We made it!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we made it safely here...with all bags...and on time...with zero problems!  Praise the Lord!  Thank you everyone for your prayers over each and every detail of today.  I am so grateful that Miguel Aguirre came to meet us in Mexico City and help us with the bus to Puebla.  I don't think we could have done it without him!  God continues to reveal that He already has it all worked out.  :)

Well I'm off!! Just boarded in xna. We will be in Puebla at noon.

So glad we sang this song at church Saturday night.  Felt like someone was reading my mind...or hearing my prayers.  :)  


Full Attention
May Your voice be louder
May Your voice be clearer
Than all the others

May Your face be dearer
May Your words be sweeter
Than all the others in my life

Please keep my eyes fixed on You
Please wound my heart so deep in You
Keep me abiding, keep me abiding
Keep me abiding that I may be a fruit

May Your your presence be truer
May Your presence be nearer
Than all the others

And may Your light shine brighter
And may Your love move deeper
Than all the other my God
Than all the others in my life

Please keep my eyes fixed on You
Please wound my heart so deep in You
Keep me asking, keep me near
Keep me abding that I may be a fruit
Keep me close to You
Oh, right next to Your heart
Close to You

change in giving info

I am now affiliated with Mountain Movers International!  Fellowship is still my sending organization but my support will just be handled by MMI.  We all think this will be much easier and less confusing for supporters.  I am so grateful to be blessed by this ministry of love- they give 100% of donations directly to the missionary!   Here's a little more info about them and how my giving information has changed.  

Mountain Movers International is a non-profit, non-denominational ministry.  They serve missionaries/ministries around the world that are focused on God's kingdom work.  For each ministry, they keep track of the various contributions, receipt and thank the donors, and inform the people in the field of donations received.  They serve as the back office for authentic grass roots "boots in the field" ministries.  First and foremost, they are "field driven".  It is the entrepreneurial missionary in the field that they are supporting.  They do not take any percentage from the funds received, and there are no service fees.  MMI is a public foundation that is "donor controlled" rather than "donor advised".  That means they are not only morally obligated to ensure that the funds get to the intended project, but they are legally required to ensure it.  It is the law as well as a sacred trust, and they take it very seriously.  They depend on general donations from individuals, churches and corporate donors to cover their administrative expenses.  

At this point, you may begin supporting me through MMI.  All checks must be made payable to Mountain Movers International with my name listed on the memo line.  You will receive a receipt for you donation along with an envelope for your next donation, should you choose to give monthly.  For convenience, online donations may be made through their website http://mountainmovers.org/donate.php  Please note that PayPal does deduct a small fee.  For all online donations, be sure and include my name in the memo portion.Also, just a sidenote...I'm leaving in 11 days!!  Even though saying goodbyes is sad, I'm getting super excited!

A little visit to Chatt-town...

Before leaving for Mexico, Mom and I thought we should pay a little visit to MeMe & Bobba in Chattanooga.  I am so glad we went!  Whenever I can see the Pyramid and cross the bridge into Memphis, it always feels like coming home- even after all these years.  

        

After having already been in the car for 6 hours, we had to stop at the original Neely's Barbeque for a little lunch.  De-lish!!  And what a neat place.  There are pictures all over the walls of the Neely's with all kind of celebrities and old-timey pictures of the Neely family tree.  How ironic that the picture hanging behind mom was a picture of Giada, one of her faves from the food network.  After we were stuffed, we trucked it up the mountain and to MeMe's house we went.

 It's the little things that you can only enjoy at your grandparents' house that I love the most...like coffee mugs with pictures of grandkids on them.  Look at cute little Will King back in 1995.  I thoroughly enjoyed my morning coffee drinking out of this.  :)

Sweet Bobba.  Sorting the mail really wore him out, so he had to put his head down and take a rest.   Even though he can't remember my name anymore and hardly knows where he is, he still makes me laugh as hard as he always has.  I love that about him.

If you're ever in Chattanooga, you have to go to the Knitting Mill Antique Shop.  It is the best and one of the biggest antique shops I've ever seen with a huge variety of all types of things- everything from a large assortment of hats like these that we found, and tons of dishes and glass.  Mom and I came home with only a few more things than we had before.  We do have a bit of an obsession with china & glassware.  

I think I would love to live in the sixties...only if I got to wear hats like this all the time.  So cute!

