Friday 24 August 2012

London Town

London was so much fun.
     We arrived at Euston station on Tuesday afternoon, and went directly to the British Library, which is genuinely awesome. It gives me the massive urge to learn ancient Hebrew and Latin.
In the evening we went to Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square just to chill, and ate at Chipotle for the first time, which is a bit odd to do in England. We stayed at a youth hostel all together which was actually really fun. All seven of us staying in one room together is never uninteresting...

This beautiful police box was a block from our hostel.
Someone has scratched into the dust on the side "Bad Wolf". Win.

    On Wednesday we all went to the Natural History Museum, which was really cool! They have all kinds of crazy amazing stuff. We went next to the Victoria and Albert museum and looked through the ball gowns exhibit which was looovvely. They had an Alexander McQueen dress, shoes and purse. Too amazing.
In the afternoon we went to look around Harrod's, which was just soo crazy. So huge! So expensive! Ahh! Two of my favourite things about that trip - finding a pure amethyst dining room table which was 159,000 pounds, and overhearing a besuited man on the Egyptian escalator telling his wife "In my personal opinion, Tiffany's is just everyday junk." Wow. Such a different world :-) At Harrod's, I actually got to HOLD an Alexander McQueen purse - Ah! Fantastic moment.
(This McQueen purse) 

After Harrod's we rushed to Westminster Abbey for evening prayer. The service was very solemn, and very beautiful.

Us outside of the Natural History Museum

They had a dik-dik at the museum!! Ahh! I want one so badly!
The Peter Pan Statue at Kensington Gardens
    On Thursday we decided to split up, so while my parents were touring the Houses of Parliament, the rest of us kids were searching London for her unique, subcultural districts. We went to Brick Lane, where we found thousands of vintage shops and the best coffee we've had in England. It was so yummy. Then, with hardly any time to spare, we found our way to Camden Market, the home of punk. It was all I ever dreamed it to be, although we only got to dash in and out again. Intricate little streets full of people trying to sell you trousers and corsets and jewellery and literally anything you can think of. I so wanted to stop at every shop and stall to examine all of their wares, but unfortunately we had to run past most of them, just longingly glancing through the best of them.
   We all met back up in Kensington Gardens, so we could read the end of Peter Pan (which we had been reading altogether as a family) under the statue there in the Gardens. It was such a perfect end to the wee holiday.

Hope you're having a lovely week!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Holiday!

          We're finally going on Holiday! Not that we haven't been on holiday for about 2 weeks... but we're finally going away! 
  We'll be staying in London for 2 nights. Fun times.

Yesterday we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon, and ended up seeing Much Ado About Nothing by the Royal Shakespeare Company! It was set in modern day India, and it was so wonderful. It was so beautifully set, and the acting was fantastic. It even had some actors in it that we recognised from episodes of Doctor Who.

Time to go to London! Adieu!

Monday 13 August 2012

The Measham Car Boot Sale

Salut!


            So, my parents have been going to this same car boot sale nearly every Sunday for ages now, and I was finally able to make it this week... Oh my. I didn't expect to find much, but now I understand how my mum always comes home with her arms full. This is what I got (don't laugh, I know some of it is random and ridiculous) 

This copy of Shakespeare's Tragedies - 20 pence. 


These adorable antique spoons and fork,  50 pence each.


I thought it was kind of funny how this worked out...


This duck... 25 pence.


Three pieces of dollhouse furniture - I just couldn't help myself! I nearly bought the dollhouse too!
50 pence each.

This lovely copy of The Swiss Family Robinson, from the version of the classics I am collecting, 1pound.

This dress! I am in love with it. It looks much better in person. 1pound.

This ring. 1pound


These adorable shoes, which are exactly what I've been looking for and were only 50pence!!



This adorable vintage Brownie's mug! I am so in love. Only 50 pence :-)


So now I don't know how I am going to stay away from the boot sale... although really, I only spent 7 pounds 45, even though I felt like I was spending thousands. Yay! 

Thursday 9 August 2012

here. now.

         Wow.

I've been home for a while now, haven't I? DTS feels like a distant memory... sad. I do miss it.

   So, I've decided that this isn't the best place to write loads about our trip to Shanghai, so if you want to know more about what happened, please inbox me and I will happily tell you all about it :-)

Life has been crazy.

