Christmas in the bathroom

On Saturday morning, I invited my Aunts who were in from Michigan to come see my home. They have not seen the place since I bought it and I figured since it was decorated for the holiday season, it would be a good time to invite them over.

Now, please understand, I love my Aunts and my mother with all my heart but there are some things Mom and Aunts do that just don't make sense. Aside from my mother opening all my closets and pointing out every nook and cranny of the place, re-arranging the snow village, and changing the flower arrangements in my house, my ultimate favorite event was the bringing Christmas into the bathroom. My Aunt Judy decided that there needed to be a little more Christmas in my downstairs bathroom. I already have the bathroom a dark red color, and there are Christmas hand towels in there but it wasn't enough. Before too much time passed, my Mom and my Aunt had the bathroom decorated to the point that I could almost hear it sing Christmas carols on it's own. The flower arrangement is completely re-done with Christmas flowers and sparkly things, there are snow village figurines on the shelf in the the room, and there are snow covered pine trees on a shelf above the toilet (which don't knock the wall as you are using my toilet because they are in a spot that they will come crashing on your head. They are heavy enough that it will leave quite a welt.)

I am glad my Aunts came into visit and I will admit, my house has an even great festive glee to it but it was rather comical to sit back and watch as the three of them scurried about doing their Aunt and Mom duties. The three of them are so much alike it is almost scary.

A more thankful Thanksgiving

This thanksgiving had a twist that I wasn't expecting. Giving thanks hit me a little differently than I thought or even planned...

I went over to my parents for Thanksgiving. I had known Grandma Judy was coming so I brought my Africa album with me. Judy was one of the people that had helped sponsor my trip and although we had talked about the trip, I haven't had the opportunity to really show her all the photos. I took some time before and after dinner to sit down with her and basically re-live the journey. Although I keep a few pictures around my house, it had been awhile since I had sat down and looked through all the pictures. As I was sitting there, re-living what life was on the other side of the globe, I couldn't help but sit back and really reflect on how blessed we truly are.

As I enjoyed a thanksgiving feast, looked through piles of "day after thanksgiving" shopping adds, and cleaned fancy china, it made me really think about how wrong we have it. Our society is so fixed on external material blessings that we forget what the true blessings are. We are so blessed to live in an area that is safe. We are blessed to have a roof over our head, a school to attend, access to medical care, food, clean water, soap, and even a toothbrush. Most importantly, we are blessed to not have to go through a genocide where we fear for our lives, or watch love ones be taken or killed.

Most importantly, I am blessed to have had the opportunity to travel to Rwanda, and learn from some amazing brothers and sisters in Christ. We went with a mission to assess, build, learn and serve and I believe that I walked away with lessons that are far greater than anything I could have ever done. A lesson on true forgiveness, community, faith and a heart that has been touched in ways I am just beginning to understand.

Let there be light?

I decided that I wanted a timer on my front porch light. I didn't like the idea of turning it on and off on my own because there are times that I don't get home until late and the front of my house can be very dark. There are also times when I leave to workout before the sun is up and then I turn off my porch light while it is still dark outside. Sounds like a trivial issue but for me, it is pretty important.

I have one of the worlds greatest fix it guys. He has super reasonable pricing and his company is always enjoyed when he is over. His name is Dad. The two of us have had quite the frustrating adventure trying to get this porch light to actually work. We have now attempted two digital timers, (both worked for a couple of weeks and then ended up dying for some reason or another) a dusk 'till dawn light bulb contraption, and tonight we attempted a different timer that was recommended by the hardware store clerk. All have successfully failed.

So how many blonds does it take to change a light bulb? I am not sure but it has taken my Dad and I over a month to try and fix my porch light...

Some pretty amazing little ones

David is as cute as ever. He has the greatest personality. I can't beleive how big he is getting.





When Mikayla rides on her scooter or her bike, we refer to her as the pink blurr. She is the quickest one on the block and she is always wearing pink.

Little boy blue isn't so little anymore

Kyle is finally on the road to recovery and getting better each day. It seems like it has been one thing after another but he looks healthy and happy in this picture. From what I have heard, it takes a lot to keep this little guy down.

An urge to re-locate

There are phases that I go through where I have this strong urge to move. I think it is one of those times. I am ready to start a new job, live in a different place and have a chance to just start over. It isn't that anything is bad here, it is just the thought of what I might be missing out there... After all, now is the time to do that kind of thing, right?

Slumber party with Aunt Debbie

This past weekend, I had the greatest moment as an Aunt. I was able to have Mikayla spend the night and spend the night giving her my undivided attention. It started with picking her up and going to get McDonald's, her dinner of choice. While at McDonald's, I got to hear life perspectives from a five year old. It is amazing how smart they are. She talked about gymnastics and her preschool. She told me about her new friends at preschool and then she made a realization that our table was wobbly. To her surprise, every table in McDonald's wobbled except for one. She didn't understand why that was the case. After dinner, we decided that we should take a trip to the video store. I was hoping that we could rent Over the Hedge but she assured me that I would like Barbie and the 12 dancing Princesses so much more than Over the Hedge. In fact, I would like it so much that we should get two Barbie princess movies. Once we got to my house, we painted nails, colored in a coloring books, had a tea party (with apple juice of course), baked cookies, watched princess movies and created an area to go camping in the family room that night. My biggest fear was that she wouldn't make it the whole night and would become homesick. It was a super successful night, no tears were shed and we laughed a lot. Mikayla's thoughts on the sleepover were priceless, "Aunt Debbie, I was thinking and next time I should stay for five weeks."

Was it unanswered?

I came across a news article today about a guy who found a bag full of letters that were addressed to God. The letters were sent to a Reverend at a church with the intent that they would be prayed over. Some were on the humorous side and others on the serious side. It was almost as if the author was putting down the Reverend for not reading the letters. As a result of not reading the letters, the author implied that they were not prayed over. Here is my question, did the Reverend really have to open and read the letters in order to pray over them? Could he have held each letter and prayed for whatever was in it and still kept the confidentiality of each letter? God would know what was in the letter even though the Reverend didn't open it, right? What made me the most angry was the last line of the article that announced the individual was going to place these letters for sale on EBay. Seriously, doesn't he have access to a paper shredder? Can't he just take the letters and destroy them? Why would anyone be so hungry for money? Check out the article for yourself, what do you think?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061102/ap_on_re_us/unanswered_prayers