Feelin' Better...

Well, I am feelin' ohhhh soo much better than the past week! The meds have kicked in and have been doin' their job! :) I'm not one to just up and go to the Dr but I was tired of feeling the way I was and boy am I glad that I went...now I only wish I would have gone sooner! lol I stayed home from work the past couple of days to rest and try to get over this lovely sinus infection...and it has been ohhhh so very nice. I have done NOTHING....exactly what my body needed. I have been going SO much for SO long that my body was very worn down. Sometimes the body just says "enough is enough"...unfortunately it was right when my sisters wedding was going on. But everything is getting better now. I have thoroughly enjoyed doing NOTHING these past couple of days. I finally feel rested and I haven't felt like that in a LONG time. This afternoon I finally felt good enough to get some laundry done and actually clean my room a little bit. Believe me it was in dire need since I've been gone so much. lol But thats really all I've done the past 2 days besides sleep and take meds. haha But, its back to work reality tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too crazy of a day. But it will be a sad one as its our last day as a team tomorrow. All the changes are taking place on Monday, so tomorrow is our last day together before the 4 depart from us...but I wish them luck in all their new endeavors! Oh, before I end this....there were 2 phone calls that I thoroughly enjoyed the past 2 days. Yesterday, I got to talk to one of my best friends, Jen! We have been playing phone tag for awhile but it was SO good to catch up with her. I can't believe how big Bradyn is getting. He is 8 months old now! Hmmm I'm thinking that his Auntie Krista needs to make a trip to Tennessee! :) And today, I got to talk to my girl, Jagada! It was SO good to talk to her today. We talk alot through email but not always by phone. But it was so good to talk to her and get caught up. I love ya both very much and can't wait to see yall again soon!! Well, I'm gonna end this because I'm fixing to go to bed...yes I know...it's only 10:15. :)

Until next time...
kdf

I finally gave in...

So I have come down with the "junk" that seems to be going around. I came down with a cold a couple days before coming home from Greece and I never fully recovered from it, then caught something else this past Thursday. I woke up at 6am with a splitting headache and fever! By that night I had almost 101 temperature. I was so weak and shaky that I could hardly function. Go figure....2 days before my sisters wedding and I had tons of stuff to get done! lol I've coughed so much that my ribs are really sore! lol So anyways, I finally gave in and went to the Dr. I hardly ever go to the Dr. He said I have a bad sinus infection and he gave me some antibiotics and cough meds, so I'm hoping they will kick in soon!

Thanks to everyone for their concern and finally convincing me to go to the Dr! :)

Family Dinner

So the Sunday after the wedding, we still had some family still in town. So we decided to have a big dinner after church. We went to Smokehouse and got some good ole KC BBQ!!!!! And let me tell you-it was DELISH!!!! :) Here are a few pics from hanging out with the cousins! :)

The Big Day

So the big day finally arrived. Darla and Jonathan were married this past Saturday. It's all been a whirlwind and it is finally over! lol It was a long week with so much stuff to get done, while being sick! I honestly didn't know if everything was going to come together or not but it turned out great! Here are a few pictures! Enjoy!

It's Almost Here...

Well, it's almost here! My sister, Darla, is getting married in just 6 days now. It's all down to the wire now to get things done. People start coming in on Monday and there is a ton of stuff to do between now and then. I can't help but wonder how many arms and legs I might possibly need in order to get things done! ha! Yeah, I guess you could say that I'm feeling the pressure a bit. But in just a few days it will all be over, and might can possibly relax again. Well, maybe not until this class is over! ha! But anyways, speaking of which I need to get off and get to work! :) Talk to you later!

Three Years...

