Winter Has Arrived!

Winter has hit Lynchburg! 

This morning, it was 10 degrees when I left for work, and I was extra bundled-up, with my scarf, gloves and winter coat. The wind was blowing and it was COLD. Very cold. Dallas heated up my car before I left for work, but there were still ice crystals on my windshield when I arrived. Brrr! 

 I love winter. But, mostly for two reasons- Christmas, a celebration of my Savior's birth, and SNOW! 

 Lynchburg had it's first snow of the season last weekend, on December 4th. That's the earliest I've ever experienced snow, and it definitely caught me by surprise. Snow is like a birthday and Christmas present tied up in a beautiful bow delivered especially for me. I.LOVE.SNOW. Like an it-brings-tears-to-my-eyes kind of love. So when I saw the first flake fall on Saturday while Dallas and I were eating lunch, I could only muster a "SNOW!" before I jumped out of my chair and glued my face to the window. 

Only about an inch of snow actually stuck on the ground, but it was beautiful to watch the snow fall and exciting to see where it stuck. 

 

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough snow to shut things down, and most of the snow had melted away by Sunday morning. So, Dallas and I headed off to church, where we were surprised with a going-away luncheon in our honor! Our Lynchburg church family has been so sweet to us during our time here and have blessed us with so much, but especially parties, parties, parties. 

They made a cake for us, and had us pose for wedding-style "cutting the cake" pictures.

 I wish I had a picture of our paparazzi. Hilarious. 

On Monday night, I had free tickets to the last Liberty Hockey game of the year. Dallas LOVES hockey, so he was super excited about our last Liberty sporting event. Liberty was playing Virginia Tech, so our office gave out tons of free tickets. I invited 29 people to the game! We even invited our English classes, and 3 of our students joined us. It was really fun to watch the game through their eyes and to answer their funny questions about the game of hockey. They could not understand why the guys were allowed to knock each other over and why everyone was cheering for the White team. 

We are getting really excited about our big move to Georgia, but we will definitely be sad to leave our Lynchburg friends behind. I will always look back on our time here with fond memories and remember all of the people who crossed our paths. 

Thank you to all of you who have made Lynchburg feel like home!

A World of Change

Hello Again. And sorry for my absence. I haven't felt much like blogging lately. Writers block? Maybe. Laziness? Probably.

A TON has happened since I last updated you, so bear with me through this post.

We celebrated Dallas' 27th birthday. 


We dressed up like Bolivians and won a costume contest. 


We have a big surprise to share!

On Thursday night, our English classes had a "surprise" party for Dallas. It wasn't a huge surprise, considering they had just had a surprise party for me, three weeks earlier, but it was so nice of them to organize a party for Dallas.

Our students held on to their Latin American roots, 

and smashed Dallas' face in the cake after he blew out his candles. 

 Our sweet classes mean so much to us and our students have become like our families while we've been in Lynchburg. They are all hilarious, and I have a blast each time we're together.

 On Sunday, our Hispanic church had a Thanksgiving celebration. They asked everyone to bring food from their home countries and to come dressed in your county's traditional clothing. Dallas and I chose to join the "Bolivia group," as that is where Dallas grew up. The plan was for us to bring fried bananas, but we failed miserably, and ended up bringing drinks instead.

We did, however, find some pretty awesome costumes, and we were the winners of the costume contest! I had to steal these pictures from Facebook, so they aren't the best.

As you can tell, Dallas and I took the contest a little more seriously than everyone else...but we had a great time dressing up and we were definitely a big hit!

And the biggest news of all...

WE'RE MOVING!!

Dallas and I were both offered jobs in Gainesville, Georgia, and so we will be heading back to my hometown in December! Dallas will be working full-time at the Gainesville Airport as an Aviation Mechanic/Pilot and I will be working at a missions organization called Adventures in Missions, helping to organize mission trips for churches and youth groups.

I have really grown to love Lynchburg, but I am so thrilled to be moving back to be closer to my family. It will be fabulous to have a shopping buddy again, an auction to go to, big cities nearby and a large home church. I can't wait for weekly family dinners and monthly craft days!

God has opened so many doors for us in this move, and we think we have found a wonderful place to live! We are not in a position right now to buy a house of our own, but we have found the most adorable house that has been on the market, that the owner is willing to rent to us!

Picture from movoto.com

We actually haven't seen the house in person, but my family has gone to see it several times and we are scheduled to look at it this Friday. From the pictures I have seen and from what my family has said, this will be the perfect place for me and Dallas. It has 3 bed rooms (1 will be my craft room!), 1.5 bathrooms, a basement, a garage, a dining room, and a huge yard! I hope and pray that this house works out for us, and I can't wait to move in!

So, life is a tad crazy for us right now. We're packing up all of our things here in Lynchburg and looking forward to our new life in Gainesville. We have a ton to finish up here, Christmas parties galore and Dallas will graduate from his program! We also have to say goodbye to many good friends, find someone to take over our English classes and repaint the walls in our townhouse. But, it's all done with excitement as we prepare for our new life in Gainesville.

I can't wait to see what adventures the future holds!

Sew Happy!

My birthday was a few weeks back and my parents gave me some money to spend on anything I wanted. My first thought was to buy clothes or a few little things, but thing I had a revelation! I could either buy several little doodads or one big fabulous gift! I began scouring the internet for something that I couldn't live without. I decided upon this little gem.

A new sewing machine!

And not just any old machine. No! I have none other than a special edition Project Runway machine! (Which probably doesn't mean anything besides the fact that it has a sticker on the side that says Project Runway.) In college, my roomie Rachel and I would watch Project Runway religiously. I loved watching these geniuses turning piles of trash (literally!) into expertly crafted ball gowns. It filled my head with creative ideas, none of which I have ever been able to recreate- until now, I hope! (Except, don't get me wrong, I have no intentions of wearing a trash gown to my next event!)

So, what have I made so far? Absolutely nothing! Besides a few holes I have mended, here and there. BUT, I do have great plans for some awesome projects.


Here are some of the creations I have in mind:

A Dinner Roll Holder with Gingercake- Why? Because I CAN!

New Pillow Cases with Made

Little Pumpkin Pom Poms with Domesticfluff- No sewing machine needed, but a craft is a craft, right?


I can't wait to get started. Any last minute suggestions?