to be brave

::it takes bravery to say goodbye to all this::

gigantic sleepovers every night with these three lovelies

family Christmas and all its good cheer

catching up with friends

photo shoots

parents who are madly in love and show it

 

brothers

yes it takes lots of bravery.

:: all i want for christmas is you ::

"MERRY CHRISTMAS" a day late my beautiful friends.

just wanted to give a lil' shout out

since i've been hiding out for a few days.

i've been spending every waking minute with my family and friends

since i've been home

and loving it.

hope you all have a "HAPPY NEW YEAR"!

if you give a kid a camera

       

     

     

yes…  photo shoots were defiantly on the lists of {to do’s} 
today was sunny and here’s what we shot.
the best part is this little sister took them all.

then and now

I can-not believe this was me, 3 days ago…

and this is me now...

{home}

and enjoying every meaning of the word.

as the old saying goes…

{time flies when you’re having fun}

that’s my life yo!

my flight didn’t arrive in Des Moines till 10:55 pm.

usually my dear friends Rachel and Abbi Short would come scoop me up from the airport

and we’d have a sleepover

until the next day.

then my family would come get me when the hour was more reasonable.

much debating happened the week before I got home,

and a few home peoples decided {the next day pickup} was completely unnecessary. 

so they came and picked me up the night I got home.

grace, nic, adam, and kristen made the long 2 hour treck to the airport bless their hearts.

after a few hugs {ok a lot}

I learned that the babe mobile

{thenameformycar}

had an air-flow-sensory-valve-issue goin’ on

and that we would in fact, have to stay the night with our dear friends

to wait till the part shop opened to fix my car.

gotta love unexpected sleepovers.

{thank you Short family}

after a few hours of sleep,

an awesome bro in law {who woke up early to play mechanic},

and a half dozen of Casey’s donuts,

we were on our way home!

somehow the lack of sleep

showers,

hairbrushes,

toothbrushes,

and makeup,

didn’t bother any of us.

[maybe just a teeny tiny bit]

as we got closer to the little white home on the hill,

I saw a little black dot running towards the car.

I guess bethy couldn’t wait any longer.

{eek}

how precious is she???

so here I am,

loving on these people

and having a marvelous time.

 

::  ::  ::  ::

CONGRATULATIONS

after taking out my own comment

and other [extra] comments.

I entered number 11 into the random number generator

and came up with this fortunate winner of my first ever {giveaway}

congratulations to {themama23}

you are the happy owner of one {bolsa mexicana}

please email me your address

misstiffjoy@gmail.com

be sure to be watching for more giveaways in the future!

hazzah

today is our last hazzah for two thousand eleven.

no more tutoring.

no more visiting families in {durango}.

no more days in the office planning activities.

no more play dates at the ranch with the niños.

we are ending two thousand eleven  with a Christmas party.

and i am {S O  E X C I T E D}.

we invited niños from my first orphanage I ever worked with

and

the kids we tutor in {durango}.

we will all loading up in vans and buses

to go to a golf course

for golf lessons

lunch

and

Christmas presents.

I’m kinda really excited

and thought you would want to know what to look forward to.

::  ::  ::  ::

this is my baby Luis.

and I get to see him today.

eek. 

he is a big part of why I am living in mexico today.

he was an instrument, {God} used, to show me how much I am loved by my {Father} .

ps!
don’t forget to check out my {giveaway} that’s happening now! 
click {here} to enter!

53 followers {giveaway}

{eeek}

I hardly can contain myself I’m so excited that my little bloggy is growing and that I get to write my very first giveaway post.

I never saw myself as a writer.  I started my blog 4 years ago because my super epically amazing  {seester} had a blog and I wanted to be just like her.  over the next 3 years I wrote 53 posts. 

{sporadic yo}

when I decided to move to mexico for a year, I knew that it would be a great outlet to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. 

{orphans, disabled children, and migrant community children of mexico}

I wanted to share their stories.  I wanted them to be heard.

that is why I write.

{and I like it}

::  ::  ::  ::  ::

   

letsgetONwithit

{drum roll please}

mujeres y hombres <---- (I say hombres because my guy co-worker told me he’s going to enter to win.)

this is whatchya gotta do to win this {mexicana bolsita}

you must be a {follower} of my bloggy

if you want extra entries you can follow me on {twitter}

but wait there’s more… 

{blog} or {tweet} about this giveaway and you get even more chances to win.

then…  comment once for each entry.

in 6 shakes of a lambs tail, I will reveal the winner.

{giveaway ends december 14th at midnight}

feast your peepers on this

 

this will be me in just {five} days.

except it will be much colder, and my poor body will be trying to adjust to the sub degree weather in the frozen land of iowa.

but I don’t care.

im going home.

ps.  just one more follower, my dears, till I reveal the first evAr{giveawaypost}

pss. a thought from my readings in psalms this morning.  {praise Him according to His righteousness}

thats a LOT of praise folks.

tree huggers and other weekend wonders

top of the morning to ya.
this weekend was full of so much goodness…  I hardly know where to begin.
how about at the very beginning.

Saturday was our very last activity day with the community niños for two thousand eleven.  we made masks to go along with our skit about not succumbing to peer pressure by wearing different “masks” for different groups of friends.  

I’m gonna miss these babies

we found lots of time to play

 

in the evening, we invited all the parents and the rest of the family members, to join us for supper, hot chocolate, and a campfire.  it was so much fun to see all the babies that will soon be joining us in our activities at the ranch.

this little guy literally [hammed it up] for me when I told him I was going to take his picture.

{precioso}

on sunday I stayed cozy under my blankets to listen to a message from my home church.  the temperatures have been hittign low thirties at nights. 

[WRONG]

in the afternoon I went out shopping in the street for my {giveaway gift} that I’m happy to say is only {one} follower away from being {given}.

I looked in all the little shops, scanned all the carts with the super pushy sales men, and found the most perfect gift that is seriously gonna [rockyourworld].

after a quick bite to eat at my favorite taco stand, I headed over to my happy spot to warm up my abuelos y abuelas with some christmas music.

I love watching people come alive when they hear music.  it brings me so much joy.

this guy has to be one of my favorites…  okokok…  they’re ALL my favorites.

he is always apologizing for not being able to clap for me because of his one bad hand. 

{aww}  can’t help but squeeze him. 

monday got off to a slow start.  I talked to my {seester nicole} on skype for a lot of the morning.  it felt so good to just talk sister talk.  I knitted away at this puppy while I talked.

super pumped at how my computer case turned out.

{success}

(and of course im wearing my lounge arounds.  whhhy nnnot???  did you expect anything less???)

 

finally around the late hour of noon or… one, I made it out from under my cozy piles of blankets to check some stuff off my [to do] list.  and boy did I kick.hinny.

1. clean bathroom [check]
2. do dishes [check]
3. two loads of laundry [check]
4. vacuumed my room [check]
5. go out on a fat persons run [check]

6.   do 3 minutes of resistance bands my {love} bought me [check]

I also got to see this man trying to shimmy his way down this palm tree across the street.

or is he a real live tree hugger???

hmmm…

one should venture out more often.

   

he had this makeshift rope thingy-mu-bob-jigger tied around his waste. I was scared for his life.

he wasn’t young either.

he made it I can happily report.

so…  that was my weekend.  very exciting for someone who rides solo on her weekends.

a bloggy friend made a wonderful suggestion this weekend, that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, but keep putting it off.

she suggested an {about} page.

it is a splendid idea especially if you are a new reader and read all this lingo in spanish, see all the beautiful niños, and wonder where the heck I am, and what on earth am I doing.

stay tuned for a few bloggity changes.

have a great week my dears!