Monday, November 19, 2007

Sad News

While it has been a real joy keeping everyone up to date on my personal life via this blog. Through a lot of prayer I just think with my current job situation this blog might not be the best thing right now. So it is with a sad heart I inform you I will be removing it completely by the end of the week. Now I will go back to sending more regular updates on all the fun things here to my friends via e-mail. So if for some reason I don't have your e-mail or if you are an old friend that has been keeping up with me via this blog I do want to keep you up just not so the whole world will be kept up too. So leave me a comment with your e-mail and any other contact info you want to pass on and I will add you to my list. I will not approve the comment so it will never post and everyone else can grab your e-mail too! ;)

Sorry to have to change this guys! It really has been fun finding random folks via this blog but it is for the best. I will continue to check in on those of you who have a blog so you will still get stalked from me that way!!! ;) And if you are one of my blog friends I have linked please make sure I have your e-mail so I can keep up with you and keep you in the loop!

Love y'all!

Friday, November 9, 2007

Surprises!

So last night we had a surprise baby shower for one of the ladies in my bible study Jenn. It was a blast of a night hanging out catching up and talking babies. There was lots of food and laughs to go around and watching all these women in my living room I just sat there and thought how blessed I was by each of them.

See you have to understand my study formed in the Fall of 2003 with 15 girls all single and working in the city. We were the renegade study as we deemed ourselves because we formed it outside of our church but we all attended together. We met the first night at a cute Italian place in DuPont circle and me being the ever on schedule girl began to get anxious as no one was arriving. I was already settled I was not happy with this study and I missed my girls in Texas. Soon Suzy came around the corner and greeted me with one of the warmest smiles and apologies for being late, within minutes ladies started pouring in and we were seated at a long table trying to meet everyone. I ended up on the end with the other youngin at the table Deb O. We had a great night of fellowship and I soon learned these ladies would be a life saver for me. Since Deb O and I were the babies in the group the ladies were very quick to take us under their wings and care for us. Many times when I could not afford to eat one would take me out to dinner, or swing by lunch to me at work. I had a standing invitation to just about all of their homes for meals whenever I needed it and a place to crash if I ever got stuck with long hours in the city.

These ladies sacrificed to make me feel at home. They let me spend holidays with them. I was able to attend special occasions with their families, and then they started to get married. It was joyous how our group started with only one married gal and one gal dating someone and now over half are married and have kids! One specific thing I remember so clearly is at one point in my job I had a week where I was SO crazy I literally wore holes in the bottom of my shoes from the amount of walking I did. I had told Jenn about this when she called me one day in the office to check in on me. Next thing I new they had dropped off new shoes to me so that I could keep working and not get my feet soaked since it was raining outside. There are SO many stories I could tell of praise to these women this is just one.

I can remember specifically the times ladies would enter our group for prayer request and start to talk seriously or not so seriously about a boy, and the next thing I knew we were attending their weddings. As our lives changed so did our group slowly some ladies slipped out and we added new ones in, and did life together with them. So last night we honored Jenn, (she and I are the final two from the original group) she is having a little girl in just a few months and we gathered together all the ladies we could from the bible study over the years that lived here in town. And as we were sitting there talking I just looked around the room at the ladies who have shaped my life here in DC. They have prayed for me, rallied around me, encouraged me and supported me through some of the hardest times in my life. I know if I even need something these ladies are the ones I will call. They took me as a scared gal straight out of college intimidated by the city and everything it held and turned me into a Godly woman who can live out her faith in the work place. I owe a lot to these ladies and they may never know how much they mean to me. Each one holds a very dear space in my heart and I am so blessed to know them and so excited to see where God will take us all in the future.

Diaper Cake Candice made... (all week I thought it was going to be something edible)

Jenn comes in very surprised!

Gals from the original group! Jenn, Me, Jess, and Amanda

Ladies in the Current Study
(Jeanie, Beth, Jodi, Michelle, Jenn, Me, Kelli, Suzanne)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

VOTE!!!

In case you did not know today is election day people! It is one of my favorite days of the year as I get to exercise a civic duty that has been given to me by the sacrifice of so many soldiers! And they are fighting right now for others to also be able to vote! In the last Iraqi election many folks who decided to go to the polls did so at the expense of their safety in that many attacks took place on people heading there not to mention the women alone!

So I promise you that extra stop in your day, the almost no line to get to the polls is nothing compared to what so many had to go through to allow you to go vote. So go and vote! There may not be any BIG folks on the ballot this November but your local Judges, School Boards, State legislatures and many more all need your support! So go exercise your freedom today and VOTE!

Monday, November 5, 2007

H-Town and College Station Pics!

Weekend started off with a little Lupe Tortilla in H-Town

Steph and I

Crazy Cristina and I

Morgan Family and I

Grace and Kristi

Yell Practice Gang

Jamie Lee and I

Future Yell Leaders!

Joe and I doing the push ups

Let the Kiddos Invade!

Sabrina, Victoria and Savannah!

Lee Family... Not sure why they look so scared!

Waverly, and Whitney and I

Boone Family

My Best Friend from High School Emily and her boys

My Gals! Renee JUST got engaged! Was a sweet surprise to see them!

The new extended Family! Congrats Renee and Justin!

My Bro and the Boys at the Game

Rachael at her first College Football Game! WHOOP!

Heather and I

Tristie and I

Kerri and I (Thanks for letting us invade your home!)
Did not get a one on one pic with Jared but thanks J-Rod for driving us around!

MIA!

Okay I am sorry for being so MIA recently but it was all for good! I have recently accepted a new job!!! I am VERY excited and looking forward to the new challenge. I will stay in DC and not head to a new city but you just never know where I may turn up next, what is that a Big Apple in the distance or is it just getting Windy in here!

So on top of all the interviews and grueling process of the new job I also got to travel back home and hang with a lot of good friends and a lot of new babies!!! One of my favorite things in life is that while it is very weird and peculiar to me to think of babies, I DO love my nieces and nephews and just because there is no blood there does not mean my good friends little ones are not related to me… scary I know but I love being an Aunt! You get them all hopped up on sugar you are the hero and then you send them home! What is wrong with this plan! While in Texas I got to travel back with my good friend Rachael and Jodi was to come but a very sad sequence of events and two missed planes and she was stuck in DC.

After some good time in College Station catching up with friends and some good Aggie football even if we did not win… I headed to New Orleans for some business. We worked our tails off and to be honest it was one of the BEST business trips I have gone on. Our team to work with was awesome and gelled just right. So despite all the crazy antics and lack of info we pulled of a few great events! Whoop! Then I got the chance to head over to a special project Emeril Lagasse is helping with and taste a lot of his famous food and hang out with him for a while. It was awesome the food was good and that guy can hug I will tell you what!

Once back in DC after some plane fiascos myself, I slept for 9 straight hours it was AMAZING! And then headed to an 80’s party with my college students only to have to leave early to attend my roomies 30th birthday! It has been a FULL last week and a half and I will post pics up as soon as I can!