Red Letter Days

A Reading Nook

2012-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do after a long day at work is to come home and read.

I like to sit on my bed, grab a pillow, lean against the window sill and ever so often look out at the pretty view. Framed by my little plants.

Right now I'm trying to read through the Bible quickly. I know a couple people, yes more than two, that have read the whole Bible in a month!

I don't know if I'll make it that fast...but I'd love to read it in maybe just 3 months.

It's so cool to see the different things God teaches you as you reread a passage you've read many times before. His Word is living and active!

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

What are you reading right now? I want to know! :)

Style in a Flash

2012-02-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, if it's not obvious to you just by looking at it, I thought I was WAY cool in the pic above. I specifically remember that moment, posing for the picture like that. Isn't it weird the things we remember? We were at Vasquez Rocks and I absolutely LOVED that dalmation outfit.

You know it sounds all self-esteemy and all that kinda junk to say that if you like what you're wearing you'll feel more confident, but I think there is some truth in that. Maybe even a lot of truth in that. And yes, we shouldn't be overly concerned with what we wear. After all, God looks at the heart. But as my friend, Mariejtie, used to tell me, "It's just as bad to stand out for being poorly dressed (and in that I mean sloppy and messy) as it is to be dressed to the nine's seeking attention. It's better to blend in." Obviously not in a "conformed to the world" way, but in a way that doesn't draw attention to you instead of Jesus!

(Oh and you may want to blend in with this era as well.)

Well what do you on those days where you wake up late or just can't think of what to wear? And you know you shouldn't be caring that much or spending that much time on getting ready, but you just don't know what to do. You can't show up to work in a mumu, but you also can't show up 20 minutes late. And if you want to spend anytime reading your Bible in the morning than sometimes you just need some quick styling ideas.

Well, I've come up with a few in the last couple of months that have really saved my sanity in the mornings. Here they are:

1. A little teasing never hurt anyone.

When I don't have time for a shower or I took one the night before and my hair is all flat, I fall back on this little trick, taught to me by mi madre. (Teasing was real big back in the 60's and 70's.) Just back comb, hairspray a bit, smooth the top and fix with a few bobby pins and you're good to go! Teasing adds body to flat hair.

And if the front is a bit oily you can just use a bit of dry shampoo. One of the best inventions ever!

I actually bought this little sign and keep it near my mirror just as a reminder that it's okay if my hair isn't perfect. ;)

2. Have a file of fave outifts handy.

I don't know about you, but I save a lot of outfit ideas on Pinterest under "Style" and when I can't decide on what to wear, I open up this board and can usually find an idea fairly quickly. Shopping your own closet can keep you from buying what you don't need.

My sister also gave me a notepad for Sister Day where I can list what I wore and draw or add a picture of a certain outif that I liked.

I haven't really used it yet, but the idea is just wonderful. ;)

3. Accessorize!

The wonderful thing about accessorizing is that you can wear the exact same outfit two days in a row and make it look completely different. Add a belt and some jewelry, change up the shoes and I doubt anyone would know you're wearing the same dress on Friday that you wore on Wednesday. You know unless it's orange leopard print or something.

So those are just a few small things I do in the morning to help speed up the getting ready process.

Any of you readers have any secret tips?

Love

2012-01-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

I love this picture.

My parents were undoubtedly a happy couple.

My dad didn't bring home flowers every week. (He actually brought home one rose one time.)

They didn't tavel across Europe together.

I don't believe they had an "our song."

My dad LOVED sports and my mom barely tolerates them.

But they loved each other very much.

They loved spending time together. They were married for just shy of 26 years, when death did part them, temporarily.

My mom and dad met at a Bible study which my dad led in what was known as the Career Department at Grace Community Church. My mom and her roommate at the time thought my dad was kinda "cute." When the group went out to eat my dad would leave an empty seat next to him and wait to see if my mom would sit there. And she did. ;)

One night they were at someone's house and this book was sitting on the coffee table. They were looking at it together and realized that they had a similar sense of humor.

One day my mom had a particular trying day at work and she told my dad about it. He asked if it would help if he took her out for dinner and a movie. She said yes and that was that!

I am so thankful for my parents. I am thankful that they were committed to each other. That no matter what trying times they would face together, splitting up would never be an option.

I remember one time when I was little and we were learning how to play Hearts as a family on the carpet in the "family room" my dad was explaining that he loved my sister and me but that he loved my mom even more...in a different way. I was upset by this at the time. Ha. But now of course I understand and I am glad my mom always came first. ;)

My parents are and always will be a great example to me.

Garden

2012-01-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I mentioned my plant that wasn't doing so well. I really thought she was going to die, so I prematurely bought another little plant from Restoration Hardware. A tiny globe boxwood. Well the other one pulled through after all so I decided that I am going to start a little garden on my window ledge/seat thing. I also decided that since plants are alive, they need names. The one on the left is Gloria, because she's a survivor. (For those who don't know, Gloria Gaynor was the first to record, "I Will Survive.") The other one is Woody. Really clever there I know. The great thing about Woody is that he only needs to be misted once a month! I think I can handle that.

Now I just need some pretty flowers. (Actually, when Gloria was a newborn she had tons of tiny bright pink flowers all over her. But they must only appear bianually because it's been over a year since they were around.) If anyone can tell what kind of plant she is just by looking at her, please let me know.

Here's a few more shots of Woody.

Do any of you readers have a green thumb?

Any tips?

DIY: Fabric Garland Chandelier

2012-01-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

The other day at work, my friend, Jessica, directed me too a wonderful new blog called A Beautiful Mess. If you have never checked it out, go there right now! I absolutely love everything about it. Elsie, the writer of this fantastic blog, has a plethora of fun DIY projects including the one below. (The pic is from her site.)

Pretty much ever since I put up the chinese lantern in my room, I have been dissatisfied with it. I didn't love the shape or the look and for the last year or so I haven't even had a light bulb in it. So when I saw the fabric chandelier on Elsie's blog, I knew it would be the perfect fit.

So this past weekend I decided to do it. What I liked about this project in particular was that all the materials were things I already had around the house. It's made out of an old fashioned cookie cooling rack (which we happened to have), some white fabric and lace, and a sewing needle and thread. :)

Here is the finished product in my room.

After it's complete you stick some white fairy lights through the rack and hang with an extension cord.

Just the right amount of whimsy for my room!

Happiness is...

2012-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

...focusing on and thanking God for what He has given me already, not focusing on and complaining about what I don't have that I want.

Colossians 3:15 "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful."

Psalm 69:30 "I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving."

Psalm 100:4 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name!"

Psalm 4:7 "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and their wine abound."

and one more:

Psalm 16:11 "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Because of God's amazing love, we have so much to be thankful for! Everything in fact. :)

(Oh and on a more earthly level, looking at that picture above, happiness is sleeping in. Yay for Saturday tomorrow!)

Life

2012-01-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

The above picture is a shot of the plant in my room, from it's good side. I am notorious for killing plants. A green thumb I do not have. But this one has managed to live for over a year! A lady at work gave it to me last Christmas as a "Secret Sibling" gift. I take unnecessary pride in this plant; unnecessary in the sense that I have really had nothing to do with keeping it alive. I water it occasionally. And I placed it near the window where it can get a little sun. That's it. (1 Corinthians 3:7 - "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.") And like I said before, this is it's good side. The plant is not nearly as vibrant as it could be, because even though it's right near my bed and I see it every day, I still forget to water it.

I find it fascinating (but I guess not all that surprising) how many things in creation are pictures of God and our relationship with Him. The sun (and I've probably written about this before) is the center of the solar system. The planets revolve around it and it is the source of light just like Christ is the center of our lives and He is the source of light: knowledge, holiness and glory.

In Proverbs, sluggards are told to go the ant and learn how to work.

Same goes for plants. Psalm 1:2-3 says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."

If I forget to water my plant or open the shades it starts to die. The plant needs that water and light! Same goes with me. If I don't drink God's Word each day and bask in His light, I start to smell of death. Sin is right there. But with some water and sun, with the Word, life is renewed! It's amazing to see how well my little plant improves when I cut off the dead leaves and give it something to drink. Same goes with the refreshment I receive from God's Word and time spent in prayer with Him!

2 Corinthians 4:6 "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

So drink up friends! Enjoy your day!

That time of year...

2012-01-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Resolutions? Yes, no, maybe so? Well when New Year's rolled around I felt that it was almost pointless to make resolutions since I find such difficulty in keeping them. Plus the whole idea just sometimes seems a little....cheesy to me. What has happened to me and the idea of cheesiness?? In the last couple years I have wanted as little to do with cheesiness as possible. But I think I've gone to the other extreme.

This last weekend we had high school winter camp. The topic was the glory of God. To bring God glory should be my utlimate goal and resolution, which I cannot do apart from Jesus and the Holy Spirit working in me.
1 Corinthians 10:31 "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
Romans 11:33-36 "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?' For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen."

Any resolutions I make this year should stem from this. And it has become more and more clear to me in the last two weeks that I HAVE to make goals and plans in order to grow and truly bring God glory with my life. If I don't plan anything it's not going to happen. A friend asked me recently, "What are your plans for this year?" And I didn't have much of an answer. Lame! The very next day I was reading a book that my wonderful boss gave me and the author was talking about the importance of setting goals to grow.

So, at camp I decided that it might be a good idea to break up my day/areas in which I am involved and see in what ways I need to grow. That may be a way to figure out some goals and plans to make.
For me that looks like:
God
Family/Home
Work
Church/High School Group/Evangelism
Friends
Entertainment
Food
Sleep/Rest
Finances

Right off the top of my head I know that in my relationship with God I want to wake up at 5 every morning and spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer. I want to read through the Bible this year, but faster than one year. Maybe a few months or more. I want to spend the majority of my time in the car praying to Him or singing to Him.
With Family/Home I want to help my mom around the house more. Be more involved with cleaning and cooking, etc.
At Work I want to be focused on paying attention to what I am doing. I want to make sure that I don't draw attention to myself at lunch by trying to be funny or whatever. I want to take interest in other people. I also want to take a couple of lunches every week to read.
With Church/High School/Evangelism I want to faithfully pray for those on staff and the girls in my small group. I want to choose a day or two in the week where I specifically plan to pray for them. Same goes with missionaries and people I want to tell about Jesus. To be realistic, I'd like to start off with telling someone the gospel at least once a month. I know it should be more, but I want to start off with more than last year.
With Friends I want to be more purposeful in our conversations. To ask more faithfully how I can pray for them and then to actually do that!
With Entertainment I want to be much more discerning in what I watch. I want to ask myself, "Is what I'm watching glorifying to God?" If I can't find any way in which it is, I shouldn't be watching it!
With Food I need to come up with a plan for eating healthy and stick with it. With the disease I have this is necessary and yet I forget that it is. I would like to have self control in this area. I'd also like to spend less in eating out. In order to do this I really need to come up with how much I should spend a month and stick with it.
With Sleep and Rest it's pretty simple. I need to go to bed earlier! I would like 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night. If I get up at 5 that means I need to go to bed between 10 and 11. That means I need to start going upstairs between 9:30 and 10 and that means getting off of FB by 10 for sure!
And finally with Finances I need to make a budget and stick with that.

Well, again, those are plans that come to mind immediately. I know that I could come up with more and probably other categories. But this is a place to start. It's also probably more than you wanted to know, but I am thankful to have a spot where I have recorded this and now you all can keep me accountable!

So, what have you decided to do this year as far as resolutions? What has helped you in the past? I want to know readers! Now is the time for you to finally comment! har har...

Pinteresting Wednesdays

2012-01-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, can someone just pin a bunch of these "work week" outfit ideas? It makes getting dressed in the morning so much easier.

I. want. one. of. these.

I love things like this that aren't too matchy matchy.

This is just funny.

And this is just cute.

I'm trying this tonight when I get home.

I think this would just add that "little somethin'" to my room.

So I started my first quilt a plethora of months ago and then got the measurements wrong so I had to take it all out. Nevertheless, I got a little discouraged and took a break. A long one. I had wanted to make a "crazy quilt" like the one below, but my mom said that I needed to learn the basics first. But one day. I will make this.

New Year, New Feature: The Art Corner

2012-01-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

The Sleeping Gypsy

by Henri Rousseau

Well, this may be the snootiest thing I have done on my blog yet, but I have decided to start The Art Corner. I like art, but I was never really into art history before, but doesn't everyone need a little more culture in their life? Well here you can get a little taste.

The idea came to me when I was helping my mom clean out a bookcase this weekend. I came across a book she bought when she lived in New York. It's called something like, 50 Paintings to see at the Modern Museum of Art. I decided to look at one ever so often and actually read about each painting.
The Sleeping Gypsy is the first one I came across.

