Friend-Makin' Mondays and LAST Baby Paxton

All right! Back into the swing of things. I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! My husband and I couldn't afford to go visit family, so my grandparents came to visit us. We had a really good dinner (at a restaurant because I have no table and the exterminator was coming again the next day) and got to spend some time with them since we won't see them for...quite some time now.

So Friend-Makin' Monday is another survey! I love surveys for some reason. If you want to join in, please feel free to visit Amber.

1. Favorite website
Hmm...I like to read my friend Vashti's blog or The Uniform Project is really cool. Also, my guilty pleasure is This Is Why You're Fat.

2. Favorite color
Cerulean blue. It's a crayon color

3. Facebook? {Post a link or share your name if you want some new Facebook friends!}
I do facebook, but I'm trying to limit it to close friends and family. I used to have something like 400 facebook friends and they were mainly people I spoke to ONCE in high school and people I wasn't even friends with. And I felt like I was just stalking too many people and it was bad for my soul.

4. Favorite Christmas song?
Hmm...I LOVE the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers Christmas duets, but some of the songs are just plain creepy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to sing 'O Holy Night' though. It makes me ridiculously happy.

5. Christmas tree: Real or fake?
I miss having a real one. We had one almost every year, but it's been 3 years since I had one that was over a foot tall. Since we aren't at home (or at my parent's home) on Christmas anymore, no real need for one, you know?

6. Hottest celebrity?
Hmm...Mac from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia? I don't know...is it weird that I don't really think about that?

7. Favorite restaurant?
My favorite expensive restaurant is Peter Luger's. And my favorite non-expensive restaurant is either Nomado 33 (NYC) or Sakura (Akron, Ohio). I guess I'm just a sushi girl.

8. Favorite magazine?
I don't really read magazines. I used to like Gourmet, but that's gone now.

9. Favorite thing to drink around the holidays?
I love Reisling! Mmmmm. But I need to get back on the wine/liqour. I need to fit into a bathing suit for Christmas!!

10. Favorite Christmas movie.
OH MY GOSH!!!!!!! IT'S THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL!!!!! It's a tradition for me to force anyone I know to watch it with me. I need to ask Steve to pull that out. :)

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Baby Paxton is HOME!!!



How great is that?

I was going to put the Chip In for Baby Paxton, but it looks like it's over! They were able to raise $679 for Paxton and his Ma Ma. I don't know if it's too late to join in though. Maybe not? Cause if you do, you could win these little suckers.



If you want to read up on what Baby Be Blessed does, you can always read here.

Thanksgiving In Pictures

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. To be honest, after preparing the church luncheon last Sunday and working and everything, I was a little burnt out.

But I am thankful for sleeping in, for pretzels, for my grandparents coming to visit for Thanksgiving, for being able to go on walks with my husband, and mostly, for God's love and kindness in my life, even when I struggle.

Prayer Request

My co-worker Daniel has leukemia. He's had it for a year and 95% of leukemia patients (that have this type of leukemia) can be treated with a pill. Wouldn't you know that he is in that 5% that can't be? You want to be in that top percentage until it's something like this. Next week, he's going in for chemotherapy and then has to get a bone marrow transplant. He's been having a very rough few weeks (and he's had bed bugs too!! aaarrrgggghhhh!).



If you could please pray for his health, for his wife, and that he comes to know Christ in this time, I would really appreciate it. :)

Home Is...

I have a friend on Facebook who started a conversation about 'Home.'

She's lived in New York for at least 4 years now and she said that she's tired of people asking if she's coming 'home' to Ohio. She no longer views that as 'home' even though that's where her parents live.

Someone told her that, no, that IS her home because it's where she's from. But I want to know why does that mean you're 'home'?

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right. ~Maya Angelou

I grew up in a very small town in Ohio and I HATED it. I've been told that we lived in a very strange town, that most towns are not like that. We were not accepted there, we did not fit in there, and I did everything I could to get out of there. And now my parents no longer live there. All the places that I once called 'home' are simply buildings that I see in pictures. I haven't driven past them since my family moved from Canal Fulton. I feel no need to go back to Ohio. It's stopped being home.

I'm getting a bit sentimental, if you couldn't tell.

Home is not where you live but where they understand you. ~Christian Morgenstern

Maybe it's the holidays. Maybe it's that, every year, we change what we do. The traditions that we held onto for so long disappeared a few years back and we just make it up as we go. I don't mind it so much, but I think we all have days where we think of what we had once and miss it. Not because it was a good story, or a relevant one, but because it was our story.

Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. ~John Ed Pearce

Humans fear change and I've had a lot of it in the past three years of my life. And I think part of it has always been that I didn't leave my parents - my parents left me. They moved before I ever did. I didn't have a permanent mailing address until I got married and moved to New Jersey/New York.

Even now, I don't plan on being in any apartment for longer then a year. The longest we've lasted is a year and a half. In 5 years, I've lived in as many places, hopping back and forth between states.

I feel more at home in Hong Kong then I ever did in Ohio. I learned more street names in my 3 years in New York then I ever did in the 22 years in Canton.

You know, people always say 'home is where the heart is.' I like how Robert Frost thought of it:
Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.

Where thou art - that - is Home. ~Emily Dickinson

Friend-Makin' Mondays

Wooohooo!!! Another Monday, but this is a 2 and a half day work week!!!!! YYEESSS!!! If you want to join in, please feel free to visit Amber!

It's all about Thanksgiving!

1. Turkey or Ham? I prefer turkey, but I've always had both on Thanksgiving. One with each side of my family.

2. Favorite side dish. Mashed potatoes BY FAR!

3. Favorite dessert. We always had pumpkin pie or like chocolate cake. I like both. Though I can always do pumpkin roll too. You know, with the cream cheese.

