Christmas

YEAH!!!! IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE MORNING!!!! ONE MORE SLEEP TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?

You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’

- Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles

blogging

I keep checking and expecting the blogs that i follow to have some mushy thanksgiving post, but none of them do, and i don't have mushy thanksgiving post either. oh well.

God knows

this is my new kitty, Itka. God gave her to me, and i'm soooo excited. God knows what we need and what we want. and Itka is what i want, and maybe even what i need. here's the story:
when i cat sat for someone while they were away on their honeymoon, when they called to come and get her, i was really upset. i did not want to give her up at all. actually i was a little traumatized, but i managed to recover.
my friend Crystal said that she was going to get me a kitten for my birthday. then she found out it would cost about $300.00 from the humane society to get everything done. but she was still persistent and decided she was going to do this. she searched hours online to try to find one. so i told her just let me check the humane society and maybe we could find one close.
so another friend and i jumped in the car on Thursday night to do an errand and go to quincy to the humane society with some light shopping on the side. we arrived at the society, but they were closed. big let down for both of us. so i decided to come and look on Tuesday when i was in town.
but low and behold on Sat. morning a co-worker got on the computer to check her e-mail and there was a free cat. i saw the pic. and my heart melted. and it was free, and it was de-clawed, and spayed, and with a whole bunch of extra freebies. God knew the desires of my heart. here's the pic!

WHAT?????

what??? could this be an actual post? i think it is! things have been so busy here it's nuts! i must say my desire to blog has wained a bit since i started "disciplines of life" Bible college class, we have to do a journal every week, and it's sorta like a blog. so by the time i do it once, i don't really want to do it again, but here we are anyway! did anyone else notice that October flew by? here we are at the 27th and i just got use to writing October! okay enough of that!

so, we had our annual bon fire last Saturday night, and it was beautiful. the lake was pretty the trees fantastic and super good food. i think everyone had a good time. one girl wiped out on the gravel as she was chasing a soccer ball, been a long time since i bandaged a skinned hand! and yes, we went snipe hunting!!!!

just for a laugh, here's what wikipedia has to say about snipe hunting:

A snipe hunt, a form of wild-goose chase that is also known as a fool's errand, is a type of practical joke that involves experienced people making fun ofcredulous newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task. The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about a bird or animal called the snipe as well as a usually ridiculous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises. Incidentally, the snipe (a family of shorebirds) is difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word "sniper" is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.^[1]

In the most popular version of the snipe hunt, especially in the American South, a newcomer is taken deep into the woods late at night and told to make a clucking noise while holding a large sack. The others, who are in on the joke, say that they will sneak away and then walk back towards the newcomer, thereby driving snipes towards the bag holder. The frightened snipes, they say, will be attracted to the clucking noise and easily caught in the bag. The newcomer is then simply left in the dark forest, holding the bag, to eventually realize his gullibility and find his way home or back to camp.

A wild goose chase can also be more serious, either a deliberate attempt to thwart an opponent by sending him/her off on a quest based on misinformation, or a mistake on one's own part leading to a hopeless quest. ^[2]

we have some young ones right now, and one of these young ones are from Russia. it took a while to convince her that there were snipes, we just walked along the timber line looking for them and calling them. she wanted to stay in one spot for a long time because someone else saw a snipe there and she really wanted to see it and catch it. i had to move her along because she was so obsessed with finding one.

then sunday during lunch we were talking about snipe hunting and someone said they thought it was fake, and the girl from Russia spoke up and said it had to be real because someone had claw marks on her bowl and a hole where the beak went through. i had to stifle my laughter because i didn't want to blow it. i asked her if they had snipes in Russia and she told me no. she said she asked her dad about them, and he said they were real (way to go dad!).

so now she is utterly convinced that snipes are real, and she said next year she's going to catch one.

well, so long for now!

all sunshine makes a desert. arab proverb.

