Dancing in the Rain

This is my life...

2011-11-09T22:51:00.000-06:00

Only Trust Him/House of Fizzle

2011-08-23T22:34:00.003-05:00

If you're looking at the title to this post and scratching your head in confusion while wondering if I've lost my mind in the 8 months since I last "blogged"...good, and probably. :)

House of Fizzle is an affectionate nickname for House of Faith. Because things are usually "fizzling" around here. Or something. I didn't come up with the nickname, I just laughed at Mindi and Eva the day I heard them answer the phone like that and then decided it was a fitting nickname somehow.

but I digress.

So...since it's been forever since I blogged, I guess a long, rambling post catching everyone up on my life is in order.

sorry.

Maybe someday I'll get around to said long, rambling post, but tonight is not that day. In the words of Inigo Montoya on "The Princess Bride": "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." :) So here's the summary of my life since January. For the really short version, just read the stuff in bold. ;)

February I started interning full-time (read: working for free...raising support) at House of Faith because that was unquestionably where God was leading me to work. It's been an adventure and a stretching, challenging time since then, but I still love it! :) Also in February, I made a wedding cake for a friend who was getting married. It was fun! :)

March...I don't remember any big happenings in March, other than my dad's birthday. :)

April started off with House of Faith family camp, and then had us making a family trip to California for a very special graduation ceremony as Caleb became a Marine--officially. :) We had a great time and we are soooo proud. And since we're talking about birthdays....Mom celebrated her birthday this month! The only other big event in April was that Amber moved into her own apartment.

In May, Josiah turned 15, I turned 25 (no, I didn't get anywhere near accomplishing everything on my list), and our House of Faith summer interns arrived! I was part of the leadership trio within the intern team (our official title was "intern coordinators") so this was a really big event in my life!

June and July will be combined for the sake of brevity...basically, they can be summed up in four words: House of Faith Summer! It was fast, furious, and fabulous! Being in a position of leadership among other young adults, rather than just kids, was a new and sometimes difficult thing for me, but I discovered that I kinda liked it. And I loved our interns! :) Over the course of these two months, we did Sports Camp, 2 Kids' Connections, 4th-6th grade Overnight Camp, and 7th-12th grade Overnight camp, complete with lots of planning and prep in the midst of all that! Also in June, Amber got engaged to Chase Bowman! :)

Then came August...which was supposed to be slower...but instead, in the first two weeks, I coordinated/directed VBS for the first (but probably not last) time in my life (it was great! :) ), and Amber got married to Chase Bowman! And I made her cake! And was her maid-of-honor! (the day after VBS ended!!! :) ) And I became an aunt! (Chase has an adorable little 4-year-old girl named Brooke with whom I am totally in love, of course!)

And now we're still in August, and my computer is beeping low battery at me, (oops, sorry...guess that isn't big news?!) and I got hired part time at House of Faith! Like, a paying job!! At a place I love enough to work for free. How awesome is that?! I am so super thrilled! Like one of our interns this summer, the dearly loved Christine, would say: God is real. :) I mean, I already knew that, but it's fun to see His "realness" in the details of my life.

And now...the "only trust Him" part of the title...in 4 minutes or less, 'cause that's all I've got before my computer dies...basically, it comes to this: that's been the theme of my year. From stepping out in faith to raise support and work at House of Faith, to being part of leadership with the interns when everything in me said, "I can't do this!", to coordinating/directing VBS--the same week my sister got married, in case VBS wasn't overwhelming enough!--to trusting God with my "I really don't see how this is going to work out come December" finances just to have Him give me a job doing what I love at a ministry I love with people I love... "only trust Him." That's all my life is about.

the end.

(maybe details on some of this will come later...for now, be happy. I thought of all of you. Whoever "all of you" are. :) )

Slumber party! :)

2011-01-16T23:35:00.000-06:00

with two of my favorite little ladies... :)

Pretty Special...

2010-12-11T23:12:00.003-06:00

So, I've been working on a couple of the things on my little "things to do before I'm 25 list". Namely, the reading ones. :) Which means I'm currently reading about 4 books AND the Bible... :)

I've read the first three of the Anne of Green Gables books and have definitely fallen in love. I really can't believe I have never before read them! Anne Shirley is the sweetest, most bewitching fictional character I have ever met, and I'm pretty sure that if I could write like Lucy Maud Montgomery I would be the absolutely happiest person in the world. But, alas, I can't write like the wonderful L.M. Montgomery; I can't even write like the sweet, sometimes silly, fictitious Anne-girl; yet I'm still awfully happy. Because I happen to know that it is just as sweet to brighten someone's day with a simple card or letter as it ever could be to be a "literary giant" writing "best-selling classics". So there! :)

And...there's someone else I'd dearly love to be like: Jim Elliot. Yep, I'm slowly working my way through his journals and I just become more and more amazed at this guy! His passion, his focus, his all-out, sold-out, diving-in-the-deep-end approach to a life lived solely for God...it's all so incredibly inspiring! It makes me want to burn all my old journals and start over and make them ever so much more like his! It's not so much that he was perfect as it is that he was perfectly in love with Jesus and it showed so perfectly in his life! And I want to be like that...but I so continually fall so far short of who and what I think I should be.

So I'm coming to another conclusion: my life is entirely too much made up of comparisons and imitations. There is, of course, nothing wrong with having good, strong heroes and even striving to be like them in various ways. But when all that I am is an imitation of someone--besides Jesus Christ, unadulteratedly--something is not quite right. Why is "just me" not good enough? God thinks it is! My life and the way I live it is not going to look just like anyone else's, whether it be Jim Elliot or Anne Shirley. I wasn't made to be Jim Elliot or Anne Shirley, I was made to be me, Haley Nicole Miller. And the funny thing is, God kinda likes me just the way I am; just the way He made me. That makes me feel pretty special... :)

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2010-12-01T01:44:00.001-06:00

Happy (half) birthday to me! :)

2010-11-16T07:54:00.000-06:00

So...today is November 16th, which happens to be my half-birthday. That means it is exactly 6 months until my birthday. To celebrate, I jotted down this little list of 25 things I want to do before I'm 25. Granted, since I only have 6 months left, I may very possibly not actually accomplish all of these things. But it was fun making the list... :) (and yes, the idea sprouted from a comment my mom posted on a previous "25 things" list of a different theme on Facebook. :) ) These are really in no particular order!

Read all of "The Journals of Jim Elliot"
Scrapbook the trip to Bolivia
Finish the Beth Moore Bible study I'm currently doing (A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place--great stuff! :) )
Learn to skate on in-line skates
Read all the unread books on my bookcase
Apply for the fall 2011 semester at Ellerslie (http://www.ellerslie.com/)
Beat my sister at a speed game (Dutch Blitz, Spoons, Blink, etc.)
Finish editing my "Let There Be Light" story
Submit said story for publication somewhere
Get to where I can play a game of tennis with my brothers--and actually score points!
Read the "Anne of Green Gables" books
Write a Bible study
Improve my cake-decorating skills
Love as many children as possible...or at least as many as God brings me!
Learn to actually play at least one song on the harp
Learn sign language
Co-write more songs
Record a CD with the songs I've co-written
Improve my piano-playing
Read the entire Bible through from Genesis to Revelation
Pet some kind of big wild cat (leopard, cheetah, lion, tiger, panther... :) )
Memorize Psalm 119
Try at least 10 new recipes of some sort
Start a puppet/ministry team
Fall even and ever more deeply in love with Jesus Christ, Lover of my soul and the Love of my life!

determined

2010-11-15T13:36:00.000-06:00

The other day, I was flipping through some old journals and I came across this, dated March 24, 1994: "I am determined to see Jesus." I was seven years old, not yet saved, and a stubborn brat. I was "determined" to do a lot of things: eat as much sugar (candy, cookies, whatever!) as I could snitch in any given day; do as little school as I could get away with; spend every spare minute (and quite a few that weren't spare) either reading or playing outside; drive my sister crazy by imitating everything she did, said, and wore; boss my little brothers around to get my way; get dirtier than my mother ever dreamed was possible by playing in the mud; keep everyone outside my family convinced that I was a sweet, perfect little angel... etc, etc! OK, so maybe I didn't do all of those things on purpose, but hey--it is who I was! Yet somehow, God was already working in my sinful little heart to draw me to Himself. How amazing is that?! And in the midst of my little girl world, I simply knew that I wanted to see Him. I wanted to know Him. I was determined to see Him!

I've outgrown (by the grace of God!) a lot of those little girlish kinds of things. I'm older, more mature, and hopefully more like Jesus. But one thing I've never outgrown (also by the grace of God!) is that determination to see Jesus. I'm still determined to see Him. I still live to know Him. Whatever it takes, whatever the cost may be, I am going to seek my Jesus. Through every fall--every time I compromise--every time I yield to a temptation--every time I'm too distracted or too busy or too tired or too whatever--He is still there, drawing me on. And I'm determined to keep running toward Him. I am going to see and know Jesus Christ! Who's with me?!

Final Bolivia Update

2010-11-05T00:55:00.000-05:00

Hey, y'all! :)
Well, we're actually home (it's hard to believe we've been home a week!), but I decided to go ahead and send out one last update e-mail to fill everyone in on our last week in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was a busy, crazy, full week (hence the reason I didn't ever get an e-mail sent) as we tried to pack as much into it as we could and spent every possible second with the kids. :)

So...Thursday (October 21st) we went to the Cristo, one of the main tourist attractions in Cochabamba. It's the big statue of Jesus up on a hill. Kaley came with us for the afternoon. We rode up on the teleferico, a sort of cable car type thing. Once up there, we took pictures (of course!), sat on the little wall and watched a thunderstorm come in, played on the playground (swings and broken see-saws...), and just had a good time visiting and enjoying the scenery. From there we went to get ice cream, did a little shopping, got trancapechos, and then trekked back to House 1 (after a stop at Kaley's house) to watch "Anne of Green Gables", which we had discovered was a mutual favorite movie. :) It was a fun day, with a LOT of walking...though I was kind of sad that I didn't see my kiddos at all that day. But I made up for it by hanging out with them all day Friday. :)

Saturday (October 23rd) we hung out with the House 2 kids all day. Amber, Savannah, Kaley and I all headed over there with our 3 oldest kids from House 1. Then we took our 3 and 8 of the House 2 kids to the park where they had a great time walking through the aquarium, swinging, trying to do monkey bars, and all sorts of other kids-at-the-park things. Of course, we had fun, too!! And took lots of pictures. :) After the park, we took them to eat pizza in the food court at IC Norte...it's really interesting the kinds of looks 4 gringas with 11 Bolivian children get out in public places. But hey, the pizza was good and the kids loved it.
Then we headed back to the house where we spent the rest of the afternoon painting the girls' fingernails and making bracelets with the older kids (thank you, House of Faith summer camp! :) ) and just visiting/loving on the precious little (and not so little) guys. We got home in time to chill with our House 1 kids for a little while before bedtime and help the tias with the crazy bedtime routine. :)

Sunday (October 24th) after attending a Spanish-speaking church (with Jhosie and Fabiola), we loaded a bunch of bridge kids up (in Jennifer's car and the big "tank" that is usually House 2's car) and drove up a mountain trail to some natural hot springs/pool kind of thing. Now THAT was an adventure!! The "tank" is a standard, so Jen asked Amber to drive it up. Kaley and I and 5 or 6 of the bridge kids rode in that car. It really was pretty much just a trail we were driving up; Jennifer had been told the main road was closed, so we were taking kind of the back way up. It took us over an hour to get up the mountain, and there were some nerve-wracking moments in that hour. (steep mountain trail + standard vehicle that occasionally died on the way up a hill + switchback turns...I think you get the picture!) However, the view was beautiful and once we got up to the springs/pool it was nice. Kaley and I had not brought swimsuits, so we didn't plan on swimming. However, we did take our shoes off and sit on the side of the pool with our feet in the water. Apparently, that was a mistake; 2 of Jen's kids (Jason and I'm not sure who else) came up behind us and pushed us in with no warning. Good thing we can swim! (also a good thing I had taken my camera out of my pocket... :P) The water was nice and we enjoyed swimming; the freezing afterward was not as much fun. We hung out and ate supper up on the mountain then headed back down. The main road was NOT closed, so we went down that way--definitely a better route! :)

Tuesday (October 26th) we had a double birthday party and picture day at House 2. I used to think it was a bit difficult to get our family (8 people) all dressed, ready, posed, and smiling for pictures. Now, it seems like a piece of cake compared to the adventure of getting 21 children age 4 and under dressed, loaded up, transported, combined with 12 more children (all under age 9, I believe), posed, and smiling for pictures! Whew! Elena (the volunteer-in-charge at House 2) was incredibly organized and had stickers with names taped to the bench and stumps so that we were able to just stick everyone quickly in their place as soon as we got to House 2 and snap pictures while everyone was still clean and pretty happy. Yay, Elena! :)
After the picture taking, we went on to celebrate birthdays. Savannah and I had stayed up late the night before making birthday cakes (Damaris wanted a cow, made by Savannah; Ana Maria wanted a flower, made by yours truly), which were enjoyed by all. There was also PLENTY of Jello (did I mention that Jello is a big deal in Bolivia?), lots of love and fun and laughter, and just a general good time. After a couple hours, we loaded our 21 kiddos back up and took them home to House 1. Where, because they had been awakened from their naps early (and then allowed to feast on more sugar than they usually get in month...), they were ALL rather cranky. It was a bit of a trying hour and a half before we finally put them to bed 30 minutes early! But, even while they were all fighting, yelling, crying over everything, etc., they still managed to be quite precious. And I love them. Even then. :)

Wednesday (October 27th) we loved on our kiddos as much as possible, and then there was a "Christmas catalog/newsletter stuffing party" by most of the volunteers and Jen at House 2. Amber and I were bringing the Christmas mail out back with us (because it has to be mailed from McKinney) and Jen had just picked it all up from the printer that afternoon. So we spent a few hours folding, stuffing, taping, stickering, etc. all those catalogs/newsletters. It was kind of fun, actually.
Amber and I took a break in the middle to run home to House 1 so we could help tuck the kids into bed and tell them goodbye since we would be leaving before they were awake the next morning. That part was not fun...telling those kids goodbye (especially my Jhosie, who I know absolutely does not understand that I was leaving, much less why, etc.) was one of the hardest things I've ever done. :( If I could have brought them all home with me, I gladly would have!!! But I couldn't...so instead, I left a large part of my heart in Bolivia.
Anyway, then when we finished with mail out (at about 10, 10:30 pm) we took it back to House 1, dropped the cars off, and took a taxi to an enchanting little Italian restaurant ("we" being Amber, Jen, and I at this point). The food was good, the candlelight dinner was fun, and it was after midnight before we left. By this time, we were joking about not even going to bed; at least, I was joking; I knew that I desperately needed some sleep!! :) It was about 1 am or so when I went to bed, though (maybe later?)...which might explain why I then managed to sleep through my alarm when it went off at 4:30 am!!

Thursday (October 28th), despite Amber's alarm not going off and me sleeping through mine, we managed to leave almost when we'd planned to. Jen came in and woke us up about five minutes after 5am (which was when we planned to leave) and after much hurrying and scurrying we left for the airport. We flew out of Cochabamba at 6:20 am, watching a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. The trip was pretty uneventful, really. Our flight leaving Santa Cruz was an hour late leaving, so when we got to Miami we were a little rushed for time. After running what seemed like the entire airport (to passport control, to baggage claim, to customs, to re-check our bags, to our gate... :P), we made it on our flight about 10 minutes before it took off. And then--Dallas, Mom, good Tex-Mex food, and a night out in the country with our life-long friends, the Vests! :) It was late/early when we went to bed that night, too, since we haven't seen the Vests in so long Mary Kathryn had asked her mom if we'd divorced them...and so there was much catching up and visiting to be done! But it was definitely worth a lack of sleep to see them. :)

Friday (October 29th) we slept in, did some more visiting with the Vests, "Half-Price Books" shopped in the DFW area and met up with my best friend and her family for dinner. Fun day! :) And then it was home to San Angelo, where Daddy actually woke the boys up in the middle of the night so they could say "hello" as soon as we got home. And my dog was very happy to see me. And I got to sleep in my own bed...once again, another late/early night, but soooo worth it! I missed my family (and my dog!) an awful lot this month; I've never been a gone for a month straight before!

So...that's pretty much it. That adventure is over now, leaving lots of sweet memories and new experiences and lessons learned/growth experienced. And for those who keep asking--you bet I would go back. Anyone want to go with me? Or fund the trip... ;)

Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement over this last month! I love and appreciate each one of you. May the Lord bless you with all that He is as you adventure through life with Him!

Christmas season...