I must admit, I was not a huge fan at first glance. But as I read about the painting, I came to appreciate it more. For one thing, the book actually had some quotes from Rousseau describing the painting himself. I would much rather hear the actual artist's explanation rather than some art student's interpretation of it.
What do you notice about the painting?

Did you see that the lion is passing by the gypsy? Yeah, I didn't catch that either. But here is Rousseau's quote: “A wandering Negress, a mandolin player, lies with her jar beside her (a vase with drinking water), overcome by fatigue in a deep sleep. A lion chances to pass by, picks up her scent yet does not devour her. There is a moonlight effect, very poetic.”

Apparently, when he tried to sell it to the mayor of his hometown, he was rejected. The paiting did not receive any true recognition until around 20 years later! Pablo Picasso was among the first admirers.

I personally think Rousseau was stinkin' good for being self taught. The more I look at it, the more I love his use of color and the strong lines. It also reminds me of what life will be like in the Kingdom, when the lion will lay down with the lamb. That sure isn't the case nowadays. There is a sense of peacefulness here and a sense of danger. I like how the two contradicting feelings are present. Okay now I'm at least on the verge of sounding like a pretentious art student myself. (No offense to art students out there!!!)

What do you think? Do you like it or hate it?

Winter Cleaning

2011-12-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh...a clean room.

It's sadly something I hadn't experienced for quite some time. At least not a thoroughly cleaned room.

You know when life gets so busy that you don't even have time to do the simple things? Okay, probably not. Any mom reading this blog is most likely thinking, "just wait, kid." I know, I'm pathetic.

Well, whether I'm pathetic or not, I decided that today, in the midst of my week off work, would be cleaning day. And, like usual, it paid off. Here is the finished result. (Notice, the black sky outside. Yes, it took all day.)

Pictured below are the baskets full of clothes, shoes, purses and other miscellaneous items that I purged and am giving to Goodwill.

And, the picture that inspired this post. I found out that I have 31 scarves. Yes, 31 scarves, one for each day of the month. I don't know about you but I think I'm set.

Really. I truly do think that a scarf is a nice gift, and if you've given me one in the past, I'm much appreciative. But please. No more!

Below are the ones I am keeping, in order by color, which kinda fizzled at the end there.

And the rejects. I'm very sorry if you see one that you gave me. I just don't have room!

Cleaning your room can be profitable. I found a ten dollar gift card to In-n-Out and my favorite nail polish! A gold star for you if you can guess the name of the shade. ;) If you have really good eyes, you may be able to read it.

Wow, I found a desk in my room! Now I can sit down and write someone a note with the notecards I received for Christmas. (And a side note: that box you see on the left is filled with recipes. I found it at a garage sale and I can't wait to try some of them out. They sound really good.)

This next pic isn't too thrilling but I am happy that those drawers are organized!

And while I'm at it, the super cute camera bag that Em got me for Christmas, with fun houndstooth lining!

And below, an organized mess of books. They are waiting for a new, taller bookcase...

...that will replace this one. I mainly took this pic to show off the poster Em also gave me for Christmas. And in the background you can see the door to my closet. I am the most happy about that part of my room. The floor is home to mainly just my shoes now! And they are in order. The clothes have been weeded through and even though the shelf looks a bit cluttered, I know where everything is.

Mmmm...another contented sigh. I recommend winter cleaning for anyone!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T23:08:00.001-08:00

It was a pretty simple Christmas this year. Just the three of us at home after church in the morning. I always love when Christmas is on Sunday. We opened presents and then met up with my Aunt and Uncle to go see War Horse. A tad more serious of a movie than I expected. It was kind of weird seeing a movie on Christmas, but we had our main Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve since Jeremy was at Karli's on Christmas Day. Our friend, Jenn, came too so that was fun.

Emily's mysterious present to me turned out to be a poster that I had pinned on Pinterest! "Yooooouuuuu sneeeaaakky moooommm!"

Just an attempt at being artsy with the Christmas tree.

And a cute dog that would be an excellent Christmas gift. Actually, this one already has an owner but there is one more available. :)

Mad About... (Christmas Edition)

2011-12-15T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker!

I think I can safely say that this year, I am obsessed with The Nutcracker. I have listened to the whole thing in my car probably around ten times this Christmas season. Everytime track #10 is about to end, I think, "Okay, it's time to take a break." But then it just moves on to track #1 and before I know it, I've listened to the whole thing again! I just can't get enough of it! The music is beautiful and I am just amazed that anyone could compose something like that! Is it totally nerdy that sometimes I get a little teary eyed listening to it? Um yeah, thought so. #9 gets me every time.

But what is better than listening to the music in my car? Why, going to see the ballet of course! I've seen the ballet a number of times but the best performance I witnessed was done by the Moscow Ballet at some theater in L.A.

We had balcony seats...not really expensive ones, but a great view nonetheless. The setup of the stage was amazing. It wasn't just a single curtain that they kept changing with little room for the dancers. It was huge and open with props and real set design. And there was a live orchestra!

I don't think we'll be able to go this year because it's turned into an extremely busy season. (We can't even find a whole open day to go to Disneyland.) So I'll just keep listening to the music in my car...and imagine visions of sugar-plums dancing in my head. ;)

The Wauhop's

2011-12-12T09:16:00.001-08:00

Can I just say how much I love this family? I had the privilege of working with Ashley at GTY for just over a year before she left to have baby Maggie! In all honesty one of the cutest little babies I have ever met. Both Robert and Ashley are funny, sweet, down to earth and fun to hang out with! I loved taking these pictures and I am so happy for them. And I'm happy that little Maggie has such wonderful parents. ;)

While I love blogspot, the format on my blog isn't great for picture showing, so I started a new one just for photogpraphy. Not much yet, but here's the link: http://amandataylorphotography.wordpress.com/

I don't think I've ever heard a friend praise her husband as much as Ashley praises Robert. She told me that they have never gotten in a fight. Their love for each other is sweet to see!

The other thing that Ashley talked most about at GTY was how much she couldn't wait to be a mom someday. It was fun to see the whole processs!

I was able to get a few of Maggie's face. ;)

She looks a lot like her beautiful mama!

Looking at her daddy.

She may have gotten a bit chilly at the end. Little tears. :(

These two aren't afraid of PDA.

I know. I took a lot.

Look at those eyes!

Happy family!

Snarkling

2011-12-09T08:54:00.001-08:00

A new word I made up.
snarkling (v.) def. evil or mischievous giggling

5th Annual Sister Day

2011-12-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

This post is way overdue and I really didn't get too many pictures, but I can't let a Sister Day go by with no mention whatsoever!
This Sister Day was a lot of fun. It fell on a Sunday so Em and I went to church in the morning. We stopped at Starbucks for a quick little treat first.
Don't mind the absolutely hideous picture! (Of me..not Em. She's always cute. :)

Em wanted to open the presents in the car but I convinced her to hold off until after church. ;) During the high school service I gave Em's small group pieces of a little puzzle with a note just to have something Sister-Day-like going on. They gave them to her throughout the morning and she put it together at her desk before we left.

After church, we made our way to Knott's Berry Farm! Our family grew up going to Knott's every Christmas because my Grandpa Shaw...and actually his brother, my Mom and Aunt Donna, all worked there when they lived in Orange County. My Great Uncle Foulton was friends with the Mr. Knott! ;) Anyway, we used to get free tickets every year and it was always a fun time. We hadn't been since high school so a trip there was due.

We opened presents in the car on the way. Can you tell I had some fun wrapping Em's gifts? Pinterest inspired me of course!

When we got there, we were surprised to find multiple roosters in the parking lot! I, personally, was also surprised to see some of the new rides. They looked terrifying! In high school, roller coasters didn't phase me a bit...but now that I'm old, I get a little nervous. But it all worked out. One ride we DID NOT go on was the giant swing ride. Em thought I was silly at first but after we went on Supreme Scream, she agreed that we had had enough of heights. And the swing ride was 50 feet taller! You can see the difference between the two in this picture. Yikes!
We had one more surprise. (It was funny too because in the morning it was pouring and so hardly anyone was at the park, even though by the time we got there it was a beautiful sunny day.) Anyway, I'm not a good judge of guessing numbers of people, but it was an empty park. As we were walking up to the front gate we saw a group of high school staff people! We had no idea they were going that day. So it was funny seeing them pop up here and there throughout the day. Apparently they had a little game of "Where's Waldo" going on trying to spot Emily and me. ;) All in all it was another Sister Day success!

The Mallon Family

2011-11-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

(Okay, Sara I hope you're not upset if I post these. I'm sure there aren't too many people that will get your Christmas card that also read my blog. :)

The Mallons were super sweet to let me practice on them and take some Christmas-y pictures. I learned that I still have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to photographing kids! But it was fun and they were great! Their photogenic faces did much for my poor photography skills! Anyway, here are a few from the little session we did. I love the hats and if the sun had been in the right spot you could have seen the cute little Christmas poles Sara made. The Mallon's are a fun, hospitable family with two cute kiddos!

Caleb looks like he's contemplating doing something mischevious. ;)

It was a bit windy, but I think this one of you and Kali May is so cute!

Like I said, wind.

Slightly different from the top pic. ;)

Pinteresting Wednesdays

2011-11-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

I did write this yesterday and thought I had posted it, but I hadn't!

This made me laugh. I want to make one of these right now! But I will have to wait until tomorrow. :(
If I am ever a mom someday, I want to be a fun one!
Aren't these rings too beautiful? Unfortunately they are pricey. (I think they use real silver.)
And have I ever told you how much I want to have a freestanding tub one day??

Mad About...

2011-11-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

Flying!

Stuffed animals, reading The Babysitter's Club books, my parent's music such as The Moody Blues and ABBA, strange landmarks, rest stops. These are the things that comprised family vacations as I was growing up. Road trips. We never flew anywhere. My dad believed in saving money and getting there the old fashioned way. Not too bad if your grandparents live in Arizona. Unfortunately for Emily and me, our grandparents lived in Michigan and Montana. Try five days straight in the car. Torture. (Although now I actually miss those trips.)

It wasn't until I was 10 years old that we took a plane for the first time (not counting the one time when I was a baby). Okay, maybe 10 sounds young to some of you, but I felt really old at the time, and most of my friends had flown in an airplane dozens of times.

I still remember that first lift-off. Strange that a girl, normally extremely shy and timid and afraid of heights, would love the experience so much! I don't remember feeling any fear. There was a light layer of clouds and we sailed through them as the sun shone bright. The rush of the engines and the sudden weightlessness was thrilling! I still love flying to this day.

It's easy to romanticize flying...to forget about the screaming babies and talkative old men, the airplane food and the limited leg room. I like to look back at pictures from the fifties. The glamour of it all. The fun stewardess outfits, the flight wings pins they used to hand out, the excitement of traveling to exotic destinations.

It's really a humbling experience as well. Nothing else makes me feel as small. As you fly farther and farther away from the earth, the cars and people go from looking like matchboxes and ants, to nothing. You can't see anything. And it's a good reminder that the world definitely DOES NOT center around me. Funny and sad how often I think that it does. God is big. He's holding our planet in His mighty hands. All of the oceans are like a small puddle in His palm and He can weigh the mountains like dust on the scales. That's the main reason why I love flying, the reminder it is to me of our amazing Creator!

Puppies! The Second and Final Round

2011-10-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I tried and tried and failed to post more pictures. I don't know what's up with either this blog or my computer or both, but here are the ones that made it through.

Poor, tired momma:

The Outcast:

The outcast gets in close:

Belly!

The definition of sweet:

Don't you want one?

Come on, you know you do....we have seven still waiting for owners...it could be you!

Photography Workshop

2011-10-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

Last week I had two nice surprises.

First off, I had heard about Lukas' upcoming photography class and I really wanted to go, but it was just a tad more than I could afford at the time. I actually had already been to one of his workshops before, but it was shorter and a couple of years ago. At the time I knew basically nothing. I showed up with a camera that I THOUGHT was an SLR only to discover that it wasn't. Talk about embarrassing. That workshop was helpful, but now that I had come a bit farther, I really wanted to go again. Enter Jessica:

This lovely, sweet girl is in my small group and her parents, as a birthday present, signed her up for the workshop. The Van Dyke's were kind enough to offer a "bring a friend" deal for a lower price and Jessica was looking for a friend to come with her. She was kind enough to invite me along!

It was a fun day just getting to know Jessica better on the ride to and from L.A. One of the things I discovered is that she is a natural at photography!

The other surprise was that my dear friend Amber and her husband, Andrew were our models for practicing our newly acquired skills! This made it much more comfortable for me to get right in their faces. :) I had the privilege of being in Amber's wedding. And she means a lot to me. She spent the night at the hopsital with me and my family the night before my dad went to Heaven. You don't let go of friends like that! So without further ado, here are the pictures. Warning: I went a little overboard...