Jesus says for us to expect hard times in our lives. when they come will we run to the cross for comfort, or to entertainment and people that will pat us on the back and tell us all the things we want to hear?

bloggin'

i have not abandoned my blogspot. it's just one of those many things that have to be put on the shelf somewhere! as soon as i can and have something blog worthy that won't take a million explanations, i'll write about it.

Michelle's wedding is this weekend, so i'm sure i'll have something to say!

until then...

This is my new buddy Jayden. He just came into the world last Thursday, that's October 1st. he was quiet reluctant to come, but he came anyway. isn't he cute? he's got the cutest chin, and man, look at those fingers!!!! they are so long!!!! my best friend Ashlee had him. she did a great job and will be a great mom, Jared will be a great dad too. he weighed 8lb 13oz. and 20 inches long. he's just simply beautiful.

Transformations II: The Glory Spreads

check this out. it can happen

God does care abou...

i'm in a wedding in about 3 weeks, it's my friend Michelle's wedding. we've already had the shower, we have our dresses, and need to be altered and such. so we are well on our way. oh, and the pic above are the shoes i get to wear with the dress. the color of the text you are reading is the color of my dress. but, i have a story about the shoes, are you ready?

the last time i truly blogged, you may recall it was about living more simply. and one of the things i "resolved" to do was to not buy any more shoes for a year, except the pair for the wedding. well, a few weeks back i went into a shoe store to try to get some ideas for the wedding shoes, i had no idea what Michelle was going to pick out, or if it would be left up to us to find our own. and as i was walking down the isle i saw these shoes, and i thought they were super cute. i stood there and looked at them for a bit and had to pull myself away from them. i just kept thinking "man, they're stinkin' cute!" i had to hurry and walk out because i wanted to try them on so badly, (i have a friend who has a saying "what the eye has not seen, the heart cannot want" and how true it is!) anyway, i just said i'd forget about them because i was not going to spend money on another pair of dress shoes.

at Michelle's bridal shower she had told me that she was just going to let us pick out our own shoes, but there was this style that she thought would look good with them. she gave me the name and brand of the shoes, so the next time i went to town i could look for them.

the next day i walked into the shoe store and asked the clerk for help (because i knew i would be drawn back to that shoe) and i told her the style i was looking for, she couldn't find them so she called around to find out, and they did have them. and it just happened to be the very shoe that i wanted real bad.

i think because i resolved not to spend my money on yet another pair of shoes, God allowed me to have the pair that i wanted. just because i decided to keep my commitment. God is soo good!

i have not abandoned you oh blogspot, just a little busy right now :)

love....(lifehouse-your all i want)

this is such a great song!

hey!!!

just wanted to let yall know that everything is going fine. busy, but nothing really blog worthy class has been going good. i'll touch base with you later!

Kunstrad EM 2009 Carla und Henriette Hochdorfer

this is just weird! crazy talented, but weird!

How he loves us - John Mark (Legendado)(Habilite Legenda)

please watch this. all of it. it's great!

Memory

Just thought i'd drop you a note and let ya'll know what i'm up to. Our wonderful Bible college has started offering evening classes! yeah! it's on Monday evenings from 6-9, and yes, the whole thing is class except the 15 min break we get after 90 min (reminds me of high school!)

anyway last Monday was quiet the experience. it's been a while since i've been a student. and i've forgotten how disciplined you must be to be a student. after my experience i think you have to be more disciplined to be a student than an teacher (then again maybe not.) anyway, there are 33 people in the class which adds a different dynamic because it's so large. Felicity (our teacher) handed out the SOP (standard operating procedures) last week, which showed us what the class was going to "look like".

because of the nature of the class (in case i forgot to tell you, it's called disciplines of life talking about spiritual disciplines), it will be hard to give a grade, so most of it is objective. which translates into, if you turn in your homework, you will pass. we have these journal entries we are required to do, which is interesting, i love to journal! those are due every week, and the bigger projects are a fasting project, and the one that made me most nervous is the memory project.

