Matt Chandler Update

For an update on Matt Chandler, check out his most recent video HERE.

Christmas: Part II

JP and I spent this Christmas with his family in Gilbert, AZ, which for those of you who aren't up on your Arizona geography, is basically Phoenix.

Anytime you see these in the backyard in December, it's a good sign you are somewhere that it is not freezing. I was definitely glad JP wasn't from say Michigan (no offense to anyone from Michigan, I just don't function well in the cold).

This was the first time I had ever spent Christmas with JP's family, or anyone other than my little family unit, so I was really interested to see how this new part of my family celebrates Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We went to the Christmas Eve service at Desert Palms church. Desert Palms has a sister church that is Korean so it was a joint service. It was really cool to hear the Word in Korean, although if it hadn't been for the English translation on the screen I would have had no clue what they were saying. We ended the service with a candlelight singing of Silent Night. (Even though we were in Arizona it was still chilly at night!)

Afterward, we headed home for a yummy dinner that consisted of all kinds of dips, like cheese dip, shrimp dip, and caramel apple dip.

Christmas Day
We started the morning by exchanging presents.

I love this picture of JP because he looks like a little boy that is really excited about a gift he just opened. If you look closely though, you will see that JP actually just opened up some coal from his brother.

Babette, the "if she was a human she would be in her 90s" family dog, did not miss out on the fun. She absolutely loves opening presents and finding fun little toys inside. JP apparently enjoyed the toys as well.
After exchanging gifts, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast that included a super good pastry filled with cream cheese.

Later that night we enjoyed an equally good Christmas dinner.

We enjoyed a variety of activities while we were in Phoenix:

Shopping
Some of us went to Last Chance, which has TONS of expensive stuff from Nordstroms for relatively cheap. I got some shoes I love that were originally $110 but I paid $30. JP also got some shoes including a pair of boots.

Michael and I also went on shopping trip on Christmas Eve hitting up several stores and adding quite a few items to his wardrobe.

Food
I am pretty much obsessed with In N Out. If you don't know what it is, you need to get on the next flight you can find to California, Nevada, or Arizona (the only states that have In N Out) and go right now! As soon as I arrived in Phoenix, JP and his dad picked me up from the airport and we met everyone at In N Out. I also ate here on the way to the airport when I was leaving.

JP is equally obsessed with Filiberto's. He enjoyed a breakfast burrito the first morning he was there, and he too stopped by on his way to the airport when he was leaving.

Running
Ok, I'm not going to lie and say I participated in this, but JP and his dad ran together frequently.
I went with them once and enjoyed taking pictures while they were physically active.

History
We got to look at a lot of really cool stuff that belonged to JP's great aunt. When she moved out of her house this summer, JP's mom and aunt went to Holland to help her. They came back with tons of stuff that was full of history and stories.
We got to pick one piece. I let JP decide, and he picked the dark mug that is in the very center.

Birdie Ball
We enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing Birdie Ball several times. I had never heard of this game, but is sorta like golf but you use what looks like a very small piece of PVC pipe. I wasn't very good and actually enjoyed laying in the grass in the sun better than getting beat by all the guys!


Overall JP and I had a lot of fun in Arizona, and I enjoyed getting to spend Christmas with his family.

Christmas: Part I

Last year JP and I spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family because I was on "new employee probation" and was not able to take any time off. I even had to work a weekend day to make up for having Thanksgiving and Christmas days off! Once my probation was over in January we went to Arizona to visit his family.

This year I had no probation to deal with and plenty of vacation days, and JP, well, he didn't even have a job to deal with so he had as many vacation days as he liked! I asked JP which holiday he wanted to spend with his family, and he responded Christmas. So, we spent Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with his.

In our premarital counseling, our pastor said that some of the biggest family conflicts come over who you spend the holidays with. In relation to that, a lot of people have asked me how spending Christmas away from my family for the first time was. My response includes something regarding these points:

1. JP's family is great so I loved getting a chance to see how they celebrate Christmas!
2. I am very fortunate my in-laws live in Arizona! I joked with my mom that if they lived in some miserably cold place like Michigan or Alaska, I might have to celebrate Christmas in July with them!
3. Because my family lives just over an hour away we were able to spend the weekend before Christmas and New Years day with them.
4. My family did not pitch a fit or make things difficult.

I have a much longer post I am working on to document our Christmas in Arizona (it was actually supposed to be completed last night but I had a small mishap with dropping an external hard drive and breaking it and thus losing some of the pics I was going to use). However, I do want to go ahead and document our Christmas celebration with my family.

The weekend before Christmas my mom and I got to do a lot of shopping. We also enjoyed the delicious food and snacks my mom had prepared. To quote my mom directly from an email she sent me: "I sure do enjoy planning food when JP comes because he has a wide variety of what he will eat and then he eats enough that I feel it was worth the effort" I suppose you can tell she only had daughters and no sons!

Then after Christmas we spent New Years day with them. I wish we had been able to spend the entire New Years weekend in Decatur, but unfortunately I had to work that weekend. We actually celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts New Years day.

Two of my favorite things my parents got me include:

These fun colored nesting bowls. I love them and have been wanting them for a while!



This super functional carousel organizer that I have used to organize all of our office supplies.

I also got a beautiful serving bowl as well as some other things for the kitchen. JP got tons of tools from my Dad. My Dad is glad he finally has a boy around to share in his love for all things tools and cars!

It may be a little strange...