(Side note: I would love to be able to practice practice practice! If any of you readers out there need pictures taken for whatever occasion, let me know! Since I'm practicing it would be free. I'll even get you a Starbuck's drink for your trouble. :)

Just something cute...

2011-10-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

...from Shelsy.

Fall (or Autumn) Music

2011-10-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

If you've heard me say it once, you've heard (or will hear) me say it a million times. I love Fall! Which I interchange with the word Autumn. Sometimes I like one word better than the other. I like to say, "Fall weather." But I'm not sure if I like "Fall music," or "Autumn music" better. But that's not the point of this post.
Yesterday was the PERFECT day. I decided that God can't make everyday be like that or else I'd already think I was in Heaven. Okay, I wouldn't go that far, but I really really really love days like that. It started out with clouds and rain. But not just any kind of clouds. Dark thunderstormy looking clouds. The clouds that look like they're pregnant and about to pop! Then in the afternoon it started to clear. Bright, blue, crisp sky with white puffy clouds. And at evening time there was a delicious breeze and when the sun began to set there was pink and gold. But weather is not really the point of this post either.
The point of this post is to let you in on my Fall playlist. Season's need a particular sound. Which is why I SAVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC FOR CHRISTMAS!!! Ah, there...got that out. Right now is the perfect time for Bluegrass! Music that makes me want to go outside and rake leaves and jump in them, buy big old pumpkins and carve them, bake yummy honey cornbread and put on fuzzy socks and wrap myself in a blanket and sip apple cider. Oh my word.
Onto the playlist:

Although I'm not thrilled, to say the least, with the Dixie Chicks personality as a whole, I do love this album. And I listened to it in Autumn way back in high school when I was just starting to realize that I had a favorite season. I even remember an outfit I wore one day in high school when I went to Lombardy to get a pumpkin and I was listening to this album. Is that weird? I was wearing white chords. Yep. White. And a pale blue turtleneck. And probably some warm coat. Mmm. Cowboy Take Me Away is a classic. And Hole in My Head is just fun.

I've been listening to Nickel Creek since...I think college actually. Maybe high school. Thanks to Christen. We've seen them in person a few different times, my favorite place being Largo. Small little restaurant in LA somewhere. Wondeful ravioli.

I first heard Alison Krauss, unbeknownst to me that it was her, in the movie, Oh Brother Where Art Thou? She sang some classic gospel songs like Down to the River to Pray and I'll Fly Away for the soundtrack. I liked her...and then I found out who she was and I gave one of her albums to my mom for her birthday. I think she has a beautiful quality to her voice.

Very new find, through Pandora. Like 'em.

I first heard about Patty Griffin a few years ago when our friend told Em and me about her song, O Heavenly Day. I loved this song, but I never checked out the rest of her music and I forgot her name. Well, the other day Em and I bought tickets to take my mom to see Emmylou Harris at the Greek Theater and Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller were opening for her. I read their names and hoped they would be good, then Em told me who Patty Griffin was. And oh my goodness! I loved every song she did! Then I went home and listened to more of her songs on Grooveshark and now I just want to go and buy all her albums!

Then some non Bluegrass honorable mentions:
Norah Jones
James Taylor

There you go! Enjoy!

Pinteresting Wednesdays

2011-10-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I planned on having another post up inbetween this and the last one, but I just didn't get around to it. My life needs to be a tad more interesting! Ha. Right now it's clearly just pinteresting. Ba doom ch!

Anyway, here are my weekly pins!

I've always wanted to get married in a church, but this idea just may have me changing my mind. I never thought about having an outside wedding at night!

This week, I found a grown up tent! I don't how I will accomplish this, but someday I WILL have one of these in my house.

I love the outfit ideas you can find on Pinterest. When I don't know what to wear I usually open my computer to this board and find some inspiration.

Um. Do I need to write any words about this? I think not.

So fantastic.

There's just something so well...romantic about twinkle lights.

I would want this birthday party even at this age!

I like this simple idea for a bookmark. I'm always in need of a bookmark.

Aren't these the cutest? Who says someone needs to be getting married to break these out?

The twist braid. Wish I had more time in the mornings.

Hehe...does this make me a nerd that I like this so much?

Two words: yum and my. I haven't tried these yet, but my friend Ashley has and she said they were amazing!

Perfect DIY for the oncoming Autumn weather!

Who doesn't want to know how to make their own Frosty??

There is something so whimsical about this.

There was more but you'd get tired of it. Until next week!

Pinterest!

2011-09-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

I'm sure a lot of you...or ahem..the few of you who read this have by now heard of the phenomenon called Pinterest. It's a lovely little time sucker! For those of you who haven't heard of it, I'll explain (via Pinterest's own "About" section):

"Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

For about as long as I can remember, before my mom gets rid of the magazines she receives in the mail, she goes through and rips out pages which contain ideas that she wants to remember, then she files them away in various colored folders. As you may guess these are now stuffed to the max! Well, Pinterest does all that for you in just a few mouse clicks! Wow, I sound like an ad.

Anyway, I am going to start a new series of posts in which I post some of my favorites from Pinterest for the week, starting today! I'm going to call it "Pinteresting Wednesdays."

Here are a few to start off!

Under Style:

Under Hair:

Under Things I Love:

Under Fitness:

Under Home and Decorating:

Under Funny:

Under Hostess:

Under Dessert:

Under I Want to Make This:

And under Someday:

As you can see, you can leave a comment, you can "repin" someone else's cool find, you can make many different categories of your own choosing. It's great! And I might be a tad...obsessed. :/

If you're like me and you haven't joined Pinterest, you might want to go join right now. You have to request an invite first, or, the faster way is to have someone invite you. If you'd like for me to invite you just send me your email address.

As Pinterest would say, "Happy pinning!"

God is Jealous

2011-09-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

This convicted me the other morning. I highly recommend this book. Spurgeon's affection for Jesus was so evident!

September 12 - Morning by Morning - C.H. Spurgeon
"God is jealous." — Nahum 1:2

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh.

He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend — worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord.

He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!

Dog Surfing...almost

2011-09-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, a small group of girls headed out to Del Mar to see none other than a dog surfing competition. Every year, for I'm not sure how many years now, a crowd gathers at a dog beach in Del Mar to watch a bunch of canines hang...twenty?
It was a bit of a drive. Hopes were high...as well as tension.

But we made it all in one piece, to find this...

If you look closely...you will not find a dog on a surfboard. You will not see the many tents that apparently litter the beach on dog surf day. Anyone hear about that little power outage in San Diego? Somehow it effected the sewage system which resulted in contaminated ocean water. It was postponed for the 25th, which we will also miss due to Bible Study retreats. But the disappointment did not stop us from having fun!

Maggie actually went swimming in the ocean, willingly, for the first time!

And she and Tacy even met a relative. A woodle! A mix of a Wheaten Terrier and a Poodle! There she is below. She had the classic friendly Wheaten personality, but a tad more subdued.

Sailor also had fun with her Momma. ;)

These two are so cute!

All in all it was a great day!

"Christ is All"

2011-08-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

Valley of Vision prayer I read this morning:

O Lover to the uttermost,
May I read the meltings of Thy heart to me
in the manger of Thy birth,
in the garden of Thy agony,
in the cross of Thy suffering,
in the tomb of Thy resurrection,
in the heaven of Thy intercesssion.

Bold in this thought I defy my adversary,
tread down his temptations,
resist his schemings,
renounce the world,
am valiant for truth.

Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship to Thee,
as spiritual bridegroom,
as Jehovah's fellow,
as sinners' Friend.

I think of Thy glory and my vileness,
Thy majesty and my meanness,
Thy beauty and my deformity,
Thy purity and my filthiness,
Thy righteousness and my iniquity.

Thou has loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,
may I love Thee as I am loved;
Thou hast given Thyself for me,
may I give myself to Thee.
Thou hast died for me,
may I live to Thee
in every moment of time,
in every movement of my mind,
in every pulse of my heart.

May I never dally with the world and its allurements,
but walk by Thy side,
listen to Thy voice,
be clothed with Thy grace,
and adorned with Thy righteousness.

Sunflowers?

2011-08-08T10:39:00.001-07:00

The other day, Shelsy and I went on a walk during our break and we passed a field filled with pretty yellow flowers. I commented on them and when we got closer I realized they were simple yellow daisies. Shelsy then asked if I liked sunflowers. She thinks they are too "country" and we got into a discussion on whether or not you can decorate with them and still maintain a contemporary look. It's tricky, but I believe that you can!

Examples of Tacky Sunflowers

This one isn't so much tacky as it is "too country." Some people are totally into this look. But I would say it's more of an 80's style. Definitely not contemporary.

These however are hideous in every way.
It looks like someone threw up sunflowers in this bathroom.

This almost works. I think it would really only be okay at a B&B or something in a "sunflower" dining room.

Examples of Classy Sunflowers

I love some sunflowers in a blue vase in a kitchen. It reminds me of Italy. How cute are these cupcakes? Too cute to eat!

Sunflowers look super classy when mixed with yellow roses in a boxy blue vase or in a repurposed vintagy looking can.

A Van Gogh painting is always classy on a wall.

This sunflower mirror is perfectly modern!

And a country wedding with sunflowers is superb!

5 Places I Love

2011-07-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

South Africa

A team from the high school group recently went to Malawi and it reminded me of how much I love South Africa.

Right below is one of the main reasons. The Archer's live there!

And here are some other reasons:

Animals

We actually got to PET this little guy.
Beauty! We were able to spend part of our time at a place callled Hope Valley in the middle of some sugar cane fields.

And fun times with friends and sisters. :)

(And here's a couple more animal shots that got out of order.)

Monterey, CA

I don't even know quite what it is about Monterey, but I love it. I think I was in 6th grade the first time my family went on Spring vacation. I think it was a mix of the fresh, crisp air, the pletheora of cute, fuzzy otters and the quaint old-time feel of Cannery Row. I remember sitting on a rock overlooking the ocean somewhere off the 17-mile drive and just being amazed over God and His beautiful creation! I especially liked walking along the streets of Cannery Row at twilight. The streetlamps would come on, sounds of fog horns came off the water and I just felt so relaxed. Let me just say that it also didn't hurt that a Ghirardelli's is located along this street. Yum!

It was once the destination of one of Megs, Mel and my road trips. :) We are at Ghirardelli's in the picture below.

(There is just one thing I DON'T like about Monterey. And that would be the underground wax museum. There is an added creepiness of a wax museum being near the ocean. Yuck. I get shivers just thinking about it.)

Monterey does have a fabulous Aquarium. If you haven't been, what are you waiting for??

Ephraim, Wisconsin

My great great grandparents moved here from Norway. They helped found the town. The pictures above and below are of Anderson dock. My relatives, the Anderson's, owned it and all the big ships that brought supplies to the town would dock here. It's really fun too because the building is now all covered with names. Kind of like an "Amanda was here" kind of thing. The sunsets there are beautiful. My relatives chose to move here because the peninsulas reminded them of the fjords in Norway. You can see in the picture below. Ephraim is now a touristy town and it is really fun to visit. We've gone kayaking, took hikes in the peninsulas, eaten delicious ice cream at Wilson's (they put a jelly bean at the bottom of the cone), and explored family history. The Anderson's also owned a store and one of their homes was turned into a gift shop.

(The sunset's there are AMAZING!)

New York City

I could never take a good picture of Times Square so here's a nice one from the web. When Em and I first saw Times Square in person, it was right after a show and it had been raining but the rain finally cleared up. I felt like the princess in Enchanted when she comes out of the pothole. I was overwhelmed!

There's nothing quite like the view from the top of a skyscraper!

The first time we went to New York, I tried to take a picture of this fountain and my camera died right as I started to shoot. So here it is in summer!

Downtown Bozeman, Montana

Beautiful mountains and wide open spaces. :)My mom went to MSU for her last two years of college. My family drove to Bozeman every summer to visit my grandparents who retired there. They fell in love with the town when they came to visit my mom. My mom used to take Emily and me to the college so that we could toss pieces of bread to the ducks in the little pond they had on campus. It's to the left in the picture below. I absolutely LOVED going there.

I could have added another five places, but this post would be too long. These are the top five now. I can't wait to see where else I get to travel to someday!

Worth It

2011-07-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

In the past week, I've thought a lot about motherhood and the relationship between a mom and her children. From the horrific details of the Casey Anthony case to the amazing account of Jacey Dugard told in her book, A Stolen Life, to a blog post I read here, one in a series of blog posts on how women balance motherhood and their careers.