it sounded so overwhelming at first, all of this memory work, it's Psalms 103 out of any translation we like. we have 4 weeks i think to memorize the first 2 verses, then every week after that we add two more. so i've been working on it. the problem with it is that there are so many of the verses in songs that we sing, that it's hard to keep the songs separate from the rendering that i choose! but so far it's going pretty good. i even put it in my phone so i can memorize it while i'm at dr. offices waiting and such as that.

so without further aude, here is the chapter out of the translation i choose, it's the HCSB translation. enjoy, and maybe challenge yourself some to begin to memorize Scripture again, i know for most of us it's been a while.

Psalm 103
The Forgiving God
Davidic. 1 My soul, praise the LORD, and all that is within me, praise His holy name. (A)
2 My soul, praise the LORD, and do not forget all His benefits. (B)
3 He forgives all your sin; (C) He heals all your diseases. (D)
4 He redeems your life from the Pit; (E) He crowns you with faithful love and compassion. (F)
5 He satisfies you [a] with goodness; (G) your youth is renewed like the eagle. (H)
6 The LORD executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. (I)
7 He revealed His ways to Moses, (J) His deeds to the people of Israel. (K)
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and full of faithful love. (L)
9 He will not always accuse [us] or be angry forever. (M)
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses. (N)
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him. (O)
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (P)
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. (Q)
14 For He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust. (R)
15 As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; (S)
16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known. (T) [b]
17 But from eternity to eternity the LORD's faithful love is toward those who fear Him, and His righteousness toward the grandchildren (U)
18 of those who keep His covenant, who remember to observe His instructions. (V)
19 The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. (W)
20 Praise the LORD, [all] His angels of great strength, who do His word, obedient to His command. (X)
21 Praise the LORD, all His armies, His servants who do His will. (Y)
22 Praise the LORD, all His works in all the places where He rules. (Z) My soul, praise the LORD!

CompassionArt Friend Of The Poor Video

i would like to title this blog "simplicity". it's been on my heart to live more simply. now with this new doctor thing i will be forced to live more simply ;). anyway, i saw this video last night and it compeled me even more.

i would like to say i'm very mission minded, and pray that i live that way too. recently i wanted to buy a new pair of jeans. no big deal right? there isn't really anything wrong with my old jeans, except that they sag a little bit, but in reality they are totally fine. as i was pondering buying a new pair of jeans at roughly $40.00 i thought i could pay for my children. i have "adopted" (or sponsored) 2 children through worldvision. one in south america, and another in southern africa. and as i was thinking about buying these jeans, i thought these girls don't have any clean water, and have very little education so if i were to spend my money on them rather than me, i might be able to give them a hope for the future and increase their chance of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. needless to say, i went with the kids.

i have wanted to make this change in my life several times, specaly when i came back from Oaxaca, i was overwhelmed with all of my belongings and couldn't believe that i needed so much stuff. so here i go once again, making a movement towards the life of simplicity. learning that relationships mean so much more when you don't dwell so much on all of the material things.

i was talking to my friend Tina about it, and she said this saying that i really liked "live simply so others can simply live."

i think we could all learn to make due with what we have. if i made a committment not to buy another pair of shoes until the ones that i have give out, then i would save a couple of hundred dollars a year! and just think, if we used all of the things we have stached around our house b/c they weren't quiet what we were looking for, think about all the money we would save. and then if we would put that money towards bettering the future for children whether it's our neighbors, or someone across the world, or maybe even save for a missions trip of our own. think of the impact we would have!

i challenge you to do this with me. don't buy anything new for the next month unless it's of dire need. let me know if you decide to do it please!

enjoy the simple life.

death

Recently my boss/friend's husband died. it was really sad and sort of sudden. it's very sad. i'm not sad that he is gone because i know he's better off, but what i am saddened by is he left a wonderful wife, and 2 young children.