2010-11-04T14:46:00.001-05:00

...has officially arrived; the music in the CD player tells me so. :)

Bolivia update #4

2010-10-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

Hola, everyone! :)
Well, I really did not intend to let a whole week go by before sending out another update... :)

Life has been pretty "normal" here. A lot of hanging out with the kids and the tias, a couple trips downtown...
We watched a movie with the tias on night duty the other night--Sister Act. It was in Spanish and there weren't English subtitles, so it was a bit interesting at times. :) At least I'd seen it before so I wasn't totally lost! (we watched "El Rey Leon" in Spanish with the kids one night; that one was easy because I pretty much have it memorized :) ). Another night we played a dice game with Tia Consuelo and Tia Yovana (pronounced Jo-vonna...strange, I know). It was actually very similar to Yahtzee and was lots of fun once we caught on to how it works and stuff. It would not have been nearly as confusing to begin with if it hadn't all been explained in Spanish, I'm fairly certain! :)

Saturday evening, Amber, Jennifer, and I went to a parade with a bunch of Jen's bridge kids because Juan de Dios (one of her kids) was dancing in the parade. Parades are a much bigger deal here, I think! It was all bands and people dressed up (many of them rather strangely, with a few downright scary looking creatures) dancing. But they shut down a whole section of one of the busiest streets for the majority of the day for this parade and there were like hundreds of people there. And since we were walking around trying to find Juan de Dios, we kept standing in people's way. At one point we're standing there, conferring I guess (they were talking in Spanish!) and suddenly I feel something hit my leg; I look around and this little old lady is yelling at us to move out of her way. She was throwing rocks at our feet/legs! It was crazy. I was like, "Um...I think they want us to move..." :)
Amber and I left the parade early to get to the church for "La Noche Andina", where a group called Alfa y Omega (that Edwin, one of the pastors at Cochabamba International Church, plays in) was playing traditional Bolivian Indian kind of music with Christian lyrics and they had dancers (more nicely dressed than those in the parade... :) ). That was pretty cool; though, we got there pretty late because Amber and Jennifer had figured it wouldn't start until nearly an hour late. (almost nothing in Bolivia starts on time. Jennifer refers to it as "the land of the mananas [tomorrows]") But, lo and behold, they started almost on time, so we caught one song before intermission and then the second "half". But I really enjoyed the part we saw! They did a great job.

Sunday, we just took 3 kiddos to church--Fabiola, Jhosie, and Carla. Next week, apparently, we're going to Elena's church, so it was our last Sunday at CIC and Amber wanted to be able to talk to people afterward (people she knew from her previous trips here). So she had Fabiola and I had Jhosie and Carla (the tias gave her a hard time about the fact that I was taking two 2-year-olds and she was just taking one baby :) ). Kaley came home from church with us, and after lunch out and getting the kids home and to bed the three of us went to the store. Then it was off to the stadium to watch a soccer game with Jennifer and several of her bridge kids. It was a good game; Wilstremmen (or however it's spelled--a Cochabamba team) tied the other team, 2 to 2. "We" scored in the first half, and then there was nothing for the longest time, and then in the last 5 minutes, the other team scored twice and we scored again. The police were beginning to show up in force to prevent a riot should we lose...
After the soccer game, all the volunteers (Savannah, Elena, Kaley, Amber, and myself) gathered at House 1 for a "homecooked dinner". Jennifer got back at almost 8 pm, just as we were getting ready to eat without her. But we had fun anyway, just hanging out, getting to know each other better. Elena and Savannah got to talking about "Bon Qui Qui", and on discovering that the rest of us hadn't ever seen her (though I saw some pretty good copycats this summer... ;) ), they found YouTube videos and we all enjoyed a laugh together.

Today...Amber and I went to La Cancha (the market) and spent most of the morning and early afternoon shopping around there. Pretty cool place! We have Jonathan and Micah's birthday presents and Christmas presents for everyone...record-setting for me! :) Then we were going to eat at the Silpancho Palace, because they're supposed to have the best silpanchos (a delicious Bolivian dish that we've Americanized back home), but we couldn't find it, so we ended up eating silpanchos at a different restaurant, instead. They weren't the best, but they were HUGE plates; neither of us came close to finishing. We were wishing we had split one!

So that's really all that's going on here...since this one is a shorter e-mail...first I'll give a quick update on my Jhosie, and then maybe I'll pick a couple random kids to "introduce".
Jhosie has completely captured my heart (in case y'all hadn't figured that out already). She is walking better; she just has to hold one of my hands, and she's learning to navigate the stairs by holding onto the rail and one hand. She loves walking--she's just not confident enough to take off on her own yet. :) I don't remember if I mentioned her love of balls before...but she loves them! And she's getting really good at playing "catch" with some of the other kids. She doesn't do too well if she has to wait too long for them to roll it back to her, though. :) She's also eating better, at least usually. She doesn't like new foods (reminds me of someone else...) and she's not a fan of anything that isn't fed her on a spoon...but she's in luck, because they eat a LOT of soup here, so *shrug*. Jhosie's other love is music; she's quite the jammin' girl, and she is almost always perfectly on beat--clapping her hands, stomping her feet, bobbing her head...the cutest is when she starts to "sing" along with a sort of combination of humming and grunting. :)

So...how about "meeting" las trillizas (tree-yee--zas)? The triplets are about 8 months; they came here back in February, I believe, amid a LOT of media attention (surviving, natural triplets are apparently rare in Bolivia). Looking at pictures of them then, it's hard to believe they're the same babies! They were such tiny, preemie little things; now they are fat, chunky babies. :) They are usually a happy, laughing, squealing little bunch, unless they're hungry or someone is trying to get them to crawl. Their mom actually comes every afternoon, and some nights, taking care of them. Eventually, once she has a place to live (which someone is fixing up for her), she'll take them home. She's great with them, too!
Speaking of babies who don't want to crawl...Faviana (Favi, for short) is a major favorite around here; she's a year old, one of the happiest babies I've ever seen, but completely content to just sit and watch the world go by. She has absolutely no interest in moving--crawling or walking. So we're working on that. She was the only baby for quite some time, so that has probably contributed to the problem. :)

And...Carla. I believe I mentioned Brayan last time? Well, Carla is his younger sister. She's absolutely adorable, and usually pretty well-behaved. She is, however, quite the tattle-tale. She's only 2, so she doesn't always have words to say what it is someone has done or is doing that she thinks they ought not, but she will definitely call it to your attention! And of course, she thinks anything she can't do no one else is allowed to do, either, so it's a bit humorous when she's telling on other tias. "Tia! Tia! Tia!" she'll shout until you finally acknowledge her, and then if you don't do something about whatever she's pointing out to you, she'll keep bringing it up. It's kind of funny, but it gets irritating after a while. :) She and Brayan are one sibling set that don't act as much like siblings as the other sets...in fact, I just found out the other day that they go together!

So, those are some of our kiddos. :) We only have a little over a week left here...that's hard to believe! On the one hand, I'm excited about going home--I miss everyone SO much! On the other...it's kinda sad to think about leaving. I'm going to miss everyone HERE so much! But I know God's got it all under control, so I'm leaving these precious kids in very good hands. :)

Love y'all! May the Lord richly bless you in all that you do! :)

Bolivia update #3

2010-10-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

Hola, everyone! :)
Well, as I start this e-mail, anyway, I have sweet little Fabiola asleep next to me on my bed...which means that there is a good chance I'll get interrupted and have to finish later. :) As I told a friend, I'm pretty sure I'll go through "baby withdrawals" when I get home; living with 3 "baby babies" and 3 that are 8 months old (the triplets!) has spoiled me. :)

For the most part, life is falling into a routine here, so I'll just kind of fill you in on the few things outside the norm and then maybe "introduce" you to some of the kids here. You know, besides Jhosie. :) Also, FYI, there are a few pictures up on Facebook; the internet here is really slow and my computer has issues, so I'm trying to get more added but it happens slowly. And just so you know--I can't post names with photos, you might have to guess at some of them. Only not in a comment, because I'd have to delete it. :) OK, moving on...

We were able to finally call home and talk to our family on Thursday...that was the first time in my life I'd gone 8 1/2 days without talking to my family!!! I'm not a big fan of it, either (going that long without talking to them that is). :P So it was soooo wonderful to hear their voices and catch up on some of their news.

Amber got almost lost in Cochabamba Friday morning. There's a new volunteer (her name is Kaley...and yes, that's how she spells it. This could get interesting... :) ) but she's staying with a family in Cochabamba. She got here Thursday, Elena (the volunteer who runs House 2, with the older kids) picked her up, I guess, and took her to the two homes and such, but somebody needed to go get her today. Jennifer thought it would be a good idea for her to learn to use the trufis (public transportation--there are buses and trufis), so Amber was going to go get her and help her with that (since Kaley doesn't speak Spanish). Except Jen told Amber the wrong trufi to take to GET there. So here at the house, when Amber had been gone about an hour and a half and we hadn't heard from anyone, Savannah called the family Kaley is staying with and found out that nobody had gotten there yet. So, we got in the car to get Kaley and try to find Amber. While we were on the way, Jen called Savannah (or maybe Savannah called Jen?) and she was on the line with Amber and Jen told Savannah that Amber was there at the house. When we got there, though, there was no Amber...so we started to drive around and spotted her pretty quickly. Turns out, after realizing that Jen told her the wrong trufi and getting back to the right street, Amber had gone to the right house, but before she could knock or anything a lady standing at a shop nearby told her that "they" had already left; we're still not sure what that lady was talking about, because Kaley and her hostess were there the whole time!! So anyway...then Amber ended up going straight back out to meet Jennifer at the bridge for a soccer game that Jen's kids were playing. (apparently, they beat the winners of the last championship; a team that usually stomps their opponents 5 or 6 to 0.) So she had a long busy day!

Saturday, 3 of us volunteers took the 7 oldest kids to a park for the morning. This particular park is more than just a playground; it also had a sort of mini-aquarium (which the kids LOVED!! :) ) and a roller coaster (which we couldn't get any of them to get on) and who knows what else. They had a blast, we all came back tired, fed them and laid them down for a nap. (I took a nap, too...with Fabiola. She's such a precious bundle to snuggle and rest with!)

Sunday, Amber and I took four 2-year-olds (Pedro and Angel [twins], Esteban, and Carla) and Fabiola with us to church. Jennifer brought another of the babies, Santiago, with her. Corraling 4 two-year-olds was a bit interesting, but they went to the playroom after the singing (which they all enjoy) so it really wasn't a big deal. Esteban was hilarious...not only would he clap and "dance" through each song, at the end he would clap real loud and yell "bravo!" quite loudly. One of the pastors came over and teased Jennifer about her kids needing to go to a Pentecostal church. :) I thought it was adorable. What was really interesting was taking them out to lunch...the stares we got from people! You could just see people wondering how 3 gringas came to have 6 Bolivian children, all very close in age... :)
On the way back from church, we went by the bridge, so it was rather late when we got back. We got all our kids changed and in bed, and then Amber, Fabiola, and I went to the store to get stuff for icing for the cookies we made the night before. We got back in time to make the icing, get ready, and get the 5 oldest kids up and ready to go. Then we headed to House 2 where we created joyful chaos for a while decorating the cookies. :) It was fun, and the kids had a blast. They all did a great job of just decorating their 3 cookies without eating any cookie or icing, and then we let them each decorate one more to eat.
Then, after very quickly feeding them all supper, we took 8 of the older ones (one of the girls fell asleep before we left, so we left her there) and our 5 and headed to church for a special "night of praise". I can imagine we made quite a sight, 5 adults (4 volunteers and Vico, Elena's boyfriend) and 13 children arriving and sitting in the second and third rows on the far side. Of course, I bet it was even more interesting when said 18 people tried to quietly sneak out before it was over because Elena had to get back before 9pm so the tia at House 2 could leave... :) And actually, we were pretty successful. The kids were great and just quietly followed us out, but there is NO missing that event (and it IS an event!), especially with where we were sitting!
Jennifer picked up a pizza on her way home from the church (she was playing keyboard, so she couldn't exactly leave when we did). Since she's a vegetarian, you can imagine it was a kind of interesting pizza...mine ended up being cheese, pretty much. :) Then the four of us here at House 1 played Phase 10...Jennifer won, thus sealing Amber's statement that "Jennifer always wins this game!"

Which brings us to Monday when Amber and I took Jhair (one of the 2 oldest kids here) out. He goes home with his dad every night and on weekends, so he ends up not getting to go a lot of places because they can't be sure they'll be back before his dad picks him up. So Amber had promised him that she would take him somewhere at some point. We took him to a park and then out to eat and he was sooo happy. He's an absolutely adorable little guy with the cutest facial expressions and he absolutely LOVES Amber. Me...well, evidently he feels the need to look out for me. At the restaurant, we ordered our food (it's kind of a fast food style restaurant, complete with an indoor playground) and sat down to wait and Amber decided to take him to the bathroom to wash his hands. When they came back, she said Jhair kept telling her they needed to hurry so I wouldn't cry. Then I went to wash my hands, and when I got back Amber said he kept asking her if her "hermanita" ("little sister", or just the endearing form of "sister") was OK, should he go with her?, and was I going to cry? I'm not real sure what that was all about, other than the fact that I somehow seem to inspire protective instincts in guys of all ages and varying nationalities... :)

OK, so maybe life is not as routine as I thought... :) Since you've already sort of "met" a couple of the kids, I'll just throw one more in here and be done.
Brayan (pronounced like "Bryan") is 3 years old and ALL boy. He's a smiling bundle of fun with a whole lot of mischief thrown in, and he stole my heart the first day when he met us at the door with a huge grin, a hug, and an "hola, tia!" as if we were the very people he'd been waiting his whole life to see. He can definitely be a handful (it seems like we hear or say "No, Brayan!" an awful lot...) but he's a sweet, loving child and he loves to dote on the babies. He also loves to repeat everything I say, so I've taught him to say "copycat". Only he says it with an accent, so it's really cute. :)

So, that's pretty much life so far. And lo and behold, Fabiola is STILL asleep (though I think she may be starting to wake up). :) I do believe she prefers sleeping on her side to sleeping on her back (note to self...). But, the other kids are all already done with supper and I can hear them playing outside, so I think we're going to go join them.

We love you all! God bless!

Bolivia update #2

2010-10-06T09:45:00.000-05:00

Hey, y'all! :)
Well, this update will probably be longer than the first one...it's hard to believe we've only been here one week! So many adventures in so little time...

So, we'll start with the "birthday party under the bridge" that was on Sunday:
First you have to remember that everyone there (except the three of us "senoritas") was high on glue. We took the cake...which we had made...which was a whole 'nother adventure (I'll tell the story of that in a minute :) ) So, it wasn't really much of anything compared to our cakes stateside, but THEY thought it was pretty cool. So we sat on their beds under the bridge and they set up their little "table" (which was some kind of metal container turned upside down). They were so cute...they spread a sort of tapestry hanging or blanket over it like a "table cloth". They sang happy birthday...in Spanish and then English, multiple times because it took them a little bit to find a lighter for the candle. :) And they all wanted a "foto" taken (I had my camera with me) --with the birthday girl, with the senoritas, with their girlfriend/boyfriend, with one of the ladies' baby that was being passed around... :) Anyway, after they ate all the cake (big cake; we gave them big slices :) ), a bunch of them + us piled into Jennifer's car, which is only meant to hold like 5 people but we had, um, 11 in there. :) And we drove around for a while...this person wanted to go here, another wanted to go there, a couple were just along for the ride...actually, we had 12 in there because we also had the baby. So, anyway, that was pretty much the extent of the party under the bridge.

And...the cake. Jennifer actually baked it; she did two white layers and two chocolate. Well, when she did the white ones, she didn't grease and flour the pans very well. SO, they were falling apart when she dumped them out. Then, she dumped them while they were still warm, so they stuck to the plates they were on, so they were basically crumbles. So trying to layer it...well, it wasn't working. The weight of the icing and the other layers was just pushing the crumble part out. :P So we ended up putting it in a glass bowl sort of thing and just decorating the top (Amber's brilliant idea!). But it was crumbly, there was no way to ice it smooth or keep crumbles out of the icing...so we used sprinkles to help cover that up. It ended up looking like a giant cupcake, really. Kinda cute, considering the disaster it started out as. :)

Monday was a pretty normal day; we spent the morning with the kiddos while the tias made bread (the making bread part isn't normal; they only do that once every 2 weeks), fed them lunch, got them all tucked in for a nap, had a couple of hours to ourselves, then they were up and eating supper at 4:45/5 pm. I am soooo not used to eating that early; come bedtime every night I am really hungry! But there's pretty much always bread and fruit in the kitchen, so I find something to eat.

