CHECK IT OUT!!!

We are all moved in at our apartment in Cali. We have been unloading and unpacking, it has been very tiresome. We used some of our time this evening to elf-ourselves (Thank you Brandy for the idea!!). Check us out at http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1591758816
You will laugh and laugh...then elf yourself!

Christmas Shopping...Woes and Tips!

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you that my decorations are up the day after Thanksgiving! I love the decorating, getting the tree, the anticipation of a blanket of snow in the mornings (or black ice...whatever), baking!!!, the lights, concerts and plays and sharing gifts with the people I love. The last part is sort of my thing.
Here are three tips for you:
1) Shop during the day and during the week if possible! I didn't have anything going on last Saturday so decided to take the day and go to Gresham Station and Clackamas Town Center. Needless to say I spent my whole afternoon in Gresham and hardly got anything done. The traffic on the streets, the lines of people and the parking lots are just chaotic!!!! I did not even make it to Clackamas. And is it me, or do people drive even worse when it is the holiday season!?
2) Shop online!!! Most stores have free shipping this time of the year. Even if you do not receive free shipping to you, most online stores that have a location near you will ship it for free so all you have to do it pick it up...no lines and you have already paid (Most are already wrapped as well!!).
3) Go to places that have many stores in the same area (i.e. Clackamas Town Center, Bridgeport Village, Woodburn and Troutdale Outlet Malls). But a word of advice, please refer back to tip # 1...WHY? you may ask. And my answer would be...teenagers. Because there is alot to do in these places, they are swarmed with teenagers in the afternoon.

I give you these tips because I love gift giving and have tried to find the best gifts possible without losing my sanity. You see, when I buy a gift, I do not just buy a giftcard or a basket with a variety of soaps (UNLESS that is what the people want). I tune into what the needs, passions, hobbies and likes are of the people I am buying gifts for. It does take time and I usually start in early November to get it all done. But that is what I love to do, so that on Christmas morning when that person opens their present they are in awe...this is my hope anyway! Even with all the hype and time I put into these presents...let us not forget that this Christmas is about a child, a Savior...
Please do not let this be another Christmas that is about the food and presents (although these are not sinful things and we should be joyful that we are blessed with such provisions). When we focus of the bright lights and labels, we become blind to the true meaning of Christmas. SING SONGS OF PRAISE! READ ABOUT THE BIRTH OF CHRIST IS MATTHEW! SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS WITH OTHERS! These are the things we should do on Christmas, above all else, thank the Lord for sending His son in the form of a child as hope...hope that this world can be changed and hope that our lives and everything we have down here are not what life is about but about eternity with that little baby...our Savior!

P.S. Check out Debritos online candy store. They are a specialty chocolate shop in the town where my mom and dad grew up in California. They make about 30 different kinds of gourmet carmel apples and they will ship them to you for Christmas. They are wonderful gifts and stocking stuffers. Plus one apple usually feeds 2 or 3 people, they are huge!!!

Amazing Grace

Though my memory may fail me,

There is one thing that I will never forget...

That I am a sinner

And that there is a gracious Savior

-Amazing Grace

Need to Focus...

I have 4 finals this week and cannot focus on any one of them. I keep thinking "We have to pack!" and then I get excited about moving and then I wander off into la-la-land! Please pray that I can get through this week with a focused mind and that I am able to sleep with all everything going on in our lives!

What are we up to?

I just thought I would post some pictures of what we have been up to this past month. Sorry, we did not have the camera from thanksgiving, but here are pictures from getting our tree, to my 21st birthday party, Braden having his jeep "almost done", it snowing at our house, and getting new car...

2 Weeks and Counting

In exactly 2 weeks from today (12/03), Braden and I will be hitting the road in a 17ft U-haul bound for Irvine, CA. It is bitter-sweet to think about it...my family is here in Oregon, I grew up here, my friends, church...everything I have every known!!!! Kind of scary when I start to think about it. But on the other side, new adventures await us in Cali. New school, (prospective) new friends (not to replace our friends here...no no never!), a different culture it seems in that area of the country. I am always up for a new challenge and I do not back down...so Cali here we come. And dear, dear Oregon...we will never forget.

These next couple weeks will be CA-RAZY!!!! This is my last week of work, 1 math test, 1 final...next week: FINALS (and then I will be free of Mt.Hood forever), and somewhere in between all of this we must pack up our house, finish Christmas shopping and getting our wedding pictures printed for our family. Needless to say...coffee will be on the menu for awhile. Pray for our sanity!!! (Please?!?!)

SNOW!

It is snowing right now!!! I just had to post that because I have been hoping that it would snow before we head down to Cali and would not see it snow for the next 2 years. YAY!! I love it when it snows here!!