Almost Goodbye in 2009!

It's almost here! 2009 is ALMOST done with...can hardly believe it...but I think I say that every year. A year seems like such a length of time, but when it's over with, it seems to have gone so fast.

Bringing on a New Year always seems exciting, unplanned and dotted with a little trepidation of what is unknown. However, looking back over the year I realize I reflect mostly on the people i know and love more so than the events that have taken place. It's probably because that is where I tend to place my value, I tend to measure a day or week by the people the Lord has placed in my life.

I realize people come and go, but they all have been in my life for a reason and a time. Some people I may not welcome with open arms but they teach me patience or perhaps refine my character or even better yet, display a reflection of my less than stellar traits.

Sweeter, are the friends and family that have intercepted life through its journey. I am forever grateful for my family, they are a steady foundation I build on every day and I am not sure what I would do without them.

Circumstances and the undulation of life itself often change who is woven into my life. There are friends that reside far away and it's unknown when or where I will ever see them again, but they know (or at least they better) the very special place they have formed in my heart. They had their time and place in my life and shaped and molded me in a way that they may never even know. Their season was sweet and though the sun as set on our time as friends who live together or see each other on a daily basis, they are just as important now as before.

People have entered my life throughout the past few years and even just this past year that find a way into my heart, affect my life and give me lessons to learn. Some, I have known for years, some for a few months and others I have yet to meet :) So, for me, it's a journey with those around me. Even now, there are some people I feel I have known for what seems like forever, but as relationships grow and change, it's as if I have rediscovered them in a way I did not know before. I have to ask myself how I missed that all before, because now that I know what I do, it seems to have enriched me further and I love them more for it.

So, I embrace the New Year as another journey and thankfully it's a journey with family and friends who will teach me, grow me, sharpen me and enrich me and I can only hope I do the same for them.

To top it off, as I was flipping through some creative writing pieces of a few writers, I saw this:

A season of friendship

owes no responsibility to time

A friend may be forever

but it's intimacy may only last for a summer

A friend's embrace

may last only to keep out a winter's chill

Their laughter may only quell

in springs unveiling moments

There is a time to hold on

There is a time to let go

A friends moment in life may

unravel for years

or

sweeten life for only a season

Neither is sweeter

neither is deeper

But each shines brighter

in its season of time

My time was then,

your time is now

hold dear my friend

if it's time to go

Hold tighter my friend

if our season is now

enjoy the journey :) See ya in the New Year!

To Letter or Not To Letter, To Sweater or not to Sweater....

I DID do Christmas cards this year, but only to a select few. This is not to cause an issue-but most of the cards were sent to family and friends that I do not see very often or for some reason or another DON'T have facebook. I did not do "the letter" . I did not write a "newsletter" though I have nothing against people who do. I say, if you want to write a Christmas letter, you go for it. If people don't want to read them, then well, that's up to them.

Of course, it's a running debate with my mom and I about the propriety of the Christmas sweater...now here is where my opinion begins to slide... maybe it's not within the Christmas spirit...but I DO giggle when the classic Christmas sweater busts out of the closet after a year of being suffocated by summer's tank tops and spring and falls various fashions. December is the month for three dimensional snowmen, penguins with santa hats and Christmas trees that light up to be plastered on the front and back of otherwise cute sweaters. Hey, now don't take offense, if you can work the Christmas sweater, all the power to you. I mean if your five, it's cute. If you are 65 - even cuter.... ;) All of you in betweeners....hmmmm.

I say all this to say....I got ONE gift at a ladies exchange at my church....you can guess what it was...and yes - OF COURSE I will post a picture. soon.

And We Declared It was GOOD!!!

I like to bake, I cook because it is a necessity. I don't mind fixing meals for friends and family, it does get quite silly that my family needs dinner EVERY night!! what! Sometimes bagel sandwiches constitute dinner and mac 'n cheese is always a big hit, however...this past weekend...something amazing happened. My kitchen was a Food Network special. This is only in part thanks to my friend Kristin. She was over and as Food Network fan she was watching the show when a recipe appeared that looked like fun!

So.....off to the store we went, bought the ingredients and embarked upon a food-type adventure that was named Penne with Shrimp and Herb Cream Sauce.

The Christmas Cookies had to get done first...
THEN...onto the good stuff
Yup, we were very happy with ourselves...seriously - it was soooo yummy
Genius in the making....
to top off a perfectly good meal....we made homemade peppermint mochas...thanks to a strbx recipe!
Oh..yup...this was how it all began...

Fantastic...cheers!

Ornament Coolness

It all happened so suddenly- sitting here one Sunday night - in the blink of an eye- I realized Andrew needed a homemade ornament for school- so what to my wondering eyes did appear- ....absolutely nothing.

I had to think. I tried the old-school snowflake cutting out of folded pieces of paper and that poor snowflake was just tragic. I had to do a LITTLE better than that. So after wondering around the house with a dazed look upon my face...I resorted to Mr. Google. And we found a way to make a homemade ornament that Andrew thought was "cool"... awesome.

A tractor made from gum, kisses, lifesavers and a Krackle bar all held together with a lil hot glue.

It's fun - you should try it :)

Yesteday...

We have no idea what God protects us from throughout our day. We can only be assured that His divine intervention is always at work, sometimes it goes unseen and we ignorantly cruise through our day. At other times, such as yesterday, He lets us know He is watching.

Gregg's truck had to go in for inspection yesterday morning, so he took off like normal down our mountain side hill and dropped it off. No big deal...until.. the mechanic at the garage started up the truck and pulled it into the garage only to have the very next touch on the breaks reveal, the breaks didn't work...something went ( don't ask me what...). However, they almost drove the truck through the garage wall.

As I listened to what had happened, my stomach sank as I thought of Gregg and Andrew driving to school and the breaks going..unhappy, sad, sickening thoughts all the way around. The fact that the breaks went on the very next touch, made me wonder...the horrible..."what if?"

ugh. no. didn't go there very long.

If you have never read "This Present Darkness" or "This Piercing Darkness" I highly recommend them. In moments like yesterday, I sometimes picture an angel riding underneath the truck holding everything together until the boys were safe and sound.

Those books are written from a very unique perspective and I have debated about reading them again....if I didn't have a bazillion other " i wanna read" books sitting here. Maybe soon!

But, anyway yesterday may have been a HUGE reminder...that our days are precarious at best as we drive full throttle through each hour with rarely a second thought as to what is going on around us, but perhaps His angels are there, keeping the breaks in tact for when we decide to stop for a moment and breathe.