Fact

I use my left thumb a whole lot.
This was confirmed when I cut it this morning while slicing apples. :(
Nothing too major ... but it is wrapped in a bandaid and I am not able to use it like usual.
Thank you LORD for my left thumb!! And I am sorry for taking it for granted!!

A Surprise

My very sweet husband did a wonderful thing today! He surprised me!! :) When I got home from running errands today, there were two packages sitting on the porch. One was from iherb.com - which included our good for us vitamins. The other was a rather large box from a name I didn't recognize in Brooklyn, NY. It was addressed to Tony, so I let it sit there by the front door. When he got home from work, I was telling him about the mystery package. He got a smile on his face and said that it was a gift for me. :) Oh... I was so excited. I really like surprises! He told me to get the camera for him -so I did. You can watch the video for the rest of the story.

Yay! We have our very own grain mill - and I am very surprised and very excited!!
Thank you so much My Love!!!

A Hat for Brittany

New Years Eve

I give you thanks, O Lord,

with my whole heart;

before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name
for your steadfast love
and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.

Psalm 138: 1-2

***************************************************

Last night we joined about 25 precious siblings in Christ on the streets of Richmond, VA.

The glorious news of the gospel was proclaimed over and over again through open air,

one-to-one conversations, and gospel tracts. Thousands of people were reminded of how

fragile this life is and that they will one day give an account to the Creator of the universe.

Many mocked. Some got angry. Others listened.

God was glorified!

Because we had such a large group of laborers, we were able to set up four different

preaching stations. It was great! I don't know how many times I heard someone walk

by and say to their friends, "Man, they're everywhere. Come on. It's New Year's Eve." As the time neared midnight, the crowd got much thicker and louder and hyped up. It was hard

to hear the one preaching ... so what did we do? We joined together and sang hymns to our

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!

What a wonderful way to start the NEW YEAR.

Christmas Day

We all gathered in my parents living room around

9am to open gifts. This would be after my parents

were awakened by two barking dogs at 6am AND

after Joey locked his keys in his car when he

went to pick up Chrissie. MEMORIES! ;)

Us siblings decided not to buy each other gifts this

year, instead we would take all of our "Christmas fund"

and bless mom and dad. This made for some fun times

shopping and wrapping. We also wrote a clue on the outside

of each of their gifts. I think it will be a new tradition!

For example, we had got mom a pair of Wallabee shoes -

the clue was "Some people call me Joey." It took her a little

while to figure it out, but she finally guessed it. :)

It was a lot of fun!

Tony was really SURPRISED to recieve the

"Witherspoon School of Law" DVD series from my parents!

He has been talking about this for a few months now and

there were a few occasions where he was going to buy it.

Knowing that my parents had already bought it for him,

I would tell him "Oh, maybe we should wait 'til after the New

Year, they'll probably be running some really good sales."

He was really, really surprised!!

Matthew was excited to recieve a box of Electrasol

tablets. My parents are really good at wrapping

things in "wrong" boxes. Haha. He actually got

a clamp that allows him to play his guitar

and harmonica at the same time. Something

he had been wanting to get. :)

We received our very own Waffle Maker!!

Mom & Dad were real happy to recieve updated pictures

of the four of us. It even brought mom to tears

[mission accomplished!]. ;)

That is the blanket that I started way back here.
It matches their bedroom perfectly. :)


Dad pulled the finale gift from behind the tree. It
was a little piece of paper with a picture of
Savannah, GA and Paula Deen. He handed it to
mom and she had to guess what it was.
They will be staying at a Bed & Breakfast in Savannah,
and visit Paula Deen's restaurant while they're there.
Mom was very surprised and this also brought her
to tears. :) Awwww! Very neat gift Dad!!!


Here is the whole crew!

*Sisters*

Dad & I


Us girls!!


With dad!
*************************************************************
After a short visit back at our house, we headed to
Tony's parents house for lunch.

Time to open gifts!

Cayleigh showing me her NC State scarf
that Nanny made for her. :)


Corrine, Cayleigh, Marshall, and Mary Grace
showing me thier neat digital cameras and nerf gun.
They were so cute running around, wanting to take a
picture of everything. The below picture is one such example.
Marshall had shot his nerf gun and the "bullet" landed
standing straight up. "AMAZING!" Marshall got real
excited and said "Wait, wait. I have to get a picture of it."
It was really funny!!! So then all of them gather around with
their cameras and started snapping pictures.


****************************************************
We went back to our house for a couple hours. Tony
started watching "Witherspoons School of Law" and took
a short nap, while I started working on a purple scarf for Chrissie.
Then we went back to my parents house for dinner [lasagna] and
a game of Scrabble. Below is Kismet, Mia, and Pedro after an
exhausting day of chasing wrapping paper and such. ;)