March Flashback

March started with a work trip to San Francisco.  The event we had last week in Pittsburgh will be in San Francisco next year, so I had the opportunity to go on the planning trip with my boss, Kelly.

It's really a very pretty and neat city.  We didn't have a ton of time to do touristy type things but we did spend some time driving around to get a feel for the city for planning purposes.

The Golden Gate Bridge - wow!

Alcatraz - we didn't visit but I hope to tour it next year.  This was my view of it from the piers.

We visited Muir Woods - the winding road makes it not an option to take our group to, unfortunately. Beautiful, nonetheless.

The view of the bay from our hotel room....

Again, so thankful for my job and the opportunity to do a little travel.  It's been a little weird not traveling with Daniel since he's been my travel partner since we met my freshman year of college. But, hopefully, he'll get to join me on some of the travel or at least tail-end it so we can have a few fun days together at the end of some of my events.

Are you impressed? Two posts in a week!
I'll try to keep it up but no promises. ;)

February Flashback

Since I'm so far behind, I'll give you just a few words of what's up now and show you some February flashback pictures.

I just got back from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday night from my work's Annual Convention.  It's the major event we plan each year on behalf of candy and chocolate makers across the country.  Each night (err, morning) as I went to bed I could do nothing but thank the Lord for this job.  What a great group of people! What a great opportunity to use my skills to help business owners! And, of course, chocolate! ;)

I don't have as many February pics as I'd hoped.  Here's the rundown:
We started out with lots of snow in February.  I actually did have a picture of this but didn't want to revisit the cold - even in pictures!

Daniel and I (plus Noah and Kobe, of course) went to hometown of Van Buren for Valentine's Day weekend.  We enjoyed some great family time and I had the chance to visit with lots of great Van Buren peeps by going to their first ever Upwards games.  It was not only great to see so many hometown friends, but also to see this awesome opportunity for lives and families to be impacted by Christ through the Upwards games.  See what I mean here.

Here's part of my "second family" including bro Jeff and two of his five precious girls, Grace and Chloe:

Honestly, I don't remember much else about February events at this point.  I'm going to go now so I can attempt to work on a March recap before August!

January Flashback

Apparently not much was picture-worthy in January because I only have three pictures from the entire month.  The major news in our home was the Lord opening up a new door of employment for me.  It was in His perfect timing, as it always is.

I'm the new Marketing Manager at Retail Confectioners International, a trade association for chocolate and candy makers across the globe that's headquartered here in Springfield.  We don't make the chocolate/candy - our job is to serve those businesses that do.  I'm really excited to be there and so thankful to God for the opportunity.  Our local business journal even interviewed me about my new job. Check it out here.

Well, that's the gist of our January.  :)

⁹ I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; 

   I will sing of you among the peoples. 

¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; 

   your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Psalm 57:9-10

Two of the three pictures I took were of a gorgeous sunset that I watched from our backyard deck.  Enjoy!

December Flashback

Hi friends (and family)!  The next few posts will be flashbacks over the past few months since I've been out of touch.  Enjoy!

Daniel's brother, Steven, graduated from Missouri State University:

I worked long, fun hours at my work's longest annual fundraiser, a Gift Wrap Booth at the mall.  This is a snapshot of one of the many great groups of people I got to work with (the great folks here are all from Corporate Business Systems):

Somehow I don't have any pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas with our families.  Sorry!  Guess by the end of the Gift Wrap Booth month, my brain was a little fried.  We were blessed to have Daniel's family and even some great friends to our home Christmas Eve for a fantastic meal and then Christmas Day we woke up, had breakfast and headed to my sister's to eat Christmas lunch with my family.  A blessed time was had by all!  And we were all blessed as we remembered the reason we celebate - JESUS!

Oh, I know why there are no pictures.  We have video!  We were dance all-stars with the Michael Jackson Wii game and Dance Central for Kinect.  Maybe I'll post some video soon.  ;)

Weekend Update

The past two weekends have been full of all kinds of fun!

The weekend of the 12th was not only the first weekend of deer season (Unfortunately, we've got no meat in the freezer this time around.  You'll get it next time, honey!), but it was also Fresh Grounded Faith here in Springfield.  If you've not heard of it, Fresh Grounded Faith is a women's conference hosted by Jennifer Rothschild.  It's a fantastic Kingdom-focused event put on by area churches that partner together.  Jennifer goes all over for these events.  Anyhow, each event has special guests and this time around was Tim Hawkins (hilarious!), Abby Rike (Biggest Loser Season 8), and Michael O'Brien.

We're blessed to not only be Jennifer's hometown, but the church I go to is also her home church.  She and her husband were even the teacher's of one of the college department Sunday morning classes Daniel and I went to back in the day.  We're so thankful for them and their example of love and godliness!