you know we all grieve in different ways, but it seems that it all boils down to the same thing. the sadness, anger, denial, and how we sit around and tell funny stories and the good things. you know all that, we've all been through it. dying is a part of living, no matter how much we don't like it.

since he's passed away i've thought about all the loved ones i've lost. and i remember all the things that people told me to try and comfort me "i'm so sorry", "they're in a better place now", "they aren't suffering anymore" and they go on and on. oh how i hate those things. they are said to try to comfort, but sometimes i think they rub more salt in the wound.

i found myself today taking food to the family, and i saw my boss for the first time in 3 weeks, and i knew when i saw her i would cry. not because i'm sad her husband is gone, but because she hurts. we hugged and i heard myself say "i'm sorry!" oh how i wish i could take those words back, but i can't. i took a short drive around the block and thought, "i wish there were some new phrases we could say when someone died. something that might actually help them. but i know nothing that can be said or done could ever help bring comfort to the aching heart. as we stood there in the embrace, and my ever strong boss was crying, sobbing while we were hugging, we broke the embrace by talking about how the cats were doing. ahhh..... the relief of something alive, something light hearted! and at the same time the crying and the awkwardness seemed to dissipate too.

as much as we want to ignore death, or hide from it, or avoid those that are grieving so we don't have to deal with the aches in our heart, we can't. we might as well face the fact that we were born to live, and live to die.

sometimes we question why God allowed this to happen or that to happen, and why this person went and this one got to stay, but as Elisabeth Elliot would say "that's not our business, it's Gods."

The Toast Song

finally figured out how to post videos from youtube! watch out! YEAH TOAST!

who are you?

don't worry, i haven't left the blogging world. things have been uber busy. but an update is coming soon. i can feel it!

good friends

for about the last 4 days things have been very interesting. it's been a good time for the women's home and other people pull together in community. there is a personal side, and a community side.

monday evening our boss's husband had to be flight vac to columbia. he has a liver disease. it was so sad, especially knowing their two young children. i know it was hard for our boss to have to up and leave.

my friend has been helping take care of the kids for the last 3 years. a wonderful thing, so her husband came and took the kids. they are now "chillin'" with Ashlee and Jared. pulling together.

i got really sick last week. couldn't breath very well and was coughing something fierce! horrible. if that wasn't bad enough, i no longer have a voice! it's sometimes slightly louder than a whisper, other times hardly a whisper.

so my friends are taking care of me, making sure i'm not talking to much. making me take naps and rest my voice. one of my friends is even getting ready to come and "kitty sit" with me while watching the sound of music. even though we can't talk.

that's what friends and living in community is all about. helping your boss take care of her kids and kittens, and house, and having someone watch a movie in silence. ahhh, community.

absolutly ridiculous

this came from foxnews.com. Pastor talked about it yesterday, but this is nuts!!!! cursing is not good for you!!! IT'S SIN!!!!!!!!!!

That muttered curse word that reflexively comes out when you stub your toe could actually make it easier to bear the throbbing pain, a new study suggests.
Swearing is a common response to pain, but no previous research has connected the uttering of an expletive to the actual physical experience of pain.
"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."
Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual's tolerance to pain.
Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person's tolerance.
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As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true.
The researchers enlisted 64 undergraduate volunteers and had them submerge their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice.
The experiment was then repeated with the volunteer repeating a more common word that they would use to describe a table.
Contrary to what the researcher expected, the volunteers kept their hands submerged longer while repeating the swear word.
The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body's natural "fight-or-flight" response.
Stephens and his colleagues suggest that swearing may increase aggression (seen in accelerated heart rates), which downplays weakness to appear stronger or more macho.
"Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists," Stephens said.
The results of the study are detailed in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal NeuroReport.

wishes

I WAS WISHING THAT MY WISHES WERE WHAT GOD WISHED, AND IF MY WISHES WERE NOT WHAT GOD WISHED, I WISHED THAT I COULD WISH THAT MY WISHES WOULD GO AWAY, BUT THE WISHES WERE STILL THERE. ~ELISABETH ELLIOT

ketchup showers, mud baths and other fun 4th of july activities

this post is going to be full of those "had to be there moments," but none the less, i want to put our experience into written word. this may be lenghty!

