one of the best parts of Christmas...

is giving. well, that's one of my favorites anyway. i think one of my highlights was the look on our parents' faces when we unveiled the beautiful handmade cedar gliders that we bought each of them. they totally weren't expecting it and to tell the truth, it was completely last minute and impromptu. (as is most of my life. ha). but, one of the best gifts this year.

the rest of the christmas pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mcmullen.kelly/Christmas07

they are not edited or captioned. yet. maybe i'll go do some of that now... there wasn't anything overly exciting (the best part is just being with the family, in my opinion), so i won't write about it here. i'll let the pictures tell the story...

christmas with the family has begun...

kelly, cassidy, houston, chris, adrianne,

mamaw, garrison, zac, casey,

chad, ashley, pawpaw

thanks to ashley's persistance and planning... we all spent the weekend in saratoga with chris' grandparents. it came about because we knew that thanksgiving was going to lack a couple cousins and christmas day will also lack a couple cousins. we're all at points in our lives that we have to work around our "other" families and jobs (hospitals don't close on holidays). so, we decided to find a weekend outside of a normal holiday. december 15th and 16th was it. only john and ashley's husband, andy, were unable to be there. but, we had a blast. we all arrived late saturday morning with food, board games, and not much of plan. after lunch, we set up the christmas tree and the other christmas decorations. then, the guys headed outside to play football. the photo is real crappy becuase i was just shooting and not even looking at the previews. had i looked, i would have realized my flash was fighting with the direct sun. however, i wanted to get back inside to the cookies that the girls were baking!

football and cookies.

soon after the cookies were baked, we brought out the games. we played apples to apples for much of the afternoon until dinner. then we broke out taboo. taboo nearly ended our family. there was much debate on the use of words and the scoring of points and when the points counted and when the words were vocalized during/after the buzzer. it actually got rather heated and there is much vicious, unresolved debate on who actually won. in case you're wondering -- it was the girls. fair and square. just don't ask the guys.

playing apples to apples.

before taboo, when we all liked each other. ;) actually, we spent most of the weekend at this table. eating, playing games, arguing, playing games, eating, and just talking.

sunday morning we headed to west end baptist church. we took up 1 1/2 pews! and of course we were introduced as "sam and mildred's grandchildren that came for the weekend... would you all please stand up?" we were the talk of the church that morning. :) chris' grandparents were positively glowing.

it was definitely a great weekend. with tons of pictures to show it. i'm so thankful for this family!

the nativity project

i have a really great missions project to share with you guys (all 3 of you who read this... ha). my cousin, teri rae, told me about this project and i absolutely fell in love with it. the elim christian center in poland began the nativity project about 3 years ago to help the needier families in their church. the inspiration came about during a time when the church was experiencing a 90% unemployment rate. many women in the mission had never sewn nor constructed handicrafts before, but classes were held and the women learned. they now sew and handcraft nativity sets. beautiful nativity sets. i had seen the pictures on the website and thought, "these are cute," but when i unpacked the box -- i was simply blown away by the detail, the craftsmanship, and the overall beauty of each individual piece. and i think the stories of the women are even more beautiful than the sets themselves.

i want to share one woman's story with you...

this is iwona, standing in front of her home and holding her contribution to the nativity project --the mary dolls. quoted directly from the website: She has 7 Children, and God has
blessed her so much through the Sewing project. God has also provided her family
with a proper stove through the Nativity Sets, which works on bottled gas. (She
previously had a wood stove, and one hotplate).

the steps leading to the children's room, just inside the home.

iwona's old wood stove.

iwona's new stove. one thing that strikes me in this photo -- notice her newfound pride in her kitchen area. before, there was no hanging rack for her dishes, no cloth or backsplash covering the counter and back wall.

the old toilet... basically a hole with seat. and no running water.

her new toilet. and a bathtub!

even a washing machine!

