3....2.....1.....

And so the countdown begins. Gone will be 2006, gone will be the past hurts, the past pain, the past joys, the past memories. Well, they will be memories nonetheless, but they will no longer loom over us. I've often thought how nice it would be to just take every bad memory of the year and shed it, much like a snake. To take all the bad and throw it out the window. Now, we all know that doesn't work because we have to learn from it all. But there is something about the new year that makes me think. "Ok, the bad stuff happened last year, let's move on and improve on this year."

Though I really don't have much to belly ache about for 2006. It really was a great year!!! Alot of things happened in ministry at St. Lorenzo. We built further on the Youth Group foundation and I was able to leave with a heavy, but content heart.

I married my best friend in the world and i have learned that marriage is fun, and exciting. It's not filled with anger, blame, and regret. Derek is the best husband in the world.

I became and Auntie again for the 6, 7, 8, and 9th time. 6-8 happened the day Derek and I got married. 9th time happened a month and a half later when my sister had a beautiful baby girl. I love having nieces.

I started a job at a great church. No one looks over my shoulder or questions what I do with the youth. I am allowed to be a Youth Minister without any crappy questioning on mundane things.

I think the hardest thing this past year has been watching friends continue to live life while I felt as though I was at a stand still. I know there is a name for that feeling and it's called homesickness. But it was still hard. Also seeing the former youth move on and grow. Though I have heard some things like "They don't respect J like they respected you", they still were growing. And it was hard not to grow with them.

So for 2007, my hope is in my new youth, my husband and hopefully a new family!!!!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

THERE ARE THINGS THAT are MY BUSINESS

Especially when it deals with my husband. If WE are going to have to claim it on our taxes don't tell me it's none of my business.

Christmas....

...Mass- Midnight Mass, beautiful. I cried.
...gifts- amazing. I loved watchiung Derek get excited about the Coach K bobblehead and Darth Vader Transformer. My gifts were heartfelt and fun. Especially the Build a bear that looks like Marley.

....food- YAY...so good. Did alot of cooking

cats- Entertaining
March of the Penguins- great documentary. Penguins are cool.


Diamonds...yep..love em

The Hills are aliiiive

With the Sound of Music!!!!! It's on tonight and I forgot just how much I love this movie and just how "controvertial" it really was. Considering it was set in the 30's/40's and the movie came out (and won Best Picture) in 1965!!!!! A mere 20 years after WW2.

I love this movie so much. Mostly because of Julie Andrews. I can't think of an actress in Hollywood today who could hold a candle to her. She's true class. And that voice!!!!! I could only dream of singing like her. The music in this classic is memorable and I even heard Derek humming along to a few songs. Tee hee. He may have rolled his eyes when I begged to watch it, but I know he likes it. 10 bucks says he'll be sitting with our daughter watching this movie OVER AND OVER again.

There I go again...thinking about kids :*)

Gratitude

My friend, H, has been doing this thing where you go to this letter generator thingy set all the fields to 1 and it gives you a letter. From there you create a gratitude list of things starting with that letter. Today I got the letter P:

1.) Presents No not the ones I am getting or have gotten for Christmas, but the presents i am giving and have given to family. I can't wait to see Derek open his presents. I loved the reaction of family on the 10th when they opened thir gifts from us. Especially when R opened her Minnie Mous PJ's and IMMEDIATLEY wanted to strip down and put them on RIGHT then and THERE. I love giving people presents.

2.) Paperwork Yep,Ii am weird. I love filling out paperwork

3.) Popcorn I love popcorn. I currently have chocolate caramel popcorn in my house. It's soooo good. Don't get me started on Buttery Kettle Corn. LOVE IT.

4.) Pregnancy NO I AM NOT PREGNANT....yet. But I am so grateful for my sisters 4 pregnancies, because she has had 4 beautiful babies for me to love and spoil and there truly is nothing better in my life right now than hearing "Hi Auntie Katie" on the other end of the phone. Nothing better than excited hugs from nieces, nothing better than pictures drawn by the nieces. I love my nephews too, don't worry.