on Friday the weather was beautiful. blue skies, with pretty cotton looking clouds, and many many people excited to serve and be served. we had a blast, that is until people started leaving because they were scared of the rain. the troopers were the ones that stuck it out! we had free food, a rodeo, music, games for the kids. oh the fun!

i started out shuttling people around. i love it! ask me to do it anytime! got to go driving through fields to pick up people, and to deliver them to the fun field! many many happy, dirty, faces. well, the kids had dirty faces. the adults looked pretty clean! this day went without much incident. we were home by 9. did i mention i also helped in the food service part too? that was a lot of fun to. while we were serving, the excitement was going on at the rodeo. the bull named "Marshmallow" jumped the fence and headed for the trees, it took 2 cowboys and 10 minutes to get "Marshmallow" back in the fence. the guy announcing the rodeo said "Marshmallow ain't no fluff." we had about 12,000 people there.

onto Saturday. it rained and rained and rained. oh how we were praying it would stop! we got to the tent at 9 a.m. and it was so yucky! we were putting wood chips and straw down everywhere trying to soak up the mud, so it wasn't so messy. but to no avail. it was still as nasty as ever. it didn't prevent 6,000 people from coming though! so that was good. it seemed as if everyone was in good spirits during my shuttle hours. wet, a little muddy, but good spirits.

the fun came when people wanted to go back to their cars. i knew this one field was where people were getting stuck, so i tried my hardest not to go down in it, but then there was this 89 year old little man who was using a cane to walk got in my van and said "Lot C please" i cringed! anything but lot C! that's where people are getting stuck! please not lot C. so he rode around with me for a few min. then to lot C we went. i thought i stopped on some solid ground, but when i tried to leave, i was stuck! did i mention i had about 15 people in the van with me. the man sitting in the bench seat behind me said "hun, i think you're stuck." i dreaded getting on the CB. that was the last thing i wanted. but i had to humble myself and get on there and i eloquently said "ummm, i think i'm stuck, i'm in lot C." the guy behind me said "hun, there ain't no thinkin' you are stuck." the men tried to tell me how to get out, but nope, didn't work. they abandoned ship and headed for the hills. (we were down in a valley). they told me the captain must go down with the ship. so i sat for 15 min and finally they came and towed me out. oh the humility! that made it 3 times i've been stuck in a ministry vehicle. ugh! we go about our day still driving soaking wet, cold people to their vehicles. one time someone asked me at the drop off point if the folks that were standing there were coming or going. i said "well, they look pretty dry, so they must just be coming." they thought that was funny. i got stuck another time in a lot, but the parking attendant helped me out with that one.

the last group of ladies that i had in the van told me they were from Hamilton/Warsaw area. i said so am i! so they started to ask me if i knew so and so, and so and so. i told them no, and the lady right behind me asked if i knew Brad Heitman. i'm sure my eyes about popped right out of my head and i said "Yes!!! he was my high school crush for some time!" she just laughed and told me he was dealing cards at a casino, and he'd gained some weight. (i was thinking, who hasn't). she proceeded to tell me that she was his adoptive mom. it was so funny! out of all the people there, his mom gets into the van. she told me she would tell him hello for me, b/c she was going to be talking to him that night, but i assured her he wouldn't remember who i was. talk about funny!

so i get to the food service tent. i had to bring the big van, and i wasn't real happy about that b/c i didn't want to get stuck again. but i took it anyway. the food line was moving smoothly, then got real slow. it had gotten colder and wetter. not fun. but we continue to serve our hearts out and making the best of any situation. the ladies told me it was time for a potty break, and i tried to get them to jump in the mud with me since we were already muddy, but they weren't so sure. then they were sure. we started jumping trying to get one another dirty, but we only ended up getting ourselves all messy. it was a blast. then we did it again in a big field. one of our families from India was here and he was laughing and laughing. i don't think women in his country do things like that. i invited his little boy to come with us, but his dad wouldn't let him (no harm in asking). we had so much fun. everyone had their pants/shorts/capris covered in mud, and some on their shirts. 10 min had gone by and it was time to get back to work. only a little bit to get the tables cleaned up before fireworks.

