Happy Brithday, Camen!

Happy 1st Birthday to my nephew, Camen!

One year ago today - Kaley, Drew, and Caleb holding their new brother for the very first time in the hospital.

One week old in this picture.

. . . and now he's 1!

Personality Test - what are you?

I am very fascinated by people's personalities, and I love learning about why people behave the way they do. In fact, the class I'm taking right now is Organizational Behavior. Our first assignment was to take this personality test and then to write a 4-page paper on what we learned about ourselves and how we interact with others. It's the most amazing thing ever. I couldn't believe what the results said. I had Aaron take it and it read him like a book! :-) When he read my results, he kept saying, "Uh, huh - that's YOU!"

When we were at Kendall and Leanna's last weekend, everyone there took it too. It was really neat to see how different we all are. So, by popular demand, I am blogging this personality test for the enjoyment of all of you. Take it and see what your family says. It really is amazing how much this 72-question test can discover about you.

Go to this link to take the test and write down your four-letter type: www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp.

After you take the test, visit this web page to learn about what you are: www.personalitypage.com. Underneath the heading "The Personality Page" you will see a row of buttons. Click on the "portrait" button, which is the 5th button over and has a picture of a man on it. Click on your 4 letter type and this will give you a summary of your personality type. Another interesting button is the one with arrows on it. This will give you possible career choices.

I am ENFJ. What are you?

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the very best mothers -
Paula Englund and Shirley Herring.

Aaron and I are so blessed!

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

Happy Birthday, Leanna!

Happy 24th Birthday to Leanna!
(one day late)

Hope you had a really special day!

Congrats to Leanna!

Congratulations to my sister-in-law, Leanna Englund, on earning her bachelors degree in nursing! She graduated last Saturday from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. We had a great time and were so glad we were able to go.

Kendall and Leanna

The Englund side.

The Lambeth side.

And a party is not complete without a special cake!

Talking and eating like someone is going to take our plate away!

Camen loved his makeshift "bathtub" and didn't want to get out.
(We stayed in the dorm at Carolina Christian Academy.)

All cleaned up and ready to get dressed for church!

Good Friends + Good Food = Good Times!

We recently ate with Matt & Erika at this really incredible Japanese Restaurant. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of it (not that I could pronounce it or even spell it). But, I do remember that they had really good food! Plus, it's quite a show they put on cooking it for you right at your table! We had a great evening!

Now that is quite the flame!

This really isn't all OUR food. The table with the grill seats 9, so we sat with 5 other people. And no, the light above the table is not really on fire - it just appears to be so in this picture. :-)

Caught Matt sleeping again (just kidding)!
Actually, the chef tossed a shrimp to each person and they had to try to catch it with their mouth! I didn't get to participate since I'm allergic to shrimp, but it was hilarious to watch!

Betty Crocker Kaley!

We ate supper at Jeff and Vicki's last night and afterwards Kaley baked a cake in her Easy Bake Oven. Those little ovens are the neatest things!

Reading the directions first like all good little bakers do.

Caleb measured and added the water to the cake mix.

Drew helped too by putting the cake in the oven.

After the "L-O-N-G" 10 minutes, Kaley excitedly checks her cake.

Success!

And now...the best part - chocolate frosting!

Kaley shared her cake with everybody - insisting that we all try it. :-) And it was good!

A good day!

Today was Administrative Professional's Day - and a very good day it was! When I got to work this morning, I found these beautiful flowers on my desk from President Avery along with a box of chocolates AND a really nice card! He is so kind to me and is absolutely the best boss in the world! I really enjoy working for him and for GBS!


Also, since I occasionally assist Mr. Hooker, he gave me a really nice card and my all-time favorite pastry from Graeter's - cheese crowns! Very yummy!

I'm really glad they have this day! :-)

Absolutely Adorable!

This little boy, Braden, is absolutely adorable! I snapped this picture from the wedding I did Saturday.

Grabbin' at Straws!

Camen was so funny last night! We met Jeff, Vicki, and the children at The Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed a great time visiting with them and eating great food - especially the cheesecake (we had Key Lime, they had Chocolate Tuxedo - both of which are to die for)! Vicki put Camen up on the table after we were done and he grabbed her straw out of her drink. Then he grabbed Kaley's straw and went for Caleb and Drew's too! Finally, he was happy after getting everyone's straws! We were laughing at him and he would throw his head back and laugh right back at us. He was hilarious!


