I had a great time with Amy and the girls. Just when I was getting used to them being here, they went back to Germany this morning. But I know Ben was missing them and ready for them to come back. I was glad that I got to see Ava while she was still a little baby. Of course, I don't know when the next time that I'll see them is, but we'll see.

I was so struck by how cute my 4-year-old niece, Jordan, is. I think all of my nieces and nephews are cute, but she is so expressive and dramatic, and she can't say the /r/ sound very well, so it's just very cute. We kept playing "ballet school." I was the teacher and I usually just sat on the bed and held Ava. Jordan played the different fairies from the Tinkerbell movie, which I haven't seen, so I was wondering where she came up with names like Iridesca, Rosetta, and Silvermiss.  She would climb up on the bed (and told me to pretend she was flying since she couldn't fly for real) and then she would jump off, and proceed to do these ballet moves. It was just too cute. I think I've said this before, I take so many pictures of my nephews and nieces. At this point, I'm going to have a ton more of them than I do of my own children.

Project ScrapGirl (January)

I've been working on the 2010 ScrapGirls project. A lot of sites do a 365-type project where you take a picture a day and scrap it, like a layout a week. This year, at ScrapGirls, they just want you to scrap current pictures. You can do it however you want. They are encouraging participation by awarding points (up to 4 each month) for each layout you post. They randomly pick someone each quarter to win money to shop at their store. Then, for each month you post something, you get an entry to their grand prize, which is your photo album printed. Nice. So, it's been good motivation to get the layouts done.

I decided to do one layout a week, focused on specific events from the month. For January, my 4 layouts focused on the streak of cold temps we had, our nephew Judah's 1st birthday, my nephew Kyle's 7th birthday, and Amy, Jordan, and Ava visiting from Germany (particularly the first day that I met Ava).

For the 1st layout, I used a layout template by Brandy Hackman, background paper by Syndee Nuckles and from Amanda Sok's Watercolor Whimsy collection. Also word art by Julie White and snowflake cluster by Diane Miller. These are all available at scrapgirlscom. The font by Erica Hernandez is available at twopeasinabucket.com.

For Judah's birthday, the layout template was by Angie Briggs. The papers and font were from Shalae Tippits' Promise collection (both at scrapgirls.com) The January font again was from Erica Hernandez's Vibe.

For Kyle's birthday, the layout template was by Angie Briggs. The papers and font were from Amanda Sok's Watercolor Whimsy collection. Font by Erica Hernandez.

For the Sweet Memories layout, Layout template by Amanda Sok, flower and bead also from Amanda Sok's Watercolor Whimsy collection, corner ribbon from Thao Cosgrove's All About Marriage collection (recolored). The tag was from Paula Wright's Tied Tag embellishment template. The paper was from Shalae Tippit's Promise collection. The font was by Kerry Veale. I also used paper from Amanda Sok's Appassionata and Danielle's Design, I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas. Whew, that's a lot.

It's been a lot of fun thinking about what layouts to do for each month. I've got to get caught up on my February layouts.

Show Yourself Friendly

I've been thinking a little bit lately about what being a good friend looks like. The verse in Proverbs says to have friends you must be friendly. I've always considered myself to be a friendly person, but as I've been thinking about it more, I don't think I'm as friendly as I should be. There have definitely been the times that I was focused on poeple I was around and was not friendly toward others who weren't in my "sight." That's not friendly.

I have a friend who really takes time to listen to people, always has a kind word when she's stopped by them, and people are drawn to her. I want to be more like that as a person. Kind, caring, getting out of myself more. I see God growing me toward that, but I'm definitely not where I want to be at all.

This is a good time for this, since I've changed churches, and am not really around my friends a lot right now. I haven't really made a lot of effort to make new friends yet, but I'm thinking it's time. Honestly, even when I was there, a lot of the people were more acquaintances than friends anyway. But I guess that's where friendship starts.

I think part of what has kept me from reaching out as much is a fear of rejection by people. But, I guess you have to take risks to get the rewards, huh. And God does want us to connect with people. And He doesn't want me to sit on the sidelines because I was afraid. I've always said that He brings people across my path at the right time, which He does, but that also can be an excuse to not reach out myself.

I guess, as always, it goes back to doing to others what you would want them to do to you. The way that I would want someone to be friendly to me, I need to do.

Catching Up

It's been almost a month since my last post. Things have been going pretty good. Very busy at work, but I'm determined not to get overwhelmed like I usually do. Although there are aspects about the middle school that I like, I'm trying to figure out if I'll want to stay there next school year. Elementary is my thing, I think. But we'll see how things work out. It's a nice variety to have both.

I finally got to meet my new niece, Ava! Amy, Jordan, and Ava visited from Germany. They've been here for about 3 weeks. It's been so good to see them, and we've had a lot of fun together. I took a day off and we went with my parents up to Lake Panasoffkee to see my grandparents. Amy and I took the kids to Lowry Park Zoo when I was off for "fair day." Then we just hung out at our house for a little bit. I've really noticed how expressive and dramatic my niece Jordan can be. And she hasn't quite got all her speech sounds yet, so she is just so cute when she talks sometimes.

The same week that Amy was coming into town, we found out that my dad was going to have quadruple bypass surgery. It was totally a surprise thing. Not like he had a heart attack or anything. He had just been feeling tired and short of breath, so he went to the doctor, got sent to the cardiologist, and had to do have a heart cath. That's when they found the blockage and said that he would need surgery. It was disconcerting, but it has become so much more common, and he seems to be recovering very well. But that week in particular I was feeling emotion overload, and I was really over it.

The weekend before my dad's surgery, Jason and I took our parents to Wicked. It was my third time and Jason's second time to see it. It was a lot of fun, and so good, again. I was singing the songs for a week!

I'm now singing background vocals every other month in the Blend service at Grace Family Church. When I started in October, I ended up singing every Sunday until I asked for a couple of Sundays off in December. That's because Jason and I usually go to the Saturday night service, so when I sing, I have to get up again the next day. So, it's not something I want to do every Sunday. So the girl who's leading found someone to switch off with me. I was used to doing 2 weeks on/off at Idlewild, and this is 1 month on/off. I was off the entire month of January, which was a nice break. And now, I've enjoyed being back in February.

I also got to try singing at the Saturday night service this last week. I was nervous beforehand, but once I got there, it was a lot of fun. Jason went with me to the soundcheck, which was good, because he pointed out that I was trying to sing over the band. I also had to sing with earbuds in, which I hadn't had to do in a long time. I think that was part of why I wasn't aware of how loud I was singing. Anyway, I really enjoyed getting to sing, and would love to do it again sometime, so we'll see what happens.

I'm so glad my favorite show, LOST is back on, even though it's the final season. It's still so good. I really need to catch up on a lot of the blogs that I "follow" that focus on the show.

I guess that's why I haven't been able to blog in a while. I've been so busy with these other things. Amy and the girls go back to Germany in a few days. I would so love to visit them while they're there, but we are trying to save money for when we have children.

I know I've already mentioned work, but I've felt very productive this week, which is a good feeling. I want that to continue for the next few weeks, especially. It's always hard in this stretch of time before spring break. But we have FCAT and then the Stanford testing for the 1st and 2nd graders, so really, it will be here before I know it.