New Year.

Have a wonderful 2010!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Went to Cartagena, Colombia


2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No and no...


3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! Vale was born!!!


4. Did anyone close to you die?
No!

5. What countries did you visit?
Colombia, Venezeula, United States, Costa Rica, Panama


6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
... idk


7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 7, went on furlough. August 31, returned from furlough.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Living.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Probably a lot of things.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Uh no.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My black boots. yes, i love them.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?


The awesome people who listened to me through everything. Like Mr. IDC

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
#5


14. Where did most of your money go?
Considering I have no money, nowhere.


15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Everything. I'm the type that gets really, really, really excited about everything.


16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
From Where You Are - Lifehouse


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
Sadder
b) thinner or fatter?
Fatter!
c) richer or poorer?
Never been rich, never been poor, never had money, so none of the above!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Shared my Father with more people.


19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Studying, jk. Arguing.


20. How did you spend Christmas?
With some awesome people from my church. And at Mr. IDC's house.


21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Not really.


22. What was your favorite TV program?
Anything Food Network I don't watch very much of anything else.


23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, I try hard not to "hate" people.

24. What was the best book you read?
Prodigal Daughter by Patricia Davids.


25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I have pretty much, absolutely no rhythm.


26. What did you want and get?
Joy.

27. What did you want and not get?
Ha. A lot of stuff.


28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hmmm. IDK.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
 I ate pizza with my family. (I was in Venezuela and hadn't eaten pizza in months believe me I was happyyy.) And I was 13.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not spending so much time away from home. Wherever that is. :)

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Whatever I find that matches and looks decent. Yepp.


32. What kept you sane?
The love of my Father.


33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Not much of a celebrity fan.


34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Don't let political issues "stir" me.


35. Who did you miss?
Half the world! All my friends all across the globe.


36. Who was the best new person you met?
Arkkkk!


37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
It takes love to let go. 

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I love you I've loved you all along, I miss you been far away for far too long.

Breath-Taking.

This is the gorgeous view of the city.

Panama City.

I think I love it. Like a lot.

This picture is sorta dark.

But I love the city.

I think it stuns me to live in a city with no high rises.

Like AT ALL.

Too many earthquakes for high rises.

You can see the bay and the cars circulating the avenue.

The high rises are mostly banks. Some are hotels.

Come visit Panama!

It's really amazing. :)

Dahlia.

 Picture taken by me while my parents were making hallacas.

There are so many things I absolutely love about this picture.

I cropped it some to how I wanted it, but I couldn't do very much good editing because I don't have the computer that has Photoshop CS3 with me right now. So for now Picnik will have to do.

I messed with the exposure a little (ok, a lot) and messed with the saturation a little. Yes, just a little.

I sharpened it a tad and that was it!

Now I love it. Or as much as I can possibly love it after editing it in Picnik!

Have a happy New Year!

Three.

I cannot believe there are just three days left in this year.
I have accomplished so many things this year and have so many more to accomplish in the next.
Through the hardships and the trials, through the laughter and the smiles, through the loving moments and the tearful moments, through all of those He was faithful this year. Thank you, Father. :)
But now as the year comes to an end I can think of a million things that have happened this year.
I have a million things to be thankful for.
I changed a lot this year.
I think this year I became more shy. I used to be wayyy extroverted and loud and silly.
And don't get me wrong I am still loud and silly, but now not AS much.
And maybe that's a good thing.
I am hard-headed. Very very stubborn.
I think I loosened up on that a little bit this year, too.
I learned patience (I still have a lot to learn when it comes to that.)
And I learned love. The love of my life. The love that I am growing more and more in each and everyday. A love above all other loves.
So as you finish off this year, whether it was a tough year or a happy year, thank the Lord for pulling you through.
Thank Him for the things he taught you this year, and for the things you have yet to learn.
Thank Him for His never ending love and patience.

Have a blessed New Year. And may you find joy in Him this next year. :)

This is how it was...

I had a really amazing Christmas! I hope y'all did too. I got Bob for Christmas. We spent all night and some of the morning at church mostly singing everything that came to our minds with the awesome person over here. I hope you had a delightful Christmas and that you will have an amazing new year!

Isaiah 9:6... For to us a son is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Christmas is a comin'

At 81°F we are obviously not having a white Christmas.
Outside, the hot midday sun is sweltering. And it is hot as could be.
Of course back home, it is a broiling 90°F.
So, let's be thankful that we're at an 81.

This is our gorgeous Christmas tree.
Yes, it's fake.
Yes, we got it on sale.
If you're wondering...
No, it's not hard to find a real tree here.
And it's not that expensive either.
We have had fake trees all our lives.
In Venezuela, it was impossible to find a real tree.
But here, for our first Costa Rican Christmas we bought a real Christmas tree.
We loved it.
But for some reason we went back to our fake ones.
So each year on December 1, we pull out the Christmas tree and the very small box of ornaments.
We aren't the type to store "special ornaments" over the years.
So we just have last year's ornaments. And lace. And fluffy veily stuff.
Oh yeah and Christmas cards. Cute ones.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas next to those people that you love.
And I hope you eat a lot of very yummy stuff.

Merry Christmas!

Tamales.

When Christmas arrives on this side of the world, people start making tamales.

Tamales are a starchy corn dough based thing.They are stuffed with all sorts of stuff.
Normally, that stuff would be meat (beef, chicken, or pork), veggies (carrots, peas, onions, etc.), and sometimes rice or eggs. Depending on the country.
In Venezuela, we make hallacas. These are similar to Costa Rican tamales, or Colombian tamales, but they have more icky stuff that I don't like. Like raisins and olives. I know, I know. You can pull those out, but the flavor stays. So I don't like it.
But I have an insane love for Colombian and Costa Rican tamales.
So we buy them at Christmas time.
And while my family is buying hallacas I like my tamales. :)

They disappear so quickly that I didn't even get a picture of 'em!

You Capture - Holiday Decor

So this is my first time trying the You Capture thing over here.

This week it is all about Holiday Decor.

Here is a cute snowman on our Christmas tree.

It's a bit blurry, sorry about that. 

                      

I love Christmas and everything that comes with it. I love celebrating the birth of Christ and I love the joy found in Christmas. I love the decorations and I love how every country is different. I love how Christmas unites families.

 Have yourself a merry little Christmas. :)

Uno.

So, this is my first blog entry. I've never tried blogging before, but since I like going on and on about everything , I'm pretty sure I'll like it. I am just an average girl living an average life. I love to smile. I enjoy finding pleasure in the minimal things. Bumblebees are my favorite, since I am a lover of everything yellow and black. I am a follower of Christ and my family and I are serving Him in a different country. My first language is Spanish, but English is my "first and a half." (: I love taking pictures and I am going to try to display some of these on here since this is what my blog is for. Below is just a picture I took on Wednesday of some random and cute flowers. It is not edited, but I like this picture.