   All of last week I joined in the King's Lodge olympic outreach to Coventry, where we helped to run  a holiday club (VBS) for about 85 kids. I got to help with the four and five year olds, which was soo fun. It was so great to have the opportunity to help the local church reaching out to it's own community, and to be able to pray over these wonderful little ones all week, and teach them simple truths about Jesus and life :-)

At the end of the week, my big sister Anna came back from Newcastle, and then on Monday, my other big sister, (the only missing Joyce at that point) Kaeli, flew in from Spokane! Yaaaay!

     On Saturday (before Kaeli came) we got to "attend" the wedding of my very first cousin! We actually only got to watch a live stream of it, but it was more than we had expected, so it was great. 

Ahhhh! I can't believe Hillary is married! Congratulations!

The Family (minus Alex) watching Hil's wedding
   
 It was harder than I expected to see my whole family there, and to realise how much I have missed over the past six years. All of my little cousins are no longer little. Oh dear. There were tears.

We have been house-sitting for some friends of friends in the next town over from the Lodge, so it's been nice to spend some time away from home and spends lots of time with the family (and Phil of course (=  )

Today we got the crazy and unexpected opportunity to go see the Olympic Bronze medal game of Women's Football (soccer), between France and Canada. It was so fun, none of us ever thought we would get the chance to attend any of the events.

    These next two weeks are holiday time with the whole family here :-) So nice. It has been 2 years since we've all been together! Not okay.
    What comes next after these weeks are over?





Only God knows.



Friday 27 July 2012

Today...

Today we officially start our outreach in Coventry!!! 
Yaaaay, I am so excited. This country is never going to be the same after these olympics - God has HUGE plans for England, and I am so excited to be able to be involved in them. Thank you Jesus! You're awesome. 

Tuesday 24 July 2012

I'm back! Well, I suppose I have been for two weeks now...

OH wow. It's been too long since I've been able post anything on here. There is just so much that has been happening over the last 3 months, I don't think I will ever be able to write it all.
    I just spent 3 months living in Shanghai! Ah! So crazy.
My outreach team had 13 people in all - 2 staff and 11 students. There were nine girls and four boys :-)
The Shanghai Team at the Jing'an Temple
Ahhhh, just so much to say. I think I'll try to go with lots of short blog posts about it rather than one long one, so it's not too overwhelming...
  We got to do all kinds of exciting things in China, and made a lot of really good friends.
Such a good time! I really hope that sometime I will be able to express on here some of what happened.
   Ta ta for now, hope everyone is doing really well!

    -Abbey

Tuesday 27 March 2012

DTS Day 76.

Ahhh!!! We are leaving for outreach in one week. One week. Whoooooaaa.

Last week was our evangelism week in Coventry, which was awwwesome. I love DTS gatherings. I feel so at home in big groups of YWAMers. I really enjoyed praying around Cov, and really getting a heart for the city. I can't wait for this summer and the Olympics! Coventry will never be the same :-)

This is our final week of lectures, and so far it seems to be random lectures on different subjects. We have a lot of time off for packing and preparing as well. I'm almost completely packed, I am so ready to go! 7 more days.
We went and saw the Hunger Games on Saturday night, which was aWesoMe, since I've been waiting for it to come out for two years now :-)

ALSO, I am very happy to say that I have almost got all my money for outreach! I still need about £250 though, so keep praying :-D

How is everything with you?

Okay, I need to go check if my laundry is done drying so I can pack it now. See you!
-Abbey

Monday 12 March 2012

DTS, day 61

Hello! I can't believe how bad I am getting at updating. Sorry.
It's been a while! We've had two weeks of teaching, and our long weekend. The teachings were on Call of the Wild, and Kingdom Perspective, and then some other teaching on Communication at the end of last week. It's been good.

It was very interesting having the September DTS back, as we aren't used to having so many people in the house. It was good though, we went to their report back and graduation times, and made friends with a few of them.

For the long weekend which lasted from Thursday night until last night, I went home to the Lodge :-) It was so wonderful. I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed at first, seeing all of my family and my friends and being home. I panicked the first night and couldn't figure out what to do :-P It got back to normal pretty quickly though, and It was just soo wonderful to spend time with everyone again. I had an amazing weekend, although in the end it was very hard to leave. It was good and bad in that way, I think it made me miss everything a lot more than I did before. Ah well. I am so glad I went, I just wish it was longer.