"Choice" is a popular vocab term that pops up. I'd really like to do a study on this word as it appears in the Bible. I'm guessing you'd be hard pressed to find it in the context of "a woman's right to choose." Yet so many women feel this way and not just in regards to abortion, but also in whether or not they should have a career. I understand that financial hardships exist and that for a time a mother may have to work, possibly even outside of the home. But hopefully her heart lines up with Titus 2:5 and Proverbs 31 and this circumstance would exist for only a short period of time.

Too often believer's start listening to the movies or shows they watch and begin to adopt the world's view on this matter. (Just as we are prone to do on any issue.) I am obviously not a mother so some may say I have no right to speak on this or that I have no idea what I'm talking about. It's true that I may not know how hard it is to be a mom (although I have a small clue from babysitting and teaching Kindergarten.) But either way the Bible is always where we are to look for the true standard. A well known verse that's not always easy to follow is Proverbs 3:5-7, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowlege Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil."

How comforting that no matter how hard it may it be, or how confusing it might seem, if we listen and obey God's Word, we can trust that He will lead us where He wants us to go. And He is always faithful to provide for His children.

And a short word on abortion. A common argument in favor of abortion is, "Well what if a woman gets raped? She didn't choose to get pregnant!" Well read Jaycee Dugard's opinion on the matter:

"Despite years of torment, Dugard, who was kidnapped in 1991 at age 11 near her home in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., insists she would suffer it all again for the priceless reward of her beautiful, loving girls." (You can read more here.)

Did you hear that??? She would endure 18 years of rape and other tortures all over again to have her kids!!!

This perspective can be anyone's if they trust in the love and sovereignty of God.

Em and the Nikon D3100

2011-07-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I mentioned before that I got a new camera. A DSLR finally! And I'm loving it. But I still have A LOT to learn, especially with lighting. Em was kind enough to let me take pictures of her. Black eye and all! We went to Central Park in Saugus and hiked up the trail. It may surprise people just how many beautiful places you can find in the Santa Clarita Valley.

One of my Dad's best friends, Ron, was kind enough to GIVE me one of his telephoto lenses that he doesn't use anymore. Kind of as a birthday present.

It would also be nice to have a good editing program. Right now I'm just using the one that came with my camera. Although I'm kinda getting over the overprocessed look.

She's a looker! :) I can't understand why she hasn't gotten snatched up yet!

30 for 30

2011-06-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make...
I like clothes.
You can always find people to compare yourself to. There are those who shop way more than I do and have walk in closets full of clothes, and there are those like Charlie Brown. You may wonder if they only have one outfit. Period.
Either way, I need to break the sinful habits of overspending, lack of self control, vanity, the list goes on. Obviously I cannot fight any sin apart from God. Dependence on Him in prayer. He also uses violent language in the Bible...He tells us to cut off our hand or eye if it causes us to sin. I wouldn't say this experiment is going nearly that far. And I have to admit...this is kind of a fun way to work on this, because I can take pictures and blog about it and such. But I digress. Let me explain the 30 for 30 project.

I did not come up with this idea. I saw it on two other blogs. But I thought it would be just the thing for me to try in the month of July! You pick 30 pieces of clothing from your wardrobe and you can only use those pieces to make 30 outfits for a whole month. (And July just happens to have 31 days so...extra challenge! Ha.) It teaches you to "shop your closet" and to see just how much you really don't need that super cute blue sweater from Anthropologie.
So without further ado...my 30 picks:

3 pairs of shorts

2 pairs of work pants

2 white tanks

3 sweaters (for the sometimes chilly office or church basement)

A couple of t-shirts and nice shirt that got left out of the "nice shirt" pic

2 pairs of jeans

4 skirts

2 dresses

4 tops

and 5 tanks

Well! I think those oughta last me just fine! Really I'm kinda embarrassed that I even own this many clothes. I can already tell I don't need anymore! Stay tuned for updates on Project 30 for 30!

Pretty Pretty Princess

2011-06-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember that game? Emily and I used to play it all the time at our friend, Thais' house. A player wins when they collect all the jewelry; necklace, bracelet, ring, clip-on earrings, and best of all, the crown! It would really stink if all you got was earrings each time around.

Well I feel like I experienced the adult version of that game a couple of weeks ago at a Jewelry Party, only we made the jewelry and the winners were the ones who found the best beads first or actually snagged a headband to decorate before they were all gone. (No "crown" for me.)

But I did make a necklace and a couple of bracelets. (One is not shown because I don't like how it turned out.)

I took these pictures at home and I'm so sad that I didn't bring my camera to the party! It was at Melinda Welch's house and I think she is pretty much the best decorator that I've ever met in real life. And she added super cute decorations for the party. Oh well.

She also served the best homemade donuts. They are baked and contain healthy ingredients, but they were so good! And she makes really yummy lattes.

The party was so much fun and the jewelry was surprisingly easy to make. :)

Father's Day

2011-06-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

(Watching for the cuckoo to come out of the clock at my Grandma's house in MI.)

This is a day late, but I don't want to miss an opportunity to write about my Dad. Here are some random memories I have of him:

In Kindergarten, my Dad drove me to school on his way to work and if the freeway was packed, we would get off at Paxton and drive through the neighborhood. No matter what season, there were tons of houses that left their Christmas lights on all year. So as we'd drive down the streets we'd take turns saying, "There's one! There's one!"

When I was in High School, Dad drove me to and from church on Wednesday nights. On the way home we would listen to Perry Mason mysteries on the radio and we'd bet each other a penny on the exact time we would make it home. (For some reason we never paid up.)

Also in High School, somehow my friend Kristin convinced me to keep the J.V. football stats with her. (Even though I didn't know anything about football. Which is probably why I had football players yelling at me for not attributing the correct plays to them.) Anyway, Dad drove us to and from the games and explained all the plays on the way home. (He kinda drove me to a lot of different places. Poor guy.)

This one time Em and I were driving with Dad somewhere and this song came on the radio. For some reason, Dad started "rapping". Or trying to. It was sooo funny. Em and I were cracking up and so Dad started cracking up. He was laughing so hard I thought we were going to get in an accident!

This one day Em and I were watching the Disney channel or something and this Donald Duck "music video" came on. It was an old cartoon of Donald working in a wood shop. The tune was really catchy and so Dad, Em and me started whistling it. Ever so often we would remember that video and one of us would try to remember the tune. Someone always wound up getting it and I still remember it to this day.

About a month or so before he entered the hospital, the two of us went on a drive out to Ventura to meet with a graphic designer that does work for Grace to You. I (still am) interested in graphic design and so Dad wanted me to be able to talk with someone who knew the ins and outs of the profession. It was a beautiful day and we got Starbucks afterwords. I asked my Dad to tell me a story about himself that I had never heard. He told me about how when he was younger he and his friends decided to go on a "hike" in Michigan. They were just old enough to go on a long hike by themselves. Nothing really eventful happened to them, but he said it was just to much fun and they went far and were gone most of the day. He just seemed so happy remembering it.

There are so many other sweet memories I have with my Dad. I miss him sooo much! I am so thankful to God for giving me such a great Dad. And I am so thankful that I have a heavenly Father who provides and protects.

I have a problem...

2011-05-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

I am one of those kinds of people that try to read...well, what looks like a million books at once! Ever so often I will get so captivated by a book that I can't put it down and I'll actually finish it. But most get added to one of these giant stacks near the chair in my room. It's bad. It's like a disease. Emily made it worse by giving me a Kindle for Christmas. Oh dear. If anyone knows of a cure, would you please pass on that valuable information?
The other day I tried to clear out the books that I'm DEFINITELY not reading right now. I think I made a significant dent. Emily was not so impressed. What do you think?

The red box IS in the first picture. In case you were wondering.

Empire State Building

2011-05-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

These aren't great pictures, but I wanted to post this to show how much I'm loving my new lamp from Carly's yard sale! Here's the shadow it casts on the wall:

Here it is in daytime:

And at night:

The pictures definitely don't do it justice, but it fits in my room so much better than I had even imagined. Thanks again, Carly!

Mad About...

2011-05-20T08:49:00.001-07:00

Vintage bicycles!

Good thing my birthday is coming up and this is the one thing I asked for! I can just picture cruising down some street in Ventura on a warm summer day with a nice crisp beachy breeze...mmmm....

Pink Dinosaur

2011-05-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Most kids have a favorite stuffed animal growing up. For normal kids it's a teddy bear or a dog or maybe even a floppy bunny. But for me it was a pink dinosaur. That's all I wanted for Christmas of 1989. My mom searched high and low wondering where she was ever going to find it, but she finally did in the gift shop at the end of the dinosaur ride at Knott's Berry Farm.
The pink dinosaur was aptly named, Pink Dinosaur. For a short while it seemed that she needed a more...clever name, so I changed it to Christine, after my middle name, but it didn't last. Deep down I already knew she was dubbed Pink Dinosaur. Changing her name was like....changing her personality. That's right. I said personality. Just like Toy Story or Muppet Babies, our stuffed animals came to life, when we played with them, and maybe even when we left the room. ;)
Here's what Pink Dinosaur was like the day I got her: And here's poor Pink Dinosaur now...

Poor Pink has clearly seen better days. No more toenails, no more purse or presents. (I cut those off about 5 minutes after I opened her.) No more eyelashes or kissy lips or even pupils! But I still love her!

Five O'clock Bird

2011-05-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

If this picture looks strange to you, it's because this doesn't happen. Dogs are not allowed on my bed, let alone in my room. But sometimes, I'm driven to take drastic measures. Allow me to explain...

For the last few years, come springtime, I have had a little visitor oustide my window. RIGHT outside my window. One of my favorite things about my bedroom is the window. There is a wide ledge that I could turn into a window seat except that it's a little too high off the ground and would look strange. Instead my bed is set right against it so that I can lean on a pillow and look outside ever so often as I read. My favorite time to do this is right after I get home from work. The sun is at the perfect spot so that it shines through the tree outside my room and highlights the little fuzzy white things floating around that cause all kinds of allergies. Anyway, it looks beautiful. And the little visitor comes around at this time and I appreciate him. He adds to the moment. I always call these moments "glimpses of Heaven."

But at five o'clock in the morning, we're talkin' a whole different ballgame. At five o'clock in the morning, I can't stand that little bird. I often pray harm on him. I imagine someone marching out of their house and chucking a stone at him. Or you know, I just pray that he will fly away. (I may or may not have yelled at him.)

On Monday morning I was in the midst of the previously described scene when somewhere downstairs I heard a bark. And for a millisecond, the bird stopped. "Chirp chirp chirp TWEET, chirp chirp chirp TWEET, chirp chirp BARK ---- chirp TWEET."

I thought it just might solve everything. Maybe if I invited Tacy onto my bed, she would hear the annoying bird and bark at it and it would fly away. So I called for her. And I got this.

I don't know if you can see this very well. But it's a faceful of slobbery dog. And that's all I got. No bark. No bite. Just dog and bird and no sleep.
On my way to work I stopped by Starbucks to get some oatmeal and there were these cute little birds outside chirping and hopping around and I was thinking of how God even takes care of them and feeds them and their chirping in the morning is probably out of hunger and I felt just a tad...guilty. At least until five o'clock the next morning.

Mad About...

2011-04-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Coffee Bean's Belgian Waffle!

This may look like an ordinary waffle, but trust me my friends. This is NO. ordinary. WAFFLE. I remember, about a year or so ago, I walked into Coffee Bean and saw this delectable wonder sitting on the counter in a glass dome. I thought, "Mm, that looks good," but I guess the purse strings were drawn a little tight that day. I left without the waffle. The very next day I was eating lunch with Emily and Erin at work and they were talking about this delicious waffle they had the day before at Coffee Bean. I said, "No way, I almost bought that yesterday." They immediately got crazy eyes and couldn't believe I didn't try it. They said it was one of the best things they had ever eaten. They said I didn't even need to use the Nutella that came with it. They said it was that. good.
So of course it was was only natural for me to try it that afternoon. I was thinking, "Seriously. This has been talked up way too much. There's no way it can be as good as they say. Friends. It was better. I should really learn to trust those girls.
That belgian waffle became a way of life for me for some time. I had to tell other people about it. I had to take my friends and experience their joy in trying it. Ahem....you know...not an excuse to have another one myself...
All was going well until one dark summer day. I bounced into Coffee Bean with the taste of the belgian waffle already on my tongue. I stepped up to the counter. I was a just a tad nervous because I didn't see the waffle out on the counter. But I thought, "They're probably just whipping up a fresh batch." The barista asked me for my order and I gave it to him. And then the 12 words I thought I would never hear came out of his mouth. "We don't have the belgian waffle anymore. No one ever orders it." WHAT???!!!! EXCUSE ME???!!! AM I NO ONE????!! I stood there with what I am sure was a look of shock mixed with horror and sorrow. I think I might have uttered, "Seriously?" And then after a minute? Okay maybe 5 seconds I said, "Okay fine then, never mind. Bye." The barista of doom asked, "You don't want anything else?" I said, "No." And I left that store, vowing I would never return.
A couple of months later I met up with Glenna and Janea and Glenna suggested we go to Coffee Bean. It was a different location. The one at the mall. I reluctantly agreed. We walked in and lo and behold, there. On the counter. Was my beloved waffle. You'd think I was a 5 year old walking up to the gates of Disneyland for the first time. I ordered the waffle with butter. (It enhances the flavor.) It was a blessed reunion.
When I started having health issues, I had to say goodbye to the belgian waffle for quite some time. But recently, I have been able to eat desserts here and there. (Okay I might have them a bit more than "here and there", but that's another blog post.) Shelsy and I will often go to Coffee Bean on our break and order Blueberry Peach Iced Teas. We go to the infamous Coffee Bean that ruined my life for awhile. :) Guess what they sell there now? Yeah. Looks like it was in high demand after all! Barista of doom!

