Tuesday, November 25, 2008

coming soon to a mailbox & tv near you!

*two things:
1- i FINALLY ordered the sweeney family Christmas cards!!! this is quite a production because it takes me a painfully long time to decide which card to order every year. there are too many adorable card sites and it always comes down to choosing between 3 of my favorites. anyways, i finally just bit the bullet and went ahead with one since i need to get them in the mail asap. too bad i always realize when trying to put together our card that me and ryan never take pictures together. maybe this will change when we have kids...or lose weight? :)

2- as embarrassing as it is to admit, i almost cried when i saw this:

coming to a tv near you on Jan. 5!!!

on abc's website there is even a countdown for junkies like me (currently 41 days, 7 hours and 27 minutes until the 2 hour season premier of mindless bliss!). pathetic, i know...

Monday, November 24, 2008

rainy day, pick-me up

today the weather is beyond yucky and i need a pick me up. i can't think of anything better on a dreary day than a few of my favorite youtube videos. enjoy:

*this sure makes me proud to be from kentucky!


*i know we've only been married 2.5 years, but this is still funny :)


*"i wanna know where da gold at. gimme da gold."


*mmmm...just another reason why i'm boycotting mcdonalds - long lines at the drive through :)

cheers*

Friday, November 21, 2008

dogs are pretty much kids, right?

so the desire to have kids of my own is growing more and more everyday, but, as everyone always tells me..."you're still very young". i know, i know but that doesn't mean i don't want kids already!!! ryan and i have been married just 2 1/2 years but sometimes it feels like forever because we've been together 7 years already. i mean kids is definitely the next step for us, but it's just a matter of when.

however, until we know that the Lord is giving us the green light on starting our family, i figure that i'll have to settle for the next best thing...my four legged children - Fenway Park Sweeney and Yawkey Way Sweeney:










have a great weekend folks~

Thursday, November 20, 2008

boycott commercialized Christmas




34 days until Christmas, and counting!

can you even believe it?!? i sure can't! in fact, i have to be honest...i've kinda come to dread the Christmas season. this year will mark ryan's 4th Christmas working retail sales, and "joy to the world" is not exactly my sentiment when thinking about Christmas from a seasonal perspective.

*(now don't get me wrong, i am more than thankful that Christ was born into this world to save me and everyone else from our sin - so i am strictly talking about the commercialism surrounding Christmas, not Christ's birth!)

every october seems to bring me an increasing sense of dread. i know that the time of year is coming again when i can kiss my hubby goodbye for at least 6 weeks as he sells his soul to the beloved* (sarcasm implied), hhgregg. as his hours increase, so do our patience for each other. it seems that no matter how prepared we are for it, we are never prepared enough. while the paychecks are a huge help, i would just rather have my husband back!

black friday is just the beginning, but it is obviously the hardest day of all. poor ryan and his fellow co-workers have to report for duty at 4am and are not allowed to leave until at least 11pm...not even for a food break. on what is supposed to be one of the laziest days of the year, ryan is working his tail off (which makes it awful hard for me to not feel guilty about my 'day after thanksgiving' afternoon nap).

anyways, all this to say...maybe this year its time to BOYCOTT COMMERCIALIZED CHRISTMAS!!!! rebell against the system and JUST SAY NO TO BLACK FRIDAY!..ok, that may be a little dramatic. no but really, just remember this Christmas season as your shopping for the perfect gifts to hug a salesman and say thanks for their service.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

stand-in mommy


an opinionated/bossy 6 year old girl + a hyper/attention seeking 4 year old girl + 
a needy/throw-up covered 3 month old boy = one fun tuesday night!!!

phew...seriously, i applaud all the mothers out there!  parenting is no joke.  tonight i have the pleasure of being "stand-in mommy" for my sister's 3 crazy, i mean, lovely children.  after a busy day at the office, we completed the kiddie drop around 5:30, and the kids were mine.  (my parents, sister and brother-in-law drove to Cincy tonight for an Eagles concert...snore)

ryan and i took the kids to a nutritious dinner at steak-n-shake, and even managed to make it through the whole meal with no fighting, spills, or anything of that kind.  we did however get several dirty looks from some of our fellow steak-n-shakers.  i guess they just couldn't understand why two 23 year olds would have 3 kids already, but oh well!

after dinner, it was back out to my sister's house for baths, feeding sam, blowing drying hair, feeding sam, reading, feeding sam, unpacking lunch boxes, feeding baby sam, tucking kids in bed, feeding sam...rinse and repeat.  with one more feeding left, i think i can finally say that we have survived the night.  hopefully jenn will be back before sam wakes up for his middle of the night feeding because that may be more than i am ready to handle!!  seriously, parents rock.

of to play supper nanny.  night y'all.

Monday, November 17, 2008

blessing bags

today has thankfully not felt like a monday, and for that, i'm very glad. this weekend seemed to go way too fast and usually that means that the slowdown on monday is brutal, but fortunately, that's not the case today. i got to work this morning and was reminded that we would be helping hopeful hearts (http://www.hopefulheartsfoundation.org/) pack the remaining blessing bags to be sent to kids in afghanistan, so i was pretty pumped. HH is a great organization and is really to credit for my love of ukraine and it's children, and even my involvement with my job and work in afghanistan.


