Texas Christmas

The Boyds got to celebrate Christmas early with Charlie's side of the family this weekend. Friday night we celebrated ours and Robert and Donna's anniversaries. We had a super fancy dinner at the Yacht Club in Horseshoe Bay that was super amazing. Saturday we had lunch with Grandma (Robert's mom), our first Mexican meal of the weekend. We had a great time exchanging gifts and taking pictures.

Grandma Klaeger, Me, Bobi, Robert, Donna, Charlie

Saturday night we had movie watching and present opening time. Even though it was a week early, it isn't hard to get in the celebrating spirit. Sunday was Christmas in San Antonio at Meme and Popo's (Donna's parents). This family ALWAYS has Mexican food for Christmas - lots of dips, chips and tortillas. The adults do "Chinese Christmas" exchange and the little kids run around a scream for a few hours.

Our traditional seat at Meme and Popo's

It was a whirl wind weekend but we had a blast. We will surely miss this side of the family as we embark for Florida on Friday. Love you Robert, Donna, Bobi and Megan!

England

Last month I had the privilege of joining a construction team from my church to do some ministry at our church plant in Sheffield, England. The first church planters arrived there about 5 years ago and now the church owns a building. It was previously some sort of industrial warehouse so our team sought to help make it an amazing place for worship. Their main projects were - a stage, a sound booth, large doors for the main entrance, electrical work, and building and installing cabinets and appliances in the kitchen. My primary objective was to make sure they didn't go hungry! No, I did not pick up a hammer the entire time, but I did my best to assist Susan (the team leader) and Mary (the team administrator) run as smooth a trip as possible. We made sure the guys had water, snacks, meals, and fulfill any other needs that they may have. The team did a GREAT job at going above and beyond on all of their projects. The Sheffield church was truly blessed by their hard work and as were we by their English hospitality. I had the honor of staying with my good friend Jessica Peters (who attends Sheffield Hallam University) and making lots of memories with her. Here are some highlights:

English countryside, plenty to see on hours of train rides.

The main worship area, stage in progress

Building beautiful external doors (and a legit Defender in the background)

The sound booth

                                                              

This is City Center, just outside of Jessica's flat where I stayed.

Our Team!

A day at Chatsworth Castle (where they filmed Pride and Prejudiced)

We had a fancy meal with the girls. I LOVE ginger beer so this ginger infused sparkling lemonade was a treat! Not to mention the white chocolate mousse and meringue

Jessica and part of the gardens

We had a fun, short day to tour London.

 

 

 

 Thank you to everyone who supported me financially and with prayer. It was a joy to serve the church.

July

At the end of a day on the ropes course some times I debrief the day by asking everyone in the group to share a "highlight, lowlight, or insight" (thank you Shane for teaching me that one). So I have decided to answer those questions to debrief the month of July at the Boyd Banda.

Highlight: Our first roomie! Carole officially moved in this month. Charlie and I wouldn't know what to do with ourselves in this big ol house all alone. Carole helps fill the space with jokes, free coffee, funny notes on the fridge, the smell of healthy cooking, and my favorite text "im going to the store, need anything?" Some people might think it's a little strange to have roommates once you are married, but it sure works naturally for us. We are just a bunch of friends living in the same space - sharing just comes like second nature.

Lowlight: The weather. Not once this month have I woken up, let the dogs outside, and the temperature gauge be below 80. Two days this month it didn't hit 100 - on those days the high was 99 - might as well! And our rain accumulation? 0 inches. I will say, it did rain one day, but I suppose not enough to record. So we sweat, take showers, and sweat some more. Of course overall this is a petty thing to call a "lowlight" but I just HAD to complain about it to someone....

Insight: The Holiness of God. Not kidding. I feel like lately the Lord is calling me into the Holy of Holies - to gaze on His unending beauty, love, power, goodness, passion, justice, and on and on I could go. I love that we will never see or understand His fullness as long as we have breath. I will never come to a place of complete understanding or intimacy with Him in this life. Every day there is something to look forward to - so I ask for revelation. And His revelations just make me want to be with Him more. They take me away from myself and point me toward His heart - His heart for His people and His purposes on the earth (as Antioch Community Church puts it).


So now I am off to the ropes course! High today - 103 degrees - I will be wearing a safari hat and sun screen.

Some Purls

Just finished a couple of projects for a friend. The headband is for super special Miss Kiralese - I added a removable flower for her to choose her style. The blanket is for baby Kolter. This was my first attempt at a blanket - and it was ambitious! I found a pattern for a "snuggle bunny" but decided to turn it into a teddy bear. I really hope Kolter likes it! And of course we always need a picture of the dogs. I decided to use Tusker as a model - he was not amused, but Duke gave him some lovin anyway. I am still selling things to help raise money for a mission trip I am going on next month. I will be working as a helper on a construction team that is working on a building project in England. Our home church has a church plant in Sheffield, England and we will be helping them build out their new building. I still need about $600 in the next few weeks. Of course let me know if you would like to help support me - I could knit you something in return!

