Randomness

WARNING: Random post ahead!

We'll this last week has been a week of catch up. I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't unpacked or done the laundry after returning home from our Cook Islands trip. It's almost as if I'm avoiding it because as soon as the suitcases are unpacked and put away, the trip of a lifetime is behind us. Very sad. Thankfully, we got some amazing photos and I'm hoping to post some of them shortly...maybe even by tomorrow...with a little post about all the fun things we did there. And, tonight I'm biting the bullet and unpacking while hubby is at his meeting.

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We received some very exciting news this past weekend - our second nephew was born on February 28th around 9:30pm! He was due on the 21st, but was too cozy in my sister's belly I guess. They had scheduled an induction for March 5th which my sister was really bummed about because she wanted a February baby, so thankfully Caleb Scott (my dad's middle name) decided to make his appearance on his own in February. Although, technically in my part of the country he was a March 1st baby! I'm still waiting to see photos of the little guy, but I've been told he looks exactly like his big brother, Braden, only with thick brown hair. I won't get to see him in person until our cousin's wedding in June, so hopefully some pictures will be sent my way soon...HINT! HINT!

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Yesterday we had our biggest snowfall of the year. Silly me passed up on the opportunity to take a day off and made the drive in to work. Being from Colorado, I always laugh at the way people drive on snow. My typical 30 minute commute turned in to an hour only to arrive at work and realize 2/3rds of the office took the day off. Oh well, it earned me some brownie points with the boss which I'll need seeing how...

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Hubby and I are going to ITALY in April for a friend's wedding! I'm so excited because I got back in touch (via Facebook) with one of my college roomies from freshman year (we also went to youth group in Colorado together in high school) and she invited us to her wedding in Italy (where she's been living/working/met this American soilder stud of hers). I'm really looking forward to going because I've always wanted to go to Italy and because I'm eager to see "Josh" again! Plus, the trip is practically paid for already because we had about half of what we saved for "spending" money from the Cook Islands left over (thank you New Zealand dollar for having such a favorable exchange rate!) and between that and the steal of a deal on airfare tickets we got, we shouldn't have to put anything on credit! Such a blessing from God!! We leave on April 15th from NYC, change planes in Madrid and arrive in Milan on the 16th. There's a couple days of partying before the wedding on the 18th in LaSpezia and then on the 19th we take the train back to Milan where we'll sightsee until we hop a plane home on the 21st with a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam (hopefully we'll be able to go see something in the country of my ancestors) before returning to NYC that afternoon. I'm so stinkin' excited!!

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The deadline I gave hubby for telling his parents about our house is looming. We also have to spill the beans about Italy so those should be a few unpleasant days. Hopefully everything will go well with all that. We're eager to get back to working on the house and we're hoping to head out there again come May when the weather is warmer. Our plans of finishing up the kitchen may take longer than originally thought because we just recently paid of two credit cards and I told hubby we're not allowed to put the kitchen on credit. So, we'll do whatever little projects we can as the cash comes in.

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I'm super excited because I have two new ventures I'm working on lately. The first is a "business" I'm doing with my aunt and uncle who are missionaries in Tanzania, Africa. It's going to be a way for them to raise some extra money for their orphan ministry and just to get their story out. We'll be selling handicrafts that my aunt purchases from natives in their area and the bulk of the money will go directly back into orphan ministry with a small part of the proceeds going towards the business maintenance side of things. I'm working on getting the website up and running and getting all the product she sent back with my cousin from Michigan to me so once those things are finished, I'll post the web address in case any of you are interested.

The other venture I'm working on is a long time dream of mine starting to become a reality. I'm opening up my own business! It's called Divine Creations and is an online store where I'll sell the jewelry, invitations, cards, other crafts, and graphic design that I do. Hopefully little by little I'll get some business and eventually it will be enough to make it so I can stay home when the kids come. I'm terrible at coming up with names for things, but feel lead to use this one. Not that I think the things I make are "divine" necessarily, but because whenever someone asks me where I come up with my ideas I have to respond that "they just come to me" which to me means that God placed them in my head. I was originally going to use Divine Inspirations (since they were God inspired), but that didn't really define a craft business, and thus the title of Divine Creations came about. I should be finished with my website in a few days, but then I have to replensish my stock of things to sell, so hopefully I'll be able to post the web address by the end of this month and start getting my name out there.

If you think of it, please pray that God would bless both of these ventures and use them to expand His territory. It's a big step for me to announce this because being a perfectionist, I'm very afraid of failure. But, it doesn't hurt (or cost anything really) to try!

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For those of you who may remember the story about my dad getting mugged at gun point in the backyard of our house in Detroit, I have an update. He had to go to trial again as a witness while hubby and I were away and the judge ended up sentencing the kid to 8 years in prison. Praise the Lord that he'll at least be off the streets for a little bit, but at the same time, pray for his salvation.

And while we're on the subject of my dad, if you remember it, please keep him in your prayers because he's in South Africa right now for work and on his flight back home he has to change plans in Sengala. For those of you who watch 24 you know all about the type of violence that's in Sengala (no that's not all fiction on the show!), so please pray for his safety and the safety of their two donors who are on the trip with him.

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Whew! What a random post! Stay tuned for an update from our Cook Islands trip and for pictures of our new nephew (if I ever get them, Mom & Chels!).