My dad and brother drove me back to Holmsted last night, which was fun too. I will also hopefully get to see some of them again next week, since we are about to have Evangelism Week in Coventry, which is really close to home! So exciting.

In other slightly less good news, we just found out we've lost our planned speaker for the second week in a row. Our teacher for the week spoke today, but apparently had to fly home this evening because of an accident in the family. Last week our speaker never even made it here, because he was too sick to travel. Humhum.

Wow, only 3 weeks until outreach! Unbelievable! I am continuing to pray in my finances, as I need a lot of money before the end of the month. Yay! So exciting. I love seeing how God provides.

How has life been elsewhere? have a lovely day!

Sunday 26 February 2012

DTS, day 46!

I'm so sorry I haven't had the chance to post more in the last couple of  weeks.
 Life here has been crazy :-) 

Mark Parker's week finished out intensely with a 12 hour tabernacle day on Friday. We went to the class room at 9 am and finished at 10pm, with about an hours break for meals in the middle. It was such a great day, but very emotionally (and physically) exhausting. We did SO much worship, and a lot of other stuff. It was a very family building day for the DTS. 

This last week's lectures were on Biblical Worldview and the 8 Spheres of Society, taught by Leah Broomfield. It was really good - very calm after last weeks teaching. We went through each sphere individually, and looked through the Bible (mostly the Torah) and looked at what God's perspective/view of that sphere is... I don't know if that makes sense how I wrote it, but it was really cool.

On Friday night for local outreach, we went to Brighton with sidewalk chalk! We drew a huge square on the sidewalk under a street lamp, and wrote "Prayer Floor" in big letters across the top. As people walked past, we asked them to draw or write their prayers or dreams, and we would pray for them. It was so much fun! Brighton is a very good place for it as well, because I can imagine it would be hard to get many people to join in in a less... free... city. I love Brighton. 

We had our first outreach team meetings last week! It was so fun. We have a really crazy team - I think this outreach is going to be awesome. There are 13 or 14 of us. Eeh! So excited. 

I've been sick for about a week now, and It just keeps fluctuating between okay and awful. Ah well, life is still good. 

Oh yes! The weather here has been AMAZING for the past few days!! It has been perfect spring weather. Sun, but not too much - and the birds are singing, and the grass is green... we have been eating outside and climbing trees. They have the most perfect climbing tree here - it is fantastically wonderful.

This week the September DTS arrived back from their outreaches in Morocco, Moldova, Bermuda and India. This coming week will be their debrief week, and then they graduate next Friday. It's weird having loads of people in the house. Some of the India girls brought back henna with them, and were sweet enough to try it out on us :-) Love. 

Wow, we are leaving for outreach in 5 weeks now. I can't believe how quickly it's coming! 
Still praying for outreach fees as well, but God will provide, so I'm not particularly worried :-)

How is everyone? I haven't heard from anyone in a long time! You still alive? 

xx

Tuesday 14 February 2012

DTS day 34.

    This week we are studying Relationships and Identity. Our teacher, Mark Parker, is very surprising :-) just sitting and chatting with him he seems fairly quiet and reserved, but when he stands up to start teaching... WOW. He's got some lungs on him. He likes to hop around the stage and shout and sing, and do all kinds of crazy things :-) At first I thought I would get frustrated with his crazy style, but as the day went on yesterday I learned to really like his teaching style. He is just so real and enthusiastic about his topic. The teaching is really good, but it's pretty overwhelming. He says SO much in every lecture, you don't have time to soak any of it up. I feel like I won't really get this week all the way until next week when I get a chance to read back all of my notes. There is just SO much content.

    Sometime in the next couple of days we will be finding out our outreach teams and locations!! Ahh, so nervous! We are all sitting on the edge of our seat, waiting for the moment to come...


    Yesterday evening we were informed that all the girls had to come down to reception at 6:50 in the morning. I have to admit, there was quite a bit of grumbling amongst us, even though we knew whatever the reason was, it would be good. It's just that none of us are morning people.
Anyhow, we came down this morning (some still in our pajamas :-) ) and found that the boys had all gotten up even earlier, and made us a lovely breakfast. They were so sweet, walking around the tables serving tea and pancakes :-) They even performed their own beautiful version of You Raise Me Up for us. Some of the girls said it was their best Valentine's ever :-) Sooo sweet. Our DTS boys (and staff. and guest speaker.) are awesome.