I can't believe that 3 years have already come and gone. This was one of the hardest times in my life, when my sweet Big Daddy went to be with Jesus. Although he is in a much better place with no pain and suffering. It's still hard to "let go" of your sweet loved ones. Big Daddy was a preacher for almost 60 years! He and Big Mommy left us with a wonderful heritage. I'm sure He and Big Mom are having a great time together in Heaven. As I sit here with tears in my eyes, reminiscing of all the wonderful times we shared, there is so much I want to tell them right now. I want to give them a big ole hug and see that sweet smile on their faces everytime we saw them. I want to tell Big Daddy that when I went to Greece, I went to Mars Hill, where he preached (when he was there). There are so many things. Maybe one of these days I will learn how to play the piano like my Big Daddy always wanted me to. So, now that the tears are streaming, I'm going to end this. Big Dad and Big Mom, if you could see this....I love you and I miss you SOOO much!!! Give my baby brother Bryan a big hug for me!
-Your Youngest Granddaughter- Krista DeAnn

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter, everyone!!! I trust that yall have had a wonderful Easter!! We had some crazy awesome church today! We had over 550 at church today!!! We must remember that He is not dead, but ALIVE!! That should be enough reason to worship Him everyday, not just once a year! After church today we went to some friends house to have Easter dinner, which was very yummy! After lunch, we had an adult Easter egg hunt! haha It actually was pretty funny because there was a couple of people that was kinda competitive. But it was fun!

Here are a couple of pictures of Caedyn at church today. He looked sooo handsome with his little suit on!! :) They had a Easter egg hunt at church today, too...He was adorable!

Phantom of the Opera!!

So, last night Sarah and I went and saw the live Broadway production of 'Phantom of the Opera'!!! It was absolutely amazing!!! I've never been to a production quite like this one, but it was definitely worth the money spent!!! They wouldn't let us take any pictures though. Bummer! The best part was when the chandalier was swinging through the ceiling! Seriously, if you haven't seen it, you should definitely go!!! It was amazing!!

Happy Birthday!!!

So, there have been a lot of birthdays lately, and I fell behind on posting them because things were so crazy before my trip...and still are. So, I wanted to post a special shout out to all my amazing friends!! Happy Belated Birthday to you as well! :)


Happy Birthday, Jagada!! This is my girl! We used to work together at American Family before her and her husband, Karl, moved to Seattle for his job. Jagada, you are such a great friend to me! You've always been there for me and I can't wait to see you again soon!!! :) Love ya girl! Hope you've had an awesome birthday!!


Happy Birthday, Ren!! Dorenda and I became best friends while we were at Gateway College of Evangelism. She lives in Ohio, and I am so glad that she is apart of my life. We don't always get to see each other, but I am so thankful that we can still remain best friends even though distance separates us. Love ya girl, hope you had a wonderful birthday! :)


Happy Birthday, Mel!!! Mel's birthday was 2 days after we got back from Greece. This past Friday night, her family threw her a surprise birthday party! I felt so blessed to have been able to go down there and help her celebrate! Mel, you are one of the greatest friends anyone could ever have! I am so glad that God has placed you in my life. Thanks for always being there for me! Love ya girl!


Ken and Gin: First of all, I want to wish you a Happy Anniversary!! And to Ken: Happy Birthday!! I don't even know where to begin. You guys mean the world to me! You are my 2nd family. You have been there for me in some very rough times and I can not even begin to tell you how much that means to me. Yall are amazing. I am so Godly proud of what yall are doing and what God is doing through yall. I love yall very much!


Justin and Crystal: Happy Birthday to both of you!!! You guys are awesome! I am so thankful that God has placed you both in my life. I don't know what I would do without you guys! You have encouraged me and supported me in times when I thought no one else could. I'll never forget some of the memories we share. Love yall!

My Journey in Greece!!!

So, this was an amazing trip! We had a lot of fun even though we had trouble getting over the jet lag. This will probably be a long post because I'm going to post stuff by day, and add some videos here and there that I took, even though I sound like a complete doofus on them. lol You might have to occasionally "refresh" the page so that the pictures start over on each day since there are so many pictures. I added a few videos in this post but will add another post with just videos since they take longer to load. So stay tuned! :) We had a blast, and I am so blessed to have been able to go on this trip. I miss everyone already!

