Monday, September 15, 2008

  • This is totally awesomeness!  I haven't played my violin in AGES - like a year or more - so I'm way rusty, but I ordered myself a fiddle book because I've always wanted to fiddle.

    Well, I got it in the mail and its this really cool Melbay book that includes a CD of all the songs and also a DVD of the guy and the guitarist playing them.  He explains everything and you can watch him playing to see what he does.

    After several hours of playing I'm excited to say I totally get it and I'm amazed how well and fast I can already play.  Its all about bowing.  I'm starting to understand how that "fiddle" sound is made.  The basic bowing is easy pie.

    I also got a couple bluegrass cd's - and all for $11 off amazon (with a gift certificate)... :D

    My brother plays the guitar and we're totally excited about playing together!  This is going to be soo cool!  He's pretty good and once he learns the basic strum pattern its going to be a blast to play.

    I have all the music with chords and everything.

    It's been a GREAT day today!  I think its because the weather was so supurbly nice!  It was in the 70's and windy all day - it never got warm and I had my office windows open all day.  Refreshing!

    The bad part of my day was that Stephen almost came but it ended up that he's not coming.  Pooh.  That was very sad.

    Poor guy, he lives in Spring, and though still relatively far from the coast he's without water, electricity, sewer, AND phone!  His family has gone to their Aunt's house but he's going to stay there and work (even though his work is closed right now).  There's another guy he might could work for cutting trees down - but that's if he can get ahold of him - with no phone service - or not much!

    Now I'm listening to a CD called Foggy Mountain Breakdown and hearing this really cool banjo picking song called Carter Country.  Have I mentioned that I love this sort of music?!

    It is my dream to be able to play around a campfire somewhere and impress everybody.  ;)  Actually, forget the impress part, I just LOOOOVE all this sort of thing.  Sitting around a campfire playing some good bluegrass and just being outside.  Or laying in my tent listening to someone play a couple campfires away. 

    Someday I'll play the Orange Blossom Special.  :)

    Tomorrow my complete Microsoft Office Suite 2007 should arrive - that includes: Word, Publisher (YES!!!), Excel, Access, Business Manager, and some other stuff.  YAYYY!!!!!  Awesomeness!  I've wanted this for a very very long time. 

    Speaking of it all- I've been having a great time re-doing all my excel projects at work.  I even redesigned the whole budget for the church.  It looks impressive now, and the most fun part - I knew exactly what I was doing formatting all the cells.  Yay for FUNCTION WIZARD!  It rocks.  Period.  I tried converting the budget to a pivot table, but it didn't quite turn out, I'm not sure why, but I'll find out soon when I receive a whole DVD lessons on pivot tables.

    Ok, I'm a little wired tonight - must have been all the playing.  I guess I'll head toward bed soon.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

  • I'm way more of a nerd than I ever thought I was or would be.

    Period. 

    I just attended Excel Basic & Advanced and loved it...

    I'm studying to become a:

Monday, July 28, 2008

  • This weekend was a lot of fun!  Stephen came back down (yayness) and Saturday was our annual family reunion.  The reunion was boring, but at least we were together!  He made it not so boring.  Hehehe, see dear?!  This is why I wanted you to come.  ;)  We DID end up playing a round of putt-putt right before we left, and that was fun except the holes were dirty and it was HOT outside!  :D

    Sunday was fun though!  He and I went to Salem where I played and Teen Challenge was visiting.  It was neat to hear their testimonies and sing their songs even though they didn't know them that well - you could tell they were singing from their heart.  I didn't realize it was for people of all ages - they had a couple teenagers, but they ranged up to 37!  After the service they were selling these wooden plaques and I bought a really cool one that has Isaiah 40:31 on it.  Its dark wood and then the verses are printed on some raised wood.  At the top is an eagle head that is scrolled and pieced together kind of like a puzzle, but its all wood that stands about an inch to two inches high.  It looks really cool.  We thought it would be a cool plaque to get seeing as we've been waiting and waiting and waiting to be together.  

    It was really hilarious though because several people asked us when we were getting married, and one man asked if we were getting married in 2 weeks!  He said he thought that's what he had heard!!!!  LOLOL  We were like "Yeah, we WISH!!"

    After lunch at the church we went for a ride in the country all around the familiar spots to me, and showed him the back roads!  My car is DIRTY NOW!!  :)  When we got back home he fixed my bed for me (I've been on the floor for a while)... see, I have this really old four-poster beautiful wood bed, and I have this very bad habit of liking to move my room around frequently.  Well, I LEFT my bed in the same place for a long time, but one day I decided to move it and it broke.  :(  Well, Stephen and my dad put some screws in and with lots of wood glue its quite sturdy again!!  YAY! 