The "older" kids went to bed at 8, then I was hanging out in the playroom with Santiago (one of the baby babies) and the triplets (who are almost 8 months old) keeping them happy and quiet until they got their bottles at 9. THEN I got to start on making the birthday cake for Benito, one of the boys here. There was only one pan and I was doing 2 layers, so it took about an hour and a half just to get the cake baked...so I just iced it Monday night and decorated it Tuesday. It's certainly a bit of a challenge to decorate a cake without any of the stuff I'm used to having to do it with, but it was simple and cute. Benito's favorite thing is "autos" (cars!) so it had little cars on it and of course it said "feliz cumpleanos!" The worst part was probably my lack of artistic ability with the "cars", though they were at least recognizable!! :)

Then on Tuesday, we had the birthday party in the afternoon. It was also the birthday of the one of the tias' son, so we went to her house to party. We took 8 of our kids; we got them up from their nap at 2:30 (considerably earlier than they usually get up!), got them dressed and ready to go (apparently, people dress up for birthday parties here. Like, really dress up--like for church. Even if the birthday party is for a 3 and 4 year old) and left about 3. We didn't get home until 7:15. When these people throw a birthday party, they do it in grand style!! There was a ton of Jello; soda; other sweets, and of course cake. They also served us a chicken and rice dinner which was really good. With all that sugar, though, our kids were pretty wound up! :)

There was also a clown at the birthday party. A couple of our kids were afraid of him, but at least they were OK as long as they were right next to a tia...in our lap or holding onto us in some way. The clown was quite interesting! At first, Savannah (the other volunteer here at the baby home) and I were the only "gringas" there; Amber and Jennifer arrived right before we ate dinner. So he (the clown) was making the most of our presence! Most of it was just stuff like "how do you say ------ in English?" (nose, ear, hello, counting, etc.) and asking us what our name was. There were a few times, though, when he was talking about one of us, and everyone was laughing or shaking their head, and I had NO idea what he was saying. And I wasn't sitting close enough to Savannah to ask. Then later, after Amber and Jennifer got there, he came over to where we were eating and told us that whichever of us couldn't finish our food (which we had just been talking about how much food there was on our plates and how we couldn't eat it all), he was going to marry (he said all this in Spanish, of course). A little later, he gets up and starts talking and he has a ring and I don't really understand what he's saying until all of a sudden he says, "Haley!" and I was like, "what?!" The other girls are laughing soooo hard, and Amber and Jennifer were saying, "go ahead, go over there." So I walk over and he picks a flower and goes down on one knee, says something, gives me the flower, gives me a hug, and that was it. It was funny, really, but kinda weird...since I had no idea what he was saying at any point in time!!! But all the tias got a real kick out of it; the ones who were there and the ones we told when we got back. So, anyway...that's the story of how I got married (or engaged? I have no idea!!) to a clown at a birthday party in Bolivia. :) And Jennifer has the pictures to prove it. :) (and, as those of you on Facebook will have seen, I thought it would make a great Facebook status. ;) )

So that's the rundown on days and events...Amber and I both are, of course, in love with all the kids here. We each have our own special one, though; Jhosie is "mine", and Amber has "adopted" one of the little babies, Fabiola, as "hers". Fabiola is 3 months old, but she was a preemie, so she's just now at about newborn size. However, she is much more awake and alert than a usual newborn! She's the cutest thing...she has a TON of hair, and we think her face kind of looks like a little monkey, which just adds to her adorableness in our opinion. :) When we first got here, she was a very fussy little thing, but Amber figured out it was her formula that was making her tummy ache, so they switched her formula and now she's a happy baby most of the time.
We took Fabiola, Jhosie, and one of the sets of twins (Pedro and Angel [pronoucned Ahn-hel, emphasis on the 'ahn']) to church with us on Sunday. They were all really good; Jhosie LOVES the music! It's so sweet to watch her sway and clap her hands and stomp her feet to the music and kinda hum along sometimes (Jhosie doesn't actually say words yet).
When we got back from the birthday party last night, Jhosie made my night. I walked into the room where she was and started talking to other kids. Jhosie was all the way across the room, just sitting on the floor folded over like she has a tendency to do if someone isn't intentionally involving her in something in some way. But when I started talking, she raised her head and then started crawling toward me. She crawled all the way across the room, pulled herself up by my arm/shoulder, and gave me a kiss--and a huuuuuge smile. :) She's SO precious and I love her SO much....she's the one kid I want so badly to take home with me!! She needs a defender and a whooooole lot of love--she really needs a family.

And...one last kinda interesting thing to close out this reeeaaalllyyy long e-mail. At least I think it's kinda interesting to take showers with mosquitoes... :) The mosquitos are actually pretty bad in other places, too, at night, but in the morning when I go to take a shower, there are hundreds of them (it seems, anyway) in the bathroom and the shower. :P The first time I was like, "this is sooooo gross". Now I just think "this is soooo funny..." :)

Well, I better run...my computer and camera finally finished moving all my pictures over (more than 400 from one week... ay, yi, yi... :) ) so maybe I'll get some posted on Facebook at some point. After I make sure it's OK with Jennifer, that is. :)

May the Lord bless each of you with His great love and grace! We love y'all!

Bolivia update #1

2010-10-02T08:19:00.000-05:00

So, now that we've been home about a week... :P Sorry I didn't get any updates posted! I've decided to just go back and post the e-mails I sent out while in Bolivia. So, if you got the e-mails: you've already seen all this, sorry!

Hola, everyone!
This is just going to be a very quick update because I only have a few minutes... :)

So far, it's been crazy. The trip here was pretty uneventful, apart from a few moments of panic in La Paz when, first of all, they wouldn't take two of my twenty dollar bills for the visa because they were torn. Amber had already gone through and was getting our bags; I could see her, but she couldn't see me, the dude didn't speak English...I was pretty much freaked until I finally managed to yell Amber's name loud enough for her to hear me and she came over and had two new, fresh bills to give him. :P THEN we weren't sure we were going to make it to our gate in time; we did, barely. :)

Jennifer (the founder and director of Casa de Amor) picked us up at the airport with 3 little cuties in tow...one being one of their new babies, Maria Natalia (it's soooo confusing; all the tias [aunts; the Bolivian full-time staff] call her Maria, but Jennifer calls her Natalia, so we're not sure WHAT to call her!). We stopped by the bridge where Jennifer's "bridge kids" live on the way to CDA and met some of those kiddos, too. It's really heart breaking to see these kids/young people, dirty and with a glue bottle held to their nose or mouth all the time. And one of the girls we've met is pregnant. She has a two and a half year old son (who lives with her mom, I think she said) and she'll be twenty on Sunday. (She keeps informing us of that fact!) Anyway...so we met some of them on Wednesday, and then we saw them again Wednesday night when we went by the bridge after eating out for dinner. As we were getting ready to head back to the house, this girl showed up with cuts all over her face from where she got into a fight with another girl somewhere else. So...Amber and I took a taxi home while Jennifer took Ellie to the hospital. (she got stitches, she'll be OK) We were also with the bridge kids yesterday, at a soccer game (which they won). :)

Here at the house, I'm having fun with the little ones, though my lack of Spanish is sometimes interesting if I need to tell a kid something beyond "no", "sit", "eat", or "come here". Or if one of the tias is trying to ask or tell me something! They speak pretty much no English, so a good part of our communication when someone isn't around to translate is hand gestures and pointing. *shrug* It works! They're all precious, and I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but my favorite would probably be Jhosie. She's blind, 2 years old, doesn't talk and only walks if someone is holding both her hands, though her legs are stronger and more coordinated than a younger child learning to walk. She's also had a lot of eating issues, though that seems to be getting better. Anyway, she's soooo precious and I love to love on her. :) Some of the other kids think it's funny to take stuff from her because she can't do anything about it; she starts hitting herself when they do it. I think they're figuring out it's not so funny to do that when someone catches them, though. :P She likes balls--so far that's the only toy I've seen her actually hold and play with. Others she just feels them to see what they are and then throws them away from her. But anyway...she just needs to know that she is loved, and I think that after a month here at the home she's beginning to figure that out.

Well, I've got to go. I miss all of you! *hugs* Dios te bendiga! :)

Bolivia bound!

2010-09-27T22:17:00.002-05:00

Well...since it's been pretty much forever since I really blogged, and I'm getting ready to leave the country, I thought maybe I should at least try to post a quick update on life. (Besides...it's right here on my to-do list: "blog" :D )

So first, a quick recap summary of the AMAZING summer I had at House of Faith! It was a summer of growing, stretching, being challenged, walking and working outside my comfort zone, learning more and more and more of God, getting to know and love some precious kiddos, working with some of the most wonderful people on earth, developing friendships and loving life! It would be absolutely impossible to do a "typical day in the life of a House of Faith 2010 summer intern" because every day was a new day and just a bit different. And "House of Faith" and "typical" (or synonyms such as "normal" and "usual") do NOT belong in the same sentence! House of Faith is anything but typical. That's part of the fun and the challenge!

About the only things we could count on happening every day were:

prayer
meetings
prayer
food
prayer
laughter
and prayer... get the picture? :)

I guess all that prayer is one of my absolute favorite things about House of Faith. It is so evident that prayer and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is indeed the very foundation this ministry...not just "something on the Christian's list to-do" or "something added in because it might be a good idea on occasion".

And YES, I have more pictures and video of this summer that someday I want to get put together into a video for all of you to see. But it's not going to happen for a while because...

Amber and I leave for Bolivia tomorrow!!! We will be spending a month down there, working at the Casa de Amor orphanage/baby home. We're excited and it's going to be awesome! I am taking my laptop, and we should (hopefully?) have internet service at least sometimes, so I'll try to update my blog occasionally with what's going on in Bolivia. :)

Hasta luego, amigos (y amigas)! :) (I'm off to check "blog" off my ever-growing to-do list... ;P )

We're camping :)

2010-08-27T03:32:00.001-05:00

Walking down a beautiful path. :)

House of Faith, Week 2 Vlog

2010-06-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

Brief recap of a crazy week at House of Faith...Sports camp prep, swim party, IHOP short stack attack...and the beginning of a prank war!

House of Faith, Week 1 Vlog

2010-06-09T01:45:00.000-05:00

so...I wanted to get this posted Saturday night, but I couldn't get it finished in time. So, here it is. And now that I (kind of) know what I'm doing, hopefully I'll get them done faster. :)

Life...

2010-05-31T22:18:00.000-05:00

Life has been crazy. Busy. Slightly out of control. And I love it. :)

It's hard to believe it's already the end of May! This year is nearly half over...unbelieveable! I've already dubbed this "the year outside my comfort zone." :) The first couple of months were spent actually looking for a job, which I've actually never done before. It's never really mattered, but this year is different because in October I'm going to Bolivia with Amber (another thing outside my comfort zone...) and that takes money. Which means I needed to work. :) Just when I was starting to get really frustrated and really struggling with trusting God to work everything out...He worked everything out better than I could have dreamed! :) I "nannied" for 5 weeks...which, despite my extensive babysitting experience, was still slightly different from anything I've done before--babysitting Monday through Friday, 8-5--I loved it! And I totally miss those kiddos (they were a military family, and they've moved now). There is also the fact that I actually interviewed for the job, which was ALSO something I've never done! (yes, you read right: I was 23 years old and had worked for many people before I ever interviewed for a job. :) ) It was exciting! :)

Just a few days after my interview for the nanny job, I also interviewed for a summer job/ministry opportunity with House of Faith. HOF is a local ministry that works with kids here in San Angelo, especially the "under privileged" kids from the barrio. And so, for yet another new thing outside my comfort zone, I will be spending June and July working with them! I am SO excited about it; the internship starts day after tomorrow and I can't wait! We will be planning and preparing for various camps that HOF does, and then we (the summer interns) will be counselors at the camps. Since I've never even attended "church camps" like this, I am way out of my comfort zone there! But I know it's going to be great because it's where God wants me. So I'm totally excited. :)

So...it's been a crazy, amazing 5 months. And it's going to get even better and even crazier! I think it is absolutely awesome the way God is providing what I need to minister in Bolivia by giving me the chance to "work" and minister here at the same time! Have I mentioned that I'm excited?! :)

Speaking of my crazy summer...I have a question for everyone: should I "video blog" all the adventures I'm anticipating over the next 8 weeks?! I'll try to post a poll so people can vote...I think it would be fun, I'm just not sure anyone would want to watch it! :)

And, after the summer is over, I'll be babysitting for a military family from church. The mom is deploying to Iraq, and the dad will be homeschooling their two adorable little ones, so I'll get to babysit and homeschool for them a couple of days a week. That will also be fun...and again, just a step outside my comfort zone! I was homeschooled, of course, and fully intend to homeschool my own (someday) children, and I've helped with my brothers' school. But it will be a different experience to homeschool someone else's children! But I'm looking forward to it...and these are kids I've babysat before (when we lived in San Angelo last time) so of course I'm already in love with them! So I'm also excited about that. :)

The moral of the story is: I am crazy busy. Life is full. God is good--and when He is arranging my life, it is EXCITING! :)

When Dreams Come True

2010-05-30T23:41:00.002-05:00

I've decided to start posting a review of all the books I read...not so much because I think any one "out there" will be interested (though I do love to share the good books I read with everyone!), but because I think it will help me better assimilate what I learn from these books...

When Dreams Come True
by Eric and Leslie Ludy
(Click here to buy the book)

I got this book for my birthday. And I read it straight through in one "sitting"...from about midnight to about 5 am. *sheepish grin* And yes, that is a clue of how good this book is! I had to pause a few times and remind myself that this was real life, a true story...it's WAY better than a fairy tale! As the "tag line" says, it's a love story only God could write.

This is the story of Eric and Leslie Ludy; from childhoods rooted in faith through turbulent adolescent years as they each wandered from the Godly path through being drawn back into faithfulness to a faithful God--and eventually being drawn together in a way that could only be God. It is a story that stirs in me a longing for more...more in life, more of God. It's not "just another love story" by any standard, in any way. Eric and Leslie may have made some mistakes, but they both individually reached a place where their entire life was centered on God; where they were completely consumed with a passion for Him alone. As much as I want to someday have a love story as sweet as theirs, even more I am inspired to live a life story as passionate as theirs!

This story is so much bigger than the Ludy's courtship/love relationship; it is first of all about their individual love relationships with the Father. Because they simply tell their story, it never sounds preachy, yet it teaches lesson after lesson about building a life around God rather than trying to build God into a life; about living focused on God alone without distraction; about following Him even when it looks, sounds, seems crazy; about letting God redeem the mistakes we make and "starting fresh"; about trusting Him completely, in big things and small; about keeping God at the center of all our relationships and honoring Him in them; about honoring and cherishing a spouse...even when you haven't yet met them! And with lots of laughter spread generously throughout the book, it blasts into smithereens the idea that such a God-centered and controlled life could ever be boring, dull, or humorless.

In short: yes, this book made me laugh and it made me cry, but it also made me squirm with conviction and it stirred within me a great discontent with the "status quo" and an intense desire for "something more." Definitely one I will re-read, probably many times. On a scale of 1-10, this one is at least a 12... :)

birthday

2010-05-18T17:12:00.004-05:00

Wow...it's been over 2 months since I blogged?! Inconceivable! Or maybe it's just inexcuseable... *shrug* Anyway, I'll try to do better! :)

Soo...life has been crazy, and I have about 2 weeks reprieve before it gets even crazier. Hopefully sometime in the next 2 weeks, I'll blog about what has been and will be so crazy! But today, I'm going to blog about-- my birthday. :)

I turned 24 on Sunday, May 16. It just seems strange to be "so old"; like I should be mature and grown-up or something. But I'm still just me...trying to be like Jesus...and having a lot of fun along the way! :)

I got some *really cool* stuff for my birthday, and of course I wanted to show it all to all of you! (maybe the imaginary "you"s that I think are reading my blog...? :) )

Puppets! :)

The dog came with the name Scruffers, which is almost as cute as he is, but since I kinda want to be able to use him as a vent (ventriloquism) puppet, that name doesn't work ("f"s become "th"s in "vent talk"). So I need to come up with a really cute name...any ideas?

The monkey was named within 5 minutes...by a sibling (my sister, I believe). His name? Ludi. Ludi Cris. ;) And it looks like he'll end up with a Texas twang in his voice. 'Cause he's just cute that way! :)

Books! :)

No birthday (or other gift-giving occasion) could possibly be complete without books. :) I had asked for Eric and Leslie Ludy books, and I got the two that were first on my list: Wrestling Prayer and When Dreams Come True. I've read When Dreams Come True already...I stayed up *all night* Sunday night reading it. It's awesome, and I plan to write a review and get it posted soon. Now I'm reading Wrestling Prayer, and it is just as awesome, but although it's interesting enough to stay up all night and read it, it's so deep, I don't think that would be a wise idea. :)

iTunes giftcard! :)

Ah, yes, music...the other thing that makes a gift-giving occasion complete! :) I love music, and fairly recently "discovered" what a wonderful thing iTunes is...so these are my current favorite kind of giftcard! :) Now I just have to carefully select the 9 or 10 songs off my list of "want-to-get"s that I'll purchase with this card... ;)

Purple drawers! :)

There had to be something purple in this stack, right? :) Since Amber and I don't have room for a dresser in our bedroom (because of all our other stuff...) we both have those cloth "drawers" up on our closet shelf that we use for clothes that don't hang up. I couldn't find purple ones when I bought mine, so I did have navy and white striped ones. My mom found these, though, so my little brothers gave them to me for my birthday. :) Sweet!

Little notepads! :)

I'm looking at this stuff and thinking: people know me. Maybe a little too well? Yet another thing that makes gift-giving occasions complete! :) There always has to be something to write on (or with) in some way! :) These are incredibly cute, too...

and last--but absolute NOT least!--a camera!! :)

Which, of course, I used to take all the other pictures. :) I'm so happy; I now have my very own digital camera so I don't have to ask someone else if I can use theirs. This will be especially useful later this year--but more on that later. :) This camera is the perfect size for taking everywhere with me and it takes great, awesome pictures...I'm still exploring all the different stuff on it and I love it more all the time! :)

So...that's my birthday! Something cuddly...something to read...something to listen to...something purple...something to write on...and something I have really wanted...oh, and did I mention the *67* Facebook birthday greetings from friends and family that totally made my day?! ;) I'm so loved and SO incredibly blessed! Thanks to all who helped make my day so wonderful! I love you! :)

no darkness

2010-03-17T21:40:00.005-05:00

If "God is light and there is no darkness in Him" (1 John 1:5) and I am called to "be holy as He is holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16), why am I not even trying?! Why do I excuse darkness in my life? It has no place here! I belong to the One who *is* Light, there is no room for darkness in my existence.

I want to live a life in which *every part* is flooded with God's light. I want to be so caught up in my amazing God that there is no time to get caught up in things that are not of Him, however "good" they may be. But how do I get there?

By choosing. Constantly, consciously, intentionally making the choice to focus on the Lord. Who will I feed- the hungry cub of desire for the Lord that longs to grow into a lion, or the roaring lion of "the lust of the flesh", so closely tied to another roaring lion that seeks to kill, steal and destroy? Every moment of every day is a choice.

Light or darkness?
Spirit or flesh?
God or the world?

Life or death?

Snow! :)

2010-02-23T16:29:00.000-06:00

Yep, you read right. There is, currently, at this moment, snow on the ground in San Angelo, Texas! And there was a whole troop of very happy Miller kids out there enjoying it earlier. :) It isn't much; just an inch or two. But schools are out for the day (only in West Texas....) and it seemed like kids were coming out of the woodwork in the neighboring houses to build snowmen and play in the snow this morning/afternoon. Crazy how we've lived here for 2 months and we didn't even know any kids lived in those houses. :P

We had a fun, slighly violent snowball fight (I have a bit of a headache from taking a hard-packed snowball right smack in the face) that started out with girls against boys and ended pretty much every man for himself. Rather than building a snowman, we built forts for the fight...which were promptly obliberated in the war. But it was all so much fun!