june of 2005, i went with HH to ukraine for the first time to work in the orphanages and my view of the world was totally rocked. to quote my eloquent husband, the trip "rocked my face off". i had traveled internationally before, but never for anything more than a vacation or an educational trip. for the first time in ukraine, i saw what true need and hunger looked like. not so much in the orphanages, although the need there is undeniable, but mostly in the street children. a boy, about 8 or 9, who smelled strongly of glue, begged our team for food while we stood in line at a cafe - that is a memory that i cannot get out of my head to this day... i came home a transformed person, and hope that i never forget what i saw.
anyways, after traveling twice with HH and seeing the impact they have in ukraine and elsewhere, HH is, needless to say, an amazing organization. they are now also involved with sending supplies for children at B.A. - the resettlement village for around 3000 returning refugees in northern kabul, afghanistan. they collected about 300 blessing bags, stuffed with school supplies, stuffed animals, candy, combs, winter hats and gloves, socks, etc. and filled about 450 others, just for the kids in afghanistan. (not to mention the 1000 other bags that were collected, stuffed, and shipped to orphanages in ukraine!!!) we went to help pack the additional bags and ship them off. although the items in the blessing bags are something that most american kids would turn their noses up to on Christmas morning, the bags will be more than well received by the B.A. kids, and were worth all the time, money and effort.
so, while i had a pretty busy day for a monday, it was all worth it! i am sooooo incredibly blessed to be doing things that i love so much as a part of my regular job. it really makes rolling out of bed at 6:45 every morning TOTALLY worth it!

Friday, November 14, 2008

exhibit hall junkie







(so, i think i'm coming down with a little cold or something. of all times, too! well, i guess there never really is a convenient time for a cold.)

this week, we (aka - the unspecified, non-profit organization i work for) have been exhibiting at the global missions health conference here in louisville and i seriously think that i am an undercover exhibit hall junkie!! i really love it! i like getting to talk to a variety of people from all different backgrounds and hearing about their work too. maybe i could become like a professional trade show person, and travel the country working various trade shows for people that don't like to work their own booths. hmmmm...maybe there's a future for me :) well, that may not be real conducive to have a family so that plan might have to go on the back burning until my kids are in college.

anyways, i have really enjoyed the conference so far. it's much larger than i was thinking it was going be and it is full of amazing speakers, organizations, etc. i feel really blessed to be a part of such an amazing industry that is dedicated to doing God's work for people throughout the world!

so, my plans for the rest of the weekend are:
-dinner with my grandparents who are up from chattanooga, tn
-bowling and bonfire with church folks tonight (http://www.fellowshiplouisville.org/) ...weather permitting
-cleaning the house
-work the conference again tomorrow
-maybe going to the rodeo on saturday night
-skipping church sunday morning for a service with my family where we are sprinkling my uncles ashes (not sure about this one yet. i've never had such an experience and am admittedly, a little freaked out...)
-having a lazy sunday afternoon around the house so i can caught up on all my tv shows i've 'dvr'ed

Have a great one!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

visionary

so yesterday, i met with a true visionary. i am so fortunate to have a job, church, family, friends, etc. that are all amazing and pour into me spiritually, and yesterday was no exception. i got to meet with david weston, a man truly after Christ's own heart. he was in town to speak at perspectives (www.perspectives.org) at SECC, and has been working in central asia and other places for over 17 years. we were meeting with him to discuss some of the projects we have been working on in afghanistan, and specifically our work in B.A., which is our returning refugee community.

it was so inspiring to talk to someone that lives a life of reckless abandonment for Christ. hearing his story about being ran out of towns (literally - by foot...running) in northern afghanistan because of his faith, shook me up. it really made me think, what am i really sacrificing for the furtherance of the gospel? i live in a comfort house, a quiet neighborhood, speak the same language as everyone around me, can pick-up food at a local grocery store, drive to work (even though it's less than 2 miles), etc. it made me really sit back and wonder, what will i have to show for my life when it's over???

now don't get me wrong...i understand that it is not by works but by faith that i have been saved, but still, come on people, let's get something done while we're here!! i don't know what specifically God is going to call me to do and what corner of the world it will be in, but i just don't want to miss it!

Monday, November 10, 2008

home sweet home

so i took a hiatus from blogging, mostly because i wasn't feeling too inspired. not that i'm feeling too inspired right now, but here i am, ready to face the world of blogging again...

most of my time currently has been spent trying to get the rest of our house pulled together. for those of you who are just tuning in or don't already know, we have been in moving/remodeling mode since moving back to louisville in may. actually, we have officially been residing at the beloved 2107 for 6 MONTHS today!! it feels like a lifetime...but i guess for me, it has been :) people always ask me if it feels weird to now own the house i grew up in, but it honestly just doesn't. it feels pretty natural. i just wonder what will happen when we have a housefull of kids (yes folks, i said it...i WANT A HOUSEFULL OF KIDS someday!!). ryan seems to think that we are going to live there until we die, but i know deep down that he'll change his mind when we've got kids and dogs spilling out of every nook & cranny. he'll be singing a different tune then and happily putting a "for sale" sign in the yard.

anyways, the kitchen is complete, minus our new window treatments that we are still waiting on, and figuring out something to do with our kitchen table. our current table is pub height and it's time for it to go!! eventually, we would like to move the kitchen light fixture and put in a booth table but that's gonna have to wait for awhile as the kitchen fund has run dry. we are also almost completely done with the office except for hanging a few pictures and last minute beautifying. unfortunately, after all we have accomplished in the last 6 months, we still have about 10 boxes of junk to unpack! i cannot figure out what could possibly be left in boxes, but apparently there is more. bummer. at least i know what i'll be doing over the next few weeks as ryan starts working crazy holiday hours...

here's a few pics of our remodeling journey:

(before - aka: dark and creepy)



(demo day 1)


(soon to be new/smaller office)



(a clean slate)


(a seriously exciting day!! new cabinets, floor and paint...almost there)


new pics to come...whenever my lazy self actually downloads them from the camera :)

cheers y'all~