We can't be in Chattanooga and not see a list of people, some of them being my mom's oldest & dearest friends from high school, Cindy & Mary.   Here's Mary and Mary Ann- besties for life!

me & my meme 

Now, here's a little piece of my family history...Ankar's Hoagies.  My mom's family grew up next door to a Greek family that started this famous Chattanooga restaurant centuries ago.  It's a must that we eat there, at least once, every time we are in Chattanooga.  I got my annual fix with a camel rider, fried mushrooms and the best baklava I know of.











Meet Bobby Kile, or little Bobby as we like to call him.  The youngest of all the grandchildren and believe me he's soaking it all up!  He's full of energy and attitude but the cutest thing you've ever seen all at the same time.

We also went to some new places that we've never been in Chattanooga.  I think it's pretty obvious how much mom loved McKay Used Bookstore.  Her Hardy Boys collection is nearly complete thanks to the four more she found there.  This place was unbelievably huge, organized and clean.  That's my kind of bookstore.

One last stop at a Chattanooga tradition and our short weekend in Chatt-town was over.  Lunch at The Epicurean, a good ol' meat & three.  With a menu of fried oysters, meatloaf and fried trout, we felt very at home in the deep south.  Oh, how I love it!

On the long journey back from Chattanooga, we made a pit-stop in our old home-town of Franklin in Nashville, Tennessee.  I hadn't been there in years!  It was so fun to see how things have changed...and how somethings haven't changed at all.  While they now have a traffic light in front of our very neighborhood entrance, our house has a new paint job and Loveless Cafe isn't just biscuits & ham anymore, some things like my elementary school haven't changed a bit!  A little trip down memory lane can make me so sentimental.  We also got to have dinner with my oldest friend, Laura Meriwether, her parents and boyfriend.  There are years where we don't get to see each other at all, but by the time 2011 is over, we will have seen each other three times.  What a lucky year!

I'm so glad we took this trip to our "home-land".

It's Official!

So, it's really happening...on August 29th I will board a plane for Puebla, Mexico and won't come back until December 15!!  This is as real as it has felt yet.  32 days and I'll be there!  Let the countdown begin...

Make that one more!

I now have two people on my monthly support team!  And many more awesome one-time givers.  Praise the Lord for the wonderful people He has surrounded me with...like Lydia, the woman who has been cleaning our house for years.  She is probably one of the most Godly and in-tune with the Spirit women I have ever known in my life.  When she came by today, she told me that she got my letter I left for her last time and that she took it to her church and shared it with them.  I was overwhelmed with gratitude when she told me that they, as a group, have been saving their money and have been praying for me.   It amazes me that this group of people who don't even know me would be so willing to spend time in prayer for me and give their money to support me.  I am so grateful for the web of people that God has put into place to make this whole thing work out.  Just one of the million things that blows me away about God.  It's nice to feel small when you think how BIG He really is...and yet He holds us in His hands and cares about our every thought.

Keep it coming...

It's official....I have one committed monthly supporter!!  Thank you Thommy & Bekah Greer.  I am so thankful and blessed to have you on my support team.  And to everyone else who has given thus far, thank you!  I know that God already has my support team all lined up- I just can't wait to see who He has chosen.    I guess I just have to keep working hard to figure out who they are...it's like a treasure hunt.  :)  Hopefully everyone got a letter in the mail...if you didn't and you would like to receive info & updates, please let me know!

All set!

Makeover for my blog...check!  Support letters going out in the mail tomorrow...almost check.  The move date is set for sometime in the middle of August.  Please be praying that financial support would come in quickly and monthly supporters would be dedicated.  Getting excited!

Much to do.

I gotta get back to this whole blogging thing. I'm about to move to Mexico...well in July...hopefully. There will be so much to tell from everyday. I'm sure it will be non-stop hilarious stories of awkward moments and stupid things I do in a new culture. And of course food. What good twitter-er/ facebooker/ blogger doesn't take pictures of the food we eat? And we winder why other countries call us Americans gluttons. :) But for now, I'm not sure why I'm updating my blog instead of going to sleep. So...night.

Feast O'Luck

What a way to ring in the new year...donut breakfast and lunch of ham, black eyed peas, cabbage, corn and home made turtle cheesecake!  I made the cheesecake all by myself and was quite proud of it.  I don't know when the last time was that I was home for new year's with the whole fam.  Sure was fun!

HAPPY 2010!!

