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!!!!!