2009 in Review

I was looking through photos from this year for a collage on Facebook, and I really enjoyed remembering all my adventures, so I'm sharing them here in a little more detail.

New Year's 2009: New Orleans

This time last year, I was on a mission trip to New Orleans. December is a great time for mission trips because the reason for the season is so real for me when I'm serving directly. We did it right by going over New Year's. We even got to see Blues Traveler for free on New Year's Day!

New Orleans Mission Trip #5

Last December I actually spent two weeks in New Orleans rebuilding. This photo represents the other extreme of mission trips: safety gear.

January: Northwest Arkansas Ice Storm

The ice storm was historic. Days of classes canceled:4. Days without power in our apartment:7. We went to the movies just to have a warm place to be for a few hours one afternoon, and then we just left town.

February: Valentine's Day Basketball Game

Amy and I were the most excited to wear shirts with our "boyfriend's" names on them. We made sure we got to sit on the front row, and saw the team pointing at us multiple times.

May: Graduation

After 5 years of Architecture School, these are the only girls left in a graduating class of about 30. It is such a relief to be finished with that accomplishment. I still don't think it has really sunk in.

May: Train and Sister Hazel Concert

Martha was my date to the Botanical Gardens for a Sister Hazel and Train concert this summer. It was a life experience to see a live performance of "Meet Virginia."

June: 2 Weddings

Neither of these friends got married, but two girls who were in the Bible Study I led for 3 years got married in June. Thankfully not the same weekend, but reasons for me to go back to Arkansas and visit!

July: Family in town

My cousin Christy and I have seen each other a bunch this year. There is more to come for 2010 because she is getting married in April and I will be accompanying my grandmother to her wedding.

July: Adventures in Arkansas and Sending Off Kidd

Frase, Kidd, and I made a little Road Trip to Eureka Springs before Kidd moved to Bulgaria this fall. We are enjoying Rocky Road treats in this photo, which I have learned to make this fall. Maybe I'll make some to send to them as a memory of this trip.

July: Road Trip to Brett(&Ashley's) house in Bartlett

One thing that I am so thankful for in moving back home is that I still have all these wonderful high school friends who I see regularly. This particular get-together included a few fun rounds of American Idol Karaoke.

October: Florida Trip

October brought a fun trip to Florida to see my sister's school and her play softball, and also go to the Florida and Arkansas game at the Swamp. More about that trip in this post.

October: Castle Creation

This photo represents two things. 1. An opportunity to fuel my creative side and make the castle. 2. The awesome opportunity I have to be around for all the excitement of Martha's Senior year.

November: Martha's official visit to Fayetteville

This picture is evidence that I had some fun of my own while accompanying Martha to visit the University of Arkansas. It was fun to visit Fayetteville without school hanging over my head and get to hang out with everyone is still there. Martha has not made an official decision, but my money is on her going to Arkansas!

November: Neighborhood Christian Center Chicken Strut

My parents were such good sports to go with me to walk the 5K Chicken Strut and then pose with the chicken. I am glad to have the opportunity to spend some more time with them since I moved back home too.

Since July: Neighborhood Church

It has been such a blessing that God has led me to Neighborhood Church this year. I have been amazed with all that he has done this year and I'm excited for what God has in store for 2010.

December: Family Christmas Traditions

Our Christmas cards are just on of our wonderful traditions. We re-vamped another tradition this year: my sisters and I used to sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve and Easter Eve, but our double beds just haven't cut it in a long time for three of us, so this year we rushed to my parents king size bed when we got home from the 11:00 Christmas Eve Service.

Happy New Year!

Think Globally, Party Locally

The weekend before Christmas, the Spickler's hosted an Advent Conspiracy party to raise money for Living Water International. We were thinking globally but partying locally, right in the heart of Cooper Young.



Their house was filled with conversations, food, drinks, and more food.

Their front rooms are even painted red and (lime) green for the party.
What dedicated hosts they are!



The fun went into the night. These photos are all from the first 30 minutes before my camera batteries died! Thanks to Paula for taking all of them!

A Christmas Upgrade

My life will never be the same. I went from limited texts, no camera, and no bluetooth, to the world at my fingertips.

I just need some practice typing on it...