A few months ago JP and I were watching tv, flipping through the channels when we came upon an infomerical for some sort of juicer/food processor combination. We watched it for a second and then he started to change it. I had to protest and made us watch the whole infommercial.

Later, JP was again flipping through the channels when he came across QVC. He said jokingly, "I guess you will want to watch this since you love infommercials."

This is when JP learned of my secret love for QVC. It may be strange, but as a child I would watch QVC regularly. It all started when I was sick in 7th grade for several days. I had a lot of makeup work to do afterwards and discovered that watching QVC while I did my work would not distract me like a tv show but would eliminate complete silence. Doing homework while watching QVC continued through high school.

I was also obsessed with a show "In the Kitchen with Bob" which sold kitchen items every Sunday afternoon. I would come home from church and, if a Braves game wasn't on, I would eat my lunch while watching this show on QVC.

What I liked about watching these shows was the fact that most of the time they made me laugh, especially when people will call in.

Once I went to college my QVC watching stopped. However, JP and I are watching the Sunday afternoon kitchen show right now and we both are enjoying it so maybe my watching will pick up again. My guess is probably not, but I will always like QVC!

By the way, when JP learned of my former watching he asked if I had ever bought anything. The answer is yes. Once in middle school, I bought my sisters Christmas gift on QVC... blow pens. That is the only thing though.

Senior Year Memory Part FIFTEEN: First Impressions.

I just got back from Phoenix spending Christmas with JP's family. This makes me think back to the first time I met them, which leads me to another Senior Year memory post...

I had met JP's dad already, but had not met his mom or brothers. Right before Christmas break, JP informed me that his family would be in Atlanta over the break and that his mom wanted me to come meet them. So, I was like sure.

I ended up going to Atlanta to spend New Years with them. I don't remember a whole lot about it except I finally got to meet Babette... JP's dog that I had heard SO much about. Plus I got to meet his mom and brothers.

We played A LOT of video games... especially Mario 3 on the old school Nintendo. And if I recall correctly (which I am), JP definitely didn't beat the final level, but I did.

We also played games. Little did I know that this would definitely not be the last time that I sat around a table playing games with these guys.

And we celebrated the new year... by watching TONS of football of course!

Senior Year Memory Part FOURTEEN: Stone Mountain Trip

Back to the Senior Year Memory series...

In case you didn't know... JP was on the track and cross country teams at Samford. One of the track team members lived on a lake in Georgia. It had become a tradition for the track team to go to visit her family on the one off weekend they got each spring. JP asked me to go with them.

I had a lot of fun hanging out and getting to know JP's friends. I really hadn't gotten a whole lot of time with them since they were always so busy with track or cross country.

We had fun skiing on the lake during the day, and then at night we went to Stone Mountain. We played frisbee (see my class came in handy!) before the fireworks show, and then enjoyed the beautiful spring evening with fireworks.

It was a quick trip, but afterwards I was glad I got the chance to know JP's friends better.

The Big Two-oh One-Oh

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Psalm 37:7

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12

One thing I learned the most in 2009 is patience. We both expected to have a house by the end of 2009. Throughout the entire searching process, we really trusted in the Lord and asked Him to guide us in our search. Nothing ever seemed to work out, and then when JP got laid off, we knew that God had been answering our prayers all along by not showing us our first home! Instead, He provided for us the perfect opportuniity for JP to work towards a career advancement.

2010 has the potential to be HUGE for JP and I. There are a lot of things that could happen:

JP could pass the CPA exam

JP could get a job

We could buy a house

We could go to Disney World

These are things we both want to happen. Although there are some things I can do...

• I can be an encouraging and supportive wife

• I can pray for JP 's brain to soak up knowledge, for him to have the diligence to study as well as confidence

• I can pray for a job and a house and help look for both

• …. and I can look forward to the end result of all of this... going to our epic Disney World/beach trip that I have been planning in my head for years!

… these aren't really things you put on a “Things To Do In The New Year” List.

So what do I put on a “Things To Do In The New Year” List? Keep reading and you will find out!

Run

And when I say run, I mean run. I want to run 4 5ks this year (one each quarter) with a goal of running a 1/2 marathon sometime next year. I plan on going "from couch-to-5k. My sister just signed up for a 1/2 marathon so I'm thinking my personality trait of not letting other out do me might help me accomplish this one.

Blog

I want to update more often! I want to finish my "Senior Year Memory" series and have tons of things I want to blog about including another series. I also have an idea for another blog.

Open an Etsy Shop

I'm not going to tell you what I would be selling though until I actually open it.

Coupon

Send Thank You Notes

Thank you notes aren't just for wedding presents! I want to send people thank you notes for the little things they do.

Photography

i want to learn to use my camera better! i am planning on taking a class at Samford After Sundown with a friend

Take Supplements

I want to make sure I take my multivitamin and calcium everyday!

Water

JP will tell you that I don't drink enough water. It's true. It's not that I'm drinking other things... the only thing I usually drink is water... I just don't drink enough. I'm striving for 2 Liters/day.

Read 12 Books in 2010

Maybe for some people this is a low number... not for me. JP says one of these books has to be Atlas Shrugged (which I was supposed to read 2 years ago)

Finally and MOST importantly

1. I can not let the things above become "time wasters." I REALLY want to read the entire Bible this year. JP and I tried it in 2008. We started in the New Testament and got through it. Then somewhere in Joshua we got off track. This year I am going to do it!

2. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities.
taken from John Piper here