The never ending home-y...

And here is the master bedroom (we'll be getting a bed next paycheck hopefully and be able to sleep in here!! Nice big closets :D

The Study (upstairs) where we are currently sleeping on my twin bed... and floor. Me licking a cactus... i don't know how that got in here...
My Craft Room!! At last! Somewhere to keep all my invaluable stuff. AND the perfect ledge to display my priceless collection of Cobalt. i couldn't believe it and that's the first thing i thought of when i saw these odd ledges. They are in every room upstairs except the bathrooms.

Hallway upstairs with guest bath at the end, downstairs half bath, view of living room from upstairs, view of me waging a battle to the pain with the contact paper in yet another set of cabinets upstairs... somehow we missed getting a picture of the master bath but it's nice and roomy and looks almost exactly like the guest one. So that's pretty much it. We are loving it! Just hope to keep our job long enough to enjoy living in it. :(

There IS an Arizona!!

SO in case you haven't noticed... we DID end up moving from the great lush green-ness of Tennessee to the ...well...brown brown brown-ness of Arizona. Did i mention everything here is brown?? Even the buildings!! It's crazy. i have gone into color shock. We ended up getting the job after our interview and when they asked us how quickly we could be here we (being the naive beings we are) said 2 weeks. i had already quit my job before even coming here the first time but Gabe continued working up until 2 days before we left. The HUGE truck was packed and little Bonnie secured tightly behind and we set out after church one last time on July 13th.

i had been so busy before and since that i didn't have time to update. We are settled in now, although by no means completely unpacked or totally furnished (we still don't have a bed! haha) so i must apologize for what you are about to see. It is VERY messy but i figured it was high time for everyone to take a tour of the new place (and if you call on Skype we will give you the GRAND VIRTUAL TOUR - very thrilling). Sit back, relax, and envision yourself visiting in one of these rooms very soon! :D

This is... most of our home from the outside in the front yard. The landscape is actually quite beautiful and there is a 2 car garage. The back yard is nice sized as well - plenty of room for our lawn furniture, cooking out, dying in the heat - you name it. And it's all fenced in. There's even like 3 square feet of grass!! It's wonderful.

Here we have the living room and stairs. Vaulted ceilings and high windows.

Hallway stairs with 4 small windows... making streaking up the stairs very risky!! Dining room:

Laundry room and kitchen. We have so much storage space!! i was thrilled... until i had to put contact paper over it all. Then i was tired of all the beautiful cabinets. i'm having trouble with getting all the pictures to come up in the right spots... so i'll have to break them up.

Well...

This just goes to show you how much we actually know about our life... it's possible that we are postponing going to India and China til NEXT year. We still don't have all the money in and couldn't get visas until we got the tickets and couldn't get the tickets until we had the money... it's a vicious cycle. In the MEANWHILE... a possible opportunity has opened up for us to help out with a ministry in Mesa, Arizona, at the end of which, the man running the organization might fund our missions completely. Which would be AMAZING!! :D We are flying out there the 18th of this month through the 25th... then we'll know one way or the other if we are moving 2 weeks after that! Ahhhh life is a dizzying merry go round at times. And i love it. It's all fun and games til someone starts throwing up. :)

No it really cannot... :D

Ok psych. We just wanted to make sure we had everyone's attention. Plans have slightly deviated and we are now getting prepared to go to India first then China. (well we were a little confused - they do both end in "uh") All of you here know why but for those who live far away - we are going to help save baby girls and build the training center with Billy Graham. Paulose.


THIS guy.












NOT this guy.




























Ok. Glad that's cleared up. So... that's pretty much it. We celebrated our very first anniversary yesterday so we are officially old married people now. :*( The Mobile Joy-Capades stopped by our house (otherwise known as Sissy and Jen) and brought tons of goodies and stuff that made our day. *pictures of that to come later... as soon as our digital camera comes back to life* Other than that life is pretty much uneventful. Besides Gabe and i taking up wrestling. Just kidding. i
never wear my pants pulled up that high. :D So we are already growing old and fat together and i thought i would add this closing little quip:

A married couple's anniversary was fast approaching. The wife thought she would suggest a gift idea, as the husband seemed to be constantly lacking in that area. She said, "Honey, i'd like to wake up tomorrow morning and find something in the driveway that goes from zero to 200 in two seconds flat." He nodded his head and she went to sleep with visions of grandeur dancing in her mind. She awoke with great excitement the next morning to find her husband mysteriously missing. A note lay on his pillow saying something to the effect of "the best i could afford." She dashed outdoors, wondering what make and color her new vehicle would be. There, in the driveway was a small box with a brightly colored bow on top. A quizzical expression crossed her face as she walked closer, then unwrapped...

a brand new bathroom scale.