so to work we went. trying to get things the way they needed to be. we were standing there waiting for something to do and one of our ladies takes a step back and trips over a bag and flops into a box of nacho chips! the box split and the chips crunch. we laughed and laughed and laughed. about the time she got off the ground, the camera man was there! oh how funny! she said this is the first time she's fallen and she's been sober, at least she will know where the bruises came from (funny, sad, but true). there were many of these moments. i won't bore you with them all, b/c like i said they are the "had to be there moments."

okay, one more story then that's it. we were told to throw away some of the ketchup, so i dropped a ketchup container (about a 1/2 gal container 1/2 way full) into the trash and turned my back, as i turned my back the ketchup splashed up went all over my back, over my shoulder and into my hair. the ladies thought it was so funny! we just laughed and laughed and laughed. they helped me to get cleaned up some, but it was just way to much! our stomachs were hurting from laughing so much!

the fireworks were pretty good, and this man that was behind us was quite the jokster! he was so funny! oh, i forgot to say that i got stuck in the parking lot and 6 men's center guys had to push me out! but that was the last time i got stuck :)

the best part of the whole thing was we got to take part in making God famous! i believe that many people got to see how the church is suppose to work. i don't think i'll ever forget it! it was such a blast. hope i can help in another 20 years!

to tie you over

this is just to tie you over until i write a little more about our Charlie's Holiday. it'll be a treat! be ready for a long read too! this is DC*B's new song. new album coming this fall! soooo stoked!

Verse 1:
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Chorus 2:
He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Verse 3:
Well, I thought about You the day Stephen died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause...

Chorus 3:
Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

porta-potty polka-dotted land

to look out our windows, especially the ones facing the back side of the house this morning was a sight to see! they have begun to place the porta-potties for Charlie's Holiday! it's great! these are super special porta-potties, they have men porta-potties and women porta-potties! it's great! i'm going to try to post a picture here soon before it looks normal with all the other things set up. here is a run down of Charlie's Holiday:

~the first of the portapotties have arrived, with more to come. (119 to be exact). over 100 trash cans and 50 recycling receptacles are on their way.

~ june 26th the huge entertainment tent will be set up, and the dirt moving crew will be leveling areas of the field for the rodeo.

~ tons of food have been ordered- including 20,000 burgers and hot dogs, 10,000 lbs. of beef and pork, and a semi load of bread, 120 cases of ketchup, 6 tons of french fries, more than 70,000 sodas and bottles of water.

~ commercials are hitting the radio and tv stations.

~ do you know how many acers are required to park 8000 cars? the parking crew is working out the logistics for that. (they figured 80 acers!)

~ Volunteer and event tshirst have been ordered and should arrive this week (to be distributed through work department heads).

~have you ever made kettle corn? we need someone to manage the kettle corn booth on Friday and Saturday.

~have you worked with inflatable games? ours need to be unrolled and cleaned before the big event.

~ do you have experience on a fryer? several time slots need to be filled with a french fry maker!

that's just the start of it. to see this put into song by our wonderful worship leader visit www.hlseakpeek.blogspot.com! it's funny!

hope to see ya'll there! i'll be driving a shuttle!

great day

today was a great day, for 2 reasons. i'll keep you in suspense in just a little longer...... are you on the edge of your seat yet? okay it's over

1) i had my first great hair day with my short hair. i was so excited!

2) i got my laptop figured out. i got my internet back! yeah!

that's that

tech's

just thought i would say hello and let ya'll know what's going on. i haven't been able to blog a whole lot for 2 reasons.

