1) Adam and I have been doing our daily bible readings. Sometimes we get behind and have a "double decker of a day"...
2) I am going to be doing a study on Ester with some teachers from my school. I haven't done a Beth Moore study before and have heard they are super great. So, I'm excited!
3) I got some colored denim from JCrew and am obsessed. Wish I could wear them every single day. I have to brighten up the January/February months somehow. Put these babies on, bam. You are a bit of spring sunshine.
4) I documented what Bruce has done to all of our furniture. Every chair around our table is chewed. I am not impressed.
5) Adam and I like to watch this show. Funny stuff.
*And we saw Incredibly Close and Extremely Loud with my parents last weekend. Tear jerker. Good stuff.
Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day. I think I may have mentioned this on here before...But awhile ago Adam asked in what area did my heart really ache for...this is it. Human Trafficking. It is the worst thing and I hate hearing stories or even thinking about the daily torture some of these girls go through. It is disgusting. Disturbing.
I found out about this day and the A21 Campaign from Klove. Here is a tiny bit of info:
After a trafficking journey that typically involves deception, rape, beatings, and constant threats, victims are often forced to live in confining and unsanitary conditions. Once formally put to work, human trafficking victims can be forced to service from 40 to 110 customers in one day1. Malnutrition, sleep deprivation, as well as emotional and physical abuse become part of the day-to-day routine.
In addition to the abuse, forced abortions and the contraction of STI's, Hepatitis B and C, and AIDS are ever looming probabilities. Life for a victim of sex trafficking is hell on earth. This injustice is the reason The A21 Campaign exists.
What can we do? The A21 Campaign has "21 Ways to Help"...My goal is for myself and 20 other people to do the first one, write a letter to one of the girls in a recovery shelter.
The A21 Campaign does everything we can to equip the survivors of human trafficking with options, knowledge, and skills to assist them in moving forward with their lives. Our transition program provides survivors with the support they need to transition from their time in our shelter, to living a fully independent, flourishing life. This includes assistance in repatriation, housing assistance, employment assistance, educational scholarships, psychological care, and assistance stabilizing and dealing with the effects of their experiences. We are committed to walking the journey with the survivors in our care until they are able to rebuild their lives from a position of strength.
Now I know this may sound like a far off "way to help" but I wanted to try something that would require some thought and emotion. I mean, this will be tricky...what do you say to a girl who has been through this? How can you encourage her? Let her know that she is not worthless? Please take 20 minutes out of your day and help encourage a young girl.
So....I have to see these movies coming out!!!! I practically begged Adam to promise to take me to "The Vow"...ha. But it worked;) I think he will take me! Ahhh...so excited!
So...Adam and I kinda decided we were going to go to Mexico again as a Christmas gift to each other/ almost one year anniversary/ to get out of the freezingness of NE. However, everyone said that it was beautiful beautiful weather here at the time we were gone...welp, no comment.
We were first set on going somewhere new and doing something adventurous and not going back to the place we loved a year ago for our honeymoon. After "researching" around we knew we were going back. and not only going back. we were doing the Casitas!!! Embrace me, you little hut of paradise, I'm coming for you. So, we woke up at 4 am Wednesday set for the airport and the sun.
We got moved to first class on w/ mimosas! "Glamorous" by Fergie came to mind;)
Have a fun...what? We thought this was great. On our ride to El Dorado.
We got there and the place was just as beautiful as it was...well, a year ago...(ha...that's funny). However, the clouds were out and pretty much stayed there the majority of our stay:(" There would be a break in the clouds for about 2 hours each day. And don't you worry, when that happened Adam was already in the pool and people were coming out of the woodwork to soak up that glorious warmth the would glaze your skin for quick moments. You had to savor and appreciate like crazyyy. Seriously, the whole time the sun was shinning directly on me I just kept thinking...Warmth. Love. Stay. Here....and a smile would permanently be on my face for that matter of time. **And don't worry, everybody said the sun was out and it was "super hot" the day before we came...and it sure was up and shinning strong rays on the day we left...at 9:44am**
Outside our Casita!
Additional outdoor shower! I think if it were hot, I would've used it more than once.
My "oh so healthy" breakfasts.
So, it was still amazing and great and all of that. Adam and I liked eating. We ate two dinners one night. Back to back. Yep. And we felt fine with it...until the next day at the pool we were telling this couple about "a restaurant that we ate at last night and loved"...and then they confronted with seeing us at the other one they were at last night. Hm...busted. Vacation, right? We meet some crazies and we meet some totally great people on the beach and poolside. Adam and I were talking about how many "nice" people there are out there in different areas of the world. It's interesting to learn about different things from different people.
I think one (or two) or our favorite things that happened this trip was that we got couples massages! Adam has never had a massage before and we got credit to get one. The original price was $255 and we had $200 credit so it was only $55! Plus, we got another one on the beach for FREEEEE because they were 3 hours late in getting us into our casita. Oh yeahhh!!!
It was great though. Just to spend time with each other and enjoy God's beauty. Seriously amazing. the sky. the ocean. the sand. Our Creator is so good...even when times are cloudy.
So...lately I have been having the weird desire to crochet. I know. Huh? But ever since I saw this little beautiful gem I have been on a mission to learn!