Then we all trooped inside to make and devour some snow ice cream. If you've never had it/made it, you should try it! Just get some CLEAN (very important) snow and add milk, vanilla, and sugar to taste. Mmmm, good stuff; especially with some instant cappuccino mix in it! ;) We also had a couple of boys who added chocolate to theirs (just a tad of cocoa powder). We've got extra clean snow in the freezer so we can make some more of that yumminess later. The snow outside is already melting, so we know it won't stick around for long; but we're enjoying it while it lasts.

There is something about snow that makes me reflective. Back a couple weeks ago, when all our friends in Springtown were getting LOTS (read: 14 inches!) of snow, one of them posted this as his Facebook status:
"In the midst of all the busyness of life, God sends down snow that's more beautiful than I can even understand. Thank You, God, for Your grace! Stop my life whenever You want. It's Yours to stop. I'm just here to enjoy the scenery." --Joshua Youngblood
That made me think. Snow does have a way of slowing us down, and if enough of it falls it can bring our busy, crazy lives to a screeching halt. Of course, it's not the only thing that can do that. Other things sometimes suddenly throw our lives off our carefully laid out schedule. The question is, when those life-stopping moments come, do I take the time to relax in my Father's arms, just enjoying the scenery? Or am I too busy fretting about how to make things work?

And then looking out at the snow this morning while it was still falling, covering our ordinary world in a soft, extraordinarily beautiful white blanket, I had a thought. Just as snow somehow magically transforms the normal, every day things into something worth wondering at, God takes the simple things and makes them something grand. He can make a prophet from a stutterer; a king from a shepherd boy; a faithful apostle from a blundering, sometimes faithless fisherman; and a saint from a sinner. With that kind of transforming power, I can't help but wonder: what can He make me?!?

Happy Valentine's Day (the digital way)

2010-02-14T18:28:00.002-06:00

OK, so after a month of not blogging (sorry, y'all!), I thought I would share our Valentine's Day with everyone. Because y'all so care, right?! ;)
My parents are in San Antonio this weekend so my mom can study for her NARM test (to be a licensed midwife) that takes place on Wednesday. So...this afternoon, Amber and I got this text from Daddy:

Oh me, oh my--what can we say?
We didn't forget it's Valentine's Day!
We thought we would celebrate the digital way!
So gather together, do not dismay.
Text us back when you're all ready to play.
So we all got together and replied:

Gathered in the living room
Awaiting our impending doom. ;)
And this was the next text:

The clues will come one at a time
To get the next one, you have to rhyme.
So turn on your brains, get ready to look
It's DIGITAL V-day, so go check _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!
So we all went rushing to Facebook. Sure enough, Momma's status update said:

(See it here)
Robert & Kelly are playing a Valentine game.
Others are too, you know your name.
If you're one of those, don't keep looking all night,
The next digital clue is on our family _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

Amber beat me to the family website, but I found what we were looking for: in the sidebar on the left was a link to "Digital Valentine's Day".

There’s a well known fact about this family of ours,
We can tell stories for hours and hours.
There is one subject that comes up, almost without fail,
To find out what it is, send me an _ _ _ _ _!

Below this was a form to send them an email. So, we filled it out to fire one off...and got this in response:

It's movies of course! You probably guessed.
Of this crew we would expect nothing less.
But for now what you need is a digital clue.
You can find the next one here on _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

This was accompanied with a link to this YouTube video:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu4Ha_ANoS4)

Which, of course, sent us running to the garage where, in a tub labeled "Boy's 5" that holds spiral notebooks (ha, ha), we found....those so very yummy sugar cookies from Walmart with pink, red, or white icing on them. :)
Then our brains started searching for a creative way to send our parents a "thank you" and "Happy Valentine's Day" of our own. We decided to do a video. While we were trying to upload said video, we got a text from Mom and Dad asking if I'd gotten the e-mail with the final clue, so Amber sent them a text that said:

She checked her inbox and there she found
A video that had no sound.
Once we solve tech problems, you will see
The results of our creativity!

The video finally uploaded and we sent an e-mail to our parents, titled "A clue for you!", which read:

The difficulties are resolved
All your clues we now have solved.
So now we have one just for you--
Check it out at _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !
With a link to our own YouTube video:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eomheBzfTU0)
And, to finish it off, we got this text from Daddy:

Some parents never get to see
Their children's spontaneous creativity.
But on this digital Valentine's Day,
Our children did it a special way!
You guys are so special and always so cool,
And a look at those cookies made our mouths drool!
Thanks! We love you too!

And that was our Valentine's Day! :) Happy Valentine's Day to you, too! :)

So "me"...

2010-01-14T22:14:00.000-06:00

This was a Christmas present...perfect, huh? ;)

radical

2010-01-09T15:20:00.003-06:00

*I have been working on this post for quite some time; I originally wanted to post it at midnight, January 1st; I just couldn't quite seem to get it right! :P*

There is a song that we sang several times in our church in Springtown; I think it's called "Open Up the Skies". The chorus says, "We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary; we won't be satisfied at all! Open up the sky; pour down like rain; we don't want blessings, we want You! Open up the sky; fall down like fire; we don't want anything but You!" That little chorus is my heart's cry these days. Who wants ordinary? Not me! I want God and Him alone!

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." --Helen Keller

As I've been reading (or re-reading) biographies of Christians who have made a difference just over the last century, I find a common thread. They were all completely devoted to Christ, didn't care what others thought or did, but simply enjoyed the adventure of living a life controlled by an unpredictable, but always good and faithful, God. The details of their lives were different, no two had the exact same calling; yet the core, the center, the passion was the same.
My life will be different from each of theirs, I know that. Yet I also know that I want to be sold out in my devotion for Jesus Christ; I want to live to the fullest this unique adventure of life that God is leading me on. I don't know exactly what it will look like or what lies on the path ahead, and there are times when the not knowing scares me. But does it really matter if I know what is going on, as long as God knows? I don't think so. So here's my goal for this year--and the rest of my life:

I will be radical. I will be concerned only with what God thinks. I will live life, wild and free, wholly devoted to Christ with a passion that cannot be quenched.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"No Compromise is what the whole Gospel of Jesus is all about... 'For I tell you...no man can serve two masters...' (Matt. 6:24). In a day when believers seem to be trying to please both the world and the Lord (which is an impossible thing), when people are far more concerned about offending their friends than offending God, there is only one answer...Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him!"

— Keith Green (musician, prophet, co-founder of Last Days Ministries)

"Is it not God who turns the ordinary into the extraordinary when He is given a chance?"

--from "Rees Howells, Intercessor" (by Norman Grubb)

"We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are "harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places...The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!"

--Jim Elliot (missionary and 20th century martyr)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I'm tired of the status quo. I'm fed up with mediocrity. I'm done with "average". I want to be radical. Will the world think I'm strange? Probably. But I will stand for what I believe in, and I will make a difference--because I am a difference.

We're Here

2009-12-31T09:01:00.002-06:00

Hey, I just thought I would let everyone know that we are in San Angelo...thanks to the Reid family, Joshua, and Robert for coming to help us pack and load up in Springtown! :)

Our new house is pretty cool; maybe I'll get pictures posted eventually. It's a four bedroom, three bathroom house with living room, dining room, laundry room, kitchen, and breakfast nook. The breakfast nook will be our "classroom" and one of the bedrooms is the office.

We're headed to Tulia, Tx later today to celebrate Christmas with Dad's side of the family...so I need to get off of here because there are other things I need to get done before we leave! :)

I hope you all had a great Christmas, and may your New Year be abundantly blessed! *hugs*

You Are Still God...

2009-12-21T00:01:00.003-06:00

My friend Maegan gave me a "going away" present today that included a Scott Krippayne CD. The only song of his I'd ever heard was "I'm Not Cool", which I happen to love! So, tonight, while I was cleaning off my desk so I can finish packing my room tomorrow, I put the CD in to listen to it. I really like it so far, though now I'm stuck on this one song: "You Are Still God". It's just so perfect for the season of life I'm in right now! So perfect that I decided to post the lyrics, and a YouTube video I found of the song (with some random person's photos...), on here. Enjoy!
*oh, and just FYI, sometime tomorrow our internet here in Springtown is getting cut off. So I'll be without internet at least until Wednesday.*

You Are Still God
I've prayed but still don't have answers
At least none I'm able to see
I've tried to rest in not knowing
But not knowing's a hard place to be
But as I return to Your pages
The words breathe new life to my soul
I see You at work through the ages
And know that You're still in control

chorus:
You are still God
You have created the land and the sea
May we applaud
And sing to the wonder of Your majesty
The wind will still blow
We won't always know
Why seasons of life are so hard
But You are still God

Help me have faith in the knowledge
That You're greater than what we go through
And when I reside in the valleys
Help me keep trusting in You
The how and the when You are moving
Were not meant for me to decide
Again and again You are proving
You're there at just the right time

But, God...

2009-12-14T13:00:00.001-06:00

My life these days seems to be a list of "but, God..." prayers:

But God, I don't want to move!
But I will follow wherever You lead.

But I don't want to have to let go...again!
But I will live with open hands, clinging only to You.

But my world is being shaken again, spiraling out of control.
But You are still faithful, and You are in control.

But everything is changing and uncertain.
But You never change!

But I love these people!
But I love You more.

But I don't understand why....
But You are still God.

And I am still Yours.

You still love me--

And I still trust You.

It's as simple and as difficult as that.

tonight

2009-12-10T15:35:00.002-06:00

*I wrote this in my journal the other night, and thought I would share it here...*

Tonight there is peace. I am in my room--my "haven"--and my door is shut. The only sound is faint strains of the boys' classical music from where they sleep in their room next door. The only light is a few candles around my desk. My senses are flooded with a delectable blend of delightful scents--and my whole being is flooded with Peace. "My peace I give you," Jesus said. "Not as the world gives, give I unto you." There is still trouble in this world. Life can still be overwhelming. But here--now--in this place and this moment, there is peace in the midst of a fallen world.

I'm reminded of Christmases past, when I would sit in the living room with only the Christmas lights and Christmas music on, staring into the tree and thinking:

"This is Christmas."

Peace in the midst of chaos.
Quietness in the midst of noise.
Resting, stopping even, in the midst of busyness and rushing.

And pondering, in the midst of all the commercialization, pondering that first Christmas night.

When grace lay in a manger.
When joy was wrapped in swaddling clothes.
When the timeless was born.
When love whimpered in a stable.
When peace was held in Mary's arms.

We don't have a Christmas tree this year because we're moving back to San Angelo just a few days before Christmas. I have missed the joy and laughter of setting the tree up. I have missed the quietness and peace of its soft light. But I realized something tonight.

Joy is not tied to an artificial evergreen.

Peace is not bound to a string of soft lights.

Peace and joy are wherever hearts are open and yielded to the King of kings and Lord of lords--Jesus Christ, once a baby in a manger.

And tonight, there is peace.

crazy good times

2009-11-19T22:57:00.002-06:00

It has been a crazy good week. :)

Saturday started with Dad, Micah, and I going to a Silent Siege with other people from our church (more on that in another post). Then we met up with my sister who was coming into town for the weekend and she and I met up with a couple friends (her friend Jennifer, who runs an orphanage in Bolivia, and Jennifer's sister Heather). We had lunch and just hung out at a mall in Dallas for awhile. Then, we got back to Weatherford just in time for Amber to drop me off at a babysitting job; then she came and picked me up when I got done around 9:15 or so. So, my day started standing in the gap for unborn babies, and ended snuggling a precious little sleeping baby girl. :) oh, yeah...life is sweet!

Sunday when we got home from church, we ate lunch then all quickly changed clothes to go play volleyball at the park...in the rain. 'cause we're crazy like that.

Monday my sister left, but not before we played some two on two basketball in the *freezing cold* weather. Then, the boys and I made menus, I made a grocery list, and we went grocery shopping. Got home with just enough time to put groceries away and get ready to go because Josiah and I had to be at puppet practice early because we were taking team pictures. When you get 22 *peculiar* young people and their fantabulous director and a fun photographer together, do you know what you get?! An hour and a half of crazy, laughter filled picture taking! :) Puppets, pyramids (which, apparently, girls are w-a-y better at than boys) and poses of various kinds were actually fun. And then we got to practice! oh, yeah...that's what we were there to do in the first place...

Tuesday I babysat the happiest, sweetest, most adorable little 15 month old baby boy currently in my life. :) Then, Josiah and I were off to puppet practice again. Why?! You'll find out in a minute...

Wednesday I got to babysit again, then we had church. Our little 2 and 3 year olds are *soooooo* cute and precious! :) I know...I say that about all kids.

Thursday (today!) was actually a more "normal" sort of day...except that Josiah and I had to pack and go to puppet practice for our dress rehearsal. Because...

Friday and Saturday the Peculiar Party Ministry Team is going to Oklahoma to a puppet festival. And we're a featured performance team! :)
We leave about 11 am tomorrow and will be back sometime Saturday night. Our performance is actually Saturday afternoon; we'll be doing the "Love Show". We've been practicing all week because we have a lot of new members on the team (fall orientation added 6 new members) and so everything has been kinda juggled around and reassigned, etc. I'm really looking forward to this weekend! I mean, what could be more fun than dividing about 25 people (22 of which are between the ages of 12 and 23) between two big vans and driving 2 and a half hours to OK, then hanging out with those people for two days straight?! :) because we're crazy like that...

And then....
Sunday is the Thanksgiving dinner here at RFF, so at some point I'll be making pumpkin rolls and mashed potatoes to take to that (at least I picked easy things to make! :) ). AND, the PPMT is performing in church Sunday morning, too. (We're doing "Your Love is Extravagant" by Casting Crowns, which happens to be one of my favorite songs. :))

And Monday we have puppet practice, and we'll be drawing names for the team Christmas party in December. :) So maybe life will settle down after that?! yeah, right.

digital

2009-11-13T11:48:00.000-06:00

I love my mom's digital camera.

It means that when I'm taking pictures,

I can just shoot and shoot and shoot away

in the midst of all kinds of craziness

chaos

and cuteness

in the hopes of getting at least one

great shot

My Vulnerable God

2009-11-12T21:50:00.004-06:00

That just sounds like such an oxymoron. God...vulnerable? No way, right? He's all-powerful, all-knowing, all-everything, how could He possibly be vulnerable? And yet, I am coming to realize, He is.

I was reading Jeremiah 3 (and 4...and 5) this morning, and I was struck by the plaintive tone. The Lord is grieving over His wandering, rebellious people, calling them back to Himself. "Return to Me!" He cries out over and over. It is the heart of a vulnerable God breaking for His people. He is not vulnerable by default, as we are, He is vulnerable by choice. He has chosen to love us so much we can hurt Him. He has chosen to keep His arms held out, open wide to welcome us home. Think about it; that is a vulnerable, defenseless position.

God is not remotely frail; He is, indeed, incredibly strong. He is not helpless; He is the one who holds the world in His hands. He does not need us; He is the only truly self-sufficient one. Yet He is vulnerable--to us. For us. It's a lot to think about...

random ramblings...