The sad part of the evening was AFTER we left - we discovered Drew had left his wallet on the table. Of course when they went back in to get it - it was gone! Yes, it had money in it. He had just so proudly told Aaron that he had saved up all his money for quite awhile. I felt so bad for him, but no way in the world to get it back. Expensive night for Drew. I hope someone feels really guilty when they spend $40 of a 10-year old's. Grrrr!

What a Storm!

It has been raining most of the day, but right in the middle of church tonight – it really came down! It was raining and hailing so hard that they had to turn the sound up just so we could hear - literally! We were all shocked when we looked outside afterwards – little pebbles of ice were all over the ground! So much so that it looked like snow! I just “happened” to have my snapshot camera in my purse, so here’s what it looked like.

When I checked the weather online, I found this incredible picture below. (Photo by Jeff Swinger, The Enquirer)

“As storms rolled through Cincinnati, a rainbow formed, appearing to link downtown to Northern Kentucky this evening. A wide-angle lens was used for this image.” (www.cincinnati.com)

I think that is pretty nifty!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

Happy Birthday, to my brother,
Jeff Englund!

Happy Easter!

Enjoying my Good Friday (off work)!
Got this comic from my high school friend, Candace. I love it!

Bottoms Up!

This is the funniest picture ever! I'm not really into wildlife photography, but I couldn't resist taking this when I saw these two ducks diving head first under water at the same time! It was hilarious to watch them. I took these a few Saturdays ago at Eden Park.

And yes, they really were ducks - here's the proof. This duck let me get pretty close before heading for safety back into the water. It actually is a pretty creature.

Enjoying Spring . . .

With friends . . .

Goofin' off with Mark and Kristin at Eden Park. The trees and flowers are looking "very springy" right now - so pretty!

and Family!

Aaron and Drew got in some good games of basketball - inside and out!

Kaley proceeds to whiz through their game on her scooter. :-)

I love being a photographer!

What a great day! This morning I photographed Janae Boardman (from Indiana) for her Senior Pictures. She was fun to work with and chose some great outfits (which makes my job so much easier). These two poses are among my favorites!

Back in the good 'ole USA!

Wow! To sum it up in one word - INCREDIBLE! We had an amazing trip to South Africa. I'm trying to catch up on everything from laundry to work to sleep to school work to photography work and am feeling slightly overwhelmed, so this post will be just a few pictures to let you all know I am alive and well.

After 22 hours of travel, including one 15-hour flight, these are VERY happy smiles from 5 tired girls who are glad to be in South Africa!
Our team of 7 included Lauren Mathis, Ashley Beatty, Kim Brown, BethAnn Waltermire, Stephen Gibson, and Mylon Albright - a great group!

Nearly all the kids at the mission speak both the native language (Zulu) and English. This girl taught us some words in Zulu. They were a lot of fun to be with - I think they enjoyed us too!

This is the auditorium on the mission grounds. Yes, it's extremely large - it seats 10,000 people!

We had a safari fun day that was absolutely unbelievable. We saw zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, baboons, rhino, buffalo, warthogs, and a few other animals I didn't even recognize. It was a very exciting day! Yes, I took many pictures of all these animals including these zebras. That day was the first time I realized the mane of the zebra was also black and white striped - amazing!

We visited an AIDS hospital. It was very sad to see all these patients with AIDS, but it was also very incredible to hear their conversion stories and the many miracles that are taking place there. This mission AIDS hospital currently has 48 beds and they are preparing to expand to 3,000 beds. Despite this large increase, they will never be able to keep up with the demand. For every 3 people you see in South Africa, one of them has AIDS - that is an extremely high percentage.

We all loved South Africa and thoroughly enjoyed our trip. However, these words are such a welcome sight!

Since my body is still on South African time (it's 3:30 in the morning there!), I'm off to bed!

A Short Leave of Absence

Tomorrow I will be leaving the country! Yes, it's true. I am leading a group of GBS students on a mission trip to Durban, South Africa. So, I will be leaving blogland for 10 days, but I promise lots of pictures (of course) upon my return. There will be 7 of us total. Pray for our team, and pray for Aaron as he is not going (bummer!).

Since tonight was my "last supper" in the states, Aaron picked up food from my favorite place - Taco Bell! Their food is great, but I also love the funny sayings on the sauce packets - they're hysterical. I'll admit - I read all of them before I eat my food! Here's two of my favorites from tonight. Enjoy!

#8

Today is my nephew's 8th birthday!

Happy Birthday to Caleb Braden Englund!