So, over winter break Gramee said that she would teach me! And that she did....however, it took a lot longer than both of us thought it would at first. We each made a square and it took about 2 hours! ah...I kept getting confused and messing up and she had to stop hers, take over mine to try and fix, then get me back on the right track. We then went to lunch at CheriO's. Delicious. As always. Just love going back to my "old stompin grounds". We came back, and each did one more square. Faster this time:) Improvement. And that was enough to call it a day. My back was aching, her eyes were sore. Done. Who would've thought?! My goal is to someday make a blanket! We will see...Keep your fingers crossed.
So, the other day when I was helping my mom at the store her friends and her came back and told me about this fun little store in Louisville. They told me about these pom-pom items and so I had to look it up...I thought they were so cute...hmm...can't be that hard.
And...it wasn't hard...just turned out completely and horribly different. The pom-pom colors I had were the only colors at the store...and I don't know. I am actually embarrassed to show you. But people fail sometimes, right? I just tend to do it more than the average person!
Stupid. Ha. Adam was confused why I wanted to "craft" this up in the first place and then he made sure to give me "praise" for trying new things...but "thought I should just throw the whole thing away". Ha. And...I had to agree...It's disgusting. I didn't even finish the whole thing because I was getting depressed. It's hard being married to Adam because everything looks so great when he wants to "try something out"...and seriously, every time I want to...it's just plain awful and my self-esteem plummets. He even said, "remember those cookie monster cupcakes you showed me on pinterest..." UGH! The nerve. Enough said.
So I tried to cut the pom poms off (because I paid good money for those...$6!) and made the garland instead. And it's not so bad?
And yes, it is draped on a basket of yarn...tomorrow Gramee is going to teach me a bit on crocheting!!! So, we will see how this goes...the last time I tried it about a month ago I tried looking at youtube videos for three hours and got absolutely nowhere...Ah. So, I will keep you updated. I hope it is not a disaster like this last little project. I'm giving it one more whirl.
**Also, I dropped my iphone in the toilet and just found out it's going to cost $150 to fix:( Hmm...That's a bummer, I will stop venting now. Life is still good:)
So, Adam and I scheduled a date with M's Pub last night downtown. It's his favorite favorite restaurant. I helped my mom at the niche yesterday, came home, got ready, and found this...!!!! Hooray! I was super excited. Sometimes as mature as it may be, I might say things like "you are my creative little genius baby...but you never make anything fun for me"...ha. Yes, I know, I'm 10. Anyways, we "didn't do" anything for Christmas this year for each other (but before we decided that I had already ordered a fleece for him)...and I thought he would still pull out a card that he made or something (I mean, it was our first Christmas as a "married couple"). Well, he didn't. And so this little "artwork" may have been done because he felt a tad bad or it may have been done because he just loves me so muchhhh...or a little of both;) I will still take it and love it...even if it was done a little bit out of guilt. It totally surprised me and I loveeeee surprisessssss!!!!
So, we went downtown around 8:30 and got VIP parking, somehow, someway. We loved our dinner at M's and then headed home before too many crazies got on the road.
This is what you get when a lady in a sombrero takes your pic. Perfect.
And then Adam was "still hungry" so we stopped by McDonalds. Not kidding. There goes our "nice dinner";) And while devouring it down in the car he may have quoted "salmon has nothing on these fries". Yep, we love cheap food (remembering, my favorite ever in the whole world is Hy-Vee chinese). Lovely Andersons. And then we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve.
We fed some fries to Bruce. He agrees. Here's to 2012!
I have never really ever "done" a New Year's Resolution. As I look back a lot of years, I have done the typical "I need to workout more" thing to try to persuade my body to create movement and gooo toooo theeee gymmmm. That usually last for a few weeks if I'm lucky. Right after I typed the first couple of sentences here it got me wondering "hmm...what does the average person make for their resolutions?"...I figured weight, money, love. That basically covered the gist of it. Save money, lose weight, stay happy, keep learning, stop smoking, help others, spend more time with loved ones, etc. When I went down the list I was like "yeah..yep..sounds good..(except on the smoking- one challenge I'm glad I don't have to overcome)"...These are all super great and super good. Clearly, who doesn't want to "stay happy", "lose unwanted inches", or "help those in need". However as self-pleasing these all seem, I think my challenge to myself this year will trump all of them while possibly helping me do a lot of them...win win, right? The challenge for myself is Project 4:4 at our church. Reading the whole Bible in one year. I have never read anywhere near to the whole Bible and I'm actually reallyyy, overly excited to do this. I think Adam and I are going to try and read as much as we can together (which makes me so lovey dovey happy that we can be together while reading...plus, he knows a lotttt more and can help simplify it for me), but I know there will be times when schedules change and I will be going solo on it. And that is good, I think. It will be personal. It will be just God and me:) I feel like I've said this a million times in the past few months, but my goal what I want....is to be closer to God. Sometimes I feel so distant and it sucks to be honest. I keep feeling like there is more that I need to be doing. Being a better wife, being a better teacher, a better friend, a better daughter. Maybe it's God saying, "Amy, you just need to be better at drawing close to me. That's it." I don't even know if that makes sense to anybody. But yeah, raw emotion just creeped out in the matter of 2 minutes. Hmm.. anyways, I'm super excited to grow this year. I feel like the last year I have been learning and thinking about things in the Bible that I have never even heard of. I know this may mean getting up 30 minutes before school when I am exhausted, staying up a little later when I am even more exhausted, putting tv on hold, leaving the gym early (that will not be hard), serving Adam cereal for dinner;), etc. I just hope that I can soak up whatever I can and give the glory to God.