    I love Stephen.  I love teasing him.  I love poking him and torturing him.    <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3  But he feels loved so I don't worry about it.  ;)

    A Hero & his Sunny


    Hannah, my littlest sister, deeply engrossed in a game of Skip-bo!

    David, my younger brother, playing


    Stephen & Me


    Hannah & Joy (my other younger sister)

Friday, July 25, 2008

  • If anybody is really bored, I just **NASTY!!! I JUST HAD A CRICKET CRAWLING OVER MY FEEET!**

    Anyway, I just posted a bunch of videos from the trip up on FB.  Here they are.

    A picture of me - in Stephen's Car


    Dis is my baby.  Ain't he cute?!  :D :D :D 


    Dis is my wittle sister


    Dis is me and Angie, my fwiend

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

  • God...calls things that are not as though they were. - Romans 4:17

    God...calls things that are not as though they were. - Romans 4:17

    What does this verse mean?  It is the very reason why "Abraham in hope believed.".  That Abraham would become the father of a child at his advanced age seemed absurd and an utter impossibility, yet God called him "the father of many nations" long before there was any indication of fulfillment.  And Abraham thought of himself as a father, because God had said so.  That is genuine faith - believing and declaring what God has said, stepping out on what appears to be thin air and finding solid rock beneath your feet.

    Therefore boldly declare what God says you have, and He will accomplish what you believe.  You must, however, exhibit genuine faith and trust Him with your entire being.  We must be willing to live by faith, not hoping or desiring to live any other way.  We must be willing to have every like around us extinguished, to have every star in the heavens blotted out, and to live with nothing encircling us but darkness and danger.  Yes, we must be willing to do all this, if God will only leave within our soul an inner radiance from the pure, bright light that faith has kindled.

    The moment has come when you must jump from your perch of distrust, leaving the nest of supposed safety behind and trusting the wings of faith.  You must be like a young bird beginning to test the wings of air with its untried wings.  At first you may feel as though you will fall to the earth.  The fledgling may feel the same way, but it does not fall, for its wings provide support.  yet even if its wings do fail, one of its parents will sweep under it, rescuing it on strong wings.

    God will rescue you in the same way.  Simply trust Him, for His "right hand sustains".  Do you find yourself asking, "But am I to step out into nothing?"  That is exactly what the bird is seemingly asked to do, yet we know that the air is there and that the air is not nearly as insubstantial as it seems.  And you know that the promises of God are there, and they certainly are not insubstantial at all.  Do you still respond, "But it seems so unlikely that my poor, helpless soul would be sustained by such strength."  Has God said it will?  "Do you mean that my tempted, yielding nature will be victorious in the fight?"  Has God said it will?   "Do you mean that my timid, tremblinb heart will find peace?"  Has God said it will?

    If God has said so, surely you do not want to suggest He has lied!  If He has spoken, will He not fulfill it?  If He has given you His word - His sure word of promise - do not question it but trust it absolutely.  You have His promise, and in fact you have even more - you have Him who confidently speaks the words.

    "Yes, I tell you."  Trust Him!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

  • When God finally conquers us and changes our unyielding nature, we receive deep insights into the Spirit of Jesus.  Then, as never before, we see His extraordinary gentleness of spirit at work in this dark and unheavenly world.  Yet the gifts of the fruit of the spirit do not automatically become evident in our lives.  If we are not discerning enough to recognize their availability to us, to desire them, and then to nourish them in our thoughts, they will never become embedded in our nature or behavior.  Every further step of spiritual growth in God's grace must be preceded by acknowledging our lack of a godly attribute and then by exhibiting a prayerful determination to obtain it.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

  • Musings from work

    I'm sitting here in my office right now and on the flip side of my last post I am WAY ahead work wise.  We have Day Camp here at the church this week so its been very lively with lots of screaming and yelling and noisiness of 50+ kids and leaders.   

    I bought some Chaco's for my upcoming trip, and while I love them - I'm having trouble with the toe loop.  It keeps re-adjusting itself smaller so it becomes fairly tight and I have to re-do it again.  Any ideas on how to fix it?  Holly?  I read somewhere to put Simple Green on the straps or dish soap to take some of the wax off - and I did that yesterday...I think they're better but...  :-/ 


Friday, June 06, 2008

  • I'm so far behind, I'll never catch up!  But first, let me paint across the top of my head that I am NOT engaged, I am NOT planning on getting married in December, I'm NOT leaving my office manager position, and I AM starting another job as an organist somewhere else besides First Lutheran.

    Ok.  Now, that's out. 

