It's Christmas Time!!!!

Tis the season for craziness! There is not one day where there is nothing to do. I'm sure you are all feeling the same way. Especially those of you who will be traveling this season! This is a snap shot of what i going on now a days. This is me and josh sitting in front of our first Christmas tree! Most of you will be getting this in our Christmas card.

This year the teens were recruited to be in the Christmas musical at church. Josh and I were not sure how well this was going to go over. It was a little easy because the teens that are involved with the Puerto Rico missions trip have to participate in whatever we tell them they have to be in. The program was on Saturday night and Sunday night. It was AMAZING! i was sitting in the front row making sure they were coming in on time, and i couldn't hold back my emotions! i cried tears of joy! the fact that we had 19 teens stinging in the choir which is the same number of people in the adult choir! needless to say they did a wonderful job and i could not be more proud of the teens and of josh for putting up with a lot in order for that night to happen. LOVE YOU JOSH!

picking out our first tree was a lot of fun. Growing up we always went as a family to pick out a tree. Never did my tree get picked to be the one to be taken home. well, in all fairness, i did pick trees that were really fat and way to tall for the room, but still i never picked the tree. When josh and i went it was very cold but a lot of fun. We made the decision together and i think it was a good one. Josh put the lights on as soon as we got home and said that it needed blinky lights... so we got some. I was in charge of putting on the ornaments. I had a shoe box with all 20 ornaments in it. The tree was looking pretty empty, so i got some of the ornaments from our wedding and we put them on the tree. It's looking better. Now all we need is a tree topper and a tree skirt but it is crazy how expensive those things can be!
This is josh putting his favorite ball on the tree! Lets go METS! I can't wait for all my family to come to our new home!

Turkey Olympics

I am proud to introduce the first ever Turkey Olympics. Let me explain. The turkey Olympics consists of four teams made up of about 6-7 teens and a frozen turkey to go alone with them. Each team has a color, red, blue, yellow, and green. It took the mind power of four creative youth leaders the following games where invented. Here are a few of the leaders that were involved. Jen (in charge of capturing the event), me (one of the brains behind the event), jon (he was in charag of bringing the duck), Danielle (another brains behind the event), scott (the third brains) but then there are some people missing from the pictures like J who is the Jr high leader and of course the main brain, josh.
the first game we played was called Hot Turkey. The game started with everyone in a circle passing around all 4 20 pound turkeys. There were a few dropped turkey's, including one on my leg, but it was worth it because my team came out on top. The second game was Turkey world cup. First we played two on two and the winner of those games played against each other. There were a few time outs because the turkey would start poking out of it's packaging and thats just not safe. Then there was seal the turkey bacon. It was awesome to see the kids try and pick up more then one turkey at a time and then somehow get it back to their team. But I have to say that Turkey ten pin what awesome. You have one team who is trying to knock down the pins, but you have to three other trying to deflect the on coming turkey. it was awesome and it really hurt my arm flinging a 20 pound turkey. Last but not least there was turkey relay. Now this holds a little closer to my heart because it came out of my head and it went over well. The relay was all the stuff you do on thanksgiving day. One at a time the kids would get a clue about what they had to do. The tasks consisted of shaving the turkey, dressing, watching the parade, driving to dinner, eating, going to the bathroom, and taking a nap. It was messy, funny, and just plain awesome! everybody had such a great time that we think we will being doing it every year from here on out, but with new and improved games. Of course, the best thing was that my team won!!!! WAY TO GO GREEN!

Halloween Parade

This year was a sad Halloween Parade. Don't get me wrong I still had a great time, but it wasn't like all the other years. For starters, not everyone was there. Jenn and Marshal couldn't come because some of the kids got sick. Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Wendy just got back from a trip and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kathy.... well... who knows. But it was fun with me, Josh, Jon, Mom, Dad, Ang, Andrew, and Avery. Jim and Jess stopped by at the end with their three kids!
Avery was so fun to watch. Her eyes were so wide and lit up! She didn't know what to look at and she didn't know that she needed to look ahead of her. Other then one very loud horn that scared all of us, she did very well. There is a picture of her chomping down on a Jr. Mint box. She later got a hold of a lolly pop and she chewed right through the paper!
But I must say that these pictures are pretty good considering that our camera is broken and I had to look through the eye piece and it was very difficult. Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures! Wish you guys could have been there.

