Christmas in Kentucky

On Friday, Alecia, Mike, and I set out on the road. First we drove to Chicago, where we dropped Alecia off at the airport. She is now in Romania for the next few weeks. Then Mike and I drove about 6 more hours to Ohio. On the way, Mike experienced the deliciousness of White Castle for the first time ;) We met up with my parents and brother and spent the night at my Aunt's house. Saturday morning, we drove another 3.5 hours down to Kentucky. We went to another aunt's house and hung out there for awhile. I wanted to show Mike around "our part of Kentucky" so we went in search of a coal mine. We couldn't find one at first and I ended up driving through 3 counties, up and down the twisty mountain roads. It was fun :) Then I realized I had stuff in my trunk that they needed to set up for the Christmas party so we brought that to the place where the party was. I got new directions and we went out again looking for the coal mine. Finally we found one, thought it wasn't the one I was looking for, but it was still neat to see. We headed back to my aunt's house and played with my cousins for a while. Then we headed back to the Senior Citizen's Center for the party. This was the first family Christmas party I've ever gone to. We got there about 4:30, party was supposed to start at 5:30, and already people were arriving! Mike and I stood off to the side and I tried to tell him who everyone was. In my family, that's quite a challenge. About 130 people came to the party. We ate and talked, and Santa came to visit the younger kids. Sunday morning, Mike and I left at 6 to head home. We arrived home about 4, with a few minutes to relax before I had to be at church to get ready for the dance. It was a busy weekend, but we had a great time!!!




This is an office building in Columbus, they had the indoor lights on to spell out HAPPY HOLIDAYS. It was really cool!














My cousin, Tracey, dressed as Santa and had a sack stuffed with toys for the kids.

Everyone crowded around to get gifts. The youngest got stuffed Curious Georges. The middle boys got cars from the movie Cars and the girls got princess dolls. The teenagers got money.

Liturgical Dance

Yesterday, Mike and I left Kentucky at 6 am to make it back to church in time for the Christmas program. (I'll write about Kentucky later!) Alecia and I choreographed a dance to Fernando Ortega's song, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. Six middle school girls performed the dance. They did such an amazing job!!!
There was a problem with the camera, so the song is in two separate parts. The first movie is the first 4 seconds, and the second is the rest of the song.

Advent

Please take a minute to watch this movie. The statistics are staggering!!! I learned in my management class that Americans spend $10billion on Halloween...problem solved, huh? :)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my mom's birthday!

My dad made her a cake

Isn't it pretty?

She's been wanting a pair of these for a few years now. They've always been so expensive, but this year I found an amazing deal...

And here she is modeling her new ear warmers. I got her two pairs. One for in her van, and one for in her coat pocket

Happy birthday Mom!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving, as you celebrate with your family and friends. Whatever your activities for today are, take a minute to thank God for your blessings.
I am thankful for:
My family
A nice warm house
Clothes
My friends
Mike
My church
Salvation
Food
My car
My health
Those are just a few things I am thankful for...there are so very many more!!!

Happy birthday Mike!!

Happy 20th birthday Mike! I never would have guessed that when we met that day in January, we'd be where we're at today. Like the pictures above show, you can be serious, but you have an amazing sense of humor and you can always make me laugh. We always have a blast when we're together and I wouldn't trade a minute of these past months for anything. You're not just my boyfriend, you're my best friend and I'm so thankful that God brought you into my life! I love you Mike!!!

A ray of sunshine

I have to apologize for slacking on my blog. This semester, especially these past couple weeks, has been insanely busy for me! All my classes are ones that I really have to work at, no easy classes this semester.

I spent all Friday evening, probably 3 hours Saturday, and most of the day Sunday working on homework. No, not for all my classes...but for just one class! My management class has an insane amount of work, and it doesn't help at all when your team members don't contribute or do their work on time. I was supposed to study for my accounting test today as well, and I was able to squeeze in about an hour of study time for that, but most of my time was spent on this ridiculous paper.

Mike came over yesterday afternoon, so he could help me a bit with my paper, and while I worked on mine, he also worked on a paper he had to write. Toward the end of the night, I was just so frustrated, I couldn't take any more. We ended up watching a movie, which helped a bit, but I was so stressed out. I've never been this stressed for any other classes, in all my other semesters.

So Mike knew how frustrated I was feeling. Unbeknownst to me, he stopped at the store and bought me my favorite candies. When he saw me today, he handed me not one, but two bags of these...

I was so surprised when he pulled them out of his backpack this morning! Just another thing I love about him, how he's so sensitive and thinks of the little things like this to make my day better. Thanks Mike!!!

Carroms

Have you ever heard of Carroms? It's a game that Mike introduced me to last Sunday. It was his favorite game when he was growing up and on Sunday afternoon we decided to pull it out and play for a while. I had no idea what to expect, but it was so much fun!

The only way I could really describe it is that it's like playing pool. The object is to use the little stick and your white shooter puck and shoot your color puck into the holes on the board.

We played probably 4 or 5 games. Mike won all but one, and that's only because he sunk the black puck so I won that round. I think I need more practice so I can beat him. But I'm pretty sure neither of us will complain if we play some more!!!

I've learned a lot, and I'm still learning.

In my last post, I asked you to tell me how you would define love...these are the answers I recieved...

Jennifer-It has to be a choice. If it is based all on feelings it won't survive. That is kinda what the movie talked about also. Put the actions in place and your heart will follow. Smiles!

Kim- Love is a decision you make! When you first meet "the one" there is alot of emotion and electricity. In the everyday life that electricity fades, and regularity comes in. When you choose to continue to love someone, you are willing to work at it, to talk it out, to give of yourself, to put them first (after God of course). When you love like that your love grows deeper and more meaningful then that first initial passionate love! It's better!

I couldn't agree more with what both of my friends said. In the past 8 months, I've learned a lot about love. I have learned that it is not always easy, but it is worth it. And love doesn't have to be perfect. People are not perfect, so only God's love can be perfect. People are normal and they get upset with each other and annoyed over little things. But I've found that that can only make love grow stronger. Love is unconditional. Nothing you do should cause a person to just stop loving you, if they love you in the first place. I've learned that there has to be more than just physical attraction, it's an emotional attraction. When you're best friends with the person you love and you can connect on that level. I've learned a lot about love, and I know I have a long ways to go, God's not finished with me yet!!

Fireproof

Saturday night Mike and I went to see Fireproof. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you go see it. It is completely worth the money you spend on the ticket.
The movie is based on a man and his wife who are going through a rough time. The wife files for divorce and the husband sets out on a 40 day love dare. It's a really neat plot line and we both really enjoyed the movie.
It's kind of interesting because I have been reading the Karen Kingsbury Baxter Family series and the book I just finished was talking about ways to have a forever love. It seems like a lot of things are all relating to the same topic...unconditional love.
So I want to get your input. How would you define or describe love?