Thanksgiving Pics

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Here are pics from ours, enjoy!



Apples...LOTS of apples...I somehow peeled a bushel
and 1/2 with my trusty pink Kitchenaid peeler!

Fixin's for our famous Apple pie!

The famous Szabo Apple pie

Just to show you how huge these pies are

here is a pic of Geoff 's head by the pie

Me getting friendly with the turkey

Dad carving the turkey

George making his awesome gravy

Play time with Cadence and Ashley

The family chilling in our living room

Nephew Cody and Cadence

Neice Carrigan and soon to be sis-in-law Megan

making play-doh goodies!

Cadence melting my heart

More family time

Ashley, Chaz and their cute daughter Cadence

"Man...I'm tired of cameras!"

"This pumpkin pie stuff is good!!"

Timbo kitty on a tryptophan high

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

As a wonderful tradition for many families, here is the complete version of Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. *parts 1, 2 and 3*

Not giving up

Yesterday is what Anne, from Anne of Green Gables, would call a 'Jonah Day'.
Nothing went right from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep.

I woke up, make coffee *Gevalia Hazelnut is amazing BTW* and proceeded to get ready for my HESI *fake nursing boards* exam. I usually wake up around 5:30 am and get on the treadmill for 25-45 minutes, but not this morning.
Right before I leave the house, my coffee 'kicks in' and I make a 'pit stop' before the 30 min drive to J.C. After finishing my 'business', washing my hands and getting my bookbag for school, I hear an odd trickling of water in the bathroom. Hmmm maybe I forgot to turn the faucet off all the way...as I walk into the bathroom and the floor is covered in toilet water.
**Okay, I know what you might be thinking, "Amy, courtesy flush!!" No...it wasn't like that thankyou, it just happened to be one of those random things that happened. *our house is around 26/27 years old and needs new pipes, amongst other things*

So needless to say, I'm trying to figure out how to turn the water off when mom comes running in, after just waking up to my cries of four letter words. Okay... Tile + Water + Running = Falling
Thus, Mom fell on her butt, drenched her night gown and stubbed her toe while trying to get to the knob to turn the water off. Okay, by this time Amy is like, "OH MY GOD, MOM IS HURT BECAUSE OF ME!!" I'm running all over the place trying to find towels to clean the floor, while still keeping an eye on the time so I won't be late for my ever important HESI exam for Nursing school.
After the 'toilet fiasco' *and changing my clothes* I drive 30 min to J.C. to take my exam. I forgot to get breakfast, so I went to B.K. and got a rather unhealthy sausage egg cheese biscuit. I get to campus, open up my biscuit start to eat it and then somehow dropped it on the floor board of my car while trying to get situated. I basically ate what didn't hit the floor board, chugged my orange juice and went to the testing center.
I get to the testing center and wait in line to see where I take the exam.
Alright, for those of you who do not know, I have the a mild crush on a guy in my nursing class. He just happened to be standing behind me in line with a buddy of his.
*Just for added info, we found out that we are both artistically inclined last monday and that we both really like eachother's artwork. He's shy and I'm usually not, but in this case I somehow am. We've emailed eachother and he is looking around for drawings to show me*
Anyways, I wait for him after he finds out his place to take the exam and instead of saying something normal like, "Hey, good luck!" or "Are you ready for the exam" I freak out and jabb him in the arm and say, "Hey ...uh...check your email!" He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and was like, "ummm okay" and walked away. Completely mortified at my random punch in the arm and stupid statement...I go to take my test.
We end up starting the test an hour late...
I ended up failing the test with a score of 758 *850 is passing*
Found out that over half my class failed it too, in which we can retake it Dec. 17th.

Went home with a gigantic headache, took an hour nap and went to work only to find utter chaos.

Can we say..."AHHHHHHH!!!" ?

By the grace of God, I had ordered a Chrisitan teaching CD on 'Not giving up'. Let me tell you, what a 'word in season'!! I needed to hear every bit of that CD. What stood out to me the most was, "God didn't put you where you are for no reason. Just because you might fail at something doesn't mean it's over. Get up, dust yourself off and start again!"

Wow... God is soooooo good!!

Becoming who you were born to be

I Peter 3:11 – To enjoy your life, you must be at peace with yourself.

Wow, what a thought! Being at peace with yourself is sometimes one of the hardest things to accomplish in life. So many of us have things we want to change about ourselves, we don't like who we are. I can name about 5 things off the top of my head that I want to change about myself. For many years I have allowed issues, such as my weight, to hold me in bondage. Depression, anxiety, paranoia and low self-esteem *amongst other things* felt like 50 lb weights, keeping me from living the good life God intended me to live. I can remember coming home and just crying because I hated myself soooo much.

Apparently, I had absolutely NO peace with myself. It wasn't until this year that I started to get down to the heart of the problem, and give it to God. The following verse REALLY hit home for me during my struggle:

Galatians 5:14 "Loving yourself is the foundation for all good relationships"

I've had so many bad relationships in my life and the reason for that is this simple truth:

You CANNOT give away what you don't have.

I had no love for myself, how then could I love others in return?

How was I to be a successful Nurse if I couldn't love others??

Inspired by a wonderful book by Joyce Meyer, 'How to Succeed at Being Yourself', I made a list of the things I DID like about myself. In doing so, I got to see my strengths. It was hard at first to think if things I actually liked about myself, but it gradually got easier. The next thing I did was make a list of things I DID NOT like about myself. Making this list actually helped me visualize the things in my life I was letting hold me back from living my life.

The thing that encouraged me, and still does to this day is II Corinthians 3:18, "His word changes us little by little, from glory to glory."

Now, I embrace change...I even look forward to it! Because of God, I now have a new, positive outlook on life. I know I'm not where I need to be, but thank God, I'm not where I use to be!!