it's pumpkin time

i really do love carving pumpkins! I had weekend full of pumpkins. On friday night I went to my friend kelly's house and carved pumpkins with kelly, her husband nate, and nates brother Ed. I, being the smart one, chose the hardest pattern. it took me like 2 hours and it didn't turn out what the picture looked like but when does it ever. Then on Saturday we had a girls day out for church. We went to a place in princton where you could pick your own apple, pumpkin, rasberries... it was so much fun. IT was a small group, but a fun one non the less. We wanted to get caramel covered apples but they were a lot of money, so we had the bright idea to get a few apples and make our own. that again did not turn out the way it was planned. but fun non the less. After we burnt the caramel, i drove to my parents house and carved some more pumpkins!!!! those are on the top of the page! mine then my dads and hen my mom! I'm ready for this holiday to be over and for christmas to be here and all of my family will be here!!!! OHHH quick update. Josh and I got the apartment and we are moving in the saturday after thanksgiving...bitter sweet. And my Butt doesn't hurt anymore! but now it won't grow any hair! weird i know

My Butt Hurts

All of you know that I have some kind of infection. I hate it. I thought it had started to drain, but apparently it's not going away. It's like I've collected a third butt cheek or something.
I haven't been to work since Friday! I have had to sit at home and do nothing but soak in the tub and lay in the couch. When I'm at work and I'm having a hard day or I'm tired the thought of not working is very nice. Being able to sleep in, watch TV, soak in a nice hot tub. Maybe that would be fun if I could get out of the house, go to the bathroom with out swinging with pain, be able to take a shower without feeling like I was going to pass out, and I wasn't bleeding.
I'm done!!! It is getting better but I still can sit on my butt. I have to call the doctor on Wednesday to see what is going to happen next. I'll spare you all of the pictures of my "infection". Maybe I'll make it our Christmas card.

our thoughts

So these are some thoughts that josh and i have been thinking about. Josh and I are not entirely happy with our apartment. When I first went looking for apartment, this really was the best place. So we jump at the opportunity for the place. And then our upstairs neighbor started walking around in high heels ALL THE TIME!!!! plus it's annoying to have to walk a mile to our cars everyday.... even when we park illegally. plus always having to lug our laundry to the car... then to someones house or a very gross laundry mat that i will not go to. SSSSOOOO we started looking at new places. Josh said that we have to get a place with a washer and dryer in the apartment. And we found one!!! we looked at it and it's really nice. It nice and close to josh's work and it's close to 295 for me to get to work. Plus my favorite diner is on the corner. I think the two things that sold josh on this place was that it have a washer, dryer and you can have pets!!!! now i know my brothers saying "YES THEY CAN TAKE THE CATS!!!" but as you can tell from the photo.... josh wants a dog. At first, I was not excited. I didn't want to take care of a dog, its ganna poop every where and pee all the time and make my place smell bad. and then i heard my moms voice in my head (no offense mom)Then i thought about having to take care of one. I get to hear it get all excited when i come home from work. And i could chase it around the house till it gets all tired and we hang out on the couch till josh got home from school. and we could go to the puppy park and play with the other dogs. We would take him to church and have him play with all the kids. the dog could be trained and ready by the time we have kids. and i fell in love with this specific puppy. i would name him/her Indi because of the dot on his/her head. I thought it was cute! So right now those are our thoughts. I mean I have other thoughts but now is not the time or place for that.... until then, I hope you all are well out there!!!! I can't wait till Christmas so i can be with ALL MY FAMILY! i miss you and love you all!

Everything

That is an amazing video. josh found it on Godtube.com. He played it for me one night and i started to cry (josh shed a single tear.) Then we played it in youth group on Wednesday. Seeing it on a 100 inch screen in a room with 27 teenagers all dealing with those temptations and those sin's... my heart could not stop pounding. It was a powerful video to follow a powerful message that josh shared. It was an awesome start to what should be an amazing school year. We have a few new leaders with us. Scott, Danielle, and (maybe) Jonny boy Rore. Josh and I have been having some computer issues with our hard drive crashing so i have no fun pictures to post, plus we can't find our memory card. But i promise wehn everything is back up and running i will have some awesome pictures to share. I have to make sure i get a picture of josh on Monday because it is his first day back at school. All very exciting.

So after my nice rant from my last blog I thought that i would write something a little more up beat. So here are some pictures from the shore. I tried not to duplicate pictures from "the hulfish happenings" The first picture on the list is a typical beach day. Mom is reading... dad is looking interested and josh is about to fall asleep, right after putting tones of suntan lotion on.

Here there is a nice picture of something josh made for me. Well we kind of made it together. I drew the heart, then he made the J... then he tried to make the C but it was hard, so i drew it. joint effort from husband and wife.