1) somehow i changed my language to Hindu and couldn't figure out how to fix it! so i couldn't read what i was typing and unless you know Hindu you couldn't read it either!

2)my computer had a virus and i haven't gotten it back to the lovely IT staff to get my wi-fi back on!

now you know why i've been away i'll go on with my story. my computer had been acting weird for a week or so. and wasn't getting any better. so i e-mailed out IT staff to see what they could do. they recommended me troubleshooting it for myself, or i could pay them $7.50 an hour. so i tried finding out what was wrong with it, but to no avail. so the next time i just took it to them. i get an e-mail asking if my computer was still under warranty. i didn't like that very much. but looking into it it was under warranty. so i called a little before church on Wed and the nice man on the other end said i should back up my files, that is i had to back them up on zip drives or something of the sort, because he thought i would have to do a system restore. that didn't sound like very much fun. so i got my techy-ist friend to come and help me. we couldn't even get my computer to back things up! so i called hp and they helped me.

i got on the phone at like 8:45 or so, and the guy was super nice. i found out that he lived in the Philippines and they were 12 hours ahead of us! so anyway, he did all sorts of cool things to help me with my computer and to save my itunes music and some other things such as that. by the time i got off the phone and into bed it was 1:30 a.m. wow! my computer had a bad virus! yuck! so now my computer is back to the original factory settings. but i tell you what, this guy deserves to get the "most patient of the year award"! he never once got frustrated with me. and he didn't feel the need to small talk, (which i was glad!). so all that to say, my computer is fixed, and i now have my language changed back to English on my blog.

i learned a very important lesson. don't let your anti-virus protection run out. it can do very very bad things!

this blog was brought to you today by the word: yeah!

getting excited

hello all,

i'm getting excited. go ahead and ask me why. okay, since you've asked i'll tell you why. in a week or so i'll get to see my lil' bro. i love him lots, and get to see him 2 times a year, maybe more if there's a death, but i hope there's no death soon. anyway, he always comes up over the 4th of july and hangs out for a bit. this video i'm goint to post was one of my first efforts on this computer. i had lots of fun doing it, so i hope it will load. the song is performed by a band called Bond. happy viewing. cheers!

living in community

a couple things about me before i start this blog.

1) it's meant for humor, so please don't take me to serious

2) i'm a little dramatic at times, and this is how this true story happened

3)i live in community, like seriously, it's a little community in my house. happens when 20 people live in the same home and they are blood family!

okay, now that's out of the way, a little story about living in community. i love it. it has more pros than cons. pros, many times someone else cleans up after you cook or make a mess or forget to cover your potato salad. but it also has some cons, like someone using cups. yup, that's right. tonight i got a little to excited when i saw someone using one of my tumbler cups. you would think no big deal right? there's 60 others already in the cabinet, use one of those. well, that's what i thought! i saw her getting ready to put ice in my pink tumbler cup and i started to get a little upset. i said "HEY! THAT'S MY..." and i just walked away . she chased me down and said "was that yours? i've never used it before, it was just so pink and pretty!! " all the while having the "i got caught and i've used this cup like 30 times before" look.

a friend and i were walking up the stairs and i said "i have 4 cups in this house, 2 coffee cups, and 2 tumbler cups, you can change my laundry, eat my cookies, use my laundry soap, but just don't use my special cups!" and i followed it by a threat saying "i'm blogging about this and it's going to be called 'living in community'."

and there is my dramatic story about living in community.

the secret word for the day was "is" go back and read this blog and every time you see the secret word, SCREAM REAL LOUD!!!

mini vacation

i thought i would grace you with my presence :)  it's been a little bit since i've actually written, so i thought i would fill you in on my past week.  right now it's 82 degrees outside, but 83 inside.  yup, the air is broken, at least the one upstairs, they worked on the one downstairs for the better part of the day today, but regardless, it's a wonderful home.

