Sarah Foxwell

Last Tuesday, Troy and I took the girls driving around looking at land and houses.  We were trying to find a place to live, figuring out which town we would like to live in.  (We're moving to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, more about that in another post.)  We began in Berlin and ended towards Salisbury, on Old Ocean City Road.  We didn't find any good prospects.

When we got home, there was an amber alert for a girl named Sarah.  She had dissappeared from...Old Ocean City Road.  She was only 11 years old.  An ex-boyfriend of her aunt's had kidnapped her from her home while she slept.

Thousands of local searched for her.  We hoped she would be found alive, even though the temperatures were mostly below freezing.  Three days later, on Christmas, her body was found.

This story makes me hold my girls closer.  It makes me not want to let them out of my sight.  It makes me realize how fragile life is, how quickly it can be taken.

Some really bad things have happened to us lately.  It's not often that a church tells you they don't want you anymore and to leave.  It's not often that you have to pick up your family and leave the place you planned to live for the rest of your life to move to an unknown situation.  It's not often that you have to leave dear friends and family forever.  It's not often you face life semi-unemployed - yikes!  Yes, we're dealing with all these things right now.
But, you know what?  God keeps showing us how much He cares.  He does little things after each bad thing to remind us that He's in charge, that He loves us.  He loves each of us as much as I love my little girls.  Those ones that I don't want to let out of my sight.  It is His way of telling us that everything will be okay, even if we can't see the future.


Please pray for the family and friends of Sarah Foxwell.
http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20091226/NEWS01/912260334/1002/news01

Dear Friends

I'm sorry to have abandoned you.  I can't believe how busy I've been.  We are in Maryland visiting my family for Christmas.  I forgot the plug to transfer pictures to my computer, but I'm taking some really good ones.  Next week, I will be back home and just going through storage stuff, so I'll take some breaks and catch you all up.  Please don't abandon me.

Merry Christmas!

(ps., are you all tracking Santa?  Camdyn is loving it!)

www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

Wow, it's been Twelve Years!

Twelve years ago today, I was single.  Not lovin it, ha ha!  Right about this time, I was heading to the church to get dressed for my wedding!  I can still remember so much about that day, all the people who came to wish us well, all the fun we had.  I wish we had been able to enjoy it all night long, but we planned the ceremony way too late and people left to go home to bed.

When I look back at that day, I think, Wow, what a big dress I wore!  And, then, I remember how hard it had been for Troy and I to live so far apart and how excited we were to be able to see each other every day.  Back then, everyone didn't own a cell phone with unlimited minutes, we actually had pagers.  And calling cards.  I can't wait to try to explain these things to my daughters...

Anyway, we got to talk to each other once a week.  Or, in case of a wedding emergency.  Sometimes, I made those up, lol!  It was awful, being so far apart.  But, one good thing we had was letters.  I still have every letter we ever wrote to each other, even from back before we were dating.  I think I will be very happy, someday, to have those to look back at and read.  (I don't have time now, ha!)

Anyway, here is a picture from our wedding day...Enjoy!

I am so lucky that I got to marry the man who was my best friend for so long before we even started dating.  He has stayed that best friend and we've grown closer through everything life has thrown at us.  I look at him know and am in awe of the wisdom he has.  What a perfect man God picked out for me!

Lookie!

Well, I've had a rough day of shopping, cleaning vomit, (don't ask...), cooking, packing and watching my girls the whole time.  I'm at a stopping point with making my Christmas cards until I can get to the store tomorrow, so I am indulging and taking a break learning how to work my early Christmas present. 

Thank you Santa!!!

Actually, I've been saving money since spring, and Troy recently made a little extra DJ-ing that brought us close enough that he gave me the OK to get it.  My old camera was getting pretty bad, I couldn't stand taking pictures with it.

So far, I've taken 34 pictures.  I've figured out how to turn the lense to manual and back.  And, I'm trying to figure out how to edit pictures.  Here are a couple of my favorites, so far, (un-edited).

