2011... A Year to Give?

A week or two before Christmas, my brother, Taylor came home with a couple bags of groceries. Sometimes Mom asks him to pick up a few things before he comes home from Dutchway, but this time there was way too much food, so I knew he must have something up his sleeve. So I asked, "What's the deal with all the food, T?!" And he simply said he got a Christmas bonus from work and instead of cashing it in, he turned around and bought items for the school food drive. I couldn't have been prouder! Taylor has such a giving heart.. so cool. Well I decided that I wanna be more like that. 

Instead of being the tightwad that I usually am, I wanna put others before myself. So to start off the new year, I decided to sponsor a World Vison child. Every month I'm gonna give money to an 8 year old boy named Luis from the Dominican Republic. It'll help give him and his family clean water, healthy food, a better education, health care (and AIDS prevention).  I wanna really try to take different opportunities to support others close to home. Like paying for someone else's items at the checkout or participating in different events. I don't know, cool stuff like that.

Not only that, but I wanna give more of myself to others around. Like spending time with some of my lonely, old neighbors that don't usually get many visitors. Or even simple stuff like letting cars out ahead of me when they've been waiting a while. Anything that isn't about me, I wanna do it.  I wanna spend my 2011 doing nice things for other people and putting myself second way more often.

Shine On Jeff!

Jeff, has it really been one whole year?! Sometimes it feels like you left us just yesterday, and other days it feels like its been forever. Time is a funny thing. So hard to figure out. But I do know one thing for sure.. Jeffy, you are missed greatly. Last night I had a bunch of your friends over to hang out.. ya know bring everybody together during this one year anniversary of missing your life here on earth. We had a really good time as a big group, playing games, laughing, and just being plain ridiculous! You would have loved it! Wish you could have been able to join us, but I couldn't help but picture you smiling down on us carrying on like a bunch of crazy kids.. seeing how we've all became a lot closer since you left us. Its sorta neat how people come together during tragedies. Now all our friends are hanging out with your friends and we're always bringing up your name! "Remember when Jeff did this?" or "This one time we were hanging out and Jeff..." The littlest things always tend to remind us of you. And that always brings around another story. It's like you're still with us always. Here's just a few things that have reminded me of you over the past twelve months:

Nickelback. Every time one of their songs come on my ipod or over the radio, your face immediately comes to mind. I guess because it was one of your favorite bands. But I can so easily picture you jamming out to one of their songs.

Every time Kelly and I go to the movies, we like to follow your tradition of getting free popcorn. I'm going to skip over the details of how we do that exactly.. cuz I'm pretty sure its illegal. But such a genius idea! You were always a thinker. Knowing how to get around the system. I just hope we don't end up with some disease someday. But every time we get our big bucket full of popcorn we say "This is for Jeff."

One night, on our road trip last summer, we were camping in the Rocky Mountains and it was freezing cold and pouring down rain and we were stuck in the tent and we were talking about life and everything in it and somehow movies came up and  I said how I love all those adorable romantic movies, but I hate how they always leave us with such high expectations.. making us think that the "perfect guy" will come and sweep us off our feet and give us that fairytale ending that every girl dreams of. I think I said flat out that those movies are just a bunch of baloney. Somehow Kel indirectly argued with me (like she knows how to do so well) and that's when it hit me! You really were THE perfect guy. Always sweeping Kelly off her feet and treating her just right. I was always so excited to hear what kind of adorable date the two of you went on next! Thanks for giving the world to Kelly-- She deserved every little bit of it. After seeing the "cinema love" that you two shared.. it gives me hope that maybe some day I can find something like that too. Maybe. Your example gave me hope for something great.

Jeeps ALWAYS remind me of you. Whenever I pass one along the way and I give em the famous "Jeep Wave" I smile because you were the one who taught me that. I was always embarrassed how bad my Jeep looked compared to yours. Your Jeep was the best!

Driving to New Holland for work always brings me back to the time when we came home from Midnight Madness from Shady Maple and it ice stormed and we we all over the roads and the drive seemed to take us FOREVER just to get home because of all the crazy roads you navigated us on to get us home safe and sound in one piece.

This summer we had a lot of bonfires and everytime there was one at Kel's house, I tended to keep looking over my shoulder.. looking and watching, making sure no one was gonna jump out and scare the ba-jee-bee's out of us. 

I could go on and on, but these are some things that were on my mind tonight. Thanks for all the awesome memories you gave us and the good times we shared. You've changed our lives for the better. Just thought you should know that even though you're not with us physically anymore.. you're still with us each and every day. You're still shining on Jeff.. just through each of us now. Love you buddy.

"One day at a time--this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."
                                   
                                     -Ida Scott Taylor

2011 Phillies!!!

Just wanted to say how pumped I am.. (and the rest of the Philadelphia area!) Cliff Lee is back on the Phillies pitching rotation.We are gonna have a heck of a team this year! I mean we have an a-team pitching staff.. Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels, and Lee! We just need the rest of the guys to turn on their bats and put some balls in play and I think this season is gonna be DYNAMITE! Whatdaya say Phils?!

Just Buckle Up and Enjoy the Ride

One thing I've learned in the past year and a half is that life is full of all kinds of crazy things.. some good, some bad. Times that make us laugh so hard it hurts and times that make us cry over and over again. Sometimes things are going so perfect and you feel like everything is falling into place and then all of the sudden everything falls apart and you're back to square one. But isn't that the beauty in life? We all seem to have a grand plan for our lives.. every detail of how we want things to go, in perfect order.. and then we stop and look and nothing is panning out how it was suppose to.

My life plan has kinda been flipped up-side-down.. and you know what.. THAT'S OK! It gives me a reason to have faith in someone far greater than me. If everything was going how I wanted it to, I wouldn't really need to put my trust in anyone but myself. So instead of complaining and getting discouraged about things not going my way, I'm gonna thank God for taking control of my life and leading me in the direction He wants me to go.. not where I want to go. I think His plans for our lives are gonna be out of this world, if we put all our faith in Him. So I guess we should all buckle up and enjoy the ride.. because I think its gonna be really great!

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost says in one of his more famous poem:

"I shall be telling this with a sign

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference."

Shouldn't we all be taking the road less traveled by?

Just a cute little quote from Disney's "The Princess and the Frog": 

 "If you do your best everyday, good

things are bound to come your way."

                             -Princess Tiana

God is so good!

 About four weeks ago, I applied to 3 different retirement homes to get a job as a nurse aid. A week went by, I heard nothing. Another few days, still nothing. I was beginning to feel a little discouraged. Finally I got a call. I had an interview! The first thing the lady said when I walked into her office was whether or not I wanted to go through with the interview, because they already had the positions "filled." So I decided to have the interview to get some experience and it went well. But I was back to square one... still unemployed. All along, I had been praying that God would open the door to where He wanted me to be, and sure enough, the very next day I got another call! This time from the place where I really wanted to work. I was pumped. The interview went great, but still wasn't promising, as the lady mentioned she had interviews the rest of the day. But again, I gave the situation to God and waited to see what was next. A whole week went by, and again.. no phone call. I'm pretty sure our dear Lord wanted to test me and see if I would be faithful to Him no matter the circumstance, because finally after a month of what seemed like an awful lot of waiting, I got the call! I'll now be working at Garden Spot Village as a nurse aid. I couldn't be any happier. When a door shuts, God seems to always open another. He's so good.

 Philippians 4:6-7

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."