Oh my, oh my. How the time passes.

Saturday 11 February 2012

DTS Day 31.

    Hola! It's been a while. My updates on here may become a little more spread out, because my computer is having issues, so I am having to borrow other people computers to get online.

    This week has gone by really fast. Our topic for the week's lectures was Spiritual Warfare. The whole week was a bit off though, because the base was hosting a huge conference for the International DTS Centre, so there were LOTS of people. Our lecturer was also here for the conference, so we had to have an inverted schedule, and do lectures in the evenings. It would have been fine, but we were all sooo tired in the evenings, even though the teaching was really good, sometimes they were hard to stay awake through.
The lecturer, Leo, was from Uganda, and had some really crazy stories about spiritual warfare at work.

    ALSO this week, we were given the different locations for outreach, and given an amount of time to decide which team we want to be on (well, more like which team God wants us to be on). So intense!

    I can't even believe how fast time is going. We are already 4 weeks in! That means we are a third of the way through lecture phase, and a sixth of the way through the whole school! We leave for outreach in about 7 weeks! Mah! What the heck!! Too crazy.

How goes life outside of Holmsted?

Abbey

Sunday 5 February 2012

DTS, Day 25; Our crazy Saturday.

Wow. Yesterday was so fun.

We went to Brighton to go shopping all day (well, more of window shopping). I hate shopping when I have to get something in particular, but when I have no plan and nothing that I need, It's fun :-) We spent all morning going to H&M, Urban Outfitters, Primark, etc. Very girly. It was really fun to just go out with no agenda and hang out :-)

THEN, in the evening, we went to meet some of the other group, and when we finally got to where they were, OH MY GOSH. It was so wonderful. I was home. It was like, these little side streets packed full of independant shops. There were Bohemian shops, and vintage shops, even a Bonsai tree shop!!! IT WAS SO AMAZING. I want to live there. It was like the little (well, not so little) sub-culture part of Brighton, and it was perfect. There was even a Cyber-dog! So crazy. I HAVE to go back there sometime when it isn't evening, and when I haven't already been shopping all day.

So then we split off into groups to go eat dinner, and ended up at McDonalds. Not particularly classy or gourmet, but it was fun.
When we went back outside, it was snowing!!
Eventually, we ended up at an Italian restaurant where we shared some desserts, and had some really bizzarre and random conversations.

It was about 8pm, and we didn't particulary want to go straight home since we barely ever actually get off base, so we decided to walk to the beach a few blocks away. It was so much fun, running across Brighton beach in the dark, in the February cold while it was snowing.

So we headed home, hoping we wouldn't get stuck in Haywords Heath, since British people don't really drive in the snow. On the train ride home we kept getting more and more excited as we passed through the different train stations, and saw that the snow was getting deeper and deeper. We did in fact make it all the way home, although we did pass a couple of car accidents on the drive back. The little back roads here are so fast and twisty - not good when it's icy.

By the time we got there, there was already about an inch of snow, and being who we are, we couldn't resist having a middle of the night snow-ball fight before everyone else got to it the next morning :-) I've never had a real snow-ball fight, because we never have enough snow! It was sooo much fun! Everytime we tried to go in it started all over again. I think it ended up lasting for about an hour and a half. I couldn't feel my fingers or my toes by the end, and my eyes were burning from getting hit in the face - it was great. We looked so funny going in all covered in snow, with make-up all over our faces and our hair soaking wet. I think everything I own is damp now.

We decided to finish the night by watching a film with tea and hot water bottles. So nice, although I repeatedly drifted off through the whole movie, because the day had been so amazingly tiring.  Going to bed in the end was so wonderful, after such a great day.

Waking up today and looking out the window at the snow covered trees and fields was wonderful. A bunch of the team is having a big snow-ball fight in about 15 minutes, but I don't think my muscles will let me join in. I am so unbelievably unfit and I think last night's craziness wore my legs out for the next week :-P


How have everyone's weekends been? Miss you all! xx

Friday 3 February 2012

DTS Day..... 23?

