Operation Christmas Child

Every year, Andrew and I pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Wednesday night, we went shopping for our boxes, and came home and filled them.

We discovered that we had bought too much stuff, and ended up filling a third box. I have the same problem every year, I want to put so much in, and the box just isn't big enough. But you would be amazed at what all you can fit in a shoe box.

It is the least we can do for Children around the world, who don't have anything. I encourage everyone to go out this weekend and pack a box. It doesn't cost that much money, and you will make a difference in the life of a child. The final day to turn in your boxes is Monday, November 23rd. Go Here and you can find out all of the details. They have a new feature this year, where you can track your package, and find out what country it ends up going to. How neat is that. All you have to do, is make your donation on line, instead of including it in your box, and they give you a bar code to print out and tape to your box. When the box reaches it's destination, it gets scanned, and you get an e-mail saying where it was sent.

Go check out my Mom's blog, and see all the boxes they collected at her work. AMAZING!

Girls Weekend! - Recap

Well, I am a bad blogger. I didn't take a single picture all weekend long. I can't believe it. Even without any pictures, we had a wonderful time.
Friday night, my friends arrived at almost 8:00pm. The lasagna that my Mom made (THANKS MOM! It was delicious) was heating in the oven,and was supposed to be hot when they got there, but it wasn't cooperating. I didn't want it to get too hot, too fast, so I had it on a lower temperature (300 degrees), but after 45 minutes in the oven, it still wasn't hot. So, I pushed it up to 400 degrees, and it didn't take long to heat up after that. After dinner we made brownies, and sat around and did what we do best, just hung out and talked. It's been a couple of months since we have all been together, so we had a lot of catching up to do. The brownies were yummy, and then we headed to bed. Jessica and Julie fell right to sleep, but Jennifer and I stayed up talking for a few more hours.
Saturday morning came early, but we all got up and got ready pretty quickly. I guess we were really excited about the Christmas Show. After a quick trip by Hardee's for breakfast and Starbucks for coffee, we were on our way. It takes just a little over an hour to get to Charlotte, so we had some great conversation in the car. By the time we got parked and in the show, it was around 11:30. We hit the ground running. So much to see! After 4 hours, we had been through all three buildings, and thousands of vendors, and we were beat. We called it a day and went to find some food. We stopped at Chili's on the way home and some yummy food. I guess the food revived us, and we were ready to shop some more. We hit up the outlets in Gaffney for a couple of hours, and then it was time to say goodbye. They all left around 8:00 pm on Saturday night, and I went right to bed. It was a great 24 hours with my friends, but I was exhausted. Every year we look forward to going to the Christmas show, and I'm sad that it is over.

Girls Weekend!

I am so excited about this weekend. Tonight, my three best friends are coming over and spending the night. And tomorrow we are going to the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte, NC. This is our 4th year going to this, and we look forward to it all year long. It is such a neat show to go to. I will post some pictures from our weekend on Sunday. I've said it before, and I'm sure I will say it again. God has blessed me with some wonderful friends, and I am so grateful to have them in my life. I love you girls!

Sometimes I need to be reminded...

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7).

There is a lot going on lately, and this verse is just a reminder that God is in control.

My new Toy

So, about 10 years ago, my parents purchased a Gazelle for my older sister. Over the years, it has had many homes with the latest being my sister's garage. Well, yesterday I rescued it and brought it to my house. My goal is to do 30 minutes, 3 times a week. I'm not sure that it gives you the total work out that you see on the infomercial, but it's a lot more of a workout than just sitting on my butt.

Please watch this YouTube video and have a good laugh.

Halloween Recap

This past Saturday was Halloween. Andrew worked all day, so I was on my own. My parents church was hosting Trunk or Treat, but since it was raining, they had it in the gym, instead of outside. Most of my nieces and nephews came, so I was able to see them all in one place.
Here is Zoe the Pirate and Becky (Wearing one my my crocheted hats. Cute, Huh?)

Henry was a pirate too, but this is what happens when you try to take a picture of him. He just runs away. I'm sure Sarah got some great pictures of him.
Lindy was Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus. I'm not sure what that is, but it has to do with being a princess and riding a unicorn.

Leilani was Tinker Bell.

Charlie was a Bat.

And Clara was a Cowgirl, riding a horse.

After seeing all of the kids, I went to hang out with my girlfriends and hand out candy to the trick or treaters. We had so much fun seeing all the little kids in their costumes. Jennifer brought a cute cookie cake for Jessica. It says, "What will the baby be?" Jessica finds out the sex of the baby this week.

Overall, it was a fun Halloween, but I'm sure it will be so much more fun once I have kids of my own to dress up.

Caramel Apples

Friday Night, My parents and I made caramel apples. They are really easy to make, and super yummy to eat! Here are some pictures from our night.

Start with some caramels.

Put them in the pot to melt.

Dip the Apples in the Caramel.

Place Apple on Wax paper to cool.

Ta Da! The final product.

Vacation 2010

I know, some of you are thinking, "How can she be talking about vacation for next year?" Well, Vacation is something I look forward to all year long, so as soon as I can plan our vacation for the next year, I do. We had a lot of different thoughts about vacation this year. I had it narrowed down to Puerto Rico, Cancun, and Hilton Head. I did a lot of research on all the different places, and read a ton of reviews about each resort. It all really came down to what would be the most economical (Cheap) vacation. I called Member Services today, and we will be celebrating our 6th anniversary in Hilton Head Island, SC. We will be staying at the Disney Vacation Club Resort. (Which we are members of) We spent a week there in May, 2006 and have wanted to go back ever since. Hilton Head is a great vacation spot. It's not very "touristy" and that is what we love most about it. I'm sure I will be writing more about this as it gets closer. Only 207 more days!

Beautiful

This morning, Andrew is playing in the praise band at church, so we had to be there at 7:30 am, that meant we had to leave our house at 6:30. I wasn't planning on going with him, and I was going to drive later on for the third service at 11:30, but last night I decided we would just ride together. Well, the Lord blessed me with the most beautiful sunrise this morning. It was worth getting up at 5:45 am!

Scratch made biscuits anyone?

That's right, I got up this morning and made biscuits, from scratch.
So good with some home made strawberry jam.
This was my first attempt at making biscuits, and they turned out
pretty good.