Christmas with the Stafford's

We also celebrated Christmas with the Stafford side on Saturday the 16th. We kicked it off with a wonderful dinner that included, turkey, ham, creamed corn, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, au gratin potates, pumkin pie, apple pie, and cookies!!! Needless to say we had plenty of leftovers to get us through the rest of the week until we leave for UT.

I think Morgan caught on this year as to opening presents! However, once she openned one she would want to play with it - I can't blame her!!! She had so many in comparison to us, that we had to continually keep her on task of openning presents. Mama and Papa Stafford got her many outfits for this summer, which are adorable, Dora's talking house, a Dora tree house tent, and a butterfly plack thing to hold her outfits on (so she can choose what to where). Aunt Les, got her a water table, which we filled with rice and is now all over the basement floor, a dora ABC game and a necklace and bracelet. We are headed down to Mama and Papa Bauer's tonight for our Christmas celebration there

Happy 32nd Birthday Kyle!!!

Since we will be gone during Christmas, we celebrated Kyle's birthday this past Saturday before we celebrated Christmas with the Stafford side. As many of you know, Kyle, is so difficult to shop for and when his birthday is the day before Christmas many family members are caught scratching their heads in deliberation as to what to get him. For the record, I came up with the absolute best gift idea for him over the summer, a GPS system. He had even alluded to the fact that it would be a neat thing to have. Besides it seems that he can be directionally challenged at times, and refuses to listen to me! I am not quite sure how, but he figured out what I was planning on getting him. After extensive research and even considering getting a hand held one to take on our ski trips where he can buy the maps specifically for mountains and skiing, he decided against it! Arghhh!!! Foiled Again! Here are some pics of his birthday celebration. I decided to get him North Face boots for the snow and some long sleeved fleece shirts.

Small Group Christmas

Saturday the 9th of December our small group met to celebrate Christmas by enjoying a nice lunch, exchanging gifts, and some fellowship time together. Most of the time, during our bible studies, it seems there is so much to get done and discuss that we don't always get to go into really deep conversations about the things going on in our lives. So this time together was all that much more special in sharing the birth of Christ and fellowship. I think we all had an incredibly good time together and I am especially greatful for my fellow "groupers." God has found me a wonderful group of women, whom I have been able to identify with and enjoy their love of Christ with. I love getting together with them and digging into the word. From top to bottom and left to right pic 1: Marla (our leader), Suzanne, Kathy, Bonnie, Olga, Me; pic 2 Marla, Suzanne, Kathy, Char, Olga, Me.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

Here is our Christmas photo:

Unexpected Blessings

I love when God does this! This past Monday, Kyle and I flew out to Orlando, FL. Now, we often live on two different schedules and sometimes they don't get communicated as well as they should, which is actually what makes this blessing so special. I didn't realize we had a trip to Orlando scheduled until about a week and a half before we left. I didn't really know what it would be like or what kind of hotel we would be staying at - in short I had no expectations. I did however, have an itinerary that outlined what he would be doing and when I would be invited to join in. Basically this trip was hosted by the PGA Ambassador program in which they had invited Kyle to become a part of earlier this fall. He ran it by me at that time and I was like that sounds interesting, do it. The whole idea of this trip is that they fly him down, pay for his meals and accomodations, he plays the golf course and attends an hour and a half business meeting in the morning. Once golf is over he is free until dinner, when the spouses/significant others join in. For the spouses/significant others, we get dinner and had a gift certificate for one spa treatment of our choice. So, I figured we would go down, he would be gone until about 2pm and I would sit by the pool, read, relax, and workout by myself and join him later. The whole purpose of the trip is to experience the resort in hopes that it will become a golf destination that the pros will recommend to their members.

So this is what actually happened: At about 11:30 am, we checked into this hotel that was absolutely gorgeous, with awesome veiws of the landscaped poolS and golf course, in which I was blown away. Our room wasn't ready yet so they took our phone number and we went down by the pool to have some lunch while we waited. After lunch we checked in and actually took a cat nap and then got up and we went down to the fitness room to work out. At 6:30 pm we attended the welcoming dinner and that's where we meet some phenomenal people! The dinner was fabulous, although it started as fine dining portions, Kyle and I were thinking "we'll be ordering some room service later", but ended up with a nice sized veal chop, potatoes, and greens. The next morning I had remembered one of the girls room numbers and so called her to see if she wanted to get some breakfast before we worked out later that morning, and after finding one of the other girls room numbers we all met up for breakfast. All I can say is that it was a wonderful experience, more than I could have imagined and beyond anything I expected! God knew exactly what I had been longing for - and that was some meaningful conversation and girl time! We bonded and enjoyed one another's company immensly. It was as if we had been friends for years - there was never in my mind an akward moment of silence! It was just something so unusal to see and quite an unexpected blessing! God is so faithful to provide our every need, even ones we haven't asked for. I am so thankful for those women and the time we were able to share!

Too Quiet....Awe peace!