4. Black Friday: Are you going or not? HELL. NO.

5. If so, what's on the top of your list? I with I could say I was sleeping in on Black Friday, but the exterminator is coming for the THIRD TIME and we have to be out of the apartment. With the cat.

6. Going out of town or staying close to home? We're staying at home and my grandparents are coming to visit!

7. Hosting or helping? None of the above. Since we don't have a table and, if we did, it would be wrapped in plastic, we have restaurant reservations at a place in Hoboken at 5pm.

8. Name one family tradition at Thanksgiving. You know, since my parents moved and then we moved too, all traditions have seriously been thrown out the window. We no longer have any traditions. Last year, for Thanksgiving, Steve and I went to Peru.



I wouldn't mind making it a tradition to take a trip, but we'd definitely need to start saving for that...oh...NOW. We only have a 'tradition' at Christmas and that is to take a paper Santa with us wherever we go and take pictures with him. This year, paper Santa will be ENJOYING THE BEACH!!! I can't wait to be in Hong Kong!!! :)

9. What do you do after dinner? This year, I'd love to sleep! We'll probably take a bottle of wine over to my grandparent's hotel room.

10. What are you most thankful for this year? I am thankful for my husband. For all that God has done in my life and for my relationship with Him (that's what I want the most!). For being able to have a cat. For my family. For the children that I love and have never met and those I have met or will meet soon.

Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude! ~Henry Ward Beecher

What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving? ~Erma Bombeck, "No One Diets on Thanksgiving," 26 November 1981

Being Thankful

I know that thankful Thursday was yesterday, but I went to church last night and the theme was being thankful and it was a really great service. And today has been kind of a crappy morning, so I feel like I should focus on something other than myself.

I am thankful:

1) I am thankful for Vashti and all the work that she is doing in South Africa. I am really anticipating going to South Africa and Ethiopia because I believe that it will really change my perspective on life and love.

I've been to Cambodia, but it was more insulated. I was with my family and we had a private tour and there were times that we saw what life is really like in Cambodia but it was very far from us.


This is a Buddhist Stuppa that contains 8,000 human skulls that were found at Cheoung-Ek, also known as, The Killing Fields.

Cambodia is still getting over genocide, over 30 years later. There are still not enough teachers to help the children and the prostitution is rampant. Parents will hack off the limbs of their children so that they will get more money from tourists.

2) I am thankful that I have more than enough. Sometimes, it feels like it's not enough and I know that Steve and I panic. But God has given us grace and that is enough. We had a dinner for an upcoming church event and the pastor there used The Message's translation of 1 Timothy and it is really touching. Part of what he says is 'If you have bread on the table and shoes on your feet, that is all that you need.'

Most people in Cambodia make $30 a month. Gasoline costs over $1 per liter. Because their currency is so devalued, they allow the US$ in circulation.



Those bottles all contain gasoline. It is cheaper to buy your gasoline from a bottle in the road then to go to a gas station. The more rural the area, the more likely you will see roadside stands with gasoline. People purchase enough gasoline to get them where they're going. At the same time, we saw almost no cars in Cambodia. Almost everyone drives motorbikes. We saw up to four people on these bikes.

3) I am NOT thankful that I am STILL being bitten by bed bugs even though the exterminator has been out twice. But I am thankful that I have someone to lean on while we go through this. God has been good and so has my husband.



We will get through this, even if the darn blood suckers are multiplying in ways that are inconceivable to me. Update! I AM thankful that we have a three month guarantee and the exterminator is coming out again without us having to pay! Which is great, because we couldn't pay that again. Literally and figuratively.

and I am also hopeful.

I am hopeful that God will answer our prayers. Maybe not in our way, but in His. That God will touch our hearts to do something far beyond ourselves. That, while I feel called to something, Steve clings to what makes him feel safe. And that's okay. There is still time. And maybe God will call Steve too or maybe it will be that we are called at a later time or for something different then what we had previously thought. Or maybe I can go on a TOMS shoe drop :)

And because everyone needs a good joke every now and again...

A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says "get in, get in!" The religious man replies, " no I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle."

Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in God and God will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again cause "God will grant him a miracle."

With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grand me a miracle and I have been let down." St. Peter chuckles and responds, "I don't know what you're complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter."

Church Jokes and Paxton

Hey everyone!
How's it going? I was excited to find I had a new follower. So I checked out her blog and I was CRACKING UP! Heavenly Humor is great and you should look her up. I love some good jokes. Since it's been an eh kind of day, I thought I'd add some church jokes that I found too to cheer us all up (especially if it's as cloudy where you are as it is here).
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A new pastor moved into town and went out one Saturday to visit his parishioners. All went well until he came to one house. It was obvious that someone was home, but no one came to the door even after he had knocked several times. Finally, he took out his card and wrote on the back: Revelation 3:20 and stuck it in the door.

The next day, as he was counting the offering he found his card in the collection plate. Below his message was the notation Genesis 3:10.

Revelation 3:20 reads: "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me."

Genesis 3:10 reads: "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked."
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(This is one of my favorite jokes.)

A southern minister was completing a temperance sermon. With great expression he said, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

With even greater emphasis he said, "And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

And then finally, he said, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river." Sermon complete, he then sat down.

The song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, "For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365: 'Shall We Gather at the River'."

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Also, Paxton is halfway there!!!



Baby Paxton is as crazy/beautiful as his Ma Ma says! If you want to check out the story behind Baby Be Blessed's November Give A Blessing, you can click here (or there). If you'd like to hear how proud his Ma Ma is, click here!

I'm sure baby Paxton would TRULY appreciate your prayers too, so if you feel inclined to donate, thank you! If you feel inclined to pray, CAN I GET AN AMEN!!! :)