Shelsy didn't think I talked it up too much either.

I created another monster.

Have you ever seen...

2011-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

a monkey made out of flip flops?

Ten Reasons Why My Grandpa Was the Coolest

2011-03-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

(Can I just say how much I love this picture? I think it's so funny the way my Grandpa is holding my arm.)

10. He always wore turquoise. Whether it was a ring, a string tie, or a belt buckle. He couldn't get enough of the stuff.

9. He used the word paw instead of hand, claws instead of fingers and fangs instead of teeth.

8. He drove this rad retro yellow van with only one seat in the back. The rest was open and so we got to sit on the floor whenever we went anywhere, which is super fun for a kid.

7. He was a fly fisherman and he tied his own flies. He had a room in his basement with a desk where he tied the flies and there were tons of little compartments all over the room that stored them. He and my Grandma retired to Bozeman, Montana because of the fly fishing.

6. He always wore cowboy boots.

5. He would write me letters. And I loved his handwriting. He often put a P.S. that would say, "When you come visit us, I will rock you to sleep."

4. He loved kids. He was really good with Em, Jeremy and me. He even drove a school bus for awhile when he was older.

3. He had good taste in music. He liked a lot of the big band stuff.

2. After he got saved, (which was late in life but before I was born), he treated my Grandma like an angel. My mom said he used to embarrass her when people came over because he would just stare at my Grandma and say, "Isn't Frances wonderful?"

1. He was just so loving and loveable. One time, after my Grandma died and when his health had really declined, we went to Montana and Em, Jeremy and me were at his neighbor's house playing with their dog. The owner's were gone but they let us go in the back. My parents and aunt and uncle were all gone so my Grandpa was the only one at home. Jeremy decided to hang from the door frame and I copied him and fell and landed on my back on the raised door jam on the ground. It hurt really bad and I was crying when we got back. My Grandpa felt so bad for me but didn't really know what to do. He was almost in tears as he lay me down on the couch and put a blanket over me. For some reason I will never forget that. He died when I was in 9th grade but I love him so much and can't wait to see him in Heaven!

Oh and one more thing, his name was Jack! I love that name!

Mad About...

2011-02-25T17:55:00.000-08:00

Piano

I think I could listen to piano music for hours. Especially when I can hear a friend play in person. There's just something about it.

I found out in recent years that I am absolutely not a natural when it comes to playing musical instruments. A depressing discovery seeing as I have played the piano since I was in the fourth grade, when my Grandma bought us a Baldwin. I can read music, slowly, but I can't just sit down and play a piece off the top of my head. Sure I memorized a few when I was younger for recitals, but they all left my brain and my muscle memory long ago. Nevertheless, I love to sit down (with music) and play. I've also found it's a nice way to relax at the end of a long day.

That being said, Erin gave Emily a book about a month ago that has chords for a heapful of classic rock songs. (Emily plays the guitar now. For awhile I said that "Emily is learning to play the guitar" but I think she is beyond that now. For sure.) The three of us along with Sarah (am I allowed to let this out?) will get together every now and then for the particular purpose of...well...jamming. I mainly watch and listen, but I enjoy it. It's opened up a new apect of music to me, playing with other people! So now, on my own, I am trying to kinda teach myself how to improvise with chords. We'll see how it goes. (Did I mention that Sarah is really good at piano??)

Moo

2011-02-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

I am in love with this picture.

That's all!

"That'll be the day..."

2011-02-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: The Pioneer Woman

That John Wayne quote would be a direct response to, "Amanda in the kitchen". (Well, let's be honest here; I was found in the kitchen plenty, just not as cook.) Yet it's true; I've joined masses and masses of women and fallen prey to the Pioneer Woman. A section of her site is devoted to The Tasty Kitchen. It's kind of like the online version of "A Taste of Home" in that readers add their own recipes to the site. My new diet has forced me to be a bit more creative with my food and it has renewed my excitement over cooking!
I've already tried a couple of recipes from the site. Rosemary Gorgonzola Chicken and Provencal Tomatoes. (Tomatoes stuffed with all kinds of good stuff including gruyere cheese.)

Maybe it's just me, but I think the above dish looks delicious. Pad thai...mmm! It IS called Pad See Ew. Maybe not the best word to go along with food, but I'm sure it means something else in Thai! Only one way to find out. :)

Update: Guess what one thing would stop me from not making the above recipe? Not being able to find the ingredients! I went to Trader Joe's and Albertson's after working out, and by that time, I had no more energy to go to an Asian grocery store. Oh well.

Funny

2011-01-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

This is for Emily.

Puppy Love

Tastebud Heaven

2011-01-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

Now that I am on a "special" diet I sometimes like to picture myself eating one of my favorite foods trying to remember how it tastes, like warm, gooey, chocolatey brownies, or cheesy savory paninis, or giant, juicy burgers.

That brings me to Umami. Yesterday, msn's delish.com had an article highlighting the top 25 best hamburgers in the U.S. Umami Burger was GROSSLY overlooked. For months, Erin and Emily had been telling me things like, "Oo...look! We're passing Umami Burger!" or "You haven't been to Umami yet!" "Sarah Arnstein is wrong. Umami is better than 8 oz. Burger Bar." I had gone to 8 oz. once and their burger was undoubtedly delectable. If anything I was leaning towards Sarah's side since I lived in ignorance.

Then, one day, Emily told me that we were going out to eat before going to Crystal's house. She refused to tell me where because it was just too exciting and she was going to make it a surprise. I started dreaming big. It was like my anticipation for the finale of "Lost". My imagination went far beyond reality. On the way I guessed that we were going to Umami and Emily confessed. She was disappointed at my lack of excitement. But really, how good can a burger be? My tastebuds were ready for intense euphoria.

When we arrived I was encouraged by the atmosphere. Atmosphere does a lot for me. This place was in a unique area, right next door to a Halloween store with a line out the door extending all the way to Grauman's Chinese Theater. Okay...not that long. We sat down and I received my menu. I'll admit, the choices were impressive. I had never seen that many different kinds of burgers listed before. Than my eyes rested on the words "Truffle Burger". I had never tasted truffle sauce before but I knew it's reputation. My mind was set. And let me tell you.... .... ............. ....... you haven't tasted a burger. Until. You've been to Umami. Words cannot describe not only how good MY burger tasted, but also the ones Erin and Emily ordered. This blog post's ending is slightly anticlimatic, because the real climax is awaiting you....at Umami. Trust me. Is their slogan "the fifth taste" not enough for you? Go. Now. Skip work or school if you have to. And thank me later. ;P

Labor Day Weekend! (About Five Months Later)

2011-01-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

Camping! I have always loved camping. I don't know what it is exactly...maybe sleeping in a tent makes me feel like a kid again. Or maybe it's making smores, or playing games around a campfire. Of course...now that I'm older I can MAYBE understand why some people don't like it...getting dirty, listening to other campers yelling until 2 in the morning...but overall, its worth it for a few days of adventure. That's it! Adventure!

It's amazing what you can do without a kitchen!

Twins in flannel. :0)

Another reason why some don't like camping...

But pretty much EVERYONE loves hot chocolate!

Vacations are always nice for some extra reading time. The following is from "True Spirituality" by Francis Schaeffer.

Aunt Donna. She's so cute!

She and my mom are obsessed with Fresca, as you can see...

Some Five Crowns.

So, our plan was to camp in the Sequoias. Except no one thought to plan ahead and reserve a spot until the week before Labor Day. Not exactly enough time for the last big summer holiday. So we camped on the outskirts. As you can see, no big trees right around us, but there was a nice lake!

Camping is also a good time for Sister Time! :)

And family time in general.

My mom and aunt did most of the cooking, but Jeremy and I handled the pancake morning.

Jeremy's pancake dots.

And my attempt at animal pancakes. Can you guess what they are?

Jeremy's dog, Roxy. Roxy and I have a on again off again relationship. I may or may not have a scar on my finger. Thankfully the Labor Day trip was a peaceful time between us. You know...she's kind of a vain dog, so offering to take her picture helped ease the tension.

We did venture into the Sequioas one of the days we were there. We found these critters hanging out by one of the sharp turns.

While we were out and about we saw a sign for some hot springs. We were ready, we had our bathing suits and all. At Yellowstone once, we went swimming in some hot springs. Nice warm water flowing in the middle of an ice cold river. That's what we were expecting. We drove for a long time, so long that after awhile we thought we had gone the wrong way. Jeremy said he was going to turn around but we kept saying, one more minute. Right as he was about to finally make the turn, we saw the sign. By this time we were really excited until we came upon this.

And realized that what they meant by hot springs, was this...

Lame! And what's more, it wasn't cheap to swim in their special hot springs pool. At least they had ice cream, but even then, they wouldn't let you have a free sample taste of any of their flavors. Oh well. We had better things to do. Like check out the spectacular views.

And walk INSIDE giant trees!

And see more of God's beautiful creation!

Three trees growing together!

Check out those roots on this tree that fell over. Massive!

One of the rangers in the park gave me a sequoia seed. Can you believe that this...

turns into this???

Our God is so AMAZING!

Emily showed us Camp Nelson, where we went on High School staff retreat a month later. The student leadership from High School was there for their retreat a few weeks before. As you can see, the remnants of their stay weren't completely gone.

We got a little hungry. Thankfully there was sustenance in a store at Camp Nelson.

But root beer leads to something else. And when you're camping...sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...

More "Recent Times"

2011-01-17T20:20:00.000-08:00

October, November and December are always packed with various events, parties and traditions, so they fly by. We didn't really do too much during Halloween this year. But we did still carve pumpkins! Em's is a nerdy pumpkin.

For some reason I chose to carve out Clark Gable's face. Random, I know. I don't even know where I got the idea.

We also went over to Crystal's house a few times in the fall for Farkle game nights and a crazy hiking documentary. I think Crystal is made up entirely of creative bones. (That sounded kinda weird.) She is an amazing cook, decorator, florist...you name it, she does it!

She lives in this really cool old house in Hollywood up on a hill.

I want to be like her! Not many single girls decorate with moose heads and bear rugs. At least I haven't met many that do.

In October we also hosted Dany's baby shower! It was animal themed.

Dany and her sister-in-law, Ruth. Ruth helped host and had lots of fun ideas.

Ruth and Aunt Donna both brought scrumptious desserts.

More food! Including Aunt Donna's deviled eggs. I LOVE her deviled eggs.

What a cute pregnant momma she was!

This little girl was so cute. A 15 year old in a 10 year old body.

And a month or so later...baby Joel! He's four days old here. I need some more recent ones.

I hope to wrap up the recent times tomorrow, so stay tuned...my three readers. ;)

Recent Times in Pictures (First Installment)

2011-01-15T15:26:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of things I have wanted to blog about in the last 4 of 5 months that I just never got around to. So I will start the new year out by being a little more...bloggy. :) I'm kinda gonna start my way near the end and work my way back. First off...

The 4th Annual Sister Day took place on November 6th. We took it up a notch since this Sister Day was the first ever to fall on a Saturday. We included Friday night in order to celebrate Sister Day Eve and we drove down to San Diego and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast!

The entry to our room. It included a little porch with a table and two chairs and a jacuzzi. :) The room was really cute inside, but sadly I deleted most of those pics on accident. :( Well, sad for me...not for you.

Our yummy breakfast!

Sister Day always involves presents. These were mine from Emily. The book is a huge decorating book!

Em also got me this...

because of this...

Cruisin' down State Street. While listening to Boston of course!

We had always wanted to rent one of those two people bikes. A surrey. Let me tell you, those things are a lot of work!

It was a beautiful day for the most part.

Lunch. This pasta had chunks of brie cheese in it! So good!

