Christmas time at our house

This year is mine and TJ's first Christmas together as a married couple. Last night we went driving around looking for a tree, come to find out everything closed the minute before we got there, but eventually we ended up buying one from Wallmart, we took it home, drank hot chocolate, and decorated the tree... it was a wonderful evening, and I can't help but look forward to the fun that TJ is going to continue to add to our family, and what a great fun father he's going to be... :)

Life

This is the discovery stage of TJ and my life, we are figuring out how to live life with another person who grew up in a different home than, we are learning to be selfless (although very hard), and make compromise when things don't go our way. I am missing my family, but enjoying every second I have to spend with my TJ. I also am getting to know the Shropshire family, and all their little kwirks. I am also in the nesting stage, and am trying to make our home look like a place we would live. So TJ and I are painting our room as you can see. I will take pictures of the end results, but so far it's just an olive green.
I am excited to be going home to California for Christmas, seeing how I wasn't there last year.
I am making new friends here, and am exited to have people who are willing to get to know me, and invest in me.
TJ and I are looking to get involved in our church here some way, so we will see how that plays out. RIght now I am setting up house, writing thank you notes, and cleaning. At the beginning of next year I will be starting an 18 week patient care technician program, so I'm pretty excited about that, and where it might lead me to work next. GOd is good and in control. I am proud to be HIS child.

On a boat and through the cities

TJ and I got to to on a cruise for a week stopping on various Islands and viewing the area.In Honduras we rode a scooter around the Island of Roatan, and played soccer with some Honduran kids while it was raining. Our day in Belize consisted of encouraging a homeless Belizian in His faith in God, and questioned him in what he was really doing with his life. In Cuzumel, Mexico we also got a scooter and rode it around the whole Island, we ate by the water , and swam in the clear blue water. We brought lots of fancy clothes and had fancy dinners on the ship almost every night... which was fun. The good and bad thing about the ship was that I could have soft serve chocolate ice cream whenever I wanted.
As far as right now, TJ and I are enjoying living in our house together,.. being married. I am getting acclimated to Florida and am pursuing a job as a receptionist for a couple doctors offices, and I am trying to get my CNA (certified nursing assistant).
I am enjoying having a little more time to spend with my Heavenly Father, I am working on bringing everything before Him, understanding that when I try to work everything out on my own, I just have a bad attitude. I really do need Jesus.
I put an update on our new house soon.

Road trip

TJ and I sadly left my home in California to go on our trip across the country back to Florida. We had an interesting. It started with crying my eyes out as we left my home then going to Las Vegas... the sin city. We didn't enjoy it very much. The next day I got sick and through up, by the end of the day we ended up right outside the Grand Canyon where we camped in 8 degree wheather, while being miserable and throwing up more, The next day we took a little trip to the Grand Canyon and on. We stood on Four corners, and stopped at the Colorado River. We drove rthrough the Rockys and stayed with some of TJ's really good family friends... (that was refreshing). The next day we ended up at my brother Del and his wife REL's house (at the MTC) in Missouri, where we also got to see a lot of real good friends. That was amazing. And the next two days were pretty much traving home to Florida. Now we have been trying to put things away, we are having fun making our home ours... :)

Lily Lorraine Shropshire

There has been so much going on lately.

On October 11th I married TJ Shropshire. His whole family flew all the way from FLorida to be with us, an

d that really meant a lot ot me. There was so many people here working and enjoying each other's company. The weather was wonderful and every thing went really well (with a few small glitches).

TJ and I went to Santa Barbara for the first part of our honey moon and stayed in a bed and breakfast... a cottage all to ourselves it was really nice.

I will tell you about the rest as it comes. We have opened our gifts (with the help of our neighbor girls) from the California clan, and visited with my parents, and now TJ and I are headed back to Florida, and on the way we are hoping to see some cool sites.
I am a little sad about leaving home but also I am excited to see how God works in our lives in the next few months.

Sorry for the late update but here it is.

The Neighbor Girls

Last week TJ found a swing in our back yard in a tree, so he pulled it down, and now our back neighbor little girls Caris and Payden (4 & 5) come over to play with us... pretty much every day. TJ and I are pretty busy every day, but it's really refreshing and fun to have them come over all the time to visit us. They follow "Thomas" (TJ) around every wear asking him to push them on the swing, and when they feel like he may push them too high they ask me, because they know I'm a little more gentle... :)

Also I have been needing some little someone's in my life... I have been feeling the lack of.

Our lives are a little bit crazy, but were not stressing out. Were getting married in 12 days, and doing what we can every day.

Cross Country trip

I was in Florida for a week and a half spending alot of time with 11 of the Shropshire family eating Shropshire meals and deserts, having some family talks, and getting to know each other better. I got to see where TJ and I are going to live after we get married. I even sang with the worship team at the church TJ and I are going to attend. I met people that mean a lot to TJ. I think it was a good time for me to see things before I get there an know what to expect a litte more. I can look forward to certai things and prepare myself for things that might be difficult. But I believe that God has prepared me for this season of my life, and he will continue to prepare me for the next season of my life as well. Okay... so on our trip across the country we first took Elin (TJ's younger sister) with us and drove to TJ's older sister Leah and her husband Shannon's house, we spent the night there, with them and their beautiful baby Ella, and we left Elin there. The next day we drove to Houston, Texas to stay with TJ's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tim, then we drove from Houston Texas to Las Crusas, New Mexico to stay with family friends, then we drove from there to Pheonix Arizona to stay with Patty and Jack du Mee, and on the fifth day we drove form Phoenix to Fresno California. It was a fun drive, and it didn't feel to incredibly long because we had good compa