macdonald update!

WOW! it's been quite a while since we updated! between email, facebook, twitter, skype, and all the different means of communicating through technology, it gets hard to keep up!  so the people who read this blog have probably been updated on our lives in some other way already, but i will post on!

ricky and i are homeowners!! here are a few pics of the house...minus any of our stuff (the furniture/accessories in the pics were staged)

we never thought we'd be able to buy a house so soon, but among the housing market, some really good timing, and God clearly showing up, it happened!  we placed an offer right when i got back from the spring break middle school choir mission trip and closed on the house right after we got back from libby's graduation (and engagement...so exciting!  now ricky and i have all our siblings engaged/married within two years!)  then we moved in right before i went to student life camp with our middle school students.  busy times!  we love our house and are starting to feel more at home and hunter loves his new yard.  we also now have an endless list of projects, but it's been so fun!  and it's such a good feeling to know that we'll be staying put for a few years...we're ready to slow down on the big life changes for a while and just enjoy where we are.  this summer we'll get to go to the ozarks with the bram fam, see ricky's best bud josh get married, i'll go to dallas for a mission trip with our students, visit libs in raleigh, and hopefully we'll get to sneak away to a beach for a few days!  a fun summer ahead, but we'll always miss serving at lost canyon, especially this time of year!  we definitely have lived & continue to live blessed lives!

happy birthday!

happy birthday to laura and susan!! i love you dearly & hate that i'm not there, but i promise i'll make it up to you! i'm blessed to have incredible friends in my life who know exactly who i am, can make me laugh and cry (often at the same time), and encourage me to just keep swimming when life doesn't make sense. and by the way, it doesn't make sense that kansas and georgia are so far away from each other. obviously, we are bffs...as in forever...but i can only hope that i build frienships like ours in atlanta someday...but really i'd rather you just move here instead! here's to fun trips and a cul-de-sac in our future!!

fresh start

new years post...a little bit late! we've had a pretty crazy but amazing few weeks! it was our first christmas as a family and we were blessed to spend christmas with the macdonalds AND the bram fam! we missed pat and joanna tons, but we're so lucky to have such freakishly close families. isn't family a strange word if you say it a few times? hunter was spoiled rotten over christmas and fell asleep with 4 stuffed animals between his arms, unwrapped his bone by himself, and even managed to take down an entire plate of brownies and candy! and my cousin's adorable 3 year old informed her 5 year old sister and libs, "it's okay, hunter is nice". right after christmas, we got to celebrate our first anniversary! then new years! the next day we got to take the jfbc middle school students up to sharptop for winter retreat and ricky and tim were "ronnie and donnie" from panama city, we had a great time and i got to know some pretty sweet middle school girls. we're pretty excited for 2009...2008 was CRAZY! but so good! in the midst of all the holiday craziness and the transition back to the routine, it's so refreshing to know that we get a fresh start with 2009. and that we have a loving God that gives us a fresh start any time.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" - 2 Cor. 5:17

we hope to live 2009 like brand new people, getting rid of the old, throwing out the selfishness and pride and becoming more and more like Jesus.

christmas is coming!

it's pretty crazy to think about this time last year. we were living in williams with a huge tree blocking an entire street for nearly 4 months, i was writing algebra finals, ricky was shoveling LOTS of snow, and we were packing and planning like crazy for our wedding! it almost feels like christmas didn't happen last year- we were a little distracted!

now we're closing in on our first anniversary and it's our first christmas as a new family. we got to go to kansas for thanksgiving and it just really recharged me to be able to spend quality time with the bram fam and our wonderful friends. and we're going to go to ricky's parents' house for christmas and then my side of the family is cheating their holiday off from us and driving down to georgia...but this really feels like our first real holiday! we get to decide our own traditions. we have our own real tree and our own real stockings (well, hunter's is a cheap 99 cent felt one). we are blessed. and we are thankful for each of you dear friends...you are a big part of what makes this time of year so warm and joyful!

snow

it was sleeting and maybe spitting a little snow today and everyone was so excited.

then i remembered last may 15th in williams.

kind of miss that...in december. not so much in may.