Day 1: We left Tuesday--headed for New York City! Sarah, Melodie, and myself met up with our friends, Lana, and Steve and Debbie Saiz! We had a great time in New York together! Yep, there is always lots of laughter going on! :) We met up at the hotel then found our way to Little Italy and ate at Novella's....which is the BEST authentic Italian restaurant EVER!!! It was freezing, but we went downtown to Times Square and walked around for awhile, while Starbucks kept us warm! :)

Day 2: We got up from NYC and slept in a little bit since we only got less than 2 hours of sleep the night before, we ate lunch at a local pizza cafe that had amazing chicken and spinach pizza! Then we met back at the hotel, got a cab and headed to JFK airport to meet up with all the other SAM'ers!!! We boarded the plane, and get all situated, and my neighbor (elderly gentleman) and his son come and sit down on the same row as myself. It wasn't long before I noticed that B.O. came to visit as well. I was already miserable and the 9 hour plane journey hadn't even begun yet! Of course this gets the girls to laughing because I kept making faces! (I have to add pics of that later). So I snuck a couple of pictures just for your enjoyment! haha (Bad I know...). The plane ride was miserable. I'm not gonna lie. It was HOT and stuffy! And my lovely neighbor couldn't not get comfortable and he kept bumping into me the ENTIRE 9 hour flight. Not only that, but he was all up in my space as well and there was plenty of room. But, we finally made it through. Boy was I ever glad to put my feet on foreign soil so I could just get off the plane! LOL

Day 3: After not sleeping all night, we finally arrived in Athens, Greece, got our luggage and cleared through customs. We then loaded our big purple bus which we nicknamed "The Barney Bus". We then went to the Acropolis and it was absolutely amazing! The giant amphitheater was amazing!!! The view that we saw over Athens was incredible! The city of Athens has over 5 million people, so its just huge!! After the acropolis, we saw the Pantheon. Then we drove around the city and saw the Modern Ancient Olympic Stadium that they still use once a year! It was awesome!!! Then we climbed to the top of Mars Hill! That was incredible to know that we were standing on the hill where Paul stood back in the Bible days! Later that afternoon, we finally arrived at Park Hotel, in Athens. Refreshed and got ready for dinner. Not quite sure what we had for dinner that night, but I didn't eat very much. lol So we ended up getting a midnight snack from Pizza Hut!!! LOL

Day 4: We got up this morning, had breakfast on the 8th floor of the hotel, with the most awesome view, looking out over the city of Athens, with the Acropolis not too far away! We then headed down to the Port of Athens and boarded the AquaMarine cruise ship!!! It was awesome! It was an older ship, but it was still amazing! If I remember correctly, we left around 10 am and was on the Aegean Sea/Mediterranean Sea all day and we arrived on the Island of Mykonos right at sunset (around 6:00 pm). I LOVED Mykonos!!! It was pretty much all the white buildings with the blue roofs! It was amazing!!! I was in complete awe. Arriving right at sunset was amazing!!! I loved walking around that island. I just wish we would have had more time there. Everyone was SO friendly and we found an amazing bakery there! Holy Moley, it was SO good! I have tried baklava before and didn't like it, but their baklava was amazing!! We got back on the ship, got to our rooms and found our covers turned back...but we didn't have any animals out of our towels. :( lol Dinner was hilarious that night. Our waiters name was Fotis and the water guy was Antonio. We had a lot of fun with them, but of course they loved to flirt! haha This was one of the better dinners on the ship. For appetizer we had some fried cheese (but its not what you would have thought)...it was more like a hushpuppy. Then we had salad and chicken parmegian (or however you spell that lol). For dessert we had....well...I'm not quite sure what it was. lol It was a mix between custard and flan. It was gross-not gonna lie. lol But we had fun with the girls at our table! We then, went and saw part of the "show" after dinner and then went and watched kareoke and disco dancing. We laughed so hard until our stomachs hurt!

