Christmas in Myrtle Beach

This Christmas, Jordan and I have gone to Myrtle Beach. We are with his dad and brother, as a sort of Christmas get away since being at home without his mom would be very difficult. We just got here yesterday afternoon and - can you believe it - it is almost 70 degrees here and breezy! I hope it's going to be a really good week for us, though I am nervous. Pray that we'll have a relaxing time and that they will just be able to get through their first Christmas without their mom. Also, pray for me because I will greatly miss my family! We'll be with them on the 26th for a day, and then it's off to Radiate08 in DC - the best conference that Campus Crusade puts on all year, in my opinion. Have a great week - I'm sure I'll get around to posting more pictures about stuff that's been going on lately this week! :)

The Island Vista in MB

on graduating

I know I know. I have not posted in a while and several of you pouted at me. I still don't have anything too interesting to say, but I'll speak my piece anyway. This week (and last week) has marked the end of my college career. I did a 25 minute  presentation, wrote a 10 page paper, a 15 page paper, and took one last test (which I got a 98 on, so I was very happy with how I finished up on test scores). It was weird, as I was doing those last few assignments, I got a little nostalgic, like I didn't want to be done with my last paper. So I kept adding little things to my binder that I had to put it in to make it look more pretty or whatever. It was quite weird, especially for those of you who know how crazy (and quite annoying) my life has been this semester with juggling full time school, new marriage, and a full time job. It doesn't need to be said that I will be glad theoretically to kick one of those roles to the curb. It's just so different when you've been doing something for 19 years straight and then it just ends abruptly. I don't know, maybe it's because I get too much value out of achieving things in school. Which in that case it will be a good thing to get rid of that attitude. I don't know. I am looking for a cute dress for graduation. A long sleeved one. This is the one I tried on yesterday at Ann Taylor Loft, and it is on sale. Which is always good. I think I will wear black tights with it. 

The other things that I did this week was go CHRISTMAS SHOPPING! Usually this is much more climactic of a time, but this year Jordan and I went out and got all but a few books in one night. I guess we'd had plenty of time to think about it and so we just got everything. I still have to finish up a few crafts but besides that - let the wrapping begin!

We had a party of here the other night (which I neglected to take any pictures at) as a study break thing and to have pizza at our house for all of the students who are still trying to finish up exams. Ugh, I really do despise exams and we wanted them to have a fun place to take a break. We ordered tons of Papa Johns pizza (which is by far the best in my opinion) and then just hung out. Some people played settlers for a while but most of us curled up on our couches (and a lot on the floor since there were 20 people) and watched a couple of Christmas movies - Santa Clause 3 and the classic, White Christmas. We actually introduced several people to this movie for the first time - I was shocked. But anyway, it was a great night and a lot of students who hadn't been over before came which was great to hang out with them. They used our office to study some in between everything. It was cute. I like my job when it's taking care of people. 

Today I will spend some time with Chez, do some more crafts, wrap hopefully all of the presents, but that dress, and some shoes hopefully, and then relax with my husband. It should be a good day, and hopefully quiet since my parents and grandma are coming in tomorrow. Which will be fun but hectic when you're dealing with a lot of people. Then graduation is at 11 am on Friday. Wish me luck - especially if I buy really high heels - I don't want to fall!

Warmth

Jordan says that one of my biggest values is warmth. On some days, I would reluctantly agree with him. Today, its not so bad, but I found this picture and I just would love to be one of these little flying foxes and hibernate inside with my friends. I love blankets. 

Christmas is Coming!

Tonight we had our first annual Christmas party! I am really glad we decided to have it early, because it just seemed to get everyone excited for the upcoming month - despite exams! We had both Jordan and my Bible studies over together so there were over 25 people there! For those of you who have been to our apartment...it is not meant to hold 25 people. Nevertheless, I think this is the 4th time we've had that many. Oh well, what can I say, we're extraverts!

So, to prepare for the party we decorated for Christmas and I cooked a lot today. We went to Michael's and caught the tail end of all the black friday related sales (I had already bought a box of ornaments from there on black friday, which was of course the first place I headed. A side note about Michaels: the one in Mechanicsville is FAR and AWAY better than the one in Christiansburg. I feel jipped. The scrapbooking and beading sections were immaculate. I will be returning at Christmas. I just want to know when this glorious transformation occurred, because it was certainly not like that this summer while I was wedding planning.) That was a long rabbit trail. We got garlands and lights and we had fun filling our cart with cheap things. I think we've decided not to get a Christmas tree, because really, we don't have anywhere to put it, and we'll be leaving in 2 weeks. I am pretty sad, since it's our first place, but I guess it's good because I invested the money into decorations that we'll be able to use again and again!

