Snowboarding

For Andy's birthday, he wanted to go snowboarding. So a couple of Saturday's ago, we headed up to the mountains. I think I did more snowfalling than snowboarding. :) Here are a couple of pics. We couldn't seem to get a picture of all of us without someone's eyes closed. Also, Maggie & I on the ski lift....my favorite part!

Oh...did I mention we got sun burnt? Really bad! I was sportin' the raccoon look for a few days!

Don't Worry...

I'm still here. I've just been very busy. I need to get some pictures together and then I'll have a couple new posts hopefully by tomorrow.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

Well...in case you haven't figured it out, I'm going to start a garden this year. It was one of the things on my list of things to do this year. It hasn't been started yet, but I'm pretty excited about it. We used to have a big garden years ago, but it was so much work (especially when my dad was doing all of the work). This year I've decided to learn gardening and my dad is going to help. Maggie wants to help with it too. Right now we're trying to figure out what we're going to plant. My dad was so nice and built a raised bed for it this weekend. All it needs now is some soil and seeds. I'll be sure to keep you updated on how it's going.

Shall We Gather At the River?

It's too cold for the river, so the baptismal will have to do! :) A few weeks ago I was able to be at the baptism of a lady from the jail ministry! It was so exciting to not only hear of her salvation, but to see her take that next step and get baptized! She is now one of the newest members of BBC where Jersey Mama's dad pastors.

Stuck In My Head

I've had this song in my head today. If I'm going to have a tune constantly running through my head, this is definitely a good one! How often do we really think about the words of the songs we sing? I know I'm guilty of not really taking in what it's talking about. As I read the words to this hymn, I can't help but think how timely it is to have such a song in my head. Our church is about to go through a big change, considering the Lord has called one of our pastors to go and pastor another church (this church was without a pastor). It was a shock when we found out, but peace is found knowing that God knows exactly what He's doing. We'll be fine. Life will continue. And, as this song says, Jesus is constantly abiding. He's always here with us no matter what life brings.

Hebrews 13:5c, "...for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

CONSTANTLY ABIDING

There’s a peace in my heart that the world never gave,

A peace it cannot take away;

Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud,

I’ve a peace that has come here to stay!

Refrain:
Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine;

Constantly abiding, rapture divine;

He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind:

“I will never leave thee,” Jesus is mine.

All the world seemed to sing of a Savior and King,

When peace sweetly came to my heart;

Troubles all fled away and my night turned to day,

Blessèd Jesus, how glorious Thou art!

Refrain

This treasure I have in a temple of clay,

While here on His footstool I roam;

But He’s coming to take me some glorious day,

Over there to my heavenly home!

Refrain

Jon and Kate Plus 8

For those of you who aren't familiar with this show on TLC, I'll briefly explain.

Jon met Kate.

Jon and Kate fell in love.

Jon and Kate wanted a family.

Jon and Kate had twins.

Kate wanted 'just one more'.

Jon and Kate had sextuplets.

This has become my new favorite show. I don't have TLC ;( but I got the first 3 seasons at a great price from Discovery Channel, so needless to say I've had some J&K+8 marathons. When Carolyn and I were housesitting, this is what we would find ourselves doing in the evenings. :) Understandably there's complete chaos in their home, but the kids are just so cute!

Knowing my love for the show, Carolyn bought me their first book MULTIPLE BLES8INGS:Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets. This was quickly added to my list of books read. It didn't take me long at all to read it. It was really good. It starts with how they met and then takes you along for the ride through the whole process of having the twins and sextuplets. I was thoroughly impressed with how often she attributed everything to God. She often talked about how it was only because of Him that she made it through each day and how she witnessed Him providing for their every need in ways unimaginable. I would definitely recommend this book. I can't wait for her next book to come out, Eight Little Faces.

On the TLC website you can watch full episodes as well as clips of the show.

It's A Busy Life

Some of you probably kept looking at my last post and said to yourself, "I thought she was going to keep up with her blog?" As my title says, things have been busy and when I have a moments rest I don't want to blog. Also, there were several weeks when all that I did was centered on the Sweetheart Banquet and obviously I couldn't divulge all the secrets about that because who knows whose reading this!

