Christmas Busyness

It feels like such a long time since I've written, but I'm sure you all know how busy the Christmas season is :) Here's a few things we've done since I wrote last time:

-Had our young adult group Christmas party (there were 27 people in our house!)
-Went across state for two family Christmas'
-Spent time with my brother and his girlfriend who live in Missouri
-Spent Christmas with two sides of family
-Been in the ER here, and a hospital two hours south

It has been interesting to say the least, but life throws all kinds of things at us, and we're used to that :) Both family Christmas' across state were wonderful. We got to see at least fifty people from my family, and my brother and his girlfriend were able to come to both parties this year. They come from Missouri every year, and because the parties were so close to Christmas, this year they were already here. It was great to see everyone and the family time was much needed.

The young adult group Christmas party was a lot of fun. We did a traditional dinner (there was absolutely no counter space left after everything was set out - and I have a lot of counters!) and a 'gift grab.' Everyone brought a dish to pass and white elephant gift. We ate (so much food..) and then we drew numbers to pick the gifts. There was stealing of gifts, shenanigans, and lots of commotion, but it was fun. It was a late night though, and we both had to work the next morning so it was quite exhausting.

Christmas here was fun. We spent Christmas Eve day with my family, and went to the service at night with Caleb's family and then opened gifts with them. Christmas morning was at my parents', dinner at his parents, and then we ended the night at my parents with a bunch of games before we came home and did gifts with each other. It was hectic and long, but it was a great Christmas day and we were able to spend time with lots of family.

The day after Christmas we had to work, but I went out to my parents for dinner. We ended up in the ER with my great grandma, and then got transferred to a bigger city. After many tests they confirmed it was a stroke. If you could please pray for her that would be greatly appreciated. She's 95, and has always been a fighter, but she could use a few prayer warriors to think about her.

As for me, I sit on my couch on a perfectly good Sunday morning, sick. I've been fighting something off since last weekend and it finally caught up to me. I'm not super sick, but my throat is irritated and I keep coughing up phlegm.. and just guessing, but thats probably the last thing people sitting next to me in a pew want to be around. So, I'll listen to the service on the radio. I was looking forward to the service though. I was supposed to be on praise team, and our friend - the youth pastor at our church - was given the opportunity to preach. He's so excited, and we're excited to see what he has to say. I just wish I could be there to see it,.. the radio is great, but I'm too fidgety to just sit so we'll see what happens.

Well, thats all for now. I hope your Christmas season was great, and you enjoyed celebrating the Saviors birth. Just remember that regardless of the season, we can always celebrate.

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

Wild Weeks (cont.)

  After recovering the rest of the week, the weekend had its fair share of activities also. I went straight from work to the Tween Olympic event. I didn't have much planning in on this one, the ministry director did though, and it was loads of fun! There were apple shot puts, 100m dash with potato sacks, synchronized routines, and a bonfire with all the goodies. It was a good time, and we had quite a few new kids that I didn't recognize. Yay for outreach!

Saturday we took my sister shopping as part of her birthday present. We spend the day out of town shopping, filled our bellies at Red Robin (yummm), and headed home. It was a fun and successful day. She got quite a few things, and I even ended up with new work shoes and a sweater. Sunday was usual, ending with a bonfire at youth group, and the leaders enjoying some fellowship over half priced appetizer at Applebee's.

Then it was Monday again. Do your weekends go by that fast? I wish mine didn't..

This week has just been alright, but I hope its gets even better. I came down with something the other day. It escalated and yesterday my eyes and nose were runny and itchy, I was achy, I had fluid in my ears, and just felt lousy. I came home from work at noon to rest, and didn't even go in today. Last night after Caleb got home, he said he was going to pick out new phones. I knew I shouldn't have, but I had to tag along and pick out my phone. It ended up taking a lot longer than we thought, but we were lucky and were able to take advantage of some major sales, cutting our checkout fees in half! So we retreated home with take out chinese and I stayed home while Caleb went to run the movie in the park. I was bummed I didn't get to go, but I just felt so lousy all I wanted to do was lay on the couch, so that's exactly what I did. I played with my new phone (ok, it was more like trying to figure out how to work it. That phone is too smart for its own good), blew my nose a zillion times, and watched a whole DVD worth of NCIS episodes.

So, here I sit on my couch, bored, in pajamas :) My morning started with green tea, ramen in a cup (because, when you don't feel good and nothing is appetizing, you eat anything that sounds remotely appetizing), and Live With Kelly. I'm starting to feel a little better, but I still have zero energy. Last night Caleb brought me some medicine, and chocolate, so I'm all set for now. At least I'm not as itchy today. It sounds like I'll be missing a jewelry party tonight, but hopefully I'll be feeling up to going out by tomorrow. Caleb's parents bought us tickets to see comedian Yakov Smirnoff tomorrow night, and I was so excited. He'll be about a half hour north of here, and I haven't got to explore that town much, so we were going to make a day out of it. I'll be really bummed if we can't make it.

Yakov Smirnoff

Well, that's all for now :) I'll be back eventually.