Wednesday, January 24, 2007

We are Family!

Congratulations Lindsey and Clayton Hardsaw!
I realized this weekend that I am a very fortunate person. You don't get to choose what family you are born into and sometimes family turns out to be more of a burden than anything else. I was blessed with a great family. Not that we don't have our quirks and disfunctionalities (see the video of my brother) but we love and support each other. And perhaps most importantly, we enjoy being together.

This past weekend we were in southern Indiana for my cousin's wedding. She looked beautiful and happy and everyone had a blast. All of my cousins on my mom's side were together for the first time since our wedding five years ago! It was fantastic...enjoy the pictures...

My aunt, my mom, and my uncle(father of the bride)


The ring bearer (Trent)












My dad and uncle







My cousin, Kendall and Nora



And then there was much dancing...




My brother might be one of the funniest people I know...

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Sometimes


Sometimes words cannot express exactly how you're feeling...And so I'll let his mother say it:

In the words of our oncologist, Anderson's latest MRI showed 'no evidence of disease!' The areas of enhancement on the MRI are believed to be scar tissue and Anderson is TUMOR FREE! Thanks be to God!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Merry! Merry!




Whew! Thank goodness the holidays are over! I'm not sure I could've taken much more. It seemed like Joel and I were always going somewhere. There wasn't much downtime but it was a great Christmas.

We started on Christmas Eve at Joel's cousins house for dinner. It was great to see everyone and Julie fixed a fantastic meal (she made an appetizer with gouda and carmalized unions...mmm). We played a few games and puzzles with Joel's cousin's daughter Nadine. She's 3 1/2 and loads of fun. Then headed home to Joel's dads for Christmas gift exchange. I got an IPOD shuffle! a digital camera! and work clothes! It was nice to spend some time with just Joel, Nathan, and Harry. Pictures and video on the blog are courtesy of my new camera!

On Christmas morning, we relaxed and fixed an appetizer and salad for Christmas dinner. The day was filled with backgammon, Connect Four, and more food. We had a sit down dinner of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc....

I learned how to put videos on my blog (so exciting!) After dinner, Nadine had great fun using Nathan as a trampoline!

The day after Christmas I spent with my best buds from college. We had our annual post-holiday get together. It's one of our holiday traditions and it's always nice to catch up, relax and eat great food!
Ella also sang "Jingle Bells" all the way through for me! She's definitely a talented little girl.



After those visits, Joel and I headed down to my parents on the 27th for a few days. We had the Gifford-Hertel family Christmas two nights in a row! Once at my parents and once with my brother at a restaurant. It was a really nice visit-filled with more great food and my mom's cookies! MMMMMMM.
We also had time for some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution!) with my high school friends. Joel turned out to be really good! Who knew he had such rhythm?

Stay tuned for New Years!