Mah! This has been a good week.
Last weekend we went to London for Chinese New Year! It was crazy. We got the whole tourists-in-London experience - Trafalger Square, Big Ben, cheesy phone booth pictures, Westminster Abbey, getting completely lost and seperated from our group without any of their phone numbers... all of it.

It was... exciting. I got a little paper Chinese dragon, and it made everything worthwhile.


This week's topic was Destiny by Design, taught by Joylynn Landshut, who is from Washington State, but lives in South Africa. Oh gosh, it was soooo good. It was all about our dreams, our gifts, our identities, and our destinies. It was so awesome, because at the beginning of the week a lot of us thought we didn't have any dreams, and she just helped us recognise that we DO have dreams, and that God put them in our hearts. Eeeeh! I am so excited for the future.

One of my favourite things from this week was an excercise we did yesterday afternoon. We all wrote on pieces of paper the negative things about our identities that we or other people had believed and/or spoken out about ourselves. Then, we stood in a circle around a bin, and took turns speaking out the lies that we had been believing about ourselves, and each time someone said one you had been living under, we would rip off a piece of our paper and throw it in the bin, and then declare the truth!
Did that make sense? Because I don't really feel like it did. If your confused, just comment.

Anyhow, it was soooo great! I really can't believe how many lies I have been believing about myself for a really long time now. It was really freeing. I know that throwing pieces of paper in a bin doesn't really sound like it would help anything, but it was a physical action to concrete what was happening in the spiritual.

We are going to Brighton to hang out tomorrow, I am excited :-)

Oh my, we are also going to Brighton TONIGHT to do street evangelism (give me strength). I'm nervous. It is going to be so very very cold.


OH and I found out my parents are going to Macedonia tomorrow?? What the heck?! I am sooooooo jealous. But I'll deal.


What has everyone been up to? Missing you all!

Saturday 28 January 2012

I guess this is DTS day 17...

Wow, I can't believe that. It seems like two things, like I have been here foreeever and this is just where I have always been, AND contrastingly, like I just got here, and that that much time couldn't possibly have passed yet.

I cannot believe that the first week of lectures is over! What the heck!
This week's teaching was called Jesus and the Cross, and Giving up Rights. Our guest speaker was Pete Thompson from England,who lives in S. Africa. For the first few days a lot of us had a hard time catching what he was trying to get across to us, because he had a very African way of teaching, that didn't really make sense to us. The 3rd and 4th days though, were a lot more structured, so I think a lot of us got a lot more out of it. Along with the main subject, he talked on forgiveness and hearing God's voice. The talk on forgiveness in particular was really good. He outlined what forgiveness is, and what it isn't.  I've never heard anyone teach it like that, and it was really helpful.

This week it has been three different people on the teams birthdays! So funny. We are having a party tonight, for everyone whose birthday is in January. Should be exciting. Tomorrow, we are going to Londonnn! Whoo! We are going to celebrate Chinese New Year in China Town! We also decided that since we will already be in London on a Sunday we might as well go to a service at Hillsong.

You know what? You don't realize how freeing it is to have your own kitchen until you no longer have one. I have been DYING to bake alll week, but alas, I cannot. I want to make cupcakes. Muchly.

Anyhow, how is life where you are? Missing you all!

Abbey

Sunday 22 January 2012

DTS day 9

So I have been here now for 9 days... Wow. 

    Lectures officially start tomorrow! Eeh! So excited. Our guest speaker is already here =D
This whole last week has been an orientation week, so we have had some teaching, but not loads. We had teachings on sort of the basics of YWAM's beliefs if you will - Worship, Intercession, Hearing the Voice of God, etc. The lectures have been so good, even if they weren't nearly long enough :-)

    On Thursday we watched a lecture that Loren Cunningham gave in 1977. It was really awesome to see how a teaching from over 30 years ago can still be so relevant and mind-altering. It was on giving up rights, but to an intense extent. It was about relingquishing everything to God - our families and loved ones, our freedom, physical health, marriage, even our lives. It was really cool.