We rung in the new year in style this year!  This was the first year in I don't know how long that we have all been together on New Year's Eve.  And what fun it has been!  We made snacks and treats for dinner tonight while we watched all the New Year's Eve countdown shows from NY.  Mom stayed awake long enough to see the ball drop NY time but fell asleep soon after...as you can see in the picture!  Well, it's officially 2010 and I am looking forward to another year!  Now bring on the good luck foods on New Year's Day...black eyed peas, cabbage, donuts, ham...we ought to be pretty lucky!!  If it's possible to be any more lucky than we already are. :) 

MORE SNOW!!

It was such a looonngg day at the good ol' Interior Fabrics.  Sara and I successfully assembled 5 lamps and a chair and we did a lot of much needed cleaning in the back.  But the snow tonight makes a long day of work totally worth it!  It is so pretty!  I just hope it keeps snowing and we have to stay in tomorrow...even though I am looking forward to babysitting the Plummer cuties tomorrow morning.  :)

Tonight Natalie and I have switched from our favorite Wii game of Mario Bros. to the Wii fit.  We should do this more often.  My Wii fit age was 40 and Nat's was 39.  And I'm not even going to tell you what our BMI's were!  HA!

For some reason lately I have been thinking about moving to Atlanta...anyone have any thoughts or words of advice?  more tomorrow...

i love christmas break!

I never get to sleep in...and today, I slept in until 11:45!  It was fantastic.  I needed all that sleep after the fun fun night we had last night.  Sydney and Collin came over for dinner; we played a rousing game of Mexican Train dominoes, followed by several hilarious rounds of Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.  And then of course I stayed up for several more hours playing with my new macbook.  :)

Today has been such a lazy day, finalized with Combat, my favorite class at the gym.  Hopefully that knocked off some of the Christmas calories!!  Now, just watching the news and all this bombing buzz...is anyone else freaked out by this?? I continue to pray for God's protection, and extra special watch over those flying.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

This year Santa brought me a new Macbook Pro...and I'm obviously loving the photobooth application! haha Perhaps this will be my motivation to be a better blogger! Christmas break has been great thus far- filled with baking, family, Wii playing, shopping, wrapping, cooking, friends, working (not so fun) and lots of fun!! Natalie has been home since last Friday and we have had a blast. I feel like we are kids again...sleeping in the same bed...playing Super Mario Bros. into the wee hours of the morning...and just being together 24/7.

One of the best parts of the Christmas season is our annual Christmas Eve dinner/party with the Lawsons, Jacksons and Graves. This year was hosted by the Jacksons and the highlight of the night was (as always) the game. Last year's game of Christmas Jeopardy, created by Jenny and I, was topped this year's Christmas Carol game-round 1: guess that carol, and even better round 2: create-a-carol about another family. It was truly hilarious! Next year we will be hosting Christmas Eve at our house and we are already plotting how we are going to come up with a funnier game than that!

Cousin Love...are you feeling the sister love between Kate and Julz? :)

Christmas day was complete with all the family traditions...opening presents with the fam over breakfast casserole (which has matured right along with us, we have moved on from the childish bacon, egg, and cheese casserole to the eggs benedict casserole. haha), sweet rolls and grits, hanging around playing with all the new gadgets, and cleaning up the Christmas mess before the Graves come over for steak dinner and a movie outing. We have been doing this for as long as we have lived here (make that around 10 years now!) and I love it! Christmas would not be the same without steak dinner and a movie. The movie of choice this year was Sherlock Holmes. What a suspenseful movie!

And now, we just wait out the days to the next celebration with peanut butter balls, peppermint cake, and apricot cookies, more Super Mario Bros., movies and lots of lounging, until....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hope that everyone had an equally fantastic Christmas and had some time to experience and remember the miracle of Christmas....a newborn baby king- it amazes me every time. See you in 2010!

Thankful

Today I am reminded of just how precious life is, and how we should live and love intentionally. I don't even know 10-year old Olivia Ray, but I heard about her sudden death today and was moved by the things that people had to say about her short but full life. They said that she loved like Christ and was full of light and life. Others said that she was a friend to everyone. Selfishly, I hope that people would say the same about me.
May we not take a single day for granted, and be willing to be a light like Olivia Ray.

field trip to the smallest mansion on earth...and other updates.