Can it really be??

...that four months have passed without an iota of blogoriffic happenings? The answer... NO! In fact, most likely the opposite. i have been so busy with the goings on of life that i haven't had time to record them for your reading entertainment. i'll try to list them as shortly as possible... TODAY - Gabe and i have been married for exactly 11 months! Wow... how time flies when you're having fun! i mean... we're trying not to have TOO much fun until we get back from China because i want to have a baby in America. haha But yes - we are hard at work saving money and getting the planning out of the way. We're shooting for leaving the 30th of June and don't know yet how long we will be there. 3 months at least, possibly a year. It all depends on if we can find jobs and how much we like or dislike it there. i got my new license and passport, now we are just saving up money to buy tickets before we can get our visas. **siiighh** It's so expensive to live these days! Besides that, more people have been showing up on our TBS nights and we're really enjoying it. The grand total is 6 now. :D Wednesdays we still have our high school kids and they are all doing great - one lived with us for a few weeks until her apartment money came through. LOST started back so i am enjoying life every Thursday. haha Other than that - just staying extraordinarily busy - i work every day but Sunday so i am really looking forward to quitting my job on the 14th of June to finish up business for the trip.

Deck the Halls!! **wait! Stop punching me in the face!!** :(

Ah yes! It's the most wonderful time of the year. Here as promised for your viewing pleasure ladies and gentlemen, my teeny holiday offering. Standing just under 4 feet tall, it is a giant in the world of Christmas spirit and puts forth its best effort to light its little corner of the world. Although you cannot tell from this shot, the color scheme is cobalt, silver, and light blue. It really is adorable. In fact, i dare all of you to share your own holiday offerings so we can judge...er enjoy them. Stormy told me she had a peacock tree which i am refusing to believe until i see it. :D If
you haven't checked out My Space recently, i strongly suggest you do so, as it has also turned into Holiday Hullabaloo there as well. i have been crafting Christmas cards, angels, and beaded snowflakes (which unfortunately aren't as glorious as they sound and a tad time consuming... and haven't had the proper time to devote to creating the List for you all. It seems now may be my only shot at letting everyone know what i want this year, so i decided to make it easy for you. The following are mere pictures of the essence that is an M G A Roadster. I've included 2
colors here to whet your appetite but feel free to pick whichever monochromatic scale sparks your interest. i'm not a huge fan of yellow, but wouldn't outright deny it love altogether. Again, the year and model aren't set in stone, but i am leaning more toward the 70's era, as you see. i'm not picky. Any of them would look fine sitting in my driveway that frosty morn graced with an enormous festive bow. Yet another anti - stipulation to bring it into your price bracket... it doesn't even have to run. **sigh** The joys of having a mechanically inclined husband. (i will abstain from mentioning here that i have not had a side view mirror on my car for a year... and have asked repeatedly to have it repaired with NO LUCK so far... it appears his vehicle magic works for everyone but me). oh well. So, there you have it folks. The only other thing i need from you... ADDRESSES so i can send out my Season's Greetings!! e-mail them to me if you like or just call me. :) And Merry Early Christmas!! xo

No we don't ALWAYS sit around naked...

i noticed that both images i selected for this blog appear to have captured us sans clothing of any kind... so i am here disclaiming that notion. i AM wearing a towel and Gabe IS wearing boxers. :D Ahem. Anyway - it's been awhile since i entered the wonderful world of Blog so i thought i should pay my respects. i've done my hair recently and everyone was pretty impressed with the style. i'd never gone for the tongue in the light socket look and thought it was high time for a change. i sent this picture to Gabe while he was hard at work and i think he ended up laughing so hard that he broke a windshield and his boss made him pay for it. ;) He is having a grand old time at the Automotive Design where he makes crap-thirty an hour and seems to me to be RATHER unappreciated. But what do i know? i'm still at the Blind and Stutter Gallery - came close to quitting a few weeks back, then decided to recant since my "Freelance Writing" profession hasn't picked up yet. Married life is wonderful - we went Christmas Tree shopping last week but aren't allowed to put it up yet because the house is messy, Thanksgiving is this weekend and we have no ornaments to put on it. At least ONE of those stipulations will be done away with in a few days... so expect some tree pics up soon! We decided to be a little more creative this year since the family has gotten so large and some of the younger ones apparently complained about having TOO MANY PRESENTS to open. We drew names last night and are eagerly pursuing the trail of gifting pandemonium. Gabriel decided to take up a new hobby which, although i was rather shocked and amused over at first, i am now very proud of... cross stitching. He has faced good natured adversity for this but little do his antagonists know he is laboring over their gifts...