    My work duty is cleaning nearly the whole basement floor. It's funny, because in the past I have never been into cleaning - I admit it, I can be pretty lazy. But somehow, I look forward to my work duties almost everyday. I can't wait to get downstairs and start sweeping ans scrubbing sinks. Very strange. For one thing, I feel like it is really good training for taking care of my own home someday, and I love that. It is also over two hours everyday that I get to spend alone with God. I'm not saying I have perfected that aspect  yet - I usually end up praying for one a few minutes and then getting distracted with my own thoughts the rest of the time - but I am hoping to get stronger, and teach myself to focus on God in that time, and get less distracted :-)

    Yesterday was a team building day, where we split into teams and completed a load of games and tasks together. The games were surprisingly fun, seeing as I'm normally not into group games like that.
    Ooh, last night I got to talk to my mom and dad for the first time since coming :-) it was fun. We talked for about two hours. Love you guys!


Anyhow, how is everything where you all are? Missing everyone! xx

-Abbey

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Umm.... I'm cold!!

This place is SO beautiful, but since it's an old building, it is FLIPPING FREEZING!

     We have all started taking our hot water bottles with us to class, and refilling them between every session. I literally wear three layers of clothing all day, everyday. I am used to it being frigid outside, but not THIS cold inside! Ahhh, so cold.

    I suppose though, that I shouldn't complain - we have it pretty good. - One of the staff told us the other day, about how when she did her DTS here in the 70's they would only turn the heat on for two hours every day, and twice a week they were given a jug of hot water to wash their hairs with. She also said that they had to set a rota in the girls room, of who would get up 9in the middle of the night to flush the toilet, so that when they got up in the morning it wasn't frozen solid... Okay yeah, we have it pretty good.
     But nonetheless, I wouldn't mind being able to feel my fingers some of the time!

The weather has actually been getting better these last few says though, and I am so looking forward to a sunny spring!

;A

Monday 16 January 2012

DTS Day 3!

I still can't believe I'm here.

Today we had our first lecture-ey things, got our work duties and  got our final student! Yay!
I am so excited for the lectures to officially start.

I have been having so much fun getting to know my school and the base here. Both the people and the building seem amazing.

Yesterday afternoon we all got to take a long walk on the walking paths, through woods and fields. It was soo beautiful. I will never cease to be amazed by the beauty of the vivacious green Earth.
         Then, last night we all gathered in the beautiful, antiquated Leather Room to sit around the fire and share the stories of how we were each individually led to this DTS. It was so lovely to hear everyones stories!
Tonight and tomorrow night we get to do almost the same again, only this time sharing our testimonies of how we came to know God. I am so nervous, I hate speaking to groups of people! I always panic, start babbling and completely forget what I was going to say. Oh well. I'll try anyway :-)

So yes, I am getting very comfortable here, and I am so excited for everything to get going!
Of course I still really appreciate everyones prayers for the school, the outreach, fees, etc.

God bless!  
   ;Abbey

Saturday 14 January 2012

First day at Holmsted!!

I'm here!! What the heck, how did this even happen?!
God is so crazy. =)
Most of the students are here now, all aside from 2 I believe. There are 23 of us in total, 18 girls and 5 boys. Wow. Intense. Especially since there are mostly male staff. This should be exciting :-)

The rooms have triple bunk beds, how cool is that? I got the middle, thankfully.
We have our first meeting tonight!! Wow, I can't believe this is genuinely happening!!
There are a lot of Americans on this school.

The Manor is SO stunning!! I can't even believe how gorgeous some of the rooms are. It's fantastic.

And the grounds are beauuutiful. So green!! So many trees!! I haven't had much of a chance to explore outside yet, but I am quite sure I will be spending a lot of my free time out there.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Oh My Goodness!

WOW. I'm leaving tomorrow!!! I can't even believe this!! It really hasn't sunk in yet! I am leaving for Holmsted tomorrow. OH WOW.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Big Announcement!! Read me!

Ummmmmm, so this is kind of really big news. I will post another blog later telling more detail, etc...


Guess what?!



I'm doing DTS.  Ummmmmm............. On Saturday. OH MY GOODNESS. I can't believe how fast this is all happening!! I haven't been keeping this from everyone or anything, I only decided/found out about two days ago. Oh my goodness! 
What do you think? 

I would really appreciate everyone's prayers for the DTS itself, and for my fund raising this week =) Talk to you all soon!

Abbegail

Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! Wow, 2012 is finally here. I can't believe it's January... The beginning of a new year. This year will be full of beauty and love. Bring it on!