Now, if only someone would just give me the clif notes on how to work this thing to the best of its capabilities...

I'm a proud mama

I'm sitting here wasting time on FB and trying to back-up my computer so I can do a disk clean-up and free some space.  I'll tell you why later ;-)

Earlier, when I was working on my Christmas cards, I was watching the Top Chef Las Vegas finale I had DVR-ed the night before.  The 3 finalists' moms were able to come to the finale and eat a first course their sons made.  Then, they hung around until the winner was announced.  The mother of the winner said something along the lines of, "I'm so proud of my son."  I'm sure she said more, but I've deleted it and that's all I can remember.  As she said it, I wondered, "what would it take for me to say that?"  And I realized, every day, I'm proud of my girls and the new things they learn.  The ways they grow physically and mentally.  The funny things they say and do.  Their kindness to each other.  And, multiple times a day, I think to myself, "I'm so proud of those two girls."  And, it didn't take them winning Top Chef for me to say that.

Teacher Gifts

I'm watching the Today show.  Every year, I've watched them show a segment along the lines of, "great gifts for your child's teacher".  Today, for the first time ever, I don't have to watch it and wish I had a child's teacher to give a gift to.  9 years of watching this segment and I finally have a child to have a teacher!  Too bad I didn't get any great ideas for the segment, I'll have to take Camdyn shopping this weekend and let her pick something.

I hate developing pictures

They never turn out right :-(  Do you see the awesome picture at the top of my blog?  I love the shades and tint, it looks great.  That's how pictures look on my computer, even taken with my really old, 4mp Kodak.

But, I send away to get them developed and they come back awful.  Way too green or red, (which I learned is because they're printed on Fuji paper - Snapfish), cropped funny, (I didn't send them that way!!!), or, the latest is too bright.  I just got our picture for our Christmas card today from Kodak.  Averie's face is so washed out, I am so sad :-(

I had hoped Kodak would turn out better than Fuji, and maybe it did.  I guess I shouldn't complain, at least my reds aren't too bright.  Sigh.

Does anyone have a great onling photo processor to recomend I use?

Jewelry Giveaway

I rarely do this, but a friend of mine is promoting her Etsy business - it's beautiful jewelry.  Here's her store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BellaRegali
She has a ton of sales going on right now, and she'll customize any piece for you.
I know I have tons of you who read my blog but don't follow, so, if you want to win a beautiful pair of earrings from BellaRegali, go to this blog http://insidebrucrewlife.blogspot.com/2009/12/bella-regali-giveaway.html and enter to win some gorgeous earrings.  I really want them, but if I don't win, I know I can have a custom pair made for me ;-)

Taking Christmas Pictures

Yesterday, I finally got around to taking our picture for our Christmas card.  I've only been doing photo cards for a couple of years now.  I used to stamp my cards, back when we had no children, because the pain of sending out a picture of just the two of us was too hard.  But, now that I have my blessings, I love to share their growth with our loved ones.
Anyway, I figured it was time to get them taken yesterday.  Stupid me, though, I waited until nearly noon to get them finally ready.  We had to take baths first, and I had to get the scene ready.  Too many excuses...
Finally, I had the tree set up and the girls dresses around 12:15.  Averie was tired and hungry.  Camdyn was in a great mood.  I made a mistake and handed them each glass balls to put on the tree - and Aves' went straight into her mouth.  After she discovered that they fit just right, I couldn't keep them away from her.  And, each time I had to dig one out of her mouth, it set her off into a crying fit.  I compromisedby giving them pretzels and letting Averie wrap the garland.  It sort-of worked.

Then, we had the issue of Camdyn's out-of-practice picture smile.  First, it was too big...

Then, it was too small...

Then, back to too big...

Finally, I figured out how to make it just right - funny faces. 

I ended up with 2 good ones, but to see them, you have to wait until you get our Christmas card in the mail!