My Loverly Piano!

Here it is, Sistah!

Yay!!!

It's been such a long time since I really blogged, I don't even know what to say. I'm quite thoroughly out of practice. And... I've lost all taste for photography! Well, I say photography... what I mean is snap-shotting. Anyway, it's quite strange.
I just saw some really cool animals on the Africam. =) http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/wildcamafrica/ They're like wart-hog/hippopotamus/mule looking creatures. Very funky.

So... what have I been up to. Well, I've been working, knitting (so fun! I'll have to post my most recent somewhat-accomplishment), spending time at Jen's (as always =D), vegging on the floor in between jobs, eating cream puffs!, walking my dog, attempting to use my brain for Greek, Math, and Biblical studies, trying to figure out what on earth I can give a 15-year-old nephew for his birthday when I'm broke (any suggestions?), chuckling at Mom as she gloats over our new wheel covers (we've been missing one of our wheel covers since we moved here to ID... fits in with the whole hilly-billy/hobo thing, no? Hah, y'all thought those hilly-billy pictures were just for fun! So yeah... Rach just bought a car which came with an extra pair so she gave them to us! Isn't she nice?:D)... and I have a question for you...

Which is harder, in general... obviously certain things would depend... and there would be factors and circumstances, etc, but in general... Doing something you don't want to do? Or not doing something you want to do?

Here are some of my most treasured Bible verses at present:

"As a dream when [one] awaketh; [so], O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish [was] I, and ignorant: I was [as] a beast before thee. Nevertheless I [am] continually with thee: thou hast holden [me] by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me [to] glory. Whom have I in heaven [but thee]? and [there is] none upon earth [that] I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: [but] God [is] the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But [it is] good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works." -Psalm 73:20-38
Yes, I copied those from Blue Letter Bible so you get all the brackets and such.

"[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." -Hebrews 13:5&6.

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from him. He only [is] my rock and my salvation: [he is] my defence; I shall not be moved. In God [is] my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, [and] my refuge, [is] in God. Trust in him at all times; [ye] people, pour out your heart before him: God [is] a refuge for us. Selah." -Psalm 62:5-8

And I love the commands and promises in Psalm 37: "Trust in the LORD, and do good... Delight thyself also in the LORD... Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring [it] to pass... Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him...For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth."

And the picture of the day... =D



So long!

Sense and Sensibility 2007

The music in this movie is so.... wonderful. =D

I love these girls

Farmer's Market...

Quite a while ago... back before the trees leafed out. They're all green and beautiful now. =D
My goodness, I'm tired tonight... so I'm just gonna post a few pics.

The music was great! It made me oh so very happy. =D

This woman has an incredible voice!! She has some serious volume.

Hehe, her voice made poor Jenni cry though. I have to admit, for some inexplicable reason, I had to fight the tears. It was really weird. /:-|

Dancing cutie pies. =D

Groupness.

Etc.

You could tell this pretty little girl wanted to walk around in the water, too... but something prevented her. ;)

Josh and Kai.

Fried chicken!

Watching diligently for a crumb perchance. Actually, Walter loves to drop food for her. hehe, He calls her over... then down falls the food. ;)

Little Liney. =)

Some roses for Jen's lovely garden.

Hehe, this pic was taken mostly for Rach... whom I haven't even shown this to yet. I forgot. hm. Anyway! So she was saying that Walter would look cute with a mohawk... and I had just given him a bath that evening, so I gave him a mohawk. And he looked quite cute, of course. =D

Boots, obviously.

Cosmos and petunias...

Nasturtium and petunias...

yada yada

My awesome pomegranate bush/tree thing! Funky blossom, huh?

Sorry 'bout the lame captions... I'm too tired to think of anything besides, well, the obvious subjects of the pictures.

g'night!

