Juana's Year in Pictures :)

Here's my 2009 in photos...all the way from January to December :)

And I recognize that some pics are out of order, but that's makes for a more interesting photo album ;)

One of the first pictures taken of me in 2009

At the movies with Alex :)

Ashleigh, Ayj, and Alex and Bennett's party

Our Group at the Movies

Alex and Amor at the Bowling Alley

Me playin' around in the car

Me and Alex before our beach day

Me at the beach

The girls before Ashleigh's wedding

Playing tennis

At Louis's Graduation

Mommy and Daughters :)

Okay...I did not get married...I was the tissue bride at the bridal shower :)

Our trip with Anna at the Zoo!

On my 20th Birthday

Me and Noah on our way to the Lake

On Alex's 17th Birthday at MM

Mommy and Me at the beach

Our Legally Blonde Trip

Our AZ trip

Sister and Mommy

Test driving my new hair cut :)

At Thanksgiving

Dressing up :)

Why, of course we have wild girl's nights!

Christmas 2009 :)

:) Many blessings for all of you during the New Year! :)

A Year of Diamonds

2009 is almost over...the time has come too quickly. However, I am super excited about the New Year. Though I try to renew myself many times through the year, the New Year always feels like a good time to start fresh. So the point of this post is to recap the year and remember the great times I had and to outline goals, dreams, and wishes for 2010.

THE RECAP

Where do I start?! This year has been a whirlwind of happiness and joy, surprises and downfalls...but everything made the year what it was meant to be. Some major things that I did this year was hang out with my friends more. Though school/work kept me busy, I was able to make new friends. I went to 2 weddings and visited the beach more than once (wooohooo!). And I was treated to Legally Blonde: The Musical by my mom and sister as a birthday present. I also asked guys I didn't know at the weddings to dance with me...hey, I'm not the kind of girl that waits to get asked to dance! ;) I left my teen years! Got my driver's license :) Began volunteer work at my church. So many amazing things happened! So let's transition into the New Year.

2009 WAS LOOKIN FINE...2010, LET'S DO IT AGAIN!!!! :)

I hardly ever make resolutions...because I know that I will not keep up with them. So, I try to make "guidelines" of what I'd like to do in the New Year and let the chips fall where they may. So for 2010, here are my guidelines :) Run more (whether that be running on a track or running around my house), Understand where God wants me to be and trust Him that He'll get me there, make new friends, and have great adventures! I think that's a pretty good list :)

So, I'm not sure why I titled my post "A Year of Diamonds", but maybe it’s because the year was a little rough, but like a diamond, it sparkled and shined as well :) May you all have a blessed New Year!

I Can Feel God Poking and Prodding Me...

...with a giant stick and He's stirring me all about. I could first felt it this Sunday when I was sitting in the church coffee shop eating my croissant and drinking my coffee. I noticed a lady sitting a chair or two away from me eating her donut quietly. I was busy with my phone, texting away when I suddenly felt the urge to talk to her. I sat quiet for a minute, not sure how to approach her or if I should even say hi. Then, suddenly, words started coming out of my mouth...like I was on auto pilot. I said, "Hi! How are you today?" And that was the start of our conversation. During our talk, she said that she had been invited to church while she attended the "toy run" at a local park the day before. The toy run was a holiday event where my church's motorcycle ministry served Christmas dinner to the underprivileged people in town and gave toys to children. Then, she asked me if there was someone she could talk to about getting new clothes and food for Christmas. I knew just who to introduce her to. After I brought her to one of the pastors, we said goodbye and I walked away...smiling. Later, my mom got her address and phone number so that we could keep in touch and check on her during the week. I was so glad that I talked with her because she might not have gotten introduced to the pastor and, in turn, not get any clothes/food for the holidays. And, as an even bigger bonus, no one else may have talked to her or shown her kindness. I think it would have been horrible if she came to our church and no one made the effort to introduce themselves because, as Christians, we sometimes become complacent and don't want to step out of our comfy world. But as I said, I can feel God poking at me saying, "Juana, I need you to do something". And I am sure glad He did! :) May you have a blessed day :)

Don't You Understand?....

That drinking coffee or tea makes me want to write on my blog?! I've been in a blogging state of mind for the past couple of weeks now and it only gets worse when I drink those afore mentioned beverages :) It's about 1:30 in the afternoon and the weather has cleared up since the weekend. Yes, that means warmth and sunshine in December. At least we had a weekend of rain...it was nice. Today marks the last Monday of the Fall semester. So, I got up and did some of my schoolwork early so that I could have time to do other stuff during the day. I'm eating breakfast (bread/butter and coffee) and enjoying the quietness of the house. Over the weekend, I had a Mary Kay party and found that I really like purple eyeliner :) We saw New Moon, which was awesome because Tay Tay is in that...gotta love Tay! I'm so excited to finish up school for the semester and relax for Christmas break. I'll definitely blog more and more! And by the way, my mom started a blog, so I'll also post the link here sometime so you can read her blog. I hope that everyone has a great holiday!

Updates of the Day

Helllooo World!

Well, at least that's how I felt for the day...I haven't been out of the house for 2 days since I got sick. It was nice to get away from my computer for a while and enjoying the sights and sounds of Christmas. I woke this morning and did my hair. It's getting super long! :) Our church was having a Christmas pageant tonight and I was really excited! I discovered that I like a new song by Amy Whinehouse called "Stronger than Me"...it's quite comical at times while letting guys know that they should the head of the relationship. Take a listen! Anywhoooo, we went to Panda Express for a quick dinner before the pageant. The pageant was wonderful! They had several acrobat artists and great singers. It's really starting to feel like Christmas!

After the pageant, we went to Walgreens...which was fun because Alex and I went ga-ga over pictures of Tay Lau Lau (you know who!) in the magazines. After that, we got pretty hyper...so we did the right thing and got ice cream. Haha, well I got yogurt, but still ;) We danced in the car for a bit...jamin' to those tunes, you know how I go! It was a really fun night! .....you had to be there :)

Have a blessed day!

Mommy and Alex at the Pageant

Me and Mommy

A Cup of Tea

Okay, so my previous post was called "A Cup of Coffee"...mhmmm, I love my coffee. But as I type this, I'm drinking chamomile tea. Its 1:30 in the morning and my Facebook status has just been updated and I’m listening to the rain. I'm almost done with my classes before Christmas break. And, needless to say, this week has been pretty hectic. On Sundays, I usually work in the nursery with infants, but due to some staff members who were out sick, I had to work with the 2-year olds. Thus, I was wiping donut crust off the faces of little children, wiping their running noses, and passing out cookies. I thoroughly enjoy every minute of it...even though I knew I was going to catch a cold from coming into contact with their tiny germs. Monday started the week before finals and I had several finals to complete in this week alone. On Tuesday, I picked my D.L.F from school and we ate lunch together where we had an in depth discussion about Spock and Star Trek :) On Wednesday morning, I woke up with the cold I knew was coming...but I had been prepared! I took several Vitamin C tablets and some Nyquil the night before. But still, I typed up a super long paper and chilled out at home. Thursday marked clean-up day...I was able to finish most of my schoolwork, which was lovely. Yes! The weekend's almost here!

I'm thoroughly looking forward to Christmas. We'll be getting our tree soon and putting up lights. I've had at least 10 cups of peppermint tea/coffee/hot chocolate. And my Christmas music has been playing nonstop :) Everyone, let me know how the holidays are going for you! May you all have a blessed day! And don’t forget to drink some tea and listen to rain…I highly recommend it :)

Enjoying my cup of candycane cocoa