Day 5: We arrived at the Island of Rhodes! It was beautiful! We met our tour guide for the day and we drove along the coast line to the city of Lindos. Absolutely beautiful!! When we got to the acropolis, we could either walk up 400+ stairs or we could ride a donkey up to the top! LOL Needless to say I chose to walk, because I would probably have killed the poor donkey. LOL But a couple of our friends rode the donkey up and one of the donkey's names was "Marcos"...so needless to say we have a lot of memories and jokes about "Marcos"!! "Ohhhh Marcus....where art thou when we calleth you?!" :) When we got to the top of the acropolis, it was one of the most breath-taking views of the Mediterrean Sea, I have ever seen! It was absolutely beautiful!!!! The pictures don't even do it justice. God is just amazing!!! After that tour, we went and saw a guy make a piece of pottery! How cool is that?! We also saw them paint some pottery by hand! It was amazing that they could do all that. We also walked through the only living med-evil cities and do some shopping! Oh, and we had some gelato!!!! All I can say is that, that is the BEST kind of ice cream there is!! :) This night, we saw another beautiful sunset!!!! We saw God's handiwork at its best!!! It was awesome!! For dinner tonight, it was "formal night". Well, it was more like business casual, but we got all dressed up in our church outfits, and our waiter, Fotis, was at his best again! We had a lot of fun with him! It was Greek night for dinner so we had some very interesting food once again! Needless to say I didn't have much to eat again! lol We had octopus for part of our appetizer that night. Ew, and no I didn't even try it! lol Fotis kept trying to make sure we told him what we wanted to eat in Greek! LOL

Day 6: We had to get up before the crack of dawn this morning! But let me say, IT WAS WORTH IT! We got to see the SUNRISE over the Mediterranean Sea this morning and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!! I've NEVER seen anything like this before!!!!! We arrived at the Island of Patmos today. Then we loaded a tender boat and that took us to the actual island. We went up to the Tomb where John wrote the book of Revelation. Then also went to the monestary and the church of St John. We got back on the ship and then docked in the country of Turkey, which is on the continent of Asia!! Where we went to Ephesus!!! It was absolutely amazing! We then went to a rug shop and watched a girl start weaving a rug! And tried some Apple Tea! Wow, it was so good! We only had about 45 minutes to shop before we had to get back on the ship! Then we went and hung out on the deck for a little bit even though it was cold. Since tonight was the last night on the ship, all the crew sang us a few songs during dinner!!! (I'll add some videos later). It was so much fun!!! Then we went and watched kareoke and disco dancing again.

Day 7: We arrived back in Athens and did a day tour and went to Ancient Corinth. We saw the temple of the god of the seas. It is amazing to have been able to walk around where you know they did back in the Bible days. After the tour, we went back to Athens, took a walk to get some Starbucks and ate dinner at the hotel.

Day 8: This was our free day in Athens. We got up and and spent the day shopping at the Plakka, which is like the shopping district. We had a great time hanging out with all our friends! We ate lunch at an awesome local Greek restaurant and had chicken gyros. I'm telling you this was the BEST meal ever on the entire trip!!! We went out for gelato later that afternoon and was sung to by some locals! Of course you had to give them money! lol Later that night, we went back to the hotel for our last dinner with everyone. It was once again a gross dinner but we went back out to the Plakka and got a good Greek meal since it was our last night there. Lets just say "what happens in Greece, stays in Greece"!!! LOL It's a inside joke that we have. It was funny though because we met 3 guys in the square while we were taking a picture and they wanted to talk to us and get pictures with us. LOL So we talked to them for a few minutes then we got in the taxi and went back to the hotel. We were wired when we got back to the hotel and only got 2 hours of sleep before we had to get up and go to the airport. But hey, it was our last night in Athens, right?! LOL

Home...At Last!!

Well, after almost 30 hours of traveling, I am finally home! I had a BLAST in Greece and Turkey! We got up Wednesday morning at 5 am (after only having 2 hours of sleep) which was 9 pm CST time on Tuesday night, and I got in bed last night at 1:30 am which was 9:30 am Europe time. So needless to say I was exhausted, as well as all the other travelers. We had an amazing time, met some new friends, got reacqauinted with old friends and made lots of memories. Lets just say that Greece will never be the same! LOL I'll get some pictures posted and will probably do it day by day so there is not so much to look at, at one time, plus it'll be easier. Two days before coming home, I caught the cold crud thats going around. So that was not any fun flying with all the congestion. My ears are still a little clogged up. So hopefully it'll go away soon. Anyways, can't wait to catch up with yall! Will write more later.