this past friday a friend and i got back from a mini vacation.  we went to go see her parents in southern Missouri.  it's been a few years since i've been there, even longer since i've been there in the spring.  but it was beautiful.  i never realized how rocky the soil was!  anyway, one of the highlights was to go to silver dollar city.  i think the last time i was there was about 18 years ago.  maybe even longer.  but we had a blast.  in fact everything we did was fun there.

where else can you go that you can be called "Darlin" all day long, and feel like maybe they really mean it?  anyway, the day we went was a bit cloudy and cool, so that meant the park wasn't really all that busy.  which was great.  we decided to ride a couple of rides.  the first one was fun.  it had some loops and was pretty fast.  so my friend asked this kid sitting next to her what the other one was like, and he said it was okay.  but he liked this one better because it went upside down.  so we go to ride the other one, and we didn't know what to expect!  it was so fast and took such sharp turns that we thought we were going to come out of the seat.  we screamed/laughed the whole time.  it was great.  totally unexpected!

then we went to the glass blower place.  whenever you go to silver dollar city you have to watch them blow glass.  it's way to cool to pass up!  so there was this young guy, maybe around my age.  he'd worked there 2 years and went to school at Anderson in Indiana.  (just in case you're interested in  learning how to blow glass, you can do it there.)  and like all people that are showing off their craft, he wants you to talk to him.  so there was this little boy.  maybe 4 or 5, cutest red hair sitting on his dad's shoulders, and the demonstrator was trying to get people to talk to him.  so this little boy raises his hand and says "excuse me!  excuse me!  what time do i go to school?"  the man said "i don't know what time you go to school, ask me another question."  then a few min. pass by and the little boy says "excuse me!  excuse me!" and the man was like "did you burp or did you have a question?"  the little  boy says "i like french fries!"  by this time the young man doing the demonstration has an older friend that looks like he would be a glass blower up there with him.  the older friend says "if you go about 3 doors down, they can get you some french fries."  then a few min. later the same little boy "excuse me!   excuse me!  can you make fried chicken?"  the man says "no, but i can cook you a marshmallow at 2400 degrees, would you like that?"  the little boy says yes, and they scorch it and the little boy decides he doesn't want it any more.  

the young man was doing a good job, but you could tell that his artwork was in distress, so his mentor came to try to save him, but to no avail.  right towards the very end, he drops it.  the crowd claps for him, but you can tell he's disappointed.

we left right before it started raining, and had an enjoyable evening.  this concludes my blog for the day brought to you by the letters q, t, and the number 2.

Oaxaca video

here we go again trying to load a video.  hope it works.  please watch it all, just to make me feel like someone watched it :)  it's most of my pics from Oaxaca in November.  the song is called God of Justice by Tim Huges, it's on his holding nothing back c.d.  the whole album is good.  you can find it at itunes.

wonderful song

we sang this song last Wed, we haven't sung it in forever, and i forgot how much i loved it, even more so than when we sang it last year (or whenever it was) so as soon as i got home from church i googled the lyrics (google is such a wonderful tool!) and found out it's called "No Sacrifice" by Jason Upton.  if you like different sounding music, you should try some Upton.  he's not traditional.  hope you enjoy it as much as i do.






To you I give my life, not just the parts I want to

To you I sacrifice these dreams that I hold on to



Your thoughts are higher than mine

Your words are deeper than mine

Your love is stronger than mine

This is no sacrifice

Here's my life



To you I give the gifts

Your love has given me

How can I hoard the treasures that you've designed for free?



Because

Your thoughts are higher than mine

Your words are deeper than mine

Your love is staronger than mine

This is no sacrifice

Here's my life



To you I give my future

As long as it may last

To you I give my present

To you I give my past



Because

Your thoughts are higher than mine

Your words are deeper than mine

Your love is stronger than mine

Your thoughts are higher than mine

Your words are deeper than mine

Your love is stronger than mine

This is no sacrifice

Here's my life

day at park pt 2

my day at the park