2 Year Anniversary!

~January 31, 2008~

Happy Birthday Blog

It's amazing all that has happened in my life since my first day in Boston until now! Last year on my 1 year Blog anniversary I summed up a great year and following that year was another fantastic year.

As for how I did this year according to this quote last year,

"I will go to Italy, I am determined to do the Lord's will, and I will be happy doing whatever it is I'm doing. I will laugh, I will love, and I will make sure everyone around me knows I love life. I will do all this and more... here's to one more fantastic year!"

• I didn't actually make it to Italy in 2007 but I made all the arraignments, paid for it, and planned it all in 2007 (though technically I will be going in 16 days and that is 2008)! So Close enough.
• Who knew that I would start teaching early morning seminary this school year. Though it is difficult some mornings (okay who am I kidding every morning) to get up--my students and teaching the Old Testament has been and continues to be my saving grace!
• As for the happy part, I'd say that there's been some rough patches but all in all I love my life!
• I laughed a lot, loved a lot, hope people know I love them, and truly took advantage of being single and living in Boston!

Many more of my friends got married, many more had kids, I started and finished a wonderful job, and I learned a whole lot about myself this past year. Here are just a few highlights of my 2nd year having this blog:

• January
• February
• March
• April, April, April
  
• May
• June, June, Joan (ha ha just had to!)
  
• July, July, July, July
  
• August
• September, September
• October, November, December
• October
• November
• December, December
  

And so it has been another memory filled, exhaustingly exciting, and fully lived year! I look forward to some stability this next year, to buying a car, spending Christmas in Ghana, falling in love, making more dreams come true, and diligently building the kingdom!

Vermont

Julie, Me, Marie, & Preston decided to head for Burlington, VT for the MLK extended weekend. It was fun to get away, to relax, to see some of the sights, and to get to know our Vermont friends better!

It was so much fun to hang out with Marie & Preston for the weekend!


There his is, Danny Parsons, the host himself.



Breakfast was great! Julie also made us all a great Taco Soup dinner on Sunday night with Texas Sheet cake for dessert and it was delicious! Let's just say that I didn't stick to my diet at all this weekend.

Some of my favorite memories of this weekend was when Marie & Julie started jamming (& dancing) improve.





YUMMY!!


This was a "moooooving" tour.


The gang super excited to watch the history of Ben & Jerry. Come to find out they are just 2 "real guys".


Can you find Marie & Kylee??



Cider House (this is where we had some sweet Cabot cheese and chocolate)


Julie & Teddy at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory


Kylee & Teddy


The view from the back of the house (this is a terrible picture because It was too cold to go outside to take the picture.


Tiffany & Matt chillin'


This is what we did most the time; played games and just hung out. (David came to chill w/ us)


We went to lunch at Applebee's (close to Matt's school). I got a steal on black boots (70% off)


The ride home was a lot of girl talk and relationship chat--Preston could barely stand it.

All in all it was a great get away! Thanks Dr.'s & friends for making our visit to VT so much fun!

Nothing has really changed...

When spending a lot of time with kids you realize that even though we get older we really don't grow up in some ways. Things haven't changed so much since when we were kids--just the way we do it.

Today H and I were playing in the guestroom/playroom. I played toy cars with him for a bit but had decided to multitask so I brought the laundry that needed to be folded into the room and went to work. After a few minutes H had pulled a piece off his toy car land and wanted me to fix it. I did, played with him for a bit, then went back to work. It didn't take him long to realize that if he continued to "break" his toy and ask me to "fix" it then he would get my attention. It was quite comical and then it hit me.

Are we really that different?? Not really. It seems to me that we are all trying to get someone's attention--some are able to do it in a postive way--others not so much. We are just trying to be notice, to be touched, to have someone matter or to matter to someone. I am amazed the lengths that some people will go to get that attention,

Well I"m still learning how to grow up--as for H and I --I put down the laundry and we played a mean game of cars crashing, going to car wash, getting gas, and so forth. True to life once I gave him the attention he wanted it didn't take long for him to be bored with me (ha ha).

The New Job...

Some people have been asking about my new job so I thought it was time to let you all know how things are going. First of all thank you to everyone who prayed for me, sent me ideas for jobs, and just supported me. I actually didn't miss one day of work. I left my old job on a Friday and started my new job on Monday. Nothing less than a miracle!

I am what is called a Mother's Helper or Personal Assistant (Most commonly known as a nanny). I'm not exactly a nanny because my boss stays at home with the kids (she's currently pregnant and due in April.

My boss and family decided that they needed some help with the house, the kids, driving the kids, etc. So I pretty much do whatever is needed. In order to do this (they live in Weston about 20 minutes away from Watertown) they gave me a car to use ( such a huge blessing)! I love the freedom that my new car gives me-woot woot!

My boss has 3 kids: G (6), Ge (5), & H (2). I mostly take care of Hand drive G & Ge all over town (swimming lessons, ballet lessons, school, play dates, ice skating lessons, etc.) We have fun rocking out to all sorts of crazy music in the car.

I love my job, it pays well, It's very low stress, I get to play with kids, I'm not sitting on my butt all day, I get to have a car, and I love working for this family! So all in all I very happy with my new job. I plan to work for the Whites until I head to Grad School this summer (stay tuned...)

The Famdamly

the Sisters


That's more like it!


the Tvetan-Shields-Strayer Family












This pictures says it all...



Thanks Janice for the pictures!
Location: Lodi, CA
not pictured:Grant Marcus Shields (We all miss you!)

Yuuki

Happy New Year!

With the new year comes a new blog title (like the 2 previous years) and just to mix it up a new blog template also. I have chosen Yuuki as this year's blog title. Here is what it means:
the Japanese word for courage is: 勇気 (yuuki)

The first character has the meaning 'brave' and the second is 'spirit'. I should think leaving off the second character would be fine unless you were using it in an actual Japanese sentence (in which case you'd likely be representing the word yuuki and so would need both)...

...according to Jim Breen's WWWJDIC 勇 (yuu) can stand alone as a noun, meaning "bravery; courage; heroism"...