What's a sister day without taking nerdy pictures of each other?

Santa Barbara pier.

And Santa Barbara ice cream!

And a beautiful Santa Barbara sunset. A perfect way to end Sister Day.

In December, Jeremy invited Em and I to tag along with him and Karli to New York! Amanda would not be Amanda if she turned down an offer like that! My Aunt Donna had enough frequent flyer miles for us all to go for free!

Here are Jeremy and Karli in front of the famous Rockefeller Christmas tree!

Em and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to wear our hats, scarves and winter coats.

Times Square a couple weeks before the craziness!

I REALLY wanted to skate on that ice. But you should have seen the line...

I have a few favorite New York moments. One was eating at Carnegie Deli. Em and I ate there before seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway. It's so popular and packed that you have to squeeze at tables with other people. We sat with this older couple, a subway conductor and his wife, and we talked to them the whole time! They were so sweet. :) The subway conductor came to New York from Puerto Rico. And we had just seen West Side Story the night before. It fit perfectly.

We all ate at Cafe Metro two mornings while we were there. Including the morning that Em and I were supposed to leave. Unfortunately we didn't know that we were supposed to be flying on a plane while we were downing those pancakes and pieces of french toast. But that's another story...

The Guggenheim! So Jeremy and Karli did their thing while Emily and I did ours most of the time. We really liked hanging out here.

And we loved spending time in my favorite place in New York, Central Park! This is the view from Belvedere Castle.

Ice! I don't think I had ever seen a lake frozen over before.

Inside of the Guggenheim.

Washington Square. At NYU. I had always wanted to see this after seeing it in tons of movies.

Gray's Papaya. We had also heard of these amazing hot dogs from a movie. The movie didn't lie. They were scrumptious. Sauerkraut on a hot dog just works.

The price did too. Only $1.50 each. Our cheapest meal in New York.

I had always wanted to take a picture like this. Walking down a crowded street with all those heads!

And what's a trip to New York without visiting Tiffany's? Especially when Em had never been. I like the Christmas flair.

Well, we didn't have snow in New York, but guess where we did?! Sunny Southern California! Santa Clarita to be exact! Granted it wasn't much, but I know many friends who made miniature snowmen in their yards and threw real snowballs. I was home alone taking Christmas decorations down from the window and all of a sudden, I thought, that doesn't look like normal rain! Then I started freaking out and running around the house yelling, "It's Snowing! It's SNOWING!!!" The dogs must have thought I was crazy...

I didn't mind getting me or my camera a little wet.

Second installment coming soon....

"Colitiscope" as Lainey Calls It

2011-01-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

It's time to just lay it all out there, since most people know I have ulcerative colitis anyway. Although this post isn't to say, woe is me. Many people have diseases far far worse. I literally have nothing to complain about. But I thought I did for awhile.
Am I the only one to ever get a bit cocky and think...I could handle that person's trial? Or, sometimes I even pray for trials but I usually have specific ones in mind. I tend to romanticize even trials. Then God, in His perfect "knows-you-way-more-intimately-than-you-even-know-yourself" kinda way, sovereignly allows a tailor made trial into your life, and you think, that's not the kind I meant when I asked for one!
Well, just shy of a year ago, about six months after my dad died...I started getting some unnerving symptoms. I definitely won't go into any detail on here. For any of you science nerds...like me...you can look it up on Google if you really feel the need.
For some reason, it really freaked me out. Particularly the procedure I had to undergo to get diagnosed. It took about three hours max to gain the right perspective after my dad died. God was so gracious and calmed my heart quickly with His peace beyond understanding. But this...for some reason it took longer...weeks if not months. And it seemed like such a smaller trial in comparison written down on paper. I found myself questioning and doubting more than trusting. I hadn't heard of this disease before...I didn't know anyone who had it. The famous "why me?" question reared it's warty head. That sounds gross but isn't doubting God gross? Finally after His grace alone, He confronted me in His Word, maybe through a sermon, I'm not sure...but He showed me my sin. And the symptoms went away as it went into a kind of remission and I gained back all the weight AND THEN SOME that I lost when I was first diagnosed and not sure what I should be eating. The G.I. doc put me on some medicine to take indefinitely and said that it is effective in 70 to 90 percent of patients. He said that diet has nothing to do with it and I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted and to stay away from foods that bothered me.
Well...eating whatever I wanted quickly turned to gluttony. That doesn't always mean you become fat, but who knows if I continued to eat every single dessert that was on the Customer Service table!
And soon I found myself in a flare up worse than ever that lasted for two months, the medicine wasn't doing a thing and I wound up in the hospital with swollen legs so much so that I couldn't walk. At least not without extreme pain. Right before that my ankle's were taking turns swelling up. The first time I went in they said I had sprained my ankle even though I hadn't remembered hurting it in any way.
All this to show God's crazy amazing faithfulness to a selfish brat like me!
A couple weeks before I had gone into the hospital I had found a diet...or a way of eating online. I had typed in "colitis and diet" in the Google browser and you know how those ads pop up at the top? Right above the actual articles and websites that you are actually looking for? Well, the first ad must have sounded good because I never click on those, but I did this time. And sure enough, it sounded REALLY gimmicky. "Pain free in one day!" "Great taste, no pain!" The woman behind it, Sherry Brescia, had a four day menu available as a PDF that you could download for free. Then if you found it worked for you, you could purchase her book for about 40 bucks. Yeah. Right.
I downloaded it anyway, but pretty much ignored it.
Well, when my legs started swelling up again on Christmas night and I had to miss church the next morning with no hope of seeing a doctor on the holiday weekend, I thought I would try anything. I thought I would stick very closely to the diet and see how it went. (Also, on a side note, I had recently seen my new general practitioner and she said that she has lots of patients with colitis who all swear by diets and she herself believes its legitimate. Kinda makes sense!)
I noticed a HUGE difference in how I felt the very first day. After two days I had hardly any symptoms but was majorly wanting sugar, so I ate a truffle at my Grandma's house and had symptoms immediately. Hm. So I went back onto the strict diet. Now this was during the holiday season people. I was grumpy, to say the least. Not trusting God again. It took a few days for me to realize my sinful attitude and repent of it. Then I just was so excited because this thing was working!
And it still is! Seriously no more symptoms! It's almost unbelievable! The gist of the diet is that it's about combining foods. Eating starches and proteins separately. Sherry and others who promote food combining say that starches require an alkaline enzyme in our bodies to digest while proteins require an acidic enzyme. As you learn in Biology class, alkalines and acids neutralize each other. Well, apparently the same thing happens in your body when the two enzymes mix, and then the digestion process is massively slowed down. Which causes problems. Especially in certain people like me. So most desserts are out because they are poorly combined in themselves. Flour and sugar with eggs and milk. I have to eat fruit completely by itself. I can pretty much eat most vegetables with anything. And peanut butter and honey have become my new desserts. :) It's really not that bad, and it is so worth it to feel this great.
I am so thankful that God allowed me to find that site! And that He answers prayer. I knew I wasn't having self control in the food area and I was praying that He would change me. Well, I was stubborn and while there may be other reasons why I was allowed to undergo this small trial, I know He has taught me so much through it. Why is He so kind to me??? I'm a blockhead!

Well, if you read this far, thanks! Always trust our loving God and turn to Him FIRST in your trials!

Lori and Lukas Lockets

2010-10-28T12:45:00.001-07:00

Oh my goodness. This is the coolest idea ever! Lori gave me one of her lockets when her son Tommy graduated from Kindergarten, and I LOVE it! I wear it every chance I get. (I'll add a pic of mine on here later.)
Well now, Lori is making some with Lukas' pictures in them. They are fun and old-fashiony looking. Right now Lukas is offering one as a little prize on his site. If you fill out an entry form, just say I referred you please. :)

Back in the Old Days...

2010-08-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

On a rare occasion, some member of my family will come across a group of old photos. I'm talking ancient. Okay, not ancient. Just ones of my mom or dad when they were younger. Tuesday night was one of those occasions. My mom was ransacking a drawer in the garage for some material (she's teaching Dany how to make a quilt, one of those skills one must acquire as a new mother apparently), and she came across some photos of her and my Aunt Donna when they were in college.
Oh the joy!
Some may be a tad embarrasing, but overall, I think my mom and Aunt are gorgeous in these, and what style! I hope my kids look back on my photos someday and are fooled into thinking that I am as chic as I think my mom was. :)
What I love just as much, if not more, are the stories that go along with some of these.
For instance, the character below is named Gordon. He was my mom's lab partner in college. My mom made Gordon cry. They had to do a series of experiments with baby chickens and Gordon had to snip off all of the chicken's heads near the end of the experiments because none of the girls wanted to do it. Snipping off all those chicken heads did not phase Gordon one bit. However, when my mom mixed the wrong reactants and ruined the results of all their work, that was what released the floods from poor Gordy's tear ducts.

The "young man" in the next picture is Virgil. Yes, that's right, I said Virgil. He had nothing to do with my mom; he was all about Aunt Donna. Aunt Donna never made Virgil cry. She made my Grandma Shaw cry. Because she rejected Virgil. Aunt Donna was just not into Virgil, but my Grandma thought he was an angel. Virgil asked Aunt Donna to the prom long before anyone else had the chance and I think she resented him for that. Yep, life was pretty miserable in the Shaw household for awhile after that. My mom promised to never do to me what Grandma Shaw did to Aunt Donna. She didn't exactly keep her promise, but that's another story and not for another time.

There aren't any stories to go along with the next group of photos. I mean, really, they speak for themselves. The first one is of my Aunt Donna, a few years after the Virgil days.

The next one is of my Grandma Shaw with my mom's cousin, Leonard. I think my Grandma was beautiful. You can't see her dimples in this shot, but I'm sure she lit up a room with her smile.

The following three are of my mom. I love her short haircut, but I could never pull it off. And I adore her coat and hat in the last photo. If only it snowed in California...

The cute little puppy in the next three photos is Puff. Puff once had puppies with a dog specifically "chosen" for her. Only during the waiting period, the dog next door also spent some time with Puff. The scruffy mutt dog, Dudeny (that's dude-knee) from next door. So when Puff gave birth, most of the puppies looked like the nice purebred dog, but one of them turned out like Dudeny.

My mom made the picture and the alligator below. Apparently, the alligator was a pajama holder. You could unzip his mouth and stuff in some pajamas. Both are so 70's. I love it.

These last two are of Puff and my mom. If I could be a professional photographer, this is the look I would want to give to my photos. A kinda retro, poloroid feel. I think the flowers in the first one are so sweet and fun. I want to grow some in my yard right now. And isn't my mom just too cute? Gotta love that 70's hairdo!

A Little News...

2010-08-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well, the computers are down at work, so I thought I would use the time to update the blog that I have neglected for however many months.
Why would shut down computers impede my work to this extent you might ask? Don't I have a classroom full of kids to deal with? Nope. I have a new job. Customer Service at Grace to You. And I'm thoroughly enjoying it. :)
I do miss the little kiddos and their crazy stories and questions and interesting views on the world. But I am loving the short commute. I love talking to and helping people on the phones. And I love the people I work with! And I am so thankful to have a job. A full time job. With benefits. God is so faithful. :)
Next blog post I promise pictures and hopefully more interesting content...

Marvelous Lovingkindness!

2010-05-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been a looooooong time since I updated this here blog o' mine.
Life has been nothing short of interesting lately. Two weeks ago I was sideswiped on my way to work and my car was totaled. Two days later my mom was in an almost head on collision. Thankfully hers is fixable and I will most likely keep mine and get it salvaged. Little less expensive than buying a new used car. God was so gracious in keeping all of us safe. (I was taking my friend Abby to school when I was hit.) And I have been able to ride into work with Emily since we work at the same location. :)
Another big piece of news. Maggie had puppies! Three girls and one boy - Mimi, Otter, Maple and Rudy. They are adorable and so far, not as hard to take care of as we expected. Of course, I'm sure I'm speaking too soon. They are on the cusp of being able to get out of their box. A few mornings back I came down the stairs and found Maple (#3 dog) laying right outside the box! I still don't know how she managed to do it, but we have since moved a chair to block the main entryway. They are at a super fun stage right now. Their eyes and ears have fully opened and they have found the use of their legs. So they love to play with each other. It's so cute to see their little wobbly legs fall out from under them! We took them outside yesterday and all of them freaked out except for Mimi (#1 dog). She most definitely has an adventurous spirit. We just love them! It's going to be so hard to part with three of them!
I am still in love with High School ministry. I love our Bible study and I have the best group of girls ever! I'm sure most small group leaders feel that way. :) God teaches me so much through my conversations with them.
The last piece of news is that the Kindergarteners graduated on Friday. :( I will miss this group so much. They were such a loving little group. They melted my heart! How much cheesier sounding can I get??? The parents are extremely gracious and give us such nice gifts at the end of the year. One of the families gave me a morning devotional book by Spurgeon and I just have to write out here what is written for May 20th.