It is very quiet around here..... As I am eating my lunch this Sunday afternoon and after arriving home from church to an empty house, each time my fork hits my plate I expectantly wait for some barking in the background, but all is quiet. Almost erie, and as if I have gone back to a different place in time. And so I think about my life, and how things were back before Ellie, then Roxie and finally Morgan. What on earth did I ever do with my time??? And as I contemplate what to do right now with an empty house, I am perplexed by the many options....should I do some last minute shopping, put together my christmas letter, or forget it all and just be at peace with my Savior and King? I think I will relax...

You may be wondering where on earth is her family? Did she leave the doors wide open to let them wonder out??? Did she lose her mind and sell them to the lowest bidder? Not Yet! It is the day before Kyle and I leave to go down to Orlando, FL for a PGA Ambassador program trip (don't ask, just go with me on this - it is free time for me to spend with God for 3 days - and time for Kyle to be wined and dined and play golf). So in short, everyone has been shipped off in anticipation for our early departure Monday morning and I have a few free hours! But I can't get over how my body wants to be reactive in anticipation of the day to day small events in my life, such as the dogs barking at my fork hitting the plate because they think an intruder is invading our house.... (I mean come on what are they really going to do??? All I know is Roxie will be armed with pee, as the intruder looks at her weird and she rolls over as a foutain of urine sings praises to someone who might pet her - trust me I know! Crazy dog....) So anyway, off to do nothing!!!!

YAM - Young Adult Ministry

Well, I finally made it! I have been desiring to go to YAM from about May of this year, but between settling into a new place, starting a new job, getting plugged into a small group, suffering through thyroid symptoms and then finally our small group switching nights, the time to check it out never presented itself until this week. My small group leader called and told me that we were not meeting this Thursday, which happened to be a YAM night. YAM meets the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month from 7 - 10pm. So, I once again found myself in the undesirable position of sticking myself out there and going to something where I virtually knew no one. As excited as I was and have been in anticipation to go now for 7 months, I have to say, I was slightly let down. In my expectations, I thought that there would be people my age, which there were, but also in the same area of life in which I was, but there was not. I quickly came to realize that most of the yammers there were single. There were however, a few whom were married - but I am not sure there were any who had children. Of, course, I can't say for sure, because there are some 200 young adults who attend on any given Thursday and I couldn't have possibly met them all. But the people whom I spoke with who have been in YAM for a while know. I am certainly not saying that there is anything wrong with being single or married without children - I just know in my experiences that people who are not at the same point in your life as you are, have more difficulty relating to your life. Certainly friendships can be born, my best friend is single. I guess my biggest fear is that people will leave me out because I am at a different point in life than they are. I fear being written off and missing out on developing new christian friends. Sure, I would ideally like to meet some couples and make friendships that way but that isn't always how God operates. I just find that being out of school and having moved 3 times makes it more difficult to connect with people. All I desire is to have some friends my age to worship God and do life together with.

Anyway, the whole production itself was impressive! The pastor of young adults was great to listen too - he had a powerful message! After worship and the message, all the yammers go to Cornerstone Cafe in the church to enjoy some fellowship time with food and beverages. I was so surprized that the church made the food for us and it was free!!! I get so excited about little things in life that send such powerful messages - this one love. It was great and so awesome that a church can put on something so wonderful! As, I am learning more about the church I am so happy to call this place home!

Want to Ski?

It seems that there has been a trend recently in our invites of two couples out to Colorado for one of our ski trips. Of course Kyle has been as giddy as child on Christmas day to go out and ski this year, as many of you may know, that he has asked two different couples now to accompany us. Each couple has now resulted in becoming pregnant. His 1st assistant is expecting a baby boy in April. And now, his good buddy and prior assistant at Sand Ridge is also now expecting a baby this summer! Congratulations! Anyone else want to ski?

No Nap, No Tears

Lately, I have been having problems with my little angel taking naps. I don't know why but at 2 yrs old she insists that she doesn't need a nap. Thankfully for me, my thyroid has been better. So again today after some repeaded attempts at putting Morgan down for a nap, I finally have come to an agreement with her. It's really quite simple - I told her that if she crys at all, she WILL be taking a nap. As I put out my hand to her to offer to shake on the deal, as if a 2 yr knows what that is???, I said expectantly "Deal?" at which she slung back "No Deal, Mommy!" What!?!?! I think someone's been watching too much TV...

Irregardless of her "no deal" remark, it has seemed to work all day. Although it is quite exhausting to feel like you never get to take a break, it certainly seemed to be working! Whenever she felt like throwing a fit the rest of the day, all I had to do is remind her that if she crys she takes a nap. Of course, she is much to smart for this to last long and I am not quick to come up with new material. I just pray that is will hold for awhile...

Back At It

Yes, IT has been awhile since my last post....i have been considering shutting down the blogging operation, but after careful consideration, I have decided to give it another go around. I am hoping that someone will login and start leaving comments from here on out. If not, I will just consider it more conversations between myself and my almighty creator. From this point forward, I do plan on trying to leave more regular updates.....stay tuned!