This is me saying HHHHIIIII so josh




this is josh saying HHHHHIIIIII to me!


This was a picture that I took. Personally, i thought it was pretty awesome. I was just trying to take a picture of a nice view of the beach.... but notice that awesome seagull flying o so gracefully through the air! and the reflection of the bird on the water just makes it all.




This year was a great one. It was upsetting that Josh and I could not be down for a full week, but we did make some day trips and long weekends. Josh and I did have the 'pleasure" of helping my grandparents and aunt unload on their first day down at the shore. Most of you who read this already know of the two mini vans stuffed from top to bottom with things for the house, including the 24 boxes of cereal. Then there was always the fun of people getting upset and locking themselves in there rooms, but then are fine by the time they are ready to leave for the boardwalk and skip out on the dinner that josh and i made for everyone to enjoy. good times.... anyway i look forward to the vacations josh and i have planned. hope all is well in the blogging world.

Luke 11:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
So which one am I? I think we all know the answer to that question. i would love to open up my home to Jesus, but I would be the one to running around trying to make everything look right and run out to get food... probably a fast food place, fish for Jesus... burger for me. i would run around getting Josh's clothes off the floor, getting the dishes washed that are in the sink and telling my neighbor upstairs to shut up and stop smoking. And after doing all this, i would have missed many precious moments with Jesus. All this because I want my life to look perfect for Jesus. I would want Him to see me and know how hard i have worked to make this perfect for Him. But in reality, it's all backwards. If I was living my life according to what He would want, I shouldn't have to run around and get things ready for Him, I should always be ready for Him. He should be in my "house" everyday.
But everyday, all I do is run around and get things ready for the next day. Work has been so bad this last week and it has really got me thinking. There is so much going on in the world around us. There is always something to get done, or some place to go, or project that needs to be seen through. I was trying to find an excuse as to why it's ok for me to be busy and not ready for Jesus every day. Life was different back then... They didn't have all the things that we have now that keep us busy. But in thinking about it, life was harder then. Everything was harder. Cleaning your house was a task. They didn't have vacuums like do or even brooms like we do. They couldn't just turn on the sink and get water to clean the table. They had to walk who knows how far to get the water out of the well... and then get it back to their place. They didn't have diapers or washing machines. They went down to the river and did it by hand. They were farmers and their life depended on the work that they did. There was no such thing as calling out. We have just gotten so used to being busy. We plan out every minute of our day to make sure it can all fit in. We can pay our bills online so we don't have to run to the post office to get stamps. Yet with all of this, are we ready to sit at Jesus' feet? Do we plan that into our day... or is it something that we can do all the time. I know it's planned for me. Life gets me so tired that I don't want to get up and take the first half hour or even the first ten minute of my day sometimes to come to Jesus' feet.
So what is the answer? Quit my job? be less involved with people? never sleep?
It has to do with priories. Right now, I am young and I want so much from life. I want to have a full life, traveling with my husband and friends, make a difference in peoples lives, have a family. But if I do all these things and they are not done while sitting and listening to God then what is the purpose? Life is short, whether is feels like it or not, it really is. Am I going to spend my days running around and filling them with stuff, or can my day be a reflection of God's awesome power and His love for His children. When I first got this promotion at work, I knew that it was from the Lord and that it was in His will that I be there. With that I knew that whatever I did I had to do it for Him. I have gotten away from that. I am so focused on wanting more from that job and in my life that I have forgotten what is so great about life.
I write all this because it was in my heart and I could dwell on it and try and figure it all out. But instead I needed to get it out. I needed the people that know me to know this about me. So I ask for your prayers. Because right now, I don't know how to pray about this. It's just a lot of thoughts and I know that God can understand them... but I also know then power of prayer from loved ones. It would mean a lot to know that I'm not the only one who's ever felt this way. (there is a book about having a Mary heart in a Martha world, but i have decided to stop readying books like that because i know i can find everything in the bible, it'll just take some digging. And I'm not going to truly learn it if i don't find it myself. )
Hope you all are doing fantastic!!!! Love you all! and I miss you who are not in the state of NJ!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Not that anything that I did needs to stay a secret... its just fun to say. Vegas was so much fun. There was so much to see and was so much fun. I am not technologically advanced so i did not put together a slide show.... even though there is so much more to see. This is me standing at the "Welcome to Vegas sign" It was SOOOOO HOT and SSOOO DRY! but nice non the less.
This is the ceiling at our hotel. For the first few nights i got to stay with kelly in the Belagio. It was AMAZING. since I've gotten back I wanted to watch Oceans 11 to see if i could locate any of the places where. And if you look closely you can see the ceiling. This picture really doesn't do it justice.