2009

Is FLYING by. It's really amazing. I can't believe the year is half over... and I can't believe we've been here 9 months. Wow.
Anyhoo... so we've been keeping busy with work and non-work work. I have many aspirations, it's just finding the time to accomplish them. So I really need to get organized.... have a game plan, ya know?
We went to the library a few days ago..... ohh how I love libraries. The Lewiston library has a particularly delightful selection of cook books. =D I got one about pasta-making... not just throwing the noodles with the sauce... but the making of the noodles themselves. I'm so psyched.... I really need to try it soon. Then there's a beautiful bread book... but Manda's pretty much got the bread department covered. She's been concocting some pretty amazing things recently. Sourdough bread-making... like, the fun way. The Panera way. =D I've also been craving granola on yogurt, so I think I need to make some granola soon. And then of course, there's the Southern baking cook book.... over which one can't help but drool profusely. The desserts are just... tantalizing. But, ya know... I don't know what's been wrong with me recently. I can hardly put together a good dessert! My cookies turn out retarded, and my brownies.... oh my. The brownies were..... amazing... in the worst way possible. Just ask Josh Hackler (haha, he was the first to test the brownies).. or John, for that matter, who actually ate a WHOLE brownie AND swallowed it. I warned him. See, what happened is this... as I was measuring the dry ingredients I mistakenly measured 2 1/4 cups of SALT rather than sugar. Our salt and sugar are in identical containers, aside from the labels, of course. Doy. So yeah, you can imagine. Salt in that proportion is just.... indescribably.... horrifyingly... disgusting. So I dumped them out and made a new batch... which turned out beautifully, thankfully.. otherwise I probably would've just thrown the brownies with the pan out the window. There's something about making disgusting food that just enrages me. *Sigh* I need to get a grip. lol.
I have been succeeding at something, though! Astounding as that may be. ;) I've been knitting a scarf with... cables. An idea I find extremely intimidating. Of course it's pretty much the most basic simplistic cable ever... but again, it's a big deal to me. I had started crocheting a sweater... I got the back done and realized... it was ugly. There are some things crocheting cannot do. In this case, it was make the sweater pattern look pretty. It's kind of annoying to undo the work I put into it, but at least it's being unraveled into a pretty knit scarf. =D I'll have to take a pic and post it. But that's for another day.
As an ending note... here's this: "Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God....." Psalm 123: 1-2ish. I so need to remember to keep my heart and mind fixed on the Lord... in everything I do... and remember His presence at all times. How else can we trust in God, but when we're looking to Him? Peter couldn't trust the Lord when he turned his eyes from Him to the waves... neither can we. It's such a constant choice... either to look to the Lord, or not. And it's so easy to become lazy and let our eyes drift... it doesn't even feel like a conscious choice. But every moment is. C.S. Lewis said something similar in his book Mere Christianity... every moment we have the opportunity to step closer to the Lord, or farther away from Him. There's no step that leaves us neutral, that doesn't take us in some direction. We have to make the deliberate choice to believe the Lord, to love Him, to obey Him, to keep our hearts and minds in check and be faithful... consistenly! Oh boy. I know I don't. But "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift" and "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities, and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Amen. Praise the Lord for His mercy!
Have a good evening, all! Or good morning... or whatever time of day it is when you happen upon this post. ;)
Oh, Ken Ham is pretty awesome by the way. Just watched one of his lectures yesterday. Loved it!


Here are some relatively recent pics from the thanksgiving party we had.

lol, Why? I do not know. Just cuz.

Dodge ball is an evil game, despite Josh's vote of thumbs up.

A long day. A veery long day.

But a good day. It's life, ya know? The good, the bad and the ugly... it's all life, it's all good, and it's all from God. Praise God that every second of every day of every year of every decade (and so on) is planned... and going according to plan... and it's all for our good... because (as my Dad likes to say): God cares more about our character than our comfort. And praise the Lord. Can you imagine what we would be like if life went according to our plans? We'd be a much more unsanctified people. I'm so glad the Lord cares about me that much. And even crazier, He rewards us in Heaven for the work He does in our hearts. Again, praise God.
If only we could be as patient with each other as God is with us. Waaay too often we focus on the bad in each other... and criticism unbalanced with understanding, humility and love leads to pride. And pride leads to dissension like nothing else. We become so used to pointing out others' faults that we start to ignore our own... and begin to think more highly of ourselves... then pretty soon, people don't wanna be around us because we just can't help but compliment ourselves throughout our conversation ("But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth" 2 Corinthians 10:17,18). We need to have love for one another... and that entails the actions in 1 Corinthians 13. Not just having a good feeling for someone, or having a good time with soemone... but acting it out. We need to have an understanding heart... and have compassion rather than criticism waiting to jump on people ("Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep" Romans 12:15). AND... we also need to learn to appreciate one another. Not just put up with one another... but really, trully appreciate them and be thankful for them... and admire them for their strengths and pray lovingly and humbly for their weaknesses ("Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each eseteem other better than themselves" Philippians 2:3)... and love them because God loves them... and He loves us. Our hearts should be so overflowing with gratitude rather than pride! "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift" 2 Corinthians 9:15.

"They came to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood, but those for whom they would give their blood."
-Mr. Crummles, Nicholas Nickleby

Mama and the girlies.

Addie.... trying to smile?

Flowers make her happy. ;)

The five hundred million faces of Emmy. The girl is quite... expressive.

And then there's Addie. And you just knoow she's plotting something inside that little head. :>

Oh, beautiful child. :D

The stubborn "can't make me smile" face. =>

I don't know what to call this, but she sure is a cutie-pie. :D

=D

Ooh dear. lol, she really is the strangest girl. But endearingly so, of course.

Fair Emmy.

Scary Emmy.

She amuses herself deeply. hehe. Can't say that I blame her. She IS hilarious.

And then... there's Walnut. *sigh* This baby is truly... edible.

Walter getting tired, but trying not to freak out.

"Auntie? Have mercy? Please? Get me out of this contraption!"

Okay, everybody: "Aaaaaw!"

Ang and Rach. <3

Manda couldn't be in any of these pictures (they were Mother's day pics) cuz she was being a Mom... a pregnant Mom at that... and feeling quite sick. Poor thing.

*heart*

Um... Em? Half of the time I don't know what the girl is trying to do. lol. I love her.

Oh, my beautiful girls. Er.. my nieces. I can't help but be possessive. I just love them. =D

Shweethearts.

Mum-mum love.

See? Mine. My girls. ;)

Oooh, he's gettin the look. The Jenni look.

Oh, that's lovely, Greg. Sucha boy. ;)

Let's hear it again: "Aaaaaw."