    Sometimes I get SO SICK AND TIRED of people asking me when I'm getting married etc etc etc and it happens ALL THE TIME.  If a day goes by without SOMEONE saying something, its a WOW sort of thing.  Don't you understand people, that when I DO get engaged, YOU WILL KNOW ABOUT IT?!?  It WON'T be a secret!

    That is my current rant.

    Or the other rant is people noticing that I've lost weight.  That's not a bad thing, but I guess I don't like people talking about me.  :)

    So yes, I've started a job as organist at a little Lutheran church not very far from my house.  They pay well, its a simple (compared to FLC) service in the morning and that's all.  I'll probably be doing something with their choir but I'll do that after I've been there a little bit - they're not in a hurry and I'd like to get settled at first.  Its called Salem Lutheran Church and its basically a sister church of First Lutheran.  Everybody and their neighbor and cousin are related to everybody at FLC.  News travels like lightening (especially when its about a certain young secretary) and after I had my interview with Salem last Tuesday, news was out and about by last Thursday and people were asking me about it.  I'm looking forward to starting (in July) and it will be very good to be back playing the organ and making beautiful music again.  Also, the organ at Salem was the old pipe organ at FLC before we got our new big one back in the 80's.  So some cool stuff!

    A week from tomorrow the Fearsome Foursome will start out on our very long driving journey across the country into the west and north-west.  We'll be heading out very early Saturday and driving to Denver and spending the night.  We'll stay at Rocky Mountain National Park a couple of days and then head up to Idaho where one of the Fearsome Foursome is moving... :(  (this is a very sad thing indeed!)  After being at their house a couple days we're all going to Seattle for several days!!  WHEEEEEEEE!!  And after that we're going down to California to visit my brother at his new house.  :)  We'll be gone for 2 weeks - and then we're flying home from California on June 29.

    I can't WAIT for the fun, laughter, hiking, seeing beautiful mountains, driving a standard, just being with the girls, going white water tubing, seeing friends, hiking Mt. Rainer, touring Seattle, staying up late at night and not having to be home by a certain time, visiting the west coast again, going to San Francisco, seeing Jonathan and his gf Shannon, and being away from work for all of two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I CAN wait for all my coziness at home and my time with Stephen (even though we're apart anyway)....  :(

    So I'm not packed up, but I know what I'm taking and I keep wanting to go ahead and pack up, but I can't because then I won't have anything to wear!  :) 

    I'm still working on a quilt for my little sister - I'm quilting it right now and it was going very well, until now I'm stuck in a rut with not wanting to work on it...  This is bad.  Its sitting in a quilt frame in my room ready to go, but I haven't the desire to sew on it.  I really need some audio to listen to or osmething while I work.  Perhaps after I get back.  I really don't have a ton left to do, I've done 12 of 20 9-patches and all the space between them, so I have 8 left and the sides which won't take too long.

    Toodloos for now!  How are all y'all doing?

    P.S. And meanwhile, amidst all this I turned 25.  To my friends and Stephen I am now very old, and old enough for a hearing aid.  :-/
    P.S.S.  Oh, and yes, I'm still having trouble with the rash on my legs, but soaking them in salt-water does WONDERS!!!!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

  • Well, I really need to write something here.

    A lot to say, but no energy to say it - well, that's not exactly true either. Thank goodness!

    The last 2 months haven't been too great for me - my allergies took over and pretty much have made me feel miserable. What I think has happened is that my allergies have come and gone, but one of the symptoms I get is itchy skin. Well, that kind of all doubled on itself, making it hard and obnoxious to get around and do anything! I've had a pretty had rash behind my knees and starting down my legs to where I haven't been able to exercise like normal. Its been pretty bad. I think what began as an allergy symptom became a problem in itself and became infected.

    Right now I'm concerned with getting myself well before I leave for my trip - 4 short weeks away.

    Speaking of trip, I've begun preparing and since we have VERY LITTLE ROOM to put anything, we've got to take little to nothing. I bought a couple of more things to wear and then basically packed all my clothes and they fit in my little Adidas bag. I was proud of myself!! Now that I know what I'm taking and not taking, I feel good!

    Life is pretty happy these days. Not completely, but the Lord is giving the grace to me to live at home and the joyfulness I need on a daily basis. Its not always easy, and sometimes its incredibly hard.

    Sometimes I just have to have a good cry about everything, but I have God who loves me through anything and is always there to give me the strength I need - He is my EVERYTHING. And I also have the bestest of friends, Stephen, who loves me through everything and doesn't give up, but always encourages me, reads me the Bible when I need to hear but don't want to read, and prays when I don't have the desire/strength. He is so wonderful. I love you, Stephen. And he sent flowers to my office this morning!!! It was SQQUUEEEEE sooo nice!!!

    Well, its bedtime now! Goodnight all.

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