iwona and her family are so grateful for the items they have been able to purchase with her earnings from the nativity project. her story is far from being the only success story stemming from this project. please click on this link: http://www.elimcenter.pl/mission_center/pdf/m_o_s_03.pdf to read about two other ladies named iwona (apparently, a popular name in poland!) and a lady named basia. one has come to know Jesus as her Savior through the project, one bikes 12.5 miles round trip to deliver her dolls and restock her supplies and one supports her children and her mother through her nativity earnings.

i recently received a box of 10 sets that cassidy and i put together. i've sold about 5 of them so far. if you are interested in purchasing one for yourself (or maybe for someone for Christmas!), please contact me. the sets are $130, but they are worth every penny. between the beauty of the set itself and the stories of the ladies who pour their hearts into handcrafting each one...

the contents of each box can be seen in detail here: http://www.elimcenter.pl/mission_center/pdf/large_set.pdf

on a side note... cassidy and i had a blast (as usual) putting the sets together. even through the point that we realized we were on box number 7 and we had 4 baby Jesus' left. ha. that was fun. since baby Jesus is packed on the bottom of the set and we had to open 6 boxes to locate which one was missing a baby. need i even say that it was the last box we opened?

here are our doll assembly lines:

i LOVE autumn

i. love. autumn.

i love...

• pumpkins and gourds
• leaves turning vibrant shades of amazing colors (well, not in texas, but i can still visualize this from when i lived up north)
• indian corn
• cooler weather -- those beautiful crisp days when the sun is shining brightly and the sky is so blue without a cloud in sight
• yummy soups and sandwiches
• thanksgiving day!
• cozy fireplaces (okay, once again, notsomuch in texas...)
• the scent of wood fires burning
• hay mazes
• warm, yummy cider
• fall festivals and craft shows
• the colors -- orange, yellow, gold, brown, red all melded together to create a kaleidoscope of fantastic proportions.

quick update.

chris feels fine today, with the exception of a very stiff neck and back. he insisted he would be fine if i went to work, so i did. when i left, he was still in bed. when i called him after lunch he said again that he was fine but still very sore. he had already watched 3 movies by that point. :) right now, i believe we are on movie number 5 or 6 from what i can tell.

and, now, a little picture for your enjoyment. this is chris standing in the doorway of his ER exam room -- impatiently waiting for his ct scan and neck xray. and harassing every nurse that walked by. please notice the boots and spurs he still has on. typical chris.

never a dull moment...

well. i had an unexpected, exciting afternoon. and not in the good way, necessarily.

chris and i started the morning off rough with a little disagreement before church that basically left me in the church parking lot and him leaving in a huff. when i bummed a ride home after church, chris was already gone to the property in trinity with one of the horses and the 2 cow dogs. i wasn't surprised, i pretty much figured he would do that. well, i did some stuff around the house and was outside reading when my dad called. he told me chris had had an "accident" and i needed to head out to trinity. at that point, all i was told was that he was okay, but had been thrown from the horse and had been very confused and disoriented after it initially happened. somehow, he had managed to get my dad on the phone who in turn had managed to get our neighbor over to check on chris. we also knew that chris had managed to call a friend, wesley, that was supposed to be meeting him on the property. wesley and a couple other guys from chris' office were headed out to trinity also. i was able to talk to wesley on their way (flying, apparently, at about 90 miles an hour) who confirmed that chris was completely disoriented and had no clue where he was following the fall. chris apparently called him and said, "i'm hurt and i need you to come help me." when wesley asked him where he was, he said "i don't know, i think on my ranch."

i had called vivian by this point and we started to head the direction of trinity ourselves.