2709 Sanger

I have been wanting to update everyone on the newest adventure of the Boyd family but just keep putting it off. Today I decided "no longer!" I don't care how not put together the house is, I just can't wait any longer to share about where we now live. We are renting a 100 year old house from some friends of ours. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms and PLENTY of living space for a house full. Next month our friend Carole is moving in with us, then in August we will get two more girls. Emily, a Baylor transfer and Charlie's sister Bobi! So let's count - Charlie, Lindsay, Bobi, Carole, Emily, Tusker, and Duke. We just can't tell the Lord how grateful we are for this home and hope to let His love flow through it. It will be a great place for us to host our Freshman Lifegroup come this fall with lots of laughs, prayer, games, parties, singing, dancing, and eating! So here is a quick preview of the awesomeness:

Tusker and Duke showing off the Living Room


Off of the Living Room, this will be the "TV" Room


My boys in the hallway - on the left side is three bedrooms in a row, on the right is stairs, at the end is the bathroom


Bedroom number one will belong to Carole

Bedroom number two belongs to Bobi

Bedroom number three is for Emily


The Dining Room

Breakfast nook and laundry room in the background


The Kitchen - The heart of this home

The entire upstairs is a master suite - this is the living room with closet and bathroom

The Boyd Bedroom

We also have an attic, basement, front and back porches, fenced in back yard, futon, and fold out couch. What I am saying is - there is plenty of room for you to come visit!

still in champaign.....illinois

after being here nearly three weeks, charlie and i are getting ready to pack up and say goodbye to champaign. we have really enjoyed some of the local spots in town, we love eating at local joints when we travel. if you ever find yourself in central illinios please be sure to visit the following: papa del's (who are rumored to ship frozen pizzas to hugh hefner), seven saints (famous for a delicious assortment of sliders), and carmon's (an authentic french cafe with painfully awkward staff). there was a total of something between 8-10 inches of snow throughout our stay here, which made it obvious why jimmy johns has made such a hit as a delivery service. who wants to scrape their car and shovel their drive way when all they have to do is order over the phone (or even online) and have a freshly made sandwich delivered to their house in just minutes? tonight i sat in a jimmy johns and watched one staff stand at the door with a sandwich and nearly throw it out the door to the driver as he arrived from his last delivery. they really do have "freakishly fast" service. get ready waco!


everyone keeps asking me "what do you do all day?" its a little embarrassing to say "i knit", but im getting over it. these three weeks have allowed me to slow down, learn a new skill, and just breath. i know its not totally fair since charlie is off working hard 10+ hour days, but i mean, i just turned 30, isnt about time i got a sabbatical? im not confident my knitting business will sky rocket immediately (since it is forecasted to reach 70+ degrees in waco next week). but i do see myself working on building an inventory and being ready for next fall. here are some more previews of projects.

i made this cowl with 100% organic cotton

this is a cabled cowl made from baby alpaca wool

my first "mobius" cowl-a single sided circle with an infinite half twist

i do need to work on my photography skills. capturing self portraits and really showing the true character of each project isnt my strong suit. later this week - hats! hope to post pics of the first two i have finished soon. love you all.

the traveling cake

one year and ten days ago charlie and i had the most wonderful wedding that could have existed (to us at least). we were so blessed to have so many friends and family there-thank you if you were able to make it! we also hope you remember eating some of our wedding cake. charlie had a "guinness" cake (that he didnt even get to eat) and i had a triple tier cake. the bottom layer was strawberry and the middle layer was some sort of orange rum cream or something. i dont really remember, but i do remember them being awesome. but of course we saved the top for ourselves. it was mint chocolate. yuuummmyyy!!


after the wedding my maid of honor, lindsey, took possession of the cake and it lived in the freezer in my old basement for a few months. then when she moved out, instead of chucking it away, she packed it up and took it to live in her parents house for a few months. THEN the boyds decided to take a summer trip to florida and of course lindsey wanted to hang out so she brought it to panama city. when we left, we packed up our two dogs and "frozen" cake and made the trek back to texas. lo and behold where did we decided to be during our anniversary? florida. so we packed it up and drove it BACK to florida. i calculate roughly 2038 miles that poor cake survived on top of multiple freezing/thawing episodes. and still came out amazing! i wouldnt recommend fifteen layers of aluminum foil (steph and linds you did a great job) as the best means of preservation. but i do recommend partaking in this tradition-it was super fun.

champaign (illinois)

charlie and i finally arrived in champaign, il a couple of days ago for him to start training for his new position at jimmy john's. the "deep freeze 2011" spent all of its time destroying the south while we drove through clear skies all the way from nashville. it did however start snowing last night and has continued to snow all day today. charlie and larry spend their days in classrooms and training kitchens while i figure out what to do with all of this free time. let me tell you, i haven't gotten bored yet! of course it has only been a couple of days, but i find all sorts of random tasks to fill my time. since we are new to town some of those tasks include finding a bank, post office, gym, grocery store, etc. but once all of those bases have been covered i find myself cataloging holiday photos, compiling all the wedding invitation addresses into one master address book folder, researching knitting projects,etc. fortunately charlie is just as excited as i am about my knitting endeavors. here are some samples of projects i have finished.


of course nearly everyone got a scarf or cowl (those are the circular scarfs that i promise are the next big thing) for christmas. but not only that, my obsessively knitting fingers got a lot of other people excited too! some people just needed a nudge to pick up the habit again but others i helped teach from the ground up. i do hope to get a number of projects going and start a little side business to sell what i've been working on. so if you like something you see ask me about buying one for yourself or a friend.



whoever is reading this: we miss you! whether you are in florida, georgia, texas or anywhere in between-we are not with you and that makes us sad. but if you are passing through champaign stop by our extended stay hotel and ill make you dinner in our micro kitchen.