5.) Purring Even though Derek hates it when Pele does her kneeding thing, I love hearing her purr. I kove when I have a stressful day, my cats are there to purr and make me happy

6.) Pele She's a blessing in disguise. She's exactly what we needed after we lost our precious Marley. And she's so gosh darn cute!!! Derek is constantly amazed at how hyper she is. Can't imagine life without her. Really.

That's all for now. I'll probably think of about 20 more things...but onto the next letter.

Year in review

Thanks to Shay, I give you my year in review (Post the title of the first post of every month):

Jan: To all who come to this happy blog....Welllllchkum
Feb: We've come a long way
March: To send my resume or not...that is the question
April: STOP! Comment time (hoooooooo hoooooo)
May: Tick, Tick,. Tick
June: ...in less than 24 hours
July: The "D" word sucks....
August: The Sound of silence
Sep: Welcome to my home
Oct: Typical Thursday
Nov: Live from Charlotte
Dec: Think, Think, Think


The entry from may 11th caused an unneccessary uproar and the first of many "stalking's" that were LAME!!!! (HELLO MOVE ON....Need me to pack the boxes for you?) To think because of one person, I almost abandoned this blog...HELL NO. Where there once was control, never again....I will never be silenced and conform to one person again. So I said...BITE ME!!!!! I don;t care if your friends read this and report to you. I could care less if that person reads it. You were and always will be a jerk to me. Buh Bye.

The last year has been amazing. I married a wonderful man and hopefully we will start our family this coming year. YAY!!!!!

Think, Think, Think.

I can't stop thinking about a certain subject...babies. Yep, for the last 2-3 weeks they are all i think about. I've had about 3 dreams about me being pregnant. It's quite honestly getting old. I am an over thinker and I know that is why this is happening and I want it to stop. Please? God?

Jingle all the waaaaay

Tonight is Christmas Caroling at the Nursing home. I remember last year, at another church, being told that if I took kids to the nursing home to Christmas Carol then I need to have someone talk to the kids about having a grandparent who is ill, and haow you get through it. "Have a religious aspect to it". Huh? What happened to bringing joy to the people who sometimes never see family memebers once they dump them in the home? Sadly, the group mentioned above is not allowed to Christmas Carol this year....but mine is. YAY!!!!!

Tomorrow is the 8th grade Youth Group. I need to figure out some fun games for them for the 2 hours I have them. May let them do some basketball and such. The 6th and 7th graders loved that. Going to do a White Elephant gift exchange for the HS kids. Then it's a week of working early...or 2 weeks of that really. I don't know what I am going to do with myself. Seriously.....I haven't worked early in months!!! Planning for the coming months I suppose!!!!!

As for the garage injury....I'm better. The cut to the head is healing, the bumps on the head are going down, the elbows are still hurting (hit the right one on a doorknob yesterday and that HURT), and the cracked rib, yes I cracked my rib, is healing nicely. I can actually take a deep breath now. So I am doing better.

Christmas is 11 days away. Hard to believe. I finally got Derek's presents wrapped (and Pele helped). I have 2 at work I need to bring home and wrap, and then I need to pick up odds and ends for his stocking.

Looks like life is same old same old here. Huh? Yea, sorry about that. I'll try to find something more interesting to do with my life. LOL I am baking this weekend and also making a present for the nieces before they move (the 21st...sad.).


Until then......

Blogging temporarily interrupted

I keep promising everyone I will update this, talk about that, post pics of this and that. I've been terrible about keeping my promises. In the case of NYWC, there just wasn't time to upload the pics I wanted to upload and I didn't want to nag Derek. (sigh) Eventually, I suppose.

Part of the problem is I had an injury occur on Monday. We were leaving Derek's cousin's house and I was running out of the garage after hitting the button. I went to jump to miss the sensor, and had quite the meeting with the garage door that was lowering. It resulted in bruises, and a cut on my head. I never lost consciousness, but think about it. I jump, hit the door, yep, you guessed it, BAM on my back. Only one part of my back hurts though (when I cough and take a deep breath) and my elbows are bruised. I was bleeding, but did not need stitches. So all in all, a good fall so to speak. Still, it didn't feel good. Thank God for Derek and Patti staying calm, cause I was freaked out. Moreso about the possibility of having to have stitches. Everything else I could have cared less about. I knew I wasn't too bad cause I remember everything except for how I landed. Meaning, I don't remember what hit the ground first. Looks like my elbows, but with this back pain....who knows. I'm just lucky I didn't hit my head any harder on the concrete.