The house looked so pretty after we finished getting everything together. I was so happy. I love Christmas. My favorite is when we do things like that together - I like when we're a team. 

I also did lots of cooking! I made homemade bbq sauce for meatballs (not homemade - so I had to do somethin!), shrimp dip, peanut butter blossom cookies, Christmas brownies, gingerbread cookies, and the girls and guys brought fruit and veggies and apple cider and egg nog. It was wonderful. And oh so yummy.

Then we did stations once everyone got there, and we made a gingerbread house, gingerbread Christmas tree, painted Christmas frames, decorated cookies, and made gingerbread cookies. The boys got very creative with these!

The party was a hit, but, the biggest catastrophe of the night happened just before the party. I got back from campus at 6, so, I needed to get the barbecue sauce cooking, and take a shower, and it was 6:20 - the party started at 7. The sauce needed to simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, so I thought, great, I'll take a short shower. But as soon as I got out, I realized I had not taken a very short shower. So I told Jordan to turn the sauce down to low really quick, but the sauce had boiled over and gotten into the burner - all over the place! He quickly put it on another burner and thought he'd turned the burner off. But when I came in there a few minutes later to put the shrimp dip in the oven, I set the plastic top down on the burner (thinking it was cold - I have no idea why) so then of course there was burning plastic in a matter of seconds, making our whole house smell of it. EEK! Somehow I managed so get clothes on, dry my hair, get makeup on, and get all the food set out before 7, but I was worried. 

Hope you all had a great Tuesday!

I'm definitely getting into the Christmas spirit! 

Here are the pictures from the party, there are in reverse order so start from the bottom!

some of the Bible study girls

the boys' creative cookie designs. they also made a dinosaur that everyone was impressed with.

in the office - with no seating because we ran out! they were painting frames

who ever heard of a gingerbread Christmas tree!? I thought it was cute.

the lovely gingerbread house makers.

our bakers. 

decorating cookies!

This is the dilemma with the wreath, though. What do I do with the cord!? It looks awful but I don't see any other choice! :( Any suggestions!?

This wreath was supposed to hid the ugly thermostat in the middle of our living room wall!

We got those black things in the corner for 75 cents at Goodwill the other week! I am going to hang them eventually, but Jordan put them here for now.

These are all the ornaments I got for $7! There are 80!

this actually isn't from the party, but I made it on Sunday for a friend and I thought it turned out really nice! I made a bracelet too :)

if you read this blog...

and you don't have your own...and i know there are some of you...you should totally start your own (so that people like me can have more distractions in their lives).  :)  that's all! haha. have a great sunday afternoon! and happy decorating!

The Melting Pot Family

Something that you may not know about me (or rather...my family) is that we are very multi-cultural. I was thinking about this on Thanksgiving as I looked around and also thought about the past couple of years. My grandfather married a woman from Honduras, therefore I have aunts and uncles that are of that descent. But this year there was also a Filipino, and a lot of partial Mexican members of the family. Last year I had thanksgiving at my aunt Jen's, who is my dad's youngest sister (8 years older than me), and who is married to a Brazilian man. Then my dad's other sister is married to a Peruvian, uncle is about to marry a Ukrainian woman, other uncle is married to a Hungarian. Then there are my cousins - one's dating a girl from Russia, one's dating one from Thailand, the other, a girl from South America - I forget where exactly. Some guests that were invited to this thanksgiving meal were a Korean friend of the family, as well as a couple of my uncle's Brazilian friends. 

All of this makes for lots of good stories and I love talking about other cultures and trying to figure out foreign languages with them. One of my aunts (the Hungarian one) has lots of good stories about her escape from the USSR out of the satellite Hungary when she was 6. My Brazilian uncle's parents have invited us to Brazil and Italy multiple times...I used to dream about taking them up on their offers. I really like that my family is like this, a big compilation of cultures, and a perfect representation of America. Most of the time I forget that this is not typical among families. Sometimes I wonder if this is why I have somewhat of an obsession with traveling overseas. Hmm. 