This is the worlds largest Chocolate fall. It starts in the ceiling and comes all the way down. This ladys head got in the way so it is a little blurry.



Here are two of the coolest spots. This is in the Venetian. and yes this is inside. There are shops on both sides of the street so you have to cross over bridges to get around. There there is New York New York. there is a roller coaster that you can ride that is on top of the hotel and casino. I didn't ride it, but it was just like walking on the streets of new york when you go inside. Last but not least there is the water show. This is something i can't no describe in words. It was just so amazing... like a fine piece of art. I think you can go on you tube and watch all the different water shows, you just have to name the song that you want to hear to go with it. At night it's every 15 minutes. People would stay for hours so they could watch them.
Stay tuned for my next blog where I will post pictures of the real reason why I went.... The wedding.

Thought everyone would like to see what we have been up to. Josh and I took a nice road trip out to Michigan to visit the Crisp family. We had a great time playing with the kids and hanging out with jess and josh. As you can see on my sisters blog that it's always interesting at meal time. Here is Esther bean having a nice after lunch snack. She decided that she didn't want to use her hands... the crumpled up Cheetos would be just fine. Oh man was that a sight.





Olivia and Garrett are pros with riding their bikes. Uncle Josh was trying to show them how to turn around once they got to the bottom of the hill.


Then theres just some fun pictures. I thought I got a picture of the kids playing the WII but maybe I was just helping Garrett punch Olivia (in the boxing game that is)



Th main reason we were able to go out to Michigan was because Josh's best friend Matt was getting married. Josh was the best man, so he gave a nice little speech at the wedding. Matt and Abby both looked really great! It was just ashame that more Camp people couldn't come up/over/where ever. As soon as we got home, I had to Head out the next day because I was going away one business. But now I'm home and everything is settling down.

We have had some awesome times at the shore over the years. Today I was thinking about it a lot because Josh and I were gonna go but the weather was not going to be nice. Often I find myself thinking over all my summers spent at the shore with my family. This pictures proves that even in the early 90's OCNJ was the cool place to be. Man my mom's hair looks good. I'm sure when my brothers sees this, he thinks about all the summers he was stuck sleeping on the floor or on a cot because there was a lot more family then there were beds in the house. My sisters, cousins and I can remember the attic where we slept four to a bed. Oh man those were some good times.
Then we can move forward many years to the year I graduated from High school and we went to the shore right after with my immediate family and my oldest sisters husbands parents.... that was awkward at all. What made it so bad was that we were stuck in the house at all times! We did venture out and played wiffleball in the rain on the beach. But this picture was taken on the last day when I had Olivia wrapped up to keep her from the chilling wind.





And then there was last year with the family photo time. Who's idea was it to take a picture on mom and dads bed? Well.... we all know how that ended.
This is a fun one of me, josh, jess, and josh (wow us Entwistle girls aren't very creative in picking guys with cool names....)



Then that brings us to this year. Josh and I have been down twice so far. This past time we had the opportunity to hang out with Avery!!! Oh Ang and Andrew were there too. She did such an amazing job. As much as I want to be fair to both family's.... She has a true Entwistle beach quality about her. This just gets me to thinking... when will all of my nieces and nephew(s?) be able to play on the beach together??? Till then....

It's amazing how ever since i graduated from high school I have tried my hardest to stay away from my high school. There was a bible study that my class graduating class was holding for those o us who were still around and I never wanted to go because.... well lets just say I had my reasons. Now, being 4 years out of King's I still cant get away from it. You know how sometimes you go to the mall and you say "man I hope I don't see anyone I know"? Well... I feel like I have to say that every day now. Last week I ran into Alyson Scott who was my field hockey/softball couch and then became my English teacher. Then last night I was in Ocean City playing mini golf with Josh and I hear some say "Corrie formally Entwistle" It was Ryan Haag... a fellow graduate of mine. Its never a bad thing running into him b/c I always enjoyed him in High school.... But then today I was in Target just waisting time till my break was over and I hear someone call my name again! Shaun Murray! That's even all the way back to Elementary school. So the moral of my story is that, as long as I live in the state of New Jersey, I will never be able to escape my past of the King's Christian school. For those of you who read this (mainly just my siblings) I'm sure you can understand where I am coming from. These are just some old school pictures that are both awesome and embarassing. Enjoy!


Don't we look nice!!!