At any rate...here's a pic of some of the damage:


Not the most flattering picture by any means, but that was about 8 hours after impact. 6 hours after leaving the ER. And yes, I feel stupid, thank you very much.

A word from the Graduate.

Sitting at the Graduate waiting for my Hokie Chicken Salad sandwich.

I am not going to say much about Tony Campoloa, except to say social justice is one thing. Injecting politics and personal jabs at the current administration is another. They just don't mix. The end.

Phil Vischer moved me. He got onto my level and made me realize that even the guys on top are broken. They too, are humbled. they too are angry with god. He made Christ real for me today. Thanks Phil!!!!

Confession time: I've only seen one Veggie Tales video.......everybody sing with me"God is bigger than the boogie man...."

I went to Marko's seminar today and really got alot out of it. Lots of ideas and lots of things I HAD been thinking about, but he gave me the motivation to twist it 10%.........good stuff. Though I missed the one seminar I wanted to go to yesterday and today, so I'll be getting those CD's. I'm looking forward to Lost and Found tonight as i have heard they are hysterical.

Overall, this has been an awesome convention. I've met great people, I've engaged in great fellowship and right now, to honestly put it all into words...impossible. i need to absorb it all and get back to you. I don't write off the cuff. I have to think things through before I just spew things from my mouth. Probably a good thing, right???

Quick Day 3

Been at work, still trying to process Tony's talk.....um, yea........I'll get to that. I promise to be nice.

I love the people I meet through YMX, old and new.......todd has a sub-twin. He's new to the YMX scene. Names Jeff. Great guy.

Had some Disney issues with Steve and Heath tonight on the way back from dinner. Steve took it back.

Sorry i can't offer more insight from today. i got in at 4pm. Looking forward to GS tonight though.

I leave you with


How do you like THEM apples? Johny B likes them boogers apparantly

The day of the gnomes...aka Day 2 *Pictures now added*

Good Day so far. Went to Middle School Small groups which was awesome. No joke, about 1/4 of the way into it I got this burst of inspiration and started taking notes on how I am going to really try to integrate small groups with my youth. i got to go up to the front of the room to share a difficult moment in ministry and of course I shared my most recent fiasco with the 6th graders, but shared how it has turned into a good thing. Got a free hoodie out of it.

As Dayna, Steve and I were waiting to talk to Scott Derek called and Scott asked if Derek was a big angry guy or something like that and I said "nope, he's a short Asian whose bark is worse than his bite.

Scott at the beginning of his talk. (Scott is from Willow Creek in Chicago and I have to give him mad props for saying that just because your group isn't huge, does not mean your program is not successful....Thanks or reminding us,Scott, that it truly is not about numbers!!!)


Everyone has been a good sport about the gnomes. It's been fun explaining it to them. you know, the concept, why they are here. I get funny looks, but they know I a YM, so I suppose it's expected, right?????

Scott takes time to pose with Bjorn and Karol






I have found that NYWC has opened up numerous photographic possibilites for me this weekend. So friggin exciting when I get a shot of something so powerful. Most noteably, the statues depicting the theme of the weekend "Reveal".





have met MORE YMXer's...Chet and his comedic boys, JohnyB is like 10 ft from me, but I'm uploading pics from the card, so no pics. But he's a punk, just want you know. he's blaming me for the computers being slow. It's his fault. He's uploading iTunes. Yep....that's my story and I'm sticking with it.




Ditching is fun and I blame Dayna for convincing me that we SHOULD ditch the afternoon seminar right now. I love blaming other people for stuff. So liberating.

Ok, so these uploads are taking forever and I'm getting mad......Oh look, Tic Long just passed by...HI TIC!!!! Kudos to him for sporting a Julius Peppers jersey!!!!!

