From Shannon With Love,

Shannon's 2nd Christmas present to me were two pairs of super, super soft slipper socks and one of my favorite movies: 500 Days of Summer. I'm not exaggerating when I say these socks are one of the softest things to hold my feet, and I am very happy about them. The movie on the other hand, I was over excited about because it is very dear to me. All in all I am so grateful for the entire present. The best part of this whole thing was that as I was opening up the presents, she and I could not stop laughing about some inside jokes. Those twin moments are always the best.

(She wanted me to get a close-up on the softness ;)

More to come,

-R

2nd Christmas

This Christmas year my family and I agreed on a second Christmas, seeing as I was in the early stages of recovery from my surgery. So, for the past couple of days during my breaks between working shifts, I worked away on my family's presents. For my three sisters, I made them pillow cases and for my parents I made small pillows. For my second sewing project, I would say it was an ultimate success. Another short blog because I am exhausted from the vicodin. Here's how they turned out:

pillows for my parents

angelica's

kaitlin's

shannon's

More to come.

God bless,

-R

Hernia Surgery

A couple weeks ago we got our tree, and I never saw the photos of our journey until today when I was uploading the photos of my incision. The surgery went well and I haven't had a lot of pain yet; hoping I won't feel pain. This is a short blog because I feel wozy right now. Here are some photos:

that's rain in my hair; it was pouring at some parts of the evening

My after surgery pics:

God is good and held my hand the whole time. More to come,

-R

Christmas Party

Last Saturday I was invited to spend the evening at my friend Mary's house for her Christmas party. It was very fun and enjoyable, and I'm super glad I went. The night started off when we were dropped off at my friend Michelle's house, and from there we went to the party together. After being acquainted with the people of the party, we played the orange and chin game, which was as awkward as it was funny. After the we played the white elephant gift and shared tons of laughs. It was interesting hanging out with high-schoolers, since I haven't been around them the entire semester outside of church. All in all I had a really great time; a nice way to begin the week before surgery. On Monday I had a preop doctor's appointment, which consisted of a lot of waiting in the waiting room. And hour after we arrived for my appointment, we were seen by a surgeon and she explained to me some of the surgery procedures; what I need to do to prep such as shower twice with anti-bacterial soap and not eat or drink anything after 10 pm. After the appointment my mom and I drove up to Idywilld and wow, the view was incredible. Strawberry Creek was flooding and flowing with rushing waters, and everything was extremely green, due to the non-stop pouring rain. I stayed in Idyllwild from Monday to Wednesday, which is today, and it never stopped raining for a moment. No snow, no decrease, no sun, just rain. Tons of rain, everywhere. The short walk from our room to the kitchen caused us to be instantly soaking wet. Despite the rain, we had a great time. (Well, as far as great can go.) So blah blah blah, and we come to today, Wednesday, the day before surgery. I must tell you friends, I am not looking forward to tomorrow. The past couple of days I have had some interesting conversations with God, some good, some great. Overall, God is God, and He is good. No matter what. I have nothing to fear. And I found a pretty good verse to how I'm feeling; blunt and to the point, no matter what the circumstance is.
Matt 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The passage gets lighter, though, so don't fear ;)

Matt 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Oh, and when we came down the hill to Hemet today, it was amazing. I said wooow many times. The scenery was pure genius. It felt so right as we all stared out the windows and listened to mixed tapes. At one point, we were amazed to see a waterfall spewing and flowing from the side of the mountain, along with the creek, which had grew since Monday. Simply amazing, I was sad to leave Idywilld, as I always am. Possibly more this time, considering I will not be able to work for a while. Ah well, I'll come back someday, and this time I'll be stronger than I ever was.

More to come,
-R

Men Can Be Difficult...

Yesterday was a blast, even in the depressing weather. When there is a lack of sun, I tend to lack a lot of my normal energy, which gives me a sense of sluggishness. However, it was really fun to say the least. Michelle picked me and Shannon up after getting Rosie, and we headed to town to the local thrift stores, in search for the perfect ugly grandma sweaters for our friend's party to-night. We started at Salvation Army, and even though they had some really cool stuff there, we had no luck in the granny department. So we headed to Angel View, another thrift store down the street. There, we found three sweaters with much potential. I found a red over-sized sweater, (which is a dress on me), with Christmas-colored diamonds around the collar. This is perfect, and just what I was looking for. I plan to add my own ugly to it, so we'll see how that turns out to-day. After our success in Angel View, we headed to Nessa's house, and picked her up. From there we went to Michelle's, to make ginger bread men. The recipe was called "The Perfect Men", and even though the name was cute, the recipe turned out very difficult, which is what men can be, so I hear. However, mine turned out pretty perfect;) Which means I can make perfect men, but it does not mean they exist. On the contrary, as we were fighting with the dough, so to speak, I thought how God molds us and shapes us into what He wants, but we don't always turn out perfect. Instead, we put up a fight, which turns out ugly. I also thought of how much I was practicing patience with that dough, because it was almost frustrating, especially because when it comes to cookies, I am somewhat of a perfectionist. When the boys were finally rolled, cut, and baked, we started decorating. We ended up having a realllly good, fun girl time. And Michelle's mom made us all tacos for taco night; delicious. After taco night, we sipped on some sparkling cider, super yummy(: I also just kept thanking God for the girls He's blessed me with in the past year, and I realized how important it is to have those kind of relationships. Here are some pictures of our night:

hmm, Michelle's mom made the BEST hot cider..

Our weapons of choice

perfect man, not-so-perfect recipe. But we fought through!!

We started off eating FA(:

The girls making the dough

Michelle's view is soo picture worthy. The fog looked amazing

Michelle mixing(:

Add caption

Kenny helped us mix the dough because it was so rough

Love them(:

Nessa'a a bird

Our jump attempt

Difficult dough(:

Me and Michelle

Shann and Michelle

Peelin off the men(:

Nessa's photography;)

Taco nightt was sooo goood

Kenny taught me how to play chess, however, I'm going to need more practice(: 

Knight

Hmmm, they were so good!!

My men. The first one has abs, the second one was my art form, and the third was angrily-happy

Of course I ate abs man first

Shannon's Men

One of Michelle's

 Another very splendid night out with some people God's blessed me with. For now, my sisters are homoe so I'm going to hang out with them. To-night, the ugly sweater party. Until then, more to come,
-R