Okay...where do we we start? I need to go back a few days and fill you in. Monday, I went on to a site visit with Mary to the Sealander residence. (Our two main projects we are working on are Sealander and Fant) They have a row house on Capitol Hill and have had Mary working on it for a long time now! Luckily, I was at the meeting Monday night and didn't leave work until 8:30 because the metro crash was that night. I wouldn't have been on that exact train but it wouldn't have been fun to be on the metro at all because they evacuated everyone and it was a big mess. Tuesday and Wednesday were all a blur, mostly centered around Mother Rytasha. Cleaning up after Mother Rytasha, letting Mother Rytasha use our computers, answering phone calls (on Mary's cell phone!) for Mother Rytasha, checking on Mother Rytasha, cleaning up for Mother Rytasha and making travel arrangements for Mother Rytasha to get to the airport. Whew! What a week of Mother Rytasha. If you haven't googled her by now, you should. Last night we even got to meet the Ambassador of Bolivia or somewhere (not sure?). He came to visit Mother Rytasha, so of course there was cleaning and preparing involved for such an important guest!

Today was by far the best day of the week, maybe even the summer thus far...not only because it's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday, but because Megan, Anna and I got to take a "Drysdale-sponsored" field trip to the Fant farm in Maryland. The day began with Megan and Anna picking me up at my house around 8 and driving 2 hours out to the Fant-Middlekauf farm in Sharpsburg, MD, a.k.a. the middle of nowhere. We ended up spending 3 hours just waiting around at the farm. We saw the cows, went down to the pond, toured the stone house and the other brick house, took some pictures and just sat around. When Mary finally came down from meeting with the carpenter, we saw her long enough for her to ask us to go pick up lunch for her and Susan, bring it back and go back to the office. What a great road trip of a day that was!
Mary was out of the office on Friday which made for a pretty nice day. We had a lot of work to do but the girls and I had a fun day just us.
Saturday I worked on a Habitat for Humanity project. Nat organized the day of service for her office, however the group was mostly comprised of friends of chamber staff. It was a good day. It wasn't too hot and I got to install some stairs. Hard work but good experience! Due to the fact that we woke up at 6 to get there on time, the rest of the day was filled with napping. Until the night rolled around...about 9:00pm I decided I wanted to go out on the town. I hadn't been out yet in DC and I thought it was about time. So, I called up my friend from college, Keeley, and we made a plan. Long story short-this was one of the most interesting nights of my life. If you are ever in DC and want to go out, don't go to Town on 8th and U St....that is unless you are gay! I have never felt so out of my element but still had a good time. Going out in DC is much different than Fayetteville and I was quickly aware of that. I think it's going to be a while before I feel like going out again here! haha
Sunday, Nat, Alex and I hit McLean Bible Church for the 12:30 service. I really enjoy going there. As for the rest of the afternoon, I was in heaven-there was a Law & Order: SVU marathon all day!
We'll see what my fifth week in the city holds for me...

It's been one of those weeks...

Obviously. Since I haven't had time to blog all week! Working for the Devil Wears Prada can really take it out of you. And by the way, she really does wear Prada! I saw her wearing some Prada jeans the other day and it was all I could do to hold in the laughter. Which is what I am forced to do 90% of the day. That or hold back the tears-from laughter or also frustration at times. All in all, this experience is good. I am starting to feel kind of bad for talking about my boss and how crazy she is or complaining about my job so much. But I can't keep the hilarious stories from y'all! You have to know the funny things that happen everyday, even though you will never understand how hilarious it truly is. Even when things are so horrible, the girls that I work with are so great that we can all laugh about it! So a quick overview of the week...

Monday, I don't even remember what happened other than Anna, Megan, Jodi (the girls I work with), Natalie and I went to dinner at Luna Grill. It was fun to hang out outside the office and talk about the funny happenings of the day. The big highlight of the week was the arrival of Mother Rytasha and her disciple. (They are staying in Mary's upstairs bedrooms for some unforeseen amount of time.) Since the first day I started working for Mary, there has been construction going on upstairs. All of this construction plus hours and hours of us moving furniture, books, etc., cleaning anything and everything, and overseeing the progress of painters, plumbers and contractors has all come down to this week. Wednesday night to be exact. So Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday were all a blur of dust and dirt and trips to the hardware store and CVS to prepare for this "holy lady, Mother Rytasha, and her disciple." I cannot even tell you about Mother Rytasha without feeling bad....so you need to google her and see for yourself. If you would like more information, I can share the pamphlets and DVDs with you that I have already received from her disciple. Just ask. I'm more than willing to share. :)
The rest of the week has been pretty smooth. It's been really funny to see other people interact with Mary outside of our little bubble of an office. We are all used to her and are prepared to react to anything and everything she says. I have observed a few run-ins this week where others in the "real world" don't really know how to react to Mary. I just smile knowlingly and usually feel the need to apologize. I just throw my hands up! haha
The only thing that's getting me through the tail end of this week is looking forward to the beach this weekend! Virginia beach is calling my name and I am coming gladly. It's time for some serious R&R.
Amidst all these funny stories and fun things I'm doing, the homesickness still comes in waves. I know the Lord will use this summer to change me in ways I can't even know right now. As always, I know that He is forcing me to rely on Him and trust Him alone. Why are we as humans so stubborn? Our Rock is right there just waiting for us to lean on him, instead I choose to FALL on him when I just can't stand up anymore. But thankfully He is still there and is just as loving. I am learning to praise Him in the good and praise Him in the hard times. All things are blessings and our God is good...no matter how crazy Mary is!
"For who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is a solid Rock?" Psalm 18:31