2009-11-08T22:58:00.000-06:00

Aren't pointless posts fun sometimes?! :) Life is crazy (when is it not?) around here right now, so I thought it would be fun to do a "my life in bullet list form" post. :) Here goes:

football: I am blogging during half time of the Cowboys vs. Eagles game. (Go, Cowboys! :) They were leading, 10 to 6, going into the half). I like the Cowboys, of course, and I also like the Manning brothers...which means that, as long as they aren't playing the Cowboys, I cheer on the NY Giants and the Indianapolis Colts. :) So Peyton and the Colts won their game today over the Houston Texans (20-17), but Eli and the Giants lost, their fourth loss in a row, to the San Diego Chargers (21-20). :( Jonathan's favorite team, the Arizona Cardinals, won their game over the Chicago Bears (41-21).
house hunting: we'll be moving back to San Angelo in December, so we've been trying to find a house. We looked at one in Robert Lee; the property it was on was nice, but Robert Lee is nearly 45 minutes from San Angelo, which is a little farther away than we really want to be. And, the house just seemed kinda smallish (despite the square footage number...). Then we found one in Grape Creek (about 10-15 minutes from San Angelo) that we *loved*, but it had foundation issues, as well as water and termite damage. :P More than we want to deal with! Now, Mom and Dad have found a house in Christoval (also about 10-15 minutes from San Angelo) that seems just about perfect for what we need right now. We've made an offer, and are waiting for what happens next. (lol, I say "we" have made an offer as if I were actually part of the offer making process. :D)
quiet weekend: most of my family went to San Angelo this weekend. Mom had paperwork she needed Dawn and Carol, the other two midwives she has trained under, to sign in order for her to turn in her paperwork to graduate, and they wanted to see "our" house again...and maybe look at some other property just in case this house doesn't go through. So, Mom, Dad, Micah, and Jonathan took off on Friday, and should be back later tonight. Why did Josiah and I stay? Well....
puppet team/bake sale: ...we're both on the Peculiar Party Ministry Team at our church here, and the team was doing a bake sale today to raise money for a puppet festival in OKC we're going to later this month. The PPMT is SO much fun; I have loved every minute of being on this team, and am soaking up every minute we have left.
Also, I was part of the group that did a special presentation in children's church this morning. We did a blacklight song...it was fun creating the props and stuff for it, and performing it was also fun, although we had not ever practiced. At all. Not even once. We all knew basically what we were doing, and everyone just kinda grabbed props at what we hoped was the right times. It actually turned out well, though, especially considering all that! :) Josiah videoed it, so maybe I'll get that video up soon. And, I'll also try to get the video posted from when his group did their skit. (it was great! :) )

*Cowboys game update: Tony Romo just busted his "games with no interceptions" run. (which, I think, was 3 games...?) :P*
puppies: the boys got lab mix puppies a couple weeks ago. Micah and Josiah each have one...Jonathan is still hoping that he gets the one he wanted (it was the runt, and the family giving them away wasn't sure they wanted to give it away). They are soooo cute. Micah's is black with white markings, named Bella; Josiah's is light brown with darker brown and black markings and her name is Princess. They're going to be big dogs, so they have been designated as outside dogs. Right now, they don't seem to mind; hopefully, it won't get *too* cold this winter... ;)
Christmas: yes, I know it's only the first of November. I also know that we're not going to have a tree or decorate this year because we're moving over Christmas. But Christmas is a dearly loved holiday around here anyway, and we have our Christmas music in the CD player. All 34 CDs of it. :) And, I have already started working on planning/gathering/creating presents. After all, most of the fun of the holiday is the stuff I get to give other people...and the fun of keeping it a secret until Christmas Day! :)
birthdays: November is a busy month for birthdays on my calendar; in our immediate family, we have 2 birthdays in November. Jonathan turned 10 last Sunday (the 1st), and Micah will be 17 tomorrow (the 9th). I can't believe how fast they're growing up! My "baby" brother (he hates that... :) ) is now into double digits. That's crazy! I gave a Jonathan an afghan for his birthday (he's been asking for one since I made some for people last Christmas). Except it's not finished... I told him that now that I can work on it when he's around, I'll get it done faster. :)
school: I'm finishing up this "Project Treatise" for Leviticus...basically, I'm looking up a whole lot of Bible verses and figuring out the best phrase or statement to represent the point being made in an essay written by Dr. Pent. When I finish this, I'll be done with Leviticus... :)

*touchdown, Cowboys! :) Way to go, Miles Austin...finally!*
family relationships: I'm trying to make sure I spend time with the boys, not just getting lost and wrapped up in my own little world (believe me, it is *easy* to do!). In many ways, I've become someone who just happens to be living in the same house as my family (and just happens to feed them regularly...). I want to fix that. Oh, and speaking of relationships and living in the same house, I'm excited because when we move back to San Angelo, Amber is going to move back in with us and I'll have my sister back! :) I have missed her so much!
sorting/organizing/downsizing: However, the flip side to that is the fact that, after each having our own room for the last two years (for the first time in our lives!), we will be once again sharing a room. There is considerable doubt that our bedroom in our new house will hold her big bed, 4 bookcases, 2 hopechests, a harp, a doll cabinet, a sewing cabinet, 2 desks, a filing cabinet and other miscellaneous stuff and boxes. SO, I'm going to try to go through some of my stuff and get it better sorted and organized and perhaps either get rid of some of it or pack it away somehow. :P Organization isn't usually my thing. *rolls eyes*
babysitting: duh, right? :) Right now, I mainly just babysit for the other student at the birth center; her little guy is about 14 months old now and I've been babysitting him since he was about 6 months old. He is cute, happy, easy-going; I adore him, my brothers adore him, and he adores Josiah. :) He really likes Micah, Jonathan, and Dad, too...he calls all the male members of our family "Dad". It's hilarious.
I also occasionally babysit for a family with three kids (Mom helped deliver their littlest one back in May). They are also adorable; the older kids like to play Candyland and Playdough and dig in the dirt, and the baby is just so tiny and precious. :)
Pioneer Clubs: because babysitting isn't always enough "little kid time" for me. :) I help with one of the 2-3 year old classes at church on Wednesday nights. They are so cute and precious and I absolutely love, love, love working with them. And, I get to work with Maegan and Michelle, and they are both a lot of fun, too!
reading: always. I love books. I've been reading some Francine Rivers books (Redeeming Love and The Atonement Child), Keith Green's biography (No Compromise by Melody Green) and Rees Howells: Intercessor (by Norman Grubb). Any book suggestions by anybody? :)
writing: of course. :) I'm still writing poetry/lyrics, and an e-mail devotional (www.psalm686.com/MorninSunShine). And whatever else pops into my brain at times! Micah and I actually wrote a song together the other day; he came in with an idea and the beginning of a tune, and next thing we knew we had a song. It was a lot of fun! :)
cooking: no bullet list of my life would be complete without this one. :) I love cooking and certainly get plenty of opportunity to do it. Micah cooks on Fridays, and Josiah and Jonathan each have a day where they are responsible for lunch, so I'm also getting to help teach them to cook. Hey, they might not become gourmet chefs (though Jonathan has said he wants to own a restaurant some day. and they will never have chef salad at his restaurant. ;) ), but they will know enough to be useful in the kitchen and they won't starve if left on their own. :)
new favorite website: http://www.thedailyplate.com/ is becoming a favorite "tool" sort of website...it's a very easy way to track what I'm eating, which helps me stay conscious of what I'm eating and how much. Which, in turn, is helping me lose weight. It's easy to track stuff, easy to add recipes, etc. And it's free! :)
break from Facebook: so, with this kind of crazy busy life, who has time for Facebook, right?! I thought about deactivating my account, but there are too many birthdays between now and January or later (yes, I use FB for wishing people a happy birthday...not exclusively, of course!). Besides, I wasn't sure how easy it would be to just reactivate it when I was ready to come back. Sooo...I changed my password to a random string of numbers, letters, and symbols, wrote it down and tucked the paper away in a memorable but not-convenient-to-get-to place. Then I set it to not remember me or my password (all those little conveniences I've always utilized to my full advantage before!), and voila! getting on Facebook is no longer so easy I don't even think about it. :)

*and, with the end of this post, the Cowboys game has also come to an end. 20-16, Cowboys win their 4th game in a row and are now on top of their division. :) *

My Room Says...

2009-10-27T10:21:00.000-05:00

...I love purple! :)

(yes, Amber...I'm going to make my bed... ;) )

oh, look! it's a blog!

2009-10-24T12:27:00.002-05:00

I really thought I was going to do better at blogging this month. Ha! I have a post in my drafts section that I started two weeks ago, but there it sits. It's going to require more time and thought to finish than I have at this moment, so it will have to wait. However, it IS going to get finished and posted at some point! :)

Today, for most of the day it's just Jonathan and I here at home. Weird, huh? Daddy, Micah, and Josiah are at a men's retreat/camp-out with the church, and Momma had to work today. So, Jonathan and I are hanging out (read: cleaning house and putting the new sheets on the beds and icing cupcakes :) ). This evening, there is a "praise for pro-life" thing at a church here in Springtown that we're planning to go to. It's a fundraiser for a pregnancy center. (October 24, 6 pm, Outreach of Love church on Hwy 199 in Springtown, admission is a baby bottle full of change...just in case anyone wanted to know!)

Tomorrow after church, we're having a "pastor appreciation" dinner. So another thing on my to-do list today is to make the stuff we're taking to the dinner... :) Anyway--October is Pastor Appreciation month, and our church is really working hard to make sure our pastors and their wives know how MUCH we appreciate them. What can you do this month to show your love and appreciation for the pastor(s) in your life?

I've gotta run...too much to-do and not enough to-day! :) But here's some quotes from the awesome kids/young people in my life to make you grin, chuckle, and maybe even LOL (laugh out loud)!

said one of the 3 year olds in my Pioneer Clubs class on Wednesday: "You're not Maegan!" (SO glad he told me!! :))

says Jonathan at 8 am this morning: "I've tried a couple of times to sleep in, but I just can't." (wish I had that problem!)

when I told the 4 year old I babysat this summer not to argue with me: "I'm not!" (oh, really?)

the same 4 year old, as we were walking to the park: "Look, Haley, 3-0-0-8. That's how old I'm gonna be after 11." (wow...glad I'm not aging at that rate!)

And to top if off, these are from Josiah, my 13 year old brother (which means they were funny on purpose...):
in reference to the game "Who, sir? Me, sir?": "It's not a game for slow thinkers; your brain has to go faster than your mouth!"

in defence of his ability to do fractions: "I know how to do fractions. 2/3 is 1/2."

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

2009-10-01T14:19:00.002-05:00

Fall has pretty much arrived in Texas. Y'know, cooler days and mornings that are cold enough for a jacket...OK, OK, so our temperatures have been in the 80's for highs (which IS "cooler days"; over the summer we were consistently over 100 degrees!) and lows have been in the mid-fifties (which DOES have me pulling on a jacket!). And yep, that's pretty much fall around here. If it gets much colder, we'll be talking "winter". :) So in honor of fall--I've redecorated my blog. New background, new banner.

The thing I'm going to miss the most about summer is swimming. We've loved having a pool in our backyard for the first time in a few years, but now it's getting to where the water is WAY too cold to try to go swimming. *sigh* What are y'all going to miss about summer? And let's take an unofficial poll: what is your favorite season, and why? Just leave a comment and share your great wisdom on the seasons with the rest of us! :)

Happy autumn, everyone! :)

just cause...

2009-09-29T10:33:00.002-05:00

...he's cute...

...even when he's making a fish face. :)

Chisels, seasons, and focus...

2009-09-07T23:07:00.000-05:00

So, it's been almost a month again since I've blogged. :P Sorry, y'all! My summer has been slightly wild and crazy. Now that it's settling down into a somewhat calmer routine, I'll try to get back into the habit of blogging. I miss it, really...I've logged on to blog several times and then just never actually got it done.

Y'all probably think I'm going to talk about Chicago (finally). Well...not yet. I've got something else on my mind tonight. :) I'll try to get around to a Chicago post sometime this week though, OK? (hey! It's my blog and I can procrastinate if I want to! :) ) No, I'm thinking of chisels, seasons, and focus...

Chisels. Actually, I've really just been thinking of one chisel--God's chisel. I've been reading in Deuteronomy lately in my quiet time, and there's a common theme in the verses that are jumping out at me. Things like finding joy in sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:5-7); putting to death those things in my life that would keep me back from following the Lord (Deuteronomy 13:4-5); being set apart and called to be different, God's peculiar treasure (Deuteronomy 14:1-2); and allowing God to "circumcise" my heart, cutting away everything is not of Him (Deuteronomy 30:6). I've come to realize more than ever that to truly function as a child of God, to live as His special treasure, there are things in my life that must die. Some of them may be bad attitudes or motives or habits that I've had; others are not bad in and of themselves, but are distractions. Anyway, as I've been seeing this common theme and coming to grips with this concept, I saw this video:

And...it still makes me cry. Every time I watch it. It sums up so perfectly what God is doing in me right now. He is chiseling away everything that is me until all that is left is Him. Until He reveals the original masterpiece that He sees in me.
(BTW, let me put in a quick plug for the Skit Guys, Eddie and Tommy, who did the above video. Check 'em out on YouTube or at http://www.skitguys.com/, they have a lot of great skits and such!)

Seasons. They're inevitable. Life is made up of seasons. Summer turns to fall, to winter, to spring, to summer...seasons of rest give way to busyness, to waiting-ness, to whatever-God-has-next-ness. The changing seasons of life is something that has come up many times in the course of my life. At one point, I wrote a poem about the different seasons and how if any one of them were left out, I wouldn't be who I am; I couldn't become who God has called me to be. I wrote in a journal at the time that I wrote the poem,

"Not only are changing seasons inevitable, they are to be embraced. Who would I be without the changes that brought me here? And what hope would I have for the future if the seasons never turned?"

But it seems like each time the seasons change in my life, I learn something new about seasons themselves.
In church yesterday, Pastor Joe was talking about seasons and he said that each season prepares us in some way for the next season. We have to learn to learn from each season in order to be prepared for the next. It can be so easy to get into some sort of "coasting" mode, just making it through each season without thinking of what comes next.
This particular "season" of life I'm in right now, it's a little easier to think ahead to the next. We moved to Springtown and have gotten involved at Real Family Fellowship knowing it was temporary. Knowing that we would be leaving in a short while. It's affected what I've done and how I've done it; it has motivated me to listen, to learn, to participate in things I might not have participated in and perhaps to not partcipate in some things that I would have particpated in had we been here for more of an indefinite time. But I need to learn to look at life that way. To evaluate everything I do in light of eternity; to glean from each moment all that God has for me.

Focus. This is the big one, the one that ties all of this together. Because I'm in a season where my focus is being chiseled. As God is chipping away at the "me" parts of my life, the greatest thing He's chiseling right now is my focus. What am I gazing at, striving for, setting my heart on? See, He wants to be my all. He wants to be the one and only thing that captures my heart and eyes. So slowly, He's chipping away the other things that I would focus on.

Eventually, He will be all I see.

Yesterday we were singing "How Great is Our God" in church. The chorus says,
"How great is our God; sing with me, how great is our God!
And all will see how great, how great, is our God!"
Everytime I sing that song I pray, "God, may others see Your greatness in me!" But yesterday something new struck me: it is when I am focused on His greatness, when I am completely caught up and enraptured in all that He is, that others will see that greatness in me. As my focus becomes only Him, everything else that is my heart's cry for my life will fall into place. He will lead me in the way He wants me to go; His greatness will shine in my life; my desires will become His desires, and He will fulfill them. What could be greater than that?

whoa...

2009-08-14T08:02:00.003-05:00

I cannot believe it has been over a month since I blogged... :P Time has flown!!! I'll try to do some catching up later. For now, just thought I'd let you all know that I am still alive and all that good stuff. :)

And I would like to wish a slightly belated happy birthday to my very dear big sister Amber...she turned, *ahem*, 25 yesterday. :)

And just in case you need a smile...enjoy some very special kiddos! :)

Never fear...

Spiderman and Batman are here! :)

Everyone knows...

anything is more fun in a tent! :)

And...

Clayton dances to Ernie Haase & Signature Sound singing "Get Away Jordan!" (yes, he's doing ALL the jumping around and excited movement of his own accord! :) )

quick update (with an edit!)...

2009-07-12T00:11:00.005-05:00

OK, I so wanted to blog about Chicago and get pictures sorted and posted *before* we left on the "puppet tour", but it's not going to happen. :) So--Chicago was awesome, and I'll post details and pictures sometime after I get back home on Tuesday! :) I did post pictures and a video of meeting/singing with Raluca (my Romanian friend with whom I write songs) on our "This HAS to be God!" blog, if you want to see: http://agod-thing.blogspot.com/

The next couple of days are going to be spent with about 17 of my favorite people outside my family--the Bruce family and the Peculiar Party Ministry Team. We are going to have SOOO much fun! :) We're headed to Shamrock, Tx to do "The Love Show". If you're within driving distance, we'd love to see you there! Shamrock, Texas; Community Center; 7 pm. :) *edit: that's Sunday night, by the way, July 12th. Sorry, forgot to say that! :P *

I'm not even taking my computer, so I'll have no internet until I get home. "See" you then! :)

Fwd: I miss you!

2009-07-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

My dad texted this to me today with this caption- "I miss you!"

"My kind of town, Chicago is..."

2009-07-01T01:06:00.001-05:00

Well, actually, I don't know yet if it's my kind of town. But I will soon! Amber and I are leaving in just a few hours to drive up to Chicago--by way of Ohio...to pick up my dear friend, Hannah--where we are going to see a "Broadway" play (OK, the Chicago version of Broadway!), tour the big city, hang out with my friend Hannah and Amber's friend Kezia, meet up with a couple other friends, Heidi and Raluca (my Romanian friend with whom I write songs!), and just in general have fun, go on an adventure, and make some memories! :) We will take lots of pictures, and hopefully some video, which I then will hopefully be able to get posted. If we have internet access wherever we are, I'll try to sort of blog along the way. :) And now, I'm off to bed. We have a long drive tomorrow. :)

Oh, but first I'd like to say: although I am quite certain I'll enjoy Chicago, nobody needs to worry about me, like, deciding to move there or anything. Because, like, Chicago is NOT in TEXAS. :)

Mountains and Walls

2009-06-16T23:37:00.000-05:00

I feel like I’m on a mountain of sorts. Which is fitting since we’re talking about the Seven Mountains of Influence at church camp this week. Oh…you didn’t know I was doing church camp this week? I suppose that bit of ignorance could be attributed to the fact that I haven’t blogged in, um, almost forever. Sorry, y’all! It’s been a busy time, but it’s also been of time of evaluating why I blog and what the original purpose of this blog is. I don’t know if y’all remember, but the very reason I started a blog was to share with others what God is doing in my life. I think somewhere along the way I lost that, but now I want to come back to it. Not that there won’t be fun, rambling posts at times about the cute things the kids in my life say or stuff my dog does or just the normal weirdness of our family. But my focus is going to be on what God is teaching me and how He is working.

Which brings me back to church camp. :) This is not your ordinary church camp (I wonder if RFF has ever done anything in an ordinary fashion?). First of all, because the format is more of a day camp held at the church building—we have stuff going from 9am to 4pm, and then 7-9ish in the evening. But the bigger difference is the people and their focus in this camp. We’re not here to goof off and just have fun (though believe me, we are having FUN!); we’re here to learn, to grow, to influence, to pass on a legacy of faithfulness, to become equipped as warriors in the army of God. The theme of the camp is the Seven Mountains of Influence: education, family, government, religion, media, commerce, and arts/entertainment. These are the seven main areas of influence in a culture. Slowly, bit by bit, we as believers have given these mountains over to the world—and our goal is take them back. Like King Josiah in 1 Kings 22 & 23, we want to tear down the idols, take back the high ground, and restore our nation to a culture of Godly worship. And during this camp, we are being trained not only to fight to take the mountains, but also to equip others to join us.