My life since my last blog:

• Trying to get my room back together. We had our carpet replaced in September(?) and my room has still yet to get back to normal. I took on the task of repainting my dresser (with my dad's help). I got a new nightstand that doubles as a filecabinet. It's really nice! And I'm still in the frustrating process of getting a bookshelf from Target. I'll tell that story another time along with pictures once everything is done.
• Sweetheart Banquet - I seem to have misplaced the CD with pictures on it. As soon as I find it or get my hands on some pictures I'll do a post on it.
• Bible Institute - Biblical Discipleship
• My computer at work broke down. That was a real set back. Although it was nice in the long run getting '07 and '09 programs!
• House sitting and watching two dogs that wanted to share their hair with everything I owned. How thoughtful! I'm still finding dog hair on my stuff.
• I turned another year older. Woo hoo! It's kinda weird when you realize that you're the same age your mom was when she was pregnant with you.
• Oh, and I've been working on a wonderful piano piece for our Patch-the-Pirate Club...Look to the Ants. It's 'The Ants Go Marching' plus some new lyrics.

Heard enough excuses? LOL...I sure have.

I've continued working on my book list. You'll see that one more has been added (Before You Meet Prince Charming). That was a really good book! I highly recommend it to any single young ladies.

Long Time Coming

Back in June I promised pictures from our white water rafting trip. Here they are!

Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye?

This is the title of book #2. I can't remember exactly when I started it. I've been reading it off and on for a while now, but I finally finished it tonight. I probably won't blog about every book I read, but considering the title of this one I think it's a good idea. :0)
Briefly...this book talks about the life of a single woman. Singleness is a gift that God gives to us, just as marriage is. It talks about how we should use our gift of singleness in not only different aspects of our own lives, but how we can minister to others as well. The "Proverbs 31 Woman" is referred to quite a bit. All in all, it was good. Probably one of those books you need to read at least a couple of times to get the most out of it.

El Libro Numero Uno (Book Number One)

Did I say that right? It's been so long. :) Even though I'm not married, this (The 5 Love Languages) was a really good read. A special thanks Carolyn for buying it for me for Christmas! So that's my first book on my list. I'm currently in the middle/at the end of several books! Some of which were started quite some time ago! So, I'm trying to finish them along with some new reads.
One more thing...when I read a new book, I'll try to remember to make it a link to Amazon or some other place so you can see it or even purchase it for yourself. I know, I know...so thoughtful of me. :0)

New Year

I'm not one to make New Years Resolutions, but this year I made a list of things that I'd like to accomplish. I haven't decided as to whether or not I'll put a list up of everything, but I'll post about most if not all of them as I see things coming to fruition. One of the things I want to do is to read more. I put up a list on the side so you can see what books I've read in the year 2009.

Let's give this another try!

Wow! It's been along time since I've blogged. I have been contemplating for quite some time as to whether or not to pick it up again. I've decided that I'm going to give it another shot. I'm going to try to keep you up to date with what's going on in my life. Warning: It's nothing terribly exciting as of right now! ;0)

How Cute!

Ok, I couldn't post a picture of the camera without posting a picture of the case that I bought!

Finally!

Around the beginning of the year my camera gave out on me. I made an attempt to buy a new one, but the Lord allowed it to fall through because He knew I would need that money to pay for my upcoming trip to Missouri. That said, I've finally been able to purchase one! It should get here on Thursday. I'm really excited because it has so many cool features that my other camera didn't have. AND...the best part...IT'S PINK!!!!

Video

So I finally got it figured out. For some reason it wasn't working uploading it straight to Blogger, so I uploaded it to YouTube. Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Nicki!

This past Friday was Nicki's 21st Birthday. Carolyn, Maggie and I wanted to do something unique and fun for her on this occasion. While she was at work we went and filled her car with balloons and wrote on her windows. Here are some pictures. We also took a video, but I'm having trouble downloading it. I'll keep trying though! Hopefully it'll work. If not, the pictures will have to do.

After everyone got off work we headed east to go white water rafting. It was about a 3 1/2 hr drive. We stayed the night in a hotel where we also surprised Nicki with a birthday cake. We also made her a crown since she was the "Birthday Princess"!