Weekend O' Fun

What a weekend! It has been jam packed and lots of fun but has gone by way too fast. Natalie got back from Germany on Friday night with presents in tow. Alex and I were ready too...we got her a funny balloon. (I'll have to post pictures soon.) I got my first taste of Five Guys (De-lish!) and we pretty much called it a night. Everyone was pooped from a long weekend. Saturday morning Nat and I ate breakfast/brunch at the Silver Diner. It's probably the best diner I have ever been to, and they deliver...next Saturday morning, breakfast in bed! :) Actually, we are going to the beack next weekend! Hooray! After we were sufficiently stuffed, we drove out to see the Pope-Leighey House, it's one of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses and ended up getting a double whammy-we got to tour Woodlawn plantation too. We have always loved plantation houses. Both were pretty cool. Next up, Monticello! From there on out the day was pretty uneventful. I ran errands to CVS (which has pretty much replaced my Wal-Mart obsession, seeing as there are NO Wal-Marts here!) and Barnes & Noble, then retreated home to watch a Will Smith marathon of Hitch and Pursuit of Happyness. I also took the time to start filling out my "Do-it-yourself Memoir Book" I got at Barnes and Noble. I was very disappointed when I got to the point that I couldn't fill it out anymore because I hadn't come to my "adult years" yet. Haha I thought this was going to be a good activity for me this summer...turned out it was only good for one night. Let's hope I don't lose this before it's time to write in it again!
This morning, Natalie and I went to church at McLean Bible Church. It was HUGE!! They have a parking deck and a giant building. It was nice to go to a church similar to Fellowship though. I really miss church. After church, Nat and I went on a search for Beth Moore study books to do a bible study of our own this summer. This was a harder task than we thought. We drove out into Springfield to go to a Lifeway that was closed. Then we finally found a Family Christian Bookstore that was open and they didn't have any Beth Moore study books! We settled on a Max Lucado book. We'll see how it goes. This 2 hour search and trek had made us very tired and non-functional. It was time to eat-chips and salsa, please! We went to El Ranchero. You would think from the name and the way it looked that this was going to be some good authentic Mexican food. Well this was no La Huerta. They had wierd salsa and the fajitas were just okay. I voted it a "no return" for my list of DC favorites. We headed home with stomach aches and not feeling much more functional than when we arrived, to take a nice Sunday nap. And now somehow, I am sitting here in Natalie's office while she does some work on 7:30pm on a Sunday night. We are going to treat ourselves to a veggie dinner and a movie at home tonight. She deserves it more than I do, but for now I am just trying to enjoy my last few hours of freedom before I have to return to Mary tomorrow.

"Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you (us) who belong to Christ Jesus to live."
1 Thess 5:20

Kosher Diet Coke

Cleaning. Scrubbing. Run to CVS. Cleaning. Listening to Mary's lecture. More Cleaning. Pick up food at Teaism. Go back to CVS. More cleaning. More listening. Pick up coffee at Starbuck's. Squeeze in lunch. More cleaning. And so on and so forth. This has been my day today. Mary is having a meeting with a client/lawyer tonight about a legal issue, he's also staying in Mary's guest room tonight. You know, the one that has been under construction since I started here. Well, it's still not really done yet but we had to get it all done and have everything clean today. And get the food, and drinks, and cleaning supplies and "whatever else it will take to complete the task" (Mary). By the way, the client/lawyer is an orthodox Jew. Therefore, we had to make sure everything was "kosher." Have you ever heard of kosher diet coke? Neither had we. I don't think it exists but Mary is certain it does. I haven't even left work yet and I am exhausted!! I think I'll go for some Five Guys or Cosi on the way home and then stay on the couch and watch a movie! Can't wait to get home.