The whole camp has been great so far, but my favorite part to this point is, hands down, the worship service we had tonight. At 23, I’m the oldest young person in the camp. Tonight, I stood surrounded by young people—among whom the average age is 16—and listened and watched as they worshipped God with their whole hearts; as they fell on their faces before Him and cried out with tears running down their faces; as they prayed out loud with boldness and confidence and a heart that burned with passion for God alone. And I knew—there is hope for this generation. For my generation. God is raising up a remnant that will fight for Him as long as He gives us breath, and it is an amazing thing to not only watch, but to get to participate! I cannot help but stand in absolute awe of Him!

As we prayed, in my heart and mind I could see a wall; a wall of young warriors, standing strong and proclaiming to the oncoming tide of sin, “You will go no farther! We have a drawn a line; enough! We, standing in the strength of Almighty God, will stem the tide and push it back!” After the time of worship and prayer, Pastor Joe spoke briefly about being set apart for God and being anointed. He then had all of us young people come stand in the front where he was going to pray for us and anoint us with oil as something that is set apart for God. He asked us all to stand in a line, and as we stood there, I realized: we had a formed a wall.

Father, I pray that as You call Your people to their place in the wall, that we would step up and stand strong in Your power and might, that there would be no breach in the wall You are building. Help us to follow only You, knowing when to stand and when to push forward. You are so amazing, God, and I am so excited as I watch You at work!

Simply Sunday

2009-05-31T22:47:00.001-05:00

the roly-poly I rescued while sitting out on our back step this morning :)

taken by: me, on my cell phone

Puppets! :)

2009-05-22T01:10:00.006-05:00

I got puppets for my birthday! :) They are cute and I'm looking forward to learning more and more about using them, etc. Just thought I'd "introduce" them to you!

This is Katie! :)
I just think that with those big blue eyes, Katie does this "shocked" look really well. :)
Oh, boy, she's got attitude! :) She really looks like she's telling someone off here.

And, the most adorable armadillo I have ever seen! :)

He needs a name, though...does anyone have any suggestions?!

Aw, look! My little nameless armadillo is shy... :)

Or maybe the shy thing is an act! He looks like he's doing some kind of cool karate move here... hi-yah! :)

And, last but not least, the little guy even plays 'possum! :)

So, those are my newest little friends. :) I just wanted to "share" them with you! And I'm serious, I'd love to have some suggestions on a name for my armadillo. :)

Blessings! :)

Whoa! I'm 23?!

2009-05-16T23:04:00.002-05:00

It's 11:04 pm. I am, officially, 23 years old. I don't know, that sounds weird to me. I don't feel 23! Although, I guess I also don't know how "23" is supposed to feel... *shrug* :) The point is, I still feel like a kid most of the time. I never grew up. And that is why one of my very favorite quotes is this one:
"I am cleverly disguised as a responsible adult."
Yep. Very cleverly disguised. :) And 23. That's me!

And the only point to this post was to say that. I know, I'm weird. But that's why y'all love me, right?! :)

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-05-13T23:48:00.001-05:00

Hey, y'all!

Today's quote is a kinda fun one...I have no idea who said it, I "stole" it (with permission...which technically means it's not stolen...) from a friend's Facebook status. Thanks, Meagan! :)

"Just be yourself...everyone else is already taken."

Kayleigh...and Tuesday's Tidbit

2009-05-12T23:15:00.005-05:00

Hey, all...hope you're ready for some tear-jerking news...I found out when I got on tonight to post "Tuesday's Tidbit" and was skimming over the blogs listed on my dashboard that sweet little Kayleigh Anne Freeman went home to be with Jesus last night. Please be praying for the rest of the Freeman family--Kayleigh's parents, Adam and Aimee, and her older siblings, Brandon and Allyson--as they walk through this heartbreaking time. Kayleigh was (and is!) a precious and very loved blessing in their life, and they are going to miss her a LOT.

Father, thank You so much for the blessing of Kayleigh's precious, but so-short life! Please, wrap Your strong and loving arms around Adam, Aimee, Brandon, and Allyson; carry them through the rough days ahead, and let them feel Your overwhelming love surrounding them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Here is today's tidbit:

There is 1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire strung across the U.S.

Tomorrow I head for Plano to babysit for a couple of days. I'll be babysitting there every week for the summer, rather than every other week. I have some really cute video clips of the boys, and if I can ever find the CD for the video editing software that came with our video camera (because I can't use the clips in Windows Movie Maker :P), I'll try to put together a video for y'all. They are so sweet and adorable. :)

Well, I'm off to bed. Y'all have a great night!

Something to think about...

2009-05-11T12:58:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I've done a "something to think about" post! Mostly because I've been having a little difficulty getting my thoughts from the "thought" stage to the "word" stage. But they just keep swimming around in my head, percolating away, driving me crazy as they send my brain in a million ways all at once. So I'm going to try to scribble some of them out and hope they are somewhat ~~clearer than mud~~ sensible.

Passion. The word is such a powerful one, resounding with strength and, for lack of a better word, excitement. It has always stirred very deep feelings and longings in me--I want to be a passionate person, driven by an all-consuming desire to love and live for God. I want to want Him more than anything. But that's just the problem: I usually feel like it stops with "wanting". I just want to be passionate, I don't actually live passionately.

Yesterday at church, Pastor Joe told this story of a time they were singing a song with a line that was something like, "I just want to worship You". He came up and said they should stop singing it, because it was lie; if they were truly obsessed with Christ, it would show in their life. That really struck a chord (or maybe it was a nerve...) with me! "Passion" is not just a word, it's not just a prayer, it's a way of life!

These days, I find myself often surrounded by a group of young people whose passion makes my own tendency toward apathy, complacency, and lukewarm-ness even more glaringly obvious (to me, anyway!). Most of the young people on the Peculiar Party Ministry Team are after God's heart, and it is evident in what I've seen of their life. They make me want to want God more! It makes me stop to wonder--when people look at my life, what is it that they see? What would someone on the outside looking in say that I was passionate about? Are they driven to seek God's face because of what they see in me?

I will never be some kind of really bubbly, extroverted, bouncy sort of person, but that doesn't have to make me any less sold out for God. Mine may be a more quiet sort of passion, but that doesn't mean it's a lesser passion. I want to live my life driven by a desire for God, totally obsessed with Jesus Christ and Him alone. Everything else--it's just fluff.

Magnificent Obsession

by Steven Curtis Chapman

Lord, You know how much

I want to know so much

In the way of answers and explanations

I have cried and prayed

And still I seem to stay

In the middle of life’s complications

All this pursuing leaves me feeling like I’m chasing down the wind

But now it’s brought me back to You and I can see again

(chorus)
This is everything I want

This is everything I need

I want this to be my one consuming passion

Everything my heart desires

Lord, I want it all to be for You, Jesus

Be my magnificent obsession

So capture my heart again

Take me to depths I’ve never been

Into the riches of Your grace and Your mercy

Return me to the cross

And let me be completely lost

In the wonder of the love

That You’ve shown me

Cut through these chains that tie me down to so many lesser things

Let all my dreams fall to the ground until this one remains:

Simply Sunday (and Happy Mother's Day!)

2009-05-10T08:56:00.002-05:00

a flower I picked yesterday

taken by: me, on my cell phone

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful, fantabulous moms out there! :) I pray that your day is full of rich blessings. We love you! *hugs*

Simply Sunday

2009-05-03T01:17:00.001-05:00

great shot! :) my favorite part? the blue, blue sky...
taken by: me (I think), in Colorado

Kayleigh, and May's word of the month

2009-05-01T23:42:00.003-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it's May already. Y'all may have forgotten that way back in January, I did a "word of the month" and said something about doing one every month. Well...obviously, I haven't kept that up but I'm going to try again.

First, though, I wanted to mention something else. Over on Kayleigh's blog, Adam and Aimee have written the sweetest, most heart-wrenching post and I suggest you go read it. Kayleigh's brain has started swelling, which is really not a good sign. It looks like the beginning of the end of her earthly life. Please be praying, especially for Adam and Aimee, Kayleigh's parents, and for Brandon and Allyson, Kayleigh's big brother and sister.

So, a word of the month for May. I think that my word for this month is going to be...now. I have this really bad habit of spending a lot of time daydreaming, lost in some imaginary future. The problem is, I can't live in the future. I can only live in the now. Now is where God is living and working. Now is where memories are being made. If I spend all my time thinking of some other time and some other place, I'm going to totally miss now, and I know that I'll regret it if I do that. So, this month I'm going to focus on now.

Oh, and just in case anyone cared, it's just one week to Josiah's birthday, one week and one day to Mother's day, two weeks until Amber (my big sister) graduates from nursing school, and two weeks until my birthday. :) (how's that for contradicting my last paragraph?! But hey...I can live "now" and still look forward to "then"! :) )

And speaking of now...now it is way past time for me to be in bed! :)

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-04-29T22:38:00.006-05:00

Hey, y'all! :)

I got today's quote out of a little book by Matt Redman (he wrote the popular praise song, "Heart of Worship") called The Unquenchable Worshipper. I'm only about three chapters into it, but so far it's been great! Anyway, here's the quote...

"The consequence of abandonment never enters into our outlook, because our lives are so taken up with Him." --Oswald Chambers
Thanks to those of you (Amber and Vanessa) who posted comments on my "trying something new..." post to let me know you can see it. :) Y'all are so sweet! So, it kind of worked...I was trying the post-something-to-the-blog-via-email thing using my cell phone (since the actual Blogger mobile thing won't work with our cell provider). The good news is, you can see what I was trying to post. The bad news is, I had to edit it because it also had all this other stuff from where it had to go through the Alltel web server or whatever. :P So, I can use the e-mail thing, but trying to do it from my phone is not really going to work. Oh, well. Like I really needed one more technical thing to complicate my life.

I thought I would give a quick update on some of the little people I've asked y'all to pray for over the last couple of months.
First of all, Stellan is home after 5 weeks of hospitalization, part of it in Boston where he did have an ablation. He seems to be doing really well now, with his SVT finally under control, partially because of the (partial) ablation and partly through medicine.

Jonah is also doing great; he turned 2 months old on Monday, and he is home. Poor little guy, his hands/arms and legs/feet have to stay wrapped up to prevent new blisters from forming, but he is eating well and does well with his daily dressing changes.
Both of these boys are such strong little fighters! :)

As for Kayleigh...nothing has really changed there. The Freeman family is working toward being able to take Kayleigh home as soon as possible so she can spend the rest of her time, however long or short it may be, home with her family. I know the Freemans would really appreciate your prayers at this time. They are also under a great deal of financial stress as the downturn of the economy has really affected them at the same time they have a lot of bills for Kayleigh's care. If you'd like to donate to help the Freemans, there is a donate button on their blog.

And now, I'm off to bed. Love you all, have a great night! :)

If eggs could talk...

2009-04-29T18:28:00.003-05:00

...what would these be saying? :)

(it didn't work the first time, so I'm trying it again! :P)

2009-04-26T16:09:00.003-05:00

I'm just testing something new...if you can see this and a picture, it works! :-D

Simply Sunday

2009-04-26T07:01:00.000-05:00

the sweetness of a baby's face...

taken by: me

Praying for Kayleigh and the Freemans

2009-04-24T15:19:00.003-05:00

Hey, y'all!
OK, there's this blog that I've visited a few times, but because there are *so many* blogs out there I can't keep up with them all, I hadn't dropped by this one for a while. Well, I was on it today and wanted to ask you all to be praying for little Kayleigh and her family. Kayleigh was born June 23, 2008, three months premature and weighing only 1 pound 1 ounce. Her family calls her their "one pound blessing". :) She has spent her entire life to this point in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), undergoing various surgeries, etc. Her latest surgery seemed to be a success, but now she is not responding as she should and the doctors have said she is basically brain dead. They were doing another EEG (not sure what that stands for, but it monitors brain activity or something like that) today; I don't know what the results of that are yet. Just, please be praying for this young family!!!

Also...real quick, wanted to let y'all know about this kinda fun little idea over at Lynette's Blog that's going on. It's a "Getting to know you" thing, and she features a different blogger every Monday and Friday. If you leave a comment on her "getting to know you" post (linked to directly by the button below, or on my right sidebar), then she may even feature YOU! (which would just be so cool because she has like almost 200 followers!) Anyway, since I posted a comment to participate, I'm supposed to also post the button and a little blurb to let y'all know about it, and now I have. :)

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-04-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

OK, today's "Wise & Witty" bit is going to be a poem I used to have memorized and still love...and need to remind myself of these days!

Procrastination
author unknown

He was going to be all that a mortal should be--
Tomorrow.
No one should be kinder or braver than he--
Tomorrow.
A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,
Who'd be glad for a lift, and who needed it, too;
On him he would call and see what he could do--
Tomorrow.

Each morning he stacked up the letters he'd write--
Tomorrow.
And thought of the folks he would fill with delight--
Tomorrow.
It was too bad, indeed, he was busy today,
And hadn't a minute to stop on his way;
More time he would have to give others, he'd say--
Tomorrow.

The greatest of mortals this man would have been--
Tomorrow.
The world would have known him would he ever have seen--
Tomorrow.
But the fact is, he died, and he faded from view,
And all that he left, when living was through,
Was a mountain of things he intended to do--
Tomorrow.

Duchess

2009-04-21T22:49:00.003-05:00

Those of you who know us, know how much we love our dogs. Almost two years ago, when we lived in San Angelo, Mom started talking about wanting a little dog. That was a bit unusual because we've always had big dogs and weren't really "little dog" people (they're usually so yappy!). But, Mom decided she wanted a little dog, "like a Pomeranian." Long story short, we ended up with the sweetest little fox-faced Pomeranian dog that we named Duchess. She fit right in to our family, and soon became the most spoiled, petted pup we'd ever had.

Last night, when I got home from puppet practice, I went to let the dogs inside from where they'd been out on their cables while we were all gone. Somehow, Duchess had gotten tangled up in the cables, and was dead. We're all still in shock, or I am at least. It just isn't fathomable that she's gone. All day today, I keep expecting her to run into the room, jump up in my lap, or whine at the door just as we're getting ready to sit down and eat. She was so sweet and precious and lovable, and we're all going to miss her so much.

And for the record, I believe that dogs do go to heaven.

We love you, Duchess!

Simply Sunday

2009-04-19T07:21:00.000-05:00

just a shot of the sky and trees, etc. from our front yard

taken by: me, on my cell phone :)

P.S.

2009-04-15T23:11:00.003-05:00

Oh, I forgot! I now have a button! :) Yep, since ~~having a button for your blog seems to be the "in" thing these days~~ I was bored last night with no internet connection, I was playing with this photo editing software I downloaded and made a button. So if you want to, you can put it on your blog. You know, if you want to. You can copy and paste the code below, or grab it from my left side bar. Whichever, I don't care. I'm in a weird mood tonight... :)

Use this code to add my button to your blog:

To add the button to your blog: go to the "customize" (or "layout") tab/section, click "add a gadget", select "HTML/Javascript", and paste the code you copied from here. Click "save", and voila! My button is on your blog! :) Love you guys! :)

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-04-15T23:06:00.002-05:00

Hey, y'all!
Here is today's wise and witty quote:
"A planned life is a closed life; it can be endured, but it cannot be lived." --Gladys Aylward on Inn of the 6th Happiness

And, just in case anyone cared, I cleaned my desk off yesterday! :) I wanted to post this picture yesterday, but our internet was down, soooo...here it is today! :)
See, I can be organized...sort of...sometimes. :)

Concert pictures... :)

2009-04-13T16:53:00.002-05:00

Concert reports are still in the works, but here are pictures from our EH&SS (Ernie Haase & Signature Sound) concert last Sunday. Enjoy the pictures while also enjoying hearing "the guys" sing! :)

Simply Sunday/Happy Resurrection Day!

2009-04-12T23:04:00.002-05:00

*I tried to post this earlier, but my computer was having issues...*
Christ the Lord is risen today--Morning has broken--Death has lost, and life has won--Because He lives, life is worth the living--He's alive, and I'm forgiven; heaven's gates are opened wide--Since I've found the Source of music, I just can't help it, God gave the song!
(and yes, life is a song around here...a Gaither song, more often than not!)

a sunset

taken by: me, on my cell phone

My room says...

2009-04-10T23:21:00.004-05:00

Hey, y'all! :)

I know I missed both Tuesday and Wednesday this week; I was working both days. And I still need to write about the concerts we went to this weekend and get pictures up from the second one. And I will...eventually. :) Maybe tomorrow, we'll see. For now, I've got a kinda fun idea. I've taken pictures of random things around my room, and I figure I'll share one every now and then with the idea that "my room says" a lot about me! :) So here's one for today:

My room says...

I'm disorganized! :) And this was taken a couple weeks ago...it gets even better:

this was taken just a minute ago. :)

I wonder...what does your room say about you?

Simply Sunday

2009-04-05T08:30:00.000-05:00

the hail on our back porch earlier this week

taken by: my Momma :)

Pictures from the Homecoming concert....

2009-04-04T18:19:00.003-05:00

Hey, y'all! :)
Mom and I went to the Gaither Homecoming concert in Ft. Worth last night. I'll get an official "report" written up later (it was AWESOME!!! :) ), but for now, here are some pictures you can enjoy....while also enjoying listening to a great song by the GVB, featuring the one and only Wes Hampton. :)

Tuesday's Tidbit, etc.

2009-03-31T23:46:00.003-05:00

Today's tidbit is a heartbreaking one, and one that I went and looked up because this is an issue that is very important to me.