Ok, guys, I shall post pics soon. Right now photobucket is being a pain. Got the pic of JB and I though. Seriously...i got some crazy pics, and Shay....remember what we texted about? Yea, he's married. Sorry!!!!!

Live from Charlotte.....

Hello? Hello? Is my mic work...oh I mean is the keyboard working? Yes? Good. As you can see, I managed to peel Derek away from the laptop long enough to give you MY thoughts and pics from NYWC, Charlotte. In all honesty, I thought we would never get there to check in, but we did and I was greeted with the traditional handful of candy thrown in my face and cheers from the staff as they learned I was a first timer. While Derek and Patti Headed to the Digital Lounge, Dayna and I checked out things at the YS store. I fear the amount of money I may spend on resources there. Ah well, if it's to help my youth, it's worth it, right?

First impression of NYWC? "Man everyone here is SO NICE." Followed by "Hey, it's Tic Long!!!! I wonder what happened to the Tic and Marko paper dolls Amy made a year or so ago!!!! Maybe I can get them to pose with Bjorn and Karol???"

I digress. Onto bigger and better things, like pictures and meets. I love meeting new people and was very happy to finally put some names to faces as we began to gather in the convention center. Joey Potter waved to us as he looked down upon all of us entering the building. Thankfully, he bestowed his blessing upon us as we passed by. It was almost like getting a blessing from the Pope.. haha, not really but...face to a name. Hopefully we'll get to chat more with him this weekend.

Dinner was great and I was happy to have the chance to talk to Marko at dinner. There were a total of 12 of us at dinner which was great. That's the thing I love about YMX, you get to meet some of the greatest people from all over and meet them face to face at these conventions. In 2004, I had the privilege of speaking to many YMXer's over the phone, and now I was meeting them in person. Friends like, Kevin and Patti, pictured here with the deliciously huge choc chip cookies in the exhibit hall:


Or the ever popular Dave (Who will be celebrating Davemas on Sunday)


Youth Workers are always looking for ways to attract attention to themselves:



FYI: This is my pal, Steve. Steve is tall. Steve does not like to jump while bands are playing music. I tried to get him to, but he would not. But he DID let me draw on his hand. I felt like I was in HS!!!!!


I met a few others as well, Heath, Amy, J. Michael (and OMG, their daughter is just the cutest most happy kid EVER). I shall post their pics too. Ran into an old friend, JohnyB this afternoon!!!!! I love ya man. You're awesome and I hope you can get away at some point to have lunch with us.

Ok, time for some honesty here. I have never listened to an album by Leland or Starfield, but after this evenings concert....yea that is pretty much changing. These guys were awesome and after the show, were extremely gracious to us.

Me with Leland


My throat is hurting from singing(when I should not be doing so since I was sick), but was well worth it. The spirit was MOVING in that room tonight. At one point I just put my head down and listened to the music. The band playing, everyone singing. So powerful. I loved it. Pure praise and worship

Leland


Starfield


Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord


After the concert, we hung around to try and get Starfield to pose with our Ghetto YMX "poster". That picture will be forthcoming as we encountered a greatful, but understandably exhausted band. Get some rest guys and thanks for being so awesome.

Of course, with a camera around, I had to get a little silly

Steve signs my sleeve with the jumbo pen we got from one of the exhibitors;


Speaking of the exhibitors, I want to give a shout out to Azusa Pacific University. I was so happy to see them out here, a school from my home state of CA...literally 30 minutes from where I used to live. The guys at the booth were great. I pointed to their booth and they said "Now you can't walk by and point, without stopping." So I did. Got some info about their online courses too. YAY. Edjumakation, here I come. One of the guys was from Upland which is where I moved from. Talk about a small world!!!! GO APU!!!!!

Ok, so that pretty much wraps up my first blog from here. tomorrow I hit some seminars on small groups. But before I got, everyone say hi to Dayna:

HI DAYNA!!!!


Good night all!!!!!! See you bright and early tomorrow!!!! (The line for Starbucks will be logn, so leave early.)

T-Minus 1 day...NYWC

One more day until we leave for Charlotte. I am pretty excited about this trip and a little sad that I have to work on Saturday . I do, however, get to see my favorite nursing home residents, so that more than makes up for having to miss out on things Sat.