Christmas Parade and Lights

I have really enjoyed spending time with my entire family during this Holiday Season. Last weekend we stood in the freezing rain to watch Martha march in the Germantown Parade. At least they were #3 in the parade so we could go home and thaw out sooner!

We take pride in our ability to judge Christmas lights. You would think our good taste would rub off on our neighbors, but no, they have three strikes against their lights:

1. Their lights are colored.

2. They have net lights.

3. Not only do they have net lights, but they don't care enough to make them touch and cover their bushes....

We tried some new things this year, but decided to stick to what has been successful in the past 6-8 years:)

Rendezvous in Little Rock

Last week, I took off a day to meet up with Frasepoo in the 501. All we need is Hobby Lobby and a Mexican Restaurant for a good time. We even lucked out and found them in the same shopping center.
Although we a long way away from each other we've met up 4 times this year, each in a different city (and 3 states). So fun!

Preparations for Christmas

Eleanor made her annual visit for Thanksgiving (she's the blonde on the left) and we got to spend some time with her a couple of weeks ago. She shared what she has been up to, and I have to mention that she dated a real-live Malaysian prince... and looking back all she has got out of the experience was the claim that she has dated a prince. But alas, he wasn't her Prince Charming:) But Ashley had her Prince Charming with her!

We ate at American Cafe, where our waiter was in a hurry to clear out table. He took my plate while I still had a third of my burger in my hand!
The funniest part of the evening was when we were leaving and Samantha started walking toward her car without saying good-bye to Eleanor. When Eleanor accused her of this, she said, "No, I wasn't walking away without saying Good-bye, I was just exercising." She was just exercising her lying abilities... unsuccessfully...

Since I'm not stressing out over finals, I helped a lot with decorating our house for Christmas. I made a new bow for the Christmas tree (my mom thinks I should go into the bow making business) and I helped put up our outdoor lights as well. I made a mess of the strand of lights I was laying out, proving I don't have a future in the light-hanging business!

I've also been doing some crafting getting ready for Christmas. Last weekend, we completed 30 wooden letters to donate to the Winter Wonderland at the local prison for the inmates to give to their friends and families.

Ashley and I quickly took over the kitchen and I recruited Martha to help finish. Since we did not know who they were going to be given to, Martha and I had some fun coming up with names that each of the letters represented.

These are some of my favorites! I'm volunteering at the prison to help them "shop" for their gifts and to wrap them and I hope these letters are a hit!

Making Plans

My mom cut this out of the paper for me last week. It is ironic to me that not only is it human nature to dream and make plans, but it is what I have gone to school for. Yet, no plan is perfect but God's, and where he has each of us right now...

Thanksgiving

First, we celebrated Thanksgiving at home, which would not have been complete without pumpkin bars-

Mi madre y su madre

My grandmother fussed about how old she looks when I wanted to take her picture, so I refused to show her the picture on my camera because I did not want to hear her say ugly things about herself. I think she looks great. She did turn 80 this summer!


We drove to Alabama and met up with Carolyn at our Aunt Carolyn's house. She lives in the country where there are barns and turkeys on the walls.

Where you can also find gems of houses like this one. It dates to pre-civil war, and has had many additions since then. The antiques and decorations are fabulous.



Not only is the house awesome, but look at the yard! These images are from Alabama Bride, which featured one of their daughter's weddings. Yes, those are chandeliers hanging from the trees, and yes, they worked.

They could not have painted a more perfect backdrop to this wedding...

Our trip also included lots of cousins; 1st, 2nd, and beyond

And some fun...

And then there is the Christmas tree with all of its breakable antique ornaments. The bucket was leaking, so some plastic needed to be slid underneath the tree. Some resourceful engineering called for a pole screwed to the trunk and manpower lifting while womanpower slide the plastic underneath.

Not pictured: about 15 onlookers

History of Christmas Cards

I've been doing some digging to document and share previous Christmas cards. Many have a place on our fridge.

The first edition, 1987

1989

1993

1995 (I think?!)

1996

2000

2004 (*take note of my name... this one was reprinted before being sent out because to quote my mom "We're not advertising")

2007

I'm sure there will be many more to come, but it sure has been fun to reminisce through these pictures. It makes me sad to think of Hershey as I look through these photos. We just put her to sleep this summer (at 14), but she retired from our Christmas cards awhile back because she made a difficult process even more involved.