For every two babies born another baby dies in an abortion.
That's 1.2 million babies each year.
That's over 3,300 babies every day.
That's 1 baby every 25 seconds.
That's over 50 million babies since 1973.
And that's just here in America...
Here's a few more tidbits:

Do You Know? At 22 days after conception, a baby's heart is already beating.
Do You Know? At 6 weeks, brain waves can be measured. At 8 weeks, the stomach, liver, and kidneys are functioning, and fingerprints have formed. At 9 weeks, the unborn child can feel pain.
Do You Know? That 700,000 abortions are performed each year in America after 9 weeks into the pregnancy.
Do You Know? The overwhelming majority of all abortions, 93%, are done as a means of birth control. Only 1% are performed because of rape or incest; 3% because of fetal abnormalities; 3% due to the mother's health problems.
http://www.tnrtl.org/human_life_issues/human_life_issues_abortion_statistics.htm

What kind of nation have we become? I'm reminded of Casting Crowns' song, While You Were Sleeping, that has the line: "As we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children." (the complete lyrics to the song are at the bottom of this post) It's so true! In America today, people are more concerned with the trees and the dolphins and the rainforests than with the tragedy of the millions of innocent lives lost to abortion.

Today was "Red Envelope Day". I meant to blog about it a couple weeks ago when it was first brought to my attention, but obviously I didn't get around to it. The idea was for people to send red envelopes to President Obama, each envelope representing a child who never got the chance to live because of abortion. On the back of the envelopes is this simple message:
This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. It is empty because the precious life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world.
The red, of course, is to symbolize the innocent blood that was shed. 149,981 envelopes were pledged to be sent today--I would guess that a few more than that were actually sent. What a simple, yet powerful message.

These precious babies have no voice because someone else is choosing that they will never live. That is so wrong. A couple weeks ago, I was "blog-surfing" (meaning I was reading somebody's blog, and they linked to another blog that looked interesting, which linked to another one that looked interesting, and so forth and so on) and I ended up on this one of somebody who obviously did not share my beliefs. One of her recent posts was a sort of "political survey", and some of her answers made my blood boil--and kind of confused me. She said that she was pro-abortion (well, she actually said "pro-choice", but I don't like that term--the baby has no choice, so how can that be "pro-choice"?). But then a couple questions later, it asked if she would support the death penalty for a mom who had killed her 5 children. She said, "absolutely. What kind of mom would kill her child?!" Hmmm....how about that "pro-choice" mother who aborted her baby?! It is not any different!

You've seen the counters on websites that add up the number of soldiers killed since the beginning of the war on terrorism (heh, that term is apparently about to become politically incorrect, too...but I totally don't care). And yes, every life lost is absolutely a tragedy. But why aren't people counting the casualties that are piling up in the most tragic war of all time--the war on unborn babies? More babies are killed through abortion every year than all the American casualties from all of our wars (Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I & 11, the Korean War, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf Wars) combined. There are 1.5 million abortions per year; the total number of war deaths is 1,043,569. (http://www.californiaprolife.org/abortion/aborstats.html) Even if you add in the number from the war on terrorism--which I believe is just over 72,000--it comes out to significantly less than the annual number of abortions. (1,115,569)

I've put a counter on here, over to the left, that adds up the number of abortions since January 1, 2001, worldwide. I look at that number and I cry. I cry for the precious little voices that never sang, the sweet little eyes that never stared in wonder at God's beautiful creation, the darling little hands and feet that never ran or played or pitter-pattered their way through life, the little blessings that never wiggled and wormed their way into somebody's heart. And I cry for their mothers, who never got to hold their little ones and feel the utter joy that a baby brings, never rocked them to sleep and stared in love at their sweet sleeping face, never felt the pride in their child's accomplishments or the responsibility of raising this little one right. Because the world has managed to convince them that if they had a baby they'd be missing out on something, they're missing out on a whole lot more. They're cheating themselves out of the blessing that a child really, truly is--despite sleepless nights, responsibility, and embarrassing moments. They're cheating themselves.

I realize that probably anyone reading my blog already agrees with my stance on abortion, but it's just been on my mind and heart a lot lately, so I figured I'd vent a little here. And now I'll sign off...you're probably tired of ~~hearing~~ reading me go on and on!

All the lyrics to While You Were Sleeping by Casting Crowns:
Oh little town of Bethlehem
Looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep
A giant star lights up the sky
And while you're lying in the dark
There shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne
And is sleeping in a manger tonight

Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
For God became a man
And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

Oh little town of Jerusalem
Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son
The Way, the Truth, the Life had came
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save

Jerusalem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
The Savior of the world is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while we're lying in the dark
There's a shout heard 'cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night

America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping
Will we be sleeping

Simply Sunday

2009-03-29T00:10:00.002-05:00

have I mentioned that I love the sky? :D

taken by: me, on my cell phone

Today, Tomorrow

2009-03-27T23:24:00.005-05:00

Maybe that's an odd title for a blogpost, but I was drawing a blank and that's what I'm going to talk about, so... :D

Today I'm kinda proud of myself. For snacks today I've had two bananas and a box of grapes, and at the moment, despite my nearly irresistible craving for either cookie dough (which we don't have in the house) or a spoon of peanut butter (which we *always* have in the house!), I'm eating an apple. The real shocker of the day, though, is that I ate broccoli at lunch. And I got seconds. And yes, I smothered it in hot sauce (don't like Ranch dressing!). But I ate it! :D OK, so only the people who really know me know what a big deal all of that is. I guess I'll move on now...

Tomorrow--now, I'm very excited and a little nervous about tomorrow. We're going to spend most of the day at the Astles' house, hanging out with them. We'll get to meet the youngest Astle, little Christopher who was born last October. That's the part I'm just excited about.
The part I'm excited but also a little nervous about is the fact that I'll be recording new (and better!) demos for a couple of mine and Raluca's songs (Dancing in the Rain and Love Did, in case anyone wanted to know). Mr. Astle has professional recording equipment and is so kindly going to help me create better, more professionally mixed demos. And I know it's going to be fun and exciting and all, but I'm just kinda nervous about it. So right now I'm listening to the soundtracks over and over and over (good thing I never get tired of them! :D) and printing the words off because although I wrote them, I'm still likely to forget them tomorrow!

Well, I'm going to practice them a couple times through and then head for bed. We're leaving relatively early in the morning (early for us, anyway) and I need to make sure I get plenty of sleep.
Y'all have a blessed weekend! Oh...and don't forget to check on Stellan, who is still in the hospital and still in SVT, and Jonah, who is also still in the hospital but should be going home on Monday.

Pray, pray, pray for Stellan!

2009-03-26T23:20:00.004-05:00

Hey all!
Ooops, I missed both Tuesday and Wednesday...sorry! Part of it is our crazy internet that has been acting up the last couple of days.
So, I was going to post a nice, long, random post today, but it's late, I'm tired, and my laptop battery is about to give out (remember the crazy internet connection? it doesn't work worth a hill of beans in my bedroom [:P] so I'm in the living room and didn't feel like transporting the cord. :D). So I'm just going to post a quick plea for prayer. [and I just used the word "so" three times in the same paragraph. told you I'm tired.]
Y'all may remember a while back when I posted a "pray for Stellan" post when he had RSV. Well, he's back in the hospital--with SVT, a heart condition that almost killed him in utero. He was born with a perfectly healthy heart by God's miraculous power, but now the same problem is back, and it is a dangerous one. MckMama and her precious family would covet your prayers!!!

Simply Sunday

2009-03-22T08:30:00.002-05:00

the view of our neighbor's property from our "back forty" :D

taken by: me, on my cell phone

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-03-18T22:57:00.003-05:00

OK, I really do have a "real" blog post in the works...y'know, something besides some trivial fact or a quote or a picture. Hopefully, maybe I'll get it finished and published sometime tomorrow...but if not tomorrow, it will be at least Sunday before I *do* get to it, because we're going to Tulia to see my grandmother this weekend. And now, I'll give you a great quote and then I'm off to bed, BEFORE midnight!! :D
"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it." --Mark Twain

(love you, Momma! :D)

Tuesday's Tidbit

2009-03-17T23:25:00.000-05:00

Hey, all!!
Well, so technically it's not actually Tuesday anymore, but hey... *shrug* close enough, right? :D I thought this was a fitting tidbit for St. Patrick's Day:
Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland.
On a not-so-lighter note, y'all may remember me posting the "pray for Jonah" request a week or so ago, and/or you may have seen Jonah's button over to the left. I just wanted to remind y'all to keep praying for Jonah, and his precious mommy and daddy. Patrice's post today made me cry...they are really going through the wringer right now. They're supposed to get the specific diagnosis on Jonah tomorrow (or later today...Wednesday!), so please remember them in your prayers especially on this day. Here's the link to their blog: http://patriceandmattwilliams.blogspot.com/

Simply Sunday

2009-03-15T06:42:00.002-05:00

sunrise over Niagara Falls

taken by: me

Random-ness

2009-03-14T18:38:00.003-05:00

Hey, all!!!

So I dropped off the face of the blog-world for a few days, but it's OK because none of you seem to have noticed. ;) And now I'm back! With nothing much to say or whatever, so here's for some totally random bits of my ordinary life.

First of all, I'll say that I'm working on a "deeper" post that I'll try to finish and post tomorrow. But I'm not making promises. Because my plans don't always work out!

My grandparents (mom's parents) were here for a couple days this weekend. We enjoyed hanging out with them--they were a welcome bright spot in our cold, rainy week!! Yep, it's just about rained for almost 3 days straight. :P I know we need rain, but does it all have to come at once? And why does it have to get cold when it rains? I like hot and rainy much better...
But, this particular time it didn't bother us a whole lot because we just hung around watching videos of Hawai'i that my grandparents brought with them (they were just in Hawai'i a little over a week ago), a video on Niagara Falls that we got when we were there last year, the Gaither Vocal Band Reunion DVDs (both of them), part of the George Younce tribute video, and the Rocky Mountain Homecoming. :D Lots of great music and awesome scenery, we were happily entertained.
Oh, and of course we were also reading. Mom and Dad brought out the R.M. Ballantyne books, which none of us have read and which the boys didn't know we had until yesterday. So we were all thoroughly engrossed in our books for a while yesterday afternoon. Mr. Ballantyne was an incredibly gifted writer! His ability to paint a word picture is amazing to me. I'm reading "The Dog Crusoe: A Tale of the Western Plains", and it is great.

Hmmm, let's see, what else? Did y'all notice that I've changed my background, etc. again? :D TheCutestBlogontheBlock.com is back up and they just have SOOOO many cute things to choose from, I'm sure I'll be changing my background about every month. I like the variety/change anyway. :D

It's only 20 more days until the Gaither Homecoming crew comes to Ft. Worth, and Mom and I are going to see them Friday night, April 3rd. I am SOO excited about seeing EH&SS again, and the new GVB (complete with Mark Lowry! I checked, all 5 members should be there), and some of the other artists. Jeff & Sheri Easter, Ivan Parker, The Isaacs, The Hoppers, Lynda Randle....they're all supposed to be there, and others, too!! It's going to be awesome. And THEN, on Sunday night, April 5th, Mom, Jonathan, a friend of mine from the EH&SS MB, and I are going to see EH&SS at a solo concert in Richardson. I'm thinking that weekend is going to be fun with a capital F-U-N!!! :D Oh, and Jonathan is so cute and excited about it...Mom surprised him with the tickets the other night, and he got all excited and started asking, "when? when?" She told him the date, and he came over to me and asked, "Can I have a sticker to put on my calendar on April the 5th?!" Of course he got a sticker! I figure that after the concert, I'll have a picture of him and Tim Duncan to post... :D

I spent a good part of Wednesday afternoon re-recording and re-mixing a new demo of mine and Raluca's newest song, "Love Did". Apparently, the first time I recorded it I was off-key in a couple places. :D (Raluca has perfect pitch, so she keeps me on track) BTW, if you're interested, Raluca and I have started a new blog about our songs, etc., wherever God leads us next on this adventure that we think is so exciting. We don't want to forget any of it, and I think that people can be blessed by hearing how God is working in our lives, so we're "journaling" it--for us and for anyone who wants to read it. :D You can also listen to clips of our songs on there. It's at http://www.agod-thing.blogspot.com/.

Well, that's all I can think of (and probably more than you cared to know), so I'll sign off now. We're going to watch a surprise movie tonight when the boys get done taking their Saturday night showers. My parents are great about little things like this...well, actually, my parents are just great. Period. :D Love y'all! *hugs*

Hope y'all all have a great Saturday night and may your Sunday be richly blessed!

Simply Sunday

2009-03-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

a flower in the flower beds at our house (we didn't plant these, they were a pleasant surprise coming up out there! :D)

taken by: me, on my cell phone

Lucky Me

2009-03-04T15:34:00.008-06:00

Look who I get to spend the day with!!! :D Is he cute or what?

I'm not getting much done, but I sure am enjoying it. I have him for an indefinite period of time, since his mommy is helping deliver a baby at the birth center (she's the new apprentice with the same midwife my mom is studying under). He's cute, happy, and oh-so-easy! And he *loves* Sugar, though she's not sure what to think of him.

*Update*
And the best part is...I get to watch him a couple days every week!! Yay!! :D

Pray for Jonah

2009-03-03T22:46:00.003-06:00

I'm about to head for bed, but I came across this blog from someone else's blog and thought I'd pass along the request for prayer. Oh, and be forewarned...if this doesn't make you cry, I'd be really surprised.

Tuesday's Tidbit

2009-03-03T20:50:00.002-06:00

Hey, all!
I know, I've kinda dropped off the face of the internet world; I've been working really hard on finishing these two papers for my Exodus class that I've been "working on" for ever. I finished one, I'm making steady progress on the other, and hope to be done with it by Friday. Until then, I'm trying to pretty much stay off the 'net. Just thought I'd explain my absence! :D
Now, here is today's bit of "did-I-really-need-to-know-that?" information:
A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.

Here's a couple of related ones: it is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Go ahead, try it. Also, when you have braces and you sneeze and your teeth bang together, it HURTS. I suggest you NOT try that one. :D
Have a blessed week, y'all! :D

Simply Sunday

2009-03-01T09:00:00.001-06:00

an aspen forest in Colorado

taken by: Momma

Trust...or resignation?

2009-02-26T10:37:00.000-06:00

I was reading my devotional book this morning (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young), and today's devotional really made me think. Here's part of what it said:
"Secret things belong to the Lord, (direct quote from Deut. 29:29) and future things are secret things. When you try to figure out the future, you are grasping at things that are Mine. This, like all forms of worry, is an act of rebellion: doubting My promises to care for you.
Whenever you find yourself worrying about the future, repent and return to Me. I will show you the next step forward, and the one after that, and the one after that. Relax and enjoy the journey in My Presence, trusting Me to open up the way before you as you go."

Worry is an act of rebellion?! I had never thought of it that way before, but it really is. Over and over the Bible tells me not to worry, to trust God, to cast all my cares on Him...so when I worry anyway, it's plain and simple rebellion. Ouch!!!

So does this mean I shouldn't have dreams for the future, shouldn't have goals and plans to accomplish those dreams? No, I don't think so, because "where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). But there is a world of difference between making plans and trying to "figure out" the future. I think I've been kind of doing both...which brought me to another realization. I don't very often truly trust God. For the most part, I "trust" Him and wait on Him only when there is no other option. That's not trust, it's resignation. God doesn't want me to just resign myself to His timing and will, but to truly trust Him.

Trust is "counting it all joy", whatever may come my way, because I know that "the trying of my faith worketh patience". It's letting "patience have her perfect work, that I may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing". (James 1:2-4) Trust results in peace and joy and a closer walk with God.

Resignation is saying, "Fine, God, since there is no other way, I'll wait for You to do something." It's pushing against the boundaries and searching for some "way out" (or "in", depending on what it is I want at the time :D). Resignation results in unrest, unhappiness, bitterness and a barrier between myself and God.

Hmmm...I'm thinking that trust sounds like a better way to live!!!

Happy 25th Anniversary....

2009-02-25T07:51:00.007-06:00

...to my wonderful parents! :D

May the Lord bless you richly with laughter and love,

And many more years of a match made above.

For 25 years you've been working and sharing,

Fighting, forgiving, loving and caring;

So on your anniversary, I just want to say:

May all God's richest blessing come pouring your way!

Daddy and Momma, I love y'all!

Tuesday's Tidbit

2009-02-24T23:40:00.001-06:00

Well, I was going to post an interesting story today, but I'm out of time; I really need to head for bed!! So, here is today's tidbit, and the story will have to wait for another day. :D
160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road.

'Night, y'all!! Have a blessed day (whenever you read this)! :D

Simply Sunday

2009-02-22T08:16:00.003-06:00

the Concho river in San Angelo, Tx

taken by: me (on my cell phone)

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-02-18T23:16:00.003-06:00

Hey, y'all! :D I'm just on for a brief moment...I'm in Little Elm this week. But, here is today's "wise and witty" quote! :D
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way." --C.S. Lewis

Tuesday's Tidbit

2009-02-17T23:09:00.003-06:00

My poor blog has been so neglected recently... :P And tonight I only have time to quickly post this week's "Tuesday's Tidbit"; I should really already be in bed. OK, so here's the latest in my collection of really-not-necessary-information:
12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

Kinda scary, huh? Just one more reason to have your baby at home, with a midwife. ;)
Y'all have a great night and a blessed week! :D Love ya!

Dance, Dance, Reilly!

2009-02-10T15:56:00.004-06:00

Let's see if I have this "video from my cell phone" thing figured out...this is Reilly, the little 15 month old boy I babysit, dancing. Cute huh? :D

It's not the best quality, and you can barely hear the sound, but there it is!

Need a laugh?

2009-02-09T21:53:00.002-06:00

Hey, y'all!
Sorry I missed "Simply Sunday"...it was a "Sickly Sunday" around here. :P Three of us spent the day laying around feeling pretty miserable, watching movies and football. I'm feeling almost better today; once I kick this sore throat, I'll be fine! :D
We grew up listening to this song by Ray Stevens called "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", and we all loved it. Well, apparently, there is a music video that goes with it...check it out, and be ready to laugh!