I'm likely to be one of very few Catholic YM's seeing as how NFCCYM is having thier convention for Youth Ministers in Las Vegas, NV this weekend. Still, I hope to bring back some new ideas, especially for smal groups and Middle School. I'll be the YM with the JP2 shirt on at somepoint during the weekend. Oh and I hope to have Dim Sum at some point. I'd love it if Marko could join us for that. LOL Mmmmmmmm Dim Sum.

Pray for all of us at NYWC and please offer your prayers for Pope Benedict XVI who is in Turkey until Sunday.

"See" you all in Charlotte!!!!!

I'm dreaming of my first NYWC

Not much to report this week right now. Had a good night at the shelter making spaghetti and watching my youth make friends with the residents. Hearing them sing "Lips of An Angel" at the top of their lungs in the van, on the way home was entertaining.

Pele has taken to wanting to sit under the tree in hopes of us not looking so she can climb it. It's annoying but sure as heck produced a cute picture:



We're off to NYWC on Thursday and I am super excited about it. Going to meet some awesome friends and hopefully bring back some amazing ideas. I'll be blogging from Charlotte so be sure to stay tuned. Hopefully I can get Derek to upload pics pretty quickly. But mostly it will be me offering thoughts on the convention being that it will be my first time going. Sad I have to miss most of Saturday :( Ah well, I get to see my favorite Nursing home residents. (Speaking of them, I have 16 kids signed up to sing Christmas carols to them in Dec.)

Oh yea, here's the exciting news of the day. I am ditching the contacts and going back to (sexy, nerdy) glasses. I'm so excited cause they look really cute. I look smart. (Yea, a smart blonde. Total oxymoron, I know).

Anyway, that's about it for now!!!!!!

The Past Week

This past week was filled with running around and having fun with my sister. Shay arrived on Monday night (52 minutes late, and a 50 minute wait for her luggage...stupid Northwest). We had delicious wings from B dubs, and not much else after that. Shay was out like a light. Long day for her. Tuesday was a half day and then we went to Moe's. Moe's is good. Let me tell you. It is also Derek's favorite place to eat. Now, mind you, it's no Miguel's Jr. But still, it's better than the crap places that claim to be Mexican food around here.

Derek got his wish on Tuesday. He got his 42" HDTV. He is a happy camper. I told him I was not going to be around when he installed it. So Shay and I went shopping. He calls saying "I'm moved to tears, watching sports on this TV." LOL Ok....but yes, the TV does look good and it's nice not to have the top of the TV messed up...you can actually read football scores.

Crossing the threshold with the new TV


First movie on the new TV



Tuesday night was Thanksmas, and I gave Shay her Stocking o'Chocolate. She loved it. Also gave her a multitude of gifts. Twas fun. I love Christmas. I got some awesome tops from REI, some lotion that I love (Thanks momma), Napoleon Dynamite socks, a neck warmer. Seriously whomever invented this thing deserves a medal. It's awesome. So warm. Derek got a Marshmellow shooter. So, while Shay and I were finishing opening Thanksmas gifts, we were getting pelted with mini marshmellows!!! It was FUNNY!!!!

Let the pelting begin!!!


YAY!!! Warm head


Warm face


"Touch me"....WHAT????



James Bond has nothing on my man


Pele Plays with the gift wrapping


Weds Shay and I made deliveries to some church members. We brought Turkey and all the fixings. It was alot of fun and very rewarding. I think this is something I will volunteer to do each year. I loved being able to make someone's dayby delivering the baskets to them. Plus, Shay and I made the 62 mile trip alot of fun....despite the gloomy, cold westher (LOVE the cold weather out here).

Hot Thanksgiving Basket delivery girls

That night after work and a quick run to REI, we went to my sister in laws for dinner. Early Thanksgiving. We had turkey in the crockpot cooked in Teriyaki sauce with shitake mushrooms. DELISH!!!!!! The nieces were VERY happy to see Shay. I snuck off with the girls to take pics for a gift for their mom and was very pleased with the results.

