Road Trip!

Ready for a ginormous post about my vacation? Wheeeeee!

I did take this one of Kims on my cell. Hehehehe~

The day after Christmas, we embarked on a 10 day road trip, starting with spending a night at Kim's place in Atlanta. I LOVE the area she lives in. I didn't get any pictures though, stupid me. 

We had breakfast with Kim's roommate Naomi and her family, which was great. They have 14 kids altogether and they are an amazing family. Seriously, I would probably be a basket case with that many kids around, but they seemed to have a great system and a lot of love for each other. No doubt it took a lot of hard work and some tough times to get to where they are now, just like any other family. Fun getting to know them!!

Making the world's biggest cup of hot chocolate.
 It was delicious though, I must say. 

Next we drove (at least 13 hours in the car.. I lost count) to my grandma's (affectionately known as Grams) in Ft. Myers, FL. The weather was chilly for the Floridians, but we enjoyed even the cool weather. It was like summer for those of us who had news of snow back home. We took lots of walks...

Kims with her wig-looking hair and Mumzy :D 

I couldn't resist taking this one. I need to buy her some bigger clothes, teehee. With it still being winter in Ohio, I figured she could suffer through a few days in the warmer Florida weather wearing last year's warm weather clothes!

Hanging out at Grams'!

Reflective!

Grams' housing division has a beautiful pool area, dubbed the "big girl pool" by Audrey. Any pool bigger than our kiddie pool in the backyard is a "big girl pool". She wanted to swim in said big girl pool every hour of every day we were with Grams. Unfortunately it only worked out to go once, but she enjoyed every last second of it.

Big girl pool! big girl pool! big girl pool!!!

SO excited.

Beautiful Mumzy!

We had a lovely day of shopping (and pictures of course.)

Excited about a huge fountain in the middle of the lake!

Fun with photos!

Audrey is very into posing right now. :)

And she loves her Auntie Kim!

My beauty!

During one of the days in Ft. Myers, we went to Sanibel Island... it was absolutely beautiful. I'd been there before years ago, and I've loved it each time.

From my cell phone - on the way to Sanibel

LOVE my sister!!!!

Silly! <3

A few shots from Lenny's camera (which I am in love with) - the happily engaged couple :)

The crew.

Awwww. Great picture!

Back to pics from my camera (*cry*). Audrey posing again :)

We LOVE the beach. How I wish we lived closer.

We hit the shops on the island also. So fun!

Love this shot!

Singing and dancing.. we do a lot of this.

Much love for these two!

From my cell - love the clouds!

Leaving the island

I love the sunsets in Florida! And this one isn't even good in comparison to most!

Grams taught us all to play Hand and Foot Rummy when we were kids. When we get together with her, we always play. One of the best card games ever. It takes a long time to play but it is great fun. 

This time we taught Lenny how to play. You're part of the family now Lenny - sorry!!! :p

Kims and I visited the work out room in Grams' condo community. While we used the treadmill and bicycle, Audrey pumped iron.

After visiting with Grams and Aunt Vickie for a few days, we drove three or four hours north to Titusville to visit Sandy and Beth Robertson, long time family friends.

While we were there, my parents gave a great talk at Sandy and Beth's church about their ministry and life in Mongolia.

Part of Sandy and Beth's backyard. They LITERALLY have an island in the middle of a lake directly in their backyard. It was amazing. I could explore places like this for hours and hours.

My fellow explorer. :)

Playing at the park at Chain of Lakes.

Chain of Lakes is a dotting of little lakes and inlets and rivers that all connect and there is a wonderful path that surrounds them all. An amazing place to walk, run, bike, you name it. 

At the top of Kings Tower

We love our walks! 

From my cell - eating italian with friends!

From my cell - playing on the playground in the Robertson's yard

From my cell - New shoes! Getting to be such a big girl!

Sunset over Chain of Lakes.

Helping with dinner!

Auntie Kims reading Audrey a bedtime story :)

Amidst all of this, we missed Daddy a lot. We talked to him every day on the phone and sometimes we were able to borrow a computer to video Skype with, which was nice. He even read Audrey a bed time story over the webcam once. Priceless!!

After spending a few very nice days with the Robertsons, we said goodbye to them and also to Kim and Lenny as they began their trek back to California. My parents, Audrey and I packed into the rental car and took off for Raleigh, NC, our last destination. My dad's brother Jim and his wife Ginny live there. On the way, we stopped in Savannah, GA for lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant. I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. But it was a neat place to eat.

From my cell - it takes decent pictures sometimes! Or maybe it is just this photogenic pair! :D

It occurred to me too late in the trip to take a picture of Audrey's Sammy the Sock Monkey everywhere we went. So I will post this one cool pic of him in Savannah.

We had a coffee at a sweet little cafe on the riverfront. Audrey pretended to sleep and could not stop giggling. 

So wonderfully silly!

My Uncle Jim and Aunt Ginny have a beautiful house and an amazingly gigantic dog. She's a 200 pound English Mastiff named Mocha. SWEETEST thing you'll ever meet. Also somewhat intimidating if you are not used to massively oversized dogs. I adored her.

A bad pic, but added to show her gigantic paws.

My dad took some good shots of Mocha to show her size comparison: 

With my Uncle Jim and Audrey.

Such a well behaved dog. Her manners were impeccable. :p Audrey warmed up to her after a day or so of getting used to Mocha's sheer size. 