My friend, Tanya, and I were Abby's (and her mom) hostess/driver for the weekend.  What fun!

(me with Abby and her mom, Billie)

L to R: me, Paula (our women's minister and fabulous lady), Paula (dear friend - we used to teach together in the youth department), and Tanya (a new fabulous friend and co-hostess for FGF)
So thankful for the multitude of godly women God has placed in my life!

Speaking of great women, my dear friend, Marilyn, came all the way from Van Buren to go to the conference and stay the night at my house.  So thankful for her and that she could make it up here!

Now for this past weekend.  It was filled with youth and more fun as we had our annual Engage Weekend (typically known as Disciple Now :)  ).  It was great to have a group of senior girls who "get it" and are seeking to honor and glorify the Lord.  Thanks, Lord, for the opportunity to serve you this way!

Here's to serving in the name of Jesus and having fun!

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Fall Fun

I'm still alive, friends.  :)  It's really not on purpose that I post once a month, I promise!

Last month Katie and I took Ky to one of our local pumpkin patches.  So fun!

Fun and family - that's what we're up to these days!

Kyler + Flint = Showstoppers!

A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of spending the entire weekend going to PBR events here in Springfield with my family.  (For you non-country folk, PBR is Professional Bull Riding.  ;)  )  The grand finale - Kyler not only was the PBR Fan of the Night on the last night, but he even got to go out to the middle of the arena and dance Michael Jackson with Flint!!  Just watch the video and you'll get it.



Needless to say, I'm a proud aunt!!  And we were all hooping and hollering, of course.  And, he was on national TV!  PBR plays on a channel/station called Versus and they showed a clip of him dancing with Flint.  So fun!

Family Time in California

I've decided to not worry about being caught up on my blog anymore.  Last thing I need is another thing to add to my to do list.  So, the fact that these pictures are from nearly a month ago doesn't even bother me. :)

Just over a month ago Daniel received a call that his sweet Tia Mayra had passed away (his dad's sister).  She'd been battling cancer for quite some time.  She's a fighter and bypassed all those dates the doctors would give the family of her life expectancy.  But on August 20, she went home to be with the Lord.  It didn't take us long to decide we needed to be in California with the rest of Daniel's family for the memorial service so off we went to L.A. with Steven and Evelyn.  While we wished the circumstances for the visit were different, we were very thankful for the chance to spend time with his family.  We were also extremely thankful Daniel and Alvaro had had the chance to spend some time with Mayra earlier this year.  Without a doubt, God is good ALL THE TIME.

Here are lots of snapshots for you!

River Rats

Daniel and I went home (to Van Buren, of course) a few weekends ago to get our last taste of my beloved Current River for the summer.  Aaaah....relaxation at its best!

(We took some friends and fam from Springfield with us, too.  That's the unfamilar faces you see in the pics. :) )

I Present to You...

Mr. and Mrs. Josh Johnson!

That's right, we have a new addition to the family.  We're so thankful for the work God is doing in Katie and Josh's life and pray they always seek to honor and glorify Christ alone.  And for sweet Kyler, that he'll be in a home filled with love.  Congrats - we love you guys!

(The wedding was a private ceremony with immediate family and then there will be a big celebration reception with the rest of the friends and family next weekend.  I'll be sure to post those pics as well. :) )

Happy Birthday, Steven!

We went to Olive Garden last night with Daniel's family to celebrate Steven's 23rd birthday.  Lots of laughs were had by all!! :)

Happy Birthday, Steven!!  We love you!!

L to R: Daniel, me, Tia Mary, Tio George, Steven, and Abuela

(Spanish to English: tia = aunt, tio = uncle, abuela = grandma)

Evelyn took the photo and Keila was on her way. :)

Noah has been published!

That's right, Noah is one of the cutest pets in the Springfield, MO area!  And I have the published magazine picture to prove it.

I had submitted his picture online a while back ago. The original is on a disk somewhere or I'd show it here. He's licking his nose so his tongue is sticking out perfectly and he's obviously enjoying the snow.  Soo cute!  Sorry, I digress.  I received a copy of the magazine in the mail which I thought was odd because it is a free publication.  As I was looking through, I yelled to Daniel that Noah is in the magazine (why they mailed it to me, I'm sure)!  So fun!  If you're curious, first place was a Weimaraner standing by a bush.  I think Noah had him beat, but I'm just a little biased.

Kyler is 5!

Amazing to me that he can be five years old and going into Kindergarten this fall.  We love Ky so much and pray he grows to be a man after God's own heart.  Here's to your 5th Birthday (which was actually July 11 :) ), my sweet nephew!

He's Growing Up!

Hard to believe this little guy....

Is this little guy....