Shay and the girls:


Christmas gift pics












Can I just say again how pleased I am with the pics? They look awesome in the frame. YAY!!!!!

Thursday I made my first Turkey dinner which was awesome. I think turkey is like one of the best meals you can make and if you get rave reviews, you're good. I got them....DAMN I'm good. Bob the Turkey made his sacrifice for our table and he delivered...he was tasty.

Bob and I after his bath, right before his buttery rub down


Mmmmmm Turkey


Phew!!!!!! I worked HARD on that dinner


Then it was time to shop. Got to the mall at 1am...never will I do that again. It was insanely crowded and not enough stores were open. We were tired. We left an hour later. Though I did sleep for 2 hours, the adventure through Target and such was not that bad. I got what I needed (minus a few things) and got home by 9:30ish??? Maybe 10. Waffle House for breakfast, quick nap and then....it was time to say goodbye to my sister :( Sad to see her go. This trip was loads of fun and she got me hooked on sudoku. Crazy lady (Shay I bought the same book you have...I am a DORK!!!)

Went to the UNC vs Duke football game, and won tickets to the Duke vs Indiana basketball game...YAY!!!!! I'm excited because I have never been to a college basketball game. And well...it's DUKE!!!!!

This coming weekend I will be blogging from NYWC in Charlotte. I plan to give my thoughts on many youth worker seminars. I'm looking forward to attending some Jr. high workshops. Stay tuned!!!!!

Coming soon...Thanksmas and other fun times, but now.....

...... you get to see the cuteness that can only come from the nieces and nephew. These pics were taken when I went to visit 2 weeks ago. I know I am behind in posting these. Sorry. I got sick (as you read) the week after and I've just been battling this cough/cold non stop. I digress. Thanksmas pics will be up by Saturday.

Believe me when I tell you that I did not ask them if they could touch their noses with their tongues. They volunteered the info to me. I did not teach them this trick. I cannot even do it myself. Nope, that honor goes to their dad. YES!!! Finally something I can't be "blamed" for, hahahahaha:




This is the only picture I got of the boy. Poor guy was just not feeling well that weekend. Now I understand his "pain". If he felt anything like I do.....OY!!!! To not be able to communicate the "I just don't feel well right now"...has to be tough. But love my little man;


The main reason for going to see my sister was to meet my new baby niece. Though I was not honored to be her godmother :( , I am happy to report that the name I suggested to my sister and brother in law is the name they decided to go with. So I have that AND the favorite Auntie title;


Did you notice Bethany in the background up there? Yea....she's SO my niece.

Having an Auntie/niece moment, Auntie Katie quiets the baby;


My favorite picture;


I take that back, seeing my oldest niece as the REALLY big sister is my favorite picture. She's so good with the little one. She helps my sister soo much. I love her.


Here is our early morning Puuka watching picture. Too bad I'm not in this one...


This picture makes me realize how grown up my oldest niece is. It's hard to imagine that next year she will be 10. 10!!!!!!! When did she go from a sweet baby to a big kid????


This is my sweet baby girl sleeping in my arms. It was such a great feeling holding MY NIECE!!!!! I didn't get to hold her older brother this way, which brought a tinge of sadness to me. As if I don't quite have that Auntie/nephew connection with him, and it kills me. I knw we will be pals, I know we'll be close, but I wish I had seen him grow up more. At any rate I thouroughly enjoyed her nap Sunday morning;


This is her "Gosh don't tell me I am REALLY related to the people in the pictures below me!!!"


Sorry kid, you are.......I love the silly times. They truly are my favorites. So what if I teach them to make funny faces. You only live once. Might as well live everyday to the fullest. Everyday deserves a goofy moment with goofy faces.








I have to tell you, B was typing a letter to me when I took the above pic of her at the computer. She told me in the letter "You so totaly rock. I love you sosososososos much." See??? Favorite Auntie.

Loving my girls:






I wish I had gotten a picture with all 4 kids, but the boy would have nothing to do with that. He just wasn't his usual self. :( made me sad. I just wanted him to feel better. Maybe next visit, I'll be able to have a photo shoot with him.

This concludes you special edition of.....Niece and nephew cuteness. Goodnight, and Good Luck.