we were able to piece together what happened by comparing the phone conversations chris had. chris was not much help because he had absolutely no memory of what happened. chris had unloaded the dogs and the horse and was about to head out to bay up the cows. the new cow dog is a young dog that wanted nothing but to attack the horse. the barking and nipping at the horse's feet caused the horse to buck and jump around. chris rode it out and was trying to control the dog with a shock collar, but there was no stopping the dog. eventually, he was thrown from the horse and slammed into the steel cattle trailer. whether he was knocked out or the wind was knocked out of him or whatever happened he doesn't know. but, he somehow came around, loaded the dogs into the cattle trailer (even separating them by a gate inside the trailer) and proceeded to back the truck and trailer up and move it as if he was going to leave. by the way, the horse has run off and he hasn't even attempted to go after her. at some point he got out of the truck and layed down on the ground. he tried to call wesley, but didn't get a hold of him. so he called my dad. once my dad realized he was seriously hurt and not being silly, he got on another phone (so that he wouldn't have to hang with chris -- because he was telling my dad he was going to hang up and go to sleep) to call a neighbor. when the neighbor arrived, chris didn't know who he was and "whose dogs were in that strange trailer, and where was he?" he slowly came around and got his bearings. shortly after this, wesley and the other guys arrived. everyone agreed that he needed to go to the hospital. but, in typical male form, chris did not want to go. of course, he finally was convinced. :)

in the mean time, vivian and i are headed to huntsville. once we all arrived, we waited for quite awhile in the ER. finally, he was called back to check his vitals. everything was normal there, which chris thought constituted a ticket home. ha! we insisted he stay and allow them to do a ct scan and neck xray. of course, i called casey (who is a trauma nurse in an austin ER) and she absolutely insisted that he had to stay and get the tests done. after much waiting and sitting, the results from the scan and the xray came back just fine. the ER doctor determined he most likely had a minor concussion and would be fine as long as no other symptoms came up. so we were allowed to leave.

he's really sore and will probably be barely able to move tomorrow morning. he is still confused about what exactly happened. he has no idea how he was able to get the dogs in the trailer and move his truck. frankly, all of us are. which is kind of scary... at least he didn't get out on the main road and start really driving off somewhere.

he'll be home tomorrow "taking it easy," so feel free to call him and chastise him for going out by himself today. :)

happy birthday to me...

well. today. i turned. 28. still a couple years from... shudder... my 30's. ;)

the day started out a little blah -- but i won't go there, because it got progressively better.

i had many birthday wishes via myspace, video message on my phone (mom and dad singing happy birthday -- so lovely), a serenade at church from a precious friend, and a couple phone calls. thank you, thank you to all my dear friends and family that made my day special. i needed it in a big way today.

one birthday wish i missed with all my heart didn't come. the ever faithful birthday card from my sweet grandma. she was on time, actually early, every single year for 27 years. it was tough not receiving that card this year. i don't even want to think about christmas right now and how much that will hurt...

anyway, back to the happy part!

i had a fun lunch with amanda at the ole' favorite -- rancho (rancho grande, but we're on single name terms with that place. we've been going there since the early dismissal days of high school, probably before.) it was complete with whipped cream all over my face. i'm sure i'll have pimples in those spots by tomorrow. ;) i endured all that, but didn't get a free dessert! despite amanda's comment to "take one for the team." yeah, that backfired. she did get a lovely picture though. check my myspace comments for that one... love-ly.

but, i guess that's okay... because, my neighbors remembered my birthday and brought a huge slice of tiramisu over for me. it was incredibly good. and it was from HEB of all places! i was pleasantly surprised -- because that means i can go pick up a slice from there now and then. i mean, no, i won't. because i'm starting a diet. tomorrow. or sometime next week... ;)

we were supposed to head over to scott and viv's for one of scott's famous dinners from the grill... however, vivian isn't feeling well from a minor knee surgery on friday. so, we decided to do that another night.

around 6ish, i went to ask chris and brent (our friend staying with us) what time they wanted dinner and brent offered to take us out. so, we headed out to macaroni grill. it was amazingly good. i hadn't been there in a couple years. we did a the full meal -- appetizers, main course, dessert. hey, it's only my birthday once a year... right?

and, now, here i am -- stuffed and sleepy and happy and thankful.