With my cousin Jody at her office. We had lunch there with her - it was a blast!

Playing the piano at Uncle Jim and Aunt Ginny's.
Audrey kept asking me to play the Toy Story theme...
it was great. "You've Got a Friend In Me!" 

 While in Raleigh, we had the opportunity to see an excellent Rembrandt collection at the NC Museum of Art. It was well worth it. And we had fun. :)

 I didn't get to take my pictures, and couldn't use my camera in the exhibit itself. Ah well. My Dad got some great pics though - check out his blog!

My Aunt Ginny... she gets me. :)

Thanks for reading the world's longest photo journal. You might wanna stretch your legs or something so atrophy doesn't set in. Also, forgive me for the disjointed style of this post. It was so long that it had to be put together over a period of 3 days. -.-

Christmas!

I have been BUSY. When I say busy I mean BUSY. Did I mention BUSY! My family started arriving on December 21st of last year (ha) and they just kept coming. It was like some historically impactful battle that ends in a hostile take over. Okay I'll be serious, I love having my family here, especially at Christmas. There is something comforting and fulfilling about a warm, cozy house filled with family and friends, twinkle lights and tons of food. Especially really good food.







Such as Lou Malnati's pizza, brought from Chicago by my Uncle Jamie and cousin Jacob who spent Christmas with us. (Aunt Carolyn had to work a lot around Christmas, so she had to stay home, which was  sad. Hopefully they can all come visit with us this spring or summer!)

Also, Kim makes really good salads. With a smile. *CHING*!

No Thiessen/Porowski/Rice get together would be complete without an intense, loud, competitive card game. 

My cousin Jacob... as serious as they come!

Christmas at our house was fun. 

Coffee Crisp, the best candy bar ever, and they don't even sell it in States... it comes from  the far off land of Canada.

Sasha

My Dad - a mature example for the family. Bahahaha :)

Typical!

My wonderful parents!

You can see our wonderful fake Christmas tree in the above photo. The beginning tree itself was a little sparse, so when Kim and I decorated my house, we filled it in with fake branches from another fake tree (I'm a tad bitter about not being able to get a real tree this year, but we wanted to spend the cash on other things. Like gifts. Pfft.) which actually made it look really cool. I was really happy with our creation in the end, as happy as I could be without having a beautiful, naturally pine scented, sap filled, needle dropping, real tree.

My Dad took some great pics, so I thought I'd share a few of his as well!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Oh hai?

I would really like to blog more. If you know me, you know I usually have lots and lots to say. I'd love to do a lot of that jabbering on my bloggy blog. But, alas. Life is so busy right now that all I can really say is: Hi. And bye. Consider this a drive-by wave.

Hope ya'll are having a wonderful December and holiday season so far. Remember what it's really about and who really matters: Jesus. I've been very convicted about this lately. Everything and everyone else will fade away one day, and He will be all that is left. He deserves to be glorified above all else. I challenge you to ask yourself who and what is most important to you right now, especially during this season. What will be most important to you in the end? I've been challenged in this and many aspects of my life lately... it's been good, and exhausting, geesh.

More caffeine plzkthx.

Loves and hugs! Hopefully more to come soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your turkey day is FANTASTIC, bloggy friends! My seester and her fiance will arrive in the morning, and I am SERIOUSLY excited about hanging out with them over this Thanksgiving weekend. My intent was to post an intricate list of things that I am thankful for, but I am already burning the midnight oil and I'm not done cleaning yet. I shake my fist at procrastination, a deceivingly attractive friend that is always, without fail, revealed to be a sneaky little wolf in sheep's clothing. But I digress. 


I will just say that I am very blessed to live the life I live, and I am thankful for where I live, with whom I live, and that I exist for the greater purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ. My Savior died for me and made it possible for me to have eternal life in heaven with Him, something I will always be more thankful for than anything else. There is a lot more to say about that but I will keep going for now. My husband and my daughter are gifts that I don't deserve, and despite life tending to get messy, I will always treasure them. I can't help but think of all the people in the world who are in need, so much more than I am. I'm thankful for those who inspire me, encourage me, believe in me, and pray for me, for those who are dear to me and bless me every day just by being who they are. I'm thankful for those who have blazed the trails and done the hard work to make this country and our lives the way they are now. I could go on forever. Really. So I will end this in a grateful, humble, reflective mood. 


If only I didn't have to go and reflect on scrubbing the toilets. -.- Happy Thanksgiving everyone - be thankful!

PS ~ Does anyone else think that turkey looks a little worried? Or even.. sad? Gah. 

Coffee or Roast Goat?

I simply had to share this quote I found. And put it in a cool looking frame for added drama. I simply refuse to be boring right now. HOWEVER, that is not the point of this particular blog. I'll keep this one short and sweet. 

Mr. Bach and I would have gotten along swimmingly, what with our mutual love for coffee and fugues. It really is time for me to get my Bach books out... I have been practicing classical music again lately and my fingers are itching to play the addictive, recurrent voices of Bach's fugues. I never thought I would say such things. But the day has come that I am ready to practice regularly again. No more 3 hour practice days for me, but my neighborhood will soon be blessed with hearing the sweet, haunting, relatively-out-of-tune, squeaky, wild-west-cantina-piano-sounding tones a lot more often. And in order to not feel (or look, please God) like a dried up piece of roast goat, I will be sure to down an ample share of my morning coffee beforehand.