Nine o'clock Saturday morning we found ourselves climbing into wet suits and lathering on the sunscreen. It was a beautiful day to go white water rafting. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Rafting was an absolute blast! We made our way through rapids such as "Pinball", "Drunkards Drop", and even "Grannies Panties"! I definitely want to do it again, and would recommend it highly. After we made it through the rapids, we stopped at a BBQ they provided and finally made it back around 2:30 p.m. After going back to our hotel and cleaning up, we found our way downtown and proceeded to peruse the shops. We found much amusement in what is known as "The Hat Store". Here are a couple of pictures.

We also found one of those photo shops where you can dress up in either Wild West, Pirate, or Victorian style clothes and have your picture taken. We chose Victorian style and it turned out great. I plan on ordering the CD, so I'll be sure to post the picture when I get it.

So that's pretty much what our weekend consisted of. It was so much fun to be able to enjoy the company and fellowship of Carolyn, Nicki, & Maggie. I'm waiting to get pictures from rafting. Once I get them I'll definitely be posting them!

Back To School!

I'm going to be teaching the Learning-to-Read class again this coming school year. I'm really excited about it. I've got a new classroom that's an actual room rather than a corner. I've been working feverishly all week trying to get things ready for testing. I start testing kids next month to see if they're ready, and I want the classroom to be done by then. I've revamped the filing system, purged ALOT, currently working on revamping some other things, and in the process of getting some bulletin boards done. I'll be sure to post pictures when I'm done!

(By the way...the picture is the Aging Ape. A reads a, a, a. Ape reads a, a, a.)

Baby Shower Pics

Carrie singing to her daughters, Poly & Esther

Carrie & I talking baby stuff

Singing "Baby Don't Be Late"

These girls were responsible for the games. They did a good job!

Almost everyone that helped out at the shower

Sobering Thought

When I was coming out of the jail the other day, I saw this bumper sticker with a quote that I had never seen before.

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -- Gandhi

Wow! The sad part is...it can be SO TRUE! May we strive daily (in Christ's power, of course!) to prove this saying WRONG!! If we take heed to this verse, there will be no problems being like our Christ!

Galatians 5:16 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

I'm Back!!!

Ok…so I realized that it’s probably pretty hard to know what I’m up to if I’m not posting anything, right? I’ll try to be better about it. I guess this one will be a bit of a catch me up.

Hhhmmmm…what have I been doing?

A couple of weekends ago we had a baby shower for our Pastor’s wife, Shannon. This is their first baby and they’re having a girl! Anyways, the baby shower was really fun. Maggie did a little skit that was pretty humorous. She pretended to be an obnoxious guest that was late and the hostess DID NOT want her at the shower. She was required to show her invitation in which she had to pull EVERYTHING out of her purse in order to find it. So, all the guests are watching this thinking it was just a skit, but found out afterwards that it was in fact a game and they had to try to remember everything that was in Maggie’s purse. It was fun. I also did a skit with Carrie. I was pregnant and she had twins. During the skit I went to her “house” and we began talking about babies and such. During our conversation we proceeded to break out into song a couple of times. We used the tunes of “The Addams Family” and “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” we just changed the words to fit appropriately. After our final song I began to have a contraction and I decided that I better go home. It was then that my water broke! It was awesome and totally unexpected for everyone!! I’ll try to get some pics and post them later.

This last week Pastor Sargent and his wife went to Mexico to minister to a missionary that we support. I was able to house sit for them and take care of Lucy. She’s fun, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog with such a ‘tude! ;0) I don’t have a picture of Lucy, but here’s a dog that looks very similar to her.

I can’t think of anything else terribly exciting. I’ve been busy with work and church. Just trying to look for opportunities to build relationships and share the Gospel. It’s amazing when you’re willing to do so, how many opportunities the Lord provides for you. It’s exciting. This month at church our theme is: Looking Beyond Ourselves to the Sorrow of the World. Last week was really good, tomorrow should be good as well!

Well, that’s all for now. Stay tuned! Next week I’m going white water rafting!!!