Here is *I think* the only picture taken of us on Thanksgiving...

I am eating THE most amazing banana cream pie in this picture...made by my aunt Cyndi. It has homemade custard, caramel and chocolate sauce, and crust!

YUM.

thanksgiving already??

So, I haven't really had anything to say for the last week since my life has pretty much consisted of doing lots of homework and trying to stay on top of work and sleep. Can't wait til graduation. I have been so exhausted! I know it's because I haven't made time for exercising lately. So bad! Here is what I did today:
-listened to a John Piper talk
-did my nails
-went to staff training
-did research for a paper
-did LOTS of laundry
-cleaned out the fridge for our trip
-cleaned our house so it's not a wreck when we get home
-went to kinko's to pick up our prayer letter
-took our movies back
-got supplies from staples
-went to CVS to get my prescription refilled
-went to the post office
-printed 200 letters and labels
-stuffed envelopes and folded letters
-made dinner
-went to Cru at 6:30
And I just got home. But actually now that I'm writing this it doesn't seem like too much. I guess that's a good thing.

Anyway, so tomorrow morning we are leaving for the Regional Staff Conference in Gettysburg, PA. I am quite excited. But, since it is 9:30 now, and I am getting ready to start my last paper of the week, and I haven't packed yet, there is a lot to do between now and 10 AM tomorrow morning when we (hopefully!) get on the road. I think the conference is going to be really fun and it will be so nice to get to meet some more of our fellow staffers. Plus, all of our meals are covered! YEAH! I'll let you know how it goes. Then we are headed into Mechanicsville for about 5 days which should be relaxing and fun to catch up with family. This is the longest period of time in my life that I have been away from "home" ever! We haven't been there since August 3rd. Needless to say, I am excited. I don't know exactly what we'll do, but I'm hoping we'll get to spend some time with a few friends, too. Well, I guess I'd better finish up my paper so I can go cuddle with the hubby on the couch. :)

House Prints!

So I am finally getting around to printing off pictures to put up in our house...three months later! Ha. So, I am trying to make this collage with picture frames and these awesome black square wirey things I found at goodwill for 75 cents. We will see how it goes. But to go with the rest of our living room I put them all in the antique style on iPhoto. I am loving how they turned out. Now the hard part is going to be choosing which ones to use....which are your favorites!?

This was at boudreaux's on Sunday

Gorgeous!

Jordan and his bro...

My loves!

Jordan and Katie...

A couple from our honeymoon...

These were from a bridal shower in May.

In Jordan's backyard...gotta love Mechanicsville...

These were taken in Venezuela last spring...

Valentine's Day

Some from Christmas last year...

From when we got engaged...

Some of Jordan's mom...

Here are some old North Africa photos...

The other thing that happened to me this week was that I realized that I was incredibly bored and uninspired. Thankfully, God convicted me of this and so while I was meeting with him on Sunday night, I wrote down all of the good things that happened the past week, so that I could decide if my life was really horrible and boring. The result: I found out that I was being stupid and had lots to be thankful for, of course! Here is what I wrote...

-Monday, I did a halloween candy outreach at EAJ, one of the dorms at Tech. It was so fun giving it away and getting into short conversations with some of the students.

-Tuesday, I had a ton of freshmen girls over to our house for a fall party, where we decorated sugar cookie pumpkins, played lots of games, ate fall baked goods, and got to know each other.

-Cru on Wednesday was AWESOME, and the speaker talked about marriage.

-I had my first conversation with Allie in a long time - yay!

-The election, voting with Jordan, we have a new president!

-Dad's birthday!

-Allie's birthday!

-Leah's birthday, dinner and GREAT conversation with GREAT girls at More Than Coffee (and pita and hummus - yum!)

-I got to share the gospel with my Chinese friend, Jaclyn.

-Isaiah and Betsy visited us - we had an awesome double date weekend.

-Our bible study had a creative date with a great guys bible study.

-I made some really fun jewelry.

-Rock Band!!!!

-Lunch date with Haley and Jerry. Two of my favorites.

-Riding my bike around town - FINALLY!

If only I had started my kitchen garden of herbs. Then my life would be complete.

But really, I can be so silly sometimes with just wanting to move on to the next thing. I need to live more in the moment. This is all lately.

PS: Today my three-hour class got cancelled, which led to a wonderful, overdue, two and a half hour coffee date with the lovely Sarah Strong.