French Christmas

Each year at Christmas-time, some of my closest frineds and I get together and have a wonderful afternoon of gift giving, food eating and game playing.

This year we met at our house in Georgetown, and had a ball!! We ate pizza (not a traditional Christmas food, I know) and played Farkle, and made about a million jokes.

I love my friends and the times we spend together.

Here is a picture of the gang:

-Carly

Exciting for me, maybe not the rest of you

So, I got a call last week confirming that I would be a judge for the Miss Mary Hardin-Baylor Pageant.

I was super excited! It is November 5 and 6th.

I was the director of the Miss MHB pageant in college and really enjoyed. I also secretly wanted to be a judge someday.

So, I am planning my approach as a judge, and of ways to make sure I choose the right girl. Its gonna be hard to see through who is being genuine and who is just putting on a front for the pageant.

If you do not watch "Parks and Recreation" you should, b/c there is an episode where Leslie Knope judges the Miss Pawnee Pagent, and she is very serious about it. I think I am totally going to be like that, except she makes a speech at the end, and I dont think I will do that. I really hope not.

Thanks for reading.

-C

Takin Care of Business

After some nudging by my friends Brook and Leslie, I realized that I do have something exciting to blog about.

I am starting a business!!

Set to open Novemeber 2, 2009, The Exchange at Annarella is an upscale consignment boutique and design studio, on the Square in Georgetown.

We will be accepting brand name mens and womens clothing, purses, shoes, accessories and furniture.

I have never run a business before, and frankly feel like I am too young to actually OWN a business, but I am so excited!!

So, here's to being a business woman.

Home Sweet Home

We now are living in our Georgetown home on River Bend.

I believe we checked off most everything from my previous "to do" list I posted.

I am so happy to have a home I can call "ours". With long hours or painting, cleaning, and moving we are able to cook, sleep and eat in our humble abode.

I am going to post the best pictures I have of our home, granted there are no decorations...I am slowly waling out to the garage and grabbing what I need to make a dish or dry off from a shower, but as far as finding a place for everything, that has not happened yet.

We are planning a house warming party, once we can park our cars in the garage. I will keep you posted.

This is Brook's car in our driveway. She officially has a room in our house.

Friends

We (Jen Norman, Jacob and I) went to OKLAHOMA this weekend to visit our friends Any and Jenny Campbell. Let me tell you, it was a blast!

A quick synopsis of the weekend was Riding Trikes into OKC, 4-wheeling, mountain-boarding, and ziplining at Camp WOW, late night POKER, and to top it off, spending the day at the lake- wakeboarding, and wake surfing.

It was so much fun, I dont know why we havent been sooner. Jenny and Andy have 2 precious kiddos, Kai and Kennedy. Andy is a fireman and has a trike shop named: Trinity Trikes. Jenny has a new business named "Scraphappy" and she makes cute headbands and baby blankets, as well as other neat stuff.

I was reminded of those lasting friendships that you will always have regardless of how far apart you are. We are lucky to have great friends who LOVE to have a great time!

Pray for Jenny, she was feeling sick this weekend. What an awesome mommy she is. I admire her a lot, especially b/c her husband is a big KID himself.

Our House, is a very, very, very fine house.

That's right we are buying a house!!

I have to admit I am not as freaked out about this house as I was about buying the last one. Maybe because I know the process this time, and I see it everyday at work.

Anyways...we are going to close on June 26th, and have a whole LOT of work to do once we get in.

New Carpet
New Countertops in kitchen and bathrooms.
New fans and other light fixtures
Painting
Yard work
New knobs and pulls
Retexture the ceiling
Make the fireplace be "not ugly"

......
Lots of stuff

Luckily Jacob has the summer off and he can work on it all day, everyday.

But, hopefully all the hard work will be worth the effort. And very soon, we will call the house, "Our Home".

I will post pictures of the finished product.

I Weep for You, My Friend

As I knelt to pray today, I couldnt help but weep for you. I had just finished hearing a sermon on being SLAVES to GOD. You, my friend, are the epitome of a slave of Christ. You have shown me more strenth than a thousand men, more endurance that a marathon runner, more obedience than I have ever seen from anyone ever. Your dependence in the Lord has humbled me.

I weep for you because I am not there with you...because you are going through the most painful experience ever. "Worse than death" I have heard it described...but yet, I stand in awe.

I am in awe of your constant prayerful attitude...I am amazed by your teachful spirit...I have never respected anyone, EVER, as much as I do you.

Please know I pray for you...I hurt for you...and I weep for you, but most of all...I LOVE YOU!!!

-C

P.S. I lit a candle for you.