Thanksgiving

Every year we go to Aunt Julie's for Thanksgiving. The 'Adult Table'...this year they had to clarify as to who qualifies as an adult since there are three of us cousins who are over 18 and two over 21. So the qualification is now 'married adults' sit at the adult table and of course none of the cousins are married.....at least not yet ;) It was nice to be back with family this Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be greatful for!

The Cousins....there are 9 first cousins on my mom's side and we all live in Henderson. As you can see the boys out number the girls. I'm the oldest and Addie is the youngest with all the guys inbetween.

Every Thanksgiving all the cousins are measured to see how much they've grown (excluding me since I haven't grown now in like 12 years). My brother and oldest 3 boy cousins are all over 6 ft so it's a competetion each year to see who's taller. Andy here is the tallest this year at around 6'4''...he's almost 17.

Playing Rook (the best card game ever) with my great aunts and grandmommy. Unfortunately Aunt Katherine and I couldn't get any bids and lost.

My first time to contribute to the Thanksgiving meal...I made a pumkin roll.

Happy Birthday Kaleb

My bubby turned 16 on November 16th! Can it be possible?

Debriefing...

Well my two year term as a journeyman in Uganda is officially over now I guess. Last week I went back to Richmond, VA to the learning center where it all began. It was great to get to hang out with friends from orientation who were my age and could so easily relate to what I was feeling in coming back to the States. It was so neat to hear stories and see how God had worked in their lives during the last 2 years. It was a bitter sweet expereince. I was happy to be back at the learning center and see old friends, but I was also sad that this part of my life is over. I know I'll be overseas again one day most likely, but that place just gets you so excited about going overseas that it's hard to remain at 'home'. I look forward to hopefully going back there again one day for training.

Cheesecake Factory and Bowling

Good food with good friends. These were some of the people at debreifing who I went to orientation with back in the day. It was great catching up. We weren't outside but it was so cold in Cheesecake Factory we're all bundled up!
I hadn't bowled in forever! Didn't do too great either, but we had fun. We bowled under our national names that we used overseas (Kenyangi is mine). I think the guy at the check-out thought we were kind of strange...which we can't argue with. Ryan was the only real competetive one and thankfully he won if you couldn't tell :)
Me and Kim, my friend who served in East Asia and is also a nurse....yea for nurses!

The best time of the year...

Fall....my favorite time of year in one of my favorite places, the learning center in Virginia where I did my training before going to Uganda. These pictures don't do it justice....it was beautiful! I haven't seen leaves changing for 2 years! It was very strange to be in a place without any changing of seasons...it was almost like time wasn't passing. Time is greatly associated with seasons in our America culutre, but for a lot of places in the world they have never seen the beauty of autumn or snow or tulips in the spring.

Isn't it interesting that God made this process of dying for leaves so beautiful so that we not only can see His glory, but also enjoy it.