Trying out photo albums/slideshows...

2009-02-05T22:10:00.003-06:00

Hey, all, I'm trying to figure out how to get photo slideshows up here. Right now I'm testing "Flickr"; we'll see if this works. And if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment passing on your wisdom! :D
Update: it works!! :D OK, so y'all have seen some of these pictures before; they're from the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound concert we went to last October. But I'll leave the slideshow up here so y'all can see them again. Now that I know how to do it, maybe I'll get some new pictures up! :D

Hey! :D

2009-02-05T14:51:00.002-06:00

Hey, y'all!
Well, on Tuesday I tried to get on to post "Tuesday's Tidbit", but I was at work in Little Elm and couldn't get the internet connection to work for me. Then yesterday, I was gone until about 7pm, and once I got home I just plain forgot to post a "Wise & Witty" quote for Wednesday. I'm not going to try to play catch up, either, so you'll just have to wait until next week.
However, I will say that I'm working on getting pictures/videos from my phone to my computer (we'll see if I can make this work!) so *maybe* I'll have some of that up for you soon. :D

Simply Sunday

2009-02-01T23:59:00.004-06:00

a butterfly on the rocks in Colorado

taken by: either Mom or Dad

Wise & Witty Wednesday

2009-01-28T22:49:00.003-06:00

Time for some wise and witty quote...
"Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God." --Heywood Brown

Y'all have a blessed night. If nothing else, think of the fact that the week is now a little more than half over... :D

Tuesday's Tidbit

2009-01-27T23:57:00.001-06:00

Y'all thought I'd forgotten, huh? Well...I guess I kinda did. :P Oh, well...it's still before midnight!! Here's today's tidbit...

Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald
Reagan.

Brrrr!!!

2009-01-27T09:02:00.004-06:00

It is freezing outside--literally! It's a whopping 29 degrees out there and the roads are getting icy, so wherever possible, we Texans are holing up inside for the next couple of days. Today's high is only supposed to be 31!

I was supposed to work this week in Little Elm, but with this kind of weather we decided not to chance the drive. So who knows...maybe I'll finally get these papers written and sent in for school! :D

Anyway...not a whole lot really going on here. We'll just be doing school, trying to keep warm, hanging out by the fire...

Y'all be safe and stay warm! God bless! :D

Simply Sunday

2009-01-25T22:05:00.002-06:00

My sweet "baby" brother... :D
taken by: either Mom, Micah, or me...I can't remember!

Playing House in the White House

2009-01-24T14:12:00.003-06:00

Hey, all, I saw this on Sara's blog (In Christ Alone) and thought it was awesome, so I decided to share it with all of you! :D Regardless of your "political persuasion", you have to admit this is sweet. Enjoy!

Letter that Jenna and Barbara Bush wrote for Sasha and Malia Obama

The Other Side...

2009-01-22T12:09:00.005-06:00

I thought it would be fun to get Raluca's side to the "this HAS to be God!" story, and she so sweetly typed it out for me this morning, so here it is! :D

My name is Raluca, I'm 16, I'm from Romania (somewhere in Eastern Europe....) and I'm a huge EHSS fan!
In 2007 I "discovered" my gift of composing. Well, I was writing songs 10 years ago too, but those were just simple tunes, nothing worth listening to! :P First I started composing instrumental music (piano solo with soundtracks) and then I thought "Nobody listens to this kind of music....I should try writing SONGS (with lyrics)". The lyric part doesn't work for me...sorry, I just CAN'T write lyrics (well, I can write silly poems, stuff like "Silly Songs With Larry" from Veggie Tales, but in my language...since in Romania there are no professional groups like in the USA, I had no chance of writing a song...). My Mom advised me to take a public-domain poem and put music to it. I did...after one week, we sang it in church. I was so thrilled....the first time somebody sings my song!!!
As for my piano-solo pieces, I played them in my school and people were excited about them, but my wish was to write songs WITH LYRICS.

In 2008 I went to Ben Speer's Stamps Baxter School Of Music where I took some piano and songwriting classes. I had the privilege to study with Sue C. Smith who writes songs for EHSS (I was so shocked, I could hardly believe it!) and she taught me a lot of things about merging the music and lyrics. At that school I met a good lyricist and we started working together, but after writing a couple of songs, we didn't keep in touch...and I also gave up the idea of becoming a composer. I started writing my own lyrics, but it took me a lot of time..... and they're not as good as any other lyricist's.
I joined EHSS's Message Board in early 2008 and made a lot of friends! In August-September, a nice girl showed up and joined this big awesome family! I knew her as "giveasmile" until she wrote her name in her signature, "Haley"--and the rest is history :) OK, wait I'll write it :P

Somebody started a thread about sending songs to EHSS and I posted "Oh, I'd love it if EHSS sang my songs" and Haley replied: "And I'd love it if EHSS sang my.........hmm.....poems? *rolleyes*" When I read that I was like: WHAT??? Ta-da! Let's send her a personal message...and request some lyrics...>:) (I meant....POEMS!)
She got kinda curious about it......she sent me a poem called Desert Places, and as I read it, I was thinking "Wow, I really feel this way these days! This lyric is great! Thank you, Haley!" I wrote a simple melody, I didn't want it to be very fancy, 'cause the message was so simple, so I had to keep it all simple! :) (as musicians would say...keep it "singable!")

God is good! I think He has a LOT in store for us!

This HAS to be God!!

2009-01-22T09:45:00.002-06:00

Hey, y'all! :D

OK, hopefully I've built up enough excitement through various hints in blog posts, e-mails, etc. that a few of you will actually read this... ;) Here we go: my latest "this HAS to be God!" story. Warning: this ~~could~~ will be long!!! Just remember that I warned you. :D

I thought about making you all groan by starting with "On May 16, 1986, at 11:04 PM...", but I don't have to go back THAT far for this story, so I won't.

I am going to back up a little ways though. I've been scribbling bits and pieces of "poetry" pretty much since the time I could write. Some of those first ones are great for a laugh, and no--you can't see them. When I was 13 or so I started writing "real" poems, concentrating on the rhythm and rhyme and trying to actually make them sound good. And I was officially in love with the beautiful, lilting sound of poetry. One problem: poetry is rapidly going out of style. As my dad once said, "The poets of today are the songwriters." So, my dream became to be a songwriter. Again, just one problem: I had plenty of words, but I could not for the life of me write music. Trust me, I tried. A lot. When no one else was around. :D

Since it seemed like I was never going to make "songwriter", I tried to be content with writing poems. I started compiling little homemade books of them each year and giving them to people for Christmas. My poetry has always been a very personal thing, a product of my walk with God, my journey in life. It wasn't really meant for others. I was just giving it to certain people because a) I had no money to give them anything else and b) they were my parents, grandparents, and closest friends and I figured they'd like anything I wrote. :D Imagine my surprise when people started telling me that the poems were blessing them somehow!!! It took a while, but I finally came to realize that, through God (and HIM alone!) words that I wrote could touch others just like others' words had touched me. So, I kept sharing the poems I wrote.

Over the last few months, I've felt more and more strongly that somehow, I was supposed to be writing songs. Reminding God that I can't write music wasn't having any effect, either. This was the dream He had given me, what was I going to do about it?

Way back in June last year, the boys and I were in San Angelo for a visit and went by the church to see Pastor Jim and Debbie. While we were there, Pastor Jim got his guitar out and sang for us a new verse he had written to "Your Love, O Lord" (a song done by Third Day). The whole song is taken from Psalm 36, and Pastor Jim made a comment just in passing about there being a "third verse" there but he didn't have time to write it. Well, I read the Psalm and found what he was talking about right away...and it wouldn't let me sleep that night. So, I wrote a third verse and gave it to Pastor Jim. The congregation sang the song, with both new verses, in church on Sunday, and it was one of the most surreal moments of my life, hearing people sing words I had written by the grace of God. It wasn't a prideful feeling, just...a very blessed, very "this-is-so-right" kind of feeling. And my dream was set in concrete. :D I still had the very big problem of getting music for the words, though.

In July, I joined the Ernie Haase & Signature Sound message board and starting making some great friends from all over the world, united by our love for this awesome quartet.

In October, EH&SS released a new CD/DVD project called "Dream On". The first time I watched the video, I cried listening to them sing the title song...

Dream on! When the world just doesn't believe; God has promised never to leave you alone!

Dream on! Follow hope wherever it leads; in the seed of dreams, there's the promise of the dawn!

Dare to listen for the music, keep on following the star; morning can't be far! Dream on!

It was so perfect for where I was, almost ready to give up on my God-sized dream. And through listening to that song--and a few teary conversations with God--I realized that I was standing in the way of my own dream. I kept offering questions and problems and excuses when God just wanted me to trust Him and be willing. It's like He said to me, "Haley, you sound like Moses! So many excuses, so many questions, so many seemingly reasonable reasons to stay in your comfort zone! Just trust Me, little one!"

'Course, I kept arguing for a while. Here's an excerpt from my journal one night:

Note, arguing with God never really works very well! To every problem I could come up with, He simply replied, "just trust Me." Rather like hitting a brick wall! An awfully gentle and lovable brick wall, though!

Finally, God got me to a point where I was willing to say, "OK. You show me what to do one step at a time, and I will follow. Even if it means that, somewhere down the road, I'm going to have to face rejection...or my fear of 'famous-people-I-don't-know-personally'." :D Once I got to that point, I found myself finally at rest and really excited about whatever the future held. Here's another excerpt from my journal:

I look ahead, "dreaming on" with a crazy mixture of excitement and terror. My future is in the hands of a very good, always faithful, loving, absolutely unpredictable God--who wouldn't be terrifyingly excited?! Or maybe it's excitedly terrified... :D

Fast forward to January 10, 2009. Somebody on the EH&SS message board (see, I did have a reason for mentioning it earlier!) started a conversation about song writing, and I jumped in with a brief comment that I loved to write lyrics, but hadn't ever been able to put music to them. Next thing I know, I get a personal message from Raluca, a high school student from Romania.

She wanted me to send her my "favorite" poem that I had written (favorite? Who has a favorite poem they've written?! The most recent one is usually my "favorite"! :D). My curiosity aroused, I sent her one and asked why she wanted it. She told me that she wanted to try putting music to it. And I became excited. VERY excited. This HAD to be God!! I had not sought this out in any way, and here it was. From Romania!!!

A few days later, she e-mailed me sheet music and a beautifully done soundtrack to Desert Places. WOW!!! Let me tell ya, folks, Raluca is very gifted. The song is beautiful and her musical ability is impressive. And, I'm even MORE excited. :D What are we doing next? Well, beyond fine-tuning Desert Places and working on another song, we don't really know. We are convinced that this is a God thing, and it would be wrong to just keep it all to ourselves. But, we're still working on where we go next with all this.

I have just one more bit to say...a couple days ago Raluca and I were instant messaging (isn't technology great?! :D) and talking about the song and how amazing it was that we'd "found each other". Raluca said she'd tried many times to write lyrics and hadn't really been able to, and I laughed as I told her I'd tried to write music many times and had totally not been able to. Her response? "We match!" Perfectly put, Raluca. :D Only God could orchestrate things to where a girl from Texas and a girl from Romania (yes, I am still floored by all this!) could get together and write a song. God-sized dreams do come true!!

In that same IM conversation, I said something about how I'd hesitated over the lyrics to send her because I worry about my poetry being too "personal", too much "for me" and not really making sense or mattering to other people. She so sweetly pointed out the simple truth that that is the very thing that makes a good song. Then she made me cry. She said that when she got the lyrics from me, she had felt like she was kind of in a "desert place", and that the lyrics helped and blessed her as she was writing the music. And that, my friends, simply HAS to be God!

Completely un-themed

2009-01-21T21:19:00.000-06:00

I've been scanning the titles of my blog posts recently and have come to the conclusion that there are too many themed, planned ones and not enough random, rambling ones that make blogging so fun. Nor are there any (lately) that really accomplish my original purpose in having a blog--telling you what God is doing in my life these days. So, I'm going to try to fix both those problems. I will ramble. Consider yourself warned. :D

First, let me "classify" a statement I made yesterday in the "Tuesday's Tidbit" post. By calling the information "useless" I simply meant that you will never need it for any practical purpose in life. A game of Cranium or Trivial Pursuit, perhaps, but not much beyond that. Obviously, I find all the "useless" facts that I post on Tuesday's Tidbit very fascinating...that's why I post them. :D I collect tidbits of trivia just like I collect quotes. OK, moving on now... :D

Hmm...life these days. Well, we got the Gaither Vocal Band Reunion DVDs in the mail yesterday. We watched Volume One last night, and it's great!!! I can hardly wait to watch the other one. All of the guys are so incredibly talented--at one point, they pulled together 4 of the guys who had never sung together before (Buddy Mullins, Marsh Hall, David Phelps, and Lee Young) and had them sing "He Touched Me". They were amazing!! And I'm loving the interviews and stories and such, too. All the behind-the-scenes stuff adds so much to the videos! It helps make the artists seem, um, more real and all. Dad was giving me and Mom a hard time last night, because at one point you see Ernie whisper to Doug (oh, yeah--Signature Sound was there, as part of the audience!) and we wanted to know what they said!! We're just odd that way, I guess.

The rest of life just keeps humming along. Time is flying by WAY too fast! I can't believe it's already so close to the end of January. My "little" brother Caleb turned 20 on Saturday. Now that is scary... :D We weren't able to get together actually on his birthday (he lives in San Angelo), but he and Amber are coming here in February so we'll celebrate his birthday (and my parents' 25th anniversary) then.

The other really exciting thing in my life right now deserves its very own blog post, which I'm going to work on tonight and will hopefully get posted tomorrow. So be watching for my latest "this HAS to be God!" story!! :D

OK, factual events aside, let's see if I can kind of summarize what God is doing in my life (besides the "this HAS to be God!" story) so this post doesn't end up being epistle-length. :D

For Christmas, I got a little devotional book called "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. The devotions in it are very short and are written as if it were Jesus talking. It seems like every day there is a sentence or phrase or thought in the day's devotion that is just perfect for me that day. Here are a couple of the ones that have really made me stop and think:

*It is through problems and failure, weakness and neediness that you learn to rely on Me...Thus begins your journey of profound reliance on Me...This is not a path of continual success but of multiple failures.
*Though I have all power in heaven and on earth, I am infinitely tender with you. The weaker you are, the more gently I approach you. Let your weakness be a door to My Presence.
*The more you trust Me, the more I empower you to do so.
*Do not be ashamed of your emptiness. Instead, view it as the optimal condition for being filled with My Peace...I see straight through you, into the depths of your being. There is no place for pretense in your relationship with Me. Rejoice in the relief of being fully understood.

And then today's:
*I want you to be all Mine...Depending on Me may feel like walking on a tightrope, but there is a safety net underneath: the everlasting arms. So don't be afraid of falling.

Well, so much for summarizing... :D I just want to point out the common thread running through all of those bits and pieces: don't be afraid of falling or being weak or needy. God's grace abounds when I am weak, but I want so much to appear strong, so I pretend. I pretend like I have it all together and under control. I'm "fine". You know what "fine" stands for, right? Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional. :D
I'm learning--slowly--that there is nothing wrong with being weak. There is nothing wrong with failure, nothing wrong with falling down--as long as I fall into His ever-so-strong arms. He will always catch me and carry me through. His grace is always enough. And when I am weak, He is allowed to be strong in my life. When I let my brokenness show, His perfectness shines through. When I am real, failures and all, He can be seen as real to those I come in contact with. I'll finish with one more quote I heard recently:

"Don't waste your life trying to look good. Spend your life making God look good." --John Piper

Dancing in the Rain

This is my life...

Only Trust Him/House of Fizzle

Slumber party! :)

Pretty Special...

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Happy (half) birthday to me! :)

determined

Final Bolivia Update

Christmas season...

Bolivia update #4

Bolivia update #3

Bolivia update #2

Bolivia update #1

Bolivia bound!

We're camping :)

House of Faith, Week 2 Vlog

House of Faith, Week 1 Vlog

Life...

When Dreams Come True

birthday

no darkness

Snow! :)

Happy Valentine's Day (the *digital* way)

So "me"...

radical

We're Here

You Are Still God...

But, God...

tonight

crazy good times

digital

My Vulnerable God

random ramblings...

My Room Says...

oh, look! it's a blog!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

just cause...

Chisels, seasons, and focus...

whoa...

quick update (with an edit!)...

Fwd: I miss you!

"My kind of town, Chicago is..."

Mountains and Walls

Simply Sunday

Puppets! :)

Whoa! I'm 23?!

Wise & Witty Wednesday

Kayleigh...and Tuesday's Tidbit

Something to think about...

Simply Sunday (and Happy Mother's Day!)

Simply Sunday

Kayleigh, and May's word of the month

Wise & Witty Wednesday

If eggs could talk...

Simply Sunday

Praying for Kayleigh and the Freemans

Wise & Witty Wednesday

Duchess

Simply Sunday

P.S.

Wise & Witty Wednesday

Concert pictures... :)

Simply Sunday/Happy Resurrection Day!

My room says...

Simply Sunday

Pictures from the Homecoming concert....

Tuesday's Tidbit, etc.

Simply Sunday

Today, Tomorrow

Pray, pray, pray for Stellan!

Simply Sunday

Wise & Witty Wednesday

Tuesday's Tidbit

Simply Sunday

Random-ness

Simply Sunday

Lucky Me

Pray for Jonah

Tuesday's Tidbit

Happy Valentine's Day (the digital way)