Denver Trip

Let me start off in my post called "Offline Lovies" my blogging friend Kaysie at A Day of K  asked me to take pictures... I will say I didn't take any pictures of Colorado I mostly took pictures of my niece. But when you have a niece as cute as this... it is hard not to. Yes I am totally bias but she is adorable.

At Hammond's Candy Factory

Now for my post:

Let me say I consider my self a Bostonian, while I was not raised in Boston from my first trip to Boston visiting schools I felt like I belonged here and when I left I had a little pain as if leaving home behind. On my second trip to Boston I told my mom I was going to tie myself to a park bench so I could stay. Then the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and I felt it was fate of course it didn't hurt getting my acceptance letter. 

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But after this trip I started to wonder if I really belong in Boston. I mean I love Boston but I miss seeing my niece grow up. Last time I saw her was in June and back then she talked a little but most of it was mumble. Now she is talking and while she says words that don't always make sense with some translation through my sister she and I communicated.

Her showing off her glasses

Her sayings:

"Papapo"- her dog Parker
"Isee"- her dog Cassie
"Big sista"- is what she says when you ask her what she is.
"That five"- is what she says when she walks by her future school that she will be going too when she is five.

My favorite:  "Abba" that is what she calls me because she can't say Aunt Blaire, I don't know if I want her to call me anything else.

Playing with her Pooh ball

During my trip we did uneventful things but life things like going to the park, playing with the ball in the yard, and baking cookies.

Baking cookies

We also went to the Hammond's Candy Factory, walked by the river front in down town Denver, and went to the zoo. She loves the zoo and anytime we mentioned going some place else she said "no zoo" so we had to remind her we were going to the zoo on Monday. I also taught her "rock, paper, scissors" of course she didn't understand the game but it was sweet how excited she got to play it. But I quickly learned when she likes something she does the sign and says "more" until you tell her no more, which she does understand. My favorite memory was on Sunday we went to church and I was walking down the hall she saw me and she gleefully yelled "Abba" then she ran to me and I picked her up in the air. I loved that memory. 

Showing off the shirt I got her
"Always hoppy"
"Boston"

Then we went to the zoo on Monday. To explain this story I have to explain the week before I came to visit my niece visited my dad and step-mom and they took her to the zoo. At the zoo she saw a rhinoceros that pushed a ball around with its nose, she must of really liked it because she mentioned it a lot during the visit. Of course she didn't say rhinoceros she kept saying "nose, ball" instead. So all day at the zoo she kept saying "nose,ball" at least every 10 minutes. We kept promising her we would not leave until we saw the rhinos.

Her looking at the rhino

Sadly the Rhino was quite lazy and did not push the ball around

Well that was my trip to Denver. It may not be as exciting but it was a wonderful trip. But it was hard to leave Denver. My sister has been telling me to move to Denver since I moved to Boston, I have been telling her since I moved here that I felt this is where God was calling me. But once my sister had a baby, she finally found something that would make me want to move to Denver to be close to her, and it is my cute niece. While I love Boston, and the feeling of home I get in Boston, I sometimes hate being so far away. 

I just liked this giraffe... mostly because it was sitting down
and I have never seen on sit down

Quick Update

Hello Lovely Readers,

I am back in Boston and will write about my great trip to Denver soon. I will admit as much as I love Boston it was hard to leave Denver and my niece who calls me "Abba" because she can't say Aunt Blaire yet.

Will write more soon.
-Blaire

Offline Lovelies

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Hello Lovely Readers,

I am taking a few days off from the blogging world as I head to Denver to see my sister, my niece, brother-in-law and the baby bump. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

-Blaire

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I am excited to announce my first guest blogger.

Hi readers of A Journey Through Writing!  I’m Laura from Girl PlusEverything Else.

I like this picture because it makes me feel glamorous as if I was a celebrity being snapped by the paparazzi.  I am probably the least glamorous person I know so that picture is probably false advertising, haha!  I love reading what Blaire has to say on her blog and I was excited when she asked for some guest bloggers.  I tend to use my blog as a journal and write about what’s going on in my life and the things that interest me.  And I like to ramble.  So here is a little something that I have pulled from the nooks of my brain.

I never really had a clear career path.  I was jealous of those kids that knew they wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher.  That seemed so easy to me.  You would go to university, study for the set amount of years and then you would have a proper career at the end of it.  A job that is always in fashion.  And one that was always useful.

I remember a constant horrible panicky feeling in the back of my head that stayed with me from about 14 til 24.  Because I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.  And you reach a stage in your life when people start asking you ALL THE TIME what you’re going to do after school and I didn’t have a response to that question.  I hated the way people would look at me, like I was wasting my parents’ time and money for sending me to a good school, like I was lazy because I couldn’t think of a job or that I was a lost cause. 

I discovered an old school book of mine a while back.  I was probably about eight at the time and we had to write a sentence or two on what we wanted to be when we grew up.  This is what I wrote.

“When I grow up, I would like to be a farmer’s wife.  Or a parrot trainer”

I really like that I didn’t want to be a farmer.  I wanted to be his wife!  I still have a very romantic view of farm life and is pretty much encapsulated in this picture.

 I imagine waking at the crack of dawn (and enjoying it!) and making fresh bread to be eaten at breakfast.  I imagine I would have had three strapping boys that would help their father on the farm.  I think I just liked that there would have been lots of animals around.  I would have dogs (to help with rounding up animals) and cats (to help keep the rats out of the barn).  I would probably have to feed baby lambs in the spring time. 

Also side note, a farmer’s wife is not a career option.   It’s just what occurs if you happen to marry a man who is also a farmer!

Option two… Parrot trainer, I have no idea where that sprang from!  Nowadays I can’t think of anything worse.  Parrots sqwak all the time, they have to be constantly mentally stimulated and they have giant beaks that do an awful lot of damage.  No thanks!

I think that what eight year old Laura was trying to say was that she wanted to do something that made her happy and that was with animals.  I’m now in a new career as a veterinary nurse and I finally feel like I’ve landed on my feet.  I wish I could go back in time and tell my old self not to worry because it all works out in the end.

Birthday wish

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Hello Lovely Readers,

My birthday is not for another couple of months. But I already know what I want. Every Christmas my church does what we call Advent Conspiracy where we readjust our out look on Christmas from buying lots of gifts to keeping Christmas simple and sacred. My church give a special offering every year to organizations like Living Water International and local organizations.

Advent Conspiracy Video

While we give money every Christmas, this year we have wanted to raise more awareness of the water crisis around the world, we also want to build a team up to go on a missions trip to help dig a well, teach the people about clean hygiene and spread the story of the true living water, Jesus (John 7:38). 

Personally, I was really touched when I saw that 1.8 million kids die every year because they lack clean water. If you hang out with me long enough you will know I have a heart for kids. So this statistic really pulled at my heart strings. During advent I gave up buying drinks in order to save up money to give to living water. Also for Christmas I bought my parents gift cards to living water, this allowed them to chose what country they wanted to give money too. But I immediately had it on my heart to go to a country and dig a well. (Something I have never done). I am still praying to God that if this is something He wants me to do that he will keep the doors open. But I am hoping to go to Honduras in August with Living Water International and invest in a community down there. I would love any support and prayer on this. 

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For my birthday I want people to give to Living Water International click here for the Donation page and if you want to learn more about Living Water click here. If you want to support me and my trip to Honduras please contact me, but as I am not 100% certain I will go I would like it more if you guys would directly give money to Living Water International.  

Videos from Living Water...

The Birth of Living Water

A trip from Honduras 

The Story of the Thirsty

Thank you very much. 

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