Marvelous lovingkindness.
-Psalm 17:7

When we give our hearts with our alms, we give well, but we must often plead to a failure in this respect. Not so our Master and our Lord. His favors are always performed with the love of his heart. He does not send to us the cold meat and the broken pieces from the table of his luxury, but he dips our morsel in his own dish, and seasons our provisions with the spices of his fragrant affections. When he puts the golden tokens of his grace into our palms, he accompanies the gift with such a warm pressure of our hand, that the manner of his giving is as precious as the boon itself. He will come into our houses upon his errands of kindness, and he will not act as some austere visitors do in the poor man's cottage, but he sits by our side, not despising our poverty, nor blaming our weakness. Beloved, with what smiles does he speak! What golden sentences drop from his gracious lips! What embraces of affection does he bestow upon us! If he had but given us farthings, the way of his giving would have gilded them; but as it is, the costly alms are set in a golden basket by his pleasant carriage. It is impossible to doubt the sincerity of his charity, for there is a bleeding heart stamped upon the face of all his benefactions. He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. Not one hint that we are burdensome to him; not one cold look for his poor pensioners; but he rejoices in his mercy, and presses us to his bosom while he is pouring out his life for us. There is a fragrance in his spikenard which nothing but his heart could produce; there is a sweetness in his honey-comb which could not be in it unless the very essence of his soul's affection had been mingled with it. Oh! the rare communion which such single heartiness effecteth! May we continually taste and know the blessedness of it!

"Morning by Morning"
Charles H. Spurgeon

Blankets, Birds and Love

2010-04-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

So I like photography, especially shooting in macro...you can make anything look halfway interesting with macro. I also have to admit, I like my room. So here are pieces of my room, close up. :)

Mandy's Monday Night Soups

2010-04-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I FAIL as a faithful Monday night soup maker and blogger. The last two Monday's I've made NADA. But I did make another soup the previous week that I haven't blogged about yet, so here goes. (Hopefully everything will be back on track next Monday.)

Soup du jour this time...THAI CHICKEN SOUP.

In my opinion, this was one good soup. Ten times better than the one before. It was made even better because one of the girls in my small group, Luda, came over and helped me make it. In fact, she did a lot of the bruntwork...the slicing and dicing, which is not my favorite.

I was a tad concerned for awhile because we couldn't find a few ingredients in the store...so we substituted. But the substitutions turned out fine. And who knows? Maybe they made it taste better! :) Instead of creamed coconut, we used coconut milk and reduced the amount of chicken stock. We also used medium sized egg noodles and broke them up instead of using thread egg noodles. And finally, we couldn't find dry, unsweetened shredded coconut, so we just used sweetened. I actually think the sweetened coconut went well with the soup, especially since it was just a topping.

Without further delay, here are some pictures. I'm actually going to include the recipe this time. :)

Here's the picture from the book:

And how ours turned out:

I think I actually liked the look of ours better! :O

In the pot:

Set up (I tried to give it an Indian flair, although the placemats are from Zimbabwe...courtesy of Dany and Thomas):

And finally, the willing guinea pigs...Mom and Luda. Em joined in later.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (6 oz each) chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp hot chili powder
1/2 cup creamed coconut [or coconut milk!]
3 3/4 cups hot chicken stock [I think I reduced It to 3 1/2 because of the coconut milk]
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice [we used lime]
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter [yum! Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE pb???]
1 cup thread egg noodles, broken into small pieces [medium sized work great!]
1 tbsp chopped spring onions (scallions)
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
Salt and ground black pepper
Desiccated (dry unsweetened shredded) coconut [seriously folks, I think sweetened is better!] and finely chopped fresh red chili [remember to wear gloves! We used plastic bags to cover our hands], to garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the garlic for 1 minute until lightly golden. Add the chicken and spices. Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Crumble the creamed coconut into the hot chicken stock and stir until dissolved. [Or just pour in the coconut milk.] Pour the liquid onto the chicken breast and add the lemon or lime juice, peanut butter and egg noodles.

3. Cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the spring onions and fresh coriander, season well with salt and ground black pepper and cook gently for a further 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, heat the desiccated coconut and chili in a small frying pan for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently , until the coconut is lightly browned.

5. Pour the soup into bowls and serve sprinkled with coconut and chili.

Recipe is from The Complete Book of 400 Soups by Anne Sheasby.

Mad About...

2010-03-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Stained Glass Windows! I loved them long before I realized it. I remember going to different churches ever so often as a little girl and sometimes there would be a giant stained glass window. I would stare at it fascinated by the way the light filtered through. My Grandpa and Grandma Shaw had a tiny one in the basement in their home in Montana. It might sound funny but I love the scene in The Phantom of the Opera when Christine is singing to the long, blonde haired wimpy guy about how she is scared to go and lure the Phantom into a trap. Not only do I think that song sounds beautiful (and it's not on the C.D. grrr...) but they are standing in front of a gorgeous stained glass window! (I like stained glass windows even more when they are in secluded little hallways like that. Perfect place to sit and read or think or pray.) About three years ago, when I was in Calvin's little church in Switzerland, our group entered one of the tiny side rooms where there were extremely tall stained glass windows with scenes from the gospels. Caitie sang a song acapella in there and it was probably one of my favorite moments on the trip.

I found out last summer that New York City is full of them. The one at the top of this post is in the MET and the one below is by Chagall and it's found in the U.N. There are stained glass windows along one wall in the chapel at Grace and this morning I was trying not to be distracted from the message by staring at them.
I have come to a decision. I made it quite awhile ago.

One day I will have a stained glass window in my house.

Mandy's Monday Night Soups

2010-03-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

I decided to go the way of many aspiring bloggers out there and rip off Julie's idea from Julie and Julia and blog about attempts, successful or otherwise, in the kitchen. Partly, because I need to learn how to cook and I need to have a fun motivation to do more cooking. I like to cook, it just takes time, and when there seems to be little time, cooking goes out the window for me. My friend and former roommate, Christine Low, began a similar experiment making cakes and cupcakes. Just yesterday I was looking through the bookshelf and found a cookbook on soup; 400 soups to be exact. So I thought it would be fun to try and make a different soup every Monday night, hence: Mandy's Monday Night Soups.
Well, my first attempt was made tonight. Soup du jour: Spinach and Rice Soup.

It turned out alright. I have this thing where I like whatever I make to look exactly like the picture (if there is one). Tonight, on that account, I failed.

The Original:

As far as I could tell, I followed the recipe to a T, and this is how I discovered that it's okay to tweak! I think I chopped the spinach, onion, garlic and red chili too finely, due to the Quisinart my sister and I purchased for my mom this Christmas. That thing is powerful, let me tell ya, and I hate chopping so I LOVE it!
[Side note on red chili: My mom was right...wear gloves. We didn't have any, and as I type, my thumb is stinging. If I suck on it, my tongue and mouth sting. If I rub my eye, my eye stings. I've washed my hands a number of times. Trust me: wear gloves.]

The Actual Outcome:

Next time I make this soup, I will use less spinach, a tad more risotto, and one cup less vegetable stock. Other than that, I was pleased and my mom seemed to enjoy it. We also ate some thin bagels which my mom discovered. Brilliant invention. The same taste but much less bulk. Always nice to avoid extra inches to the spare tire.
I had to add a little Italian flare at the dinner table with some placemats and flowers.

If this looks appetizing in the slightest to anyone, let me know and I'll add the recipe.
Ciao!

New Room!

2010-03-05T23:26:00.000-08:00

So I'm finally getting around to showing you pictures of my 98% completed room. But who knows when I will get to that 2% so I decided not to wait any longer.
First...two snapshots that got me started. I liked the laid back look. A white bedspread, a painting as a sub for a headboard, and the fun light above the bed:

And the finished product! Here's what you see when you get to my door:

I brought my black desk up from downstairs. I saw the clipboard idea on a decorating site online.

My curtains from IKEA.

I liked the tiny orange seeds. ;)

My comfy bed!

The next picture helped convince me to paint the back wall a fun bright color and the you'll see in the following picture how I wound up with a similar floor lamp.

This is my favorite little corner of the room. A little reading nook. The next picture I found on the internet to show my mom that turquoise and black work together:

And I think it turned out just fine. :) My mom and I found this little side table at the best thrift store ever...Sun Thriftstore in Sunland, and we took it home and painted it black and added new handles.

Cute little chair from IKEA again.

And some pictures I took in NEW YORK! :)

I kinda like having a less cluttered chest of drawers now...just a picture of my mom and dad. A necklace, rose and little bird from Melissa Johnson. The little bird picture is also from her. :) She bought them at the interior decorating store she works at.

The next two pics are the knob ideas I got from Anthropologie and the following two are the knobs I actually wound up buying from there. (About the only things I can afford there.)

This last wall is my least favorite wall of my room, but I do like the picture. I eventually want to finish that little square of pictures on my door and paint/write a verse over it.

And there you have it. My new room!

Heroes

2010-03-03T18:36:00.000-08:00

No this post is not about the show. (I used to watch it, but it got a bit dark for my taste.) No, this post is about real life heroes. It would be perfect for a "Mad About..." but I already have one set up for that and I didn't want to wait!
The concept of heroes was not really something I thought much about growing up. I believed Jesus to be my hero in that He is my Savior, and like any little girl, my Dad was my hero, but that's pretty much where my list ended.
Within the last year at leat three more have jumped onto that list. My Mom, Lady Jane Grey, and Jim Elliot.
My Mom because I have learned so much from watching her strong trust in our God since my Dad's death. Her love for my sister and I despite my unlovableness, her godly wisdom and encouragement to me, especially in the last month or so. She is truly one of my best friends.
Lady Jane Grey because she gave up her life at such a young age for Christ and for the truth. Some may die for Christ, but how many will die for the truth that bread and wine don't actually become the body and blood of Christ during Communion? The primary cause of her execution was because she took the throne of England for nine days, even though it was FORCED upon her, but they would have spared her had she denied the truths she stood for. Hmm...I suddenly had the feeling that I've blogged about this before. Oh well. It's worth repeating.
My most recent hero is Jim Elliot. I think pretty much everyone knows his story and I've always been convicted by his love for Indians he had never met that wound up taking his life. But I've been even more convicted and encouraged by his life. I've been rereading Shadow of the Almighty. I read it the first time in Junior High for a book report, but I don't believe I was saved then and frankly, it bored me. The second time through I'm loving it. I've been reading it SUPER slowly, but I'm nearing the end. The book is technically authored by Elizabeth Elliot, but its mostly his letters and journal entries that she has compiled together as a biography on his life. What I can't get over, again, is the age he was as he wrote down paragraph after paragraph of his thoughts which clearly led to his actions. He died at 28 and where I am in the book, he has just turned 25. From what I can tell he truly lived out Philippians 1:21, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Something Austin just preached on last Sunday. A sermon I think I need to hear every week.
With that, here are some quotes from Jim Elliot from the book. Enjoy.

"Dreams are tawdry when compared with the leading of God, and not worthy of the aura or wonder we usually surround them with. God only doeth wonders. He does nothing else. His hand can work nothing less. Praise to the Guiding God of Israel, and that Great Shepherd of the wayward sheep. When he directs a path, no way can seem bleak, no instance dull."

He was 21 when he wrote the following three quotes: "Prayed a strange prayer today. I covenanted with the Father that He would do either of two things: either glorify Himself to the utmost in me or slay me. By His grace I shall not have His second best. For He heard me, I believe, so that now I have nothing to look forward to but a life of sacrificial sonship (that's how my Savior glorified Him) or heaven - soon. Perhaps tomorrow! What a prospect!"

"What I will be doing one year from today is a complete mystery. Perhaps a sick bed or a coffin - glory! Either of these would be fine, but the latter would be immortality, a swallowing up by Life. For this I am most anxious."

"'Enjoyed much sweetness' in the reading of the last month of Brainerd's life. How consonant are his thoughts to my own regarding the 'true and false religion of this late day.' Saw in reading him, the value of true notations, and was much encouraged to think of a life of godliness in the light of an early death."

Mad About...

2010-01-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

SINGLENESS!

Bet you never thought you would read THOSE words on my blog! :) But lately, it's so true! I'm really praying this isn't just a phase or a feeling, but a true conviction that will last. I actually think it might though. With the new year arriving one of the primary areas I want to grow in is contentment, so about two or three weeks ago I started reading a chapter on contentment in a book that was regifted to me. :) One I already had. But oh how thankful I am that it was given to me because it reminded me that I owned the book in the fist place. I think the title is Women Counseling Women.

