mom said I must be very boring...I decided I was just very soothing! :-)
Meet Davis...you couldn't really see his face in the other picture.

He looks SO much like his daddy!

Can you tell this was the reunion of the children? I think we had about 12 under the age of 13 and of those 7 of them were 5 and under!

This picture was actually taken by Davis. :-)

Davis and Aidan were such a cute little pair!
Meet one of the newest members of the family (not counting Mia who was to young to make it to the reunion)...Ava.

What a little cutie...held by a beautiful young lady :-)
Aidan is so good with little babies. Perfect big brother to Jack and perfect big cousin to Ava. Jack snacking on Nanny's necklace.

Family Reunion - Take 1

Jill and I arrived at the reunion on Thursday. We were both SOOO tired and in need of a nap. Unfortunetly the nap didn't happen...see our sad no nap faces? We did end up going to Red Lobster for dinner and had very yummy drinks and sea food, so that helped.

Friday the reunion started with lunch with Grandma...then it was back to the hotel to visit and spend time in the pool as people started arriving. Jack, being one of the cutest things alive, was the center of much of the chatting :-) He WAS SUCH a good little guy through the whole reunion. He was content and smiley most all the time. Here he is getting some lovin' from Teresa and Travis. HOW CUTE?!?! :-)
Ellie is a genius of a mother...raising two wonderful boys!! She had the brilliant idea to get Aidan a little life jacket, then she didn't have to worry much about him in the pool. Besides jumping in the pool he took a few turns in the hot tub.
Danny joined Aidan and the boys relaxed in the hot tub.
There were plenty of people playing in the pool too. Isn't Hannah's new suit cute?? I love that it's a little dress.


Back to baby Jack...This is his rock star hair. Ok, I'm not sure it get's any cuter than this!!
What a face!
A bunch of folks hanging in the hot tub.
Jill, Steph, and Ellie hanging in the pool.

Stay tuned...more pictures to come...just don't have time now! :-)

My birthday

My birthday was fantastic! I've had some rather crappy birthdays for the past ohhhh...8 years. So it was awesome to have a really and truly blessed birthday. I got so many cards and emails and notes from people...I felt very loved :-)

Jill, unfortunetly, was not in town for my actual birthday since she was in Mexico. But, she did give me my presents before she left. She gave me a very pretty necklace that I now wear ALL the time and shakey music eggs! Love my eggs!! :-) Mom and Dad got me a gift card to Kohls which I look forward to using. Three of the gals at work took me to lunch...Janelle brought her two and four year olds along...Chaley (the four year old) decided that she wanted to sing me If you're happy and you know it after she sang a very wonderful version of Happy birthday :-) So cute!

Here's a picture of the BEAUTIFUL flowers that Sarah at work got me and a few of the cards I got.

Corey went above and beyond and suprised me by having a very yummy and very pretty edible arrangement sent to my office. Definite bonus points were gained :-) The ladies at work all enjoyed sharing the fruit and were very impressed by the effort Corey went to.

After work was Bible Study where they made one of my favorite meals...Pancakes and Bacon! They also made a very yummy birthday cake...The first picture was taken just after I'd licked the icing off of a canlde. My face looks funny...but it's a good picture of the pretty necklace Jill got me!

So far...26 has been an awesome year...I believe numerically 26 represents one of the names of God (the Hebrew alphabet has numbers associated with the letters...Uncle Jim can explain it better)...so I've decided that 26 must be the year of the Lord's favor :-)

I'll keep you updated on how it's going!

My Point Exactly...

If you recall...I made the point in an earlier blog that it takes a special breed of people to work in youth ministry...we hand God all of our dignity in the hopes of reaching youth...

Right after I wrote that, Jeff illustrated my point exactly!!

One of the girls had a hair clip that when you put it on it makes it look like you've spent HOURS doing your hair...you know the type I'm talking about?

Jeff decided to try it on...

YIKES!

Not sure what this look is all about...kind looks like he has a mullet!

I think he was trying for a "sexy" look...I don't think he quite managed it!

Summer Camp (read the other one first)

I have so many stories from camp...but I think I've covered the basics at least. I really could talk about it for a long time...so if you're interested in hearing more let me know :-)

I met and got the privilege of ministering to some of the most amazing girls. I don't have pictures of most of them...but they are forever sealed in my heart. I know God has created them for amazing things and I can't wait to hear all about it! :-)

For now, I'll leave you with one of the highlights of camp. On the last night, Jeff and I got to baptize three of our girls (including the one that I wrote about in the pudding fight blog). That lake was SO COLD and rocky...not something you could have probably paid me to get in...but it was MORE than worth it to get into the cold to do some dunkin' :-)