Well, the chapter on contentment is SO GOOD! For years and years I have been told that singleness is a gift...and for years and years I secretly said in my heart a big, fatty "HA! yeah right." I'm truly saddened to realize how I did not believe God's Word that says that singlesness IS a gift because it's a time of undistracted devotion to the Lord. Here I've been wasting the last few years at least by allowing myself to be distracted by an unnecessary distraction! I'm not married! There's no reason to be distracted! :) I've spent so much time worrying when worrying accomplishes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! And I haven't spent nearly as much time as I could have been JOYFULLY serving the Lord and delighting in Him.

The chapter talks about how women often look for joy, peace, comfort, hope, security, etc. in a husband. But those things cannot be found in a husband. Sure they might be to some extent. But what about when your husband sins agains you, (or you sin against him) or he loses his job, or he dies? Well then you're faced with the fact that joy, peace, comfort, hope and security are found in CHRIST ALONE.

All that to say, I would still like to be married someday, but if that's not what God has planned for me, I know there is contentment in Him. I just finally believe I agree that both are gifts; there are hardships and great joys in each.

So, here's to singleness! (Can I get any cheesier?) And here are my favorite pictures that came up when I typed "singleness" into Google:

Apparently singleness is throwing your hands up into the air and becoming one with nature...

Apparently singles are nerds who eat unhealthy food...

Don't give up and leave town if you're single, people!

Just trust in our ever loving God! :)

Not So Girly Maggie

2009-12-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to post something like this for a while now...to show a little passing of time and how much Maggie has grown! I generally wish that puppies would just remain the size they are, so cute and cuddly, and I was convinced that Maggie wouldn't be as cute when she got older. But amazingly enough, I believe she has grown more and more adorable. It may be due in part to the fact that she still thinks she is the size of a puppy. She'll jump into my lap to cuddle and try to squeeze onto one of our love seats when there's already two or three people sitting there with absolutely no room for a dog of her size. Oh boy do we love her!

A little over two years ago

Last night

Dear Anonymous,

2009-12-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

1 Peter 3:15 "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."

About a week ago I noticed a new comment on a previous post. The post had to do with Jesus' second coming. I have come to realize that I have been a tad naive in thinking that only my friends read my blog. It turns out that, at least occasionally, people that I don't even know read my blog.
The comment that I recently discovered was from an anonymous person, and they questioned how I know that what I believe is true. Have I studied all religions? How do I know that my faith is the true faith and not something else?
Well, I want to attempt to answer that question. I'm obviously not in seminary...I don't have a Bible degree...I also could in no way be described as eloquent, however, as the verse states above, I always want to be ready to explain why I believe the Bible is true. The following points are in no particular order.

1. To start off, to place our hope and trust in anything requires faith. Although there are plenty of evidences that the Bible is true, it still takes faith. The Bible also says that the Holy Spirit gives us faith as a gift. So no matter what I say, I can't fully convince anyone to believe the same thing. That power belongs to God alone.

2. The Bible begins before the world was even created. If I believe in anything, I want to know that it starts at the beginning of history.

3. My faith is based on authority not of my own, or of any human, but on the authority of God. The Bible itself says that the entire thing is written by God. He inspired men to write HIS words.

4. As far as I know, all other religions, at least the ones I know of, include some kind of human work for salvation. But the Bible says that salvation is in Christ alone. "And there is salvation in on one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 I have definitely lived long enough to know that I am a sinner. I can try as hard as I can on my own to not sin, but it doesn't happen. I know that I don't have any power to save myself or have any part in it except for faith, which as I said earlier, is a gift of God's grace.

5. Creation. There's really not much more to say to say on this one. Romans 1 tells us that just by looking at creation we know that God exists and we are without excuse. And seriously, just looking at the complex way we are made. That didn't just happen.

6. Ezekiel 36:26 says, "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." I love the words from a certain song..."The mercy is more that a match for my heart, which wonders to feel it's own hardness depart." Besides experiencing my own heart melt before the Lord, I have witnessed numerous changed lives. What else can explain Paul's immediate change from a man who persecuted Jews...one who stood by watching people stone Stephen for his faith in God, to one who went around spreading the same gospel and being persecuted for it himself?

7. Our natural instinct to worship. If you don't worship God, you worship yourself or something else. We all start off worshipping ourselves. Yet there is never satisfaction in this. If you worship yourself, you can never receive enough praise, enough attention, enough money, enough things, enough of anything to make yourself happy. The times I am most joyful are the times when I am dwelling on God and who He is and praising Him with my heart. And I can't do that perfectly on earth because I still have sin, but there is GREAT JOY in knowing I will eventually worship Him with NO SIN in Heaven! We were created to worship Him.

Well, this is by no means an exhaustive list. In fact the real list would be inexhaustive because God is eternal and infinite. But please, feel free to leave comments, especially anything obvious that I am not mentioning...like for instance, all the prophesies in the Bible that have been fulfilled...that sort of thing.

Psalm 5:11 "But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you."

Mad About...

2009-12-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

Interior Decorating

If I could have any job in the world, it would be to be a wife and mom. But considering I'm not in control of that, teaching assisting is wonderful! I really do enjoy teaching this year. I'm growing more and more convinced that I would like to stick with it. The little Kindergarteners have stolen my heart!

That said, if I wasn't a teacher, I think it would be a blast to be an interior decorator. The great thing about interior decorating though, is that anyone can do it for fun...in their own home or room! ;) And I get to redecorate my old room again! When I moved out and lived with some friends for awhile, Dany moved into my old room upstairs. When I moved back, I converted the sewing room/den downstairs into a bedroom. I took most of what I had in my room at the Valley house and stuffed it in there, and painted the back wall...what else? Red!

Here's some pics of my current room downstairs:

Well, this little room has served me well, but it's time to move on. Dany is getting married on December 28th and so she and Thomas are flying to Germany on the 18th. That means my old room upstairs is free. I contemplated staying downstairs, but I absolutely love my window upstairs! It has a beautiful tree right in front of it, giving the feel of living in a tree house...and it has a ledge wide enough to be a window seat. Perfect for reading! In addition, how can I pass up the chance to decorate a room again?!

So right now, I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I love red, but it's time for a new shade. I think I'm going to paint the back wall a bright blue/tealish color...move my black rolltop desk up there...maybe use one of my larger paintings that Amber gave me as a headboard, and besides that...the sky's the limit!

Here are some pics I found as inspiration online:

The pic of the mirror and little dresser are to prove to my mom that teal and black work together.

Tell me what you think about the above wall color. Now mind you, it would just be my back wall...a small wall. My mom LOATHES the idea. :(

And to finish off; some pretty knobs for my dresser:

Yay for decorating!

Thankful

2009-11-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

"The gifts of grace are not enjoyed all at once by believers. Coming to Christ we are saved by a true union with Him, but it is by abiding in that union that we further receive the purity, the joy, the power and the blessedness that are stored up in Christ for His people. See how our Lord states this when He speaks to the believing Jews in the eighth chapter of John: 'Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye coninue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (vss. 31-33).
"We do not know all the truth at once: we learn it by abiding in Jesus. Perseverance in grace is an educational process by which we learn the truth fully. The emancipating power of that truth is also gradually perceived and enjoyed. 'The truth shall make you free.' One bond after another snaps, and we are free indeed. You who are beginners in the divine life may be cheered to know that there is something better still for you: you have not yet received the full reward of your faith. You shall have happier views of heavenly things as you climb the hill of spiritual experience. As you abide in Christ you shall have firmer confidence, richer joy, greater stability, more communion with Jesus, and greater delight in the Lord your God. As physical infancy is beset with many evils from which adulthood is exempt, so it is in the spiritual world.
"...You have to live with Christ to know Him, and the longer you live with Him, the more you will admire and adore Him. Yes, and the more you will receive from Him, even grace for grace...Oh that we may continue to grow up into Him in all things who is our Head and prize Him more and more!" - Charles Spurgeon

Yesterday, I think everyone in our family was dreading the point at which we would go around the table and thank God for the ways He has blessed each one of us this year. It may be a bit of a cliche thing to do, especially considering that we should be thankful all of the time, but nonetheless, I enjoy hearing the hearts of each member of my family. Not many other occasions afford such an opportunity. But anyways, like I was saying, things were a little different this year. We all knew it would be a particularly emotional time. How do you thank God for your dad's death? It sounds wrong to say so, but I think that's because if it was up to us, we wouldn't have chosen it. However, he's in Heaven, with God! And although we miss him, we have the hope of seeing him again. So it was interesting to see, we often go on about the various aspects of our lives in which God has blessed us; job, home, etc...and while we are thankful for these things, as Jeremy put it, those are all the more obviously temporary in light of the ways God has shown us His love, protection, provision and ETERNITY this year. The section from Spurgeon above reflects what I have been learning through it all.

"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation." Psalm 68:5

Mad About...

2009-10-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

TARGET!

Or as it is properly pronounced...Tar-djay. That's kinda hard to type out phonetically. I pretty much call it that without fail and a couple of years ago my mom told me that my Grandma Shaw also called it that without fail -- only she seriously thought that's how it was meant to be said. :)

Anyway folks...think about it. Necklaces, purses, wedding presents, birthday presents, baby shower presents, eggs, milk, chocolate, make-up, shampoo and conditioner, tents, sleeping bags, paper, sweaters, opaque stockings, umbrellas, sunglasses, pillows, blankets, mp3 players, novels, sudoku, Starbucks, pasta, candles, cd's, wrapping paper, gum, underwear, cereal, pots, pans, mulch, tennis shoes, scarves, wallets, greeting cards, puzzles, bathing suits, Pizza Hut, nail polish, photo albums, Sudafed, Hello Kitty diaries, cacti, Burt's Bees products, clocks, storage bins, strollers, dvd players, hair straighteners, dog food...

Name me one other place where you can find such a pletheora of items under one roof.

A few other reason why I love the Bullseye:

- It's favorite color is red.
- I can ALWAYS count on seeing a friendly face. Even when I've just left the checkout line and think I made it through without seeing anyone I know, there Summer Paige will be opening the door. (I seriously used to run into Summer everywhere!)
- (I have this thing where when I'm making a list, I have to have at least three bullets.) But the whole post is about how I can find almost whatever I need at Target, so there you go.

I LOVE Target! But I won't marry it. Although I could get married in it...or not.

Mad About...

2009-10-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

I have always enjoyed blogs in which the writers have a little special somethin' that they post weekly. For example, Lisa Martin has her www.wednesday.what? Girltalk has Friday Funnies. I enjoy things I can count on. So, I have decided (in keeping with my thankfulness theme) to post things that I am "mad about" on Fridays. Probably not every Friday...but I would like to be optimistic about it. Without further ado, today I'm Mad About...

CINNAMON!

I have recently decided that cinnamon makes almost anything taste better. I think I actually heard that in a movie a couple weeks ago. Although, I think they were talking about butter. But in my book, it's cinnamon. Cinnamon is delish! This might be the very reason why Cinnamon Toast Crunch is my favorite cereal, and maybe just maybe why I eat it every morning.
After I saw the movie Ratatouille for the first time, I had this overwhelming desire to start cooking. I wanted to come up with my own recipes or add secret ingredients to favorite meals in our house. I made a salad one night and added...you guessed it...cinnamon, and it really made a difference!
A few nights ago I went to Coldstone's with a friend and thought, why not add some cinnamon to my cake batter ice cream? Let's just say, it was dangerously delectable.
Have you ever added cinnamon to your coffeemaker before you started brewing? If you haven't, go ahead and try it. I doubt you will ever turn back.
All this to say, I'm thankful that God created cinnamon. In my opinion, its the best spice out there!

Retraction

2009-09-15T00:11:00.000-07:00

Wow, here I said a few posts back that I would, EVERY time I post, list three things that I am thankful for and in the last three posts, I failed to do so once. So, to make up for it, here are some things I have been thankful for recently:

~ A short, relaxing vacation in San Diego with my Mom, Emily, and Erin. I particularly enjoyed swimming in the ocean for the first time this year, watching the surfers and the gorgeous waves at San Clemente on the way home, and for just a fun time hanging out with three amazing people!

~ A fresh reminder of where my dad is and most importantly, WHOM he is with. Is that right? Whom? or Who? I never know. It made me long to be with Jesus more.

~ I am still enjoying those Kindergarteners. They bring so many smiles to my face. I enjoy going to work each day.

~ God reminding me of how much I need to depend on Him alone.

~ Sisters and Mothers. I mean, I only have one of each obviously, but sisters and mothers are wonderful in general.

~ Cooler weather.

~ Becky and Hannah. They are so fun to work with! And drive to San Diego with! And yes I am ending my sentences with prepositions! Is that not grammatically correct?